Interesting observation, but it appears that passing a string returns the same output as passing an array ref. Passing a string as the value of the paramater is even used in the source of the MIME::Entity module itself for its own internal methods (see, add_sig() ).

The docs actually state the value for the Data param should be,

Single-part entities only. Optional. An alternative to Path (q.v.): the actual data, either as a scalar or an array reference (whose elements are joined together to make the actual scalar).

So both are right. I'm very pleased with how MIME::Entity is encoding the message - one line that I feed it splitting into two lines when encoded is what I expect. Decoding things back works just as well. (I'm not reporting a bug in MIME::Entity.) 

 
#!/usr/bin/perl 

use MIME::Entity; 

my $str = 'filler text to get the first char of line 2 to be a dot______ http://google.com'; 

MIME::Entity->build(
	Data     => $str, 
	Type     => 'text/plain',
	Encoding => 'quoted-printable',
)->bodyhandle->print;
Prints back, 
filler text to get the first char of line 2 to be a dot______ http://google.com

The broken URL isn't happening in my app, but upstream.

The problem is in the SMTP client not double-dotting a line that starts with a dot. Lines that start with a dot could happen because of my example (wrapping a URL onto multiple lines during encode). I'm asking what it is I should do (if anything) to deal with a broken SMTP client? I'm leaning on, "nothing", but is this instead a universal problem, with a known solution? Googling this problem specifically for Perl examples leads to no results, although other languages/libraries say to encode the dot. If I were to encode the dot, what's the least hackiest way to do so? I can make a one-line regex to handle this, but then I fear I'll then have two problems.

-skazat

In reply to Re^2: Double Dot Stuffing by skazat
in thread Double Dot Stuffing by skazat

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.