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MIME::Lite(3)	      User Contributed Perl Documentation	 MIME::Lite(3)

NAME
       MIME::Lite - low-calorie MIME generator

SYNOPSIS
	   use MIME::Lite;

       Create a single-part message:

	   ### Create a new single-part message, to send a GIF file:
	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	 =>'me@myhost.com',
			To	 =>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	 =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject	 =>'Helloooooo, nurse!',
			Type	 =>'image/gif',
			Encoding =>'base64',
			Path	 =>'hellonurse.gif'
			);

       Create a multipart message (i.e., one with attachments):

	   ### Create a new multipart message:
	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	=>'me@myhost.com',
			To	=>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	=>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject =>'A message with 2 parts...',
			Type	=>'multipart/mixed'
			);

	   ### Add parts (each "attach" has same arguments as "new"):
	   $msg->attach(Type	 =>'TEXT',
			Data	 =>"Here's the GIF file you wanted"
			);
	   $msg->attach(Type	 =>'image/gif',
			Path	 =>'aaa000123.gif',
			Filename =>'logo.gif',
			Disposition => 'attachment'
			);

       Output a message:

	   ### Format as a string:
	   $str = $msg->as_string;

	   ### Print to a filehandle (say, a "sendmail" stream):
	   $msg->print(\*SENDMAIL);

       Send a message:

	   ### Send in the "best" way (the default is to use "sendmail"):
	   $msg->send;

DESCRIPTION
       In the never-ending quest for great taste with fewer calories, we
       proudly present: MIME::Lite.

       MIME::Lite is intended as a simple, standalone module for generating
       (not parsing!) MIME messages... specifically, it allows you to output a
       simple, decent single- or multi-part message with text or binary
       attachments.  It does not require that you have the Mail:: or MIME::
       modules installed.

       You can specify each message part as either the literal data itself (in
       a scalar or array), or as a string which can be given to open() to get
       a readable filehandle (e.g., "<filename" or "somecommand|").

       You don't need to worry about encoding your message data: this module
       will do that for you.  It handles the 5 standard MIME encodings.

       If you need more sophisticated behavior, please get the MIME-tools
       package instead.	 I will be more likely to add stuff to that toolkit
       over this one.

EXAMPLES
       Create a simple message containing just text

	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	 =>'me@myhost.com',
			To	 =>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	 =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject	 =>'Helloooooo, nurse!',
			Data	 =>"How's it goin', eh?"
			);

       Create a simple message containing just an image

	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	 =>'me@myhost.com',
			To	 =>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	 =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject	 =>'Helloooooo, nurse!',
			Type	 =>'image/gif',
			Encoding =>'base64',
			Path	 =>'hellonurse.gif'
			);

       Create a multipart message

	   ### Create the multipart "container":
	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	=>'me@myhost.com',
			To	=>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	=>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject =>'A message with 2 parts...',
			Type	=>'multipart/mixed'
			);

	   ### Add the text message part:
	   ### (Note that "attach" has same arguments as "new"):
	   $msg->attach(Type	 =>'TEXT',
			Data	 =>"Here's the GIF file you wanted"
			);

	   ### Add the image part:
	   $msg->attach(Type	 =>'image/gif',
			Path	 =>'aaa000123.gif',
			Filename =>'logo.gif',
			Disposition => 'attachment'
			);

       Attach a GIF to a text message

       This will create a multipart message exactly as above, but using the
       "attach to singlepart" hack:

	   ### Start with a simple text message:
	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			From	=>'me@myhost.com',
			To	=>'you@yourhost.com',
			Cc	=>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
			Subject =>'A message with 2 parts...',
			Type	=>'TEXT',
			Data	=>"Here's the GIF file you wanted"
			);

	   ### Attach a part... the make the message a multipart automatically:
	   $msg->attach(Type	 =>'image/gif',
			Path	 =>'aaa000123.gif',
			Filename =>'logo.gif'
			);

       Attach a pre-prepared part to a message

	   ### Create a standalone part:
	   $part = MIME::Lite->new(
			Type	 =>'text/html',
			Data	 =>'<H1>Hello</H1>',
			);
	   $part->attr('content-type.charset' => 'UTF8');
	   $part->add('X-Comment' => 'A message for you');

	   ### Attach it to any message:
	   $msg->attach($part);

       Print a message to a filehandle

	   ### Write it to a filehandle:
	   $msg->print(\*STDOUT);

	   ### Write just the header:
	   $msg->print_header(\*STDOUT);

	   ### Write just the encoded body:
	   $msg->print_body(\*STDOUT);

       Print a message into a string

	   ### Get entire message as a string:
	   $str = $msg->as_string;

	   ### Get just the header:
	   $str = $msg->header_as_string;

	   ### Get just the encoded body:
	   $str = $msg->body_as_string;

       Send a message

	   ### Send in the "best" way (the default is to use "sendmail"):
	   $msg->send;

       Send an HTML document... with images included!

