sendfiles(1) send multiple files via a MIME message

SYNOPSIS

sendfiles [delay] mailpath subject file1 [file2 ...]

DESCRIPTION

The shell script sendfiles, is used to send a collection of files and directories via electronic mail.

sendfiles mailpath ``subject'' filesĀ ...

sendfiles will archive the files and directories you name with the tar command, and then mail the compressed archive to the ``mailpath'' with the given ``subject''. The archive will be automatically split up into as many messages as necessary in order to get past most mailers.

Sometimes you want sendfiles 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. If the first argument given to sendfiles starts with a dash, then it is interpreted as the number of seconds to pause in between postings, e.g.,

sendfiles -30 mailpath ``subject'' filesĀ ...

will pause 30 seconds in between each posting.

Extracting the Received Files

When these messages are received, invoke mhstore once for the list of messages. The default is for mhstore to store the combined parts as a new message in the current folder, although this can be changed using storage formatting strings. You can then use mhlist to find out what's inside; possibly followed by mhstore again to write the archive to a file where you can subsequently uncompress and untar it. For instance:

% mhlist 5-8
 msg part  type/subtype             size description
   5       message/partial           47K part 1 of 4
   6       message/partial           47K part 2 of 4
   7       message/partial           47K part 3 of 4
   8       message/partial           18K part 4 of 4
% mhstore 5-8
reassembling partials 5,6,7,8 to folder inbox as message 9
% mhlist -verbose 9
 msg part  type/subtype             size description
   9       application/octet-stream 118K
             (extract with uncompress | tar xvpf -)
             type=tar
             conversions=compress
% mhstore 9
% uncompress < 9.tar.Z | tar xvpf -

Alternately, by using the -auto switch, mhstore will automatically do the extraction for you:

% mhlist 5-8
 msg part  type/subtype             size description
   5       message/partial           47K part 1 of 4
   6       message/partial           47K part 2 of 4
   7       message/partial           47K part 3 of 4
   8       message/partial           18K part 4 of 4
% mhstore 5-8
reassembling partials 5,6,7,8 to folder inbox as message 9
% mhlist -verbose 9
 msg part  type/subtype             size description
   9       application/octet-stream 118K
             (extract with uncompress | tar xvpf -)
             type=tar
             conversions=compress
% mhstore -auto 9
-- tar listing appears here as files are extracted

As the second tar listing is generated, the files are extracted. A prudent user will never put -auto in the .mh_profile file. The correct procedure is to first use mhlist to find out what will be extracted. Then mhstore can be invoked with -auto to perform the extraction.

FILES

^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile

PROFILE COMPONENTS

^Path:~^To determine the user's nmh directory
^Current-Folder:~^To find the default current folder

DEFAULTS

`-noverbose'

CONTEXT

None