In
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/email-sig/2004-October/000158.html
I spec'd out a protocol for storing the contents of
large email messages external to the object.  The
thread continues that this isn't completely adequate,
since we'll need a read interface as well, but that
gets problematic.  Follow the thread for details.

This patch implements storage_open(), storage_write()
and storage_close() -- it's a start, and hopefully
someone else can pick it up from here (although not in
time for Python 2.4).

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I'm having trouble finding the rest of that thread.  I see
the first post, as you linked to it, but no followups.

Am I missing something, or was the conversation continued
off-list?

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Ahh, nevermind, I see them now.

Patch has test.

The patch if fairly small and if accepted could be implemented quite easily despite its age as the code doesn't appear to have changed much in the interim.