cpython/Doc/library/quopri.rst
2011-01-10 21:16:07 +00:00

64 lines
2.6 KiB
ReStructuredText

:mod:`quopri` --- Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable data
==============================================================
.. module:: quopri
:synopsis: Encode and decode files using the MIME quoted-printable encoding.
.. index::
pair: quoted-printable; encoding
single: MIME; quoted-printable encoding
**Source code:** :source:`Lib/quopri.py`
--------------
This module performs quoted-printable transport encoding and decoding, as
defined in :rfc:`1521`: "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part One:
Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies".
The quoted-printable encoding is designed for data where there are relatively
few nonprintable characters; the base64 encoding scheme available via the
:mod:`base64` module is more compact if there are many such characters, as when
sending a graphics file.
.. function:: decode(input, output, header=False)
Decode the contents of the *input* file and write the resulting decoded binary
data to the *output* file. *input* and *output* must be :term:`file objects
<file object>`. *input* will be read until ``input.readline()`` returns an
empty string. If the optional argument *header* is present and true, underscore
will be decoded as space. This is used to decode "Q"-encoded headers as
described in :rfc:`1522`: "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Part Two: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text".
.. function:: encode(input, output, quotetabs, header=False)
Encode the contents of the *input* file and write the resulting quoted-printable
data to the *output* file. *input* and *output* must be :term:`file objects
<file object>`. *input* will be read until ``input.readline()`` returns an
empty string. *quotetabs* is a flag which controls whether to encode embedded
spaces and tabs; when true it encodes such embedded whitespace, and when
false it leaves them unencoded. Note that spaces and tabs appearing at the
end of lines are always encoded, as per :rfc:`1521`. *header* is a flag
which controls if spaces are encoded as underscores as per :rfc:`1522`.
.. function:: decodestring(s, header=False)
Like :func:`decode`, except that it accepts a source string and returns the
corresponding decoded string.
.. function:: encodestring(s, quotetabs=False, header=False)
Like :func:`encode`, except that it accepts a source string and returns the
corresponding encoded string. *quotetabs* and *header* are optional
(defaulting to ``False``), and are passed straight through to :func:`encode`.
.. seealso::
Module :mod:`base64`
Encode and decode MIME base64 data