UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone,
I have a shell script that I use to send some emails with attachments. Based on the attachment file that is being sent, I choose the recipient.

My file_list.txt looks like this

CAJ.txt;sm@email.com
KXLD.txt;jc@email.com

I do a grep on this file to look for the file name and extract the second field and store it in another variable as below.

email_dest= grep $FILENAME file_list.txt|cut -d ";" -f 2;

When I echo this variable it gives me the correct email address.

However when I try to send the email using this variable using the syntax,

mailx -s $FILENAME $email_dest
or mailx -s $FILENAME ${email_dest}

I get the following error message-

The flags you gave are used only when sending mail.
Usage: mailx -eiIUdFntBNHvV~ -T FILE -u USER -h hops -r address
-s SUBJECT -f FILE users

When I replace the variable with the email address, it sends the emails correctly. I have a feeling there might be a line feed character somewhere that is causing an issue but not sure how I can get rid of it.

Can anyone provide inputs as to how I can work around this or any other solution that would be more efficient. Thanks!

The error message implies you aren't supplying the email address at all.
Chuck a -x on the end of your #! path at the top of the script and consider adding an 'echo $email_dest' just before the call to mailx to see what it's doing.

i'd say it's this line. if you're trying to run a command to be passed to a variable, you need back ticks (aka grave accents):

Code:

email_dest=`grep $FILENAME file_list.txt|cut -d ";" -f 2;`

in bash, you can also use:

Code:

email_dest=$(grep $FILENAME file_list.txt|cut -d ";" -f 2;)

Thanks Idle, it was the grave accent that was missing. I was sure it was something small that I was missing.