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(python2.1-lib.info)mimify

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MIME processing of mail messages
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Mimification and unmimification of mail messages.

The mimify module defines two functions to convert mail messages to and
from MIME format.  The mail message can be either a simple message or a
so-called multipart message.  Each part is treated separately.
Mimifying (a part of) a message entails encoding the message as
quoted-printable if it contains any characters that cannot be
represented using 7-bit ASCII.  Unmimifying (a part of) a message
entails undoing the quoted-printable encoding.  Mimify and unmimify are
especially useful when a message has to be edited before being sent.
Typical use would be:

     unmimify message
     edit message
     mimify message
     send message

The modules defines the following user-callable functions and
user-settable variables:

`mimify(infile, outfile)'
     Copy the message in INFILE to OUTFILE, converting parts to
     quoted-printable and adding MIME mail headers when necessary.
     INFILE and OUTFILE can be file objects (actually, any object that
     has a `readline()' method (for INFILE) or a `write()' method (for
     OUTFILE)) or strings naming the files.  If INFILE and OUTFILE are
     both strings, they may have the same value.

`unmimify(infile, outfile[, decode_base64])'
     Copy the message in INFILE to OUTFILE, decoding all
     quoted-printable parts.  INFILE and OUTFILE can be file objects
     (actually, any object that has a `readline()' method (for INFILE)
     or a `write()' method (for OUTFILE)) or strings naming the files.
     If INFILE and OUTFILE are both strings, they may have the same
     value.  If the DECODE_BASE64 argument is provided and tests true,
     any parts that are coded in the base64 encoding are decoded as
     well.

`mime_decode_header(line)'
     Return a decoded version of the encoded header line in LINE.

`mime_encode_header(line)'
     Return a MIME-encoded version of the header line in LINE.

`MAXLEN'
     By default, a part will be encoded as quoted-printable when it
     contains any non-ASCII characters (i.e., characters with the 8th
     bit set), or if there are any lines longer than `MAXLEN' characters
     (default value 200).

`CHARSET'
     When not specified in the mail headers, a character set must be
     filled in.  The string used is stored in `CHARSET', and the default
     value is ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin1 (latin-one)).

This module can also be used from the command line.  Usage is as
follows:
     mimify.py -e [-l length] [infile [outfile]]
     mimify.py -d [-b] [infile [outfile]]

to encode (mimify) and decode (unmimify) respectively.  INFILE defaults
to standard input, OUTFILE defaults to standard output.  The same file
can be specified for input and output.

If the *-l* option is given when encoding, if there are any lines
longer than the specified LENGTH, the containing part will be encoded.

If the *-b* option is given when decoding, any base64 parts will be
decoded as well.

See also:
     Note: quopri Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable files.