Mail::Box::Parser - phpMan

NAME
    Mail::Box::Parser - reading and writing messages

INHERITANCE
     Mail::Box::Parser
       is a Mail::Reporter

     Mail::Box::Parser is extended by
       Mail::Box::Parser::C
       Mail::Box::Parser::Perl

SYNOPSIS
     # Not instatiatiated itself

DESCRIPTION
    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:

    *   Mail::Box::Parser::Perl

        A slower parser which only uses plain Perl. This module is a bit
        slower, and does less checking and less recovery.

    *   Mail::Box::Parser::C

        A fast parser written in "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.

    Extends "DESCRIPTION" in Mail::Reporter.

METHODS
    Extends "METHODS" in Mail::Reporter.

  Constructors
    Extends "Constructors" in Mail::Reporter.

    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       Mail::Reporter   'WARNINGS'
          mode                       'r'
          trace     Mail::Reporter   '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

  The parser
    $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--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).

  Parsing
    $obj->bodyAsFile( $fh [$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().

  Internals
    $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  --Default
          filename  <required>
          mode      <required>

        filename => FILENAME
        mode => STRING

    $obj->takeFileInfo()
        Capture some data about the file being parsed, to be compared later.

  Error handling
    Extends "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter.

    $obj->AUTOLOAD()
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->addReport($object)
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->defaultTrace( [$level]|[$loglevel, $tracelevel]|[$level,
    $callback] )
    Mail::Box::Parser->defaultTrace( [$level]|[$loglevel,
    $tracelevel]|[$level, $callback] )
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->errors()
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->log( [$level, [$strings]] )
    Mail::Box::Parser->log( [$level, [$strings]] )
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->logPriority($level)
    Mail::Box::Parser->logPriority($level)
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->logSettings()
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->notImplemented()
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->report( [$level] )
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->reportAll( [$level] )
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->trace( [$level] )
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

    $obj->warnings()
        Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

  Cleanup
    Extends "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter.

    $obj->DESTROY()
        Inherited, see "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

DIAGNOSTICS
    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
        whether 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 ALSO
    This module is part of Mail-Message distribution version 3.012, built on
    February 11, 2022. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/

LICENSE
    Copyrights 2001-2022 by [Mark Overmeer <markov AT cpan.org>]. For other
    contributors see ChangeLog.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/