metasend(1)                                                   General Commands Manual                                                  metasend(1)

NAME

       metasend - Crude interface for sending non-text mail

SYNOPSIS

       metasend   [-b]  [-c  cc]  [-F  from] [-e encoding] [-f filename] [-m MIME-type] [-s subject] [-S splitsize] [-t to] [-z] [-n] [-D content-
       description] [-o outputfile] [-/ multipart-subtype] [-E] [-P preamble-file]

DESCRIPTION

       The metasend program will allow a user to send one or more pre-existing data file as non-text multimedia mail.

       With no arguments, the program will ask the user for the To, Subject, and CC fields.  It will then ask for the name of a MIME content-type.
       Next,  it  will ask the user for the name of an existing file containing that type of data.  After this, it will ask what encoding type, if
       any, should be applied to this data.  Finally, it  will ask if the user wants to  include information  from an additional  file,  in  which
       case the last three questions will be repeated for  the next file.

       Alternately, all of this information can be provided on the comand line, using the following options:

           -b  -- specifies Batch (non-interactive) Mode.  Will exit with an error message if all additional needed information is not provided on
       the command line.
           -c cc -- specifies the CC address
           -D description -- specifies a string to be used as the Content-description value
           -e encoding -- specifies the encoding type.  Must be either "base64", "quoted-printable", "7bit", or "x-uue".  "7bit" means no encoding
       is performed.
           -E  --  specifies  that  the file being included is already a full MIME entity, and does not need to have any Content-* or other header
       fields added.
           -f filename -- specifies the file containing the data
           -F from -- specifies the From address
           -i "<content-id> -- specifies the content-id value for the MIME entity.  Must be a legal content-id value, enclosed in angle brackets.
               -I "<content-id>" -- specifies the content-id for the multipart entity being created by metasend, if any.  Must be a legal content-
       id value, enclosed in angle brackets.
           -m MIME-type -- specifies the MIME content-type
           -n --  specifies that an additional file is to be included.  Before each use of the -n option on the command line, the  options -m, -c,
       and -f, at a minimum, must have appeared,and must appear separately for each included file.
           -o outputfile -- specifies that the output from metasend should go to a named file rather than be delivered as mail.
           -P preamblefile -- specifies a file containing alternative text to be put in the "preamble" area of a MIME multipart message.
           -s subject -- specifies the Subject field
           -S splitsize -- specifies the maximum size before splitting into parts via splitmail(1).
           -t to -- specifies the To address
           -z -- specifies that the temporary files should be deleted EVEN IF DELIVERY FAILS.
           -/ subtype -- specifies the use of a MIME multipart subtype other than "mixed".

       This is intended largely for mail hackers.  A much friendlier interface to non-text mail is provided by mailto(1).

       If more than one file is given,  the parts will be combined into a single multipart MIME  object.

       The mail will be delivered using the splitmail(1) program, so if it is very long it will arrive as several pieces which  can  be  automati-
       cally  reassembled  by  metamail.  The definition of "very long" can be altered using the -S flag or the SPLITSIZE environment variable, as
       described in the splitmail(1) man page.

SEE ALSO

       audiosend(1), mailto-hebrew(1), mailto(1), metamail(1), mmencode(1), splitmail(1)

BUGS

       Should do a better job of choosing the encoding if you don't specify one.

       Should do MIME syntax checking  on user-supplied content-type fields.  Users are all too likely to provide bogus MIME content-type  values,
       alas.   In  particular,  there  are  various  characters that are  not allowed  in parameters  unless the parameters are enclosed in double
       quotes, but this sort  of  restriction is hard to enforce in a shell script!

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)

       Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided  that  the  above
       copyright  notice  and  this  permission notice appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity
       pertaining to this material without the specific, prior written permission of an authorized representative of Bellcore.  BELLCORE MAKES  NO
       REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE.  IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
       WARRANTIES.

AUTHOR

       Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bellcore

                                                                     Release 1                                                         metasend(1)