package MIME::Entity; =head1 NAME MIME::Entity - class for parsed-and-decoded MIME message =head1 SYNOPSIS Before reading further, you should see L to make sure that you understand where this module fits into the grand scheme of things. Go on, do it now. I'll wait. Ready? Ok... ### Create an entity: $top = MIME::Entity->build(From => 'me@myhost.com', To => 'you@yourhost.com', Subject => "Hello, nurse!", Data => \@my_message); ### Attach stuff to it: $top->attach(Path => $gif_path, Type => "image/gif", Encoding => "base64"); ### Sign it: $top->sign; ### Output it: $top->print(\*STDOUT); =head1 DESCRIPTION A subclass of B. This package provides a class for representing MIME message entities, as specified in RFCs 2045, 2046, 2047, 2048 and 2049. =head1 EXAMPLES =head2 Construction examples Create a document for an ordinary 7-bit ASCII text file (lots of stuff is defaulted for us): $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Path=>"english-msg.txt"); Create a document for a text file with 8-bit (Latin-1) characters: $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Path =>"french-msg.txt", Encoding =>"quoted-printable", From =>'jean.luc@inria.fr', Subject =>"C'est bon!"); Create a document for a GIF file (the description is completely optional; note that we have to specify content-type and encoding since they're not the default values): $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Description => "A pretty picture", Path => "./docs/mime-sm.gif", Type => "image/gif", Encoding => "base64"); Create a document that you already have the text for, using "Data": $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "text/plain", Encoding => "quoted-printable", Data => ["First line.\n", "Second line.\n", "Last line.\n"]); Create a multipart message, with the entire structure given explicitly: ### Create the top-level, and set up the mail headers: $top = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "multipart/mixed", From => 'me@myhost.com', To => 'you@yourhost.com', Subject => "Hello, nurse!"); ### Attachment #1: a simple text document: $top->attach(Path=>"./testin/short.txt"); ### Attachment #2: a GIF file: $top->attach(Path => "./docs/mime-sm.gif", Type => "image/gif", Encoding => "base64"); ### Attachment #3: text we'll create with text we have on-hand: $top->attach(Data => $contents); Suppose you don't know ahead of time that you'll have attachments? No problem: you can "attach" to singleparts as well: $top = MIME::Entity->build(From => 'me@myhost.com', To => 'you@yourhost.com', Subject => "Hello, nurse!", Data => \@my_message); if ($GIF_path) { $top->attach(Path => $GIF_path, Type => 'image/gif'); } Copy an entity (headers, parts... everything but external body data): my $deepcopy = $top->dup; =head2 Access examples ### Get the head, a MIME::Head: $head = $ent->head; ### Get the body, as a MIME::Body; $bodyh = $ent->bodyhandle; ### Get the intended MIME type (as declared in the header): $type = $ent->mime_type; ### Get the effective MIME type (in case decoding failed): $eff_type = $ent->effective_type; ### Get preamble, parts, and epilogue: $preamble = $ent->preamble; ### ref to array of lines $num_parts = $ent->parts; $first_part = $ent->parts(0); ### an entity $epilogue = $ent->epilogue; ### ref to array of lines =head2 Manipulation examples Muck about with the body data: ### Read the (unencoded) body data: if ($io = $ent->open("r")) { while (defined($_ = $io->getline)) { print $_ } $io->close; } ### Write the (unencoded) body data: if ($io = $ent->open("w")) { foreach (@lines) { $io->print($_) } $io->close; } ### Delete the files for any external (on-disk) data: $ent->purge; Muck about with the signature: ### Sign it (automatically removes any existing signature): $top->sign(File=>"$ENV{HOME}/.signature"); ### Remove any signature within 15 lines of the end: $top->remove_sig(15); Muck about with the headers: ### Compute content-lengths for singleparts based on bodies: ### (Do this right before you print!) $entity->sync_headers(Length=>'COMPUTE'); Muck about with the structure: ### If a 0- or 1-part multipart, collapse to a singlepart: $top->make_singlepart; ### If a singlepart, inflate to a multipart with 1 part: $top->make_multipart; Delete parts: ### Delete some parts of a multipart message: my @keep = grep { keep_part($_) } $msg->parts; $msg->parts(\@keep); =head2 Output examples Print to filehandles: ### Print the entire message: $top->print(\*STDOUT); ### Print just the header: $top->print_header(\*STDOUT); ### Print just the (encoded) body... includes parts as well! $top->print_body(\*STDOUT); Stringify... note that C can also be written C; the methods are synonymous, and neither form will be deprecated. If you set the variable $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER to a string, that string will be used as the line-end delimiter on output. If it is not set, the line ending will be a newline character (\n) NOTE that $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER only applies to structural parts of the MIME data generated by this package and to the Base64 encoded output; if a part internally uses a different line-end delimiter and is output as-is, the line-ending is not changed to match $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER. ### Stringify the entire message: print $top->stringify; ### or $top->as_string ### Stringify just the header: print $top->stringify_header; ### or $top->header_as_string ### Stringify just the (encoded) body... includes parts as well! print $top->stringify_body; ### or $top->body_as_string Debug: ### Output debugging info: $entity->dump_skeleton(\*STDERR); =head1 PUBLIC INTERFACE =cut #------------------------------ ### Pragmas: use vars qw(@ISA $VERSION); use strict; ### System modules: use Carp; ### Other modules: use Mail::Internet 1.28 (); use Mail::Field 1.05 (); ### Kit modules: use MIME::Tools qw(:config :msgs :utils); use MIME::Head; use MIME::Body; use MIME::Decoder; @ISA = qw(Mail::Internet); #------------------------------ # # Globals... # #------------------------------ ### The package version, both in 1.23 style *and* usable by MakeMaker: $VERSION = "5.509"; ### Boundary counter: my $BCount = 0; ### Standard "Content-" MIME fields, for scrub(): my $StandardFields = 'Description|Disposition|Id|Type|Transfer-Encoding'; ### Known Mail/MIME fields... these, plus some general forms like ### "x-*", are recognized by build(): my %KnownField = map {$_=>1} qw( bcc cc comments date encrypted from keywords message-id mime-version organization received references reply-to return-path sender subject to ); ### Fallback preamble and epilogue: my $DefPreamble = [ "This is a multi-part message in MIME format..." ]; my $DefEpilogue = [ ]; #============================== # # Utilities, private # #------------------------------ # # known_field FIELDNAME # # Is this a recognized Mail/MIME field? # sub known_field { my $field = lc(shift); $KnownField{$field} or ($field =~ m{^(content|resent|x)-.