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1:mod:`email.utils`: Miscellaneous utilities
2-------------------------------------------
3
4.. module:: email.utils
5   :synopsis: Miscellaneous email package utilities.
6
7**Source code:** :source:`Lib/email/utils.py`
8
9--------------
10
11There are a couple of useful utilities provided in the :mod:`email.utils`
12module:
13
14.. function:: localtime(dt=None)
15
16    Return local time as an aware datetime object.  If called without
17    arguments, return current time.  Otherwise *dt* argument should be a
18    :class:`~datetime.datetime` instance, and it is converted to the local time
19    zone according to the system time zone database.  If *dt* is naive (that
20    is, ``dt.tzinfo`` is ``None``), it is assumed to be in local time.  In this
21    case, a positive or zero value for *isdst* causes ``localtime`` to presume
22    initially that summer time (for example, Daylight Saving Time) is or is not
23    (respectively) in effect for the specified time.  A negative value for
24    *isdst* causes the ``localtime`` to attempt to divine whether summer time
25    is in effect for the specified time.
26
27    .. versionadded:: 3.3
28
29
30.. function:: make_msgid(idstring=None, domain=None)
31
32   Returns a string suitable for an :rfc:`2822`\ -compliant
33   :mailheader:`Message-ID` header.  Optional *idstring* if given, is a string
34   used to strengthen the uniqueness of the message id.  Optional *domain* if
35   given provides the portion of the msgid after the '@'.  The default is the
36   local hostname.  It is not normally necessary to override this default, but
37   may be useful certain cases, such as a constructing distributed system that
38   uses a consistent domain name across multiple hosts.
39
40   .. versionchanged:: 3.2
41      Added the *domain* keyword.
42
43
44The remaining functions are part of the legacy (``Compat32``) email API.  There
45is no need to directly use these with the new API, since the parsing and
46formatting they provide is done automatically by the header parsing machinery
47of the new API.
48
49
50.. function:: quote(str)
51
52   Return a new string with backslashes in *str* replaced by two backslashes, and
53   double quotes replaced by backslash-double quote.
54
55
56.. function:: unquote(str)
57
58   Return a new string which is an *unquoted* version of *str*. If *str* ends and
59   begins with double quotes, they are stripped off.  Likewise if *str* ends and
60   begins with angle brackets, they are stripped off.
61
62
63.. function:: parseaddr(address, *, strict=True)
64
65   Parse address -- which should be the value of some address-containing field such
66   as :mailheader:`To` or :mailheader:`Cc` -- into its constituent *realname* and
67   *email address* parts.  Returns a tuple of that information, unless the parse
68   fails, in which case a 2-tuple of ``('', '')`` is returned.
69
70   If *strict* is true, use a strict parser which rejects malformed inputs.
71
72   .. versionchanged:: 3.13
73      Add *strict* optional parameter and reject malformed inputs by default.
74
75
76
77.. function:: formataddr(pair, charset='utf-8')
78
79   The inverse of :meth:`parseaddr`, this takes a 2-tuple of the form ``(realname,
80   email_address)`` and returns the string value suitable for a :mailheader:`To` or
81   :mailheader:`Cc` header.  If the first element of *pair* is false, then the
82   second element is returned unmodified.
83
84   Optional *charset* is the character set that will be used in the :rfc:`2047`
85   encoding of the ``realname`` if the ``realname`` contains non-ASCII
86   characters.  Can be an instance of :class:`str` or a
87   :class:`~email.charset.Charset`.  Defaults to ``utf-8``.
88
89   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
90      Added the *charset* option.
91
92
93.. function:: getaddresses(fieldvalues, *, strict=True)
94
95   This method returns a list of 2-tuples of the form returned by ``parseaddr()``.
96   *fieldvalues* is a sequence of header field values as might be returned by
97   :meth:`Message.get_all <email.message.Message.get_all>`.
98
99   If *strict* is true, use a strict parser which rejects malformed inputs.
100
101   Here's a simple example that gets all the recipients of a message::
102
103      from email.utils import getaddresses
104
105      tos = msg.get_all('to', [])
106      ccs = msg.get_all('cc', [])
107      resent_tos = msg.get_all('resent-to', [])
108      resent_ccs = msg.get_all('resent-cc', [])
109      all_recipients = getaddresses(tos + ccs + resent_tos + resent_ccs)
110
111   .. versionchanged:: 3.13
112      Add *strict* optional parameter and reject malformed inputs by default.
113
114
115.. function:: parsedate(date)
116
117   Attempts to parse a date according to the rules in :rfc:`2822`. however, some
118   mailers don't follow that format as specified, so :func:`parsedate` tries to
119   guess correctly in such cases.  *date* is a string containing an :rfc:`2822`
120   date, such as  ``"Mon, 20 Nov 1995 19:12:08 -0500"``.  If it succeeds in parsing
121   the date, :func:`parsedate` returns a 9-tuple that can be passed directly to
122   :func:`time.mktime`; otherwise ``None`` will be returned.  Note that indexes 6,
123   7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.
