README

NAME
    MIME::Lite - low-calorie MIME generator

WAIT!
    MIME::Lite is not recommended by its current maintainer. There are a
    number of alternatives, like Email::MIME or MIME::Entity and
    Email::Sender, which you should probably use instead. MIME::Lite
    continues to accrue weird bug reports, and it is not receiving a large
    amount of refactoring due to the availability of better alternatives.
    Please consider using something else.

SYNOPSIS
    Create and send using the default send method for your OS a single-part
    message:

        use MIME::Lite;
        ### Create a new single-part message, to send a GIF file:
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From     => 'me@myhost.com',
            To       => 'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc       => 'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject  => 'Helloooooo, nurse!',
            Type     => 'image/gif',
            Encoding => 'base64',
            Path     => 'hellonurse.gif'
        );
        $msg->send; # send via default

    Create a multipart message (i.e., one with attachments) and send it SMTP

        ### Create a new multipart message:
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From    => 'me@myhost.com',
            To      => 'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc      => 'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject => 'A message with 2 parts...',
            Type    => 'multipart/mixed'
        );

        ### Add parts (each "attach" has same arguments as "new"):
        $msg->attach(
            Type     => 'TEXT',
            Data     => "Here's the GIF file you wanted"
        );
        $msg->attach(
            Type     => 'image/gif',
            Path     => 'aaa000123.gif',
            Filename => 'logo.gif',
            Disposition => 'attachment'
        );
        ### use Net:SMTP to do the sending
        $msg->send('smtp','some.host', Debug=>1 );

    Output a message:

        ### Format as a string:
        $str = $msg->as_string;

        ### Print to a filehandle (say, a "sendmail" stream):
        $msg->print(\*SENDMAIL);

    Send a message:

        ### Send in the "best" way (the default is to use "sendmail"):
        $msg->send;
        ### Send a specific way:
        $msg->send('type',@args);

    Specify default send method:

        MIME::Lite->send('smtp','some.host',Debug=>0);

    with authentication

        MIME::Lite->send('smtp','some.host', AuthUser=>$user, AuthPass=>$pass);

DESCRIPTION
    In the never-ending quest for great taste with fewer calories, we
    proudly present: *MIME::Lite*.

    MIME::Lite is intended as a simple, standalone module for generating
    (not parsing!) MIME messages... specifically, it allows you to output a
    simple, decent single- or multi-part message with text or binary
    attachments. It does not require that you have the Mail:: or MIME::
    modules installed, but will work with them if they are.

    You can specify each message part as either the literal data itself (in
    a scalar or array), or as a string which can be given to open() to get a
    readable filehandle (e.g., "<filename" or "somecommand|").

    You don't need to worry about encoding your message data: this module
    will do that for you. It handles the 5 standard MIME encodings.

EXAMPLES
  Create a simple message containing just text
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From     =>'me@myhost.com',
            To       =>'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc       =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject  =>'Helloooooo, nurse!',
            Data     =>"How's it goin', eh?"
        );

  Create a simple message containing just an image
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From     =>'me@myhost.com',
            To       =>'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc       =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject  =>'Helloooooo, nurse!',
            Type     =>'image/gif',
            Encoding =>'base64',
            Path     =>'hellonurse.gif'
        );

  Create a multipart message
        ### Create the multipart "container":
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From    =>'me@myhost.com',
            To      =>'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc      =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject =>'A message with 2 parts...',
            Type    =>'multipart/mixed'
        );

        ### Add the text message part:
        ### (Note that "attach" has same arguments as "new"):
        $msg->attach(
            Type     =>'TEXT',
            Data     =>"Here's the GIF file you wanted"
        );

        ### Add the image part:
        $msg->attach(
            Type        =>'image/gif',
            Path        =>'aaa000123.gif',
            Filename    =>'logo.gif',
            Disposition => 'attachment'
        );

  Attach a GIF to a text message
    This will create a multipart message exactly as above, but using the
    "attach to singlepart" hack:

        ### Start with a simple text message:
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
            From    =>'me@myhost.com',
            To      =>'you@yourhost.com',
            Cc      =>'some@other.com, some@more.com',
            Subject =>'A message with 2 parts...',
            Type    =>'TEXT',
            Data    =>"Here's the GIF file you wanted"
        );

        ### Attach a part... the make the message a multipart automatically:
        $msg->attach(
            Type     =>'image/gif',
            Path     =>'aaa000123.gif',
            Filename =>'logo.gif'
        );

  Attach a pre-prepared part to a message
        ### Create a standalone part:
        $part = MIME::Lite->new(
            Top      => 0,
            Type     =>'text/html',
            Data     =>'<H1>Hello</H1>',
        );
        $part->attr('content-type.charset' => 'UTF-8');
        $part->add('X-Comment' => 'A message for you');

        ### Attach it to any message:
        $msg->attach($part);

  Print a message to a filehandle
        ### Write it to a filehandle:
        $msg->print(\*STDOUT);

        ### Write just the header:
        $msg->print_header(\*STDOUT);

        ### Write just the encoded body:
        $msg->print_body(\*STDOUT);

  Print a message into a string
        ### Get entire message as a string:
        $str = $msg->as_string;

        ### Get just the header:
        $str = $msg->header_as_string;

        ### Get just the encoded body:
        $str = $msg->body_as_string;

  Send a message
        ### Send in the "best" way (the default is to use "sendmail"):
        $msg->send;

  Send an HTML document... with images included!
        $msg = MIME::Lite->new(
             To      =>'you@yourhost.com',
             Subject =>'HTML with in-line images!',
             Type    =>'multipart/related'
        );
        $msg->attach(
            Type => 'text/html',
            Data => qq{
                <body>
                    Here's <i>my</i> image:
                    <img src="cid:myimage.gif">
                </body>
            },
        );
        $msg->attach(
            Type => 'image/gif',
            Id   => 'myimage.gif',
            Path => '/path/to/somefile.gif',
        );
        $msg->send();

