CleanCode Email

Some material is very old and may be incorrect today

© November 2003 Tony Lawrence

http://email.cleancode.org/

This simple little command-line mailer compiled cleanly on Mac OS X Panther, and RPM's etc. are available at the web link.

This is strictly for sending mail. It can work through your systems SMTP server, some external server, or you can specify a particular server on the command line: that can be very handy. Real MIME attachments can be attached, and it can use GPG for encryption or signing.

For some reason I didn't investigate, "make install" didn't work, so I just did it by hand:

sudo ./install-sh --bindir /usr/local/bin --sysconfdir /usr/local/etc --mandir /usr/local/man --binext '' --version "2.2.2" --docdir /usr/local/doc

See also: GETTING A MAC TO "PHONE HOME" WITH AN E-MAIL

I find this quite useful on my Mac for quickly sending files without bothering to get into Mail.app, find the file, attach it..

email [options] recipient1,recipient2,...

    -h, -help module          Print this message or specify one of the below options
    -q, -quiet                Suppress displayed messages (Good for cron)
    -f, -from-addr            Senders mail address
    -n, -from-name            Senders name
    -b, -blank-mail           Allows you to send a blank email
    -e, -encrypt              Encrypt the e-mail for first recipient before sending
    -s, -subject subject      Subject of message
    -r, -smtp-server server   Specify a temporary SMTP server for sending
    -p, -smtp-port port       Specify the SMTP port to connect to
    -a, -attach file,...      Attach N binary files and base64 encode
    -c, -conf-file file       Path to non-default configuration file
    -t, -check-config         Simply parse the email.conf file for errors
        -cc email,email,...   Copy recipients
        -bcc email,email,...  Blind Copy recipients
        -sign                 Sign the email with GPG
        -html                 Send message in HTML format ( Make your own HTML! )
    -u, -smtp-user            Specify your username for SMTP AUTH
    -i, -smtp-pass            Specify your password for SMTP AUTH
    -g, -gpg-pass             Specify your password for GPG
        -high-priority        Send the email with high priority
 

The man page is better than many:

EMAIL(1)                                                              EMAIL(1)



NAME
       email - Encrypted SMTP email via Command line


SYNOPSIS
       email [options] recipient1,recipient2,recipient3,...


DESCRIPTION
       Email  is  a command line email client similiar to 'mailx'.  Added fea-
       tures make this a more advanced client for sending email via  the  com-
       mand  line.  Email works with sendmail, just as 'mailx' does, but email
       also allows sending to remote smtp servers for your email delivery.  It
       also works with GPG for encrypting and signing the emails on the fly.

       Email  also  incorporates a few other features as well.  These features
       include signature files with wildcard  options  to  specify  the  data,
       time,  day,  version, system, and even a 'fortune' with the help of the
       'fortune' command.  Email also supports  a  very  configurable  address
       book.   This  way  you can specify a persons name with an email address
       and also place a group of names into one group for sending.

       Email also support attachments.  It will accept  N  attachments  via  a
       command  line  option  and  encode them with Base64 before sending them
       with the email.

       Email works with a configuration file named email.conf which  is  found
       in  /usr/local/etc/email/email.conf although can be changed by specify-
       ing the --sysconfdir option during the ./configure.  If you do not have
       or  want a configuration file, you can specify the -r option to specify
       your smtp server and this will allow you to bypass using  a  configura-
       tion  file and use default values. If you specify the -r option (listed
       below) and you do have a configuration file, it will still use the con-
       figuration file but override the SMTP_SERVER variable with what is used
       at the command line.


OPTIONS
       There are a few possible options to email.  I have listed them in order
       of relevance of usage:

       --help , -help , -h Module of Help
              This  option  can  be  specified with a module of help topic, or
              without one.  Without a module of help topic, it will just print
              a  standard  help screen with all your possible options.  With a
              module of help option, it will display a more detailed  discrip-
              tion of that module.

              Modules  are determined by command line switches.  For instance:
              if you want to know about the 'encrypt' command line option, you
              would  specify --help 'encrypt' or --help 'e' and help will dis-
              play the correct module help section.

              The Help is not statically programmed into email.  Instead it is
              a  file in email's home directory called be rewritten with every
              release of email.


       --quiet, -q
              This option will allow you to  suppress  the  output  of  email.
              Email  will normally be verbose with it's messages to the screen
              detailing its process in sending the mail ( i.e. a progress  bar
              is  displayed).   If  you  are using email in cron jobs, it is a
              good idea to use this option  so  that  no  output,  except  for
              errors, are displayed.


       --blank-mail, -blank-mail, -b
              Use this option if you would like to send a blank email from the
              command line.  This is good if you just want to send  a  message
              with only the headers and no content.


       --subject , -subject , -sub , -s Subject of Email
              This  option  should be rather obvious.  You specify the subject
              of the email with this option.  If you are  not  redirecting  to
              standard  input and you do not specify a subject, email will ask
              you for the subject.  Null subjects are allowed.


