mailbox
— Manipuler les boîtes de courriels dans différents formats¶
Code source : Lib/mailbox.py
Ce module définit deux classes, Mailbox
et Message
, pour accéder et manipuler les boîtes de courriel sur le disque et les messages qu'elles contiennent. Mailbox
offre une interface ressemblant aux dictionnaires avec des clés et des messages. La classe Message
étend le module email.message
de la classe Message
avec un état et un comportement spécifiques à son format. Les formats de boîtes de courriel gérés sont Maildir, mbox, MH, Babyl et MMDF.
Voir aussi
- Module
email
Représente et manipule des messages.
Objets Mailbox
¶
-
class
mailbox.
Mailbox
¶ Une boîte mail, qui peut être inspectée et modifiée.
La classe
Mailbox
définit une interface et n'est pas destinée à être instanciée. Les sous-classes de format spécifique doivent plutôt hériter deMailbox
et votre code doit instancier une sous-classe particulière.L'interface
Mailbox
est un compatible avec celle des dictionnaires, avec de courtes clés correspondant aux messages. Les clés sont générées par l'instanceMailbox
avec laquelle elles sont utilisées et n'ont de sens que pour cette instanceMailbox
. Une clé continue d'identifier un message même si le message correspondant est modifié ou remplacé par un autre message.Les messages peuvent être ajoutés à une instance
Mailbox
en utilisant la méthodeadd()
(comme pour les ensembles), et supprimés en utilisant soit l'instructiondel
soit les méthodesremove()
etdiscard()
(comme pour les ensembles).La sémantique de l'interface
Mailbox
diffère de la sémantique des dictionnaires sur plusieurs aspects. À chaque fois qu'un message est demandé, une nouvelle représentation (généralement une instanceMessage
) est générée en se basant sur l'état actuel de la boîte mail. De la même manière, lorsqu'un message est ajouté à l'instanceMailbox
, le contenu de la représentation du message donné est copié. En aucun cas une référence vers la représentation du message n'est gardée par l'instanceMailbox
.L'itérateur par défaut de
Mailbox
itère sur les représentations des messages et pas sur les clés (comme le fait par défaut l'itérateur des dictionnaires). De plus, les modifications sur une boîte mail durant l'itération sont sûres et clairement définies. Les messages ajoutés à la boîte mail après la création d'un itérateur ne sont pas vus par l'itérateur. Les messages supprimés de la boîte mail avant que l'itérateur les traite seront ignorés silencieusement. Toutefois, utiliser une clé depuis un itérateur peut aboutir à une exceptionKeyError
si le message correspondant est supprimé par la suite.Avertissement
Soyez très prudent lorsque vous éditez des boîtes mail qui peuvent être modifiées par d'autres processus. Le format de boîte mail le plus sûr à utiliser pour ces tâches est Maildir, essayez d'éviter les formats à fichier unique tels que mbox afin d'empêcher les écritures concurrentes. Si vous modifiez une boîte mail, vous devez la verrouiller en appelant les méthodes
lock()
etunlock()
avant de lire les messages dans le fichier ou d'y appliquer des changements en y ajoutant ou supprimant des messages. Ne pas verrouiller la boîte mail vous fait prendre le risque de perdre des messages ou de corrompre la boîte mail entière.Les instances
Mailbox
contiennent les méthodes suivantes :-
add
(message)¶ Ajoute message à la boîte mail et renvoie la clé qui lui a été assigné.
Le paramètre message peut être une instance
Message
, une instanceemail.message.Message
, une chaîne de caractères, une séquence d'octets ou un objet fichier-compatible (qui doit être ouvert en mode binaire). Si message est une instance de la sous-classeMessage
au format correspondant (par exemple s'il s'agit d'une instancemboxMessage
et d'une instancembox
), les informations spécifiques à son format sont utilisées. Sinon, des valeurs par défaut raisonnables pour son format sont utilisées.Modifié dans la version 3.2: Ajout de la gestion des messages binaires.
-
remove
(key)¶ -
__delitem__
(key)¶ -
discard
(key)¶ Supprime le message correspondant à key dans la boîte mail.
Si ce message n'existe pas, une exception
KeyError
est levée si la méthode a été appelée en tant queremove()
ou__delitem__()
mais aucune exception n'est levée si la méthode a été appelée en tant quediscard()
. Vous préférerez sûrement le comportement dediscard()
si le format de boîte mail sous-jacent accepte la modification concurrente par les autres processus.
-
__setitem__
(key, message)¶ Remplace le message correspondant à key par message. Lève une exception
KeyError
s'il n'y a pas déjà de message correspondant à key.Comme pour
add()
, le paramètre message peut être une instanceMessage
, une instanceemail.message.Message
, une chaîne de caractères, une chaîne d'octets ou un objet fichier-compatible (qui doit être ouvert en mode binaire). Si message est une instance de la sous-classeMessage
au format correspondant (par exemple s'il s'agit d'une instancemboxMessage
et d'une instancembox
), les informations spécifiques à son format sont utilisées. Sinon, les informations spécifiques au format du message qui correspond à key ne sont modifiées.
