Mail::Box::Parser - reading and writing messages |
Mail::Box::Parser - reading and writing messages
Mail::Box::Parser is a Mail::Reporter
Mail::Box::Parser is extended by Mail::Box::Parser::Perl
# Not instatiatiated itself
The Mail::Box::Parser
manages the parsing of folders. Usually, you won't
need to know anything about this module, except the options which are
involved with this code.
There are two implementations of this module planned:
C
. This package is released as separate
module on CPAN, because the module distribution via CPAN can not
handle XS files which are not located in the root directory of the
module tree. If a C compiler is available on your system, it will be
used automatically.
Mail::Box::Parser->new(OPTIONS)
Create a parser object which can handle one file. For mbox-like mailboxes, this object can be used to read a whole folder. In case of MH-like mailboxes, each message is contained in a single file, so each message has its own parser object.
Option Defined in Default file undef filename <required> log L<Mail::Reporter> C<'WARNINGS'> mode C<'r'> trace L<Mail::Reporter> C<'WARNINGS'>
. file FILE-HANDLE
Any IO::File
or GLOB
which can be used to read the data from. In
case this option is specified, the filename
is informational only.
. filename FILENAME
The name of the file to be read.
. log LEVEL
. mode OPENMODE
File-open mode, which defaults to 'r'
, which means `read-only'.
See perldoc -f open
for possible modes. Only applicable
when no file
is specified.
. trace LEVEL
$obj->fileChanged
Returns whether the file which is parsed has changed after the last
time takeFileInfo()
was called.
$obj->filename
Returns the name of the file this parser is working on.
$obj->restart
Restart the parser on a certain file, usually because the content has changed.
$obj->start(OPTIONS)
Start the parser by opening a file.
Option Defined in Default file undef
. file FILEHANDLE|undef
The file is already open, for instance because the data must be read from STDIN.
$obj->stop
Stop the parser, which will include a close of the file. The lock on the folder will not be removed (is not the responsibility of the parser).
$obj->bodyAsFile(FILEHANDLE [,CHARS [,LINES]])
Try to read one message-body from the file, and immediately write
it to the specified file-handle. Optionally, the predicted number
of CHARacterS and/or LINES to be read can be supplied. These values may be
undef
and may be wrong.
The return is a list of three scalars: the location of the body (begin and end) and the number of lines in the body.
$obj->bodyAsList([,CHARS [,LINES]])
Try to read one message-body from the file. Optionally, the predicted number
of CHARacterS and/or LINES to be read can be supplied. These values may be
undef
and may be wrong.
The return is a list of scalars, each containing one line (including line terminator), preceded by two integers representing the location in the file where this body started and ended.
$obj->bodyAsString([,CHARS [,LINES]])
Try to read one message-body from the file. Optionally, the predicted number
of CHARacterS and/or LINES to be read can be supplied. These values may be
undef
and may be wrong.
The return is a list of three scalars, the location in the file where the body starts, where the body ends, and the string containing the whole body.
$obj->bodyDelayed([,CHARS [,LINES]])
Try to read one message-body from the file, but the data is skipped.
Optionally, the predicted number of CHARacterS and/or LINES to be skipped
can be supplied. These values may be undef
and may be wrong.
The return is a list of four scalars: the location of the body (begin and
end), the size of the body, and the number of lines in the body. The
number of lines may be undef
.
$obj->filePosition([POSITION])
Returns the location of the next byte to be used in the file which is parsed. When a POSITION is specified, the location in the file is moved to the indicated spot first.
$obj->lineSeparator
Returns the character or characters which are used to separate lines in the folder file. This is based on the first line of the file. UNIX systems use a single LF to separate lines. Windows uses a CR and a LF. Mac uses CR.
$obj->popSeparator
Remove the last-pushed separator from the list which is maintained by the
parser. This will return undef
when there is none left.
$obj->pushSeparator(STRING|REGEXP)
Add a boundary line. Separators tell the parser where to stop reading.
A famous separator is the From
-line, which is used in Mbox-like
folders to separate messages. But also parts (attachments) is a
message are divided by separators.
The specified STRING describes the start of the separator-line. The REGEXP can specify a more complicated format.
$obj->readHeader
Read the whole message-header and return it as list of field-value pairs. Mind that some fields will appear more than once.
The first element will represent the position in the file where the header starts. The follows the list of header field names and bodies.
Example:
my ($where, @header) = $parser->readHeader;
$obj->readSeparator(OPTIONS)
Read the currently active separator (the last one which was pushed). The
line (or undef
) is returned. Blank-lines before the separator lines
are ignored.
The return are two scalars, where the first gives the location of the separator in the file, and the second the line which is found as separator. A new separator is activated using pushSeparator().
$obj->closeFile
Close the file which was being parsed.
$obj->defaultParserType([CLASS])
Mail::Box::Parser->defaultParserType([CLASS])
Returns the parser to be used to parse all subsequent
messages, possibly first setting the parser using the optional argument.
Usually, the parser is autodetected; the C
-based parser will be used
when it can be, and the Perl-based parser will be used otherwise.
The CLASS argument allows you to specify a package name to force a
particular parser to be used (such as your own custom parser). You have
to use
or require
the package yourself before calling this method
with an argument. The parser must be a sub-class of Mail::Box::Parser
.
$obj->openFile(ARGS)
Open the file to be parsed. ARGS is a ref-hash of options.
Option Defined in Default filename <required> mode <required>
. filename FILENAME
. mode STRING
$obj->takeFileInfo
Capture some data about the file being parsed, to be compared later.
$obj->AUTOLOAD
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->addReport(OBJECT)
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
Mail::Box::Parser->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->errors
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
Mail::Box::Parser->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->logPriority(LEVEL)
Mail::Box::Parser->logPriority(LEVEL)
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->logSettings
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->notImplemented
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->report([LEVEL])
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->reportAll([LEVEL])
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->trace([LEVEL])
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->warnings
See Error handling in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->DESTROY
See Cleanup in the Mail::Reporter manpage
$obj->inGlobalDestruction
See Cleanup in the Mail::Reporter manpage
Warning: File $filename changed during access.
When a message parser starts working, it takes size and modification time of the file at hand. If the folder is written, it checks wether there were changes in the file made by external programs.
Calling Mail::Box::update() on a folder before it being closed will read these new messages. But the real source of this problem is locking: some external program (for instance the mail transfer agent, like sendmail) uses a different locking mechanism as you do and therefore violates your rights.
Error: Filename or handle required to create a parser.
A message parser needs to know the source of the message at creation. These
sources can be a filename (string), file handle object or GLOB.
See new(filename)
and new(file).
Error: Package $package does not implement $method.
Fatal error: the specific package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package.
See the MailBox website at http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/ for more details.
Distribution version 2.059. Written by Mark Overmeer (mark@overmeer.net) See the ChangeLog for other contributors.
Copyright (c) 2001-2003 by the author(s). All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Mail::Box::Parser - reading and writing messages |