Sending mail using mailx

Question

I'm trying to send mail using Mailx and uuencode with attachments using the following in a shellscript

attachments=uuencode file1 file1;uuencode file2 file2;

(echo BODY ; $attachments )| mailx -s "Attachments" -m [email protected]

For the above script only mail without attachment is sent,However when i use the following

(echo BODY ; uuencode file1 file1;uuencode file2 file2;)| mailx -s "Attachments" -m [email protected]

Now mail is sent with the attachments.

I'm fairly new shellscripting kindly help.

So what's the problem?

konsolebox
– konsolebox

2014-07-17 04:05:25 +00:00
Commented Jul 17, 2014 at 4:05 — konsolebox
– konsolebox, Commented Jul 17, 2014 at 4:05

Matteo · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-17 08:09:50Z

1

You are using the wrong quotes for command substitution:

attachments=`uuencode file1 file1;uuencode file2 file2`

or better

attachments=$( uuencode file1 file1;uuencode file2 file2 )

See the Command Substitution section of the bash man page

And then use echo to output the variable content

(echo BODY ; echo $attachments )| mailx -s "Attachments" -m [email protected]

edited Jul 17, 2014 at 8:09

answered Jul 17, 2014 at 5:47

Matteo

15k11 gold badges70 silver badges109 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

chrisb2244 Over a year ago

This gives you the output, like you commented on my answer, but that won't send the attachment when you pipe it. You need to pipe the output of the command, so the first part (echo BODY; $attachments) needs whatever $attachments expands to to be a command, otherwise you'll hit some error like Begin: Command not found

Matteo Over a year ago

@chrisb2244 Thanks I didn't notice the missing echo. I updated the answer.

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

mailx handles uuencoding of attachments on the fly. So why not echo "body" | mailx -s "Attachments" -a file1 -a file2 [email protected] That seems easier.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Sending mail using mailx

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related