-
iterkeys
()¶ -
keys
()¶ Renvoie un itérateur sur toutes les clés s'il est appelé en tant que
iterkeys()
ou renvoie une liste de clés s'il est appelé en tant quekeys()
.
-
itervalues
()¶ -
__iter__
()¶ -
values
()¶ Renvoie un itérateur sur les représentations de tous les messages s'il est appelé en tant que
itervalues()
ou__iter__()
et renvoie une liste de ces représentations s'il est appelé en tant quevalues()
. Les messages sont représentés en tant qu'instances de la sous-classeMessage
au format correspondant à moins qu'une fabrique de messages personnalisée soit spécifiée lorsque l'instanceMailbox
a été initialisée.Note
Le comportement de
__iter__()
diffère de celui d'un dictionnaire, pour lequel l'itération se fait sur ses clés.
-
iteritems
()¶ -
items
()¶ Renvoie un itérateur sur les paires (key, message), où key est une clé et message est la représentation d'un message, si appelée en tant que
iteritems()
; ou renvoie une liste de paires semblables si appelée en tant queitems()
. Les messages sont représentés comme instances au format approprié et spécifique d'une sous-classe deMessage
à moins qu'une moulinette personnalisée de message ait été spécifiée lors de l'initialisation de l'instanceMailbox
.
-
get
(key, default=None)¶ -
__getitem__
(key)¶ Return a representation of the message corresponding to key. If no such message exists, default is returned if the method was called as
get()
and aKeyError
exception is raised if the method was called as__getitem__()
. The message is represented as an instance of the appropriate format-specificMessage
subclass unless a custom message factory was specified when theMailbox
instance was initialized.
-
get_message
(key)¶ Return a representation of the message corresponding to key as an instance of the appropriate format-specific
Message
subclass, or raise aKeyError
exception if no such message exists.
-
get_bytes
(key)¶ Return a byte representation of the message corresponding to key, or raise a
KeyError
exception if no such message exists.Nouveau dans la version 3.2.
-
get_string
(key)¶ Return a string representation of the message corresponding to key, or raise a
KeyError
exception if no such message exists. The message is processed throughemail.message.Message
to convert it to a 7bit clean representation.
-
get_file
(key)¶ Return a file-like representation of the message corresponding to key, or raise a
KeyError
exception if no such message exists. The file-like object behaves as if open in binary mode. This file should be closed once it is no longer needed.Modifié dans la version 3.2: The file object really is a binary file; previously it was incorrectly returned in text mode. Also, the file-like object now supports the context management protocol: you can use a
with
statement to automatically close it.Note
Unlike other representations of messages, file-like representations are not necessarily independent of the
Mailbox
instance that created them or of the underlying mailbox. More specific documentation is provided by each subclass.
-
__contains__
(key)¶ Return
True
if key corresponds to a message,False
otherwise.
-
__len__
()¶ Return a count of messages in the mailbox.
-
clear
()¶ Supprime tous les messages de la boîte de courriel.
-
pop
(key, default=None)¶ Return a representation of the message corresponding to key and delete the message. If no such message exists, return default. The message is represented as an instance of the appropriate format-specific
Message
subclass unless a custom message factory was specified when theMailbox
instance was initialized.
-
popitem
()¶ Return an arbitrary (key, message) pair, where key is a key and message is a message representation, and delete the corresponding message. If the mailbox is empty, raise a
KeyError
exception. The message is represented as an instance of the appropriate format-specificMessage
subclass unless a custom message factory was specified when theMailbox
instance was initialized.
-
update
(arg)¶ Parameter arg should be a key-to-message mapping or an iterable of (key, message) pairs. Updates the mailbox so that, for each given key and message, the message corresponding to key is set to message as if by using
__setitem__()
. As with__setitem__()
, each key must already correspond to a message in the mailbox or else aKeyError
exception will be raised, so in general it is incorrect for arg to be aMailbox
instance.Note
Unlike with dictionaries, keyword arguments are not supported.
-
flush
()¶ Write any pending changes to the filesystem. For some
Mailbox
subclasses, changes are always written immediately andflush()
does nothing, but you should still make a habit of calling this method.
-
lock
()¶ Acquire an exclusive advisory lock on the mailbox so that other processes know not to modify it. An
ExternalClashError
is raised if the lock is not available. The particular locking mechanisms used depend upon the mailbox format. You should always lock the mailbox before making any modifications to its contents.
-
unlock
()¶ Release the lock on the mailbox, if any.