	   $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
			To	=>'you@yourhost.com',
			Subject =>'HTML with in-line images!',
			Type	=>'multipart/related'
			);
	   $msg->attach(Type => 'text/html',
			Data => qq{ <body>
				    Here's <i>my</i> image:
				    <img src="cid:myimage.gif">
				    </body> }
			);
	   $msg->attach(Type => 'image/gif',
			Id   => 'myimage.gif',
			Path => '/path/to/somefile.gif',
			);
	   $msg->send();

       Change how messages are sent

	   ### Do something like this in your 'main':
	   if ($I_DONT_HAVE_SENDMAIL) {
	      MIME::Lite->send('smtp', "smtp.myisp.net", Timeout=>60);
	   }

	   ### Now this will do the right thing:
	   $msg->send;	       ### will now use Net::SMTP as shown above

PUBLIC INTERFACE
       Global configuration

       To alter the way the entire module behaves, you have the following
       methods/options:

       MIME::Lite->field_order()
	   When used as a classmethod, this changes the default order in which
	   headers are output for all messages.	 However, please consider
	   using the instance method variant instead, so you won't stomp on
	   other message senders in the same application.

       MIME::Lite->quiet()
	   This classmethod can be used to suppress/unsuppress all warnings
	   coming from this module.

       MIME::Lite->send()
	   When used as a classmethod, this can be used to specify a different
	   default mechanism for sending message.  The initial default is:

	       MIME::Lite->send("sendmail", "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

	   However, you should consider the similar but smarter and taint-safe
	   variant:

	       MIME::Lite->send("sendmail");

	   Or, for non-Unix users:

	       MIME::Lite->send("smtp");

       $MIME::Lite::AUTO_CC
	   If true, automatically send to the Cc/Bcc addresses for
	   send_by_smtp().  Default is true.

       $MIME::Lite::AUTO_CONTENT_TYPE
	   If true, try to automatically choose the content type from the file
	   name in "new()"/"build()".  In other words, setting this true
	   changes the default "Type" from "TEXT" to "AUTO".

	   Default is false, since we must maintain backwards-compatibility
	   with prior behavior.	 Please consider keeping it false, and just
	   using Type 'AUTO' when you build() or attach().

       $MIME::Lite::AUTO_ENCODE
	   If true, automatically choose the encoding from the content type.
	   Default is true.

       $MIME::Lite::AUTO_VERIFY
	   If true, check paths to attachments right before printing, raising
	   an exception if any path is unreadable.  Default is true.

       $MIME::Lite::PARANOID
	   If true, we won't attempt to use MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint,
	   or MIME::Types, even if they're available.  Default is false.
	   Please consider keeping it false, and trusting these other packages
	   to do the right thing.

       Construction

       new [PARAMHASH]
	   Class method, constructor.  Create a new message object.

	   If any arguments are given, they are passed into "build()"; other-
	   wise, just the empty object is created.

       attach PART
       attach PARAMHASH...
	   Instance method.  Add a new part to this message, and return the
	   new part.

	   If you supply a single PART argument, it will be regarded as a
	   MIME::Lite object to be attached.  Otherwise, this method assumes
	   that you are giving in the pairs of a PARAMHASH which will be sent
	   into "new()" to create the new part.

	   One of the possibly-quite-useful hacks thrown into this is the
	   "attach-to-singlepart" hack: if you attempt to attach a part (let's
	   call it "part 1") to a message that doesn't have a content-type of
	   "multipart" or "message", the following happens:

	   *   A new part (call it "part 0") is made.

	   *   The MIME attributes and data (but not the other headers) are
	       cut from the "self" message, and pasted into "part 0".

	   *   The "self" is turned into a "multipart/mixed" message.

	   *   The new "part 0" is added to the "self", and then "part 1" is
	       added.

	   One of the nice side-effects is that you can create a text message
	   and then add zero or more attachments to it, much in the same way
	   that a user agent like Netscape allows you to do.

       build [PARAMHASH]
	   Class/instance method, initializer.	Create (or initialize) a MIME
	   message object.  Normally, you'll use the following keys in
	   PARAMHASH:

	      * Data, FH, or Path      (either one of these, or none if multipart)
	      * Type		       (e.g., "image/jpeg")
	      * From, To, and Subject  (if this is the "top level" of a message)

	   The PARAMHASH can contain the following keys:

	   (fieldname)
	       Any field you want placed in the message header, taken from the
	       standard list of header fields (you don't need to worry about
	       case):

		   Approved	 Encrypted     Received	     Sender
		   Bcc		 From	       References    Subject
		   Cc		 Keywords      Reply-To	     To
		   Comments	 Message-ID    Resent-*	     X-*
		   Content-*	 MIME-Version  Return-Path
		   Date			       Organization

	       To give experienced users some veto power, these fields will be
	       set after the ones I set... so be careful: don't set any MIME
	       fields (like "Content-type") unless you know what you're doing!

	       To specify a fieldname that's not in the above list, even one
	       that's identical to an option below, just give it with a trail-
	       ing ":", like "My-field:".  When in doubt, that always signals
	       a mail field (and it sort of looks like one too).

	   Data
	       Alternative to "Path" or "FH".  The actual message data.	 This
	       may be a scalar or a ref to an array of strings; if the latter,
	       the message consists of a simple concatenation of all the
	       strings in the array.

	   Datestamp
	       Optional.  If given true (or omitted), we force the creation of
	       a "Date:" field stamped with the current date/time if this is a
	       top-level message.  You may want this if using send_by_smtp().
	       If you don't want this to be done, either provide your own Date
	       or explicitly set this to false.

	   Disposition
	       Optional.  The content disposition, "inline" or "attachment".
	       The default is "inline".

