Doc/lib/libmimify.tex

   1 \section{\module{mimify} ---
   2          MIME processing of mail messages}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{standard}{mimify}
   5 \modulesynopsis{Mimification and unmimification of mail messages.}
   6
   7
   8 The mimify module defines two functions to convert mail messages to
   9 and from MIME format.  The mail message can be either a simple message
  10 or a so-called multipart message.  Each part is treated separately.
  11 Mimifying (a part of) a message entails encoding the message as
  12 quoted-printable if it contains any characters that cannot be
  13 represented using 7-bit \ASCII.  Unmimifying (a part of) a message
  14 entails undoing the quoted-printable encoding.  Mimify and unmimify
  15 are especially useful when a message has to be edited before being
  16 sent.  Typical use would be:
  17
  18 \begin{verbatim}
  19 unmimify message
  20 edit message
  21 mimify message
  22 send message
  23 \end{verbatim}
  24
  25 The modules defines the following user-callable functions and
  26 user-settable variables:
  27
  28 \begin{funcdesc}{mimify}{infile, outfile}
  29 Copy the message in \var{infile} to \var{outfile}, converting parts to
  30 quoted-printable and adding MIME mail headers when necessary.
  31 \var{infile} and \var{outfile} can be file objects (actually, any
  32 object that has a \method{readline()} method (for \var{infile}) or a
  33 \method{write()} method (for \var{outfile})) or strings naming the files.
  34 If \var{infile} and \var{outfile} are both strings, they may have the
  35 same value.
  36 \end{funcdesc}
  37
  38 \begin{funcdesc}{unmimify}{infile, outfile\optional{, decode_base64}}
  39 Copy the message in \var{infile} to \var{outfile}, decoding all
  40 quoted-printable parts.  \var{infile} and \var{outfile} can be file
  41 objects (actually, any object that has a \method{readline()} method (for
  42 \var{infile}) or a \method{write()} method (for \var{outfile})) or strings
  43 naming the files.  If \var{infile} and \var{outfile} are both strings,
  44 they may have the same value.
  45 If the \var{decode_base64} argument is provided and tests true, any
  46 parts that are coded in the base64 encoding are decoded as well.
  47 \end{funcdesc}
  48
  49 \begin{funcdesc}{mime_decode_header}{line}
  50 Return a decoded version of the encoded header line in \var{line}.
  51 \end{funcdesc}
  52
  53 \begin{funcdesc}{mime_encode_header}{line}
  54 Return a MIME-encoded version of the header line in \var{line}.
  55 \end{funcdesc}
  56
  57 \begin{datadesc}{MAXLEN}
  58 By default, a part will be encoded as quoted-printable when it
  59 contains any non-\ASCII{} characters (i.e., characters with the 8th bit
  60 set), or if there are any lines longer than \constant{MAXLEN} characters
  61 (default value 200).
  62 \end{datadesc}
  63
  64 \begin{datadesc}{CHARSET}
  65 When not specified in the mail headers, a character set must be filled
  66 in.  The string used is stored in \constant{CHARSET}, and the default
  67 value is ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin1 (latin-one)).
  68 \end{datadesc}
  69
  70 This module can also be used from the command line.  Usage is as
  71 follows:
  72 \begin{verbatim}
  73 mimify.py -e [-l length] [infile [outfile]]
  74 mimify.py -d [-b] [infile [outfile]]
  75 \end{verbatim}
  76 to encode (mimify) and decode (unmimify) respectively.  \var{infile}
  77 defaults to standard input, \var{outfile} defaults to standard output.
  78 The same file can be specified for input and output.
  79
  80 If the \strong{-l} option is given when encoding, if there are any lines
  81 longer than the specified \var{length}, the containing part will be
  82 encoded.
  83
  84 If the \strong{-b} option is given when decoding, any base64 parts will
  85 be decoded as well.
  86