NAME
send - send a message
SYNOPSIS
send [-alias aliasfile] [-draft] [-draftfolder +folder] [-draftmessage
msg] [-nodraftfolder] [-filter filterfile] [-nofilter] [-format |
-noformat] [-forward | -noforward] [-mime | -nomime] [-msgid |
-nomsgid] [-push | -nopush] [-split seconds] [-verbose |
-noverbose] [-watch | -nowatch] [-sasl] [-saslmech mechanism]
[-user username] [-width columns] [file ...] [-version] [-help]
[-attach header-field-name] [-attachformat 0 | 1 | 2]
DESCRIPTION
Send will cause each of the specified files to be delivered to each of
the destinations in the “To:”, “cc:”, “Bcc:”, “Dcc:”, and “Fcc:” fields
of the message. If send is re-distributing a message, as invoked from
dist, then the corresponding “Resent-xxx” fields are examined instead.
By default, send uses the program post to do the actual delivery of the
messages, although this can be changed by defining the postproc profile
component. Most of the features attributed to send are actually
performed by post.
If a header-field-name is supplied using the -attach option, the draft
is scanned for a header whose field name matches the supplied header-
field-name. The draft is converted to a MIME message if one or more
matches are found. This conversion occurs before all other processing.
The first part of the MIME message is the draft body if that body
contains any non-blank characters. The body of each header field whose
name matches the header-field-name is interpreted as a file name, and
each file named is included as a separate part in the MIME message.
For file names with dot suffixes, the context is scanned for a mhshow-
suffix- entry for that suffix. The content-type for the part is taken
from that context entry if a match is found. If no match is found or
the file does not have a dot suffix, the content-type is text/plain if
the file contains only ASCII characters or application/octet-stream if
it contains characters outside of the ASCII range.
Each part contains a name attribute that is the last component of the
path name. A x-unix-mode attribute containing the file mode
accompanies each part. Finally, a description attribute is generated
by running the file command on the file.
The -attachformat option specifies the MIME header field formats: a
value of 0, the default, includes the x-unix-mode attribute as noted
above. A value of 1 suppresses both that and the “Content-Description”
header, and adds a “Content-Disposition” header. A value of 2 adds the
file modification-date parameter to the “Content-Disposition” header.
You can specify one value in your profile, and override it for
individual messages at the whatnow prompt.
Here are example message part headers for each of the -attachformat
values:
-attachformat 0:
Content-Type: text/plain; name="VERSION"; x-unix-mode="0644";
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Description: ASCII text
-attachformat 1:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="VERSION"
-attachformat 2:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="VERSION"; modification-date="Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:39:51 -0600"
If -push is specified, send will detach itself from the user’s terminal
and perform its actions in the background. If push’d and the draft
can’t be sent, then an error message will be sent (using the mailproc)
back to the user. If -forward is given, then a copy of the draft will
be attached to this failure notice. Using -push differs from putting
send in the background because the output is trapped and analyzed by
nmh.
If -verbose is specified, send will indicate the interactions occurring
with the transport system, prior to actual delivery. If -watch is
specified send will monitor the delivery of local and network mail.
Hence, by specifying both switches, a large detail of information can
be gathered about each step of the message’s entry into the transport
system.
The -draftfolder +folder and -draftmessage msg switches invoke the nmh
draft folder facility. This is an advanced (and highly useful)
feature. Consult the mh-draft(5) man page for more information.
If -split is specified, send will split the draft into one or more
partial messages prior to sending. This makes use of the MIME features
in nmh. Note however that if send is invoked under dist, then this
switch is ignored -- it makes no sense to redistribute a message in
this fashion. Sometimes you want send to pause after posting a partial
message. This is usually the case when you are running sendmail and
expect to generate a lot of partial messages. The argument to -split
tells it how long to pause between postings.
Send with no file argument will query whether the draft is the intended
file, whereas -draft will suppress this question. Once the transport
system has successfully accepted custody of the message, the file will
be renamed with a leading comma, which allows it to be retrieved until
the next draft message is sent. If there are errors in the formatting
of the message, send will abort with a (hopefully) helpful error
message.
