Ubuntu Manpage: sendfiles - send multiple files via a MIME message

NAME

       sendfiles - send multiple files via a MIME message

SYNOPSIS

       sendfiles [-compress bzip2 | compress | gzip | lzma | none]
            [-from sender] [-delay n | -n] [-version] [-help]
            -to recipient -subject subject | recipient subject
            file/directory1 [file/directory2 ...]

DESCRIPTION

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

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

The -to switch specifies the recipient. The -subject switch specifies the subject.
Alternatively, these two required values can be provided without their corresponding
switch names.

The -from switch can, and should, be used to specify the sender's mailbox (name and email
address). Alternatively, the PERSON environment variable can be used for the same
purpose. If neither is used, sendfiles will supply a “From:” header field using the
sender's local mailbox, see localmbox in mh-format(5).

The -compress command line switch can be used to override the run-time determination of
the compression program by sendfiles. -compress none (alternatively, -none) disables
compression.

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.
The -delay switch specifies the number of seconds to pause in between postings, e.g.,

sendfiles -delay 30 -to recipient -subject “subject” files ...

will pause 30 seconds in between each posting. An alternate form of the switch with just
the delay time, -30, for example, is also supported.

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:

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

       `-delay 0'
       `-from localmbox'

CONTEXT

       None