The \module{email} package provides classes and utilities to create,

parse, generate, and modify email messages, conforming to all the

relevant email and MIME related RFCs.

\section{Introduction}

The \module{email} package provides classes and utilities to create,

parse, generate, and modify email messages, conforming to all the

relevant email and MIME related RFCs.

This document describes the current version of the \module{email}

package, which is available to Python programmers in a number of ways.

Python 2.2.2 and 2.3 come with \module{email} version 2, while earlier

versions of Python 2.2.x come with \module{email} version 1. Python

2.1.x and earlier do not come with any version of the \module{email}

package.

The \module{email} package is also available as a standalone distutils

package, and is compatible with Python 2.1.3 and beyond. Thus, if

you're using Python 2.1.3 you can download the standalone package and

install it in your \file{site-packages} directory. The standalone

\module{email} package is available on the

\ulink{SourceForge \module{mimelib} project}{http://mimelib.sf.net}.

The documentation that follows was written for the Python project, so

if you're reading this as part of the standalone \module{email}

package documentation, there are a few notes to be aware of:

\begin{itemize}

\item Deprecation and ``version added'' notes are relative to the

Python version a feature was added or deprecated. To find out

what version of the \module{email} package a particular item was

added, changed, or removed, refer to the package's

\ulink{\file{NEWS} file}{http://cvs.sf.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/mimelib/mimelib/NEWS?rev=1.36&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup}.

\item The code samples are written with Python 2.2 in mind. For

Python 2.1.3, some adjustments are necessary. For example, this

code snippet;

\begin{verbatim}

\end{verbatim}

would need to be written this way in Python 2.1.3:

\begin{verbatim}

\end{verbatim}

\item If you're reading this documentation as part of the

standalone \module{email} package, some of the internal links to

other sections of the Python standard library may not resolve.

\end{itemize}