If a “Bcc:” field is encountered, its addresses will be used for
delivery, and the “Bcc:” field will be removed from the message sent to
sighted recipients. The blind recipients will receive an entirely new
message with a minimal set of headers. Included in the body of the
message will be a copy of the message sent to the sighted recipients.
If a “Dcc:” field is encountered, its addresses will be used for
delivery, and the “Dcc:” field will be removed from the message. The
blind recipients will receive the same message sent to the sighted
recipients. *WARNING* Recipients listed in the “Dcc:” field receive no
explicit indication that they have received a “blind copy”. This can
cause blind recipients to inadvertently reply to all of the sighted
recipients of the original message, revealing that they received a
blind copy. On the other hand, since a normal reply to a message sent
via a “Bcc:” field will generate a reply only to the sender of the
original message, it takes extra effort in most mailers to reply to the
included message, and so would usually only be done deliberately,
rather than by accident.
If -filter filterfile is specified, then this copy is filtered
(re-formatted) by mhl prior to being sent to the blind recipients.
Alternately, if you specify the -mime switch, then send will use the
MIME rules for encapsulation.
Prior to sending the message, the fields “From: user@local”, and
“Date: now” will be appended to the headers in the message. If the
environment variable $SIGNATURE is set, then its value is used as your
personal name when constructing the “From:” line of the message. If
this environment variable is not set, then send will consult the
profile entry “Signature” for this information. If -msgid is
specified, then a “Message-ID:” field will also be added to the
message.
If send is re-distributing a message (when invoked by dist), then
“Resent-” will be prepended to each of these fields: “From:”, “Date:”,
and “Message-ID:”. If the message already contains a “From:” field,
then a “Sender: user@local” field will be added as well. (An already
existing “Sender:” field is an error!)
By using the -format switch, each of the entries in the “To:” and “cc:”
fields will be replaced with “standard” format entries. This standard
format is designed to be usable by all of the message handlers on the
various systems around the Internet. If -noformat is given, then
headers are output exactly as they appear in the message draft.
If an “Fcc: folder” is encountered, the message will be copied to the
specified folder for the sender in the format in which it will appear
to any non-Bcc receivers of the message. That is, it will have the
appended fields and field reformatting. The “Fcc:” fields will be
removed from all outgoing copies of the message.
By using the -width columns switch, the user can direct send as to how
long it should make header lines containing addresses.
If nmh has been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl switch will
enable the use of SASL authentication with the SMTP MTA. Depending on
the SASL mechanism used, this may require an additional password prompt
from the user (but the “.netrc” file can be used to store this
password). -saslmech switch can be used to select a particular SASL
mechanism, and the the -user switch can be used to select a
authorization userid to provide to SASL other than the default.
Currently SASL security layers are not supported for SMTP. nmh’s SMTP
SASL code will always negotiate an unencrypted connection. This means
that while the SMTP authentication can be encrypted, the subsequent
data stream can not. This is in contrast to nmh’s POP3 SASL support,
where encryption is supported for both the authentication and the data
stream.
The files specified by the profile entry “Aliasfile:” and any
additional alias files given by the -alias aliasfile switch will be
read (more than one file, each preceded by -alias, can be named). See
mh-alias(5) for more information.
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
PROFILE COMPONENTS
Path: To determine the user’s nmh directory
Draft-Folder: To find the default draft-folder
Aliasfile: For a default alias file
Signature: To determine the user’s mail signature
mailproc: Program to post failure notices
postproc: Program to post the message
SEE ALSO
comp(1), dist(1), forw(1), repl(1), mh-alias(5), post(8)
DEFAULTS
‘file’ defaults to <mh-dir>/draft
‘-alias’ defaults to /etc/nmh/MailAliases
‘-nodraftfolder’
‘-nofilter’
‘-format’
‘-forward’
‘-nomime’
‘-nomsgid’
‘-nopush’
‘-noverbose’
‘-nowatch’
‘-width 72’
‘-attachformat 0’
CONTEXT
None
BUGS
Under some configurations, it is not possible to monitor the mail
delivery transaction; -watch is a no-op on those systems.
Using -split 0 doesn’t work correctly.