Edit File: email.message.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>18.1.1. email.message: Representing an email message — Python 2.7.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.7.5', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="18.1. email — An email and MIME handling package" href="email.html" /> <link rel="next" title="18.1.2. email.parser: Parsing email messages" href="email.parser.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="18.1. email — An email and MIME handling package" href="email.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script> </head> <body> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.parser.html" title="18.1.2. email.parser: Parsing email messages" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.html" title="18.1. email — An email and MIME handling package" accesskey="P">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> <li><a href="email.html" accesskey="U">18.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-email.message"> <span id="email-message-representing-an-email-message"></span><h1>18.1.1. <a class="reference internal" href="#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>: Representing an email message<a class="headerlink" href="#module-email.message" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>The central class in the <a class="reference internal" href="email.html#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 the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> class, imported from the <a class="reference internal" href="#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> module. It is the base class for the <a class="reference internal" href="email.html#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> object model. <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> provides the core functionality for setting and querying header fields, and for accessing message bodies.</p> <p>Conceptually, a <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> object consists of <em>headers</em> and <em>payloads</em>. Headers are <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> style field names and values where the field name and value are separated by a colon. The colon is not part of either the field name or the field value.</p> <p>Headers are stored and returned in case-preserving form but are matched case-insensitively. There may also be a single envelope header, also known as the <em>Unix-From</em> header or the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">From_</span></tt> header. The payload is either a string in the case of simple message objects or a list of <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects for MIME container documents (e.g. <em class="mimetype">multipart/*</em> and <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>).</p> <p><a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects provide a mapping style interface for accessing the message headers, and an explicit interface for accessing both the headers and the payload. It provides convenience methods for generating a flat text representation of the message object tree, for accessing commonly used header parameters, and for recursively walking over the object tree.</p> <p>Here are the methods of the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> class:</p> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.message.Message"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.message.</tt><tt class="descname">Message</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The constructor takes no arguments.</p> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.as_string"> <tt class="descname">as_string</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>unixfrom</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.as_string" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the entire message flattened as a string. When optional <em>unixfrom</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, the envelope header is included in the returned string. <em>unixfrom</em> defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>. Flattening the message may trigger changes to the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> if defaults need to be filled in to complete the transformation to a string (for example, MIME boundaries may be generated or modified).</p> <p>Note that this method is provided as a convenience and may not always format the message the way you want. For example, by default it mangles lines that begin with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">From</span></tt>. For more flexibility, instantiate a <a class="reference internal" href="email.generator.html#email.generator.Generator" title="email.generator.Generator"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator</span></tt></a> instance and use its <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">flatten()</span></tt> method directly. For example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">cStringIO</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">StringIO</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">email.generator</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Generator</span> <span class="n">fp</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">StringIO</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="n">g</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Generator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">fp</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mangle_from_</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">maxheaderlen</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">60</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">g</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flatten</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">text</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">fp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getvalue</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__str__"> <tt class="descname">__str__</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__str__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Equivalent to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">as_string(unixfrom=True)</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.is_multipart"> <tt class="descname">is_multipart</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> if the message’s payload is a list of sub-<a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects, otherwise return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>. When <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> returns False, the payload should be a string object.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_unixfrom"> <tt class="descname">set_unixfrom</tt><big>(</big><em>unixfrom</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_unixfrom" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the message’s envelope header to <em>unixfrom</em>, which should be a string.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_unixfrom"> <tt class="descname">get_unixfrom</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_unixfrom" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the message’s envelope header. Defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> if the envelope header was never set.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.attach"> <tt class="descname">attach</tt><big>(</big><em>payload</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.attach" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Add the given <em>payload</em> to the current payload, which must be <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> or a list of <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects before the call. After the call, the payload will always be a list of <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects. If you want to set the payload to a scalar object (e.g. a string), use <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.set_payload" title="email.message.Message.set_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt></a> instead.