Mail::Header(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationMail::Header(3)NAMEMail::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 descriptor.
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-formatted, 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.
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Mail::Header(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationMail::Header(3)
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 gieven. 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.
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, otherwise 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.
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get ( TAG [, INDEX ] )
Get the text form 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 context 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.
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.
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 description 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.
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Mail::Header(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationMail::Header(3)AUTHOR
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1995-7 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.
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