NAME

Email::Address::XS - Parse and format RFC 2822 email addresses and groups

SYNOPSIS

use Email::Address::XS;

my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', user => 'winston.smith', host => 'recdep.minitrue', comment => 'Records Department');
print $winstons_address->address();
# winston.smith@recdep.minitrue

my $julias_address = Email::Address::XS->new('Julia', 'julia@ficdep.minitrue');
print $julias_address->format();
# Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>

my $users_address = Email::Address::XS->parse('user <user@oceania>');
print $users_address->host();
# oceania


use Email::Address::XS qw(format_email_addresses format_email_groups parse_email_addresses parse_email_groups);
my $undef = undef;

my $addresses_string = format_email_addresses($winstons_address, $julias_address, $users_address);
print $addresses_string;
# "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Records Department), Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>, user <user@oceania>

my @addresses = parse_email_addresses($addresses_string);
print 'address: ' . $_->address() . "\n" foreach @addresses;
# address: winston.smith@recdep.minitrue
# address: julia@ficdep.minitrue
# address: user@oceania

my $groups_string = format_email_groups('Brotherhood' => [ $winstons_address, $julias_address ], $undef => [ $users_address ]);
print $groups_string;
# Brotherhood: "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Records Department), Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>;, user <user@oceania>

my @groups = parse_email_groups($groups_string);

DESCRIPTION

This module implements RFC 2822 parser and formatter of email addresses and groups. It parses an input string from email headers which contain a list of email addresses or a groups of email addresses (like From, To, Cc, Bcc, Reply-To, Sender, ...). Also it can generate a string value for those headers from a list of email addresses objects.

Parser and formatter functionality is implemented in XS and uses shared code from Dovecot IMAP server.

It is a drop-in replacement for the Email::Address module which has several security issues. E.g. issue CVE-2015-7686 (Algorithmic complexity vulnerability), which allows remote attackers to cause denial of service, is still present in Email::Address version 1.908.

Email::Address::XS module was created to finally fix CVE-2015-7686.

Existing applications that use Email::Address module could be easily switched to Email::Address::XS module. In most cases only changing use Email::Address to use Email::Address::XS and replacing every Email::Address occurrence with Email::Address::XS is sufficient.

So unlike Email::Address, this module does not use regular expressions for parsing but instead native XS implementation parses input string sequentially according to RFC 2822 grammar.

Additionally it has support also for named groups and so can be use instead of the Email::Address::List module.

EXPORT

None by default. Exportable functions are: parse_email_addresses, parse_email_groups, format_email_addresses, format_email_groups.

Exportable Functions

format_email_addresses
use Email::Address::XS qw(format_email_addresses);

my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', address => 'winston@recdep.minitrue');
my $julias_address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Julia', address => 'julia@ficdep.minitrue');
my @addresses = ($winstons_address, $julias_address);
my $string = format_email_addresses(@addresses);
print $string;
# "Winston Smith" <winston@recdep.minitrue>, Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>

Takes a list of email address objects and returns one formatted string of those email addresses.

format_email_groups
use Email::Address::XS qw(format_email_groups);
my $undef = undef;

my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', user => 'winston.smith', host => 'recdep.minitrue');
my $julias_address = Email::Address::XS->new('Julia', 'julia@ficdep.minitrue');
my $users_address = Email::Address::XS->new(address => 'user@oceania');

my $groups_string = format_email_groups('Brotherhood' => [ $winstons_address, $julias_address ], $undef => [ $users_address ]);
print $groups_string;
# Brotherhood: "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue>, Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>;, user@oceania

my $undisclosed_string = format_email_groups('undisclosed-recipients' => []);
print $undisclosed_string;
# undisclosed-recipients:;

Like format_email_addresses but this method takes pairs which consist of a group display name and a reference to address list. If a group is not undef then address list is formatted inside named group.

parse_email_addresses
use Email::Address::XS qw(parse_email_addresses);

my $string = '"Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue>, Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>, user@oceania';
my @addresses = parse_email_addresses($string);
# @addresses now contains three Email::Address::XS objects, one for each address

