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Internet Data Handling</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-email"> <span id="email-an-email-and-mime-handling-package"></span><h1>18.1. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> — An email and MIME handling package<a class="headerlink" href="#module-email" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.</span></p> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package is a library for managing email messages, including MIME and other <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822.html"><strong>RFC 2822</strong></a>-based message documents. It subsumes most of the functionality in several older standard modules such as <a class="reference internal" href="rfc822.html#module-rfc822" title="rfc822: Parse 2822 style mail messages. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">rfc822</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="mimetools.html#module-mimetools" title="mimetools: Tools for parsing MIME-style message bodies. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimetools</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="multifile.html#module-multifile" title="multifile: Support for reading files which contain distinct parts, such as some MIME data. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">multifile</span></tt></a>, and other non-standard packages such as <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimecntl</span></tt>. It is specifically <em>not</em> designed to do any sending of email messages to SMTP (<span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2821.html"><strong>RFC 2821</strong></a>), NNTP, or other servers; those are functions of modules such as <a class="reference internal" href="smtplib.html#module-smtplib" title="smtplib: SMTP protocol client (requires sockets)."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">smtplib</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="nntplib.html#module-nntplib" title="nntplib: NNTP protocol client (requires sockets)."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">nntplib</span></tt></a>. The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package attempts to be as RFC-compliant as possible, supporting in addition to <span class="target" id="index-2"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822.html"><strong>RFC 2822</strong></a>, such MIME-related RFCs as <span class="target" id="index-3"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045.html"><strong>RFC 2045</strong></a>, <span class="target" id="index-4"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046.html"><strong>RFC 2046</strong></a>, <span class="target" id="index-5"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2047.html"><strong>RFC 2047</strong></a>, and <span class="target" id="index-6"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2231.html"><strong>RFC 2231</strong></a>.</p> <p>The primary distinguishing feature of the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package is that it splits the parsing and generating of email messages from the internal <em>object model</em> representation of email. Applications using the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package deal primarily with objects; you can add sub-objects to messages, remove sub-objects from messages, completely re-arrange the contents, etc. There is a separate parser and a separate generator which handles the transformation from flat text to the object model, and then back to flat text again. There are also handy subclasses for some common MIME object types, and a few miscellaneous utilities that help with such common tasks as extracting and parsing message field values, creating RFC-compliant dates, etc.</p> <p>The following sections describe the functionality of the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package. The ordering follows a progression that should be common in applications: an email message is read as flat text from a file or other source, the text is parsed to produce the object structure of the email message, this structure is manipulated, and finally, the object tree is rendered back into flat text.</p> <p>It is perfectly feasible to create the object structure out of whole cloth — i.e. completely from scratch. From there, a similar progression can be taken as above.</p> <p>Also included are detailed specifications of all the classes and modules that the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package provides, the exception classes you might encounter while using the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package, some auxiliary utilities, and a few examples. For users of the older <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> package, or previous versions of the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package, a section on differences and porting is provided.</p> <p>Contents of the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package documentation:</p> <div class="toctree-wrapper compound"> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html">18.1.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message</span></tt>: Representing an email message</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html">18.1.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt>: Parsing email messages</a><ul> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#feedparser-api">18.1.2.1. FeedParser API</a></li> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#parser-class-api">18.1.2.2. Parser class API</a></li> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#additional-notes">18.1.2.3. Additional notes</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.generator.html">18.1.3. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.generator</span></tt>: Generating MIME documents</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.mime.html">18.1.4. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime</span></tt>: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.header.html">18.1.5. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.header</span></tt>: Internationalized headers</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html">18.1.6. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.charset</span></tt>: Representing character sets</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.encoders.html">18.1.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt>: Encoders</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.errors.html">18.1.8. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.errors</span></tt>: Exception and Defect classes</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.util.html">18.1.9. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.utils</span></tt>: Miscellaneous utilities</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email.iterators.html">18.1.10. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.iterators</span></tt>: Iterators</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="email-examples.html">18.1.11. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt>: Examples</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso"> <p class="first admonition-title">See also</p> <dl class="last docutils"> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="smtplib.html#module-smtplib" title="smtplib: SMTP protocol client (requires sockets)."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">smtplib</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>SMTP protocol client</dd> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="nntplib.html#module-nntplib" title="nntplib: NNTP protocol client (requires sockets)."