metasend(1) metasend(1)
NAME
metasend - crude interface for sending non-text mail
SYNOPSIS
metasend [-b] [-c cc] [-e encoding] [-f filename] [-m MIME-type]
[-s subject] [-S splitsize] [-t to] [-z] [-n]
DESCRIPTION
The metasend program allows a user to send one or more pre-
existing data files as non-text multimedia mail.
With no arguments, the program asks the user for the To,
Subject, and CC fields. It then asks for the name of a MIME
Content-type. Next, it asks the user for the name of an
existing file containing that type of data; and it asks what
encoding type, if any, should be applied to this data.
Finally, it asks if you want to include information from an
additional file, in which case prompting is repeated for the
next file.
Alternately, all of this information can be provided on the
command line.
Options
The following command line options are supported:
-t to specifies the To address.
-c cc specifies the CC address.
-e encoding specifies the type of encoding. Must be
either base64, quoted-printable, 7bit, or
x-uue. If 7bit, no encoding is performed.
-f filename specifies the file containing the data.
-m MIME-type specifies the MIME Content-type.
-s subject specifies the Subject field.
-S splitsize specifies the maximum size before
splitting into parts via splitmail.
-b specifies batch or non-interactive mode.
Must be used with -f, -m, -s, and -t, or
the command will exit and return an error.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
metasend(1) metasend(1)
-z specifies that the temporary files should
be deleted even if delivery fails.
-n specifies that an additional file is
included.
USAGE
Before each use of the -n option on the command line, the
options -m, -c, and -f, at a minimum, must also be used and
must appear separately for each included file.
If more than one file is named, the parts are combined into a
single multipart MIME object.
The mail is delivered using splitmail, so if very long will
arrive as several pieces, which is automatically reassembled
by metamail. The definition of "very long" can be altered
using the -S flag or the SPLITSIZE environment variable.
REFERENCES
mailto(1), metamail(1), mimencode(1), splitmail(1)
NOTICES
Do not depend on metasend to do a good job of choosing the
type of encoding if you don't specify one.
The metasend command is intended primarily for mail hackers. A
friendlier interface to non-text mail is provided by mailto.
MIME syntax checking on user-supplied Content-type fields is
not done, and users are all too likely to provide bogus MIME
Content-type values. In particular, various characters are
not allowed when parameters are passed unless the parameters
are enclosed in double quotes, but this sort of restriction is
hard to enforce in a shell script.
Author is Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bell Communications
Research, Inc. See copyright page for further information.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2