}); } #------------------------------ # # make_boundary # # Return a unique boundary string. # This is used both internally and by MIME::ParserBase, but it is NOT in # the public interface! Do not use it! # # We generate one containing a "=_", as RFC2045 suggests: # A good strategy is to choose a boundary that includes a character # sequence such as "=_" which can never appear in a quoted-printable # body. See the definition of multipart messages in RFC 2046. # sub make_boundary { return "----------=_".scalar(time)."-$$-".$BCount++; } #============================== =head2 Construction =over 4 =cut #------------------------------ =item new [SOURCE] I Create a new, empty MIME entity. Basically, this uses the Mail::Internet constructor... If SOURCE is an ARRAYREF, it is assumed to be an array of lines that will be used to create both the header and an in-core body. Else, if SOURCE is defined, it is assumed to be a filehandle from which the header and in-core body is to be read. B in either case, the body will not be I merely read! =cut sub new { my $class = shift; my $self = $class->Mail::Internet::new(@_); ### inherited $self->{ME_Parts} = []; ### no parts extracted $self; } ###------------------------------ =item add_part ENTITY, [OFFSET] I Assuming we are a multipart message, add a body part (a MIME::Entity) to the array of body parts. Returns the part that was just added. If OFFSET is positive, the new part is added at that offset from the beginning of the array of parts. If it is negative, it counts from the end of the array. (An INDEX of -1 will place the new part at the very end of the array, -2 will place it as the penultimate item in the array, etc.) If OFFSET is not given, the new part is added to the end of the array. I B in general, you only want to attach parts to entities with a content-type of C). =cut sub add_part { my ($self, $part, $index) = @_; defined($index) or $index = -1; ### Make $index count from the end if negative: $index = $#{$self->{ME_Parts}} + 2 + $index if ($index < 0); splice(@{$self->{ME_Parts}}, $index, 0, $part); $part; } #------------------------------ =item attach PARAMHASH I The real quick-and-easy way to create multipart messages. The PARAMHASH is used to C a new entity; this method is basically equivalent to: $entity->add_part(ref($entity)->build(PARAMHASH, Top=>0)); B normally, you attach to multipart entities; however, if you attach something to a singlepart (like attaching a GIF to a text message), the singlepart will be coerced into a multipart automatically. =cut sub attach { my $self = shift; $self->make_multipart; $self->add_part(ref($self)->build(@_, Top=>0)); } #------------------------------ =item build PARAMHASH I A quick-and-easy catch-all way to create an entity. Use it like this to build a "normal" single-part entity: $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "image/gif", Encoding => "base64", Path => "/path/to/xyz12345.gif", Filename => "saveme.gif", Disposition => "attachment"); And like this to build a "multipart" entity: $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "multipart/mixed", Boundary => "---1234567"); A minimal MIME header will be created. If you want to add or modify any header fields afterwards, you can of course do so via the underlying head object... but hey, there's now a prettier syntax! $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type =>"multipart/mixed", From => $myaddr, Subject => "Hi!", 'X-Certified' => ['SINED', 'SEELED', 'DELIVERED']); Normally, an C header field is output which contains this toolkit's name and version (plus this module's RCS version). This will allow any bad MIME we generate to be traced back to us. You can of course overwrite that header with your own: $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "multipart/mixed", 'X-Mailer' => "myprog 1.1"); Or remove it entirely: $ent = MIME::Entity->build(Type => "multipart/mixed", 'X-Mailer' => undef); OK, enough hype. The parameters are: =over 4 =item (FIELDNAME) Any field you want placed in the message header, taken from the standard list of header fields (you don't need to worry about case): Bcc Encrypted Received Sender Cc From References Subject Comments Keywords Reply-To To Content-* Message-ID Resent-* X-* Date MIME-Version Return-Path Organization To give experienced users some veto power, these fields will be set I the ones I set... so be careful: I (like C) unless you know what you're doing! To specify a fieldname that's I in the above list, even one that's identical to an option below, just give it with a trailing C<":">, like C<"My-field:">. When in doubt, that I signals a mail field (and it sort of looks like one too). =item Boundary I The boundary string. As per RFC-2046, it must consist only of the characters C<[0-9a-zA-Z'()+_,-./:=?]> and space (you'll be warned, and your boundary will be ignored, if this is not the case). If you omit this, a random string will be chosen... which is probably safer. =item Charset I The character set. =item Data I An alternative to Path (q.v.): the actual data, either as a scalar or an array reference (whose elements are joined together to make the actual scalar). The body is opened on the data using MIME::Body::InCore. =item Description I The text of the content-description. If you don't specify it, the field is not put in the header. =item Disposition I The basic content-disposition (C<"attachment"> or C<"inline">). If you don't specify it, it defaults to "inline" for backwards compatibility. I =item Encoding I The content-transfer-encoding. If you don't specify it, a reasonable default is put in. You can also give the special value '-SUGGEST', to have it chosen for you in a heavy-duty fashion which scans the data itself. =item Filename I The recommended filename. Overrides any name extracted from C. The information is stored both the deprecated (content-type) and preferred (content-disposition) locations. If you explicitly want to I a recommended filename (even when Path is used), supply this as empty or undef. =item Id I Set the content-id. =item Path I The path to the file to attach. The body is opened on that file using MIME::Body::File. =item Top I Is this a top-level entity? If so, it must sport a MIME-Version. The default is true. (NB: look at how C uses it.) =item Type I The basic content-type (C<"text/plain">, etc.). If you don't specify it, it defaults to C<"text/plain"> as per RFC 2045. I =back =cut sub build { my ($self, @paramlist) = @_; my %params = @paramlist; my ($field, $filename, $boundary); ### Create a new entity, if needed: ref($self) or $self = $self->new; ### GET INFO... ### Get sundry field: my $type = $params{Type} || 'text/plain'; my $charset = $params{Charset}; my $is_multipart = ($type =~ m{^multipart/}i); my $encoding = $params{Encoding} || ''; my $desc = $params{Description}; my $top = exists($params{Top}) ? $params{Top} : 1; my $disposition = $params{Disposition} || 'inline'; my $id = $params{Id}; ### Get recommended filename, allowing explicit no-value value: my ($path_fname) = (($params{Path}||'') =~ m{([^/]+)\Z}); $filename = (exists($params{Filename}) ? $params{Filename} : $path_fname); $filename = undef if (defined($filename) and $filename eq ''); ### Type-check sanity: if ($type =~ m{^(multipart/|message/(rfc822|partial|external-body|delivery-status|disposition-notification|feedback-report)$)}i) { ($encoding =~ /^(|7bit|8bit|binary|-suggest)$/i) or croak "can't have encoding $encoding for message type $type!"; } ### Multipart or not? Do sanity check and fixup: if ($is_multipart) { ### multipart... ### Get any supplied boundary, and check it: if (defined($boundary = $params{Boundary})) { ### they gave us one... if ($boundary eq '') { whine "empty string not a legal boundary: I'm ignoring it"; $boundary = undef; } elsif ($boundary =~ m{[^0-9a-zA-Z_\'\(\)\+\,\.