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Adjustments to the text of the UnixMailbox description. Added 

PortableUnixMailbox as a separate class as well (this also generates
the right index entry).
This commit is contained in:
Fred Drake 2001-02-02 03:51:05 +00:00
parent 4c4fda0f57
commit 6270031f4e
1 changed files with 30 additions and 20 deletions
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50
Doc/lib/libmailbox.tex
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@ -9,33 +9,43 @@ This module defines a number of classes that allow easy and uniform
access to mail messages in a (\UNIX{}) mailbox.
\begin{classdesc}{UnixMailbox}{fp\optional{, factory}}
Access to a classic \UNIX{}-style mailbox, where all messages are
contained in a single file and separate by ``From '' (a.k.a ``From_'')
lines. The file object \var{fp} points to the mailbox file. Optional
\var{factory} is a callable that should create new message objects.
It is called with one argument, \var{fp} by the \method{next()}
method. The default is the \class{rfc822.Message} class (see the
Access to a classic \UNIX-style mailbox, where all messages are
contained in a single file and separated by \samp{From }
(a.k.a.\ \samp{From_}) lines. The file object \var{fp} points to the
mailbox file. The optional \var{factory} parameter is a callable that
should create new message objects. \var{factory} is called with one
argument, \var{fp} by the \method{next()} method of the mailbox
object. The default is the \class{rfc822.Message} class (see the
\refmodule{rfc822} module).
For maximum portability, messages in a \UNIX{}-style mailbox are
separated by any line that begins exactly with the letters \emph{F},
\emph{r}, \emph{o}, \emph{m}, \emph{[space]} if preceded by exactly two
newlines. Because of the wide-range of variations in practice,
nothing else on the From_ line should be considered. However, the
current implementation doesn't check for the leading two newlines.
This is usually fine for most applications.
For maximum portability, messages in a \UNIX-style mailbox are
separated by any line that begins exactly with the string \code{'From
'} (note the trailing space) if preceded by exactly two newlines.
Because of the wide-range of variations in practice, nothing else on
the From_ line should be considered. However, the current
implementation doesn't check for the leading two newlines. This is
usually fine for most applications.
The \class{UnixMailbox} class implements a more strict version of
From_ line checking, using a regular expression that usually correctly
matched From_ delimiters. It considers delimiter line to be separated
by ``From name time'' lines. For maximum portability, use the
\class{PortableUnixMailbox} class instead. This
class is completely identical to \class{UnixMailbox} except that
individual messages are separated by only ``From '' lines.
by \samp{From \var{name} \var{time}} lines. For maximum portability,
use the \class{PortableUnixMailbox} class instead. This class is
identical to \class{UnixMailbox} except that individual messages are
separated by only \samp{From } lines.
For more
information see
\url{http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/content-length.html}.
For more information, see
\citetitle[http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/content-length.html]{Configuring
Netscape Mail on \UNIX: Why the Content-Length Format is Bad}.
\end{classdesc}
\begin{classdesc}{PortableUnixMailbox}{fp\optional{, factory}}
A less-strict version of \class{UnixMailbox}, which considers only the
\samp{From } at the beginning of the line separating messages. The
``\var{name} \var{time}'' portion of the From line is ignored, to
protect against some variations that are observed in practice. This
works since lines in the message which begin with \code{'From '} are
quoted by mail handling software well before delivery.
\end{classdesc}
\begin{classdesc}{MmdfMailbox}{fp\optional{, factory}}