	   Encoding
	       Optional.  The content transfer encoding that should be used to
	       encode your data:

		  Use encoding:	    | If your message contains:
		  ------------------------------------------------------------
		  7bit		    | Only 7-bit text, all lines <1000 characters
		  8bit		    | 8-bit text, all lines <1000 characters
		  quoted-printable  | 8-bit text or long lines (more reliable than "8bit")
		  base64	    | Largely non-textual data: a GIF, a tar file, etc.

	       The default is taken from the Type; generally it is "binary"
	       (no encoding) for text/*, message/*, and multipart/*, and
	       "base64" for everything else.  A value of "binary" is generally
	       not suitable for sending anything but ASCII text files with
	       lines under 1000 characters, so consider using one of the other
	       values instead.

	       In the case of "7bit"/"8bit", long lines are automatically
	       chopped to legal length; in the case of "7bit", all 8-bit char-
	       acters are automatically removed.  This may not be what you
	       want, so pick your encoding well!  For more info, see "A MIME
	       PRIMER".

	   FH  Alternative to "Data" or "Path".	 Filehandle containing the
	       data, opened for reading.  See "ReadNow" also.

	   Filename
	       Optional.  The name of the attachment.  You can use this to
	       supply a recommended filename for the end-user who is saving
	       the attachment to disk.	You only need this if the filename at
	       the end of the "Path" is inadequate, or if you're using "Data"
	       instead of "Path".  You should not put path information in here
	       (e.g., no "/" or "\" or ":" characters should be used).

	   Id  Optional.  Same as setting "content-id".

	   Length
	       Optional.  Set the content length explicitly.  Normally, this
	       header is automatically computed, but only under certain cir-
	       cumstances (see "Limitations").

	   Path
	       Alternative to "Data" or "FH".  Path to a file containing the
	       data... actually, it can be any open()able expression.  If it
	       looks like a path, the last element will automatically be
	       treated as the filename.	 See "ReadNow" also.

	   ReadNow
	       Optional, for use with "Path".  If true, will open the path and
	       slurp the contents into core now.  This is useful if the Path
	       points to a command and you don't want to run the command over
	       and over if outputting the message several times.  Fatal excep-
	       tion raised if the open fails.

	   Top Optional.  If defined, indicates whether or not this is a
	       "top-level" MIME message.  The parts of a multipart message are
	       not top-level.  Default is true.

	   Type
	       Optional.  The MIME content type, or one of these special val-
	       ues (case-sensitive):

		    "TEXT"   means "text/plain"
		    "BINARY" means "application/octet-stream"
		    "AUTO"   means attempt to guess from the filename, falling back
			     to 'application/octet-stream'.  This is good if you have
			     MIME::Types on your system and you have no idea what
			     file might be used for the attachment.

	       The default is "TEXT", but it will be "AUTO" if you set
	       $AUTO_CONTENT_TYPE to true (sorry, but you have to enable it
	       explicitly, since we don't want to break code which depends on
	       the old behavior).

	   A picture being worth 1000 words (which is of course 2000 bytes, so
	   it's probably more of an "icon" than a "picture", but I
	   digress...), here are some examples:

	       $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
			  From	   => 'yelling@inter.com',
			  To	   => 'stocking@fish.net',
			  Subject  => "Hi there!",
			  Type	   => 'TEXT',
			  Encoding => '7bit',
			  Data	   => "Just a quick note to say hi!");

	       $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
			  From	   => 'dorothy@emerald-city.oz',
			  To	   => 'gesundheit@edu.edu.edu',
			  Subject  => "A gif for U"
			  Type	   => 'image/gif',
			  Path	   => "/home/httpd/logo.gif");

	       $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
			  From	   => 'laughing@all.of.us',
			  To	   => 'scarlett@fiddle.dee.de',
			  Subject  => "A gzipp'ed tar file",
			  Type	   => 'x-gzip',
			  Path	   => "gzip < /usr/inc/somefile.tar |",
			  ReadNow  => 1,
			  Filename => "somefile.tgz");

	   To show you what's really going on, that last example could also
	   have been written:

	       $msg = new MIME::Lite;
	       $msg->build(Type	    => 'x-gzip',
			   Path	    => "gzip < /usr/inc/somefile.tar |",
			   ReadNow  => 1,
			   Filename => "somefile.tgz");
	       $msg->add(From	 => "laughing@all.of.us");
	       $msg->add(To	 => "scarlett@fiddle.dee.de");
	       $msg->add(Subject => "A gzipp'ed tar file");

       Setting/getting headers and attributes

       add TAG,VALUE
	   Instance method.  Add field TAG with the given VALUE to the end of
	   the header.	The TAG will be converted to all-lowercase, and the
	   VALUE will be made "safe" (returns will be given a trailing space).

	   Beware: any MIME fields you "add" will override any MIME attributes
	   I have when it comes time to output those fields.  Normally, you
	   will use this method to add non-MIME fields:

	       $msg->add("Subject" => "Hi there!");

	   Giving VALUE as an arrayref will cause all those values to be
	   added.  This is only useful for special multiple-valued fields like
	   "Received":

	       $msg->add("Received" => ["here", "there", "everywhere"]

	   Giving VALUE as the empty string adds an invisible placeholder to
	   the header, which can be used to suppress the output of the "Con-
	   tent-*" fields or the special  "MIME-Version" field.	 When sup-
	   pressing fields, you should use replace() instead of add():

	       $msg->replace("Content-disposition" => "");

	   Note: add() is probably going to be more efficient than
	   "replace()", so you're better off using it for most applications if
	   you are certain that you don't need to delete() the field first.

