splitmail(1) splitmail(1)
NAME
splitmail - split a mail message into MIME-compliant partial
messages
SYNOPSIS
splitmail [-d] [-v] [-s splitsize] [-p prefix] [-i id-suffix] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
The splitmail program breaks a mail message into smaller
pieces using the "message/partial" type defined by MIME, the
proposed Internet standard for multimedia mail formats.
By default, the message is taken from the standard input, or
if filename, is specified, the message is read from the named
file. splitmail then produces a set of partial message files
that are MIME compliant.
The names of the output files are /tmp/split.1 for the first
part, and so on. The prefix /tmp/split can be overridden using
the -p option.
Options
splitmail supports the following command line options:
-d specifies that the mail should be delivered.
-v specifies that the verbose flag should be
passed to sendmail.
-s splitsize
specifies a chunk-size for splitting
messages that overrides the current setting.
-i id-suffix
causes splitmail to generate the pieces with
similar (but not identical) message-id
fields, in a format which allows them to be
easily correlated with one another and which
end with the suffix provided on the command
line after -i.
-p prefix causes splitmail to use the specified prefix
rather than the default prefix (/tmp/split)
for naming the split files.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
splitmail(1) splitmail(1)
filename causes splitmail to read the message from
the specified file rather than the standard
input.
USAGE
The default chunk size for splitting messages is 250K bytes
(that is, 250000, determined on a site basis) though this is
also a compile-time option. The size can be overridden with
the -s switch, or with the environment variable SPLITSIZE.
Messages smaller than the chunk size will not be turned into
partial messages, but will be written to a single file or
delivered as a single message.
SPLITSIZE may be used to override the default chunk size, or
to ensure that your messages are unlikely ever to be split,
Setting SPLITSIZE to a value of 4000K (4000000) will
effectively ensure that splitting will not occur, but it may
also cause mail to be rejected by some mail transport
software.
Warnings
If the size of the input is near the limit, and if the input
is coming from a file rather than standard input, splitmail
will sometimes estimate the number of parts wrong and will
have to write out an extra part. This is harmless but
annoying. It is especially annoying if the estimate was 2 but
the real number was 1.
REFERENCES
mailto(1), metamail(1)
NOTICES
Author is Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bell Communications
Research, Inc. See copyright page for further information.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2