blob: da0eaccfbe10ae7a06675d21e20d9426f5877193 [file] [log] [blame]
Georg Brandl8ec7f652007-08-15 14:28:01 +00001
2:mod:`mimify` --- MIME processing of mail messages
3==================================================
4
5.. module:: mimify
6 :synopsis: Mimification and unmimification of mail messages.
Georg Brandl7f758c42007-08-15 18:41:25 +00007 :deprecated:
Georg Brandl8ec7f652007-08-15 14:28:01 +00008
9
10.. deprecated:: 2.3
11 The :mod:`email` package should be used in preference to the :mod:`mimify`
12 module. This module is present only to maintain backward compatibility.
13
14The :mod:`mimify` module defines two functions to convert mail messages to and
15from MIME format. The mail message can be either a simple message or a
16so-called multipart message. Each part is treated separately. Mimifying (a part
17of) a message entails encoding the message as quoted-printable if it contains
18any characters that cannot be represented using 7-bit ASCII. Unmimifying (a
19part of) a message entails undoing the quoted-printable encoding. Mimify and
20unmimify are especially useful when a message has to be edited before being
21sent. Typical use would be::
22
23 unmimify message
24 edit message
25 mimify message
26 send message
27
28The modules defines the following user-callable functions and user-settable
29variables:
30
31
32.. function:: mimify(infile, outfile)
33
34 Copy the message in *infile* to *outfile*, converting parts to quoted-printable
35 and adding MIME mail headers when necessary. *infile* and *outfile* can be file
36 objects (actually, any object that has a :meth:`readline` method (for *infile*)
37 or a :meth:`write` method (for *outfile*)) or strings naming the files. If
38 *infile* and *outfile* are both strings, they may have the same value.
39
40
41.. function:: unmimify(infile, outfile[, decode_base64])
42
43 Copy the message in *infile* to *outfile*, decoding all quoted-printable parts.
44 *infile* and *outfile* can be file objects (actually, any object that has a
45 :meth:`readline` method (for *infile*) or a :meth:`write` method (for
46 *outfile*)) or strings naming the files. If *infile* and *outfile* are both
47 strings, they may have the same value. If the *decode_base64* argument is
48 provided and tests true, any parts that are coded in the base64 encoding are
49 decoded as well.
50
51
52.. function:: mime_decode_header(line)
53
54 Return a decoded version of the encoded header line in *line*. This only
55 supports the ISO 8859-1 charset (Latin-1).
56
57
58.. function:: mime_encode_header(line)
59
60 Return a MIME-encoded version of the header line in *line*.
61
62
63.. data:: MAXLEN
64
65 By default, a part will be encoded as quoted-printable when it contains any
66 non-ASCII characters (characters with the 8th bit set), or if there are any
67 lines longer than :const:`MAXLEN` characters (default value 200).
68
69
70.. data:: CHARSET
71
72 When not specified in the mail headers, a character set must be filled in. The
73 string used is stored in :const:`CHARSET`, and the default value is ISO-8859-1
74 (also known as Latin1 (latin-one)).
75
76This module can also be used from the command line. Usage is as follows::
77
78 mimify.py -e [-l length] [infile [outfile]]
79 mimify.py -d [-b] [infile [outfile]]
80
81to encode (mimify) and decode (unmimify) respectively. *infile* defaults to
82standard input, *outfile* defaults to standard output. The same file can be
83specified for input and output.
84
85If the **-l** option is given when encoding, if there are any lines longer than
86the specified *length*, the containing part will be encoded.
87
88If the **-b** option is given when decoding, any base64 parts will be decoded as
89well.
90
91
92.. seealso::
93
94 Module :mod:`quopri`
95 Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable files.
96