	   Note: the name comes from Mail::Header.

       attr ATTR,[VALUE]
	   Instance method.  Set MIME attribute ATTR to the string VALUE.
	   ATTR is converted to all-lowercase.	This method is normally used
	   to set/get MIME attributes:

	       $msg->attr("content-type"	 => "text/html");
	       $msg->attr("content-type.charset" => "US-ASCII");
	       $msg->attr("content-type.name"	 => "homepage.html");

	   This would cause the final output to look something like this:

	       Content-type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII; name="homepage.html"

	   Note that the special empty sub-field tag indicates the anonymous
	   first sub-field.

	   Giving VALUE as undefined will cause the contents of the named sub-
	   field to be deleted.

	   Supplying no VALUE argument just returns the attribute's value:

	       $type = $msg->attr("content-type");	  ### returns "text/html"
	       $name = $msg->attr("content-type.name");	  ### returns "homepage.html"

       delete TAG
	   Instance method.  Delete field TAG with the given VALUE to the end
	   of the header.  The TAG will be converted to all-lowercase.

	       $msg->delete("Subject");

	   Note: the name comes from Mail::Header.

       field_order FIELD,...FIELD
	   Class/instance method.  Change the order in which header fields are
	   output for this object:

	       $msg->field_order('from', 'to', 'content-type', 'subject');

	   When used as a class method, changes the default settings for all
	   objects:

	       MIME::Lite->field_order('from', 'to', 'content-type', 'subject');

	   Case does not matter: all field names will be coerced to lowercase.
	   In either case, supply the empty array to restore the default
	   ordering.

       fields
	   Instance method.  Return the full header for the object, as a ref
	   to an array of "[TAG, VALUE]" pairs, where each TAG is all-lower-
	   case.  Note that any fields the user has explicitly set will over-
	   ride the corresponding MIME fields that we would otherwise gener-
	   ate.	 So, don't say...

	       $msg->set("Content-type" => "text/html; charset=US-ASCII");

	   unless you want the above value to override the "Content-type" MIME
	   field that we would normally generate.

	   Note: I called this "fields" because the header() method of
	   Mail::Header returns something different, but similar enough to be
	   confusing.

	   You can change the order of the fields: see "field_order".  You
	   really shouldn't need to do this, but some people have to deal with
	   broken mailers.

       filename [FILENAME]
	   Instance method.  Set the filename which this data will be reported
	   as.	This actually sets both "standard" attributes.

	   With no argument, returns the filename as dictated by the con-
	   tent-disposition.

       get TAG,[INDEX]
	   Instance method.  Get the contents of field TAG, which might have
	   been set with set() or replace().  Returns the text of the field.

	       $ml->get('Subject', 0);

	   If the optional 0-based INDEX is given, then we return the INDEX'th
	   occurence of field TAG.  Otherwise, we look at the context: In a
	   scalar context, only the first (0th) occurence of the field is
	   returned; in an array context, all occurences are returned.

	   Warning: this should only be used with non-MIME fields.  Behavior
	   with MIME fields is TBD, and will raise an exception for now.

       get_length
	   Instance method.  Recompute the content length for the message if
	   the process is trivial, setting the "content-length" attribute as a
	   side-effect:

	       $msg->get_length;

	   Returns the length, or undefined if not set.

	   Note: the content length can be difficult to compute, since it
	   involves assembling the entire encoded body and taking the length
	   of it (which, in the case of multipart messages, means freezing all
	   the sub-parts, etc.).

	   This method only sets the content length to a defined value if the
	   message is a singlepart with "binary" encoding, and the body is
	   available either in-core or as a simple file.  Otherwise, the con-
	   tent length is set to the undefined value.

	   Since content-length is not a standard MIME field anyway (that's
	   right, kids: it's not in the MIME RFCs, it's an HTTP thing), this
	   seems pretty fair.

       parts
	   Instance method.  Return the parts of this entity, and this entity
	   only.  Returns empty array if this entity has no parts.

	   This is not recursive!  Parts can have sub-parts; use parts_DFS()
	   to get everything.

       parts_DFS
	   Instance method.  Return the list of all MIME::Lite objects
	   included in the entity, starting with the entity itself, in depth-
	   first-search order.	If this object has no parts, it alone will be
	   returned.

       preamble [TEXT]
	   Instance method.  Get/set the preamble string, assuming that this
	   object has subparts.	 Set it to undef for the default string.

       replace TAG,VALUE
	   Instance method.  Delete all occurences of fields named TAG, and
	   add a new field with the given VALUE.  TAG is converted to all-low-
	   ercase.

	   Beware the special MIME fields (MIME-version, Content-*): if you
	   "replace" a MIME field, the replacement text will override the
	   actual MIME attributes when it comes time to output that field.  So
	   normally you use attr() to change MIME fields and add()/replace()
	   to change non-MIME fields:

	       $msg->replace("Subject" => "Hi there!");

	   Giving VALUE as the empty string will effectively prevent that
	   field from being output.  This is the correct way to suppress the
	   special MIME fields:

	       $msg->replace("Content-disposition" => "");

	   Giving VALUE as undefined will just cause all explicit values for
	   TAG to be deleted, without having any new values added.

