Encode::Unicode::UTF7
Section: Perl Programmers Reference Guide (3perl)
Updated: 2019-04-20
Page Index
NAME
Encode::Unicode::UTF7 -- UTF-7 encoding
SYNOPSIS
use Encode qw/encode decode/;
$utf7 = encode("UTF-7", $utf8);
$utf8 = decode("UTF-7", $ucs2);
ABSTRACT
This module implements
UTF-7 encoding documented in
RFC 2152. UTF-7,
as its name suggests, is a 7-bit re-encoded version of
UTF-16BE. It
is designed to be MTA-safe and expected to be a standard way to
exchange Unicoded mails via mails. But with the advent of
UTF-8 and
8-bit compliant MTAs,
UTF-7 is hardly ever used.
UTF-7 was not supported by Encode until version 1.95 because of that.
But Unicode::String, a module by Gisle Aas which adds Unicode supports
to non-utf8-savvy perl did support UTF-7, the UTF-7 support was added
so Encode can supersede Unicode::String 100%.
In Practice
When you want to encode Unicode for mails and web pages, however, do
not use
UTF-7 unless you are sure your recipients and readers can
handle it. Very few MUAs and
WWW Browsers support these days (only
Mozilla seems to support one). For general cases, use
UTF-8 for
message body and MIME-Header for header instead.
SEE ALSO
Encode, Encode::Unicode, Unicode::String
RFC 2781 <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2152.txt>