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_payload"> <tt class="descname">get_payload</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>i</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>decode</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_payload" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the current payload, which will be a list of <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects when <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, or a string when <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>. If the payload is a list and you mutate the list object, you modify the message’s payload in place.</p> <p>With optional argument <em>i</em>, <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_payload" title="email.message.Message.get_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt></a> will return the <em>i</em>-th element of the payload, counting from zero, if <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>. An <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.IndexError" title="exceptions.IndexError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">IndexError</span></tt></a> will be raised if <em>i</em> is less than 0 or greater than or equal to the number of items in the payload. If the payload is a string (i.e. <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>) and <em>i</em> is given, a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError" title="exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p>Optional <em>decode</em> is a flag indicating whether the payload should be decoded or not, according to the <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> header. When <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> and the message is not a multipart, the payload will be decoded if this header’s value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">quoted-printable</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">base64</span></tt>. If some other encoding is used, or <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> header is missing, or if the payload has bogus base64 data, the payload is returned as-is (undecoded). If the message is a multipart and the <em>decode</em> flag is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, then <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> is returned. The default for <em>decode</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_payload"> <tt class="descname">set_payload</tt><big>(</big><em>payload</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>charset</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_payload" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the entire message object’s payload to <em>payload</em>. It is the client’s responsibility to ensure the payload invariants. Optional <em>charset</em> sets the message’s default character set; see <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.set_charset" title="email.message.Message.set_charset"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_charset()</span></tt></a> for details.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.2.2: </span><em>charset</em> argument added.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_charset"> <tt class="descname">set_charset</tt><big>(</big><em>charset</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_charset" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the character set of the payload to <em>charset</em>, which can either be a <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#email.charset.Charset" title="email.charset.Charset"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Charset</span></tt></a> instance (see <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#module-email.charset" title="email.charset: Character Sets"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.charset</span></tt></a>), a string naming a character set, or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>. If it is a string, it will be converted to a <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#email.charset.Charset" title="email.charset.Charset"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Charset</span></tt></a> instance. If <em>charset</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>, the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter will be removed from the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header (the message will not be otherwise modified). Anything else will generate a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError" title="exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a>.</p> <p>If there is no existing <em class="mailheader">MIME-Version</em> header one will be added. If there is no existing <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header, one will be added with a value of <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em>. Whether the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header already exists or not, its <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter will be set to <em>charset.output_charset</em>. If <em>charset.input_charset</em> and <em>charset.output_charset</em> differ, the payload will be re-encoded to the <em>output_charset</em>. If there is no existing <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> header, then the payload will be transfer-encoded, if needed, using the specified <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#email.charset.Charset" title="email.charset.Charset"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Charset</span></tt></a>, and a header with the appropriate value will be added. If a <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> header already exists, the payload is assumed to already be correctly encoded using that <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> and is not modified.</p> <p>The message will be assumed to be of type <em class="mimetype">text/*</em>, with the payload either in unicode or encoded with <em>charset.input_charset</em>. It will be encoded or converted to <em>charset.output_charset</em> and transfer encoded properly, if needed, when generating the plain text representation of the message. MIME headers (<em class="mailheader">MIME-Version</em>, <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em>, <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em>) will be added as needed.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_charset"> <tt class="descname">get_charset</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_charset" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#email.charset.Charset" title="email.charset.Charset"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Charset</span></tt></a> instance associated with the message’s payload.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <p>The following methods implement a mapping-like interface for accessing the message’s <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822.html"><strong>RFC 2822</strong></a> headers. Note that there are some semantic differences between these methods and a normal mapping (i.e. dictionary) interface. For example, in a dictionary there are no duplicate keys, but here there may be duplicate message headers. Also, in dictionaries there is no guaranteed order to the keys returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.keys" title="email.message.Message.keys"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">keys()</span></tt></a>, but in a <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> object, headers are always returned in the order they appeared in the original message, or were added to the message later. Any header deleted and then re-added are always appended to the end of the header list.</p> <p>These semantic differences are intentional and are biased toward maximal convenience.</p> <p>Note that in all cases, any envelope header present in the message is not included in the mapping interface.