DACSEMAIL(1)

DACS Commands Manual

DACSEMAIL(1)

NAME¶

dacsemail - Simple outgoing email agent

SYNOPSIS¶

dacsemail [ -bcc addr] [{-bf | --bodyfile} path] [{-bs | --bodystring} string] [-cc addr]

[ -ct value] [{-f | --from} from] [ -h | --help] [ -header name value]

[{ -mailer | -mta} path] [{-mailer-flags | -mta-flags} string] [-p | --prompt] [-save path] [{-s | --subject} subject] [-sender sender] [{-t | --to} addr] [-transform] [-v | --verbose] [-var name value]

DESCRIPTION¶

This program is part of the DACS suite.

The dacsemail utility is a simple agent for sending email messages. It is a stand-alone program that neither accepts the usual DACS command line options ( dacsoptions[1]) nor accesses any DACS configuration files.

dacsemail constructs an RFC 822[2] format message but does not transmit it. It requires an external mailer, such as sendmail(8)[3], to transfer the message. The mailer command and its arguments can be specified on the dacsemail command line (see -mailer) or at build time (see dacs.install(7)[4]).

OPTIONS¶

If the source for the message body is not specified on the command line, it will be read from the standard input. At least one recipient must be specified using -t, -cc, or -bcc.

-bcc addr

Send the message to the undisclosed recipient address addr. It is the responsibility of the mailer to delete these recipient addresses before transmitting the message. This flag may be repeated.

-bf path

--bodyfile path

Read the message body from path. If path is -, the standard input is read.

-bs string

--bodystring string

Use string as the message body.

-cc addr

Send the message to recipient addr as a carbon copy. This flag may be repeated.

-ct value

Add a Content-type header of MIME type value to the message. If value is multipart/alternative, an appropriate boundary variable will be created, unless one has already been specified on the command line with the -var flag. It is assumed that the message body has already been correctly formatted for this MIME type, or will be after it has been transformed (see -transform).

-f from

--from from

Use from as the value of the message's From header.

-h

--help

Print usage information and then exit.

-header name value

Add a message header named name with value value. This flag should only be used for headers that do not have specific flags ( -t, -ct, -f, and so on).

-mailer path

-mta path

Use the message transfer agent command path (a full pathname) instead of the configured program. This program must read the message from its standard input and extract the list of recipients from the message's To, Cc, and Bcc headers. (If such a mailer is unavailable, it will be necessary to write a small program to wrap a mailer and provide the required interface to dacsemail.) The default is to run sendmail(8)[3] with its -t flag.

-mailer-flags string

-mta-flags string

Regardless of the mailer, use string for its command line flags.

-p

--prompt

Just before the message is to be sent, display it (to stderr) and wait for the user to respond to a prompt. At the prompt, the user may abort the message or allow it to be sent.

-save path

Just before sending (or prompting), write a copy of the outgoing message to path, replacing any previous contents of the file.

-s subject

--subject subject

Set the message's Subject header to subject.

-sender sender

Set the message's Sender header to sender.

-t addr

--to addr

Add addr as a "To" recipient. This flag may be repeated.

-transform

The message body, regardless of how it is specified, is filtered through the DACS transformation function. Please refer to dacs_transform(8)[5] for details. No access control rules may be associated with any transformation; i.e., they are all unconditional. A similar effect can be obtained by piping the output of dacstransform(1)[6] into dacsemail.

-v

--verbose

Enable verbose output for debugging.

-var name value

Create a variable[7] named name set to value for the transform function. The variable's value can be referenced within the message body in the DACS namespace as ${DACS:: name}. The variable must not already be defined.

EXAMPLES¶

Suppose the myfile contains the following text:

<!--DACS expand="*" -->
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--${DACS::boundary}
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello, ${DACS::user}!

--${DACS::boundary}
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<p>
<font color="red">Hello, ${DACS::user}!</font>
</p>
--${DACS::boundary}--
<!--DACS end="*" -->

The following command might be used to send a message with a multipart/alternative structured body:

% dacsemail -ct multipart/alternative -f auggie@example.com \
      -t harley@example.com -s "Hello" -transform -var user Auggie -bf myfile

The resulting message will look something like the following:

To: harley@example.com
From: auggie@example.com
Subject: Hello
Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_----------=_03885942562898683484"
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:48:41 -0700 (PDT)
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
X-mailer: DACS 1.4.24a

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--_----------=_03885942562898683484
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello, Auggie!

--_----------=_03885942562898683484
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<p>
<font color="red">Hello, Auggie!</font>
</p>
--_----------=_03885942562898683484--

FILES¶

None.

DIAGNOSTICS¶

The program exits 0 if everything was fine, 1 if an error occurred. Error messages are printed to stderr. Errors and routine messages from the mailer are recorded wherever they usually logged, outside of DACS

BUGS¶

This program's primary purpose is for testing DACS functionality that is needed for internal purposes. No significant improvements are envisioned. You could throw a rock and hit a better email agent.