Email::Address::XS(3)

NAME
Email::Address::XS - Parse and format RFC 5322 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

  my $goldsteins_address = Email::Address::XS->parse_bare_address('goldstein@brotherhood.oceania');
  print $goldsteins_address->user();
  # goldstein

  my @addresses = Email::Address::XS->parse('"Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Records Department), Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>');
  # ($winstons_address, $julias_address)

  use Email::Address::XS qw(format_email_addresses format_email_groups parse_email_addresses parse_email_groups);

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

  my @addresses = map { $_->address() } parse_email_addresses($addresses_string);
  # ('winston.smith@recdep.minitrue', 'julia@ficdep.minitrue', 'user@oceania')

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

  my @groups = parse_email_groups($groups_string);
  # ('Brotherhood' => [ $winstons_address, $julias_address ], undef() => [ $users_address ])

  use Email::Address::XS qw(compose_address split_address);

  my ($user, $host) = split_address('julia(outer party)@ficdep.minitrue');
  # ('julia', 'ficdep.minitrue')

  my $string = compose_address('charrington"@"shop', 'thought.police.oceania');
  # "charrington\"@\"shop"@thought.police.oceania

DESCRIPTION
This module implements RFC 5322 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322> 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. Module is backward compatible with RFC 2822 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822> and RFC 822 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822>.

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) <https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2015-7686>, 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 5322 grammar.

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

If you are looking for the module which provides object representation for the list of email addresses suitable for the MIME email headers, see Email::MIME::Header::AddressList.

  EXPORT
None by default. Exportable functions are: "parse_email_addresses", "parse_email_groups", "format_email_addresses", "format_email_groups", "compose_address", "split_address".

  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 $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 $string = 'Brotherhood: "Winston Smith" <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue>, Julia <julia@ficdep.minitrue>;, user@oceania, undisclosed-recipients:;';
      my @groups = parse_email_groups($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.

compose_address
      use Email::Address::XS qw(compose_address);
      my $string_address = compose_address($user, $host);

    Takes an unescaped user part and unescaped host part of an address and returns escaped address.

    Available since version 1.01.

split_address
      use Email::Address::XS qw(split_address);
      my ($user, $host) = split_address($string_address);

    Takes an escaped address and split it into pair of unescaped user part and unescaped host part of address. If splitting input address into these two parts is not possible then this function returns pair of undefs.

    Available since version 1.01.

  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. Passing an argument original is deprecated, ignored and 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. If more then one object was parsed then "is_valid" method on returned object returns false. If no object was parsed then empty Email::Address::XS object is returned.

    Prior to version 1.01 return value in scalar context is undef when no object was parsed.

parse_bare_address
      my $winstons_address = Email::Address::XS->parse_bare_address('winston.smith@recdep.minitrue');

    Parses an input string as one bare email address (addr spec) which does not allow phrase part or angle brackets around email address and returns an Email::Address::XS object. It is just a wrapper around "address" method. Method "is_valid" can be used to check if parsing was successful.

    Available since version 1.01.

  Object Methods

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

    Returns formatted Email::Address::XS object as a string. This method throws a warning when "user" or "host" part of the email address is invalid or empty string.

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

    Returns true if the parse function or method which created this Email::Address::XS object had not received any syntax error on input string and also that "user" and "host" part of the email address are not empty strings.

    Thus this function can be used for checking if Email::Address::XS object is valid before calling "format" method on it.

    Available since version 1.01.

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 (local/mailbox) part of an address.

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

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

    Since version 1.03 this method checks if setting a new value is syntactically valid. If not undef is set and returned.

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

    Accessor and mutator for the escaped address (addr spec).

    Internally this module stores a user and a host part of an address separately. Function "compose_address" is used for composing full address and function "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.

as_string
      my $address = Email::Address::XS->new(phrase => 'Winston Smith', address => 'winston.smith@recdep.minitrue');
      my $stringified = $address->as_string();

    This method is used for object stringification. It returns string representation of object. By default object is stringified to "format".

    Available since version 1.01.

original
      my $address = Email::Address::XS->parse('(Winston) "Smith"   <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Minitrue)');
      my $original = $address->original();
      # (Winston) "Smith"   <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Minitrue)
      my $format = $address->format();
      # Smith <winston.smith@recdep.minitrue> (Minitrue)

    This method returns original part of the string which was used for parsing current Email::Address::XS object. If object was not created by parsing input string, then this method returns undef.

    Note that "format" method does not have to return same original string.

    Available since version 1.01.

  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>.

    Stringification is done by method "as_string".

  Deprecated Functions and Variables
For compatibility with the Email::Address module there are defined some deprecated functions 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.

SEE ALSO
RFC 822 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822>, RFC 2822 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822>, RFC 5322 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322>, Email::MIME::Header::AddressList, Email::Address, Email::Address::List, Email::AddressParser

AUTHOR
Pali <pali@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2015-2018 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.