       --encrypt , -encrypt , -e
              This options allows you to  encrypt  your  email  message  using
              'gpg'.  GPG  can  be  obtained  by going to: When this option is
              specified, it will get the first recipient  from  the  recipient
              list  and it will encrypt the message using their key.  This key
              MUST be present in order for the encryption to work properly.


       --sign , -sign
              This options will let you sign your emails on the fly... It uses
              the  'gpg  --detach-sign' option.  It will 'sign' the email with
              your public key.


       --cc , -cc recipient1,recipient2,recipient3,...
              This option allows you to "curtosy copy" a list  of  recipients.
              Recipients  can  be  from  the  address book or just plain email
              addresses.  They should be comma  delimited  just  as  the  main
              recipients will be.  CC recipients *will* be posted in the head-
              ers and read by email clients.


       --bcc , -bcc recipient1,recipient2,recipient3,...
              Same as the --cc option, but  these  recipients  will  *not*  be
              posted in the headers of the email.  This is a positive solution
              to "secretly" copy someone on the email without the other recip-
              ients  knowing so ( Managers usually bcc their boss when sending
              an email to you about your performance and you'll never know  it
              ;-) )


       --attach , -a file1,file2,file3,...
              Attach  a  binary  file.  This option will allow you to attach N
              files to your email and will be base64  encoded  upon  delivery.
              This option is helpful if you need to send any type of file that
              is not plain ascii text.


       --smtp-server , -r server
              This option will let you override the smtp server that is speci-
              fied in the email.conf file... You can use this option if you do
              not have an email.conf file.  It will allow  you  to  use  email
              without  a configuration file. A helpful option to add with this
              option would be the  --smtp-port  option,  however,  it  is  not
              needed.


       --smtp-port , -p port
              This  option  works  well with the above option as it will allow
              you to bypass the configuration file and specify a port  on  the
              command line.  This is helpful if you don't have a configuration
              file yet need to specify an smtp server and a port.  The default
              port  is  always  port  25,  so  that  if you don't specify this
              option, and you don't have an email.conf file, it  will  default
              to port 25 for you.


       --smtp-user , -u user
              If  you don't want to keep your SMTP username in your email.conf
              file (SMTP_AUTH_USER), then you can use this command line option
              to specify it.


       --smtp-pass , -i pass
              If  you don't want to keep your SMTP password in your email.conf
              file (SMTP_AUTH_PASS), then you can use this command line option
              to specify it.


       --from-name , -n name
              This  option  will override MY_NAME in email.conf.  This is what
              the recipient will see in the from field of their email  client.


       --from-addr , -f addr
              This  option will override MY_EMAIL in email.conf.  This is what
              the recipient will see in the from field of their  email  client
              as your email address.


       --conf-file file
              Use  this  option  to  specify  a  configuration file other than
              ~/.email.conf or /usr/local/etc/email/email.conf.


       --high-priority , -o
              This options allows you to take advantage of using the  priority
              option  used  by some email clients.  If the option is specified
              when sent to a user using MS Outlook, a small  exclimation  mark
              will  be  next to the message as to let the user know this email
              is important.


       --html This option allows you to send html emails. As of right now, you
              need  to  write  your  own html.  In later versions of email, it
              will make your html for you...  This  is  not  a  high  priority
              issue  though,  so  we will take our time on it.  ( Being as the
              lead developer *hates* html emails being sent to him...   Ugh...
              )


       --gpg-pass , -g pass
              If  you  don't want to keep your GPG password in your email.conf
              file (GPG_PASS), then you can use this command  line  option  to
              specify it.


CONFIGURATION
       Configuration of email is fairly simple.  Just open the default config-
       uration file.  If you did not specify an email  home  directory  during
       your compilation of email then this will be in /usr/local/etc/email and
       the file is called 'email.conf'.  The configuration options are  listed
       below.


         SMTP_SERVER       : Server name, or IP
         SMTP_PORT         : Servers port number
         SENDMAIL_BIN      : Specify the sendmail binary path and options
         MY_NAME           : Specify your Name
         MY_EMAIL          : Specify your email address
         REPLY_TO          : Seperate reply to address
         SIGNATURE_FILE    : Your signature file
         SIGNATURE_DIVIDE  : A design for a divider
         ADDRESS_BOOK      : Location of your address book file
         SAVE_SENT_MAIL    : Directory to save email.sent file
         GPG_BIN           : Full path to gpg binary
         GPG_PASS          : Optional passphrase for gpg
         TEMP_DIR          : Specify where to store temp files
         SMTP_AUTH         : Specify what type of authentication
                             for your smtp server.
         SMTP_AUTH_USER    : Specify a username login for SMTP AUTH
         SMTP_AUTH_PASS    : Specify a password for SMTP AUTH

       You  can  choose  to use sendmail instead of a remote smtp server.  All
       you have to do is input the path of where you have sendmail located  in
       the  SENDMAIL_BIN variable.  You may also provide options to pass send-
       mail.  The best values for this would be /usr/lib/sendmail  -t  -i.  If
       you  have  both  SENDMAIL_BIN and SMTP_SERVER uncommented and both have
       values, then SMTP_SERVER will take  presedence  over  SENDMAIL_BIN  and
       'email' will try to contact the SMTP server provided.

