mailto v1.1

Overview

mailto is a very simple command line program for sending e-mail (not reading e-mail). I wrote this program so that I could send e-mail messages from within shell scripts. In particular, I wanted a way to send my IP address in an e-mail message every time I connected to the Internet via a PPP connection.

Usage

   mailto [-s subject] [recipient]

   -s subject - The subject can optionally be specified on the command
                line.

   recipient  - A recipient can optionally be specified on the command
                line if you are going to type in your message, but one
                is required if you are piping text from another
                source.

Examples

You might want to send a quick e-mail message from a Terminal window without starting BeMail.

   $ mailto
   To: user@host.net
   Subject: Good News
   Type a period (`.') on a line by itself to send this message.
   I've been looking for a mail program like this!
   .

   OR

   $ mailto -s "Bad News" user@host.net
   Type a period (`.') on a line by itself to send this message.
   I don't need another stinkin' mail program!
   .

You might want to send someone a text file.

   mailto -s "Your Subject" user@host.net < mailto.cpp

Maybe you want to send someone a uuencoded file. If no subject is specified, then the subject of the message will be set to "No Subject".

   uuencode mailto.zip mailto.zip | mailto user@host.net

From within your ppp-script, you might want to send someone your IP address (and a short, silly message).

   if [ $1 = "up" ]; then
      fortune | mailto -s $4 user@host.net
   fi

Some Last Thoughts

I hope you find this program useful. With a little creativity, I'm sure you can come up with some other neat uses. I have included the source so that you can see how mailto works and change it to suit your own needs. Also, everyone can thank John Yanarella (yanarejm@muohio.edu) for providing me with an x86 mailto executable.

Wesley Dungan
wesley@idsi.net


Last Modified: Tuesday, 6 April 1999 by Wesley Dungan