rfc822
This module defines a class, Message, which represents a
collection of ``email headers'' as defined by the Internet standard
RFC 822. It is used in various contexts, usually to read such headers
from a file.
Note that there's a separate module to read Unix, MH, and MMDF
style mailbox files: mailbox.
A Message instance is instantiated with an open file object as
parameter. The optional seekable parameter indicates if the
file object is seekable; the default value is 1 for true.
Instantiation reads headers from the file up to a blank line and
stores them in the instance; after instantiation, the file is
positioned directly after the blank line that terminates the headers.
Input lines as read from the file may either be terminated by CR-LF or by a single linefeed; a terminating CR-LF is replaced by a single linefeed before the line is stored.
All header matching is done independent of upper or lower case;
e.g. m['From'], m['from'] and m['FROM'] all yield
the same result.
parsedate() tries to guess correctly in such cases.
date is a string containing an RFC822 date, such as
"Mon, 20 Nov 1995 19:12:08 -0500". If it succeeds in parsing
the date, parsedate() returns a 9-tuple that can be passed
directly to time.mktime(); otherwise None will be
returned.
parsedate, but returns either
None or a 10-tuple; the first 9 elements make up a tuple that
can be passed directly to time.mktime(), and the tenth is the
offset of the date's time zone from UTC (which is the official term
for Greenwich Mean Time).
guido@CNRI.Reston.Va.US