Mail::Header
Mail::Header(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Mail::Header(3)
NAME
Mail::Header - manipulate mail RFC822 compliant headers
SYNOPSIS
use Mail::Header;
$head = new Mail::Header;
$head = new Mail::Header \*STDIN;
$head = new Mail::Header [<>], Modify => 0;
DESCRIPTION
This package provides a class object which can be used for reading,
creating, manipulating and writing RFC822 compliant headers.
CONSTRUCTOR
new ( [ ARG ], [ OPTIONS ] )
"ARG" may be either a file descriptor (reference to a GLOB) or a
reference to an array. If given the new object will be initialized
with headers either from the array of read from the file descrip-
tor.
"OPTIONS" is a list of options given in the form of key-value
pairs, just like a hash table. Valid options are
Modify If this value is true then the headers will be re-format-
ted, otherwise the format of the header lines will remain
unchanged.
MailFrom
This option specifies what to do when a header in the form
‘From ’ is encountered. Valid values are "IGNORE" - ignore
and discard the header, "ERROR" - invoke an error (call
die), "COERCE" - rename them as Mail-From and "KEEP" -
keep them.
FoldLength
The default length of line to be used when folding header
lines
METHODS
modify ( [ VALUE ] )
If "VALUE" is false then "Mail::Header" will not do any automatic
reformatting of the headers, other than to ensure that the line
starts with the tags given.
mail_from ( OPTION )
"OPTION" specifies what to do when a ‘From ’ line is encountered.
Valid values are "IGNORE" - ignore and discard the header, "ERROR"
- invoke an error (call die), "COERCE" - rename them as Mail-From
and "KEEP" - keep them.
fold ( [ LENGTH ] )
Fold the header. If "LENGTH" is not given then "Mail::Header" uses
the following rules to determine what length to fold a line.
The fold length for the tag that is begin processed
The default fold length for the tag that is being processed
The default fold length for the object
extract ( ARRAY_REF )
Extract a header from the given array. "extract" will modify this
array. Returns the object that the method was called on.
read ( FD )
Read a header from the given file descriptor.
empty ()
Empty the "Mail::Header" object of all lines.
header ( [ ARRAY_REF ] )
"header" does multiple operations. First it will extract a header
from the array, if given. It will the reformat the header, if
reformatting is permitted, and finally return a reference to an
array which contains the header in a printable form.
header_hashref ( [ HASH_REF ] )
As "header", but it will eventually set headers from a hash refer-
ence, and it will return the headers as a hash reference.
The values in the hash might either be a scalar or an array refer-
ence, as an example:
$hashref->{From}=’Tobias Brox <tobix@cpan.org>’;
$hashref->{To}=[’you@somewhere’, ’me@localhost’];
add ( TAG, LINE [, INDEX ] )
Add a new line to the header. If "TAG" is undef the the tag will
be extracted from the beginning of the given line. If "INDEX" is
given the new line will be inserted into the header at the given
point, otherwise the new line will be appended to the end of the
header.
replace ( TAG, LINE [, INDEX ] )
Replace a line in the header. If "TAG" is undef the the tag will
be extracted from the beginning of the given line. If "INDEX" is
given the new line will replace the Nth instance of that tag, oth-
erwise the first instance of the tag is replaced. If the tag does
not appear in the header then a new line will be appended to the
header.
combine ( TAG [, WITH ] )
Combine all instances of "TAG" into one. The lines will be joined
togther with "WITH", or a single space if not given. The new item
will be positioned in the header where the first instance was, all
other instances of <TAG> will be removed.
get ( TAG [, INDEX ] )
Get the text from a line. If "INDEX" is given then the text of the
Nth instance will be returned. If it is not given the return value
depends on the context in which "get" was called. In an array con-
text a list of all the text from all the instances of "TAG" will
be returned. In a scalar context the text for the first instance
will be returned.
The lines are unfolded, but still terminated with a new-line (see
"chomp")
delete ( TAG [, INDEX ] )
Delete a tag from the header. If "INDEX" id given then the Nth
instance of the tag will be removed. If "INDEX" is not given all
instances of tag will be removed.
count ( TAG )
Returns the number of times the given atg appears in the header
print ( [ FD ] )
Print the header to the given file descriptor, or "STDOUT" if no
file descriptor is given.
as_string ()
Returns the header as a single string.
fold_length ( [ TAG ], [ LENGTH ] )
Set the default fold length for all tags or just one. With no
arguments the default fold length is returned. With two arguments
it sets the fold length for the given tag and returns the previous
value. If only "LENGTH" is given it sets the default fold length
for the current object.
In the two argument form "fold_length" may be called as a static
method, setting default fold lengths for tags that will be used by
all "Mail::Header" objects. See the "fold" method for a descrip-
tion on how "Mail::Header" uses these values.
tags ()
Retruns an array of all the tags that exist in the header. Each
tag will only appear in the list once. The order of the tags is
not specified.
dup ()
Create a duplicate of the current object.
cleanup ()
Remove any header line that, other than the tag, only contains
whitespace
unfold ( [ TAG ] )
Unfold all instances of the given tag so that they do not spread
across multiple lines. IF "TAG" is not given then all lines are
unfolded.
The unfolding process is wrong but (for compatibility reasons)
will not be repaired: only one blank at the start of the line
should be removed, not all of them.
AUTHOR
Graham Barr. Maintained by Mark Overmeer <mailtools@overmeer.net>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Mark Overmeer, 1995-2001 Graham Barr. All
rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
perl v5.8.8 2007-05-11 Mail::Header(3)