\/\:\=\?\- ]}) { whine "boundary ignored: illegal characters ($boundary)"; $boundary = undef; } } ### If we have to roll our own boundary, do so: defined($boundary) or $boundary = make_boundary(); } else { ### single part... ### Create body: if ($params{Path}) { $self->bodyhandle(new MIME::Body::File $params{Path}); } elsif (defined($params{Data})) { $self->bodyhandle(new MIME::Body::InCore $params{Data}); } else { die "can't build entity: no body, and not multipart\n"; } ### Check whether we need to binmode(): [Steve Kilbane] $self->bodyhandle->binmode(1) unless textual_type($type); } ### MAKE HEAD... ### Create head: my $head = new MIME::Head; $self->head($head); $head->modify(1); ### Add content-type field: $field = new Mail::Field 'Content_type'; ### not a typo :-( $field->type($type); $field->charset($charset) if $charset; $field->name($filename) if defined($filename); $field->boundary($boundary) if defined($boundary); $head->replace('Content-type', $field->stringify); ### Now that both body and content-type are available, we can suggest ### content-transfer-encoding (if desired); if (!$encoding) { $encoding = $self->suggest_encoding_lite; } elsif (lc($encoding) eq '-suggest') { $encoding = $self->suggest_encoding; } ### Add content-disposition field (if not multipart): unless ($is_multipart) { $field = new Mail::Field 'Content_disposition'; ### not a typo :-( $field->type($disposition); $field->filename($filename) if defined($filename); $head->replace('Content-disposition', $field->stringify); } ### Add other MIME fields: $head->replace('Content-transfer-encoding', $encoding) if $encoding; $head->replace('Content-description', $desc) if $desc; # Content-Id value should be surrounded by < >, but versions before 5.428 # did not do this. So, we check, and add if the caller has not done so # already. if( defined $id ) { if( $id !~ /^<.*>$/ ) { $id = "<$id>"; } $head->replace('Content-id', $id); } $head->replace('MIME-Version', '1.0') if $top; ### Add the X-Mailer field, if top level (use default value if not given): $top and $head->replace('X-Mailer', "MIME-tools ".(MIME::Tools->version). " (Entity " .($VERSION).")"); ### Add remaining user-specified fields, if any: while (@paramlist) { my ($tag, $value) = (shift @paramlist, shift @paramlist); ### Get fieldname, if that's what it is: if ($tag =~ /^-(.*)/s) { $tag = lc($1) } ### old style, b.c. elsif ($tag =~ /(.*):$/s ) { $tag = lc($1) } ### new style elsif (known_field(lc($tag))) { 1 } ### known field else { next; } ### not a field ### Clear head, get list of values, and add them: $head->delete($tag); foreach $value (ref($value) ? @$value : ($value)) { (defined($value) && ($value ne '')) or next; $head->add($tag, $value); } } ### Done! $self; } #------------------------------ =item dup I Duplicate the entity. Does a deep, recursive copy, I external data in bodyhandles is I copied to new files! Changing the data in one entity's data file, or purging that entity, I affect its duplicate. Entities with in-core data probably need not worry. =cut sub dup { my $self = shift; local($_); ### Self (this will also dup the header): my $dup = bless $self->SUPER::dup(), ref($self); ### Any simple inst vars: foreach (keys %$self) {$dup->{$_} = $self->{$_} unless ref($self->{$_})}; ### Bodyhandle: $dup->bodyhandle($self->bodyhandle ? $self->bodyhandle->dup : undef); ### Preamble and epilogue: foreach (qw(ME_Preamble ME_Epilogue)) { $dup->{$_} = [@{$self->{$_}}] if $self->{$_}; } ### Parts: $dup->{ME_Parts} = []; foreach (@{$self->{ME_Parts}}) { push @{$dup->{ME_Parts}}, $_->dup } ### Done! $dup; } =back =cut #============================== =head2 Access =over 4 =cut #------------------------------ =item body [VALUE] I Get the I (transport-ready) body, as an array of lines. Returns an array reference. Each array entry is a newline-terminated line. This is a read-only data structure: changing its contents will have no effect. Its contents are identical to what is printed by L. Provided for compatibility with Mail::Internet, so that methods like C will work. Note however that if VALUE is given, a fatal exception is thrown, since you cannot use this method to I the lines of the encoded message. If you want the raw (unencoded) body data, use the L method to get and use a MIME::Body. The content-type of the entity will tell you whether that body is best read as text (via getline()) or raw data (via read()). =cut sub body { my ($self, $value) = @_; my $boundary_delimiter = $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER || "\n"; if (@_ > 1) { ### setting body line(s)... croak "you cannot use body() to set the encoded contents\n"; } else { my $output = ''; my $fh = IO::File->new(\$output, '>:') or croak("Cannot open in-memory file: $!"); $self->print_body($fh); close($fh); my @ary = split(/\n/, $output); # Each line needs the terminating newline @ary = map { "$_$boundary_delimiter" } @ary; return \@ary; } } #------------------------------ =item bodyhandle [VALUE] I Get or set an abstract object representing the body of the message. The body holds the decoded message data. B An entity will have either a body or parts: not both. This method will I return an object if this entity can have a body; otherwise, it will return undefined. Whether-or-not a given entity can have a body is determined by (1) its content type, and (2) whether-or-not the parser was told to extract nested messages: Type: | Extract nested? | bodyhandle() | parts() ----------------------------------------------------------------------- multipart/* | - | undef | 0 or more MIME::Entity message/* | true | undef | 0 or 1 MIME::Entity message/* | false | MIME::Body | empty list (other) | - | MIME::Body | empty list If C I given, the current bodyhandle is returned, or undef if the entity cannot have a body. If C I given, the bodyhandle is set to the new value, and the previous value is returned. See L for more info. =cut sub bodyhandle { my ($self, $newvalue) = @_; my $value = $self->{ME_Bodyhandle}; $self->{ME_Bodyhandle} = $newvalue if (@_ > 1); $value; } #------------------------------ =item effective_type [MIMETYPE] I Set/get the I MIME type of this entity. This is I identical to the actual (or defaulted) MIME type, but in some cases it differs. For example, from RFC-2045: Any entity with an unrecognized Content-Transfer-Encoding must be treated as if it has a Content-Type of "application/octet-stream", regardless of what the Content-Type header field actually says. Why? because if we can't decode the message, then we have