NAME

Mail::Message::Field::Date - message header field with uris

INHERITANCE

Mail::Message::Field::Date
  is a Mail::Message::Field::Structured
  is a Mail::Message::Field::Full
  is a Mail::Message::Field
  is a Mail::Reporter

SYNOPSIS

my $f = Mail::Message::Field->new(Date => time);
my $f = Mail::Message::Field::Date->new(Date => time);
my $date = $f->date;    # cleaned-up and validated
my $time = $date->time; # converted to POSIX time

DESCRIPTION

Dates are a little more tricky than it should be: the formatting permits a few constructs more than other RFCs use for timestamps. For instance, a small subset of timezone abbreviations are permitted.

The studied date field will reformat the content into a standard form.

Extends "DESCRIPTION" in Mail::Message::Field::Structured.

OVERLOADED

Extends "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Structured.

overload: "" stringification

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

overload: '""' stringification

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '0+' numification

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '<='> numeric comparison

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: bool boolean

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: cmp string comparison

Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

METHODS

Extends "METHODS" in Mail::Message::Field::Structured.

my $mmfd = 'Mail::Message::Field::Date';
my $f = $mmfd->new(Date => time);

DETAILS

Extends "DETAILS" in Mail::Message::Field::Structured.

DIAGNOSTICS

Error: class $package does not implement method $method.

Fatal error: the specific $package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package. Cast by notImplemented()

Warning: field content is not numerical: $content

The numeric value of a field is requested (for instance the "Lines" or "Content-Length" fields should be numerical), however the data contains weird characters. Cast by toInt()

Error: field name too long (max $count), in '$name'.

It is not specified in the RFCs how long a field name can be, but at least it should be a few characters shorter than the line wrap. Cast by fold()

Warning: illegal character in charset '$name'.

The field is created with an utf8 string which only contains data from the specified character set. However, that character set can never be a valid name because it contains characters which are not permitted. Cast by encode()

Warning: illegal character in field name $name.

A new field is being created which does contain characters not permitted by the RFCs. Using this field in messages may break other e-mail clients or transfer agents, and therefore mutulate or extinguish your message. Cast by consume()

Warning: illegal character in language '$name'.

The field is created with data which is specified to be in a certain language, however, the name of the language cannot be valid: it contains characters which are not permitted by the RFCs. Cast by encode()

Warning: illegal encoding '$name', using 'q'.

The RFCs only permit base64 ("b " or "B ") or quoted-printable ("q" or "Q") encoding. Other than these four options are illegal. Cast by encode()

Error: no attributes for date fields.

It is not possible to add attributes to date fields: it is not permitted by the RFCs. Cast by addAttribute()

SEE ALSO

This module is part of Mail-Message version 4.05, built on April 10, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

LICENSE

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.