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">nntplib</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>NNTP protocol client</dd> </dl> </div> <div class="section" id="package-history"> <span id="email-pkg-history"></span><h2>18.1.12. Package History<a class="headerlink" href="#package-history" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>This table describes the release history of the email package, corresponding to the version of Python that the package was released with. For purposes of this document, when you see a note about change or added versions, these refer to the Python version the change was made in, <em>not</em> the email package version. This table also describes the Python compatibility of each version of the package.</p> <table border="1" class="docutils"> <colgroup> <col width="22%" /> <col width="44%" /> <col width="34%" /> </colgroup> <thead valign="bottom"> <tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">email version</th> <th class="head">distributed with</th> <th class="head">compatible with</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody valign="top"> <tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.x</span></tt></td> <td>Python 2.2.0 to Python 2.2.1</td> <td><em>no longer supported</em></td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">2.5</span></tt></td> <td>Python 2.2.2+ and Python 2.3</td> <td>Python 2.1 to 2.5</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">3.0</span></tt></td> <td>Python 2.4</td> <td>Python 2.3 to 2.5</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">4.0</span></tt></td> <td>Python 2.5</td> <td>Python 2.3 to 2.5</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Here are the major differences between <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 4 and version 3:</p> <ul> <li><p class="first">All modules have been renamed according to <span class="target" id="index-7"></span><a class="pep reference external" href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008"><strong>PEP 8</strong></a> standards. For example, the version 3 module <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Message</span></tt> was renamed to <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#module-email.message" title="email.message: The base class representing email messages."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message</span></tt></a> in version 4.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">A new subpackage <a class="reference internal" href="email.mime.html#module-email.mime" title="email.mime: Build MIME messages."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime</span></tt></a> was added and all the version 3 <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.MIME*</span></tt> modules were renamed and situated into the <a class="reference internal" href="email.mime.html#module-email.mime" title="email.mime: Build MIME messages."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime</span></tt></a> subpackage. For example, the version 3 module <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.MIMEText</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.text</span></tt>.</p> <p><em>Note that the version 3 names will continue to work until Python 2.6</em>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.application</span></tt> module was added, which contains the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEApplication</span></tt> class.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">Methods that were deprecated in version 3 have been removed. These include <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator.__call__()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_type()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_main_type()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_subtype()</span></tt>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">Fixes have been added for <span class="target" id="index-8"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2231.html"><strong>RFC 2231</strong></a> support which can change some of the return types for <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_param()</span></tt> and friends. Under some circumstances, values which used to return a 3-tuple now return simple strings (specifically, if all extended parameter segments were unencoded, there is no language and charset designation expected, so the return type is now a simple string). Also, %-decoding used to be done for both encoded and unencoded segments; this decoding is now done only for encoded segments.</p> </li> </ul> <p>Here are the major differences between <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 3 and version 2:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li>The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt> class was introduced, and the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt> class was implemented in terms of the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt>. All parsing therefore is non-strict, and parsing will make a best effort never to raise an exception. Problems found while parsing messages are stored in the message’s <em>defect</em> attribute.</li> <li>All aspects of the API which raised <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.DeprecationWarning" title="exceptions.DeprecationWarning"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DeprecationWarning</span></tt></a>s in version 2 have been removed. These include the <em>_encoder</em> argument to the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEText</span></tt> constructor, the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.add_payload()</span></tt> method, the <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">Utils.dump_address_pair()</span></tt> function, and the functions <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">Utils.decode()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">Utils.encode()</span></tt>.</li> <li>New <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.DeprecationWarning" title="exceptions.DeprecationWarning"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DeprecationWarning</span></tt></a>s have been added to: <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator.__call__()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_type()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_main_type()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.get_subtype()</span></tt>, and the <em>strict</em> argument to the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt> class. These are expected to be removed in future versions.</li> <li>Support for Pythons earlier than 2.3 has been removed.</li> </ul> <p>Here are the differences between <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 2 and version 1:</p> <ul> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Header</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Charset</span></tt> modules have been added.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The pickle format for <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instances has changed. Since this was never (and still isn’t) formally defined, this isn’t considered a backward incompatibility. However if your application pickles and unpickles <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instances, be aware that in <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 2, <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instances now have private variables <em>_charset</em> and <em>_default_type</em>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">Several methods in the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> class have been deprecated, or their signatures changed. Also, many new methods have been added. See the documentation for the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> class for details. The changes should be completely backward compatible.