luasocket/doc/smtp.html

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<!-- smtp +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->

<h2 id="smtp">SMTP</h2>

<p> The  <tt>smtp</tt> namespace provides functionality to send e-mail
messages. The high-level API consists of two functions: one to
define an e-mail message, and another to actually send the message.
Although almost all users will find that these functions provide more than
enough functionality, the underlying implementation allows for even more
control (if you bother to read the code).
</p>

<p>The implementation conforms to the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol,
<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt">RFC 2821</a>.
Another RFC of interest is <a
href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt">RFC 2822</a>,
which governs the Internet Message Format.
Multipart messages (those that contain attachments) are part
of the MIME standard, but described mainly
in <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2046.txt">RFC 2046</a>.</p>

<p> In the description below, good understanding of <a
href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks"> LTN012, Filters
sources and sinks</a> and the  <a href="mime.html">MIME</a> module is
assumed.  In fact, the SMTP module was the main reason for their
creation. </p>

<p>
To obtain the <tt>smtp</tt> namespace, run:
</p>

<pre class="example">
-- loads the SMTP module and everything it requires
local smtp = require("socket.smtp")
</pre>

<p>
MIME headers are represented as a Lua table in the form:
</p>

<blockquote>
<table summary="MIME headers in Lua table">
<tr><td><tt>
headers = {<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;field-1-name = <i>field-1-value</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;field-2-name = <i>field-2-value</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;field-3-name = <i>field-3-value</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;...<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;field-n-name = <i>field-n-value</i><br>
}
</tt></td></tr>
</table>
</blockquote>

<p>
Field names are case insensitive (as specified by the standard) and all
functions work with lowercase field names (but see
<a href="socket.html#headers.canonic"><tt>socket.headers.canonic</tt></a>).
Field values are left unmodified.
</p>

<p class="note">
Note: MIME headers are independent of order. Therefore, there is no problem
in representing them in a Lua table.
</p>

<p>
The following constants can be set to control the default behavior of
the SMTP module:
</p>

<ul>
<li> <tt>DOMAIN</tt>: domain used to greet the server;</li>
<li> <tt>PORT</tt>: default port used for the connection;</li>
<li> <tt>SERVER</tt>: default server used for the connection;</li>
<li> <tt>TIMEOUT</tt>: default timeout for all I/O operations;</li>
<li> <tt>ZONE</tt>: default time zone.</li>
</ul>

<!-- message ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->

<p class="name" id="message">
smtp.<b>message(</b>mesgt<b>)</b>
</p>

<p class="description">
Returns a <em>simple</em>
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a> source that sends an SMTP message body, possibly multipart (arbitrarily deep).
</p>

<p class="parameters">
The only parameter of the function is a table describing the message.
<tt>Mesgt</tt> has the following form (notice the recursive structure):
</p>

<blockquote>
<table summary="Mesgt table structure">
<tr><td><tt>
mesgt = {<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;headers = <i>header-table</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;body = <i>LTN12 source</i> or <i>string</i> or
<i>multipart-mesgt</i><br>
}<br>
&nbsp;<br>
multipart-mesgt = {<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[preamble = <i>string</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[1] = <i>mesgt</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[2] = <i>mesgt</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;...<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[<i>n</i>] = <i>mesgt</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[epilogue = <i>string</i>,]<br>
}<br>
</tt></td></tr>
</table>
</blockquote>

<p class="parameters">
For a simple message, all that is needed is a set of <tt>headers</tt>
and the <tt>body</tt>. The message <tt>body</tt> can be given as a string
or as a <em>simple</em>
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a>
source. For multipart messages, the body is a table that
recursively defines each part as an independent message, plus an optional
<tt>preamble</tt> and <tt>epilogue</tt>.
</p>

<p class="return">
The function returns a <em>simple</em>
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a>
source that produces the
message contents as defined by <tt>mesgt</tt>, chunk by chunk.
Hopefully, the following
example will make things clear. When in doubt, refer to the appropriate RFC
as listed in the introduction.  </p>

<pre class="example">
-- load the smtp support and its friends
local smtp = require("socket.smtp")
local mime = require("mime")
local ltn12 = require("ltn12")

