Mail::M...t::Read(3)

📦
version 4.04 · 11 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ NAME ✨

Mail::Message::Construct::Read — read a Mail::Message from a file handle 💖 (yes bestie, this is Mail::M...t::Read(3), we're just being cute about the title)

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

my $msg1 = Mail::Message->read(\*STDIN);
my $msg2 = Mail::Message->read(\@lines);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea: when you call the complicated methods on a Mail::Message object, this package gets autoloaded to support reading messages directly from any file handle. literally any of them. 💅

💜 METHODS 💜

🎀 Constructing a message 🎀

$class->read($fh|$text|\$text|\@lines, %options)

Read a message from a $fh, a $text string, a reference to a text string, or an ARRAY of @lines. Most %options get passed along to the new() of the message that gets created, but a few extra ones are defined here. ✨

Please, bestie, go look at build() and buildFromBody() before you start thinking about this read method. Use this read only when you actually have a file-handle like STDIN to parse from, or some other external source of message lines. When you already have a separate set of head and body lines? Then read is certainly not your best choice. ngl. 🙈

Some people use this method in a procmail script: the message arrives at stdin, so all we have is a filehandle. In that case you're stuck with this method, no way around it. The message is preceded by a line which can be used as a message separator in mbox folders. Peep the example for how to handle that one. 👑

This method will remove Status and X-Status fields when they appear in the source, to avoid the risk that these fields accidentally interfere with your internal administration, which may have security implications. 🚨

Here's the whole default situation:

 -Option             --Default
  body_type            undef
  parser_class         undef
  seekable             false
  strip_status_fields  true
  trusted              true
  • body_type => $type — force a body $type (any specific extension of the Mail::Message::Body class) to be used to store the message content. When the body is a multipart or nested, this will be overruled. so it's giving "suggestion, not a demand" 💁‍♀️
  • parser_class => $type — enforce a certain parser $type to be used, which must be an extension of the Mail::Box::Parser class otherwise taken.
  • seekable => BOOLEAN — indicate that a seekable file-handle has been passed. In this case, we can use the Mail::Box::Parser::Perl parser which reads messages directly from the input stream.
  • strip_status_fields => BOOLEAN — remove the Status and X-Status fields from the message after reading, to lower the risk that received messages from external sources interfere with your internal administration. If you want fields not to be stripped (you would like to disable the stripping) you probably process folders yourself, which is a Bad Thing! 😭 like, genuinely, don't.
  • trusted => BOOLEAN — the original page gives no description for this one, bestie, it's just sitting there looking mysterious. 🙈 (all we know is the default is true)
💅 » example:
my $msg1 = Mail::Message->read(\*STDIN);
my $msg2 = Mail::Message->read(\@lines);
$folder->addMessages($msg1, $msg2);

my $msg3 = Mail::Message->read(<<MSG);
Subject: hello world
To: you@example.com
                     # warning: empty line required !!!
Hi, greetings!
MSG

# promail example
my $fromline = <STDIN>;
my $msg      = Mail::Message->read(\*STDIN);
my $coerced  = $mboxfolder->addMessage($msg);
$coerced->fromLine($fromline);

⭐ DIAGNOSTICS ⭐

  • Error: cannot read message from a $source}. — cast by read(). (yes, the stray } is really there, we're not touching it 💀)

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

This module is part of Mail-Message version 4.04, built on February 04, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/ — go check it out, it's iconic. 🫶

👑 LICENSE 👑

For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This software is copyright (c) 2001-2026 by Mark Overmeer.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

and that's a wrap, bestie 🎀 this lil beauty is from perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-02-05, and yeah it's filed under that iconic Mail::M...t::Read(3) name. slay, read responsibly, and always keep your empty line in your heredoc 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from