Mail::Message::Field::Unstructured(3)

NAME
Mail::Message::Field::Unstructured - smart unstructured field

INHERITANCE
 Mail::Message::Field::Unstructured
   is a Mail::Message::Field::Full
   is a Mail::Message::Field
   is a Mail::Reporter

SYNOPSIS
  my $f = Mail::Message::Field::Unstructured->new('Comments', 'hi!');

DESCRIPTION
Unstructured fields do contain information which is not restricted in any way. RFC2822 defines some unstructured fields, but by default all unknown fields are unstructured as well. Things like attributes and comments have no meaning for unstructured fields, but encoding does.

Extends "DESCRIPTION" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

OVERLOADED
Extends "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

overload: "" stringification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

overload: '""' stringification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '0+' numification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '<='> numeric comparison
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: bool boolean
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: cmp string comparison
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

METHODS
Extends "METHODS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

  Constructors
Extends "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->clone()
    Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field

$class->from($field, %options)
    Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$class->new($data)
    When the $data is specified as single line, the content part is considered to be correcly (character) encoded and escaped. Typically, it is a line as read from file. The folding of the line is kept as is.

    In case more than one argument is provided, the second is considered the BODY. Attributes and other special things are not defined for unstructured fields, and therefore not valid options. The BODY can be a single string, a single OBJECT, or an array of OBJECTS. The objects are stringified (into a comma separated list). Each BODY element is interpreted with the specified encoding.

    When the BODY is empty, the construction of the object fails: "undef" is returned. Improves base, see "METHODS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

     -Option  --Defined in                --Default
      charset   Mail::Message::Field::Full  undef
      encoding  Mail::Message::Field::Full  'q'
      force     Mail::Message::Field::Full  false
      language  Mail::Message::Field::Full  undef

    charset => $charset
    encoding => 'q'|'Q'|'b'|'B'
    force => BOOLEAN
    language => $language

    » example:

      my $s = Mail::Message::Field::Unstructured->new('Comment', 'Hi!');

      # Use autodetect
      my $s = Mail::Message::Field::Full->new('Comment', 'Hi!');
      my $s = Mail::Message::Field::Full->new('Comment: Hi!');

  Attributes
Extends "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->Name()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->body()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->folded()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->foldedBody( [$body] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->name()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->unfoldedBody( [$body, [$wrap]] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->wellformedName( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

  The field
Extends "The field" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$any->isStructured( [$name] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->length()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->nrLines()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->print( [$fh] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->size()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->string( [$wrap] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->toDisclose()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

  Access to the body
Extends "Access to the body" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->decodedBody(%options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the body" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

  Access to the content
Extends "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->addresses()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->attribute( $name, [$value] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->attributes()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->beautify()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->comment( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->createComment(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->createPhrase(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->dateToTimestamp(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->stripCFWS( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->study()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->toDate( [$time] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->toInt()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

  Internals
Extends "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$any->decode(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->encode(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

  Parsing
Extends "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->consume( $line | <$name,<$body|$objects>> )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->consumeComment(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->consumeDotAtom(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->consumePhrase(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->defaultWrapLength( [$length] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->fold( $name, $body, [$maxchars] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->parse(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->produceBody()
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->setWrapLength( [$length] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->stringifyData(STRING|ARRAY|$objects)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->unfold(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

  Error handling
Extends "Error handling" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->AUTOLOAD()
    Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->notImplemented()
    Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

  Cleanup
Extends "Cleanup" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->DESTROY()
    Inherited, see "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

DETAILS
Extends "DETAILS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

DIAGNOSTICS

Warning: attributes are not supported for unstructured fields.
    Cast by "new()"

Error: class $package does not implement method $method.
    Fatal error: the specific $package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package. Cast by "notImplemented()"

Warning: field content is not numerical: $content
    The numeric value of a field is requested (for instance the "Lines" or "Content-Length" fields should be numerical), however the data contains weird characters. Cast by "toInt()"

Error: field name too long (max $count), in '$name'.
    It is not specified in the RFCs how long a field name can be, but at least it should be a few characters shorter than the line wrap. Cast by "fold()"

Warning: illegal character in charset '$name'.
    The field is created with an utf8 string which only contains data from the specified character set. However, that character set can never be a valid name because it contains characters which are not permitted. Cast by "encode()"

Warning: illegal character in field name $name.
    A new field is being created which does contain characters not permitted by the RFCs. Using this field in messages may break other e-mail clients or transfer agents, and therefore mutulate or extinguish your message. Cast by "consume()"

Warning: illegal character in language '$name'.
    The field is created with data which is specified to be in a certain language, however, the name of the language cannot be valid: it contains characters which are not permitted by the RFCs. Cast by "encode()"

Warning: illegal encoding '$name', using 'q'.
    The RFCs only permit base64 ("b " or "B ") or quoted-printable ("q" or "Q") encoding. Other than these four options are illegal. Cast by "encode()"

Warning: no extras for unstructured fields.
    Cast by "new()"

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Mail-Message version 4.05, built on April 10, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

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.