	   Note: the name of this method  comes from Mail::Header.

       scrub
	   Instance method.  This is Alpha code.  If you use it, please let me
	   know how it goes.  Recursively goes through the "parts" tree of
	   this message and tries to find MIME attributes that can be removed.
	   With an array argument, removes exactly those attributes; e.g.:

	       $msg->scrub(['content-disposition', 'content-length']);

	   Is the same as recursively doing:

	       $msg->replace('Content-disposition' => '');
	       $msg->replace('Content-length'	   => '');

       Setting/getting message data

       binmode [OVERRIDE]
	   Instance method.  With no argument, returns whether or not it
	   thinks that the data (as given by the "Path" argument of "build()")
	   should be read using binmode() (for example, when "read_now()" is
	   invoked).

	   The default behavior is that any content type other than "text/*"
	   or "message/*" is binmode'd; this should in general work fine.

	   With a defined argument, this method sets an explicit "override"
	   value.  An undefined argument unsets the override.  The new current
	   value is returned.

       data [DATA]
	   Instance method.  Get/set the literal DATA of the message.  The
	   DATA may be either a scalar, or a reference to an array of scalars
	   (which will simply be joined).

	   Warning: setting the data causes the "content-length" attribute to
	   be recomputed (possibly to nothing).

       fh [FILEHANDLE]
	   Instance method.  Get/set the FILEHANDLE which contains the message
	   data.

	   Takes a filehandle as an input and stores it in the object.	This
	   routine is similar to path(); one important difference is that no
	   attempt is made to set the content length.

       path [PATH]
	   Instance method.  Get/set the PATH to the message data.

	   Warning: setting the path recomputes any existing "content-length"
	   field, and re-sets the "filename" (to the last element of the path
	   if it looks like a simple path, and to nothing if not).

       resetfh [FILEHANDLE]
	   Instance method.  Set the current position of the filehandle back
	   to the beginning.  Only applies if you used "FH" in build() or
	   attach() for this message.

	   Returns false if unable to reset the filehandle (since not all
	   filehandles are seekable).

       read_now
	   Instance method.  Forces data from the path/filehandle (as speci-
	   fied by "build()") to be read into core immediately, just as though
	   you had given it literally with the "Data" keyword.

	   Note that the in-core data will always be used if available.

	   Be aware that everything is slurped into a giant scalar: you may
	   not want to use this if sending tar files!  The benefit of not
	   reading in the data is that very large files can be handled by this
	   module if left on disk until the message is output via "print()" or
	   "print_body()".

       sign PARAMHASH
	   Instance method.  Sign the message.	This forces the message to be
	   read into core, after which the signature is appended to it.

	   Data
	       As in "build()": the literal signature data.  Can be either a
	       scalar or a ref to an array of scalars.

	   Path
	       As in "build()": the path to the file.

	   If no arguments are given, the default is:

	       Path => "$ENV{HOME}/.signature"

	   The content-length is recomputed.

       verify_data
	   Instance method.  Verify that all "paths" to attached data exist,
	   recursively.	 It might be a good idea for you to do this before a
	   print(), to prevent accidental partial output if a file might be
	   missing.  Raises exception if any path is not readable.

       Output

       print [OUTHANDLE]
	   Instance method.  Print the message to the given output handle, or
	   to the currently-selected filehandle if none was given.

	   All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
	   any object that responds to a print() message.

       print_body [OUTHANDLE]
	   Instance method.  Print the body of a message to the given output
	   handle, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none was given.

	   All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
	   any object that responds to a print() message.

	   Fatal exception raised if unable to open any of the input files, or
	   if a part contains no data, or if an unsupported encoding is
	   encountered.

       print_header [OUTHANDLE]
	   Instance method.  Print the header of the message to the given out-
	   put handle, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none was
	   given.

	   All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
	   any object that responds to a print() message.

       as_string
	   Instance method.  Return the entire message as a string, with a
	   header and an encoded body.

       body_as_string
	   Instance method.  Return the encoded body as a string.  This is the
	   portion after the header and the blank line.

	   Note: actually prepares the body by "printing" to a scalar.	Proof
	   that you can hand the "print*()" methods any blessed object that
	   responds to a "print()" message.

       header_as_string
	   Instance method.  Return the header as a string.

       Sending

       send
       send HOW, HOWARGS...
	   Class/instance method.  This is the principal method for sending
	   mail, and for configuring how mail will be sent.

	   As a class method with a HOW argument and optional HOWARGS, it sets
	   the default sending mechanism that the no-argument instance method
	   will use.  The HOW is a facility name (see below), and the HOWARGS
	   is interpreted by the facilty.  The class method returns the previ-
	   ous HOW and HOWARGS as an array.

	       MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");
	       ...
	       $msg = MIME::Lite->new(...);
	       $msg->send;

	   As an instance method with arguments (a HOW argument and optional
	   HOWARGS), sends the message in the requested manner; e.g.:

	       $msg->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");

	   As an instance method with no arguments, sends the message by the
	   default mechanism set up by the class method.  Returns whatever the
	   mail-handling routine returns: this should be true on success,
	   false/exception on error:

	       $msg = MIME::Lite->new(From=>...);
	       $msg->send || die "you DON'T have mail!";

	   On Unix systems (at least), the default setting is equivalent to:

	       MIME::Lite->send("sendmail", "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

	   There are three facilities:

	   "sendmail", ARGS...
	       Send a message by piping it into the "sendmail" command.	 Uses
	       the send_by_sendmail() method, giving it the ARGS.  This usage
	       implements (and deprecates) the "sendmail()" method.