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The object structure has changed in the face of <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em> content types. In <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 1, such a type would be represented by a scalar payload, i.e. the container message’s <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt> returned false, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> was not a list object, but a single <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instance.</p> <p>This structure was inconsistent with the rest of the package, so the object representation for <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em> content types was changed. In <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> version 2, the container <em>does</em> return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> from <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt>, and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> returns a list containing a single <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> item.</p> <p>Note that this is one place that backward compatibility could not be completely maintained. However, if you’re already testing the return type of <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt>, you should be fine. You just need to make sure your code doesn’t do a <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> with a <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instance on a container with a content type of <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt> constructor’s <em>strict</em> argument was added, and its <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parsestr()</span></tt> methods grew a <em>headersonly</em> argument. The <em>strict</em> flag was also added to functions <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#email.message_from_file" title="email.message_from_file"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message_from_file()</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#email.message_from_string" title="email.message_from_string"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message_from_string()</span></tt></a>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator.__call__()</span></tt> is deprecated; use <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator.flatten()</span></tt> instead. The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator</span></tt> class has also grown the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">clone()</span></tt> method.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">DecodedGenerator</span></tt> class in the <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Generator</span></tt> module was added.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The intermediate base classes <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEMultipart</span></tt> have been added, and interposed in the class hierarchy for most of the other MIME-related derived classes.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <em>_encoder</em> argument to the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEText</span></tt> constructor has been deprecated. Encoding now happens implicitly based on the <em>_charset</em> argument.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The following functions in the <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Utils</span></tt> module have been deprecated: <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">dump_address_pairs()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">decode()</span></tt>, and <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">encode()</span></tt>. The following functions have been added to the module: <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">make_msgid()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">decode_rfc2231()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">encode_rfc2231()</span></tt>, and <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">decode_params()</span></tt>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The non-public function <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Iterators._structure()</span></tt> was added.</p> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="section" id="differences-from-mimelib"> <h2>18.1.13. Differences from <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt><a class="headerlink" href="#differences-from-mimelib" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package was originally prototyped as a separate library called <a class="reference external" href="http://mimelib.sf.net/">mimelib</a>. Changes have been made so that method names are more consistent, and some methods or modules have either been added or removed. The semantics of some of the methods have also changed. For the most part, any functionality available in <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> is still available in the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package, albeit often in a different way. Backward compatibility between the <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> package and the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package was not a priority.</p> <p>Here is a brief description of the differences between the <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> and the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> packages, along with hints on how to port your applications.</p> <p>Of course, the most visible difference between the two packages is that the package name has been changed to <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a>. In addition, the top-level package has the following differences:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">messageFromString()</span></tt> has been renamed to <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#email.message_from_string" title="email.message_from_string"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">message_from_string()</span></tt></a>.</li> <li><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">messageFromFile()</span></tt> has been renamed to <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#email.message_from_file" title="email.message_from_file"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">message_from_file()</span></tt></a>.</li> </ul> <p>The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> class has the following differences:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">asString()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">as_string()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">ismultipart()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> method has grown a <em>decode</em> optional argument.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getall()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_all()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">addheader()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">add_header()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">gettype()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_type()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getmaintype()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_main_type()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getsubtype()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_subtype()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getparams()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_params()</span></tt>. Also, whereas <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getparams()</span></tt> returned a list of strings, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_params()</span></tt> returns a list of 2-tuples, effectively the key/value pairs of the parameters, split on the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt> sign.