Simplify email API via 'policy' objects

Doc/library/email.policy.rst

+:mod:`email`: Policy Objects
+----------------------------
+
+.. module:: email.policy
+   :synopsis: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages
+
+
+The :mod:`email` package's prime focus is the handling of email messages as
+described by the various email and MIME RFCs.  However, the general format of
+email messages (a block of header fields each consisting of a name followed by
+a colon followed by a value, the whole block followed by a blank line and an
+arbitrary 'body'), is a format that has found utility outside of the realm of
+email.  Some of these uses conform fairly closely to the main RFCs, some do
+not.  And even when working with email, there are times when it is desirable to
+break strict compliance with the RFCs.
+
+Policy objects are the mechanism used to provide the email package with the
+flexibility to handle all these disparate use cases,
+
+A :class:`Policy` object encapsulates a set of attributes and methods that
+control the behavior of various components of the email package during use.
+:class:`Policy` instances can be passed to various classes and methods in the
+email package to alter the default behavior.  The settable values and their
+defaults are described below.  The :mod:`policy` module also provides some
+pre-created :class:`Policy` instances.  In addition to a :const:`default`
+instance, there are instances tailored for certain applications.  For example
+there is an :const:`SMTP` :class:`Policy` with defaults appropriate for
+generating output to be sent to an SMTP server.  These are listed :ref:`below
+<Policy Instances>`.
+
+In general an application will only need to deal with setting the policy at the
+input and output boundaries.  Once parsed, a message is represented by a
+:class:`~email.message.Message` object, which is designed to be independent of
+the format that the message has "on the wire" when it is received, transmitted,
+or displayed.  Thus, a :class:`Policy` can be specified when parsing a message
+to create a :class:`~email.message.Message`, and again when turning the
+:class:`~email.message.Message` into some other representation.  While often a
+program will use the same :class:`Policy` for both input and output, the two
+can be different.
+
+As an example, the following code could be used to read an email message from a
+file on disk and pass it to the system ``sendmail`` program on a ``unix``
+system::
+
+   >>> from email import msg_from_binary_file
+   >>> from email.generator import BytesGenerator
+   >>> import email.policy
+   >>> from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
+   >>> with open('mymsg.txt', 'b') as f:
+   >>>     msg = msg_from_binary_file(f, policy=email.policy.mbox)
+   >>> p = Popen(['sendmail', msg['To'][0].address], stdin=PIPE)
+   >>> g = BytesGenerator(p.stdin, email.policy.policy=SMTP)
+   >>> g.flatten(msg)
+   >>> p.stdin.close()
+   >>> rc = p.wait()
+
+Some email package methods accept a *policy* keyword argument, allowing the
+policy to be overridden for that method.  For example, the following code use
+the :meth:`email.message.Message.as_string` method to the *msg* object from the
+previous example and re-write it to a file using the native line separators for
+the platform on which it is running::
+
+   >>> import os
+   >>> mypolicy = email.policy.Policy(linesep=os.linesep)
+   >>> with open('converted.txt', 'wb') as f:
+   ...     f.write(msg.as_string(policy=mypolicy))
+
+Policy instances are immutable, but they can be cloned, accepting the same
+keyword arguments as the class constructor and returning a new :class:`Policy`
+instance that is a copy of the original but with the specified attributes
+values changed.  For example, the following creates an SMTP policy that will
+raise any defects detected as errors::
+
+   >>> strict_SMTP = email.policy.SMTP.clone(raise_on_defect=True)
+
+Policy objects can also be combined using the addition operator, producing a
+policy object whose settings are a combination of the non-default values of the
+summed objects::
+
+   >>> strict_SMTP = email.policy.SMTP + email.policy.strict
+
+This operation is not commutative; that is, the order in which the objects are
+added matters.  To illustrate::
+
+   >>> Policy = email.policy.Policy
+   >>> apolicy = Policy(max_line_length=100) + Policy(max_line_length=80)
+   >>> apolicy.max_line_length
+   80
+   >>> apolicy = Policy(max_line_length=80) + Policy(max_line_length=100)
+   >>> apolicy.max_line_length
+   100
+
+
+.. class:: Policy(**kw)
+
+   The valid constructor keyword arguments are any of the attributes listed
+   below.
+
+   .. attribute:: max_line_length
+
+      The maximum length of any line in the serialized output, not counting the
+      end of line character(s).  Default is 78, per :rfc:`5322`.  A value of
+      ``0`` or :const:`None` indicates that no line wrapping should be
+      done at all.
+
+   .. attribute:: linesep
+
+      The string to be used to terminate lines in serialized output.  The
+      default is '\\n' because that's the internal end-of-line discipline used
+      by Python, though '\\r\\n' is required by the RFCs.  See `Policy
+      Instances`_ for policies that use an RFC conformant linesep.  Setting it
+      to :attr:`os.linesep` may also be useful.
+
+   .. attribute:: must_be_7bit
+
+      If :const:`True`, data output by a bytes generator is limited to ASCII
+      characters.  If :const:`False` (the default), then bytes with the high
+      bit set are preserved and/or allowed in certain contexts (for example,
+      where possible a content transfer encoding of ``8bit`` will be used).
+      String generators act as if ``must_be_7bit`` is `True` regardless of the
+      policy in effect, since a string cannot represent non-ASCII bytes.
+
+   .. attribute:: raise_on_defect
+
+      If :const:`True`, any defects encountered will be raised as errors.  If
+      :const:`False` (the default), defects will be passed to the
+      :meth:`register_defect` method.
+
+   .. method:: handle_defect(obj, defect)
+
+      *obj* is the object on which to register the defect.  *defect* should be
+      an instance of a  subclass of :class:`~email.errors.Defect`.
+      If :attr:`raise_on_defect`
+      is ``True`` the defect is raised as an exception.  Otherwise *obj* and
+      *defect* are passed to :meth:`register_defect`.  This method is intended
+      to be called by parsers when they encounter defects, and will not be
+      called by code that uses the email library unless that code is
+      implementing an alternate parser.
+
+   .. method:: register_defect(obj, defect)
+
+      *obj* is the object on which to register the defect.  *defect* should be
+      a subclass of :class:`~email.errors.Defect`.  This method is part of the
+      public API so that custom ``Policy`` subclasses can implement alternate
+      handling of defects.  The default implementation calls the ``append``
+      method of the ``defects`` attribute of *obj*.
+
+   .. method:: clone(obj, *kw):
+
+      Return a new :class:`Policy` instance whose attributes have the same
+      values as the current instance, except where those attributes are
+      given new values by the keyword arguments.
+
+
+Policy Instances
+................
+
+The following instances of :class:`Policy` provide defaults suitable for
+specific common application domains.
+
+.. data:: default
+
+    An instance of :class:`Policy` with all defaults unchanged.
+
+.. data:: SMTP
+
+    Output serialized from a message will conform to the email and SMTP
+    RFCs.  The only changed attribute is :attr:`linesep`, which is set to
+    ``\r\n``.
+
+.. data:: HTTP
+
+    Suitable for use when serializing headers for use in HTTP traffic.
+    :attr:`linesep` is set to ``\r\n``, and :attr:`max_line_length` is set to
+    :const:`None` (unlimited).
+
+.. data:: strict
+
+    :attr:`raise_on_defect` is set to :const:`True`.