mail::header(3)

NAME

Mail::Header - manipulate mail RFC822 compliant headers

SYNOPSIS

use Mail::Header;
$head = new Mail::Header;
$head = new Mail::Header TDIN;
$head = new Mail::Header [<>], Modify => 0;

DESCRIPTION

This package provides a class object which can be used for
reading, creating, manipulating and writing RFC822 compli
ant headers.

CONSTRUCTOR

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; Modify If this value is true then the headers will be
re-formatted, otherwise the format of the
header lines will remain unchanged.
MailFrom: This option specifies what to do when a header
in the form `From ' is encountered. Valid val
ues are "IGNORE" - ignore and discard the
header, "ERROR" - invoke an error (call die),
"COERCE" - rename them as Mail-From and "KEEP"
- keep them.
FoldLength: The default length of line to be used when
folding header lines

METHODS

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.
mail_from ( OPTION ): "OPTION" 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.
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.; The fold length for the tag that is begin processed; The default fold length for the tag that is being pro
cessed; The default fold length for the object
extract ( ARRAY_REF ): Extract a header from the given array. "extract" will
modify this array. Returns the object that the method was called on.
read ( FD ): Read a header from the given file descriptor.
empty (): Empty the "Mail::Header" object of all lines.
header ( [ ARRAY_REF ] ): "header" does multiple operations. First it will
extract a header from the array, if given. It will the
reformat the header, if reformatting is permitted, and
finally return a reference to an array which contains
the header in a printable form.
header_hashref ( [ HASH_REF ] ): As "header", but it will eventually set headers from a
hash reference, and it will return the headers as a
hash reference.; The values in the hash might either be a scalar or an
array reference, as an example:

$hashref->{From}='Tobias Brox <tobix@cpan.org>';
$hashref->{To}=['you@somewhere', 'me@localhost'];
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.
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.
combine ( TAG [, WITH ] ): Combine all instances of "TAG" into one. The lines
will be joined togther with "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.
get ( TAG [, INDEX ] ): Get the text form a line. If "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 "TAG" will be
returned. In a scalar context the text for the first
instance will be returned.
delete ( TAG [, INDEX ] ): Delete a tag from the header. If "INDEX" id given then
the Nth instance of the tag will be removed. If
"INDEX" is not given all instances of tag will be
removed.
count ( TAG ): Returns the number of times the given atg appears in
the header
print ( [ FD ] ): Print the header to the given file descriptor, or
"STDOUT" if no file descriptor is given.
as_string (): Returns the header as a single string.
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.
tags (): Retruns 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.
dup (): Create a duplicate of the current object.
cleanup (): Remove any header line that, other than the tag, only
contains whitespace
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.

AUTHOR

Graham Barr. Maintained by Mark Overmeer <mailtools@over
meer.net>

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