[TriLUG] perl: GET'ing large file with LWP

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

I can GET an xml file with

$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$url = 'http::/somewhere/';
$response = $ua->get($url,
                         ':content_file' =>
 			'database.xml'
                         );

The file takes about 10mins to download and I would like the 
user to know why their application appears to be doing 
nothing.

Before downloading the file, I'd like to be able to

o retrieve content-type. The content will not always be the 
file (it could be a short html error page saying that your 
cookie has expired)

o retrieve length ($response->content). This will allow me 
to put up a progress bar.

The only instructions on LWP I've found download the file 
first and then you look at the headers rather than the other 
way around.

The download is html encoded eg "e; rather than ". I 
notice that lwp-request has an -o format option which I 
assume can change the output. Is there any way of removing 
the html encoding when downloading with LWP?

Thanks
Joe
-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!