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getparam()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_param()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getcharsets()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_charsets()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getfilename()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_filename()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getboundary()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_boundary()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">setboundary()</span></tt> was renamed to <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_boundary()</span></tt>.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getdecodedpayload()</span></tt> was removed. To get similar functionality, pass the value 1 to the <em>decode</em> flag of the get_payload() method.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getpayloadastext()</span></tt> was removed. Similar functionality is supported by the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">DecodedGenerator</span></tt> class in the <a class="reference internal" href="email.generator.html#module-email.generator" title="email.generator: Generate flat text email messages from a message structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.generator</span></tt></a> module.</li> <li>The method <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getbodyastext()</span></tt> was removed. You can get similar functionality by creating an iterator with <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">typed_subpart_iterator()</span></tt> in the <a class="reference internal" href="email.iterators.html#module-email.iterators" title="email.iterators: Iterate over a message object tree."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.iterators</span></tt></a> module.</li> </ul> <p>The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt> class has no differences in its public interface. It does have some additional smarts to recognize <em class="mimetype">message/delivery-status</em> type messages, which it represents as a <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> instance containing separate <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt> subparts for each header block in the delivery status notification <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id2" id="id1">[1]</a>.</p> <p>The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator</span></tt> class has no differences in its public interface. There is a new class in the <a class="reference internal" href="email.generator.html#module-email.generator" title="email.generator: Generate flat text email messages from a message structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.generator</span></tt></a> module though, called <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">DecodedGenerator</span></tt> which provides most of the functionality previously available in the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.getpayloadastext()</span></tt> method.</p> <p>The following modules and classes have been changed:</p> <ul> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt> class constructor arguments <em>_major</em> and <em>_minor</em> have changed to <em>_maintype</em> and <em>_subtype</em> respectively.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Image</span></tt> class/module has been renamed to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEImage</span></tt>. The <em>_minor</em> argument has been renamed to <em>_subtype</em>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Text</span></tt> class/module has been renamed to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEText</span></tt>. The <em>_minor</em> argument has been renamed to <em>_subtype</em>.</p> </li> <li><p class="first">The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MessageRFC822</span></tt> class/module has been renamed to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEMessage</span></tt>. Note that an earlier version of <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> called this class/module <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">RFC822</span></tt>, but that clashed with the Python standard library module <a class="reference internal" href="rfc822.html#module-rfc822" title="rfc822: Parse 2822 style mail messages. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">rfc822</span></tt></a> on some case-insensitive file systems.</p> <p>Also, the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEMessage</span></tt> class now represents any kind of MIME message with main type <em class="mimetype">message</em>. It takes an optional argument <em>_subtype</em> which is used to set the MIME subtype. <em>_subtype</em> defaults to <em class="mimetype">rfc822</em>.</p> </li> </ul> <p><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt> provided some utility functions in its <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">address</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">date</span></tt> modules. All of these functions have been moved to the <a class="reference internal" href="email.util.html#module-email.utils" title="email.utils: Miscellaneous email package utilities."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.utils</span></tt></a> module.</p> <p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MsgReader</span></tt> class/module has been removed. Its functionality is most closely supported in the <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">body_line_iterator()</span></tt> function in the <a class="reference internal" href="email.iterators.html#module-email.iterators" title="email.iterators: Iterate over a message object tree."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.iterators</span></tt></a> module.</p> <p class="rubric">Footnotes</p> <table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none"> <colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> <tbody valign="top"> <tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">[1]</a></td><td>Delivery Status Notifications (DSN) are defined in <span class="target" id="index-9"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1894.html"><strong>RFC 1894</strong></a>.</td></tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">18.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#package-history">18.1.12. Package History</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#differences-from-mimelib">18.1.13. Differences from <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mimelib</span></tt></a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="netdata.html" title="previous chapter">18. Internet Data Handling</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="email.message.html" title="next chapter">18.1.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message</span></tt>: Representing an email message</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/email.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.message.html" title="18.1.1. email.message: Representing an email message" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="netdata.html" title="18. Internet Data Handling" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> » </li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="netdata.html" >18. Internet Data Handling</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 1990-2020, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="http://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Oct 13, 2020. <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>? <br /> Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.1.3. </div> </body> </html>