Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY - access an existing message folder as array use Mail::Box::Manager; my $mgr = Mail::Box::Manager->new; my $folder = $mgr->open(folder => 'inbox'); use Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY; tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY', $folder; # deprecated, but works too use Mail::Box::Tie; tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie', $folder; foreach (@inbox) {print $_->short} print $_->print foreach @inbox; my $emails = @inbox; print $inbox[3]; print scalar @inbox; push @inbox, Mail::Box::Message->new(...); delete $inbox[6]; print $inbox[0]->head->get('status'); my $folder = tied @inbox; untie @inbox; Certainly when you look at a folder as a list of messages, it is logical to access the folder through an array. Not all operations on arrays are supported. Actually, most functions which would reduce the size of the array are modified instead to mark messages for deletion. Examples what you cannot do: shift/unshift/pop/splice @inbox; The general methods for "Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY" objects: DELETE STORE INDEX, MESSAGE FETCH INDEX STORESIZE LENGTH FETCHSIZE tie ... PUSH [MESSAGES] Create the tie on an existing folder. The second version is deprecated, but will work because "Mail::Box::Tie::TIEARRAY" will trigger usage of this class. Example: my $mgr = Mail::Box::Manager->new; my $inbox = $mgr->new(folder => $ENV{MAIL}); tie my(@inbox), ref $inbox, $inbox; Get the message which is at the indicated location in the list of messages contained in this folder. Deleted messages will be counted. Example: print $inbox[3]; Random message replacement is is not permitted--doing so would disturb threads etc. An error occurs if you try to do this. The only thing which is allowed is to store a message at the first free index at the end of the folder (which is also achievable with PUSH--see below). If you want to replace one message in a folder, then do the following: $inbox[3]->delete; push @inbox, $replacement; Return the total number of messages in a folder. This is called when the folder-array is used in scalar context, for instance. if(@inbox > 10) # contains more than 10 messages my $nrmsgs = @inbox; Add messages to the end of the folder. push @inbox, $newmsg; Flag a message to be removed. Be warned that the message stays in the folder, and is not removed before the folder is written. Examples: delete $inbox[5]; $inbox[5]->delete; #same Sets all messages behind from LENGTH to the end of folder to be deleted.

LIMITATIONS for arrays
This module implements "TIEARRAY", "FETCH", "STORE", "FETCHSIZE", "STORESIZE", "DELETE", "PUSH", and "DESTROY". This module does not implement all other methods as described in the Tie::Array documentation, because the real array of messages is not permitted to shrink or be mutulated. Mail::Box-Overview For support and additional documentation, see http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/ Mark Overmeer (mailbox@overmeer.net). All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. This code is beta, version 2.018. Copyright (c) 2001-2002 Mark Overmeer. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.