</p> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__len__"> <tt class="descname">__len__</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__len__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the total number of headers, including duplicates.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__contains__"> <tt class="descname">__contains__</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__contains__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return true if the message object has a field named <em>name</em>. Matching is done case-insensitively and <em>name</em> should not include the trailing colon. Used for the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">in</span></tt> operator, e.g.:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">if</span> <span class="s">'message-id'</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">myMessage</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'Message-ID:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">myMessage</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'message-id'</span><span class="p">]</span> </pre></div> </div> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__getitem__"> <tt class="descname">__getitem__</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__getitem__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the value of the named header field. <em>name</em> should not include the colon field separator. If the header is missing, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> is returned; a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is never raised.</p> <p>Note that if the named field appears more than once in the message’s headers, exactly which of those field values will be returned is undefined. Use the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_all" title="email.message.Message.get_all"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_all()</span></tt></a> method to get the values of all the extant named headers.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__setitem__"> <tt class="descname">__setitem__</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em>, <em>val</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__setitem__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Add a header to the message with field name <em>name</em> and value <em>val</em>. The field is appended to the end of the message’s existing fields.</p> <p>Note that this does <em>not</em> overwrite or delete any existing header with the same name. If you want to ensure that the new header is the only one present in the message with field name <em>name</em>, delete the field first, e.g.:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">del</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'Python roolz!'</span> </pre></div> </div> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.__delitem__"> <tt class="descname">__delitem__</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.__delitem__" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Delete all occurrences of the field with name <em>name</em> from the message’s headers. No exception is raised if the named field isn’t present in the headers.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.has_key"> <tt class="descname">has_key</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.has_key" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return true if the message contains a header field named <em>name</em>, otherwise return false.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.keys"> <tt class="descname">keys</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.keys" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list of all the message’s header field names.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.values"> <tt class="descname">values</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.values" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list of all the message’s field values.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.items"> <tt class="descname">items</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.items" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list of 2-tuples containing all the message’s field headers and values.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get"> <tt class="descname">get</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the value of the named header field. This is identical to <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.__getitem__" title="email.message.Message.__getitem__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__getitem__()</span></tt></a> except that optional <em>failobj</em> is returned if the named header is missing (defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>).</p> </dd></dl> <p>Here are some additional useful methods:</p> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_all"> <tt class="descname">get_all</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_all" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list of all the values for the field named <em>name</em>. If there are no such named headers in the message, <em>failobj</em> is returned (defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>).</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.add_header"> <tt class="descname">add_header</tt><big>(</big><em>_name</em>, <em>_value</em>, <em>**_params</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.add_header" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Extended header setting. This method is similar to <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.__setitem__" title="email.message.Message.__setitem__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__setitem__()</span></tt></a> except that additional header parameters can be provided as keyword arguments. <em>_name</em> is the header field to add and <em>_value</em> is the <em>primary</em> value for the header.</p> <p>For each item in the keyword argument dictionary <em>_params</em>, the key is taken as the parameter name, with underscores converted to dashes (since dashes are illegal in Python identifiers). Normally, the parameter will be added as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">key="value"</span></tt> unless the value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>, in which case only the key will be added. If the value contains non-ASCII characters, it must be specified as a three tuple in the format <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(CHARSET,</span> <span class="pre">LANGUAGE,</span> <span class="pre">VALUE)</span></tt>, where <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">CHARSET</span></tt> is a string naming the charset to be used to encode the value, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">LANGUAGE</span></tt> can usually be set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> or the empty string (see <span class="target" id="index-2"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2231.html"><strong>RFC 2231</strong></a> for other possibilities), and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">VALUE</span></tt> is the string value containing non-ASCII code points.