  Change how messages are sent
        ### Do something like this in your 'main':
        if ($I_DONT_HAVE_SENDMAIL) {
           MIME::Lite->send('smtp', $host, Timeout=>60,
               AuthUser=>$user, AuthPass=>$pass);
        }

        ### Now this will do the right thing:
        $msg->send;         ### will now use Net::SMTP as shown above

PUBLIC INTERFACE
  Global configuration
    To alter the way the entire module behaves, you have the following
    methods/options:

    MIME::Lite->field_order()
        When used as a classmethod, this changes the default order in which
        headers are output for *all* messages. However, please consider
        using the instance method variant instead, so you won't stomp on
        other message senders in the same application.

    MIME::Lite->quiet()
        This classmethod can be used to suppress/unsuppress all warnings
        coming from this module.

    MIME::Lite->send()
        When used as a classmethod, this can be used to specify a different
        default mechanism for sending message. The initial default is:

            MIME::Lite->send("sendmail", "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

        However, you should consider the similar but smarter and taint-safe
        variant:

            MIME::Lite->send("sendmail");

        Or, for non-Unix users:

            MIME::Lite->send("smtp");

    $MIME::Lite::AUTO_CC
        If true, automatically send to the Cc/Bcc addresses for
        send_by_smtp(). Default is true.

    $MIME::Lite::AUTO_CONTENT_TYPE
        If true, try to automatically choose the content type from the file
        name in "new()"/"build()". In other words, setting this true changes
        the default "Type" from "TEXT" to "AUTO".

        Default is false, since we must maintain backwards-compatibility
        with prior behavior. Please consider keeping it false, and just
        using Type 'AUTO' when you build() or attach().

    $MIME::Lite::AUTO_ENCODE
        If true, automatically choose the encoding from the content type.
        Default is true.

    $MIME::Lite::AUTO_VERIFY
        If true, check paths to attachments right before printing, raising
        an exception if any path is unreadable. Default is true.

    $MIME::Lite::PARANOID
        If true, we won't attempt to use MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint, or
        MIME::Types, even if they're available. Default is false. Please
        consider keeping it false, and trusting these other packages to do
        the right thing.

  Construction
    new [PARAMHASH]
        *Class method, constructor.* Create a new message object.

        If any arguments are given, they are passed into "build()";
        otherwise, just the empty object is created.

    attach PART
    attach PARAMHASH...
        *Instance method.* Add a new part to this message, and return the
        new part.

        If you supply a single PART argument, it will be regarded as a
        MIME::Lite object to be attached. Otherwise, this method assumes
        that you are giving in the pairs of a PARAMHASH which will be sent
        into "new()" to create the new part.

        One of the possibly-quite-useful hacks thrown into this is the
        "attach-to-singlepart" hack: if you attempt to attach a part (let's
        call it "part 1") to a message that doesn't have a content-type of
        "multipart" or "message", the following happens:

        *   A new part (call it "part 0") is made.

        *   The MIME attributes and data (but *not* the other headers) are
            cut from the "self" message, and pasted into "part 0".

        *   The "self" is turned into a "multipart/mixed" message.

        *   The new "part 0" is added to the "self", and *then* "part 1" is
            added.

        One of the nice side-effects is that you can create a text message
        and then add zero or more attachments to it, much in the same way
        that a user agent like Netscape allows you to do.

    build [PARAMHASH]
        *Class/instance method, initializer.* Create (or initialize) a MIME
        message object. Normally, you'll use the following keys in
        PARAMHASH:

           * Data, FH, or Path      (either one of these, or none if multipart)
           * Type                   (e.g., "image/jpeg")
           * From, To, and Subject  (if this is the "top level" of a message)

        The PARAMHASH can contain the following keys:

        (fieldname)
            Any field you want placed in the message header, taken from the
            standard list of header fields (you don't need to worry about
            case):

                Approved      Encrypted     Received      Sender
                Bcc           From          References    Subject
                Cc            Keywords      Reply-To      To
                Comments      Message-ID    Resent-*      X-*
                Content-*     MIME-Version  Return-Path
                Date                        Organization

            To give experienced users some veto power, these fields will be
            set *after* the ones I set... so be careful: *don't set any MIME
            fields* (like "Content-type") unless you know what you're doing!

            To specify a fieldname that's *not* in the above list, even one
            that's identical to an option below, just give it with a
            trailing ":", like "My-field:". When in doubt, that *always*
            signals a mail field (and it sort of looks like one too).

        Data
            *Alternative to "Path" or "FH".* The actual message data. This
            may be a scalar or a ref to an array of strings; if the latter,
            the message consists of a simple concatenation of all the
            strings in the array.

        Datestamp
            *Optional.* If given true (or omitted), we force the creation of
            a "Date:" field stamped with the current date/time if this is a
            top-level message. You may want this if using send_by_smtp(). If
            you don't want this to be done, either provide your own Date or
            explicitly set this to false.

        Disposition
            *Optional.* The content disposition, "inline" or "attachment".
            The default is "inline".

        Encoding
            *Optional.* The content transfer encoding that should be used to
            encode your data:

               Use encoding:     | If your message contains:
               ------------------------------------------------------------
               7bit              | Only 7-bit text, all lines <1000 characters
               8bit              | 8-bit text, all lines <1000 characters
               quoted-printable  | 8-bit text or long lines (more reliable than "8bit")
               base64            | Largely non-textual data: a GIF, a tar file, etc.

