libpairlist

Before YAML and JSON, there was Unix and there was e-mail. E-mail headers are perhaps the oldest realization of a standardized, key-value store. I have always been in love with the simplicity of e-mail header folding, conceived in the early days of ARPANET -- maybe even before that. It's not like anyone came up with "key: value", and such syntax is certainly no strangers to programmers who work in languages can effortlessly create such associative arrays, maps... (it goes by many names. I can't name all of them.)

Despite the name "E-MAIL" headers, one should not think that such headers are confined to emails only. Python package metadata, Git commits, all have them hidden somewhere, in one form or another...

I tried implementing a GET command that lets you do what you can with formail -x command from the reverent procmail package, except in multiple dimensions across embedded maps nested by deeper indents. :)

This could be my love letter to email, although it cost me some time and the final product is admittedly not so pretty. It's okay I guess.

Built With

• c
• make
• tap14