to take the bytes as-is, in their (unrecognized) encoded form. So the message ceases to be a "text/foobar" and becomes a bunch of undecipherable bytes -- in other words, an "application/octet-stream". Such an entity, if parsed, would have its effective_type() set to C<"application/octet_stream">, although the mime_type() and the contents of the header would remain the same. If there is no effective type, the method just returns what mime_type() would. B the effective type is "sticky"; once set, that effective_type() will always be returned even if the conditions that necessitated setting the effective type become no longer true. =cut sub effective_type { my $self = shift; $self->{ME_EffType} = shift if @_; return ($self->{ME_EffType} ? lc($self->{ME_EffType}) : $self->mime_type); } #------------------------------ =item epilogue [LINES] I Get/set the text of the epilogue, as an array of newline-terminated LINES. Returns a reference to the array of lines, or undef if no epilogue exists. If there is a epilogue, it is output when printing this entity; otherwise, a default epilogue is used. Setting the epilogue to undef (not []!) causes it to fallback to the default. =cut sub epilogue { my ($self, $lines) = @_; $self->{ME_Epilogue} = $lines if @_ > 1; $self->{ME_Epilogue}; } #------------------------------ =item head [VALUE] I Get/set the head. If there is no VALUE given, returns the current head. If none exists, an empty instance of MIME::Head is created, set, and returned. B This is a patch over a problem in Mail::Internet, which doesn't provide a method for setting the head to some given object. =cut sub head { my ($self, $value) = @_; (@_ > 1) and $self->{'mail_inet_head'} = $value; $self->{'mail_inet_head'} ||= new MIME::Head; ### KLUDGE! } #------------------------------ =item is_multipart I Does this entity's effective MIME type indicate that it's a multipart entity? Returns undef (false) if the answer couldn't be determined, 0 (false) if it was determined to be false, and true otherwise. Note that this says nothing about whether or not parts were extracted. NOTE: we switched to effective_type so that multiparts with bad or missing boundaries could be coerced to an effective type of C. =cut sub is_multipart { my $self = shift; $self->head or return undef; ### no head, so no MIME type! my ($type, $subtype) = split('/', $self->effective_type); (($type eq 'multipart') ? 1 : 0); } #------------------------------ =item mime_type I A purely-for-convenience method. This simply relays the request to the associated MIME::Head object. If there is no head, returns undef in a scalar context and the empty array in a list context. B consider using effective_type() instead, especially if you obtained the entity from a MIME::Parser. =cut sub mime_type { my $self = shift; $self->head or return (wantarray ? () : undef); $self->head->mime_type; } #------------------------------ =item open READWRITE I A purely-for-convenience method. This simply relays the request to the associated MIME::Body object (see MIME::Body::open()). READWRITE is either 'r' (open for read) or 'w' (open for write). If there is no body, returns false. =cut sub open { my $self = shift; $self->bodyhandle and $self->bodyhandle->open(@_); } #------------------------------ =item parts =item parts INDEX =item parts ARRAYREF I Return the MIME::Entity objects which are the sub parts of this entity (if any). I returns the array of all sub parts, returning the empty array if there are none (e.g., if this is a single part message, or a degenerate multipart). In a scalar context, this returns you the number of parts. I return the INDEXed part, or undef if it doesn't exist. I then this method I the parts to a copy of that array, and returns the parts. This can be used to delete parts, as follows: ### Delete some parts of a multipart message: $msg->parts([ grep { keep_part($_) } $msg->parts ]); B for multipart messages, the preamble and epilogue are I considered parts. If you need them, use the C and C methods. B there are ways of parsing with a MIME::Parser which cause certain message parts (such as those of type C) to be "reparsed" into pseudo-multipart entities. You should read the documentation for those options carefully: it I possible for a diddled entity to not be multipart, but still have parts attached to it! See L for a discussion of parts vs. bodies. =cut sub parts { my $self = shift; ref($_[0]) and return @{$self->{ME_Parts} = [@{$_[0]}]}; ### set the parts (@_ ? $self->{ME_Parts}[$_[0]] : @{$self->{ME_Parts}}); } #------------------------------ =item parts_DFS I Return the list of all MIME::Entity objects included in the entity, starting with the entity itself, in depth-first-search order. If the entity has no parts, it alone will be returned. I =cut sub parts_DFS { my $self = shift; return ($self, map { $_->parts_DFS } $self->parts); } #------------------------------ =item preamble [LINES] I Get/set the text of the preamble, as an array of newline-terminated LINES. Returns a reference to the array of lines, or undef if no preamble exists (e.g., if this is a single-part entity). If there is a preamble, it is output when printing this entity; otherwise, a default preamble is used. Setting the preamble to undef (not []!) causes it to fallback to the default. =cut sub preamble { my ($self, $lines) = @_; $self->{ME_Preamble} = $lines if @_ > 1; $self->{ME_Preamble}; } =back =cut #============================== =head2 Manipulation =over 4 =cut #------------------------------ =item make_multipart [SUBTYPE], OPTSHASH... I Force the entity to be a multipart, if it isn't already. We do this by replacing the original [singlepart] entity with a new multipart that has the same non-MIME headers ("From", "Subject", etc.), but all-new MIME headers ("Content-type", etc.). We then create a copy of the original singlepart, I the non-MIME headers from that, and make it a part of the new multipart. So this: From: me To: you Content-type: text/plain Content-length: 12 Hello there! Becomes something like this: From: me To: you Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----abc----" ------abc---- Content-type: text/plain Content-length: 12 Hello there! ------abc------ The actual type of the new top-level multipart will be "multipart/SUBTYPE" (default SUBTYPE is "mixed"). Returns 'DONE' if we really did inflate a singlepart to a multipart. Returns 'ALREADY' (and does nothing) if entity is I multipart and Force was not chosen. If OPTSHASH contains Force=>1, then we I bump the top-level's content and content-headers down to a subpart of this entity, even if this entity is already a multipart. This is apparently of use to people who are tweaking messages after parsing them. =cut sub make_multipart { my ($self, $subtype, %opts) = @_; my $tag; $subtype ||= 'mixed'; my $force = $opts{Force}; ### Trap for simple case: already a multipart? return 'ALREADY' if ($self->is_multipart and !