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<title>12.2 email -- An email and MIME handling package</title>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0014200000000000000000">
12.2 <tt class="module">email</tt> --
         An email and MIME handling package</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="module-email"></A>

<P>

<span class="versionnote">New in version 2.2.</span>

<P>
The <tt class="module">email</tt> package is a library for managing email messages,
including MIME and other <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90746' xml:id='rfcref-90746'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>-based message documents.  It
subsumes most of the functionality in several older standard modules
such as <tt class="module"><a href="module-rfc822.html">rfc822</a></tt>, <tt class="module"><a href="module-mimetools.html">mimetools</a></tt>,
<tt class="module"><a href="module-multifile.html">multifile</a></tt>, and other non-standard packages such as
<tt class="module">mimecntl</tt>.  It is specifically <em>not</em> designed to do any
sending of email messages to SMTP (<a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90748' xml:id='rfcref-90748'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2821.html">RFC 2821</a>) servers; that is the
function of the <tt class="module"><a href="module-smtplib.html">smtplib</a></tt> module.  The <tt class="module">email</tt>
package attempts to be as RFC-compliant as possible, supporting in
addition to <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90750' xml:id='rfcref-90750'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>, such MIME-related RFCs as
<a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90752' xml:id='rfcref-90752'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2045.html">RFC 2045</a>, <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90754' xml:id='rfcref-90754'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2046.html">RFC 2046</a>, <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90756' xml:id='rfcref-90756'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047.html">RFC 2047</a>, and <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90758' xml:id='rfcref-90758'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2231.html">RFC 2231</a>.

<P>
The primary distinguishing feature of the <tt class="module">email</tt> package is
that it splits the parsing and generating of email messages from the
internal <em>object model</em> representation of email.  Applications
using the <tt class="module">email</tt> package deal primarily with objects; you can
add sub-objects to messages, remove sub-objects from messages,
completely re-arrange the contents, etc.  There is a separate parser
and a separate generator which handles the transformation from flat
text to the object model, and then back to flat text again.  There
are also handy subclasses for some common MIME object types, and a few
miscellaneous utilities that help with such common tasks as extracting
and parsing message field values, creating RFC-compliant dates, etc.

<P>
The following sections describe the functionality of the
<tt class="module">email</tt> package.  The ordering follows a progression that
should be common in applications: an email message is read as flat
text from a file or other source, the text is parsed to produce the
object structure of the email message, this structure is manipulated,
and finally rendered back into flat text.

<P>
It is perfectly feasible to create the object structure out of whole
cloth -- i.e. completely from scratch.  From there, a similar
progression can be taken as above.

<P>
Also included are detailed specifications of all the classes and
modules that the <tt class="module">email</tt> package provides, the exception
classes you might encounter while using the <tt class="module">email</tt> package,
some auxiliary utilities, and a few examples.  For users of the older
<tt class="module">mimelib</tt> package, or previous versions of the <tt class="module">email</tt>
package, a section on differences and porting is provided.

<P>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

    <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-smtplib.html">smtplib</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>SMTP protocol client.
  </dl>
</div>

<P>

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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a>

<UL CLASS="ChildLinks">
<LI><A href="module-email.Message.html">12.2.1 Representing an email message</a>
<UL>
<LI><A href="node581.html">12.2.1.1 Deprecated methods</a>
</ul>
<LI><A href="module-email.Parser.html">12.2.2 Parsing email messages</a>
<UL>
<LI><A href="node583.html">12.2.2.1 FeedParser API</a>
<LI><A href="node584.html">12.2.2.2 Parser class API</a>
<LI><A href="node585.html">12.2.2.3 Additional notes</a>
</ul>
<LI><A href="module-email.Generator.html">12.2.3 Generating MIME documents</a>
<UL>
<LI><A href="node587.html">12.2.3.1 Deprecated methods</a>
</ul>
<LI><A href="node588.html">12.2.4 Creating email and MIME objects from scratch</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Header.html">12.2.5 Internationalized headers</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Charset.html">12.2.6 Representing character sets</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Encoders.html">12.2.7 Encoders</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Errors.html">12.2.8 Exception and Defect classes</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Utils.html">12.2.9 Miscellaneous utilities</a>
<LI><A href="module-email.Iterators.html">12.2.10 Iterators</a>
<LI><A href="node595.html">12.2.11 Package History</a>
<LI><A href="node596.html">12.2.12 Differences from <tt class="module">mimelib</tt></a>
<LI><A href="node597.html">12.2.13 Examples</a>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span>
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