	   "smtp", [HOSTNAME]
	       Send a message by SMTP, using optional HOSTNAME as SMTP-sending
	       host.  Uses the send_by_smtp() method.

	   "sub", \&SUBREF, ARGS...
	       Sends a message MSG by invoking the subroutine SUBREF of your
	       choosing, with MSG as the first argument, and ARGS following.

	   For example: let's say you're on an OS which lacks the usual Unix
	   "sendmail" facility, but you've installed something a lot like it,
	   and you need to configure your Perl script to use this "send-
	   mail.exe" program.  Do this following in your script's setup:

	       MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");

	   Then, whenever you need to send a message $msg, just say:

	       $msg->send;

	   That's it.  Now, if you ever move your script to a Unix box, all
	   you need to do is change that line in the setup and you're done.
	   All of your $msg->send invocations will work as expected.

       send_by_sendmail SENDMAILCMD
       send_by_sendmail PARAM=>VALUE, ...
	   Instance method.  Send message via an external "sendmail" program
	   (this will probably only work out-of-the-box on Unix systems).

	   Returns true on success, false or exception on error.

	   You can specify the program and all its arguments by giving a sin-
	   gle string, SENDMAILCMD.  Nothing fancy is done; the message is
	   simply piped in.

	   However, if your needs are a little more advanced, you can specify
	   zero or more of the following PARAM/VALUE pairs; a Unix-style,
	   taint-safe "sendmail" command will be constructed for you:

	   Sendmail
	       Full path to the program to use.	 Default is "/usr/lib/send-
	       mail".

	   BaseArgs
	       Ref to the basic array of arguments we start with.  Default is
	       "["-t", "-oi", "-oem"]".

	   SetSender
	       Unless this is explicitly given as false, we attempt to auto-
	       matically set the "-f" argument to the first address that can
	       be extracted from the "From:" field of the message (if there is
	       one).

	       What is the -f, and why do we use it?  Suppose we did not use
	       "-f", and you gave an explicit "From:" field in your message:
	       in this case, the sendmail "envelope" would indicate the real
	       user your process was running under, as a way of preventing
	       mail forgery.  Using the "-f" switch causes the sender to be
	       set in the envelope as well.

	       So when would I NOT want to use it?  If sendmail doesn't regard
	       you as a "trusted" user, it will permit the "-f" but also add
	       an "X-Authentication-Warning" header to the message to indicate
	       a forged envelope.  To avoid this, you can either (1) have Set-
	       Sender be false, or (2) make yourself a trusted user by adding
	       a "T" configuration
		   command to your sendmail.cf file
		   (e.g.: "Teryq" if the script is running as user "eryq").

	   FromSender
	       If defined, this is identical to setting SetSender to true,
	       except that instead of looking at the "From:" field we use the
	       address given by this option.  Thus:

		   FromSender => 'me@myhost.com'

       send_by_smtp ARGS...
	   Instance method.  Send message via SMTP, using Net::SMTP.  The
	   optional ARGS are sent into Net::SMTP::new(): usually, these are

	       MAILHOST, OPTION=>VALUE, ...

	   Note that the list of recipients is taken from the "To", "Cc" and
	   "Bcc" fields.

	   Returns true on success, false or exception on error.

       sendmail COMMAND...
	   Class method, DEPRECATED.  Declare the sender to be "sendmail", and
	   set up the "sendmail" command.  You should use send() instead.

       Miscellaneous

       quiet ONOFF
	   Class method.  Suppress/unsuppress all warnings coming from this
	   module.

	       MIME::Lite->quiet(1);	   ### I know what I'm doing

	   I recommend that you include that comment as well.  And while you
	   type it, say it out loud: if it doesn't feel right, then maybe you
	   should reconsider the whole line.  ";-)"

NOTES
       How do I prevent "Content" headers from showing up in my mail reader?

       Apparently, some people are using mail readers which display the MIME
       headers like "Content-disposition", and they want MIME::Lite not to
       generate them "because they look ugly".

       Sigh.

       Y'know, kids, those headers aren't just there for cosmetic purposes.
       They help ensure that the message is understood correctly by mail read-
       ers.  But okay, you asked for it, you got it...	here's how you can
       suppress the standard MIME headers.  Before you send the message, do
       this:

	       $msg->scrub;

       You can scrub() any part of a multipart message independently; just be
       aware that it works recursively.	 Before you scrub, note the rules that
       I follow:

       Content-type
	   You can safely scrub the "content-type" attribute if, and only if,
	   the part is of type "text/plain" with charset "us-ascii".

       Content-transfer-encoding
	   You can safely scrub the "content-transfer-encoding" attribute if,
	   and only if, the part uses "7bit", "8bit", or "binary" encoding.
	   You are far better off doing this if your lines are under 1000
	   characters.	Generally, that means you can scrub it for plain text,
	   and you can not scrub this for images, etc.

       Content-disposition
	   You can safely scrub the "content-disposition" attribute if you
	   trust the mail reader to do the right thing when it decides whether
	   to show an attachment inline or as a link.  Be aware that scrubbing
	   both the content-disposition and the content-type means that there
	   is no way to "recommend" a filename for the attachment!

	   Note: there are reports of brain-dead MUAs out there that do the
	   wrong thing if you provide the content-disposition.	If your
	   attachments keep showing up inline or vice-versa, try scrubbing
	   this attribute.

       Content-length
	   You can always scrub "content-length" safely.

       How do I give my attachment a [different] recommended filename?