       You  can  create  your  own email.conf file in your home directory.  It
       must be a hidden file.  For instance: ~/.email.conf

       Email will look in your home directory before it  looks  for  a  global
       configuration file.  The easiest thing to do is simply copy your global
       config file to your home  directory  as  .email.conf  and  edit  it  as
       needed.

       If  you  do  not  have  a global config file or a personal config file,
       email will choose defaults according to your current login on the  sys-
       tem.  So  a configuration file is not manditory, it just helps you cus-
       tomize email.

       You can look at the basic configuration file for  more  information  on
       the configuration of 'email'.


SMTP AUTH
       Email  now  support  SMTP  AUTH.   I will briefly describe how it works
       here.

       To use email with an SMTP server that expects authentication  you  must
       set  a  few  options  in  your  email.conf  file.  These  options  are:
       SMTP_AUTH, SMTP_AUTH_USER, SMTP_AUTH_PASS.

       SMTP_AUTH:
           This option must be set to one of the two: LOGIN or
           PLAIN. LOGIN and PLAIN are standard RFC compliant SMTP AUTH
           protocols.  If you are unsure which options to choose,
           ask your ISP or SMTP Administrator if any of these are
           supported. Usually it's a safe bet to use LOGIN for
           SMTP AUTH.  Most AUTH servers support LOGIN.

       SMTP_AUTH_USER:
           If you're using SMTP AUTH, please specify your username
           here.  This option is MANDITORY if you're using SMTP AUTH.

       SMTP_AUTH_PASS:
           You can choose to set this option or not.  However, if
           you don't set this option, email will prompt you for your
           password before proceeding.  So if you're using email from
           a cron job and don't expect any interaction with email,
           please set this option!


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       Two environment variables can be set that email will check.

       EDITOR will allow you to specify your favorite editor to use with email
       for constructing messages. If this variable is not set, it will default
       to vi.

       TMPDIR can be set to specify a temporary directory to place  your  temp
       files  while email is working.  This is analogous to the TEMP_DIR vari-
       able in email.conf.  environment variable TMPDIR for a temporary direc-
       tory.  If neither contains a value, email defaults to /tmp.



ADDRESS BOOK
       The  address book for email takes on the format as described below.  It
       will check for any syntax errors in the  address  book  and  completely
       stop  email if it finds any, so try to keep the same gramatical syntax.
       A single entry in the address book will look like:

         single: Dean = [email protected]   #Comments allowed

       You are welcome to use a whole name with spaces as long as  you  use  a
       single  quote closing the name with another single quote.  You may also
       use double quotes in place of the single quotes.  Example:

          single: 'Dean Jones' = [email protected]

       Groups are allowed and can  only  consist  of  comma  delimited  single
       entries  from  the  file  and may contain spaces.  You can *not* recur-
       sively specify groups.  You may, however specify single email addresses
       that are not part of the address book.

       If  you would like to break one line into two lines, you should use the
       '\' as a newline escape mark. Examples:

          group: Mygroup = 'Dean Jones', John, Sam, Bob, \
                              [email protected]

       This example will specify a group with  the  single  entries  of  'Dean
       Jones',  John,  Sam,  Bob,  and  the  unadded  email  address of 'soft-
       [email protected]'.



SIGNATURE FILE
       The signature file is specified in the configuration  file.   You  will
       also  have  the  option  to  specify  a  signature divider.  This is by
       default '---'.  This just divides the signature file from the  rest  of
       the email.

       There  are a few wild cards that you can specify in writing your signa-
       ture file that will allow your signature file to obtain dynamic options
       when sending your email.


       %v     This will show the version of email

       %t     This will show the time the email was sent

       %d     This will display the date the email was sent

       %c     This will display a completely formated date and time

       %h     This will display the host type

       %f     This will display the output of the 'fortune' command

SIGNATURE EXAMPLE
       Example of a signature file is below:

           This email was sent with 'email %v'
           Sent on host: %h
           At the time : %c
           Your fortune for today is:
           %f

       This  will  end  up  replacing the %v, %h, %c, and %f with their corre-
       sponding equivalents above respectively.



EXAMPLES OF USAGE
       # Redirect your message to email
              email -s "Sending this.txt" [email protected] < this.txt

       # Make your message with email
              email -s "Subject" [email protected]

       # Encrypt and email to "Dean Jones"
              email -s "Encryted" -encrypt [email protected]

       # Multiple Recipients from address book
              email -s "no subject" Dean,Jeff,Tom,Bob -cc Josh,Carl

       # Attach some files with your message
              email     -s     "files     attached"     Dean,Jeff     --attach
              stuff.tar.gz,readme.doc


BUGS
       They're  those little things that make you cringe when you find them in
       your bed ( or program ) at 3 am.

       If you find any in this program, please submit them to  [email protected]
       code.org



AUTHORS
       Dean Jones - [email protected]
 

There may be a Sco binary at www.systemjanitor.com/sco_email/

Nope - long gone. But try this perl script as an alternate: sendEmail-v1.56

If you found something useful today, please consider a small donation.

Got something to add? Send me email.

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