Shell Programming and Scripting

#!/bin/ksh
# Usage:  $0 message attachment
# where message is a file containing an arbitrary text message and attachment
# is a gif file you want to attach.  If you don't want to use the latter feature, delete
# the line below that begins with \$top-attach
# Other filetypes are left to the reader to discern; do a google search for 
# perl mime::entity for more info

$eMAIL="recipient@example.com"
/opt/perl/5.8.0/bin/perl -e "use MIME::Entity; \$message=qx($1);
        \$top = MIME::Entity->build( \
        From => \"SomebodysName\\@donotreply.com\", \
        To => \"$eMAIL\", Subject => \"A nice picture\", \
        Data => \$message ); \
       \$top->attach(Path => \"$2\", Type => "image/gif", Encoding => "base64");\
        open MAIL, \"| /usr/lib/sendmail -t -oi -oem -v\" or die \"open: \$!\"; 
\$top->print(\\*MAIL); \
        close MAIL; \
        print \"\$message\\n------------------\\n\"; \
         \$top->print(); \
" > /tmp/out$$ &

# Here's some bonus code at no extra charge.  Sometimes sendmail must wait
# for a downstream server to reply.  This gives you some feedback.  notice that
# the perl command must match the perl command you called, above.
# So if you change your perl path, change it here too.  Hmm... I should probably
# put that in a shell variable, but you get what you pay for :-)
lines=1
cycles=30
while [ "$lines" -gt 0 -a $cycles -gt 0 ] ; do
        lines=`ps -j -o args | grep "/opt/perl/5.8.0/bin/perl -e use MIME::Entity" | grep -v grep | wc -l`
        if [ $lines -gt 0 ] ; then
                printf "."
                sleep 1
        else
                printf "\nMail sent. Wait a couple of minutes for it to arrive.\n"
                break
        fi
        if [ $cycles -eq 15 ] ; then
                printf "\nErgh. Mail seems slowish, still trying!\n";
                sleep 1
                printf "."
        fi
        cycles=`expr $cycles - 1`
done
if [ "$lines" -gt 0 ] ; then
        printf "\nMail is slow today. Still trying...  I'll check every minute.\n"
        printf "From now on, each hash symbol ( # ) represents 1 minute of time.\n"
fi
while [ "$lines" -gt 0 ] ; do
        lines=`ps -j -o args | grep "/opt/perl/5.8.0/bin/perl -e use MIME::Entity" | grep -v grep | wc -l`
        if [ $lines -gt 0 ] ; then
                sleep 60
                printf "#"
        else
                printf "\nMail sent. Wait a couple of minutes for it to arrive.\n"
        fi
done