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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)
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
71.. function:: formataddr(pair, charset='utf-8')
72
73   The inverse of :meth:`parseaddr`, this takes a 2-tuple of the form ``(realname,
74   email_address)`` and returns the string value suitable for a :mailheader:`To` or
75   :mailheader:`Cc` header.  If the first element of *pair* is false, then the
76   second element is returned unmodified.
77
78   Optional *charset* is the character set that will be used in the :rfc:`2047`
79   encoding of the ``realname`` if the ``realname`` contains non-ASCII
80   characters.  Can be an instance of :class:`str` or a
81   :class:`~email.charset.Charset`.  Defaults to ``utf-8``.
82
83   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
84      Added the *charset* option.
85
86
87.. function:: getaddresses(fieldvalues)
88
89   This method returns a list of 2-tuples of the form returned by ``parseaddr()``.
90   *fieldvalues* is a sequence of header field values as might be returned by
91   :meth:`Message.get_all <email.message.Message.get_all>`.  Here's a simple
92   example that gets all the recipients of a message::
93
94      from email.utils import getaddresses
95
96      tos = msg.get_all('to', [])
97      ccs = msg.get_all('cc', [])
98      resent_tos = msg.get_all('resent-to', [])
99      resent_ccs = msg.get_all('resent-cc', [])
100      all_recipients = getaddresses(tos + ccs + resent_tos + resent_ccs)
101
102
103.. function:: parsedate(date)
104
105   Attempts to parse a date according to the rules in :rfc:`2822`. however, some
106   mailers don't follow that format as specified, so :func:`parsedate` tries to
107   guess correctly in such cases.  *date* is a string containing an :rfc:`2822`
108   date, such as  ``"Mon, 20 Nov 1995 19:12:08 -0500"``.  If it succeeds in parsing
109   the date, :func:`parsedate` returns a 9-tuple that can be passed directly to
110   :func:`time.mktime`; otherwise ``None`` will be returned.  Note that indexes 6,
111   7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.
112
113
114.. function:: parsedate_tz(date)
115
116   Performs the same function as :func:`parsedate`, but returns either ``None`` or
117   a 10-tuple; the first 9 elements make up a tuple that can be passed directly to
118   :func:`time.mktime`, and the tenth is the offset of the date's timezone from UTC
119   (which is the official term for Greenwich Mean Time) [#]_.  If the input string
120   has no timezone, the last element of the tuple returned is ``0``, which represents
121   UTC. Note that indexes 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.
122
123
124.. function:: parsedate_to_datetime(date)
125
126   The inverse of :func:`format_datetime`.  Performs the same function as
127   :func:`parsedate`, but on success returns a :mod:`~datetime.datetime`.  If
128   the input date has a timezone of ``-0000``, the ``datetime`` will be a naive
129   ``datetime``, and if the date is conforming to the RFCs it will represent a
130   time in UTC but with no indication of the actual source timezone of the
131   message the date comes from.  If the input date has any other valid timezone
132   offset, the ``datetime`` will be an aware ``datetime`` with the
133   corresponding a :class:`~datetime.timezone` :class:`~datetime.tzinfo`.
134
135   .. versionadded:: 3.3
136
137
138.. function:: mktime_tz(tuple)
139
140   Turn a 10-tuple as returned by :func:`parsedate_tz` into a UTC
141   timestamp (seconds since the Epoch).  If the timezone item in the
142   tuple is ``None``, assume local time.
143
144
145.. function:: formatdate(timeval=None, localtime=False, usegmt=False)
146
147   Returns a date string as per :rfc:`2822`, e.g.::
148
149      Fri, 09 Nov 2001 01:08:47 -0000
150
151   Optional *timeval* if given is a floating point time value as accepted by
152   :func:`time.gmtime` and :func:`time.localtime`, otherwise the current time is
153   used.
154
155   Optional *localtime* is a flag that when ``True``, interprets *timeval*, and
156   returns a date relative to the local timezone instead of UTC, properly taking
157   daylight savings time into account. The default is ``False`` meaning UTC is
158   used.
159
160   Optional *usegmt* is a flag that when ``True``, outputs a  date string with the
161   timezone as an ascii string ``GMT``, rather than a numeric ``-0000``. This is
162   needed for some protocols (such as HTTP). This only applies when *localtime* is
163   ``False``.  The default is ``False``.
164
165
166.. function:: format_datetime(dt, usegmt=False)
167
168   Like ``formatdate``, but the input is a :mod:`datetime` instance.  If it is
169   a naive datetime, it is assumed to be "UTC with no information about the
170   source timezone", and the conventional ``-0000`` is used for the timezone.
171   If it is an aware ``datetime``, then the numeric timezone offset is used.
172   If it is an aware timezone with offset zero, then *usegmt* may be set to
173   ``True``, in which case the string ``GMT`` is used instead of the numeric
174   timezone offset.  This provides a way to generate standards conformant HTTP
175   date headers.
176
177   .. versionadded:: 3.3
178
179
180.. function:: decode_rfc2231(s)
181
182   Decode the string *s* according to :rfc:`2231`.
183
184
185.. function:: encode_rfc2231(s, charset=None, language=None)
186
187   Encode the string *s* according to :rfc:`2231`.  Optional *charset* and
188   *language*, if given is the character set name and language name to use.  If
189   neither is given, *s* is returned as-is.  If *charset* is given but *language*
190   is not, the string is encoded using the empty string for *language*.
191
192
193.. function:: collapse_rfc2231_value(value, errors='replace', fallback_charset='us-ascii')
194
195   When a header parameter is encoded in :rfc:`2231` format,
196   :meth:`Message.get_param <email.message.Message.get_param>` may return a
197   3-tuple containing the character set,
198   language, and value.  :func:`collapse_rfc2231_value` turns this into a unicode
199   string.  Optional *errors* is passed to the *errors* argument of :class:`str`'s
200   :func:`~str.encode` method; it defaults to ``'replace'``.  Optional
201   *fallback_charset* specifies the character set to use if the one in the
202   :rfc:`2231` header is not known by Python; it defaults to ``'us-ascii'``.
203
204   For convenience, if the *value* passed to :func:`collapse_rfc2231_value` is not
205   a tuple, it should be a string and it is returned unquoted.
206
207
208.. function:: decode_params(params)
209
210   Decode parameters list according to :rfc:`2231`.  *params* is a sequence of
211   2-tuples containing elements of the form ``(content-type, string-value)``.
212
213
214.. rubric:: Footnotes
215
216.. [#] Note that the sign of the timezone offset is the opposite of the sign of the
217   ``time.timezone`` variable for the same timezone; the latter variable follows
218   the POSIX standard while this module follows :rfc:`2822`.
219