-
Maildir
¶
-
class
mailbox.
Maildir
(dirname, factory=None, create=True)¶ A subclass of
Mailbox
for mailboxes in Maildir format. Parameter factory is a callable object that accepts a file-like message representation (which behaves as if opened in binary mode) and returns a custom representation. If factory isNone
,MaildirMessage
is used as the default message representation. If create isTrue
, the mailbox is created if it does not exist.If create is
True
and the dirname path exists, it will be treated as an existing maildir without attempting to verify its directory layout.It is for historical reasons that dirname is named as such rather than path.
Maildir is a directory-based mailbox format invented for the qmail mail transfer agent and now widely supported by other programs. Messages in a Maildir mailbox are stored in separate files within a common directory structure. This design allows Maildir mailboxes to be accessed and modified by multiple unrelated programs without data corruption, so file locking is unnecessary.
Maildir mailboxes contain three subdirectories, namely:
tmp
,new
, andcur
. Messages are created momentarily in thetmp
subdirectory and then moved to thenew
subdirectory to finalize delivery. A mail user agent may subsequently move the message to thecur
subdirectory and store information about the state of the message in a special "info" section appended to its file name.Folders of the style introduced by the Courier mail transfer agent are also supported. Any subdirectory of the main mailbox is considered a folder if
'.'
is the first character in its name. Folder names are represented byMaildir
without the leading'.'
. Each folder is itself a Maildir mailbox but should not contain other folders. Instead, a logical nesting is indicated using'.'
to delimit levels, e.g., "Archived.2005.07".Note
The Maildir specification requires the use of a colon (
':'
) in certain message file names. However, some operating systems do not permit this character in file names, If you wish to use a Maildir-like format on such an operating system, you should specify another character to use instead. The exclamation point ('!'
) is a popular choice. For example:import mailbox mailbox.Maildir.colon = '!'
The
colon
attribute may also be set on a per-instance basis.Maildir
instances have all of the methods ofMailbox
in addition to the following:-
list_folders
()¶ Return a list of the names of all folders.
-
get_folder
(folder)¶ Return a
Maildir
instance representing the folder whose name is folder. ANoSuchMailboxError
exception is raised if the folder does not exist.
-
add_folder
(folder)¶ Create a folder whose name is folder and return a
Maildir
instance representing it.
-
remove_folder
(folder)¶ Delete the folder whose name is folder. If the folder contains any messages, a
NotEmptyError
exception will be raised and the folder will not be deleted.
-
clean
()¶ Delete temporary files from the mailbox that have not been accessed in the last 36 hours. The Maildir specification says that mail-reading programs should do this occasionally.
Some
Mailbox
methods implemented byMaildir
deserve special remarks:-
add
(message)¶ -
__setitem__
(key, message)¶ -
update
(arg)¶ Avertissement
These methods generate unique file names based upon the current process ID. When using multiple threads, undetected name clashes may occur and cause corruption of the mailbox unless threads are coordinated to avoid using these methods to manipulate the same mailbox simultaneously.
-
flush
()¶ All changes to Maildir mailboxes are immediately applied, so this method does nothing.
-
lock
()¶ -
unlock
()¶ Maildir mailboxes do not support (or require) locking, so these methods do nothing.
-
close
()¶ Maildir
instances do not keep any open files and the underlying mailboxes do not support locking, so this method does nothing.
-
get_file
(key)¶ Depending upon the host platform, it may not be possible to modify or remove the underlying message while the returned file remains open.
-
Voir aussi
- maildir man page from Courier
A specification of the format. Describes a common extension for supporting folders.
- Using maildir format
Notes on Maildir by its inventor. Includes an updated name-creation scheme and details on "info" semantics.
mbox
¶
-
class
mailbox.
mbox
(path, factory=None, create=True)¶ A subclass of
Mailbox
for mailboxes in mbox format. Parameter factory is a callable object that accepts a file-like message representation (which behaves as if opened in binary mode) and returns a custom representation. If factory isNone
,mboxMessage
is used as the default message representation. If create isTrue
, the mailbox is created if it does not exist.The mbox format is the classic format for storing mail on Unix systems. All messages in an mbox mailbox are stored in a single file with the beginning of each message indicated by a line whose first five characters are "From ".
Several variations of the mbox format exist to address perceived shortcomings in the original. In the interest of compatibility,
mbox
implements the original format, which is sometimes referred to as mboxo. This means that the Content-Length header, if present, is ignored and that any occurrences of "From " at the beginning of a line in a message body are transformed to ">From " when storing the message, although occurrences of ">From " are not transformed to "From " when reading the message.Some
Mailbox
methods implemented bymbox
deserve special remarks:
Voir aussi
- mbox man page from tin
A specification of the format, with details on locking.