-- creates a source to send a message with two parts. The first part is
-- plain text, the second part is a PNG image, encoded as base64.
source = smtp.message{
  headers = {
     -- Remember that headers are *ignored* by smtp.send.
     from = "Sicrano de Oliveira &lt;sicrano@example.com&gt;",
     to = "Fulano da Silva &lt;fulano@example.com&gt;",
     subject = "Here is a message with attachments"
  },
  body = {
    preamble = "If your client doesn't understand attachments, \r\n" ..
               "it will still display the preamble and the epilogue.\r\n" ..
               "Preamble will probably appear even in a MIME enabled client.",
    -- first part: no headers means plain text, us-ascii.
    -- The mime.eol low-level filter normalizes end-of-line markers.
    [1] = {
      body = mime.eol(0, [[
        Lines in a message body should always end with CRLF.
        The smtp module will *NOT* perform translation. However, the
        send function *DOES* perform SMTP stuffing, whereas the message
        function does *NOT*.
      ]])
    },
    -- second part: headers describe content to be a png image,
    -- sent under the base64 transfer content encoding.
    -- notice that nothing happens until the message is actually sent.
    -- small chunks are loaded into memory right before transmission and
    -- translation happens on the fly.
    [2] = {
      headers = {
        ["content-type"] = 'image/png; name="image.png"',
        ["content-disposition"] = 'attachment; filename="image.png"',
        ["content-description"] = 'a beautiful image',
        ["content-transfer-encoding"] = "BASE64"
      },
      body = ltn12.source.chain(
        ltn12.source.file(io.open("image.png", "rb")),
        ltn12.filter.chain(
          mime.encode("base64"),
          mime.wrap()
        )
      )
    },
    epilogue = "This might also show up, but after the attachments"
  }
}

-- finally send it
r, e = smtp.send{
    from = "&lt;sicrano@example.com&gt;",
    rcpt = "&lt;fulano@example.com&gt;",
    source = source,
}
</pre>


<!-- send +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->

<p class="name" id="send">
smtp.<b>send{</b><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;from = <i>string</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;rcpt = <i>string</i> or <i>string-table</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;source = <i>LTN12 source</i>,<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[user = <i>string</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[password = <i>string</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[server = <i>string</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[port = <i>number</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[domain = <i>string</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[step = <i>LTN12 pump step</i>,]<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;[create = <i>function</i>]<br>
<b>}</b>
</p>

<p class="description">
Sends a message to a recipient list. Since sending messages is not as
simple as downloading an URL from a FTP or HTTP server, this function
doesn't have a simple interface. However, see the
<a href="#message"><tt>message</tt></a> source factory for
a very powerful way to define the message contents.
</p>


<p class="parameters">
The sender is given by the e-mail address in the <tt>from</tt> field.
<tt>Rcpt</tt> is a Lua table with one entry for each recipient e-mail
address, or a string
in case there is just one recipient.
The contents of the message are given by a <em>simple</em>
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a>
<tt>source</tt>. Several arguments are optional:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <tt>user</tt>, <tt>password</tt>: User and password for
authentication. The function will attempt LOGIN and PLAIN authentication
methods if supported by the server (both are unsafe);</li>
<li> <tt>server</tt>: Server to connect to. Defaults to "localhost";</li>
<li> <tt>port</tt>: Port to connect to. Defaults to 25;</li>
<li> <tt>domain</tt>: Domain name used to greet the server; Defaults to the
local machine host name;</li>
<li> <tt>step</tt>:
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a>
pump step function used to pass data from the
source to the server. Defaults to the LTN12 <tt>pump.step</tt> function;</li>
<li><tt>create</tt>: An optional function to be used instead of
<a href="tcp.html#socket.tcp"><tt>socket.tcp</tt></a> when the communications socket is created.</li>
</ul>

<p class="return">
If  successful, the function returns 1. Otherwise, the function returns
<b><tt>nil</tt></b> followed by an error message.
</p>

