% Module and documentation by Eric S. Raymond, 21 Dec 1998 

\section{\module{netrc} ---
         \file{.netrc} processing}

\declaremodule{standard}{netrc}
\moduleauthor{Eric S. Raymond}{esr@snark.thyrsus.com}
\sectionauthor{Eric S. Raymond}{esr@snark.thyrsus.com}


\versionadded{1.5.2}

The \class{netrc} class parses and encapsulates the netrc file format
used by the \UNIX{} \program{ftp} program and other FTP clients.

\begin{classdesc}{netrc}{\optional{file}}
A \class{netrc} instance or subclass instance enapsulates data from 
a netrc file.  The initialization argument, if present, specifies the
file to parse.  If no argument is given, the file \file{.netrc} in the
user's home directory will be read.  Parse errors will raise
\exception{SyntaxError} with diagnostic information including the file 
name, line number, and terminating token.
\end{classdesc}

\subsection{netrc Objects \label{netrc-objects}}

A \class{netrc} instance has the following methods:

\begin{methoddesc}{authenticators}{host}
Return a 3-tuple \code{(\var{login}, \var{account}, \var{password})}
of authenticators for \var{host}.  If the netrc file did not
contain an entry for the given host, return the tuple associated with
the `default' entry.  If neither matching host nor default entry is
available, return \code{None}.
\end{methoddesc}

\begin{methoddesc}{__repr__}{host}
Dump the class data as a string in the format of a netrc file.
(This discards comments and may reorder the entries.)
\end{methoddesc}

Instances of \class{netrc} have public instance variables:

\begin{memberdesc}{hosts}
Dictionmary mapping host names to \code{(\var{login}, \var{account},
\var{password})} tuples.  The `default' entry, if any, is represented
as a pseudo-host by that name.
\end{memberdesc}

\begin{memberdesc}{macros}
Dictionary mapping macro names to string lists.
\end{memberdesc}