- Configuring Netscape Mail on Unix: Why The Content-Length Format is Bad
An argument for using the original mbox format rather than a variation.
- "mbox" is a family of several mutually incompatible mailbox formats
A history of mbox variations.
MH
¶
-
class
mailbox.
MH
(path, factory=None, create=True)¶ A subclass of
Mailbox
for mailboxes in MH format. Parameter factory is a callable object that accepts a file-like message representation (which behaves as if opened in binary mode) and returns a custom representation. If factory isNone
,MHMessage
is used as the default message representation. If create isTrue
, the mailbox is created if it does not exist.MH is a directory-based mailbox format invented for the MH Message Handling System, a mail user agent. Each message in an MH mailbox resides in its own file. An MH mailbox may contain other MH mailboxes (called folders) in addition to messages. Folders may be nested indefinitely. MH mailboxes also support sequences, which are named lists used to logically group messages without moving them to sub-folders. Sequences are defined in a file called
.mh_sequences
in each folder.The
MH
class manipulates MH mailboxes, but it does not attempt to emulate all of mh's behaviors. In particular, it does not modify and is not affected by thecontext
or.mh_profile
files that are used by mh to store its state and configuration.MH
instances have all of the methods ofMailbox
in addition to the following:-
list_folders
()¶ Return a list of the names of all folders.
-
get_folder
(folder)¶ Return an
MH
instance representing the folder whose name is folder. ANoSuchMailboxError
exception is raised if the folder does not exist.
-
remove_folder
(folder)¶ Delete the folder whose name is folder. If the folder contains any messages, a
NotEmptyError
exception will be raised and the folder will not be deleted.
-
get_sequences
()¶ Return a dictionary of sequence names mapped to key lists. If there are no sequences, the empty dictionary is returned.
-
set_sequences
(sequences)¶ Re-define the sequences that exist in the mailbox based upon sequences, a dictionary of names mapped to key lists, like returned by
get_sequences()
.
-
pack
()¶ Rename messages in the mailbox as necessary to eliminate gaps in numbering. Entries in the sequences list are updated correspondingly.
Note
Already-issued keys are invalidated by this operation and should not be subsequently used.
Some
Mailbox
methods implemented byMH
deserve special remarks:-
remove
(key)¶ -
__delitem__
(key)¶ -
discard
(key)¶ These methods immediately delete the message. The MH convention of marking a message for deletion by prepending a comma to its name is not used.
-
lock
()¶ -
unlock
()¶ Three locking mechanisms are used---dot locking and, if available, the
flock()
andlockf()
system calls. For MH mailboxes, locking the mailbox means locking the.mh_sequences
file and, only for the duration of any operations that affect them, locking individual message files.
-
get_file
(key)¶ Depending upon the host platform, it may not be possible to remove the underlying message while the returned file remains open.
-
flush
()¶ All changes to MH mailboxes are immediately applied, so this method does nothing.
-
Voir aussi
- nmh - Message Handling System
Home page of nmh, an updated version of the original mh.
- MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers
A GPL-licensed book on mh and nmh, with some information on the mailbox format.
Babyl
¶
-
class
mailbox.
Babyl
(path, factory=None, create=True)¶ A subclass of
Mailbox
for mailboxes in Babyl format. Parameter factory is a callable object that accepts a file-like message representation (which behaves as if opened in binary mode) and returns a custom representation. If factory isNone
,BabylMessage
is used as the default message representation. If create isTrue
, the mailbox is created if it does not exist.Babyl is a single-file mailbox format used by the Rmail mail user agent included with Emacs. The beginning of a message is indicated by a line containing the two characters Control-Underscore (
'\037'
) and Control-L ('\014'
). The end of a message is indicated by the start of the next message or, in the case of the last message, a line containing a Control-Underscore ('\037'
) character.Messages in a Babyl mailbox have two sets of headers, original headers and so-called visible headers. Visible headers are typically a subset of the original headers that have been reformatted or abridged to be more attractive. Each message in a Babyl mailbox also has an accompanying list of labels, or short strings that record extra information about the message, and a list of all user-defined labels found in the mailbox is kept in the Babyl options section.
Babyl
instances have all of the methods ofMailbox
in addition to the following:-
get_labels
()¶ Return a list of the names of all user-defined labels used in the mailbox.
Note
The actual messages are inspected to determine which labels exist in the mailbox rather than consulting the list of labels in the Babyl options section, but the Babyl section is updated whenever the mailbox is modified.
Some
Mailbox
methods implemented byBabyl
deserve special remarks:-
get_file
(key)¶ In Babyl mailboxes, the headers of a message are not stored contiguously with the body of the message. To generate a file-like representation, the headers and body are copied together into an
io.BytesIO
instance, which has an API identical to that of a file. As a result, the file-like object is truly independent of the underlying mailbox but does not save memory compared to a string representation.