            The default is taken from the Type; generally it is "binary" (no
            encoding) for text/*, message/*, and multipart/*, and "base64"
            for everything else. A value of "binary" is generally *not*
            suitable for sending anything but ASCII text files with lines
            under 1000 characters, so consider using one of the other values
            instead.

            In the case of "7bit"/"8bit", long lines are automatically
            chopped to legal length; in the case of "7bit", all 8-bit
            characters are automatically *removed*. This may not be what you
            want, so pick your encoding well! For more info, see "A MIME
            PRIMER".

        FH  *Alternative to "Data" or "Path".* Filehandle containing the
            data, opened for reading. See "ReadNow" also.

        Filename
            *Optional.* The name of the attachment. You can use this to
            supply a recommended filename for the end-user who is saving the
            attachment to disk. You only need this if the filename at the
            end of the "Path" is inadequate, or if you're using "Data"
            instead of "Path". You should *not* put path information in here
            (e.g., no "/" or "\" or ":" characters should be used).

        Id  *Optional.* Same as setting "content-id".

        Length
            *Optional.* Set the content length explicitly. Normally, this
            header is automatically computed, but only under certain
            circumstances (see "Benign limitations").

        Path
            *Alternative to "Data" or "FH".* Path to a file containing the
            data... actually, it can be any open()able expression. If it
            looks like a path, the last element will automatically be
            treated as the filename. See "ReadNow" also.

        ReadNow
            *Optional, for use with "Path".* If true, will open the path and
            slurp the contents into core now. This is useful if the Path
            points to a command and you don't want to run the command over
            and over if outputting the message several times. Fatal
            exception raised if the open fails.

        Top *Optional.* If defined, indicates whether or not this is a
            "top-level" MIME message. The parts of a multipart message are
            *not* top-level. Default is true.

        Type
            *Optional.* The MIME content type, or one of these special
            values (case-sensitive):

                 "TEXT"   means "text/plain"
                 "BINARY" means "application/octet-stream"
                 "AUTO"   means attempt to guess from the filename, falling back
                          to 'application/octet-stream'.  This is good if you have
                          MIME::Types on your system and you have no idea what
                          file might be used for the attachment.

            The default is "TEXT", but it will be "AUTO" if you set
            $AUTO_CONTENT_TYPE to true (sorry, but you have to enable it
            explicitly, since we don't want to break code which depends on
            the old behavior).

        A picture being worth 1000 words (which is of course 2000 bytes, so
        it's probably more of an "icon" than a "picture", but I digress...),
        here are some examples:

            $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
                From     => 'yelling@inter.com',
                To       => 'stocking@fish.net',
                Subject  => "Hi there!",
                Type     => 'TEXT',
                Encoding => '7bit',
                Data     => "Just a quick note to say hi!"
            );

            $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
                From     => 'dorothy@emerald-city.oz',
                To       => 'gesundheit@edu.edu.edu',
                Subject  => "A gif for U"
                Type     => 'image/gif',
                Path     => "/home/httpd/logo.gif"
            );

            $msg = MIME::Lite->build(
                From     => 'laughing@all.of.us',
                To       => 'scarlett@fiddle.dee.de',
                Subject  => "A gzipp'ed tar file",
                Type     => 'x-gzip',
                Path     => "gzip < /usr/inc/somefile.tar |",
                ReadNow  => 1,
                Filename => "somefile.tgz"
            );

        To show you what's really going on, that last example could also
        have been written:

            $msg = new MIME::Lite;
            $msg->build(
                Type     => 'x-gzip',
                Path     => "gzip < /usr/inc/somefile.tar |",
                ReadNow  => 1,
                Filename => "somefile.tgz"
            );
            $msg->add(From    => "laughing@all.of.us");
            $msg->add(To      => "scarlett@fiddle.dee.de");
            $msg->add(Subject => "A gzipp'ed tar file");

  Setting/getting headers and attributes
    add TAG,VALUE
        *Instance method.* Add field TAG with the given VALUE to the end of
        the header. The TAG will be converted to all-lowercase, and the
        VALUE will be made "safe" (returns will be given a trailing space).

        Beware: any MIME fields you "add" will override any MIME attributes
        I have when it comes time to output those fields. Normally, you will
        use this method to add *non-MIME* fields:

            $msg->add("Subject" => "Hi there!");

        Giving VALUE as an arrayref will cause all those values to be added.
        This is only useful for special multiple-valued fields like
        "Received":

            $msg->add("Received" => ["here", "there", "everywhere"]

        Giving VALUE as the empty string adds an invisible placeholder to
        the header, which can be used to suppress the output of the
        "Content-*" fields or the special "MIME-Version" field. When
        suppressing fields, you should use replace() instead of add():

            $msg->replace("Content-disposition" => "");

        *Note:* add() is probably going to be more efficient than
        "replace()", so you're better off using it for most applications if
        you are certain that you don't need to delete() the field first.

        *Note:* the name comes from Mail::Header.

    attr ATTR,[VALUE]
        *Instance method.* Set MIME attribute ATTR to the string VALUE. ATTR
        is converted to all-lowercase. This method is normally used to
        set/get MIME attributes:

            $msg->attr("content-type"         => "text/html");
            $msg->attr("content-type.charset" => "US-ASCII");
            $msg->attr("content-type.name"    => "homepage.html");

        This would cause the final output to look something like this:

            Content-type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII; name="homepage.html"

        Note that the special empty sub-field tag indicates the anonymous
        first sub-field.

        Giving VALUE as undefined will cause the contents of the named
        subfield to be deleted.

        Supplying no VALUE argument just returns the attribute's value:

            $type = $msg->attr("content-type");        ### returns "text/html"
            $name = $msg->attr("content-type.name");   ### returns "homepage.html"

    delete TAG
        *Instance method.* Delete field TAG with the given VALUE to the end
        of the header. The TAG will be converted to all-lowercase.