<p class="note">
Note: SMTP servers can be very picky with the format of e-mail
addresses. To be safe, use only addresses of the form
"<tt>&lt;fulano@example.com&gt;</tt>" in the <tt>from</tt> and
<tt>rcpt</tt> arguments to the <tt>send</tt> function. In headers, e-mail
addresses can take whatever form you like.  </p>

<p class="note">
Big note: There is a good deal of misconception with the use of the
destination address field headers, i.e., the '<tt>To</tt>', '<tt>Cc</tt>',
and, more importantly, the '<tt>Bcc</tt>' headers. Do <em>not</em> add a
'<tt>Bcc</tt>' header to your messages because it will probably do the
exact opposite of what you expect.
</p>

<p class="note">
Only recipients specified in the <tt>rcpt</tt> list will receive a copy of the
message.  Each recipient of an SMTP mail message receives a copy of the
message body along with the headers, and nothing more.  The headers
<em>are</em> part of the message and should be produced by the
<a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/FiltersSourcesAndSinks">LTN12</a>
<tt>source</tt> function. The <tt>rcpt</tt> list is <em>not</em>
part of the message and will not be sent to anyone.
</p>

<p class="note">
<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt">RFC 2822</a>
has two <em>important and short</em> sections, "3.6.3. Destination address
fields" and "5. Security considerations",  explaining the proper
use of these headers. Here is a summary of what it says:
</p>

<ul>
<li> <tt>To</tt>: contains the address(es) of the primary recipient(s)
of the message;</li>
<li> <tt>Cc</tt>: (where the "Cc" means "Carbon Copy" in the sense of
making a copy on a typewriter using carbon paper) contains the
addresses of others who are to receive the message, though the
content of the message may not be directed at them;</li>
<li> <tt>Bcc</tt>: (where the "Bcc" means "Blind Carbon
Copy") contains addresses of recipients of the message whose addresses are not
to be revealed to other recipients of the message.</li>
</ul>

<p class="note">
The LuaSocket <tt>send</tt> function does not care or interpret the
headers you send, but it gives you full control over what is sent and
to whom it is sent:
</p>
<ul>
<li> If someone is to receive the message, the e-mail address <em>has</em>
to be in the recipient list. This is the only parameter that controls who
gets a copy of the message;</li>
<li> If there are multiple recipients, none of them will automatically
know that someone else got that message. That is, the default behavior is
similar to the <tt>Bcc</tt> field of popular e-mail clients;</li>
<li> It is up to you to add the <tt>To</tt> header with the list of primary
recipients so that other recipients can see it;</li>
<li> It is also up to you to add the <tt>Cc</tt> header with the
list of additional recipients so that everyone else sees it;</li>
<li> Adding a header <tt>Bcc</tt> is nonsense, unless it is
empty. Otherwise, everyone receiving the message will see it and that is
exactly what you <em>don't</em> want to happen!</li>
</ul>

<p class="note">
I hope this clarifies the issue. Otherwise, please refer to
<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt">RFC 2821</a>
and
<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt">RFC 2822</a>.
</p>

<pre class="example">
-- load the smtp support
local smtp = require("socket.smtp")

-- Connects to server "localhost" and sends a message to users
-- "fulano@example.com",  "beltrano@example.com",
-- and "sicrano@example.com".
-- Note that "fulano" is the primary recipient, "beltrano" receives a
-- carbon copy and neither of them knows that "sicrano" received a blind
-- carbon copy of the message.
from = "&lt;luasocket@example.com&gt;"

rcpt = {
  "&lt;fulano@example.com&gt;",
  "&lt;beltrano@example.com&gt;",
  "&lt;sicrano@example.com&gt;"
}

mesgt = {
  headers = {
    to = "Fulano da Silva &lt;fulano@example.com&gt;",
    cc = '"Beltrano F. Nunes" &lt;beltrano@example.com&gt;',
    subject = "My first message"
  },
  body = "I hope this works. If it does, I can send you another 1000 copies."
}

r, e = smtp.send{
  from = from,
  rcpt = rcpt,
  source = smtp.message(mesgt)
}
</pre>

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<small>
Last modified by Diego Nehab on <br>
Thu Apr 20 00:25:51 EDT 2006
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