</p> <p>Here’s an example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_header</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Content-Disposition'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'attachment'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'bud.gif'</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>This will add a header that looks like</p> <div class="highlight-python"><pre>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="bud.gif"</pre> </div> <p>An example with non-ASCII characters:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_header</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Content-Disposition'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'attachment'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'iso-8859-1'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">''</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'Fußballer.ppt'</span><span class="p">))</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Which produces</p> <div class="highlight-python"><pre>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename*="iso-8859-1''Fu%DFballer.ppt"</pre> </div> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.replace_header"> <tt class="descname">replace_header</tt><big>(</big><em>_name</em>, <em>_value</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.replace_header" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Replace a header. Replace the first header found in the message that matches <em>_name</em>, retaining header order and field name case. If no matching header was found, a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_content_type"> <tt class="descname">get_content_type</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_type" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the message’s content type. The returned string is coerced to lower case of the form <em class="mimetype">maintype/subtype</em>. If there was no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header in the message the default type as given by <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_default_type" title="email.message.Message.get_default_type"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_default_type()</span></tt></a> will be returned. Since according to <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>, messages always have a default type, <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_type" title="email.message.Message.get_content_type"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_content_type()</span></tt></a> will always return a value.</p> <p><span class="target" id="index-4"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045.html"><strong>RFC 2045</strong></a> defines a message’s default type to be <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em> unless it appears inside a <em class="mimetype">multipart/digest</em> container, in which case it would be <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>. If the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header has an invalid type specification, <span class="target" id="index-5"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045.html"><strong>RFC 2045</strong></a> mandates that the default type be <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_content_maintype"> <tt class="descname">get_content_maintype</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_maintype" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the message’s main content type. This is the <em class="mimetype">maintype</em> part of the string returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_type" title="email.message.Message.get_content_type"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_content_type()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_content_subtype"> <tt class="descname">get_content_subtype</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_subtype" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the message’s sub-content type. This is the <em class="mimetype">subtype</em> part of the string returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_type" title="email.message.Message.get_content_type"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_content_type()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_default_type"> <tt class="descname">get_default_type</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_default_type" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the default content type. Most messages have a default content type of <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em>, except for messages that are subparts of <em class="mimetype">multipart/digest</em> containers. Such subparts have a default content type of <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_default_type"> <tt class="descname">set_default_type</tt><big>(</big><em>ctype</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_default_type" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the default content type. <em>ctype</em> should either be <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em> or <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>, although this is not enforced. The default content type is not stored in the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_params"> <tt class="descname">get_params</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>failobj</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>header</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>unquote</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_params" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the message’s <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> parameters, as a list. The elements of the returned list are 2-tuples of key/value pairs, as split on the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt> sign. The left hand side of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt> is the key, while the right hand side is the value. If there is no <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt> sign in the parameter the value is the empty string, otherwise the value is as described in <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_param" title="email.message.Message.get_param"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_param()</span></tt></a> and is unquoted if optional <em>unquote</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> (the default).</p> <p>Optional <em>failobj</em> is the object to return if there is no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header. Optional <em>header</em> is the header to search instead of <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em>.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.2.2: </span><em>unquote</em> argument added.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_param"> <tt class="descname">get_param</tt><big>(</big><em>param</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>failobj</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>header</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>unquote</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_param" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the value of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header’s parameter <em>param</em> as a string. If the message has no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header or if there is no such parameter, then <em>failobj</em> is returned (defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>).</p> <p>Optional <em>header</em> if given, specifies the message header to use instead of <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em>.</p> <p>Parameter keys are always compared case insensitively. The return value can either be a string, or a 3-tuple if the parameter was <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> encoded. When it’s a 3-tuple, the elements of the value are of the form <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(CHARSET,</span> <span class="pre">LANGUAGE,</span> <span class="pre">VALUE)</span></tt>. Note that both <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">CHARSET</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">LANGUAGE</span></tt> can be <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>, in which case you should consider <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">VALUE</span></tt> to be encoded in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">us-ascii</span></tt> charset. You can usually ignore <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">LANGUAGE</span></tt>.