Doc/lib/libmimify.tex

   1 \section{Standard Module \module{mimify}}
   2 \label{module-mimify}
   3 \stmodindex{mimify}
   4
   5 The mimify module defines two functions to convert mail messages to
   6 and from MIME format.  The mail message can be either a simple message
   7 or a so-called multipart message.  Each part is treated separately.
   8 Mimifying (a part of) a message entails encoding the message as
   9 quoted-printable if it contains any characters that cannot be
  10 represented using 7-bit ASCII.  Unmimifying (a part of) a message
  11 entails undoing the quoted-printable encoding.  Mimify and unmimify
  12 are especially useful when a message has to be edited before being
  13 sent.  Typical use would be:
  14
  15 \begin{verbatim}
  16 unmimify message
  17 edit message
  18 mimify message
  19 send message
  20 \end{verbatim}
  21
  22 The modules defines the following user-callable functions and
  23 user-settable variables:
  24
  25 \begin{funcdesc}{mimify}{infile, outfile}
  26 Copy the message in \var{infile} to \var{outfile}, converting parts to
  27 quoted-printable and adding MIME mail headers when necessary.
  28 \var{infile} and \var{outfile} can be file objects (actually, any
  29 object that has a \code{readline} method (for \var{infile}) or a
  30 \code{write} method (for \var{outfile})) or strings naming the files.
  31 If \var{infile} and \var{outfile} are both strings, they may have the
  32 same value.
  33 \end{funcdesc}
  34
  35 \begin{funcdesc}{unmimify}{infile, outfile, decode_base64 = 0}
  36 Copy the message in \var{infile} to \var{outfile}, decoding all
  37 quoted-printable parts.  \var{infile} and \var{outfile} can be file
  38 objects (actually, any object that has a \code{readline} method (for
  39 \var{infile}) or a \code{write} method (for \var{outfile})) or strings
  40 naming the files.  If \var{infile} and \var{outfile} are both strings,
  41 they may have the same value.
  42 If the \var{decode_base64} argument is provided and tests true, any
  43 parts that are coded in the base64 encoding are decoded as well.
  44 \end{funcdesc}
  45
  46 \begin{funcdesc}{mime_decode_header}{line}
  47 Return a decoded version of the encoded header line in \var{line}.
  48 \end{funcdesc}
  49
  50 \begin{funcdesc}{mime_encode_header}{line}
  51 Return a MIME-encoded version of the header line in \var{line}.
  52 \end{funcdesc}
  53
  54 \begin{datadesc}{MAXLEN}
  55 By default, a part will be encoded as quoted-printable when it
  56 contains any non-ASCII characters (i.e., characters with the 8th bit
  57 set), or if there are any lines longer than \code{MAXLEN} characters
  58 (default value 200).
  59 \end{datadesc}
  60
  61 \begin{datadesc}{CHARSET}
  62 When not specified in the mail headers, a character set must be filled
  63 in.  The string used is stored in \code{CHARSET}, and the default
  64 value is ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin1 (latin-one)).
  65 \end{datadesc}
  66
  67 This module can also be used from the command line.  Usage is as
  68 follows:
  69 \begin{verbatim}
  70 mimify.py -e [-l length] [infile [outfile]]
  71 mimify.py -d [-b] [infile [outfile]]
  72 \end{verbatim}
  73 to encode (mimify) and decode (unmimify) respectively.  \var{infile}
  74 defaults to standard input, \var{outfile} defaults to standard output.
  75 The same file can be specified for input and output.
  76
  77 If the \code{-l} option is given when encoding, if there are any lines
  78 longer than the specified \var{length}, the containing part will be
  79 encoded.
  80
  81 If the \code{-b} option is given when decoding, any base64 parts will
  82 be decoded as well.
  83