$force); ### Rip out our guts, and spew them into our future part: my $part = bless {%$self}, ref($self); ### part is a shallow copy %$self = (); ### lobotomize ourselves! $self->head($part->head->dup); ### dup the header ### Remove content headers from top-level, and set it up as a multipart: foreach $tag (grep {/^content-/i} $self->head->tags) { $self->head->delete($tag); } $self->head->mime_attr('Content-type' => "multipart/$subtype"); $self->head->mime_attr('Content-type.boundary' => make_boundary()); ### Remove NON-content headers from the part: foreach $tag (grep {!/^content-/i} $part->head->tags) { $part->head->delete($tag); } ### Add the [sole] part: $self->{ME_Parts} = []; $self->add_part($part); 'DONE'; } #------------------------------ =item make_singlepart I If the entity is a multipart message with one part, this tries hard to rewrite it as a singlepart, by replacing the content (and content headers) of the top level with those of the part. Also crunches 0-part multiparts into singleparts. Returns 'DONE' if we really did collapse a multipart to a singlepart. Returns 'ALREADY' (and does nothing) if entity is already a singlepart. Returns '0' (and does nothing) if it can't be made into a singlepart. =cut sub make_singlepart { my $self = shift; ### Trap for simple cases: return 'ALREADY' if !$self->is_multipart; ### already a singlepart? return '0' if ($self->parts > 1); ### can this even be done? # Get rid of all our existing content info my $tag; foreach $tag (grep {/^content-/i} $self->head->tags) { $self->head->delete($tag); } if ($self->parts == 1) { ### one part my $part = $self->parts(0); ### Populate ourselves with any content info from the part: foreach $tag (grep {/^content-/i} $part->head->tags) { foreach ($part->head->get($tag)) { $self->head->add($tag, $_) } } ### Save reconstructed header, replace our guts, and restore header: my $new_head = $self->head; %$self = %$part; ### shallow copy is ok! $self->head($new_head); ### One more thing: the part *may* have been a multi with 0 or 1 parts! return $self->make_singlepart(@_) if $self->is_multipart; } else { ### no parts! $self->head->mime_attr('Content-type'=>'text/plain'); ### simple } 'DONE'; } #------------------------------ =item purge I Recursively purge (e.g., unlink) all external (e.g., on-disk) body parts in this message. See MIME::Body::purge() for details. B this does I delete the directories that those body parts are contained in; only the actual message data files are deleted. This is because some parsers may be customized to create intermediate directories while others are not, and it's impossible for this class to know what directories are safe to remove. Only your application program truly knows that. B one good way is to use C, and then do this before parsing your next message: $parser->filer->purge(); I wouldn't attempt to read those body files after you do this, for obvious reasons. As of MIME-tools 4.x, each body's path I undefined after this operation. I warned you I might do this; truly I did. I =cut sub purge { my $self = shift; $self->bodyhandle and $self->bodyhandle->purge; ### purge me foreach ($self->parts) { $_->purge } ### recurse 1; } #------------------------------ # # _do_remove_sig # # Private. Remove a signature within NLINES lines from the end of BODY. # The signature must be flagged by a line containing only "-- ". sub _do_remove_sig { my ($body, $nlines) = @_; $nlines ||= 10; my $i = 0; my $line = int(@$body) || return; while ($i++ < $nlines and $line--) { if ($body->[$line] =~ /\A--[ \040][\r\n]+\Z/) { $#{$body} = $line-1; return; } } } #------------------------------ =item remove_sig [NLINES] I Attempts to remove a user's signature from the body of a message. It does this by looking for a line matching C within the last C of the message. If found then that line and all lines after it will be removed. If C is not given, a default value of 10 will be used. This would be of most use in auto-reply scripts. For MIME entity, this method is reasonably cautious: it will only attempt to un-sign a message with a content-type of C. If you send remove_sig() to a multipart entity, it will relay it to the first part (the others usually being the "attachments"). B currently slurps the whole message-part into core as an array of lines, so you probably don't want to use this on extremely long messages. Returns truth on success, false on error. =cut sub remove_sig { my $self = shift; my $nlines = shift; # If multipart, we only attempt to remove the sig from the first # part. This is usually a good assumption for multipart/mixed, but # may not always be correct. It is also possibly incorrect on # multipart/alternative (both may have sigs). if( $self->is_multipart ) { my $first_part = $self->parts(0); if( $first_part ) { return $first_part->remove_sig(@_); } return undef; } ### Refuse non-textual unless forced: textual_type($self->head->mime_type) or return error "I won't un-sign a non-text message unless I'm forced"; ### Get body data, as an array of newline-terminated lines: $self->bodyhandle or return undef; my @body = $self->bodyhandle->as_lines; ### Nuke sig: _do_remove_sig(\@body, $nlines); ### Output data back into body: my $io = $self->bodyhandle->open("w"); foreach (@body) { $io->print($_) }; ### body data $io->close; ### Done! 1; } #------------------------------ =item sign PARAMHASH I Append a signature to the message. The params are: =over 4 =item Attach Instead of appending the text, add it to the message as an attachment. The disposition will be C, and the description will indicate that it is a signature. The default behavior is to append the signature to the text of the message (or the text of its first part if multipart). I =item File Use the contents of this file as the signature. Fatal error if it can't be read. I =item Force Sign it even if the content-type isn't C. Useful for non-standard types like C, but be careful! I =item Remove Normally, we attempt to strip out any existing signature. If true, this gives us the NLINES parameter of the remove_sig call. If zero but defined, tells us I to remove any existing signature. If undefined, removal is done with the default of 10 lines. I =item Signature Use this text as the signature. You can supply it as either a scalar, or as a ref to an array of newline-terminated scalars. I =back For MIME messages, this method is reasonably cautious: it will only attempt to sign a message with a content-type of C, unless C is specified. If you send this message to a multipart entity, it will relay it to the first part (the others usually being the "attachments"). B currently slurps the whole message-part into core as an array of lines, so you probably don't want to use this on extremely long messages. Returns true on success, false otherwise. =cut sub sign { my $self = shift; my %params = @_; my $io; my $boundary_delimiter = $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER || "\n"; ### If multipart and not attaching, try to sign our first part: if ($self->is_multipart and !