            $msg->delete("Subject");

        *Note:* the name comes from Mail::Header.

    field_order FIELD,...FIELD
        *Class/instance method.* Change the order in which header fields are
        output for this object:

            $msg->field_order('from', 'to', 'content-type', 'subject');

        When used as a class method, changes the default settings for all
        objects:

            MIME::Lite->field_order('from', 'to', 'content-type', 'subject');

        Case does not matter: all field names will be coerced to lowercase.
        In either case, supply the empty array to restore the default
        ordering.

    fields
        *Instance method.* Return the full header for the object, as a ref
        to an array of "[TAG, VALUE]" pairs, where each TAG is
        all-lowercase. Note that any fields the user has explicitly set will
        override the corresponding MIME fields that we would otherwise
        generate. So, don't say...

            $msg->set("Content-type" => "text/html; charset=US-ASCII");

        unless you want the above value to override the "Content-type" MIME
        field that we would normally generate.

        *Note:* I called this "fields" because the header() method of
        Mail::Header returns something different, but similar enough to be
        confusing.

        You can change the order of the fields: see "field_order". You
        really shouldn't need to do this, but some people have to deal with
        broken mailers.

    filename [FILENAME]
        *Instance method.* Set the filename which this data will be reported
        as. This actually sets both "standard" attributes.

        With no argument, returns the filename as dictated by the
        content-disposition.

    get TAG,[INDEX]
        *Instance method.* Get the contents of field TAG, which might have
        been set with set() or replace(). Returns the text of the field.

            $ml->get('Subject', 0);

        If the optional 0-based INDEX is given, then we return the INDEX'th
        occurrence of field TAG. Otherwise, we look at the context: In a
        scalar context, only the first (0th) occurrence of the field is
        returned; in an array context, *all* occurrences are returned.

        *Warning:* this should only be used with non-MIME fields. Behavior
        with MIME fields is TBD, and will raise an exception for now.

    get_length
        *Instance method.* Recompute the content length for the message *if
        the process is trivial*, setting the "content-length" attribute as a
        side-effect:

            $msg->get_length;

        Returns the length, or undefined if not set.

        *Note:* the content length can be difficult to compute, since it
        involves assembling the entire encoded body and taking the length of
        it (which, in the case of multipart messages, means freezing all the
        sub-parts, etc.).

        This method only sets the content length to a defined value if the
        message is a singlepart with "binary" encoding, *and* the body is
        available either in-core or as a simple file. Otherwise, the content
        length is set to the undefined value.

        Since content-length is not a standard MIME field anyway (that's
        right, kids: it's not in the MIME RFCs, it's an HTTP thing), this
        seems pretty fair.

    parts
        *Instance method.* Return the parts of this entity, and this entity
        only. Returns empty array if this entity has no parts.

        This is not recursive! Parts can have sub-parts; use parts_DFS() to
        get everything.

    parts_DFS
        *Instance method.* Return the list of all MIME::Lite objects
        included in the entity, starting with the entity itself, in
        depth-first-search order. If this object has no parts, it alone will
        be returned.

    preamble [TEXT]
        *Instance method.* Get/set the preamble string, assuming that this
        object has subparts. Set it to undef for the default string.

    replace TAG,VALUE
        *Instance method.* Delete all occurrences of fields named TAG, and
        add a new field with the given VALUE. TAG is converted to
        all-lowercase.

        Beware the special MIME fields (MIME-version, Content-*): if you
        "replace" a MIME field, the replacement text will override the
        *actual* MIME attributes when it comes time to output that field. So
        normally you use attr() to change MIME fields and add()/replace() to
        change *non-MIME* fields:

            $msg->replace("Subject" => "Hi there!");

        Giving VALUE as the *empty string* will effectively *prevent* that
        field from being output. This is the correct way to suppress the
        special MIME fields:

            $msg->replace("Content-disposition" => "");

        Giving VALUE as *undefined* will just cause all explicit values for
        TAG to be deleted, without having any new values added.

        *Note:* the name of this method comes from Mail::Header.

    scrub
        *Instance method.* This is Alpha code. If you use it, please let me
        know how it goes. Recursively goes through the "parts" tree of this
        message and tries to find MIME attributes that can be removed. With
        an array argument, removes exactly those attributes; e.g.:

            $msg->scrub(['content-disposition', 'content-length']);

        Is the same as recursively doing:

            $msg->replace('Content-disposition' => '');
            $msg->replace('Content-length'      => '');

  Setting/getting message data
    binmode [OVERRIDE]
        *Instance method.* With no argument, returns whether or not it
        thinks that the data (as given by the "Path" argument of "build()")
        should be read using binmode() (for example, when "read_now()" is
        invoked).

        The default behavior is that any content type other than "text/*" or
        "message/*" is binmode'd; this should in general work fine.

        With a defined argument, this method sets an explicit "override"
        value. An undefined argument unsets the override. The new current
        value is returned.

    data [DATA]
        *Instance method.* Get/set the literal DATA of the message. The DATA
        may be either a scalar, or a reference to an array of scalars (which
        will simply be joined).

        *Warning:* setting the data causes the "content-length" attribute to
        be recomputed (possibly to nothing).

    fh [FILEHANDLE]
        *Instance method.* Get/set the FILEHANDLE which contains the message
        data.

        Takes a filehandle as an input and stores it in the object. This
        routine is similar to path(); one important difference is that no
        attempt is made to set the content length.

    path [PATH]
        *Instance method.* Get/set the PATH to the message data.

        *Warning:* setting the path recomputes any existing "content-length"
        field, and re-sets the "filename" (to the last element of the path
        if it looks like a simple path, and to nothing if not).

    resetfh [FILEHANDLE]
        *Instance method.* Set the current position of the filehandle back
        to the beginning. Only applies if you used "FH" in build() or
        attach() for this message.

