[Python-Dev] [issue3609] does parse_header really belong in CGI module? (original) (raw)

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Fri Apr 3 06:12:36 CEST 2009

Senthil Kumaran writes:

http://bugs.python.org/issue3609 requests to move the function parse_header present in cgi module to email package.

The reasons for this request are:

  1. The MIME type header parsing methods rightly belong to email package. Confirming to RFC 2045.

In practice, the "mail" part of the name is historical; RFC 822-style headers are used in many protocols, most prominently email, netnews (less important nowadays :-( ), and HTTP. If there are differences in usage, the parsing methods may be different. If not, then this functionality is redundant in email, which has its own parser. It can't be right for email to have two parsers and CGI none!

Anyway, "moving" the function is almost certainly the wrong thing to do, as the email package has its own conventions and organization. In particular, in email header parsing is done by methods of the message and header objects (in their respective initializations), rather than by a (global) function.

Since Barry et al have been sprinting on email TNG, you really ought to coordinate this with them. I think it would be good to have header parsing and generation in a free-standing package separate from other aspects of handling Internet protocols, but this will require coordination of several modules besides email and cgi.

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