Class: RMail::Mailbox::MBoxReader

Class that can parse Unix mbox style mailboxes. These mailboxes separate individual messages with a line beginning with the string "From ".

Typical usage:

 File.open("file.mbox") { |file|
   RMail::Mailbox::MBoxReader.new(file).each_message { |input|
     message = RMail::Parser.read(input)
     # do something with the message
   end
 }

Or see RMail::Mailbox.parse_mbox for a more convenient interface.

Methods

each_message eof new next read_chunk

External Aliases

read_chunk	->	parent_read_chunk
eof	->	parent_eof

Public Class methods

new(input, line_separator = $/)

Creates a new MBoxReader that reads from `input’ with lines that end with `line_separator’.

`input’ can either be an IO source (an object that responds to the "read" method in the same way as a standard IO object) or a String.

`line_separator’ defaults to $/, and useful values are probably limited to "\n" (Unix) and "\r\n" (DOS/Windows).

Public Instance methods

each_message() {|self| ...}

Yield self until eof, calling next after each yield.

This method makes it simple to read messages successively out of the mailbox. See the class description for a code example.

eof()

Returns true if the next call to read_chunk will return nil.

next()

Advances to the next message to be read. Call this after read returns nil.

Note: Once read returns nil, you can call eof before or after calling next to tell if there actually is a next message to read.

read_chunk(size)

Reads some data from the current message and returns it. The `size’ argument is just a suggestion, and the returned string can be larger or smaller. When `size’ is nil, then the entire message is returned.

Once all data from the current message has been read, read returns nil and next must be called to begin reading from the next message. You can use eof to tell if there is any more data to be read from the input source.