        Returns false if unable to reset the filehandle (since not all
        filehandles are seekable).

    read_now
        *Instance method.* Forces data from the path/filehandle (as
        specified by "build()") to be read into core immediately, just as
        though you had given it literally with the "Data" keyword.

        Note that the in-core data will always be used if available.

        Be aware that everything is slurped into a giant scalar: you may not
        want to use this if sending tar files! The benefit of *not* reading
        in the data is that very large files can be handled by this module
        if left on disk until the message is output via "print()" or
        "print_body()".

    sign PARAMHASH
        *Instance method.* Sign the message. This forces the message to be
        read into core, after which the signature is appended to it.

        Data
            As in "build()": the literal signature data. Can be either a
            scalar or a ref to an array of scalars.

        Path
            As in "build()": the path to the file.

        If no arguments are given, the default is:

            Path => "$ENV{HOME}/.signature"

        The content-length is recomputed.

    verify_data
        *Instance method.* Verify that all "paths" to attached data exist,
        recursively. It might be a good idea for you to do this before a
        print(), to prevent accidental partial output if a file might be
        missing. Raises exception if any path is not readable.

  Output
    print [OUTHANDLE]
        *Instance method.* Print the message to the given output handle, or
        to the currently-selected filehandle if none was given.

        All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
        any object that responds to a print() message.

    print_body [OUTHANDLE] [IS_SMTP]
        *Instance method.* Print the body of a message to the given output
        handle, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none was given.

        All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
        any object that responds to a print() message.

        Fatal exception raised if unable to open any of the input files, or
        if a part contains no data, or if an unsupported encoding is
        encountered.

        IS_SMPT is a special option to handle SMTP mails a little more
        intelligently than other send mechanisms may require. Specifically
        this ensures that the last byte sent is NOT '\n' (octal \012) if the
        last two bytes are not '\r\n' (\015\012) as this will cause some
        SMTP servers to hang.

    print_header [OUTHANDLE]
        *Instance method.* Print the header of the message to the given
        output handle, or to the currently-selected filehandle if none was
        given.

        All OUTHANDLE has to be is a filehandle (possibly a glob ref), or
        any object that responds to a print() message.

    as_string
        *Instance method.* Return the entire message as a string, with a
        header and an encoded body.

    body_as_string
        *Instance method.* Return the encoded body as a string. This is the
        portion after the header and the blank line.

        *Note:* actually prepares the body by "printing" to a scalar. Proof
        that you can hand the "print*()" methods any blessed object that
        responds to a "print()" message.

    header_as_string
        *Instance method.* Return the header as a string.

  Sending
    send
    send HOW, HOWARGS...
        *Class/instance method.* This is the principal method for sending
        mail, and for configuring how mail will be sent.

        *As a class method* with a HOW argument and optional HOWARGS, it
        sets the default sending mechanism that the no-argument instance
        method will use. The HOW is a facility name (see below), and the
        HOWARGS is interpreted by the facility. The class method returns the
        previous HOW and HOWARGS as an array.

            MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");
            ...
            $msg = MIME::Lite->new(...);
            $msg->send;

        *As an instance method with arguments* (a HOW argument and optional
        HOWARGS), sends the message in the requested manner; e.g.:

            $msg->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");

        *As an instance method with no arguments,* sends the message by the
        default mechanism set up by the class method. Returns whatever the
        mail-handling routine returns: this should be true on success,
        false/exception on error:

            $msg = MIME::Lite->new(From=>...);
            $msg->send || die "you DON'T have mail!";

        On Unix systems (or rather non-Win32 systems), the default setting
        is equivalent to:

            MIME::Lite->send("sendmail", "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

        On Win32 systems the default setting is equivalent to:

            MIME::Lite->send("smtp");

        The assumption is that on Win32 your site/lib/Net/libnet.cfg file
        will be preconfigured to use the appropriate SMTP server. See below
        for configuring for authentication.

        There are three facilities:

        "sendmail", ARGS...
            Send a message by piping it into the "sendmail" command. Uses
            the send_by_sendmail() method, giving it the ARGS. This usage
            implements (and deprecates) the "sendmail()" method.

        "smtp", [HOSTNAME, [NAMEDPARMS] ]
            Send a message by SMTP, using optional HOSTNAME as SMTP-sending
            host. Net::SMTP will be required. Uses the send_by_smtp()
            method. Any additional arguments passed in will also be passed
            through to send_by_smtp. This is useful for things like mail
            servers requiring authentication where you can say something
            like the following

              MIME::Lite->send('smtp', $host, AuthUser=>$user, AuthPass=>$pass);

            which will configure things so future uses of

              $msg->send();

            do the right thing.

        "sub", \&SUBREF, ARGS...
            Sends a message MSG by invoking the subroutine SUBREF of your
            choosing, with MSG as the first argument, and ARGS following.

        *For example:* let's say you're on an OS which lacks the usual Unix
        "sendmail" facility, but you've installed something a lot like it,
        and you need to configure your Perl script to use this
        "sendmail.exe" program. Do this following in your script's setup:

            MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "d:\\programs\\sendmail.exe");

        Then, whenever you need to send a message $msg, just say:

            $msg->send;

        That's it. Now, if you ever move your script to a Unix box, all you
        need to do is change that line in the setup and you're done. All of
        your $msg->send invocations will work as expected.

        After sending, the method last_send_successful() can be used to
        determine if the send was successful or not.

    send_by_sendmail SENDMAILCMD
    send_by_sendmail PARAM=>VALUE, ARRAY, HASH...
        *Instance method.* Send message via an external "sendmail" program
        (this will probably only work out-of-the-box on Unix systems).

        Returns true on success, false or exception on error.

