package Email::Date; # $Id: Date.pm,v 1.2 2004/07/25 20:21:14 cwest Exp $ use strict; use vars qw[$VERSION @EXPORT]; $VERSION = sprintf "%d.%02d", split m/\./, (qw$Revision: 1.2 $)[1]; @EXPORT = qw[find_date format_date]; use base qw[Exporter]; use Date::Parse; use Email::Abstract; use Email::Simple; use Time::Piece; use Time::Local; =head1 NAME Email::Date - Find and Format Date Headers =head1 SYNOPSIS use Email::Date; my $email = join '', <>; my $date = find_date($email); print $date->ymd; my $header = format_date($date->epoch); Email::Simple->create( header => [ Date => $header, ], body => '...', ); =head1 DESCRIPTION RFC 2822 defines the C header. It declares the header a required part of an email message. The syntax for date headers is clearly laid out. Stil, even a perfectly planned world has storms. The truth is, many programs get it wrong. Very wrong. Or, they don't include a C header at all. This often forces you to look elsewhere for the date, and hoping to find something. For this reason, the tedious process of looking for a valid date has been encapsulated in this software. Further, the process of creating RFC compliant date strings is also found in this software. =head2 Functions =over 4 =item find_date my $time_piece = find_date $email; C accepts an email message in any format L can understand. It looks through the email message and finds a date, converting it to a L object. =cut sub find_date { my ($email) = Email::Abstract->cast(shift, 'Email::Simple'); my $date = $email->header('Date') || _find_date_received($email->header('Recieved')) || $email->header('Resent-Date'); Time::Piece->new(str2time $date); } sub _find_date_received { return unless @_; my $date = pop; $date =~ s/.+;//; $date; } =item format_date my $date = format_date; # now my $date = format_date( time - 60*60 ); # one hour ago C accepts an epoch value, such as the one returned by C