-
Voir aussi
- Format of Version 5 Babyl Files
A specification of the Babyl format.
- Reading Mail with Rmail
The Rmail manual, with some information on Babyl semantics.
MMDF
¶
-
class
mailbox.
MMDF
(path, factory=None, create=True)¶ A subclass of
Mailbox
for mailboxes in MMDF format. Parameter factory is a callable object that accepts a file-like message representation (which behaves as if opened in binary mode) and returns a custom representation. If factory isNone
,MMDFMessage
is used as the default message representation. If create isTrue
, the mailbox is created if it does not exist.MMDF is a single-file mailbox format invented for the Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility, a mail transfer agent. Each message is in the same form as an mbox message but is bracketed before and after by lines containing four Control-A (
'\001'
) characters. As with the mbox format, the beginning of each message is indicated by a line whose first five characters are "From ", but additional occurrences of "From " are not transformed to ">From " when storing messages because the extra message separator lines prevent mistaking such occurrences for the starts of subsequent messages.Some
Mailbox
methods implemented byMMDF
deserve special remarks:
Voir aussi
- mmdf man page from tin
A specification of MMDF format from the documentation of tin, a newsreader.
- MMDF
A Wikipedia article describing the Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility.
Message
objects¶
-
class
mailbox.
Message
(message=None)¶ A subclass of the
email.message
module'sMessage
. Subclasses ofmailbox.Message
add mailbox-format-specific state and behavior.If message is omitted, the new instance is created in a default, empty state. If message is an
email.message.Message
instance, its contents are copied; furthermore, any format-specific information is converted insofar as possible if message is aMessage
instance. If message is a string, a byte string, or a file, it should contain an RFC 2822-compliant message, which is read and parsed. Files should be open in binary mode, but text mode files are accepted for backward compatibility.The format-specific state and behaviors offered by subclasses vary, but in general it is only the properties that are not specific to a particular mailbox that are supported (although presumably the properties are specific to a particular mailbox format). For example, file offsets for single-file mailbox formats and file names for directory-based mailbox formats are not retained, because they are only applicable to the original mailbox. But state such as whether a message has been read by the user or marked as important is retained, because it applies to the message itself.
There is no requirement that
Message
instances be used to represent messages retrieved usingMailbox
instances. In some situations, the time and memory required to generateMessage
representations might not be acceptable. For such situations,Mailbox
instances also offer string and file-like representations, and a custom message factory may be specified when aMailbox
instance is initialized.
MaildirMessage
¶
-
class
mailbox.
MaildirMessage
(message=None)¶ A message with Maildir-specific behaviors. Parameter message has the same meaning as with the
Message
constructor.Typically, a mail user agent application moves all of the messages in the
new
subdirectory to thecur
subdirectory after the first time the user opens and closes the mailbox, recording that the messages are old whether or not they've actually been read. Each message incur
has an "info" section added to its file name to store information about its state. (Some mail readers may also add an "info" section to messages innew
.) The "info" section may take one of two forms: it may contain "2," followed by a list of standardized flags (e.g., "2,FR") or it may contain "1," followed by so-called experimental information. Standard flags for Maildir messages are as follows:Option
Signification
Explication
D
Draft
Under composition
F
Flagged
Marked as important
P
Passed
Forwarded, resent, or bounced
R
Replied
Replied to
S
Seen
Read
T
Trashed
Marked for subsequent deletion
MaildirMessage
instances offer the following methods:-
get_subdir
()¶ Return either "new" (if the message should be stored in the
new
subdirectory) or "cur" (if the message should be stored in thecur
subdirectory).Note
A message is typically moved from
new
tocur
after its mailbox has been accessed, whether or not the message is has been read. A messagemsg
has been read if"S" in msg.get_flags()
isTrue
.
-
set_subdir
(subdir)¶ Set the subdirectory the message should be stored in. Parameter subdir must be either "new" or "cur".
-
get_flags
()¶ Return a string specifying the flags that are currently set. If the message complies with the standard Maildir format, the result is the concatenation in alphabetical order of zero or one occurrence of each of
'D'
,'F'
,'P'
,'R'
,'S'
, and'T'
. The empty string is returned if no flags are set or if "info" contains experimental semantics.
-
set_flags
(flags)¶ Set the flags specified by flags and unset all others.
-
add_flag
(flag)¶ Set the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To add more than one flag at a time, flag may be a string of more than one character. The current "info" is overwritten whether or not it contains experimental information rather than flags.
-
remove_flag
(flag)¶ Unset the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To remove more than one flag at a time, flag maybe a string of more than one character. If "info" contains experimental information rather than flags, the current "info" is not modified.
-
get_date
()¶ Return the delivery date of the message as a floating-point number representing seconds since the epoch.