        You can specify the program and all its arguments by giving a single
        string, SENDMAILCMD. Nothing fancy is done; the message is simply
        piped in.

        However, if your needs are a little more advanced, you can specify
        zero or more of the following PARAM/VALUE pairs (or a reference to
        hash or array of such arguments as well as any combination thereof);
        a Unix-style, taint-safe "sendmail" command will be constructed for
        you:

        Sendmail
            Full path to the program to use. Default is "/usr/lib/sendmail".

        BaseArgs
            Ref to the basic array of arguments we start with. Default is
            "["-t", "-oi", "-oem"]".

        SetSender
            Unless this is *explicitly* given as false, we attempt to
            automatically set the "-f" argument to the first address that
            can be extracted from the "From:" field of the message (if there
            is one).

            *What is the -f, and why do we use it?* Suppose we did *not* use
            "-f", and you gave an explicit "From:" field in your message: in
            this case, the sendmail "envelope" would indicate the *real*
            user your process was running under, as a way of preventing mail
            forgery. Using the "-f" switch causes the sender to be set in
            the envelope as well.

            *So when would I NOT want to use it?* If sendmail doesn't regard
            you as a "trusted" user, it will permit the "-f" but also add an
            "X-Authentication-Warning" header to the message to indicate a
            forged envelope. To avoid this, you can either (1) have
            SetSender be false, or (2) make yourself a trusted user by
            adding a "T" configuration command to your *sendmail.cf* file
            (e.g.: "Teryq" if the script is running as user "eryq").

        FromSender
            If defined, this is identical to setting SetSender to true,
            except that instead of looking at the "From:" field we use the
            address given by this option. Thus:

                FromSender => 'me@myhost.com'

        After sending, the method last_send_successful() can be used to
        determine if the send was successful or not.

    send_by_smtp HOST, ARGS...
    send_by_smtp REF, HOST, ARGS
        *Instance method.* Send message via SMTP, using Net::SMTP -- which
        will be required for this feature.

        HOST is the name of SMTP server to connect to, or undef to have
        Net::SMTP use the defaults in Libnet.cfg.

        ARGS are a list of key value pairs which may be selected from the
        list below. Many of these are just passed through to specific
        Net::SMTP commands and you should review that module for details.

        Please see Good-vs-bad email addresses with send_by_smtp()

        Hello
        LocalAddr
        LocalPort
        Timeout
        Port
        ExactAddresses
        Debug
            See Net::SMTP::new() for details.

        Size
        Return
        Bits
        Transaction
        Envelope
            See Net::SMTP::mail() for details.

        SkipBad
            If true doesn't throw an error when multiple email addresses are
            provided and some are not valid. See Net::SMTP::recipient() for
            details.

        AuthUser
            Authenticate with Net::SMTP::auth() using this username.

        AuthPass
            Authenticate with Net::SMTP::auth() using this password.

        NoAuth
            Normally if AuthUser and AuthPass are defined MIME::Lite will
            attempt to use them with the Net::SMTP::auth() command to
            authenticate the connection, however if this value is true then
            no authentication occurs.

        To  Sets the addresses to send to. Can be a string or a reference to
            an array of strings. Normally this is extracted from the To:
            (and Cc: and Bcc: fields if $AUTO_CC is true).

            This value overrides that.

        From
            Sets the email address to send from. Normally this value is
            extracted from the Return-Path: or From: field of the mail
            itself (in that order).

            This value overrides that.

        *Returns:* True on success, croaks with an error message on failure.

        After sending, the method last_send_successful() can be used to
        determine if the send was successful or not.

    send_by_testfile FILENAME
        *Instance method.* Print message to a file (namely FILENAME), which
        will default to mailer.testfile If file exists, message will be
        appended.

    last_send_successful
        This method will return TRUE if the last send() or send_by_XXX()
        method call was successful. It will return defined but false if it
        was not successful, and undefined if the object had not been used to
        send yet.

    sendmail COMMAND...
        *Class method, DEPRECATED.* Declare the sender to be "sendmail", and
        set up the "sendmail" command. *You should use send() instead.*

  Miscellaneous
    quiet ONOFF
        *Class method.* Suppress/unsuppress all warnings coming from this
        module.

            MIME::Lite->quiet(1);       ### I know what I'm doing

        I recommend that you include that comment as well. And while you
        type it, say it out loud: if it doesn't feel right, then maybe you
        should reconsider the whole line. ";-)"

NOTES
  How do I prevent "Content" headers from showing up in my mail reader?
    Apparently, some people are using mail readers which display the MIME
    headers like "Content-disposition", and they want MIME::Lite not to
    generate them "because they look ugly".

    Sigh.

    Y'know, kids, those headers aren't just there for cosmetic purposes.
    They help ensure that the message is *understood* correctly by mail
    readers. But okay, you asked for it, you got it... here's how you can
    suppress the standard MIME headers. Before you send the message, do
    this:

        $msg->scrub;

    You can scrub() any part of a multipart message independently; just be
    aware that it works recursively. Before you scrub, note the rules that I
    follow:

    Content-type
        You can safely scrub the "content-type" attribute if, and only if,
        the part is of type "text/plain" with charset "us-ascii".

    Content-transfer-encoding
        You can safely scrub the "content-transfer-encoding" attribute if,
        and only if, the part uses "7bit", "8bit", or "binary" encoding. You
        are far better off doing this if your lines are under 1000
        characters. Generally, that means you *can* scrub it for plain text,
        and you can *not* scrub this for images, etc.

    Content-disposition
        You can safely scrub the "content-disposition" attribute if you
        trust the mail reader to do the right thing when it decides whether
        to show an attachment inline or as a link. Be aware that scrubbing
        both the content-disposition and the content-type means that there
        is no way to "recommend" a filename for the attachment!

