Perl: Retrieve URLs with LWP and LWP::Simple

With Perl there are many ways to make requests over the web. One method is to use the LWP module. Below is an example of using it grab the contents of a web page:

use Carp;
use LWP;

my $url = 'http://prystash.blogspot.com';
my $contents = get_contents_from($url);

print $contents;

sub get_contents_from {
    my ($url) = @_;

    my $agent = LWP::UserAgent->new;
    my $request = HTTP::Request->new(GET => $url);
    my $response = $agent->request($request);

    if (!$response->is_success) {
        croak "Could not get URL '$url'";
    }

    return $response->content
}

Another simpler method is to use the LWP::Simple module:

use Carp;
use LWP::Simple;

my $url = 'http://prystash.blogspot.com';
my $contents = get_contents_from($url);

sub get_contents_from {
    my ($url) = @_;
    my $contents = get($url) or croak "Could not get URL '$url'";
    return $contents;
}