-
set_date
(date)¶ Set the delivery date of the message to date, a floating-point number representing seconds since the epoch.
-
get_info
()¶ Return a string containing the "info" for a message. This is useful for accessing and modifying "info" that is experimental (i.e., not a list of flags).
-
set_info
(info)¶ Set "info" to info, which should be a string.
-
When a MaildirMessage
instance is created based upon an
mboxMessage
or MMDFMessage
instance, the Status
and X-Status headers are omitted and the following conversions
take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"cur" subdirectory |
O flag |
F flag |
F flag |
R flag |
A flag |
S flag |
R flag |
T flag |
D flag |
When a MaildirMessage
instance is created based upon an
MHMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"cur" subdirectory |
"unseen" sequence |
"cur" subdirectory and S flag |
no "unseen" sequence |
F flag |
"flagged" sequence |
R flag |
"replied" sequence |
When a MaildirMessage
instance is created based upon a
BabylMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"cur" subdirectory |
"unseen" label |
"cur" subdirectory and S flag |
no "unseen" label |
P flag |
"forwarded" or "resent" label |
R flag |
"answered" label |
T flag |
"deleted" label |
mboxMessage
¶
-
class
mailbox.
mboxMessage
(message=None)¶ A message with mbox-specific behaviors. Parameter message has the same meaning as with the
Message
constructor.Messages in an mbox mailbox are stored together in a single file. The sender's envelope address and the time of delivery are typically stored in a line beginning with "From " that is used to indicate the start of a message, though there is considerable variation in the exact format of this data among mbox implementations. Flags that indicate the state of the message, such as whether it has been read or marked as important, are typically stored in Status and X-Status headers.
Conventional flags for mbox messages are as follows:
Option
Signification
Explication
R
Read
Read
O
Old
Previously detected by MUA
D
Deleted
Marked for subsequent deletion
F
Flagged
Marked as important
A
Answered
Replied to
The "R" and "O" flags are stored in the Status header, and the "D", "F", and "A" flags are stored in the X-Status header. The flags and headers typically appear in the order mentioned.
mboxMessage
instances offer the following methods:-
get_from
()¶ Return a string representing the "From " line that marks the start of the message in an mbox mailbox. The leading "From " and the trailing newline are excluded.
-
set_from
(from_, time_=None)¶ Set the "From " line to from_, which should be specified without a leading "From " or trailing newline. For convenience, time_ may be specified and will be formatted appropriately and appended to from_. If time_ is specified, it should be a
time.struct_time
instance, a tuple suitable for passing totime.strftime()
, orTrue
(to usetime.gmtime()
).
-
get_flags
()¶ Return a string specifying the flags that are currently set. If the message complies with the conventional format, the result is the concatenation in the following order of zero or one occurrence of each of
'R'
,'O'
,'D'
,'F'
, and'A'
.
-
set_flags
(flags)¶ Set the flags specified by flags and unset all others. Parameter flags should be the concatenation in any order of zero or more occurrences of each of
'R'
,'O'
,'D'
,'F'
, and'A'
.
-
add_flag
(flag)¶ Set the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To add more than one flag at a time, flag may be a string of more than one character.
-
remove_flag
(flag)¶ Unset the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To remove more than one flag at a time, flag maybe a string of more than one character.
-
When an mboxMessage
instance is created based upon a
MaildirMessage
instance, a "From " line is generated based upon the
MaildirMessage
instance's delivery date, and the following conversions
take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag |
S flag |
O flag |
"cur" subdirectory |
D flag |
T flag |
F flag |
F flag |
A flag |
R flag |
When an mboxMessage
instance is created based upon an
MHMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag and O flag |
no "unseen" sequence |
O flag |
"unseen" sequence |
F flag |
"flagged" sequence |
A flag |
"replied" sequence |
When an mboxMessage
instance is created based upon a
BabylMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag and O flag |
no "unseen" label |
O flag |
"unseen" label |
D flag |
"deleted" label |
A flag |
"answered" label |
When a Message
instance is created based upon an MMDFMessage
instance, the "From " line is copied and all flags directly correspond:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag |
R flag |
O flag |
O flag |
D flag |
D flag |
F flag |
F flag |
A flag |
A flag |
MHMessage
¶
-
class
mailbox.
MHMessage
(message=None)¶ A message with MH-specific behaviors. Parameter message has the same meaning as with the
Message
constructor.MH messages do not support marks or flags in the traditional sense, but they do support sequences, which are logical groupings of arbitrary messages. Some mail reading programs (although not the standard mh and nmh) use sequences in much the same way flags are used with other formats, as follows:
Séquence
Explication
unseen
Not read, but previously detected by MUA
replied
Replied to
flagged
Marked as important
MHMessage
instances offer the following methods:-
get_sequences
()¶ Return a list of the names of sequences that include this message.