124
125
126.. function:: parsedate_tz(date)
127
128   Performs the same function as :func:`parsedate`, but returns either ``None`` or
129   a 10-tuple; the first 9 elements make up a tuple that can be passed directly to
130   :func:`time.mktime`, and the tenth is the offset of the date's timezone from UTC
131   (which is the official term for Greenwich Mean Time) [#]_.  If the input string
132   has no timezone, the last element of the tuple returned is ``0``, which represents
133   UTC. Note that indexes 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.
134
135
136.. function:: parsedate_to_datetime(date)
137
138   The inverse of :func:`format_datetime`.  Performs the same function as
139   :func:`parsedate`, but on success returns a :mod:`~datetime.datetime`;
140   otherwise ``ValueError`` is raised if *date* contains an invalid value such
141   as an hour greater than 23 or a timezone offset not between -24 and 24 hours.
142   If the input date has a timezone of ``-0000``, the ``datetime`` will be a naive
143   ``datetime``, and if the date is conforming to the RFCs it will represent a
144   time in UTC but with no indication of the actual source timezone of the
145   message the date comes from.  If the input date has any other valid timezone
146   offset, the ``datetime`` will be an aware ``datetime`` with the
147   corresponding a :class:`~datetime.timezone` :class:`~datetime.tzinfo`.
148
149   .. versionadded:: 3.3
150
151
152.. function:: mktime_tz(tuple)
153
154   Turn a 10-tuple as returned by :func:`parsedate_tz` into a UTC
155   timestamp (seconds since the Epoch).  If the timezone item in the
156   tuple is ``None``, assume local time.
157
158
159.. function:: formatdate(timeval=None, localtime=False, usegmt=False)
160
161   Returns a date string as per :rfc:`2822`, e.g.::
162
163      Fri, 09 Nov 2001 01:08:47 -0000
164
165   Optional *timeval* if given is a floating point time value as accepted by
166   :func:`time.gmtime` and :func:`time.localtime`, otherwise the current time is
167   used.
168
169   Optional *localtime* is a flag that when ``True``, interprets *timeval*, and
170   returns a date relative to the local timezone instead of UTC, properly taking
171   daylight savings time into account. The default is ``False`` meaning UTC is
172   used.
173
174   Optional *usegmt* is a flag that when ``True``, outputs a  date string with the
175   timezone as an ascii string ``GMT``, rather than a numeric ``-0000``. This is
176   needed for some protocols (such as HTTP). This only applies when *localtime* is
177   ``False``.  The default is ``False``.
178
179
180.. function:: format_datetime(dt, usegmt=False)
181
182   Like ``formatdate``, but the input is a :mod:`datetime` instance.  If it is
183   a naive datetime, it is assumed to be "UTC with no information about the
184   source timezone", and the conventional ``-0000`` is used for the timezone.
185   If it is an aware ``datetime``, then the numeric timezone offset is used.
186   If it is an aware timezone with offset zero, then *usegmt* may be set to
187   ``True``, in which case the string ``GMT`` is used instead of the numeric
188   timezone offset.  This provides a way to generate standards conformant HTTP
189   date headers.
190
191   .. versionadded:: 3.3
192
193
194.. function:: decode_rfc2231(s)
195
196   Decode the string *s* according to :rfc:`2231`.
197
198
199.. function:: encode_rfc2231(s, charset=None, language=None)
200
201   Encode the string *s* according to :rfc:`2231`.  Optional *charset* and
202   *language*, if given is the character set name and language name to use.  If
203   neither is given, *s* is returned as-is.  If *charset* is given but *language*
204   is not, the string is encoded using the empty string for *language*.
205
206
207.. function:: collapse_rfc2231_value(value, errors='replace', fallback_charset='us-ascii')
208
209   When a header parameter is encoded in :rfc:`2231` format,
210   :meth:`Message.get_param <email.message.Message.get_param>` may return a
211   3-tuple containing the character set,
212   language, and value.  :func:`collapse_rfc2231_value` turns this into a unicode
213   string.  Optional *errors* is passed to the *errors* argument of :class:`str`'s
214   :func:`~str.encode` method; it defaults to ``'replace'``.  Optional
215   *fallback_charset* specifies the character set to use if the one in the
216   :rfc:`2231` header is not known by Python; it defaults to ``'us-ascii'``.
217
218   For convenience, if the *value* passed to :func:`collapse_rfc2231_value` is not
219   a tuple, it should be a string and it is returned unquoted.
220
221
222.. function:: decode_params(params)
223
224   Decode parameters list according to :rfc:`2231`.  *params* is a sequence of
225   2-tuples containing elements of the form ``(content-type, string-value)``.
226
227
228.. rubric:: Footnotes
229
230.. [#] Note that the sign of the timezone offset is the opposite of the sign of the
231   ``time.timezone`` variable for the same timezone; the latter variable follows
232   the POSIX standard while this module follows :rfc:`2822`.
233