</p> <p>If your application doesn’t care whether the parameter was encoded as in <span class="target" id="index-7"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2231.html"><strong>RFC 2231</strong></a>, you can collapse the parameter value by calling <a class="reference internal" href="email.util.html#email.utils.collapse_rfc2231_value" title="email.utils.collapse_rfc2231_value"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.utils.collapse_rfc2231_value()</span></tt></a>, passing in the return value from <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_param" title="email.message.Message.get_param"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_param()</span></tt></a>. This will return a suitably decoded Unicode string when the value is a tuple, or the original string unquoted if it isn’t. For example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">rawparam</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_param</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">param</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">collapse_rfc2231_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">rawparam</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>In any case, the parameter value (either the returned string, or the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">VALUE</span></tt> item in the 3-tuple) is always unquoted, unless <em>unquote</em> is set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.2.2: </span><em>unquote</em> argument added, and 3-tuple return value possible.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_param"> <tt class="descname">set_param</tt><big>(</big><em>param</em>, <em>value</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>header</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>requote</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>charset</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>language</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_param" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set a parameter in the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header. If the parameter already exists in the header, its value will be replaced with <em>value</em>. If the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header as not yet been defined for this message, it will be set to <em class="mimetype">text/plain</em> and the new parameter value will be appended as per <span class="target" id="index-8"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045.html"><strong>RFC 2045</strong></a>.</p> <p>Optional <em>header</em> specifies an alternative header to <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em>, and all parameters will be quoted as necessary unless optional <em>requote</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt> (the default is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>).</p> <p>If optional <em>charset</em> is specified, the parameter will be encoded according to <span class="target" id="index-9"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2231.html"><strong>RFC 2231</strong></a>. Optional <em>language</em> specifies the RFC 2231 language, defaulting to the empty string. Both <em>charset</em> and <em>language</em> should be strings.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.del_param"> <tt class="descname">del_param</tt><big>(</big><em>param</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>header</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>requote</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.del_param" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Remove the given parameter completely from the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header. The header will be re-written in place without the parameter or its value. All values will be quoted as necessary unless <em>requote</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt> (the default is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>). Optional <em>header</em> specifies an alternative to <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_type"> <tt class="descname">set_type</tt><big>(</big><em>type[, header][, requote]</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_type" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the main type and subtype for the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header. <em>type</em> must be a string in the form <em class="mimetype">maintype/subtype</em>, otherwise a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.ValueError" title="exceptions.ValueError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p>This method replaces the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header, keeping all the parameters in place. If <em>requote</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>, this leaves the existing header’s quoting as is, otherwise the parameters will be quoted (the default).</p> <p>An alternative header can be specified in the <em>header</em> argument. When the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header is set a <em class="mailheader">MIME-Version</em> header is also added.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_filename"> <tt class="descname">get_filename</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_filename" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the value of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filename</span></tt> parameter of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Disposition</em> header of the message. If the header does not have a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filename</span></tt> parameter, this method falls back to looking for the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">name</span></tt> parameter on the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header. If neither is found, or the header is missing, then <em>failobj</em> is returned. The returned string will always be unquoted as per <a class="reference internal" href="email.util.html#email.utils.unquote" title="email.utils.unquote"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.utils.unquote()</span></tt></a>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_boundary"> <tt class="descname">get_boundary</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_boundary" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the value of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">boundary</span></tt> parameter of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header of the message, or <em>failobj</em> if either the header is missing, or has no <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">boundary</span></tt> parameter. The returned string will always be unquoted as per <a class="reference internal" href="email.util.html#email.utils.unquote" title="email.utils.unquote"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.utils.unquote()</span></tt></a>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.set_boundary"> <tt class="descname">set_boundary</tt><big>(</big><em>boundary</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.set_boundary" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Set the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">boundary</span></tt> parameter of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header to <em>boundary</em>. <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.set_boundary" title="email.message.Message.set_boundary"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_boundary()</span></tt></a> will always quote <em>boundary</em> if necessary. A <tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">HeaderParseError</span></tt> is raised if the message object has no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header.