.. method:: __str__()
- Equivalent to ``as_string(unixfrom=True)``.
+ Equivalent to :meth:`.as_string()`. Allows ``str(msg)`` to produce a
+ string containing the formatted message.
+
+
+ .. method:: as_bytes(unixfrom=False, policy=None)
+
+ Return the entire message flattened as a bytes object. When optional
+ *unixfrom* is true, the envelope header is included in the returned
+ string. *unixfrom* defaults to ``False``. The *policy* argument may be
+ used to override the default policy obtained from the message instance.
+ This can be used to control some of the formatting produced by the
+ method, since the specified *policy* will be passed to the
+ ``BytesGenerator``.
+
+ Flattening the message may trigger changes to the :class:`Message` if
+ defaults need to be filled in to complete the transformation to a string
+ (for example, MIME boundaries may be generated or modified).
+
+ Note that this method is provided as a convenience and may not always
+ format the message the way you want. For example, by default it does
+ not do the mangling of lines that begin with ``From`` that is
+ required by the unix mbox format. For more flexibility, instantiate a
+ :class:`~email.generator.BytesGenerator` instance and use its
- :meth:`flatten` method directly. For example::
++ :meth:`~email.generator.BytesGenerator.flatten` method directly.
++ For example::
+
+ from io import BytesIO
+ from email.generator import BytesGenerator
+ fp = BytesIO()
+ g = BytesGenerator(fp, mangle_from_=True, maxheaderlen=60)
+ g.flatten(msg)
+ text = fp.getvalue()
+
+ .. versionadded:: 3.4
+
+
+ .. method:: __bytes__()
+
+ Equivalent to :meth:`.as_bytes()`. Allows ``bytes(msg)`` to produce a
+ bytes object containing the formatted message.
+
+ .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. method:: is_multipart()