<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"file:///usr/share/xml/docbook/schema/dtd/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
-<refentry id="mimedecode.py">
+<refentry id="mimedecode">
<refentryinfo>
- <title>mimedecode.py</title>
+ <title>mimedecode</title>
<productname>mimedecode.docbook</productname>
<author>
<firstname>Oleg</firstname>
<personblurb/>
</author>
<copyright>
- <year>2001-2014</year>
+ <year>2001-2018</year>
<holder>PhiloSoft Design.</holder>
</copyright>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
- <refentrytitle>mimedecode.py</refentrytitle>
+ <refentrytitle>mimedecode</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
- <refname>mimedecode.py</refname>
+ <refname>mimedecode</refname>
<refpurpose>decode MIME message</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>mimedecode.py</command>
+ <command>mimedecode</command>
<arg choice="opt">
<option>-h|--help</option>
</arg>
<option>--set-param header:param=value</option>
</arg>
<arg choice="opt">
- <option>-Bbeit mask</option>
+ <option>-BbeIit mask</option>
</arg>
<arg choice="opt">
<option>--save-headers|body|message mask</option>
</para>
<para>
- Here is the solution - mimedecode.py!
+ Here is a solution - mimedecode!
</para>
<para>
message, and decodes to stdout or an output file. If the file is not an
RFC822 message it is just copied to the output one-to-one. If the file is a
simple RFC822 message it is decoded as one part. If it is a MIME message
- with multiple parts ("attachments") all parts are decoded. Decoding can be
- controlled by command-line options.
+ with multiple parts ("attachments") all non-multipart subparts are decoded.
+ Decoding can be controlled by the command-line options.
</para>
<para>
-r and -R options. Then, Subject and Content-Disposition headers (and all
headers listed with -d and -p options) are examined. If any of those exists,
they are decoded according to RFC2047. Content-Disposition header is not
- decoded - only its "filename" parameter. Encoded header parameters violate
- the RFC, but widely deployed anyway by ignorant coders who never even heard
- about RFCs. Correct parameter encoding specified by RFC2231. This program
- decodes RFC2231-encoded parameters, too.
+ decoded (if it was not listed in option -d) - only its "filename" parameter.
+ Encoded header parameters violate the RFC, but widely deployed anyway by
+ ignorant coders who never even heard about RFCs. Correct parameter encoding
+ specified by RFC2231. This program decodes RFC2231-encoded parameters, too.
</para>
<para>
Then the body of the message (or the current part) is decoded. Decoding
starts with looking at header Content-Transfer-Encoding. If the header
specifies non-8bit encoding (usually base64 or quoted-printable), the body
- converted to 8bit. Then, if its content type is multipart (multipart/related
- or multipart/mixed, e.g) every part is recursively decoded. If it is not
- multipart, mailcap database is consulted to find a way to convert the body
- to plain text. (I have no idea how mailcap can be configured on OSes other
- than POSIX, please don't ask me; real OS users can consult my example at
- <ulink url="http://phdru.name/Software/dotfiles/mailcap.html">http://phdru.name/Software/dotfiles/mailcap.html</ulink>).
+ is converted to 8bit (can be prevented with -B). Then if its content type
+ is multipart (multipart/related or multipart/mixed, e.g) every part is
+ recursively decoded. If it is not multipart, mailcap database is consulted
+ to find a way to convert the body to plain text (can be prevented with
+ options -Bbei). (The author has no idea how mailcap can be configured on
+ OSes other than POSIX, please don't ask; users can consult an example at
+ <ulink url="https://phdru.name/Software/dotfiles/mailcap.html">https://phdru.name/Software/dotfiles/mailcap.html</ulink>).
The decoding process uses the first copiousoutput filter it can find. If
there are no filters the body just passed as is.
</para>
<para>
Then Content-Type header is consulted for charset. If it is not equal to the
- current locale charset and recoding is allowed the body text is recoded.
- Finally message headers and the body are flushed to stdout.
+ current locale charset and recoding is allowed (see options -Cc) the body
+ text is recoded. Finally message headers and the body are flushed to stdout.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<para>
- Please be warned that in the following options asterisk is a shell
+ Please be reminded that in the following options asterisk is a shell
metacharacter and should be escaped or quoted. Either write -d \*,-h1,-h2
or -d '*,-h1,-h2' or such.
</para>
<term>-f charset</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Force this charset to be the current default charset instead of
+ Force this charset to be used for recoding instead of charset from
the current locale.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This variant completely changes headers decoding. First, the list of
- headers to decode is cleared. Then all the headers are decoded
- except the given list of exceptions (headers listed with '-'). In
- this mode it would be meaningless to give more than one -d options
- but the program doesn't enforce it.
+ headers to decode is cleared (as with -D). Then all the headers are
+ decoded except the given list of exceptions (headers listed with
+ '-'). In this mode it would be meaningless to give more than one -d
+ options but the program doesn't enforce the limitation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>-p header1[,header2,header3,...]:param1[,param2,param3,...]</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add the parameters(s) to a list of headers parameters to decode;
- the parameters will be decoded only for the given header(s).