-
set_sequences
(sequences)¶ Set the list of sequences that include this message.
-
add_sequence
(sequence)¶ Add sequence to the list of sequences that include this message.
-
remove_sequence
(sequence)¶ Remove sequence from the list of sequences that include this message.
-
When an MHMessage
instance is created based upon a
MaildirMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" sequence |
no S flag |
"replied" sequence |
R flag |
"flagged" sequence |
F flag |
When an MHMessage
instance is created based upon an
mboxMessage
or MMDFMessage
instance, the Status
and X-Status headers are omitted and the following conversions
take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" sequence |
no R flag |
"replied" sequence |
A flag |
"flagged" sequence |
F flag |
When an MHMessage
instance is created based upon a
BabylMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" sequence |
"unseen" label |
"replied" sequence |
"answered" label |
BabylMessage
¶
-
class
mailbox.
BabylMessage
(message=None)¶ A message with Babyl-specific behaviors. Parameter message has the same meaning as with the
Message
constructor.Certain message labels, called attributes, are defined by convention to have special meanings. The attributes are as follows:
Label
Explication
unseen
Not read, but previously detected by MUA
deleted
Marked for subsequent deletion
filed
Copied to another file or mailbox
answered
Replied to
forwarded
Forwarded
edited
Modified by the user
resent
Resent
By default, Rmail displays only visible headers. The
BabylMessage
class, though, uses the original headers because they are more complete. Visible headers may be accessed explicitly if desired.BabylMessage
instances offer the following methods:-
get_labels
()¶ Return a list of labels on the message.
-
set_labels
(labels)¶ Set the list of labels on the message to labels.
-
add_label
(label)¶ Add label to the list of labels on the message.
-
remove_label
(label)¶ Remove label from the list of labels on the message.
-
get_visible
()¶ Return an
Message
instance whose headers are the message's visible headers and whose body is empty.
-
set_visible
(visible)¶ Set the message's visible headers to be the same as the headers in message. Parameter visible should be a
Message
instance, anemail.message.Message
instance, a string, or a file-like object (which should be open in text mode).
-
update_visible
()¶ When a
BabylMessage
instance's original headers are modified, the visible headers are not automatically modified to correspond. This method updates the visible headers as follows: each visible header with a corresponding original header is set to the value of the original header, each visible header without a corresponding original header is removed, and any of Date, From, Reply-To, To, CC, and Subject that are present in the original headers but not the visible headers are added to the visible headers.
-
When a BabylMessage
instance is created based upon a
MaildirMessage
instance, the following conversions take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" label |
no S flag |
"deleted" label |
T flag |
"answered" label |
R flag |
"forwarded" label |
P flag |
When a BabylMessage
instance is created based upon an
mboxMessage
or MMDFMessage
instance, the Status
and X-Status headers are omitted and the following conversions
take place:
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" label |
no R flag |
"deleted" label |
D flag |
"answered" label |
A flag |
Lorsqu'une instance BabylMessage
est créée sur la base d'une instance MHMessage
, les conversions suivantes sont faites :
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
"unseen" label |
"unseen" sequence |
"answered" label |
"replied" sequence |
MMDFMessage
¶
-
class
mailbox.
MMDFMessage
(message=None)¶ Un message avec des comportements spécifiques à MMDF. Le paramètre message a le même sens que pour le constructeur de
Message
.Comme pour le message d'une boîte de courriel mbox, les messages MMDF sont stockés avec l'adresse de l'expéditeur et la date d'expédition dans la ligne initiale commençant avec « From ». De même, les options indiquant l'état du message sont stockées dans les en-têtes Status et X-Status.
Les options conventionnelles des messages MMDF sont identiques à celles de message mbox et sont les suivantes :
Option
Signification
Explication
R
Read
Read
O
Old
Previously detected by MUA
D
Deleted
Marked for subsequent deletion
F
Flagged
Marked as important
A
Answered
Replied to
The "R" and "O" flags are stored in the Status header, and the "D", "F", and "A" flags are stored in the X-Status header. The flags and headers typically appear in the order mentioned.
Les méthodes des instances
MMDFMessage
sont identiques à celles demboxMessage
et sont les suivantes :-
get_from
()¶ Return a string representing the "From " line that marks the start of the message in an mbox mailbox. The leading "From " and the trailing newline are excluded.
-
set_from
(from_, time_=None)¶ Set the "From " line to from_, which should be specified without a leading "From " or trailing newline. For convenience, time_ may be specified and will be formatted appropriately and appended to from_. If time_ is specified, it should be a
time.struct_time
instance, a tuple suitable for passing totime.strftime()
, orTrue
(to usetime.gmtime()
).