       By using the Filename option (which is different from Path!):

	       $msg->attach(Type => "image/gif",
			    Path => "/here/is/the/real/file.GIF",
			    Filename => "logo.gif");

       You should not put path information in the Filename.

       Benign limitations

       This is "lite", after all...

       o   There's no parsing.	Get MIME-tools if you need to parse MIME mes-
	   sages.

       o   MIME::Lite messages are currently not interchangeable with either
	   Mail::Internet or MIME::Entity objects.  This is a completely sepa-
	   rate module.

       o   A content-length field is only inserted if the encoding is binary,
	   the message is a singlepart, and all the document data is available
	   at "build()" time by virtue of residing in a simple path, or
	   in-core.  Since content-length is not a standard MIME field anyway
	   (that's right, kids: it's not in the MIME RFCs, it's an HTTP
	   thing), this seems pretty fair.

       o   MIME::Lite alone cannot help you lose weight.  You must supplement
	   your use of MIME::Lite with a healthy diet and exercise.

       Cheap and easy mailing

       I thought putting in a default "sendmail" invocation wasn't too bad an
       idea, since a lot of Perlers are on UNIX systems.  The out-of-the-box
       configuration is:

	    MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

       By the way, these arguments to sendmail are:

	    -t	    Scan message for To:, Cc:, Bcc:, etc.

	    -oi	    Do NOT treat a single "." on a line as a message terminator.
		    As in, "-oi vey, it truncated my message... why?!"

	    -oem    On error, mail back the message (I assume to the
		    appropriate address, given in the header).
		    When mail returns, circle is complete.  Jai Guru Deva -oem.

       Note that these are the same arguments you get if you configure to use
       the smarter, taint-safe mailing:

	    MIME::Lite->send('sendmail');

       If you get "X-Authentication-Warning" headers from this, you can forgo
       diddling with the envelope by instead specifying:

	    MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', SetSender=>0);

       And, if you're not on a Unix system, or if you'd just rather send mail
       some other way, there's always:

	    MIME::Lite->send('smtp', "smtp.myisp.net");

       Or you can set up your own subroutine to call.  In any case, check out
       the send() method.

WARNINGS
       Good-vs-bad email addresses with send_by_smtp()

       If using send_by_smtp(), be aware that you are forcing MIME::Lite to
       extract email addresses out of a possible list provided in the "To:",
       "Cc:", and "Bcc:" fields.  This is tricky stuff, and as such only the
       following sorts of addresses will work reliably:

	   username
	   full.name@some.host.com
	   "Name, Full" <full.name@some.host.com>

       This last form is discouraged because SMTP must be able to get at the
       name or name@domain portion.

       Disclaimer: MIME::Lite was never intended to be a Mail User Agent, so
       please don't expect a full implementation of RFC-822.  Restrict your-
       self to the common forms of Internet addresses described herein, and
       you should be fine.  If this is not feasible, then consider using
       MIME::Lite to prepare your message only, and using Net::SMTP explicitly
       to send your message.

       Formatting of headers delayed until print()

       This class treats a MIME header in the most abstract sense, as being a
       collection of high-level attributes.  The actual RFC-822-style header
       fields are not constructed until it's time to actually print the darn
       thing.

       Encoding of data delayed until print()

       When you specify message bodies (in build() or attach()) -- whether by
       FH, Data, or Path -- be warned that we don't attempt to open files,
       read filehandles, or encode the data until print() is invoked.

       In the past, this created some confusion for users of sendmail who gave
       the wrong path to an attachment body, since enough of the print() would
       succeed to get the initial part of the message out.  Nowadays,
       $AUTO_VERIFY is used to spot-check the Paths given before the mail
       facility is employed.  A whisker slower, but tons safer.

       Note that if you give a message body via FH, and try to print() a mes-
       sage twice, the second print() will not do the right thing unless you
       explicitly rewind the filehandle.

       You can get past these difficulties by using the ReadNow option, pro-
       vided that you have enough memory to handle your messages.

       MIME attributes are separate from header fields!

       Important: the MIME attributes are stored and manipulated separately
       from the message header fields; when it comes time to print the header
       out, any explicitly-given header fields override the ones that would be
       created from the MIME attributes.  That means that this:

	   ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ###
	   $msg->add("Content-type", "text/html; charset=US-ASCII");

       will set the exact "Content-type" field in the header I write, regard-
       less of what the actual MIME attributes are.

       This feature is for experienced users only, as an escape hatch in case
       the code that normally formats MIME header fields isn't doing what you
       need.  And, like any escape hatch, it's got an alarm on it: MIME::Lite
       will warn you if you attempt to "set()" or "replace()" any MIME header
       field.  Use "attr()" instead.

       Beware of lines consisting of a single dot

       Julian Haight noted that MIME::Lite allows you to compose messages with
       lines in the body consisting of a single ".".  This is true: it should
       be completely harmless so long as "sendmail" is used with the -oi
       option (see "Cheap and easy mailing").

       However, I don't know if using Net::SMTP to transfer such a message is
       equally safe.  Feedback is welcomed.

       My perspective: I don't want to magically diddle with a user's message
       unless absolutely positively necessary.	Some users may want to send
       files with "." alone on a line; my well-meaning tinkering could seri-
       ously harm them.

       Infinite loops may mean tainted data!

       Stefan Sautter noticed a bug in 2.106 where a m//gc match was failing
       due to tainted data, leading to an infinite loop inside MIME::Lite.

