=encoding utf8 =head1 NAME Mail::Address - parse mail addresses =head1 SYNOPSIS use Mail::Address; my @addrs = Mail::Address->parse($line); foreach $addr (@addrs) { print $addr->format,"\n"; } =head1 DESCRIPTION C<Mail::Address> extracts and manipulates email addresses from a message header. It cannot be used to extract addresses from some random text. You can use this module to create RFC822 compliant fields. Although C<Mail::Address> is a very popular subject for books, and is used in many applications, it does a very poor job on the more complex message fields. It does only handle simple address formats (which covers about 95% of what can be found). Problems are with =over 4 =item * no support for address groups, even not with the semi-colon as separator between addresses; =item * limited support for escapes in phrases and comments. There are cases where it can get wrong; and =item * you have to take care of most escaping when you create an address yourself: C<Mail::Address> does not do that for you. =back Often requests are made to the maintainers of this code improve this situation, but this is not a good idea, where it will break zillions of existing applications. If you wish for a fully RFC2822 compliant implementation you may take a look at L<Mail::Message::Field::Full>, part of MailBox. B<. Example> my $s = Mail::Message::Field::Full->new($from_header); # ref $s isa Mail::Message::Field::Addresses; my @g = $s->groups; # all groups, at least one # ref $g[0] isa Mail::Message::Field::AddrGroup; my $ga = $g[0]->addresses; # group addresses my @a = $s->addresses; # all addresses # ref $a[0] isa Mail::Message::Field::Address; =head1 METHODS =head2 Constructors =over 4 =item Mail::Address-E<gt>B<new>( $phrase, $address, [ $comment ] ) Create a new C<Mail::Address> object which represents an address with the elements given. In a message these 3 elements would be seen like: PHRASE <ADDRESS> (COMMENT) ADDRESS (COMMENT) example: Mail::Address->new("Perl5 Porters", "perl5-porters@africa.nicoh.com"); =item $obj-E<gt>B<parse>($line) Parse the given line a return a list of extracted C<Mail::Address> objects. The line would normally be one taken from a To,Cc or Bcc line in a message example: my @addr = Mail::Address->parse($line); =back =head2 Accessors =over 4 =item $obj-E<gt>B<address>() Return the address part of the object. =item $obj-E<gt>B<comment>() Return the comment part of the object =item $obj-E<gt>B<format>(@addresses) Return a string representing the address in a suitable form to be placed on a C<To>, C<Cc>, or C<Bcc> line of a message. This method is called on the first address to be used; other specified addresses will be appended, separated by commas. =item $obj-E<gt>B<phrase>() Return the phrase part of the object. =back =head2 Smart accessors =over 4 =item $obj-E<gt>B<host>() Return the address excluding the user id and '@' =item $obj-E<gt>B<name>() Using the information contained within the object attempt to identify what the person or groups name is. B<Note:> This function tries to be smart with the "phrase" of the email address, which is probably a very bad idea. Consider to use L<phrase()|Mail::Address/"Accessors"> itself. =item $obj-E<gt>B<user>() Return the address excluding the '@' and the mail domain =back =head1 SEE ALSO This module is part of the MailTools distribution, F<http://perl.overmeer.net/mailtools/>. =head1 AUTHORS The MailTools bundle was developed by Graham Barr. Later, Mark Overmeer took over maintenance without commitment to further development. Mail::Cap by Gisle Aas E<lt>aas@oslonett.noE<gt>. Mail::Field::AddrList by Peter Orbaek E<lt>poe@cit.dkE<gt>. Mail::Mailer and Mail::Send by Tim Bunce E<lt>Tim.Bunce@ig.co.ukE<gt>. For other contributors see ChangeLog. =head1 LICENSE Copyrights 1995-2000 Graham Barr E<lt>gbarr@pobox.comE<gt> and 2001-2017 Mark Overmeer E<lt>perl@overmeer.netE<gt>. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See F<http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>