        Note: there are reports of brain-dead MUAs out there that do the
        wrong thing if you *provide* the content-disposition. If your
        attachments keep showing up inline or vice-versa, try scrubbing this
        attribute.

    Content-length
        You can always scrub "content-length" safely.

  How do I give my attachment a [different] recommended filename?
    By using the Filename option (which is different from Path!):

        $msg->attach(Type => "image/gif",
                     Path => "/here/is/the/real/file.GIF",
                     Filename => "logo.gif");

    You should *not* put path information in the Filename.

  Benign limitations
    This is "lite", after all...

    *   There's no parsing. Get MIME-tools if you need to parse MIME
        messages.

    *   MIME::Lite messages are currently *not* interchangeable with either
        Mail::Internet or MIME::Entity objects. This is a completely
        separate module.

    *   A content-length field is only inserted if the encoding is binary,
        the message is a singlepart, and all the document data is available
        at "build()" time by virtue of residing in a simple path, or
        in-core. Since content-length is not a standard MIME field anyway
        (that's right, kids: it's not in the MIME RFCs, it's an HTTP thing),
        this seems pretty fair.

    *   MIME::Lite alone cannot help you lose weight. You must supplement
        your use of MIME::Lite with a healthy diet and exercise.

  Cheap and easy mailing
    I thought putting in a default "sendmail" invocation wasn't too bad an
    idea, since a lot of Perlers are on UNIX systems. (As of version 3.02
    this is default only on Non-Win32 boxen. On Win32 boxen the default is
    to use SMTP and the defaults specified in the site/lib/Net/libnet.cfg)

    The out-of-the-box configuration is:

         MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', "/usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem");

    By the way, these arguments to sendmail are:

         -t      Scan message for To:, Cc:, Bcc:, etc.

         -oi     Do NOT treat a single "." on a line as a message terminator.
                 As in, "-oi vey, it truncated my message... why?!"

         -oem    On error, mail back the message (I assume to the
                 appropriate address, given in the header).
                 When mail returns, circle is complete.  Jai Guru Deva -oem.

    Note that these are the same arguments you get if you configure to use
    the smarter, taint-safe mailing:

         MIME::Lite->send('sendmail');

    If you get "X-Authentication-Warning" headers from this, you can forgo
    diddling with the envelope by instead specifying:

         MIME::Lite->send('sendmail', SetSender=>0);

    And, if you're not on a Unix system, or if you'd just rather send mail
    some other way, there's always SMTP, which these days probably requires
    authentication so you probably need to say

         MIME::Lite->send('smtp', "smtp.myisp.net",
            AuthUser=>"YourName",AuthPass=>"YourPass" );

    Or you can set up your own subroutine to call. In any case, check out
    the send() method.

WARNINGS
  Good-vs-bad email addresses with send_by_smtp()
    If using send_by_smtp(), be aware that unless you explicitly provide the
    email addresses to send to and from you will be forcing MIME::Lite to
    extract email addresses out of a possible list provided in the "To:",
    "Cc:", and "Bcc:" fields. This is tricky stuff, and as such only the
    following sorts of addresses will work reliably:

        username
        full.name@some.host.com
        "Name, Full" <full.name@some.host.com>

    Disclaimer: MIME::Lite was never intended to be a Mail User Agent, so
    please don't expect a full implementation of RFC-822. Restrict yourself
    to the common forms of Internet addresses described herein, and you
    should be fine. If this is not feasible, then consider using MIME::Lite
    to *prepare* your message only, and using Net::SMTP explicitly to *send*
    your message.

    Note: As of MIME::Lite v3.02 the mail name extraction routines have been
    beefed up considerably. Furthermore if Mail::Address is provided then
    name extraction is done using that. Accordingly the above advice is now
    less true than it once was. Funky email names *should* work properly
    now. However the disclaimer remains. Patches welcome. :-)

  Formatting of headers delayed until print()
    This class treats a MIME header in the most abstract sense, as being a
    collection of high-level attributes. The actual RFC-822-style header
    fields are not constructed until it's time to actually print the darn
    thing.

  Encoding of data delayed until print()
    When you specify message bodies (in build() or attach()) -- whether by
    FH, Data, or Path -- be warned that we don't attempt to open files, read
    filehandles, or encode the data until print() is invoked.

    In the past, this created some confusion for users of sendmail who gave
    the wrong path to an attachment body, since enough of the print() would
    succeed to get the initial part of the message out. Nowadays,
    $AUTO_VERIFY is used to spot-check the Paths given before the mail
    facility is employed. A whisker slower, but tons safer.

    Note that if you give a message body via FH, and try to print() a
    message twice, the second print() will not do the right thing unless you
    explicitly rewind the filehandle.

    You can get past these difficulties by using the ReadNow option,
    provided that you have enough memory to handle your messages.

  MIME attributes are separate from header fields!
    Important: the MIME attributes are stored and manipulated separately
    from the message header fields; when it comes time to print the header
    out, *any explicitly-given header fields override the ones that would be
    created from the MIME attributes.* That means that this:

        ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ### DANGER ###
        $msg->add("Content-type", "text/html; charset=US-ASCII");

    will set the exact "Content-type" field in the header I write,
    *regardless of what the actual MIME attributes are.*

    *This feature is for experienced users only,* as an escape hatch in case
    the code that normally formats MIME header fields isn't doing what you
    need. And, like any escape hatch, it's got an alarm on it: MIME::Lite
    will warn you if you attempt to "set()" or "replace()" any MIME header
    field. Use "attr()" instead.

  Beware of lines consisting of a single dot
    Julian Haight noted that MIME::Lite allows you to compose messages with
    lines in the body consisting of a single ".". This is true: it should be
    completely harmless so long as "sendmail" is used with the -oi option
    (see "Cheap and easy mailing").

