cpython/Doc/library/quopri.rst

:mod:`quopri` --- Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable data
==============================================================

.. module:: quopri
   :synopsis: Encode and decode files using the MIME quoted-printable encoding.

**Source code:** :source:`Lib/quopri.py`

.. index::
   pair: quoted-printable; encoding
   single: MIME; quoted-printable encoding

--------------

This module performs quoted-printable transport encoding and decoding, as
defined in :rfc:`1521`: "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part One:
Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies".
The quoted-printable encoding is designed for data where there are relatively
few nonprintable characters; the base64 encoding scheme available via the
:mod:`base64` module is more compact if there are many such characters, as when
sending a graphics file.

.. function:: decode(input, output, header=False)

   Decode the contents of the *input* file and write the resulting decoded binary
   data to the *output* file. *input* and *output* must be :term:`binary file objects
   <file object>`.  If the optional argument *header* is present and true, underscore
   will be decoded as space. This is used to decode "Q"-encoded headers as
   described in :rfc:`1522`: "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
   Part Two: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text".


.. function:: encode(input, output, quotetabs, header=False)

   Encode the contents of the *input* file and write the resulting quoted-printable
   data to the *output* file. *input* and *output* must be
   :term:`binary file objects <file object>`. *quotetabs*, a flag which controls
   whether to encode embedded spaces and tabs must be provideda and when true it
   encodes such embedded whitespace, and when false it leaves them unencoded.
   Note that spaces and tabs appearing at the end of lines are always encoded,
   as per :rfc:`1521`.  *header* is a flag which controls if spaces are encoded
   as underscores as per :rfc:`1522`.


.. function:: decodestring(s, header=False)

   Like :func:`decode`, except that it accepts a source :class:`bytes` and
   returns the corresponding decoded :class:`bytes`.


.. function:: encodestring(s, quotetabs=False, header=False)

   Like :func:`encode`, except that it accepts a source :class:`bytes` and
   returns the corresponding encoded :class:`bytes`. By default, it sends a
   ``False`` value to *quotetabs* parameter of the :func:`encode` function.



.. seealso::

   Module :mod:`base64`
      Encode and decode MIME base64 data