Fellow Monks,

I had a need to send email with MIME attachments from the UNIX command line. I searched the world over but could not find anything flexible enough to meet all my needs.

Below is the script I wrote which you may find useful. It requires MIME::Lite, but everything else is stock distribution.

I plan on future refinement and will post future enhancements.

Enjoy!

-uuoc



#!/usr/local/bin/perl 

# email.pl
# 
# Allows flexible emailing from the UNIX command line 
# including the ability to send MIME email attachments.
#
# History  Date           Comments
# V1.0     Nov. 8, 2001   Just out of Beta, works great :)

use Getopt::Long;
use MIME::Lite;

$DEBUG=0;   # 1 = Debug on, 0 = Debug off

GetOptions ( "s=s" => \$subject,    # -s = subject
             "f=s" => \$from,       # -f = from
             "c=s" => \$cc,         # -c = cc:
               "b=s" => \$body_file,  # -b = body
             "a=s" => \$attachments # -a = attachment
);

# Check to make sure there is at least on valid recipient.
# If there isn't a valid recipient Display the man page.

$num=@ARGV;
if ( $num < 1 ) {
   &help();
   exit();
}


if ($DEBUG) {
   print "From:        $from \n";
   print "Subject:     $subject \n";
   print "Body File:   $body_file \n";
   print "Attachments: $attachments \n";
}

# Create a new multipart message:

$msg = new MIME::Lite;

$msg->build( 
>From    =>$from,
To    =>"@ARGV[0]",
Cc      =>$cc,
Subject =>$subject,
Type    =>'multipart/mixed'
);

for ($ct = 1; $ct < $num ; $ct++ ) {
   $msg->add(To      => "@ARGV[$ct]");
}


# Fill in the body of the email
#
# If -b contains a file name, populate the body with the contents of t
+he file
# If -b contains text and is NOT a filename, then fill the body in wit
+h
# that text
# If -b is not defined, then put "No Message." in the body 

$nobody=0;

if ($body_file) {
   unless (open BODY, $body_file) { $nobody=1; }  # Is it a file ?

   if ( $nobody ) {                               # No, it's text
      $body = $body_file;
   } else {
      while ( <BODY> ) {                          # Yes, it's a file, 
+read it
      $body=$body.$_ ;
      }
   close (BODY);
   }
} else {                                          # -b is not specifie
+d
      $body="No Message.";
}

# Add parts (each "attach" has same arguments as "new"):

$msg->attach(Type     =>'TEXT',
             Data     =>$body,
);  

# Process the attachments and do base 64 mime encoding

$attachments =~ s/\s+//g;             # Strip all spaces 
@to_mime = split(/,/, $attachments);

for ($ct=0; $ct < @to_mime; $ct++) {
    $_ = $to_mime[$ct];

    $CONTENT_TYPE="";

if ($DEBUG)  {
    print "Processing file $to_mime[$ct]\n";
    print $_."\n";
}

# Todo: Make this into a lookup table and add more MIME types

    if (/\.pcl$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="Content-Type: text/plain;";
    }
    if (/\.txt$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="text/plain;";
    }
    if (/\.ps$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="Content-Type: application/postscript;";
    }
    if (/\.tif$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="image/tiff;";
    }
    if (/\.doc$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="application/msword;";
    }
    if (/\.xls$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="application/msexcel;";
    }
    if (/\.csv$/i) {
    $CONTENT_TYPE="application/msexcel;";
    }

    if ( $CONTENT_TYPE eq "" ) {
       die("Fatal Error: The content file $to_mime[$ct], must have an 
+extension of .doc .ps .txt .tiff .csv .doc .xls or .pcl .\n");
    }

if ($DEBUG) {
    print "Content Type: $CONTENT_TYPE, File Name: $to_mime[$ct]\n";
}

    $msg->attach(Type     =>"$CONTENT_TYPE",
    Path     =>$to_mime[$ct],
    Filename =>$to_mime[$ct]
    );

}
# Send message in the "best" way (the default is to use "sendmail"):

$msg->send;

#
# END OF MAIN CODE
###################################################################

sub help {

print <<"EOF";

______________________________________________________________________
+______
email.pl -- Command line tool for sending email with attachments


Usage
======
email.pl [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b body-file || text message] 
         [-a attach, attach, ...] [-f from-addr] to-addr ...
         
Options:

 -s  Specify subject on command line (only the first argument
     after the -s flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote
     subjects containing spaces.)

 -c  Send carbon copy to email address

 -b  File containing the body of the message, or if the file is not
     found, this text is used as the body of the message be careful
     to quote files names or text containing spaces.
     If this is left blank, the words "No message." will appear in
     the body of the email.

 -a  File(s) to attach.  If you are sending multiple files, comma
     delimit the file names and use double quotes. See valid 
     attachment MIME types below. Attachment file names may NOT 
     contain spaces.

 -f  Specify the email address of the sender of the email message.
     If nothing is specified the current user name will be filled
     into this field.

Examples:

  Sending multiple attachments

  email.pl -s "Statistcal Analysis" -f "me\@mydomain.com" -b file.txt 
+ \\
         -a "stats-10-5-2000.xls, stats-10-6-2000.xls, file.txt" \\
         -c "test1\@domain.com" \\
         user3\@domain.com

  Sending a single attachment and changing the body of the email

  email.pl -s "Spreadsheet" -b "See Attached.." -a file.csv \\
           user\@domain.com

  Send the /etc/hosts file as the body of a message

  email.pl -b "/etc/hosts" user\@domain.com


Valid Extensions and MIME type
==============================
.doc  -- msword
.xls  -- excel
.txt  -- text/plain   ascii
.ps   -- application/postscript
.tif  -- image/tiff
.pcl  -- HP PCL5e (Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language V5e)
       
EOF
}

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Sending email with MIME attachments from the UNIX command line
by Anonymous Monk on Nov 10, 2001 at 06:46 UTC
    why hard-code a list of valid extensions and mime types when there is an excellent module called File::MMagic module which
    detects what kind of file it is and returns the correct mime-type?

    see the File::MMagic docs for details, but using it is as simple as: 
    $mm = new File::MMagic;
$res = $mm->checktype_filename("/somewhere/unknown/file");

    [download]
    craig
    (cas @ taz . net . au)
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Sending email with MIME attachments from the UNIX command line
by AltBlue (Chaplain) on Nov 11, 2001 at 09:01 UTC
    Are you sure you ever checked metamail package? It has lots of mail related tools and metasend is one of them that does exactly what you need. isn't it flexible enough?

    example usage:

    metasend -b -S 1000000 -e base64 -F nobody@n0i.net -t me@n0i.net -s "t
+esting 1 2 3" -m image/gif -f star.png -n -m text/html -f foo.html

    [download]

    --
    AltBlue.

[reply]
[d/l]
      It's not on solaris as standard
[reply]

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