    However, I don't know if using Net::SMTP to transfer such a message is
    equally safe. Feedback is welcomed.

    My perspective: I don't want to magically diddle with a user's message
    unless absolutely positively necessary. Some users may want to send
    files with "." alone on a line; my well-meaning tinkering could
    seriously harm them.

  Infinite loops may mean tainted data!
    Stefan Sautter noticed a bug in 2.106 where a m//gc match was failing
    due to tainted data, leading to an infinite loop inside MIME::Lite.

    I am attempting to correct for this, but be advised that my fix will
    silently untaint the data (given the context in which the problem
    occurs, this should be benign: I've labelled the source code with
    UNTAINT comments for the curious).

    So: don't depend on taint-checking to save you from outputting tainted
    data in a message.

  Don't tweak the global configuration
    Global configuration variables are bad, and should go away. Until they
    do, please follow the hints with each setting on how *not* to change it.

A MIME PRIMER
  Content types
    The "Type" parameter of "build()" is a *content type*. This is the
    actual type of data you are sending. Generally this is a string of the
    form "majortype/minortype".

    Here are the major MIME types. A more-comprehensive listing may be found
    in RFC-2046.

    application
        Data which does not fit in any of the other categories, particularly
        data to be processed by some type of application program.
        "application/octet-stream", "application/gzip",
        "application/postscript"...

    audio
        Audio data. "audio/basic"...

    image
        Graphics data. "image/gif", "image/jpeg"...

    message
        A message, usually another mail or MIME message. "message/rfc822"...

    multipart
        A message containing other messages. "multipart/mixed",
        "multipart/alternative"...

    text
        Textual data, meant for humans to read. "text/plain", "text/html"...

    video
        Video or video+audio data. "video/mpeg"...

  Content transfer encodings
    The "Encoding" parameter of "build()". This is how the message body is
    packaged up for safe transit.

    Here are the 5 major MIME encodings. A more-comprehensive listing may be
    found in RFC-2045.

    7bit
        Basically, no *real* encoding is done. However, this label
        guarantees that no 8-bit characters are present, and that lines do
        not exceed 1000 characters in length.

    8bit
        Basically, no *real* encoding is done. The message might contain
        8-bit characters, but this encoding guarantees that lines do not
        exceed 1000 characters in length.

    binary
        No encoding is done at all. Message might contain 8-bit characters,
        and lines might be longer than 1000 characters long.

        The most liberal, and the least likely to get through mail gateways.
        Use sparingly, or (better yet) not at all.

    base64
        Like "uuencode", but very well-defined. This is how you should send
        essentially binary information (tar files, GIFs, JPEGs, etc.).

    quoted-printable
        Useful for encoding messages which are textual in nature, yet which
        contain non-ASCII characters (e.g., Latin-1, Latin-2, or any other
        8-bit alphabet).

HELPER MODULES
    MIME::Lite works nicely with other certain other modules if they are
    present. Good to have installed are the latest MIME::Types,
    Mail::Address, MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint, and Net::SMTP.
    Email::Date::Format is strictly required.

    If they aren't present then some functionality won't work, and other
    features won't be as efficient or up to date as they could be.
    Nevertheless they are optional extras.

BUNDLED GOODIES
    MIME::Lite comes with a number of extra files in the distribution
    bundle. This includes examples, and utility modules that you can use to
    get yourself started with the module.

    The ./examples directory contains a number of snippets in prepared form,
    generally they are documented, but they should be easy to understand.

    The ./contrib directory contains a companion/tool modules that come
    bundled with MIME::Lite, they don't get installed by default. Please
    review the POD they come with.

BUGS
    The whole reason that version 3.0 was released was to ensure that
    MIME::Lite is up to date and patched. If you find an issue please report
    it.

    As far as I know MIME::Lite doesn't currently have any serious bugs, but
    my usage is hardly comprehensive.

    Having said that there are a number of open issues for me, mostly caused
    by the progress in the community as whole since Eryq last released. The
    tests are based around an interesting but non standard test framework.
    I'd like to change it over to using Test::More.

    Should tests fail please review the ./testout directory, and in any bug
    reports please include the output of the relevant file. This is the only
    redeeming feature of not using Test::More that I can see.

    Bug fixes / Patches / Contribution are welcome, however I probably won't
    apply them unless they also have an associated test. This means that if
    I don't have the time to write the test the patch won't get applied, so
    please, include tests for any patches you provide.

VERSION
    Version: 3.033

CHANGE LOG
    Moved to ./changes.pod

    NOTE: Users of the "advanced features" of 3.01_0x smtp sending should
    take care: These features have been REMOVED as they never really fit the
    purpose of the module. Redundant SMTP delivery is a task that should be
    handled by another module.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
      Copyright (c) 1997 by Eryq.
      Copyright (c) 1998 by ZeeGee Software Inc.
      Copyright (c) 2003,2005 Yves Orton. (demerphq)

    All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute
    it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

    This software comes with NO WARRANTY of any kind. See the COPYING file
    in the distribution for details.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
    For some reason, the US FDA says that this is now required by law on any
    products that bear the name "Lite"...

    Version 3.0 is now new and improved! The distribution is now 30%
    smaller!

        MIME::Lite                |
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        Serving size:             | 1 module
        Servings per container:   | 1
        Calories:                 | 0
        Fat:                      | 0g
          Saturated Fat:          | 0g

    Warning: for consumption by hardware only! May produce indigestion in
    humans if taken internally.

AUTHOR
    Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com). President, ZeeGee Software Inc.
    (http://www.zeegee.com).

    Go to http://www.cpan.org for the latest downloads and on-line
    documentation for this module. Enjoy.

    Patches And Maintenance by Yves Orton and many others. Consult
    ./changes.pod