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@beugley
Last active May 6, 2024 14:15
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bash script to send email as plain text or HTML, with attachments
#!/bin/sh
###############################################################################
## mail_it.sh
## A bash script that sends email as either plain text or HTML. It allows
## multiple recipients, CC addresses, reply-to addresses, and attachments.
##
## Usage: mail_it.sh -s subject -m message -f from_address
## -t to_address[,...] [-c cc_address[,...]] [-r reply_to_address[,...]]
## [-a attachment[,...]] [-h]
## subject: email subject
## message: email message text
## from_address: sender address
## to_address: one or more comma-separated recipient addresses
## cc_address: one or more comma-separated CC addresses
## reply_to_address: one or more comma-separated reply-to addresses
## attachemt: one or more files to be attached to the email
## -h: send message text as html
##
## Examples:
## mail_it.sh -s "This is a test message" \
## -m "Just testing" \
## -f "[email protected]" \
## -t "[email protected],[email protected]" \
## -a "file1.pdf file2.pdf"
## mail_it.sh -s "This is a test message" \
## -h -m "<h1>Heading</h1><pre>Unformatted Text</pre>" \
## -f "[email protected]" \
## -t "[email protected],[email protected]" \
## -a "file1.pdf file2.pdf"
###############################################################################
##
## Process command line arguments.
##
USAGE="Usage: mail_it.sh -s subject -m message -f from_address
-t to_address[,...] [-c cc_address[,...]] [-r reply_to_address[,...]]
[-a attachment[,...]] [-h]"
HTML=N
while getopts :s:m:f:t:c:r:a:h arguments
do
case $arguments in
s) SUBJECT=$OPTARG;;
m) MESSAGE=$OPTARG;;
f) FROM=$OPTARG;;
t) SEND_TO=$OPTARG;;
c) CC=$OPTARG;;
r) REPLY_TO=$OPTARG;;
a) ATTACHMENTS=$OPTARG;;
h) HTML=Y;;
:) echo "Invalid command line: $USAGE" >&2
return 1;;
\?) echo "Invalid command line: $USAGE" >&2
return 1;;
esac
done
##
## Verify that required arguments are set.
##
if [[ "$SUBJECT" = "" || "$MESSAGE" = "" || "$FROM" = "" || \
"$SEND_TO" = "" ]]
then
echo "$USAGE" >&2
exit 1
fi
##
## Verify that FROM is a single address.
##
function VerifyAddress
{
if (( $(echo "$2" | sed "s/[,;:]/ /g" | wc -w) != 1 ))
then
echo "ERROR: '$1' must be a single address"
exit 1
fi
}
VerifyAddress "-f from_address" "$FROM"
##
## Verify that all attachments exist.
##
if [[ "$ATTACHMENTS" != "" ]]
then
for ATTACHMENT in $ATTACHMENTS
do
if [[ ! -a "$ATTACHMENT" ]]
then
echo "ERROR: $ATTACHMENT does not exist" >&2
exit 1
fi
done
fi
##
## Create the mime email message.
##
NL="
"
BOUNDARY="a1b2c3d4e5f6"
MSG="From: $FROM${NL}To: $SEND_TO"
if [[ "$CC" != "" ]]
then
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Cc: $CC"
fi
if [[ "$REPLY_TO" != "" ]]
then
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Reply-To: $REPLY_TO"
fi
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Subject: $SUBJECT"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}MIME-Version: 1.0"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=$BOUNDARY"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}--$BOUNDARY"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Disposition: inline"
if [[ "$HTML" == "Y" ]]
then
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"us-ascii\""
MESSAGE="<!DOCTYPE html>${NL}<body>${NL}${MESSAGE}${NL}</body>${NL}</html>"
else
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"us-ascii\""
fi
MSG="${MSG}${NL}${NL}$MESSAGE"
# Add attachments, if any.
for ATTACHMENT in $ATTACHMENTS
do
FILENAME=$(basename $ATTACHMENT)
MSG="${MSG}${NL}--$BOUNDARY"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=$FILENAME"
MSG="${MSG}${NL}${NL}`base64 $ATTACHMENT`"
done
MSG="${MSG}${NL}--$BOUNDARY--"
##
## Send the email.
##
echo "${MSG}" | sendmail -t
@jpeter42
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jpeter42 commented Oct 5, 2022

Excellent! Really helped me. You might consider replacing charset="us-ascii" by charset="utf-8" to enable more languages.

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