The mail-parse
library is an abstraction over the actual
low-level libraries that are described in the next chapter.
Standards change, and so programs have to change to fit in the new
mold. For instance, RFC2045 describes a syntax for the
Content-Type
header that only allows ASCII characters in the
parameter list. RFC2231 expands on RFC2045 syntax to provide a scheme
for continuation headers and non-ASCII characters.
The traditional way to deal with this is just to update the library functions to parse the new syntax. However, this is sometimes the wrong thing to do. In some instances it may be vital to be able to understand both the old syntax as well as the new syntax, and if there is only one library, one must choose between the old version of the library and the new version of the library.
The Emacs MIME library takes a different tack. It defines a series of
low-level libraries (`rfc2047.el', `rfc2231.el' and so on)
that parses strictly according to the corresponding standard. However,
normal programs would not use the functions provided by these libraries
directly, but instead use the functions provided by the
mail-parse
library. The functions in this library are just
aliases to the corresponding functions in the latest low-level
libraries. Using this scheme, programs get a consistent interface they
can use, and library developers are free to create write code that
handles new standards.
The following functions are defined by this library:
mail-header-parse-content-type
Content-Type
header and return a list on the following
format:
("type/subtype" (attribute1 . value1) (attribute2 . value2) ...)Here's an example:
(mail-header-parse-content-type "image/gif; name=\"b980912.gif\"") => ("image/gif" (name . "b980912.gif"))
mail-header-parse-content-disposition
Content-Disposition
header and return a list on the same
format as the function above.
mail-content-type-get
(mail-content-type-get '("image/gif" (name . "b980912.gif")) 'name) => "b980912.gif"
mail-header-encode-parameter
Content-Type
and
Content-Disposition
.
mail-header-remove-comments
(mail-header-remove-comments "Gnus/5.070027 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.27) (Finnish Landrace)") => "Gnus/5.070027 "
mail-header-remove-whitespace
(mail-header-remove-whitespace "image/gif; name=\"Name with spaces\"") => "image/gif;name=\"Name with spaces\""
mail-header-get-comment
(mail-header-get-comment "Gnus/5.070027 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.27) (Finnish Landrace)") => "Finnish Landrace"
mail-header-parse-address
(mail-header-parse-address "Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr>") => ("hniksic@srce.hr" . "Hrvoje Niksic")
mail-header-parse-addresses
(mail-header-parse-addresses "Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr>, Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>") => (("hniksic@srce.hr" . "Hrvoje Niksic") ("sb@metis.no" . "Steinar Bang"))
mail-header-parse-date
mail-narrow-to-head
mail-header-narrow-to-field
mail-header-fold-field
mail-header-unfold-field
mail-header-field-value
mail-encode-encoded-word-region
mail-encode-encoded-word-buffer
mail-encode-encoded-word-string
(mail-encode-encoded-word-string "This is naïve, baby") => "This is =?iso-8859-1?q?na=EFve,?= baby"
mail-decode-encoded-word-region
mail-decode-encoded-word-string
(mail-decode-encoded-word-string "This is =?iso-8859-1?q?na=EFve,?= baby") => "This is naïve, baby"
Currently, mail-parse
is an abstraction over ietf-drums
,
rfc2047
, rfc2045
and rfc2231
. These are documented
in the subsequent sections.
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