Support chunk sending in `smtplib`
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- Dominant language
- Python
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Description
Feature or enhancement
Proposal:
smtplib.SMTP currently has the method data(msg : Union[bytes, str]) to send the message which takes the entire serialized rfc822 message as bytes or str. Email messages can be pretty large -- 10M or more. So it would be nice to be able to send the message in chunks without having to bring it all into the python heap at once. I have a proof-of-concept of this
that adds a parameter data(msg : bytes, last : bool) that I am using in Koukan my mta project.
smtp.data(b'hello\r\n', last=False)
smtp.data(b'world!\r\n', last=True)
I wanted to see if there was any interest in merging this. Building on this, I have another patch to add support for rfc3030 CHUNKING/BDAT which is maybe a separate discussion but if we extend the api here, it ought to be able to support both dotstuff and bdat transparently.
In parallel with this, I am trying to make the corresponding change to aiosmtpd
Has this already been discussed elsewhere?
https://discuss.python.org/t/smtplib-chunked-sending/96804
Links to previous discussion of this feature:
No response
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at smtplib.SMTP.data and review the linked chunked-data proof of concept, then read the linked Python discussion. Resolve the API and its relationship to RFC 3030 CHUNKING/BDAT and dot-stuffing before implementation; done means an agreed chunk-sending design is accepted.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- networking
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100