metasend(1)metasend(1)NAMEmetasend - Crude interface for sending non-text mail
SYNOPSISmetasend [-b] [-c cc] [-F from] [-e encoding] [-f filename] [-m MIME-
type] [-s subject] [-S splitsize] [-t to] [-z] [-n] [-D content-
description] [-o outputfile] [-/ multipart-subtype] [-E] [-P preamble-
file]
DESCRIPTION
The metasend program will allow a user to send one or more pre-existing
data file as non-text multimedia mail.
With no arguments, the program will ask the user for the To, Subject,
and CC fields. It will then ask for the name of a MIME content-type.
Next, it will ask the user for the name of an existing file containing
that type of data. After this, it will ask what encoding type, if any,
should be applied to this data. Finally, it will ask if the user
wants to include information from an additional file, in which case
the last three questions will be repeated for the next file.
Alternately, all of this information can be provided on the command
line, using the following options:
-b -- specifies Batch (non-interactive) Mode. Will exit with an
error message if all additional needed information is not provided on
the command line.
-c cc -- specifies the CC address
-D description -- specifies a string to be used as the Content-
description value
-e encoding -- specifies the encoding type. Must be either
"base64", "quoted-printable", "7bit", or "x-uue". "7bit" means no
encoding is performed.
-E -- specifies that the file being included is already a full MIME
entity, and does not need to have any Content-* or other header fields
added.
-f filename -- specifies the file containing the data
-F from -- specifies the From address
-i "<content-id> -- specifies the content-id value for the MIME
entity. Must be a legal content-id value, enclosed in angle brackets.
-I "<content-id>" -- specifies the content-id for the multipart
entity being created by metasend, if any. Must be a legal content-id
value, enclosed in angle brackets.
-m MIME-type -- specifies the MIME content-type
-n -- specifies that an additional file is to be included. Before
each use of the -n option on the command line, the options -m, -c, and
-f, at a minimum, must have appeared,and must appear separately for
each included file.
-o outputfile -- specifies that the output from metasend should go
to a named file rather than be delivered as mail.
-P preamblefile -- specifies a file containing alternative text to
be put in the "preamble" area of a MIME multipart message.
-s subject -- specifies the Subject field
-S splitsize -- specifies the maximum size before splitting into
parts via splitmail(1).
-t to -- specifies the To address
-z -- specifies that the temporary files should be deleted EVEN IF
DELIVERY FAILS.
-/ subtype -- specifies the use of a MIME multipart subtype other
than "mixed".
This is intended largely for mail hackers. A much friendlier interface
to non-text mail is provided by mailto(1).
If more than one file is given, the parts will be combined into a sin‐
gle multipart MIME object.
The mail will be delivered using the splitmail(1) program, so if it is
very long it will arrive as several pieces which can be automatically
reassembled by metamail. The definition of "very long" can be altered
using the -S flag or the SPLITSIZE environment variable, as described
in the splitmail(1) man page.
SEE ALSOaudiosend(1), mailto-hebrew(1), mailto(1), metamail(1), mmencode(1),
splitmail(1)BUGS
Should do a better job of choosing the encoding if you don't specify
one.
Should do MIME syntax checking on user-supplied content-type fields.
Users are all too likely to provide bogus MIME content-type values,
alas. In particular, there are various characters that are not
allowed in parameters unless the parameters are enclosed in double
quotes, but this sort of restriction is hard to enforce in a shell
script!
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material for any
purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies, and
that the name of Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity per‐
taining to this material without the specific, prior written permission
of an authorized representative of Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRE‐
SENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY
PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WAR‐
RANTIES.
AUTHOR
Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bellcore
Release 1 metasend(1)
