
``email``: Miscellaneous utilities
**********************************

There are several useful utilities provided in the ``email.utils``
module:

email.utils.quote(str)

   Return a new string with backslashes in *str* replaced by two
   backslashes, and double quotes replaced by backslash-double quote.

email.utils.unquote(str)

   Return a new string which is an *unquoted* version of *str*. If
   *str* ends and begins with double quotes, they are stripped off.
   Likewise if *str* ends and begins with angle brackets, they are
   stripped off.

email.utils.parseaddr(address)

   Parse address -- which should be the value of some address-
   containing field such as *To* or *Cc* -- into its constituent
   *realname* and *email address* parts.  Returns a tuple of that
   information, unless the parse fails, in which case a 2-tuple of
   ``('', '')`` is returned.

email.utils.formataddr(pair)

   The inverse of ``parseaddr()``, this takes a 2-tuple of the form
   ``(realname, email_address)`` and returns the string value suitable
   for a *To* or *Cc* header.  If the first element of *pair* is
   false, then the second element is returned unmodified.

email.utils.getaddresses(fieldvalues)

   This method returns a list of 2-tuples of the form returned by
   ``parseaddr()``. *fieldvalues* is a sequence of header field values
   as might be returned by ``Message.get_all()``.  Here's a simple
   example that gets all the recipients of a message:

      from email.utils import getaddresses

      tos = msg.get_all('to', [])
      ccs = msg.get_all('cc', [])
      resent_tos = msg.get_all('resent-to', [])
      resent_ccs = msg.get_all('resent-cc', [])
      all_recipients = getaddresses(tos + ccs + resent_tos + resent_ccs)

email.utils.parsedate(date)

   Attempts to parse a date according to the rules in **RFC 2822**.
   however, some mailers don't follow that format as specified, so
   ``parsedate()`` tries to guess correctly in such cases.  *date* is
   a string containing an **RFC 2822** date, such as  ``"Mon, 20 Nov
   1995 19:12:08 -0500"``.  If it succeeds in parsing the date,
   ``parsedate()`` returns a 9-tuple that can be passed directly to
   ``time.mktime()``; otherwise ``None`` will be returned.  Note that
   indexes 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.

email.utils.parsedate_tz(date)

   Performs the same function as ``parsedate()``, but returns either
   ``None`` or a 10-tuple; the first 9 elements make up a tuple that
   can be passed directly to ``time.mktime()``, and the tenth is the
   offset of the date's timezone from UTC (which is the official term
   for Greenwich Mean Time) [1].  If the input string has no timezone,
   the last element of the tuple returned is ``None``.  Note that
   indexes 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.

email.utils.mktime_tz(tuple)

   Turn a 10-tuple as returned by ``parsedate_tz()`` into a UTC
   timestamp.  It the timezone item in the tuple is ``None``, assume
   local time.  Minor deficiency: ``mktime_tz()`` interprets the first
   8 elements of *tuple* as a local time and then compensates for the
   timezone difference.  This may yield a slight error around changes
   in daylight savings time, though not worth worrying about for
   common use.

email.utils.formatdate(timeval=None, localtime=False, usegmt=False)

   Returns a date string as per **RFC 2822**, e.g.:

      Fri, 09 Nov 2001 01:08:47 -0000

   Optional *timeval* if given is a floating point time value as
   accepted by ``time.gmtime()`` and ``time.localtime()``, otherwise
   the current time is used.

   Optional *localtime* is a flag that when ``True``, interprets
   *timeval*, and returns a date relative to the local timezone
   instead of UTC, properly taking daylight savings time into account.
   The default is ``False`` meaning UTC is used.

   Optional *usegmt* is a flag that when ``True``, outputs a  date
   string with the timezone as an ascii string ``GMT``, rather than a
   numeric ``-0000``. This is needed for some protocols (such as
   HTTP). This only applies when *localtime* is ``False``.  The
   default is ``False``.

email.utils.make_msgid(idstring=None)

   Returns a string suitable for an **RFC 2822**-compliant *Message-
   ID* header.  Optional *idstring* if given, is a string used to
   strengthen the uniqueness of the message id.

email.utils.decode_rfc2231(s)

   Decode the string *s* according to **RFC 2231**.

email.utils.encode_rfc2231(s, charset=None, language=None)

   Encode the string *s* according to **RFC 2231**.  Optional
   *charset* and *language*, if given is the character set name and
   language name to use.  If neither is given, *s* is returned as-is.
   If *charset* is given but *language* is not, the string is encoded
   using the empty string for *language*.

email.utils.collapse_rfc2231_value(value, errors='replace', fallback_charset='us-ascii')

   When a header parameter is encoded in **RFC 2231** format,
   ``Message.get_param()`` may return a 3-tuple containing the
   character set, language, and value.  ``collapse_rfc2231_value()``
   turns this into a unicode string.  Optional *errors* is passed to
   the *errors* argument of ``str``'s ``encode()`` method; it defaults
   to ``'replace'``.  Optional *fallback_charset* specifies the
   character set to use if the one in the **RFC 2231** header is not
   known by Python; it defaults to ``'us-ascii'``.

   For convenience, if the *value* passed to
   ``collapse_rfc2231_value()`` is not a tuple, it should be a string
   and it is returned unquoted.

email.utils.decode_params(params)

   Decode parameters list according to **RFC 2231**.  *params* is a
   sequence of 2-tuples containing elements of the form
   ``(content-type, string-value)``.

-[ Footnotes ]-

[1] Note that the sign of the timezone offset is the opposite of the
    sign of the ``time.timezone`` variable for the same timezone; the
    latter variable follows the POSIX standard while this module
    follows **RFC 2822**.
