=encoding utf8
=head1 NAME
Mail::Address - Parse mail addresses
=head1 SYNOPSIS
use Mail::Address;
my @addrs = Mail::Address->parse($line);
foreach $addr (@addrs) {
print $addr->format,"\n";
}
=head1 DESCRIPTION
C<Mail::Address> extracts and manipulates email addresses from a message
header. It cannot be used to extract addresses from some random text.
You can use this module to create RFC822 compliant fields.
Although C<Mail::Address> is a very popular subject for books, and is
used in many applications, it does a very poor job on the more complex
message fields. It does only handle simple address formats (which
covers about 95% of what can be found). Problems are with
=over 4
=item *
no support for address groups, even not with the semi-colon as
separator between addresses;
=item *
limited support for escapes in phrases and comments. There are
cases where it can get wrong; and
=item *
you have to take care of most escaping when you create an address yourself:
C<Mail::Address> does not do that for you.
=back
Often requests are made to the maintainers of this code improve this
situation, but this is not a good idea, where it will break zillions
of existing applications. If you wish for a fully RFC2822 compliant
implementation you may take a look at L<Mail::Message::Field::Full>,
part of MailBox.
=head1 METHODS
=head2 Constructors
=over 4
=item Mail::Address-E<gt>B<new>( PHRASE, ADDRESS, [ COMMENT ] )
Create a new C<Mail::Address> object which represents an address with the
elements given. In a message these 3 elements would be seen like:
PHRASE <ADDRESS> (COMMENT)
ADDRESS (COMMENT)
example:
Mail::Address->new("Perl5 Porters", "perl5-porters@africa.nicoh.com");
=item $obj-E<gt>B<parse>(LINE)
Parse the given line a return a list of extracted C<Mail::Address> objects.
The line would normally be one taken from a To,Cc or Bcc line in a message
example:
my @addr = Mail::Address->parse($line);
=back
=head2 Accessors
=over 4
=item $obj-E<gt>B<address>()
Return the address part of the object.
=item $obj-E<gt>B<comment>()
Return the comment part of the object
=item $obj-E<gt>B<format>( [ADDRESSes] )
Return a string representing the address in a suitable form to be placed
on a C<To>, C<Cc>, or C<Bcc> line of a message. This method is called on
the first ADDRESS to be used; other specified ADDRESSes will be appended,
separated with commas.
=item $obj-E<gt>B<phrase>()
Return the phrase part of the object.
=back
=head2 Smart accessors
=over 4
=item $obj-E<gt>B<host>()
Return the address excluding the user id and '@'
=item $obj-E<gt>B<name>()
Using the information contained within the object attempt to identify what
the person or groups name is.
B<Note:> This function tries to be smart with the "phrase" of the
email address, which is probably a very bad idea. Consider to use
L<phrase()|Mail::Address/"Accessors"> itself.
=item $obj-E<gt>B<user>()
Return the address excluding the '@' and the mail domain
=back
=head1 SEE ALSO
This module is part of the MailTools distribution,
F<http://perl.overmeer.net/mailtools/>.
=head1 AUTHORS
The MailTools bundle was developed by Graham Barr. Later, Mark
Overmeer took over maintenance without commitment to further development.
Mail::Cap by Gisle Aas E<lt>aas@oslonett.noE<gt>.
Mail::Field::AddrList by Peter Orbaek E<lt>poe@cit.dkE<gt>.
Mail::Mailer and Mail::Send by Tim Bunce E<lt>Tim.Bunce@ig.co.ukE<gt>.
For other contributors see ChangeLog.
=head1 LICENSE
Copyrights 1995-2000 Graham Barr E<lt>gbarr@pobox.comE<gt> and
2001-2007 Mark Overmeer E<lt>perl@overmeer.netE<gt>.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
See F<http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>