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

💌 Mail::M...t::Text — capture a Mail::Message as text

okay bestie so this is a User Contributed Perl Documentation page, filed under Mail::M...t::Text(3) 💅 and it's literally the glow-up guide for turning a whole message object into plain ol' text. no cap.

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🌸 NAME

Mail::Message::Construct::Text — capture a Mail::Message as text ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS

my $text = $msg->string;
my $text = "$msg";   # via overload

my @text = $msg->lines;
my @text = @$lines;  # via overload

my $fh   = $msg->file;
my $line = <$fh>;

$msg->printStructure;

like. look at it. it's giving effortless 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION

so here's the tea ☕ — complex functionality on Mail::Message objects lives in a bunch of different files, and those files get autoloaded. this particular file implements the functionality related to creating message replies. that's the vibe. that's the whole vibe check. 🌈

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👑 METHODS

💜 The whole message as text

• $obj->file() — hands you the message back as a file-handle. yes, an actual handle. go wild. 🔥
• $obj->lines() — hands you the whole message back as a set of lines. in LIST context you get copies of the lines (not the originals, bestie, copies 🫶). in SCALAR context you get a reference to an array of lines.
• $obj->printStructure( [$fh|undef],[$indent] ) — prints the structure of a message to the specified $fh, or to the selected filehandle if you didn't say. and when you explicitly pass undef as the handle? the output comes back as a string instead. iconic behaviour honestly. ✨

the message's subject and the types of all composing parts get displayed. slay.

$indent is the initial indentation string — it gets added in front of each line. heads up: $indent must contain at least one white-space. fr fr. ⚠️

» example:

my $msg = ...;
$msg->printStructure(\*OUTPUT);

$msg->printStructure;

my $struct = $msg->printStructure(undef);

# Possible output for one message:
multipart/mixed: forwarded message from Pietje Puk (1550 bytes)
   text/plain (164 bytes)
   message/rfc822 (1043 bytes)
      multipart/alternative: A multipart alternative (942 bytes)
         text/plain (148 bytes, deleted)
         text/html (358 bytes)

• $obj->string() — returns the whole message as a string. that's it. that's the method. periodt. 💅

🌟 Flags

ngl bestie, this heading is here and there is nothing under it. it's giving mystery. it's giving main character energy with no dialogue. 🙈 but we keep it, because we keep everything.

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🔍 SEE ALSO

this module is part of Mail-Message version 4.04, built on February 04, 2026. website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/ 🌐

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💖 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.

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and that's the whole page, bestie — perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-02-05, straight from Mail::M...t::Text(3). ate and left no crumbs. 🎀💅🦋✨