$params{Attach}) { return $self->parts(0)->sign(@_); } ### Get signature: my $sig; if (defined($sig = $params{Signature})) { ### scalar or array $sig = (ref($sig) ? join('', @$sig) : $sig); } elsif ($params{File}) { ### file contents my $fh = IO::File->new( $params{File} ) or croak "can't open $params{File}: $!"; $sig = join('', $fh->getlines); $fh->close or croak "can't close $params{File}: $!"; } else { croak "no signature given!"; } ### Add signature to message as appropriate: if ($params{Attach}) { ### Attach .sig as new part... return $self->attach(Type => 'text/plain', Description => 'Signature', Disposition => 'inline', Encoding => '-SUGGEST', Data => $sig); } else { ### Add text of .sig to body data... ### Refuse non-textual unless forced: ($self->head->mime_type =~ m{text/}i or $params{Force}) or return error "I won't sign a non-text message unless I'm forced"; ### Get body data, as an array of newline-terminated lines: $self->bodyhandle or return undef; my @body = $self->bodyhandle->as_lines; ### Nuke any existing sig? if (!defined($params{Remove}) || ($params{Remove} > 0)) { _do_remove_sig(\@body, $params{Remove}); } ### Output data back into body, followed by signature: my $line; $io = $self->open("w") or croak("open: $!"); foreach $line (@body) { $io->print($line) }; ### body data (($body[-1]||'') =~ /\n\Z/) or $io->print($boundary_delimiter); ### ensure final \n $io->print("-- $boundary_delimiter$sig"); ### separator + sig $io->close or croak("close: $!"); return 1; ### done! } } #------------------------------ =item suggest_encoding I Based on the effective content type, return a good suggested encoding. C and C types have their bodies scanned line-by-line for 8-bit characters and long lines; lack of either means that the message is 7bit-ok. Other types are chosen independent of their body: Major type: 7bit ok? Suggested encoding: ----------------------------------------------------------- text yes 7bit text no quoted-printable message yes 7bit message no binary multipart * binary (in case some parts are bad) image, etc... * base64 =cut ### TO DO: resolve encodings of nested entities (possibly in sync_headers). sub suggest_encoding { my $self = shift; my ($type) = split '/', $self->effective_type; if (($type eq 'text') || ($type eq 'message')) { ### scan message body $self->bodyhandle || return ($self->parts ? 'binary' : '7bit'); my ($IO, $unclean); if ($IO = $self->bodyhandle->open("r")) { ### Scan message for 7bit-cleanliness local $_; while (defined($_ = $IO->getline)) { last if ($unclean = ((length($_) > 999) or /[\200-\377]/)); } ### Return '7bit' if clean; try and encode if not... ### Note that encodings are not permitted for messages! return ($unclean ? (($type eq 'message') ? 'binary' : 'quoted-printable') : '7bit'); } } else { return ($type eq 'multipart') ? 'binary' : 'base64'; } } sub suggest_encoding_lite { my $self = shift; my ($type) = split '/', $self->effective_type; return (($type =~ /^(text|message|multipart)$/) ? 'binary' : 'base64'); } #------------------------------ =item sync_headers OPTIONS I This method does a variety of activities which ensure that the MIME headers of an entity "tree" are in-synch with the body parts they describe. It can be as expensive an operation as printing if it involves pre-encoding the body parts; however, the aim is to produce fairly clean MIME. B The OPTIONS is a hash, which describes what is to be done. =over 4 =item Length One of the "official unofficial" MIME fields is "Content-Length". Normally, one doesn't care a whit about this field; however, if you are preparing output destined for HTTP, you may. The value of this option dictates what will be done: B means to set a C field for every non-multipart part in the entity, and to blank that field out for every multipart part in the entity. B means that C fields will all be blanked out. This is fast, painless, and safe. B (the default) means to take no action. =item Nonstandard Any header field beginning with "Content-" is, according to the RFC, a MIME field. However, some are non-standard, and may cause problems with certain MIME readers which interpret them in different ways. B means that all such fields will be blanked out. This is done I the B option (q.v.) is examined and acted upon. B (the default) means to take no action. =back Returns a true value if everything went okay, a false value otherwise. =cut sub sync_headers { my $self = shift; my $opts = ((int(@_) % 2 == 0) ? {@_} : shift); my $ENCBODY; ### keep it around until done! ### Get options: my $o_nonstandard = ($opts->{Nonstandard} || 0); my $o_length = ($opts->{Length} || 0); ### Get head: my $head = $self->head; ### What to do with "nonstandard" MIME fields? if ($o_nonstandard eq 'ERASE') { ### Erase them... my $tag; foreach $tag ($head->tags()) { if (($tag =~ /\AContent-/i) && ($tag !~ /\AContent-$StandardFields\Z/io)) { $head->delete($tag); } } } ### What to do with the "Content-Length" MIME field? if ($o_length eq 'COMPUTE') { ### Compute the content length... my $content_length = ''; ### We don't have content-lengths in multiparts... if ($self->is_multipart) { ### multipart... $head->delete('Content-length'); } else { ### singlepart... ### Get the encoded body, if we don't have it already: unless ($ENCBODY) { $ENCBODY = tmpopen() || die "can't open tmpfile"; $self->print_body($ENCBODY); ### write encoded to tmpfile } ### Analyse it: $ENCBODY->seek(0,2); ### fast-forward $content_length = $ENCBODY->tell; ### get encoded length $ENCBODY->seek(0,0); ### rewind ### Remember: $self->head->replace('Content-length', $content_length); } } elsif ($o_length eq 'ERASE') { ### Erase the content-length... $head->delete('Content-length'); } ### Done with everything for us! undef($ENCBODY); ### Recurse: my $part; foreach $part ($self->parts) { $part->sync_headers($opts) or return undef } 1; } #------------------------------ =item tidy_body I Currently unimplemented for MIME messages. Does nothing, returns false. =cut sub tidy_body { usage "MIME::Entity::tidy_body currently does nothing"; 0; } =back =cut #============================== =head2 Output =over 4 =cut #------------------------------ =item dump_skeleton [FILEHANDLE] I Dump the skeleton of the entity to the given FILEHANDLE, or to the currently-selected one if none given. Each entity is output with an appropriate indentation level, the following selection of attributes: Content-type: multipart/mixed Effective-type: multipart/mixed Body-file: NONE Subject: Hey there! Num-parts: 2 This is really just useful for debugging purposes; I make no guarantees about the consistency of the output format over time. =cut sub dump_skeleton { my ($self, $fh, $indent) = @_; $fh or $fh = select; defined($indent) or $indent = 0; my $ind = ' ' x $indent; my $part; no strict 'refs'; ### The content type: print $fh $ind,"Content-type: ", ($self->mime_type||'UNKNOWN'),"\n"; print $fh $ind,"Effective-type: ", ($self->effective_type||'UNKNOWN'),"\n"; ### The name of the file containing the body (if any!): my $path = ($self->bodyhandle ? $self->bodyhandle->path : undef); print $fh $ind, "Body-file: ", ($path || 'NONE'), "\n"; ### The recommended file name (thanks to Allen Campbell): my $filename = $self->head->recommended_filename; print $fh $ind, "Recommended-filename: ", $filename, "\n" if ($filename); ### The subject (note: already a newline if 2.x!) my $subj = $self->head->get('subject',0); defined($subj) or $subj = ''; chomp($subj); print $fh $ind, "Subject: $subj\n" if $subj; ### The parts: my @parts = $self->parts; print $fh $ind, "Num-parts: ", int(@parts), "\n" if @parts; print $fh $ind, "--\n"; foreach $part (@parts) { $part->dump_skeleton($fh, $indent+1); } } #------------------------------ =item print [OUTSTREAM] I Print the entity to the given OUTSTREAM, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none given. OUTSTREAM can be a filehandle, or any object that responds to a print() message. The entity is output as a valid MIME stream! This means that the header is always output first, and the body data (if any) will be encoded if the header says that it should be. For example, your output may look like this: Subject: Greetings Content-transfer-encoding: base64 SGkgdGhlcmUhCkJ5ZSB0aGVyZSEK I the preamble, parts, and epilogue are all output with appropriate boundaries separating each. Any bodyhandle is ignored: Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="*----*" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit [Preamble] --*----* [Entity: Part 0] --*----* [Entity: Part 1] --*----*-- [Epilogue] I then we're looking at a normal singlepart entity: the body is output according to the encoding specified by the header. If no body exists, a warning is output and the body is treated as empty: Content-type: image/gif Content-transfer-encoding: base64 [Encoded body] I then we're probably looking at a "re-parsed" singlepart, usually one of type C (you can get entities like this if you set the C option on the parser to true). In this case, the parts are output with single blank lines separating each, and any bodyhandle is ignored: Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit [Entity: Part 0] [Entity: Part 1] In all cases, when outputting a "part" of the entity, this method is invoked recursively. B the output is very likely I going to be identical to any input you parsed to get this entity. If you're building some sort of email handler, it's up to you to save this information. =cut use Symbol; sub print { my ($self, $out) = @_; my $boundary_delimiter = $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER || "\n"; $out = select if @_ < 2; $out = Symbol::qualify($out,scalar(caller)) unless ref($out); $self->print_header($out); ### the header $out->print($boundary_delimiter); $self->print_body($out); ### the "stuff after the header" } #------------------------------ =item print_body [OUTSTREAM] I Print the body of the entity to the given OUTSTREAM, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none given. OUTSTREAM can be a filehandle, or any object that responds to a print() message. The body is output for inclusion in a valid MIME stream; this means that the body data will be encoded if the header says that it should be. B by "body", we mean "the stuff following the header". A printed multipart body includes the printed representations of its subparts. B The body is I in an un-encoded form; however, the idea is that the transfer encoding is used to determine how it should be I This means that the C method is always guaranteed to get you a sendmail-ready stream whose body is consistent with its head. If you want the I to be output, you can either read it from the bodyhandle yourself, or use: $ent->bodyhandle->print($outstream); which uses read() calls to extract the information, and thus will work with both text and binary bodies. B Please supply an OUTSTREAM. This override method differs from Mail::Internet's behavior, which outputs to the STDOUT if no filehandle is given: this may lead to confusion. =cut sub print_body { my ($self, $out) = @_; $out ||= select; my ($type) = split '/', lc($self->mime_type); ### handle by MIME type my $boundary_delimiter = $MIME::Entity::BOUNDARY_DELIMITER || "\n"; ### Multipart... if ($type eq 'multipart') { my $boundary = $self->head->multipart_boundary; ### Preamble: my $plines = $self->preamble; if (defined $plines) { # Defined, so output the preamble if it exists (avoiding additional # newline as per ticket 60931) $out->print( join('', @$plines) . $boundary_delimiter) if (@$plines > 0); } else { # Undefined, so use default preamble $out->print( join('', @$DefPreamble) . $boundary_delimiter . $boundary_delimiter ); } ### Parts: my $part; foreach $part ($self->parts) { $out->print("--$boundary$boundary_delimiter"); $part->print($out); $out->print($boundary_delimiter); ### needed for next delim/close } $out->print("--$boundary--$boundary_delimiter"); ### Epilogue: my $epilogue = join('', @{ $self->epilogue || $DefEpilogue }); if ($epilogue ne '') { $out->print($epilogue); $out->print($boundary_delimiter) if ($epilogue !~ /\n\Z/); ### be nice } } ### Singlepart type with parts... ### This makes $ent->print handle message/rfc822 bodies ### when parse_nested_messages('NEST') is on [idea by Marc Rouleau]. elsif ($self->parts) { my $need_sep = 0; my $part; foreach $part ($self->parts) { $out->print("$boundary_delimiter$boundary_delimiter") if $need_sep++; $part->print($out); } } ### Singlepart type, or no parts: output body... else { $self->bodyhandle ? $self->print_bodyhandle($out) : whine "missing body; treated as empty"; } 1; } #------------------------------ # # print_bodyhandle # # Instance method, unpublicized. Print just the bodyhandle, *encoded*. # # WARNING: $self->print_bodyhandle() != $self->bodyhandle->print()! # The former encodes, and the latter does not! # sub print_bodyhandle { my ($self, $out) = @_; $out ||= select; my $IO = $self->open("r") || die "open body: $!"; if ( $self->bodyhandle->is_encoded ) { ### Transparent mode: data is already encoded, so no ### need to encode it again my $buf; $out->print($buf) while ($IO->read($buf, 8192)); } else { ### Get the encoding, defaulting to "binary" if unsupported: my $encoding = ($self->head->mime_encoding || 'binary'); my $decoder = best MIME::Decoder $encoding; $decoder->head($self->head); ### associate with head, if any $decoder->encode($IO, $out, textual_type($self->head->mime_type) ? 1 : 0) || return error "encoding failed"; } $IO->close; 1; } #------------------------------ =item print_header [OUTSTREAM] I Output the header to the given OUTSTREAM. You really should supply the OUTSTREAM. =cut ### Inherited. #------------------------------ =item stringify I Return the entity as a string, exactly as C would print it. The body will be encoded as necessary, and will contain any subparts. You can also use C. =cut sub stringify { my ($self) = @_; my $output = ''; my $fh = IO::File->new( \$output, '>:' ) or croak("Cannot open in-memory file: $!"); $self->print($fh); $fh->close; return $output; } sub as_string { shift->stringify }; ### silent BC #------------------------------ =item stringify_body I Return the I message body as a string, exactly as C would print it. You can also use C. If you want the I body, and you are dealing with a singlepart message (like a "text/plain"), use C instead: if ($ent->bodyhandle) { $unencoded_data = $ent->bodyhandle->as_string; } else { ### this message has no body data (but it might have parts!) } =cut sub stringify_body { my ($self) = @_; my $output = ''; my $fh = IO::File->new( \$output, '>:' ) or croak("Cannot open in-memory file: $!"); $self->print_body($fh); $fh->close; return $output; } sub body_as_string { shift->stringify_body } #------------------------------ =item stringify_header I Return the header as a string, exactly as C would print it. You can also use C. =cut sub stringify_header { shift->head->stringify; } sub header_as_string { shift->stringify_header } 1; __END__ #------------------------------ =back =head1 NOTES =head2 Under the hood A B is composed of the following elements: =over 4 =item * A I, which is a reference to a MIME::Head object containing the header information. =item * A I, which is a reference to a MIME::Body object containing the decoded body data. This is only defined if the message is a "singlepart" type: application/* audio/* image/* text/* video/* =item * An array of I, where each part is a MIME::Entity object. The number of parts will only be nonzero if the content-type is I one of the "singlepart" types: message/* (should have exactly one part) multipart/* (should have one or more parts) =back =head2 The "two-body problem" MIME::Entity and Mail::Internet see message bodies differently, and this can cause confusion and some inconvenience. Sadly, I can't change the behavior of MIME::Entity without breaking lots of code already out there. But let's open up the floor for a few questions... =over 4 =item What is the difference between a "message" and an "entity"? A B is the actual data being sent or received; usually this means a stream of newline-terminated lines. An B is the representation of a message as an object. This means that you get a "message" when you print an "entity" I a filehandle, and you get an "entity" when you parse a message I a filehandle. =item What is a message body? B The portion of the printed message after the header. B The portion of the printed message after the header. =item How is a message body stored in an entity? B As an array of lines. B It depends on the content-type of the message. For "container" types (C, C), we store the contained entities as an array of "parts", accessed via the C method, where each part is a complete MIME::Entity. For "singlepart" types (C, C, etc.), the unencoded body data is referenced via a MIME::Body object, accessed via the C method: bodyhandle() parts() Content-type: returns: returns: ------------------------------------------------------------ application/* MIME::Body empty audio/* MIME::Body empty image/* MIME::Body empty message/* undef MIME::Entity list (usually 1) multipart/* undef MIME::Entity list (usually >0) text/* MIME::Body empty video/* MIME::Body empty x-*/* MIME::Body empty As a special case, C is currently ambiguous: depending on the parser, a C might be treated as a singlepart, with a MIME::Body and no parts. Use bodyhandle() as the final arbiter. =item What does the body() method return? B As an array of lines, ready for sending. B As an array of lines, ready for sending. =item What's the best way to get at the body data? B Use the body() method. B Depends on what you want... the I data (as it is transported), or the I data? Keep reading... =item How do I get the "encoded" body data? B Use the body() method. B Use the body() method. You can also use: $entity->print_body() $entity->stringify_body() ### a.k.a. $entity->body_as_string() =item How do I get the "unencoded" body data? B Use the body() method. B Use the I method! If bodyhandle() method returns true, then that value is a L which can be used to access the data via its open() method. If bodyhandle() method returns an undefined value, then the entity is probably a "container" that has no real body data of its own (e.g., a "multipart" message): in this case, you should access the components via the parts() method. Like this: if ($bh = $entity->bodyhandle) { $io = $bh->open; ...access unencoded data via $io->getline or $io->read... $io->close; } else { foreach my $part (@parts) { ...do something with the part... } } You can also use: if ($bh = $entity->bodyhandle) { $unencoded_data = $bh->as_string; } else { ...do stuff with the parts... } =item What does the body() method return? B The transport-encoded message body, as an array of lines. B The transport-encoded message body, as an array of lines. =item What does print_body() print? B Exactly what body() would return to you. B Exactly what body() would return to you. =item Say I have an entity which might be either singlepart or multipart. How do I print out just "the stuff after the header"? B Use print_body(). B Use print_body(). =item Why is MIME::Entity so different from Mail::Internet? Because MIME streams are expected to have non-textual data... possibly, quite a lot of it, such as a tar file. Because MIME messages can consist of multiple parts, which are most-easily manipulated as MIME::Entity objects themselves. Because in the simpler world of Mail::Internet, the data of a message and its printed representation are I... and in the MIME world, they're not. Because parsing multipart bodies on-the-fly, or formatting multipart bodies for output, is a non-trivial task. =item This is confusing. Can the two classes be made more compatible? Not easily; their implementations are necessarily quite different. Mail::Internet is a simple, efficient way of dealing with a "black box" mail message... one whose internal data you don't care much about. MIME::Entity, in contrast, cares I about the message contents: that's its job! =back =head2 Design issues =over 4 =item Some things just can't be ignored In multipart messages, the I<"preamble"> is the portion that precedes the first encapsulation boundary, and the I<"epilogue"> is the portion that follows the last encapsulation boundary. According to RFC 2046: There appears to be room for additional information prior to the first encapsulation boundary and following the final boundary. These areas should generally be left blank, and implementations must ignore anything that appears before the first boundary or after the last one. NOTE: These "preamble" and "epilogue" areas are generally not used because of the lack of proper typing of these parts and the lack of clear semantics for handling these areas at gateways, particularly X.400 gateways. However, rather than leaving the preamble area blank, many MIME implementations have found this to be a convenient place to insert an explanatory note for recipients who read the message with pre-MIME software, since such notes will be ignored by MIME-compliant software. In the world of standards-and-practices, that's the standard. Now for the practice: I. Since we have to parse over the stuff I, in the future I I allow the parser option of creating special MIME::Entity objects for the preamble and epilogue, with bogus MIME::Head objects. For now, though, we're MIME-compliant, so I probably won't change how we work. =back =head1 SEE ALSO L, L, L, L, L =head1 AUTHOR Eryq (F), ZeeGee Software Inc (F). Dianne Skoll (dfs@roaringpenguin.com) http://www.roaringpenguin.com All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. =cut