On the subject of timeouts sendmail has an -odq option. This means "on delivery queue". What this means is that you get spooling. Adding this will be a good idea. Warning if your sendmail is not configured the messages will never get sent so test it first!

Sendmail assumes that a single . char on a line by itself is the end of a message unless you use the -i flag (currently if your $messagebody contains this single period newline then only the message to that point will get sent just BTW so the -i option is a good idea usually) Anyway this means you could open your pipe to sendmail ONCE, add the -odq option, and just dump all the emails, separated by a "\n.\n", then close sendmail. This will be heaps faster.

open MAIL, "|/usr/lib/senmail -t -odq" or die "Oops $!";
foreach $user (@maillist) {
    &print_message($user);
    print "\n.\n";
}
close MAIL;
print "All done\n";
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Using a database or even a flat file is better than cut and paste! Sendmail may not be the best solution. You have already been pointed to some modules. cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print