       I am attempting to correct for this, but be advised that my fix will
       silently untaint the data (given the context in which the problem
       occurs, this should be benign: I've labelled the source code with
       UNTAINT comments for the curious).

       So: don't depend on taint-checking to save you from outputting tainted
       data in a message.

       Don't tweak the global configuration

       Global configuration variables are bad, and should go away.  Until they
       do, please follow the hints with each setting on how not to change it.

A MIME PRIMER
       Content types

       The "Type" parameter of "build()" is a content type.  This is the
       actual type of data you are sending.  Generally this is a string of the
       form "majortype/minortype".

       Here are the major MIME types.  A more-comprehensive listing may be
       found in RFC-2046.

       application
	   Data which does not fit in any of the other categories, particu-
	   larly data to be processed by some type of application program.
	   "application/octet-stream", "application/gzip", "application/post-
	   script"...

       audio
	   Audio data.	"audio/basic"...

       image
	   Graphics data.  "image/gif", "image/jpeg"...

       message
	   A message, usually another mail or MIME message.  "mes-
	   sage/rfc822"...

       multipart
	   A message containing other messages.	 "multipart/mixed", "multi-
	   part/alternative"...

       text
	   Textual data, meant for humans to read.  "text/plain",
	   "text/html"...

       video
	   Video or video+audio data.  "video/mpeg"...

       Content transfer encodings

       The "Encoding" parameter of "build()".  This is how the message body is
       packaged up for safe transit.

       Here are the 5 major MIME encodings.  A more-comprehensive listing may
       be found in RFC-2045.

       7bit
	   Basically, no real encoding is done.	 However, this label guaran-
	   tees that no 8-bit characters are present, and that lines do not
	   exceed 1000 characters in length.

       8bit
	   Basically, no real encoding is done.	 The message might contain
	   8-bit characters, but this encoding guarantees that lines do not
	   exceed 1000 characters in length.

       binary
	   No encoding is done at all.	Message might contain 8-bit charac-
	   ters, and lines might be longer than 1000 characters long.

	   The most liberal, and the least likely to get through mail gate-
	   ways.  Use sparingly, or (better yet) not at all.

       base64
	   Like "uuencode", but very well-defined.  This is how you should
	   send essentially binary information (tar files, GIFs, JPEGs, etc.).

       quoted-printable
	   Useful for encoding messages which are textual in nature, yet which
	   contain non-ASCII characters (e.g., Latin-1, Latin-2, or any other
	   8-bit alphabet).

HELPER MODULES
       MIME::Lite works nicely with other certain other modules if they are
       present.	 Good to have installed is the latest MIME::Types,
       Mail::Address, MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint.

       If they aren't present then some functionality won't work, and other
       features wont be as efficient or up to date as they could be. Neverthe-
       less they are optional extras.

BUNDLED GOODIES
       MIME::Lite comes with a number of extra files in the distribution bun-
       dle.  This includes examples, and utility modules that you can use to
       get yourself started with the module.

       The ./examples directory contains a number of snippets in prepared
       form, generally they are documented, but they should be easy to under-
       stand.

       The ./contrib directory contains a companion/tool modules that come
       bundled with MIME::Lite, they dont get installed by default. Please
       review the POD they come with.

BUGS
       The whole reason that version 3.0 was released was to ensure that
       MIME::Lite is up to date and patched. If you find an issue please
       report it.

       As far as I know MIME::Lite doesnt currently have any serious bugs, but
       my usage is hardly comprehensive.

       Having said that there are a number of open issues for me, mostly
       caused by the progress in the community as whole since Eryq last
       released. The tests are based around an interesting but non standard
       test framework. I'd like to change it over to using Test::More.

       Should tests fail please review the ./testout directory, and in any bug
       reports please include the output of the relevent file. This is the
       only redeeming feature of not using Test::More that I can see.

       Bug fixes / Patches / Contribution are welcome, however I probably
       won't apply them unless they also have an associated test. This means
       that if I dont have the time to write the test the patch wont get
       applied, so please, include tests for any patches you provide.

VERSION
       Version: 3.01 (Maintenance release and a new caretaker!)

CHANGE LOG
       Moved to ./changes.pod

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
	 Copyright (c) 1997 by Eryq.
	 Copyright (c) 1998 by ZeeGee Software Inc.
	 Copyright (c) 2003 Yves Orton. demerphq (at) hotmail.com.

       All rights reserved.  This program is free software; you can redis-
       tribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       This software comes with NO WARRANTY of any kind.  See the COPYING file
       in the distribution for details.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
       For some reason, the US FDA says that this is now required by law on
       any products that bear the name "Lite"...

       Version 3.0 is now new and improved! The distribution is now 30%
       smaller!

	   MIME::Lite		     |
	   ------------------------------------------------------------
	   Serving size:	     | 1 module
	   Servings per container:   | 1
	   Calories:		     | 0
	   Fat:			     | 0g
	     Saturated Fat:	     | 0g

       Warning: for consumption by hardware only!  May produce indigestion in
       humans if taken internally.

AUTHOR
       Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com).	President, ZeeGee Software Inc.
       (http://www.zeegee.com).

       Go to http://www.zeegee.com for the latest downloads and on-line docu-
       mentation for this module.  Enjoy.

       Patches And Maintenance by Yves Orton demerphq@hotmail.com and many
       others. Consult ./changes.pod

perl v5.8.8			  2003-04-24			 MIME::Lite(3)
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