</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>-b mask</term>
+ <term>-B mask</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Append mask to the list of binary content types; if the message to
- decode has a part of this type the program will pass the part as is,
- without any additional processing.
+ Append mask to the list of binary content types that will be not
+ content-transfer-decoded (will be left as base64 or such).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>-B mask</term>
+ <term>-b mask</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Append mask to the list of binary content types that will be not
- content-transfer-decoded (will be left as base64 or such).
+ Append mask to the list of binary content types; if the message to
+ decode has a part of this type the program content-transfer-decodes
+ (base64 or whatever to 8bit binary) it and outputs the decoded part
+ as is, without any further processing.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>-i mask</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Append mask to the list of content types to ignore; if the message to
- decode has a part of this type the program will not pass it, instead
- a line "Message body of type `%s' skipped." will be issued.
+ Append mask to the list of content types to ignore; if the message
+ to decode has a part of this type the program outputs headers but
+ skips the body. Instead a line "Message body of type %s skipped."
+ will be issued.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>
Append mask to the list of content types to convert to text; if the
- message to decode has a part of this type the program will consult
- mailcap database, find first copiousoutput filter and convert the
- part.
+ message to decode has a part of this type the program consults
+ mailcap database, find the first copiousoutput filter and, if any
+ filter is found, converts the part.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
Append mask to a list of content types to save to a file;
--save-headers saves only decoded headers of the message (or
subpart); --save-body saves only decoded body; --save-message saves
- the entire message (or subpart).
+ the entire message or subpart (headers + body).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>-O dest_dir</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Set destination directory for the output files; the directory must
- exist. Default is current directory.
+ Set destination directory for the output files; if the directory
+ doesn't exist it will be created. Default is the current directory.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
The 5 list options (-Bbeit) require more explanation. They allow a user to
control body decoding with great flexibility. Think about said mail archive;
for example, its maintainer wants to put there only texts, convert
- Postscript/PDF to text, pass HTML and images as is, and ignore everything
- else. Easy:
+ PDF/Postscript to text, pass HTML and images as is (decoding base64 to html
+ but left images in base64), and ignore everything else. Easy:
</para>
<para>
<code language="sh">
- mimedecode.py -t application/postscript -t application/pdf -b text/html
- -b 'image/*' -i '*/*'
+ mimedecode.py -t application/pdf -t application/postscript -b text/html
+ -B 'image/*' -i '*/*'
</code>
</para>
<para>
When the program decodes a message (non-MIME or a non-multipart subpart of a
MIME message), it consults Content-Type header. The content type is searched
- in all 4 lists, in order "text-binary-ignore-error". If found, appropriate
+ in all 5 lists, in order "text-binary-ignore-error". If found, appropriate
action performed. If not found, the program search the same lists for
"type/*" mask (the type of "text/html" is just "text"). If found,
appropriate action performed. If not found, the program search the same
</para>
<para>
- Initially all 4 lists are empty, so without any additional parameters
+ Initially all 5 lists are empty, so without any additional parameters
the program always uses the default decoding.
</para>
<para>
- The 3 save list options (--save-headers/body/message) are similar. They make
- the program to save every non-multipart subpart (only headers, or body, or
- the entire subpart) that corresponds to the given mask to a file. Before
- saving the message (or the subpart) is decoded according to all other options
- and placed to the output stream as usual. Filename for the file is created
- using "filename" parameter from the Content-Disposition header, or "name"
- parameter from the Content-Type header if one of those exist; a serial
+ The 3 save options (--save-headers/body/message) are similar. They make the
+ program to save every non-multipart subpart (only headers, or body, or the
+ entire subpart: headers + body) that corresponds to the given mask to a file.
+ Before saving the message (or the subpart) is decoded according to all other
+ options and placed to the output stream as usual. Filename for the file is
+ created using "filename" parameter from the Content-Disposition header, or
+ "name" parameter from the Content-Type header if one of those exist; a serial
counter is prepended to the filename to avoid collisions; if there are no
- name/filename parameters, the filename is just the serial counter. The file
- is saved in the directory set with -O (default is the current directory).
+ name/filename parameters, or the name/filename parameters contain forbidden
+ characters (null, slash, backslash) the filename is just the serial counter.
+ The file is saved in the directory set with -O (default is the current
+ directory).
</para>
</refsect1>