symbian-qemu-0.9.1-12/python-2.6.1/Doc/library/mimify.rst
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     2 :mod:`mimify` --- MIME processing of mail messages
       
     3 ==================================================
       
     4 
       
     5 .. module:: mimify
       
     6    :synopsis: Mimification and unmimification of mail messages.
       
     7    :deprecated:
       
     8 
       
     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 
       
    14 The :mod:`mimify` module defines two functions to convert mail messages to and
       
    15 from MIME format.  The mail message can be either a simple message or a
       
    16 so-called multipart message.  Each part is treated separately. Mimifying (a part
       
    17 of) a message entails encoding the message as quoted-printable if it contains
       
    18 any characters that cannot be represented using 7-bit ASCII.  Unmimifying (a
       
    19 part of) a message entails undoing the quoted-printable encoding.  Mimify and
       
    20 unmimify are especially useful when a message has to be edited before being
       
    21 sent.  Typical use would be::
       
    22 
       
    23    unmimify message
       
    24    edit message
       
    25    mimify message
       
    26    send message
       
    27 
       
    28 The modules defines the following user-callable functions and user-settable
       
    29 variables:
       
    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 
       
    76 This 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 
       
    81 to encode (mimify) and decode (unmimify) respectively.  *infile* defaults to
       
    82 standard input, *outfile* defaults to standard output. The same file can be
       
    83 specified for input and output.
       
    84 
       
    85 If the **-l** option is given when encoding, if there are any lines longer than
       
    86 the specified *length*, the containing part will be encoded.
       
    87 
       
    88 If the **-b** option is given when decoding, any base64 parts will be decoded as
       
    89 well.
       
    90 
       
    91 
       
    92 .. seealso::
       
    93 
       
    94    Module :mod:`quopri`
       
    95       Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable files.
       
    96