Parses an input string and returns a list of Email::Address::XS objects. Optional second string argument specifies class name for blessing new objects.

parse_email_groups
use Email::Address::XS qw(parse_email_groups);
my $undef = undef;

my $string = 'Brotherhood: "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue>, Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>;, user@oceania, undisclosed-recipients:;';
my @groups = parse_email_groups($string);
# @groups now contains list ('Brotherhood' => [ $winstons_object, $julias_object ], $undef => [ $users_object ], 'undisclosed-recipients' => [])

Like parse_email_addresses but this function returns a list of pairs: a group display name and a reference to a list of addresses which belongs to that named group. An undef value for a group means that a following list of addresses is not inside any named group. An output is in a same format as a input for the function format_email_groups. This function preserves order of groups and does not do any de-duplication or merging.

Class Methods

new
my $empty_address = Email::Address::XS->new();
my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', user => 'winston.smith', host => 'recdep.minitrue', comment => 'Records Department');
my $julias_address = Email::Address::XS->new('Julia', 'julia@ficdep.minitrue');
my $users_address = Email::Address::XS->new(address => 'user@oceania');
my $only_name = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Name');
my $copy_of_winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->new(copy => $winstons_address);

Constructs and returns a new Email::Address::XS object. Takes named list of arguments: phrase, address, user, host, comment and copy. An argument address takes precedence over user and host.

When an argument copy is specified then it is expected an Email::Address::XS object and a cloned copy of that object is returned. All other parameters are ignored.

Old syntax from the Email::Address module is supported too. Takes one to four positional arguments: phrase, address comment, and original string. An argument original is deprecated and ignored. Passing it throws a warning.

parse
my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->parse('"Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Records Department)');
my @users_addresses = Email::Address::XS->parse('user1@oceania, user2@oceania');

Parses an input string and returns a list of an Email::Address::XS objects. Same as the function parse_email_addresses but this one is class method.

In scalar context this function returns just first parsed object.

Object Methods

format
my $string = $address->format();

Returns formatted Email::Address::XS object as a string.

phrase
my $phrase = $address->phrase();
$address->phrase('Winston Smith');

Accessor and mutator for the phrase (display name).

user
my $user = $address->user();
$address->user('winston.smith');

Accessor and mutator for the unescaped user part of an address.

host
my $host = $address->host();
$address->host('recdep.minitrue');

Accessor and mutator for the unescaped host part of an address.

address
my $string_address = $address->address();
$address->address('winston.smith@recdep.minitrue');

Accessor and mutator for the escaped address.

Internally this module stores a user and a host part of an address separately. Private method compose_address is used for composing full address and private method split_address for splitting into a user and a host parts. If splitting new address into these two parts is not possible then this method returns undef and sets both parts to undef.

comment
my $comment = $address->comment();
$address->comment('Records Department');

Accessor and mutator for the comment which is formatted after an address. A comment can contain another nested comments in round brackets. When setting new comment this method check if brackets are balanced. If not undef is set and returned.

name
my $name = $address->name();

This method tries to return a name which belongs to the address. It returns either phrase or comment or user part of the address or empty string (first defined value in this order). But it never returns undef.

Overloaded Operators

stringify
my $address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', address => 'winston.smith@recdep.minitrue');
print "Winston's address is $address.";
# Winston's address is "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue>.

Objects stringify to format.

Deprecated Functions, Methods and Variables

For compatibility with the Email::Address module there are defined some deprecated functions, methods and variables. Do not use them in new code. Their usage throws warnings.

Altering deprecated variable $Email:Address::XS::STRINGIFY changes method which is called for objects stringification.

Deprecated cache functions purge_cache, disable_cache and enable_cache are noop and do nothing.

Deprecated object method original just returns address.

SEE ALSO

RFC 822, RFC 2822, Email::Address, Email::Address::List, Email::AddressParser

AUTHOR

Pali <pali@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2015-2017 by Pali <pali@cpan.org>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.6.0 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

Dovecot parser is licensed under The MIT License and copyrighted by Dovecot authors.