+ Add the parameter(s) to a list of headers parameters to decode;
+ the parameter(s) will be decoded only for the given header(s).
Initially the list contains header "Content-Type", parameter "name";
and header "Content-Disposition", parameter "filename".
</para>
<term>-p *[,-header1,-header2,-header3,...]:param1[,param2,param3,...]</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add the parameters(s) to a list of headers parameters to decode;
- the parameters will be decoded for all headers except the given
+ Add the parameter(s) to a list of headers parameters to decode;
+ the parameter(s) will be decoded for all headers except the given
ones.
</para>
</listitem>
<term>-R header1[,header2,header3,...]:param1[,param2,param3,...]</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add the parameters(s) to a list of headers parameters to remove;
- the parameters will be decoded only for the given header(s).
+ Add the parameter(s) to a list of headers parameters to remove;
+ the parameter(s) will be removed only for the given header(s).
Initially the list is empty.
</para>
</listitem>
<term>-R *[,-header1,-header2,-header3,...]:*[,-param1,-param2,-param3,...]</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Remove listed parameters (or all parameters except listed) frome
+ Remove listed parameters (or all parameters except listed) from
these headers (or from all headers except listed).
</para>
</listitem>
<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
- content-transfer-decode (base64 or whatever to 8bit binary) it but
- pass the part as is, without any further processing.
+ 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>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>-I mask</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Append mask to the list of content types to completely ignore.
+ There will be no output - no headers, no body, no warning. For a
+ multipart part the entire subtree is removed.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
<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>
<term>--save-message mask</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Append mask to a list of content types to save to a file;
+ Append mask to lists of content types to save to files;
--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 (headers + body).
+ the current subpart); --save-body saves only decoded body;
+ --save-message saves 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>
<para>
Save output to the file related to the destination directory from
option -O. Also useful in case of redirected stdin:
- <programlisting language="sh">mimedecode.py -o output_file < input_file
-cat input_file | mimedecode.py -o output_file</programlisting>
+ <programlisting language="sh">mimedecode -o output_file < input_file
+cat input_file | mimedecode -o output_file</programlisting>
</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
- PDF/Postscript to text, pass HTML and images as is (decoding base64 to html
- but left images in base64), and ignore everything else. Easy:
+ PDF/Postscript to text, pass HTML and images decoding base64 to html but
+ leaving images encoded, and ignore everything else. This is how it could be
+ done:
</para>
<para>
<code language="sh">
- mimedecode.py -t application/pdf -t application/postscript -b text/html
- -B 'image/*' -i '*/*'
+ mimedecode -t application/pdf -t application/postscript -t text/plain
+ -b text/html -B 'image/*' -i '*/*'
</code>
</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 5 lists, in order "text-binary-ignore-error". If found, appropriate
- action performed. If not found, the program search the same lists for
+ action is performed. If not found, the program searches 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
- lists for "*/*" mask. If found, appropriate action performed. If not found,
- the program uses default action, which is to decode everything to text (if
- mailcap specifies a filter).
+ appropriate action is performed. If not found, the program searches the same
+ lists for "*/*" mask. If found, appropriate action is performed. If not
+ found, the program uses the default action, which is to decode everything to
+ text (if mailcap specifies a filter). This algorithm allows more specific
+ content types to override less specific: -b image/* will be processed
+ earlier than -B */*.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Options -e/-I/-i can also work with multipart subparts of a MIME message. In
+ case of -I/-i the entire subtree of that multipart is removed; with -i it's
+ replaced with ignore warning.
</para>
<para>
Initially all 5 lists are empty, so without any additional parameters
-the program always uses the default decoding.
+ the program always uses the default decoding (as -t */*).
</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 is 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.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If the file doesn't have any extensions (no dots in the value of the
+ name/filename parameters, or the name is just the counter) the program tries
+ to guess an extension by looking up the content type in mime.types files
+ including .mime.types file in the user's home directory (if it exists). If
+ the file has an extension the program doesn't try to verify that it
+ corresponds to the content type.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The file is saved in the directory set with -O (default is the current
+ directory). The save options are proceeded before -e options so the user can
+ save the message that causes an error.
</para>
</refsect1>
From/To/Cc/Reply-To/Mail-Followup-To/Subject headers and filenames. Other
than that output is correct MIME message. The program does not try to guess
whether the headers are correct. For example, if a message header states
- that charset is iso8859-5, but the body is actually in utf-8 the program
- will recode the message with the wrong charset.
+ that charset is iso8859-1, but the body (HTML, for example) is actually in
+ utf-8 the program will recode the message with the wrong charset.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>COPYRIGHT</title>
<para>
- Copyright (C) 2001-2014 PhiloSoft Design.
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2018 PhiloSoft Design.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>SEE ALSO</title>
<para>
- mimedecode.py home page:
- <ulink url="http://phdru.name/Software/Python/#mimedecode">http://phdru.name/Software/Python/#mimedecode</ulink>
+ mimedecode home page:
+ <ulink url="https://phdru.name/Software/Python/#mimedecode">https://phdru.name/Software/Python/#mimedecode</ulink>
</para>
</refsect1>
projects / mimedecode.git / blobdiff