-
get_flags
()¶ Return a string specifying the flags that are currently set. If the message complies with the conventional format, the result is the concatenation in the following order of zero or one occurrence of each of
'R'
,'O'
,'D'
,'F'
, and'A'
.
-
set_flags
(flags)¶ Set the flags specified by flags and unset all others. Parameter flags should be the concatenation in any order of zero or more occurrences of each of
'R'
,'O'
,'D'
,'F'
, and'A'
.
-
add_flag
(flag)¶ Set the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To add more than one flag at a time, flag may be a string of more than one character.
-
remove_flag
(flag)¶ Unset the flag(s) specified by flag without changing other flags. To remove more than one flag at a time, flag maybe a string of more than one character.
-
Lorsqu'une instance MMDFMessage
est créée sur la base d'une instance MaildirMessage
, la ligne « From » est générée sur la base de la date de remise de l'instance MaildirMessage
et les conversions suivantes ont lieu :
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag |
S flag |
O flag |
"cur" subdirectory |
D flag |
T flag |
F flag |
F flag |
A flag |
R flag |
Lorsqu'une instance MMDFMessage
est créée sur la base d'une instance MHMessage
, les conversions suivantes sont faites :
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag and O flag |
no "unseen" sequence |
O flag |
"unseen" sequence |
F flag |
"flagged" sequence |
A flag |
"replied" sequence |
Lorsqu'une instance MMDFMessage
est créée sur la base d'une instance BabylMessage
, les conversions suivantes sont faites :
Resulting state |
|
---|---|
R flag and O flag |
no "unseen" label |
O flag |
"unseen" label |
D flag |
"deleted" label |
A flag |
"answered" label |
Lorsqu'une instance MMDFMessage
est créée sur la base d'une instance mboxMessage
, la ligne « From » est copiée et toutes les options ont une correspondance directe :
Resulting state |
état de |
---|---|
R flag |
R flag |
O flag |
O flag |
D flag |
D flag |
F flag |
F flag |
A flag |
A flag |
Exceptions¶
Les exceptions de classes suivantes sont définies dans le module mailbox
:
-
exception
mailbox.
Error
¶ Classe de base pour toutes les autres exceptions spécifiques à ce module.
-
exception
mailbox.
NoSuchMailboxError
¶ Levée lorsqu'une boîte de courriel est attendue mais introuvable, comme quand on instancie une sous-classe
Mailbox
avec un chemin qui n'existe pas (et avec le paramètre create fixé àFalse
), ou quand on ouvre un répertoire qui n'existe pas.
-
exception
mailbox.
NotEmptyError
¶ Levée lorsqu'une boîte de courriel n'est pas vide mais devrait l'être, comme lorsqu'on supprime un répertoire contenant des messages.
-
exception
mailbox.
ExternalClashError
¶ Levée lorsqu'une condition liée à la boîte de courriel est hors de contrôle du programme et l'empêche de se poursuivre, comme lors de l’échec d'acquisition du verrou ou lorsqu'un nom de fichier censé être unique existe déjà.
Exemples¶
Un exemple simple d'affichage de l'objet, qui semble pertinent, de tous les messages d'une boîte de courriel :
import mailbox
for message in mailbox.mbox('~/mbox'):
subject = message['subject'] # Could possibly be None.
if subject and 'python' in subject.lower():
print(subject)
Cet exemple copie tout le courriel d'une boite de courriel au format Babyl vers une boite de courriel au format MH, convertissant toute l'information qu'il est possible de convertir du premier format vers le second :
import mailbox
destination = mailbox.MH('~/Mail')
destination.lock()
for message in mailbox.Babyl('~/RMAIL'):
destination.add(mailbox.MHMessage(message))
destination.flush()
destination.unlock()
Cet exemple trie le courriel en provenance de plusieurs listes de diffusion vers différentes boîtes de courriel, tout en évitant une corruption à cause de modifications concurrentielles par d'autres programmes, une perte due à une interruption du programme ou un arrêt prématuré causé par des messages mal structurés :
import mailbox
import email.errors
list_names = ('python-list', 'python-dev', 'python-bugs')
boxes = {name: mailbox.mbox('~/email/%s' % name) for name in list_names}
inbox = mailbox.Maildir('~/Maildir', factory=None)
for key in inbox.iterkeys():
try:
message = inbox[key]
except email.errors.MessageParseError:
continue # The message is malformed. Just leave it.
for name in list_names:
list_id = message['list-id']
if list_id and name in list_id:
# Get mailbox to use
box = boxes[name]
# Write copy to disk before removing original.
# If there's a crash, you might duplicate a message, but
# that's better than losing a message completely.
box.lock()
box.add(message)
box.flush()
box.unlock()
# Remove original message
inbox.lock()
inbox.discard(key)
inbox.flush()
inbox.unlock()
break # Found destination, so stop looking.
for box in boxes.itervalues():
box.close()