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Tools for parsing MIME messages</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0014600000000000000000">
12.6 <tt class=module>mimetools</tt> --
         Tools for parsing MIME messages</A>
</H1>

<P>


<P>
This module defines a subclass of the <tt class=class>rfc822.Message</tt> class and
a number of utility functions that are useful for the manipulation for
MIME multipart or encoded message.

<P>
It defines the following items:

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1997"><tt class=class>Message</tt></a></b> (<var>fp</var><big>[</big><var>, seekable</var><big>]</big>)
<dd>
Return a new instance of the <tt class=class>Message</tt> class.  This is a
subclass of the <tt class=class>rfc822.Message</tt> class, with some additional
methods (see below).  The <var>seekable</var> argument has the same meaning
as for <tt class=class>rfc822.Message</tt>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1998"><tt class=function>choose_boundary</tt></a></b> ()
<dd>
Return a unique string that has a high likelihood of being usable as a
part boundary.  The string has the form
<tt>'<var>hostipaddr</var>.<var>uid</var>.<var>pid</var>.<var>timestamp</var>.<var>random</var>'</tt>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1999"><tt class=function>decode</tt></a></b> (<var>input, output, encoding</var>)
<dd>
Read data encoded using the allowed MIME <var>encoding</var> from open file
object <var>input</var> and write the decoded data to open file object
<var>output</var>.  Valid values for <var>encoding</var> include
<tt>'base64'</tt>, <tt>'quoted-printable'</tt> and <tt>'uuencode'</tt>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2000"><tt class=function>encode</tt></a></b> (<var>input, output, encoding</var>)
<dd>
Read data from open file object <var>input</var> and write it encoded using
the allowed MIME <var>encoding</var> to open file object <var>output</var>.
Valid values for <var>encoding</var> are the same as for <tt class=method>decode()</tt>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2001"><tt class=function>copyliteral</tt></a></b> (<var>input, output</var>)
<dd>
Read lines until EOF from open file <var>input</var> and write them to
open file <var>output</var>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2002"><tt class=function>copybinary</tt></a></b> (<var>input, output</var>)
<dd>
Read blocks until EOF from open file <var>input</var> and write them to
open file <var>output</var>.  The block size is currently fixed at 8192.
</dl>

<P>

<p><hr>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html3404"
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