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Mail::Header(3)	      User Contributed Perl Documentation      Mail::Header(3)

NAME
       Mail::Header - manipulate MIME headers

INHERITANCE
SYNOPSIS
	use Mail::Header;

	my $head = Mail::Header->new;
	my $head = Mail::Header->new( \*STDIN );
	my $head = Mail::Header->new( [<>], Modify => 0);

DESCRIPTION
       Read, write, create, and manipulate MIME headers, the leading part of
       each modern e-mail message, but also used in other protocols like HTTP.
       The fields are kept in Mail::Field objects.

       Be aware that the header fields each have a name part, which shall be
       treated case-insensitive, and a content part, which may be folded over
       multiple lines.

       Mail::Header does not always follow the RFCs strict enough, does not
       help you with character encodings.  It does not use weak references
       where it could (because those did not exist when the module was
       written) which costs some performance and make the implementation a
       little more complicated.	 The Mail::Message::Head implementation is
       much newer and therefore better.

METHODS
       Constructors

       $obj->dup

	   Create a duplicate of the current object.

       $obj->new([ARG], [OPTIONS])

       Mail::Header->new([ARG], [OPTIONS])

	   ARG may be either a file descriptor (reference to a GLOB) or a
	   reference to an array. If given the new object will be initialized
	   with headers either from the array of read from the file
	   descriptor.

	   OPTIONS is a list of options given in the form of key-value pairs,
	   just like a hash table. Valid options are

	    Option    --Default
	    FoldLength	79
	    MailFrom	'KEEP'
	    Modify	true

	   . FoldLength => INTEGER

	       The default length of line to be used when folding header
	       lines.  See fold_length().

	   . MailFrom => 'IGNORE'|'COERCE'|'KEEP'|'ERROR'

	       See method mail_from().

	   . Modify => BOOLEAN

	       If this value is true then the headers will be re-formatted,
	       otherwise the format of the header lines will remain unchanged.

       "Fake" constructors

       Be warned that the next constructors all require an already created
       header object, of which the original content will be destroyed.

       $obj->empty

	   Empty an existing "Mail::Header" object of all lines.

       $obj->extract(ARRAY)

	   Extract a header from the given array into an existing Mail::Header
	   object. "extract" will modify this array.  Returns the object that
	   the method was called on.

       $obj->header([ARRAY])

	   "header" does multiple operations. First it will extract a header
	   from the ARRAY, if given. It will then reformat the header (if
	   reformatting is permitted), and finally return a reference to an
	   array which contains the header in a printable form.

       $obj->header_hashref([HASH])

	   As header(), but it will eventually set headers from a hash
	   reference, and it will return the headers as a hash reference.

	   example:

	    $fields->{From} = 'Tobias Brox <tobix@cpan.org>';
	    $fields->{To}   = ['you@somewhere', 'me@localhost'];
	    $head->header_hashref($fields);

       $obj->read(FILEHANDLE)

	   Read a header from the given file descriptor into an existing
	   Mail::Header object.

       Accessors

       $obj->fold_length([TAG], [LENGTH])

	   Set the default fold length for all tags or just one. With no
	   arguments the default fold length is returned. With two arguments
	   it sets the fold length for the given tag and returns the previous
	   value. If only "LENGTH" is given it sets the default fold length
	   for the current object.

	   In the two argument form "fold_length" may be called as a static
	   method, setting default fold lengths for tags that will be used by
	   all "Mail::Header" objects. See the "fold" method for a description
	   on how "Mail::Header" uses these values.

       $obj->mail_from('IGNORE'|'COERCE'|'KEEP'|'ERROR')

	   This specifies what to do when a `From ' line is encountered.
	   Valid values are "IGNORE" - ignore and discard the header, "ERROR"
	   - invoke an error (call die), "COERCE" - rename them as Mail-From
	   and "KEEP" - keep them.

       $obj->modify([VALUE])

	   If "VALUE" is false then "Mail::Header" will not do any automatic
	   reformatting of the headers, other than to ensure that the line
	   starts with the tags given.

       Processing

       $obj->add(TAG, LINE [, INDEX])

	   Add a new line to the header. If TAG is "undef" the the tag will be
	   extracted from the beginning of the given line. If INDEX is given,
	   the new line will be inserted into the header at the given point,
	   otherwise the new line will be appended to the end of the header.

       $obj->as_string

	   Returns the header as a single string.

       $obj->cleanup

	   Remove any header line that, other than the tag, only contains
	   whitespace

       $obj->combine(TAG [, WITH])

	   Combine all instances of TAG into one. The lines will be joined
	   together WITH, or a single space if not given. The new item will be
	   positioned in the header where the first instance was, all other
	   instances of TAG will be removed.

       $obj->count(TAG)

	   Returns the number of times the given atg appears in the header

       $obj->delete(TAG [, INDEX ])

	   Delete a tag from the header. If an INDEX id is given, then the Nth
	   instance of the tag will be removed. If no INDEX is given, then all
	   instances of tag will be removed.

       $obj->fold([LENGTH])

	   Fold the header. If LENGTH is not given, then "Mail::Header" uses
	   the following rules to determine what length to fold a line.

       $obj->get(TAG [, INDEX])

	   Get the text from a line. If an INDEX is given, then the text of
	   the Nth instance will be returned. If it is not given the return
	   value depends on the context in which "get" was called. In an array
	   context a list of all the text from all the instances of the TAG
	   will be returned. In a scalar context the text for the first
	   instance will be returned.

	   The lines are unfolded, but still terminated with a new-line (see
	   "chomp")

       $obj->print([FILEHANDLE])

	   Print the header to the given file descriptor, or "STDOUT" if no
	   file descriptor is given.

       $obj->replace(TAG, LINE [, INDEX ])

	   Replace a line in the header.  If TAG is "undef" the the tag will
	   be extracted from the beginning of the given line. If INDEX is
	   given the new line will replace the Nth instance of that tag,
	   otherwise the first instance of the tag is replaced. If the tag
	   does not appear in the header then a new line will be appended to
	   the header.

       $obj->tags

	   Returns an array of all the tags that exist in the header. Each tag
	   will only appear in the list once. The order of the tags is not
	   specified.

       $obj->unfold([TAG])

	   Unfold all instances of the given tag so that they do not spread
	   across multiple lines. If "TAG" is not given then all lines are
	   unfolded.

	   The unfolding process is wrong but (for compatibility reasons) will
	   not be repaired: only one blank at the start of the line should be
	   removed, not all of them.

SEE ALSO
       This module is part of the MailTools distribution,
       http://perl.overmeer.net/mailtools/.

AUTHORS
       The MailTools bundle was developed by Graham Barr.  Later, Mark
       Overmeer took over maintenance without commitment to further
       development.

       Mail::Cap by Gisle Aas <aas@oslonett.no>.  Mail::Field::AddrList by
       Peter Orbaek <poe@cit.dk>.  Mail::Mailer and Mail::Send by Tim Bunce
       <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>.  For other contributors see ChangeLog.

LICENSE
       Copyrights 1995-2000 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com> and 2001-2007 Mark
       Overmeer <perl@overmeer.net>.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.  See
       http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

perl v5.10.0			  2008-07-29		       Mail::Header(3)
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