</p> <p>Note that using this method is subtly different than deleting the old <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header and adding a new one with the new boundary via <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.add_header" title="email.message.Message.add_header"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">add_header()</span></tt></a>, because <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.set_boundary" title="email.message.Message.set_boundary"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_boundary()</span></tt></a> preserves the order of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header in the list of headers. However, it does <em>not</em> preserve any continuation lines which may have been present in the original <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_content_charset"> <tt class="descname">get_content_charset</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_content_charset" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter of the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header, coerced to lower case. If there is no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header, or if that header has no <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter, <em>failobj</em> is returned.</p> <p>Note that this method differs from <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.get_charset" title="email.message.Message.get_charset"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_charset()</span></tt></a> which returns the <a class="reference internal" href="email.charset.html#email.charset.Charset" title="email.charset.Charset"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Charset</span></tt></a> instance for the default encoding of the message body.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.get_charsets"> <tt class="descname">get_charsets</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>failobj</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.get_charsets" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list containing the character set names in the message. If the message is a <em class="mimetype">multipart</em>, then the list will contain one element for each subpart in the payload, otherwise, it will be a list of length 1.</p> <p>Each item in the list will be a string which is the value of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter in the <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header for the represented subpart. However, if the subpart has no <em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header, no <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">charset</span></tt> parameter, or is not of the <em class="mimetype">text</em> main MIME type, then that item in the returned list will be <em>failobj</em>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="email.message.Message.walk"> <tt class="descname">walk</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.walk" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.walk" title="email.message.Message.walk"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">walk()</span></tt></a> method is an all-purpose generator which can be used to iterate over all the parts and subparts of a message object tree, in depth-first traversal order. You will typically use <a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message.walk" title="email.message.Message.walk"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">walk()</span></tt></a> as the iterator in a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">for</span></tt> loop; each iteration returns the next subpart.</p> <p>Here’s an example that prints the MIME type of every part of a multipart message structure:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">part</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">walk</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">part</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_content_type</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">multipart/report</span> <span class="go">text/plain</span> <span class="go">message/delivery-status</span> <span class="go">text/plain</span> <span class="go">text/plain</span> <span class="go">message/rfc822</span> </pre></div> </div> </dd></dl> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.5: </span>The previously deprecated methods <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_type()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_main_type()</span></tt>, and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_subtype()</span></tt> were removed.</p> <p><a class="reference internal" href="#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects can also optionally contain two instance attributes, which can be used when generating the plain text of a MIME message.</p> <dl class="attribute"> <dt id="email.message.Message.preamble"> <tt class="descname">preamble</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.preamble" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The format of a MIME document allows for some text between the blank line following the headers, and the first multipart boundary string. Normally, this text is never visible in a MIME-aware mail reader because it falls outside the standard MIME armor. However, when viewing the raw text of the message, or when viewing the message in a non-MIME aware reader, this text can become visible.</p> <p>The <em>preamble</em> attribute contains this leading extra-armor text for MIME documents. When the <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> discovers some text after the headers but before the first boundary string, it assigns this text to the message’s <em>preamble</em> attribute. When the <a class="reference internal" href="email.generator.html#email.generator.Generator" title="email.generator.Generator"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator</span></tt></a> is writing out the plain text representation of a MIME message, and it finds the message has a <em>preamble</em> attribute, it will write this text in the area between the headers and the first boundary. See <a class="reference internal" href="email.parser.html#module-email.parser" title="email.parser: Parse flat text email messages to produce a message object structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt></a> and <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> for details.</p> <p>Note that if the message object has no preamble, the <em>preamble</em> attribute will be <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="attribute"> <dt id="email.message.Message.epilogue"> <tt class="descname">epilogue</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.epilogue" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The <em>epilogue</em> attribute acts the same way as the <em>preamble</em> attribute, except that it contains text that appears between the last boundary and the end of the message.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.5: </span>You do not need to set the epilogue to the empty string in order for the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Generator</span></tt> to print a newline at the end of the file.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="attribute"> <dt id="email.message.Message.defects"> <tt class="descname">defects</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message.Message.defects" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The <em>defects</em> attribute contains a list of all the problems found when parsing this message. See <a class="reference internal" href="email.errors.html#module-email.errors" title="email.errors: The exception classes used by the email package."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.errors</span></tt></a> for a detailed description of the possible parsing defects.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.4.</span></p> </dd></dl> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="email.html" title="previous chapter">18.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="email.parser.html" title="next chapter">18.1.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt>: Parsing email messages</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.message.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.parser.html" title="18.1.2. email.parser: Parsing email messages" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.html" title="18.1. email — An email and MIME handling package" >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> <li><a href="email.html" >18.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</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>