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Mail::Message::Construct::Text

capture a Mail::Message as text

  my $text = $msg->string;
  my $text = "$msg";   # via overload
  my @text = $msg->lines;
  my @text = @$lines;  # via overload
  my $fh   = $msg->file;
  my $line = <$fh>;
  $msg->printStructure;

Complex functionality on Mail::Message objects is implemented in different files which are autoloaded. This file implements the functionality related to creating message replies.

$obj->file()
Returns the message as file-handle.
$obj->lines()
Returns the whole message as set of lines. In LIST context, copies of the lines are returned. In SCALAR context, a reference to an array of lines is returned.
$obj->printStructure( [$fh|undef],[$indent] )
Print the structure of a message to the specified $fh or the selected filehandle. When explicitly "undef" is specified as handle, then the output will be returned as string.

The message's subject and the types of all composing parts are displayed.

$indent specifies the initial indentation string: it is added in front of each line. The $indent must contain at least one white-space.

» example:

  my $msg = ...;
  $msg->printStructure(\*OUTPUT);
  $msg->printStructure;
  my $struct = $msg->printStructure(undef);
  # Possible output for one message:
  multipart/mixed: forwarded message from Pietje Puk (1550 bytes)
     text/plain (164 bytes)
     message/rfc822 (1043 bytes)
        multipart/alternative: A multipart alternative (942 bytes)
           text/plain (148 bytes, deleted)
           text/html (358 bytes)
$obj->string()
Returns the whole message as string.

This module is part of Mail-Message version 4.03, built on January 26, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/

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.