Mail

Sending mail with sendmail

sendmail -t < <messagefile>

Send the email as in <messagefile>

The email headers are in <messagefile>. That should look like:

From: me@mydomain.tld
To: user@domain.tld
Subject: Subject of your mail
email text

mailx -s Subject -a <attachmentfile> email@domain.tld

Send email with attachment after entering optional text and an EOT (CTRL-D).

Sending mail with python

#!/usr/bin/env python3

def usage():
    print ("Usage: "+__file__)
    print("Send email, include what you need in your program")
    version = '0.1, 19700101, Initial release'
    print("Version: "+version)
    sys.exit(1)


def sendmail(mailto,mailfrom = 'NN',mailsubject = '',mailtext = '',attachments = ''):
    import smtplib
    from email import encoders
    from email.message import Message
    from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
    from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
    from email.mime.text import MIMEText
    from email.utils import formatdate

    outer = MIMEMultipart()
    outer['Subject'] = mailsubject
    outer['To'] = ", ".join(mailto)
    outer['From'] = mailfrom
    outer['Date'] =  formatdate(localtime=True)
    msg = MIMEText(mailtext,'plain')
    outer.attach(msg)
    if attachments != '':
        for attachment in attachments:
            filename = attachment.split('/')[-1]
            ctype = 'application/octet-stream'
            maintype, subtype = ctype.split('/', 1)
            fp = open(attachment, 'rb')
            msg = MIMEBase(maintype, subtype)
            msg.set_payload(fp.read())
            fp.close()
            # Encode the payload using Base64
            encoders.encode_base64(msg)
            # Set the filename parameter
            msg.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename=filename)
            outer.attach(msg)
    composed = outer.as_string()
    print(composed)
    s = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
    print('Sending mail')
    s.sendmail(mailfrom, mailto , composed)
    s.quit()
    return

For Python 2 it was

#!/usr/bin/env python2

def usage():
    print ("Usage: "+__file__)
    print("Send email, include what you need in your program")
    version = '0.1, 19700101, Initial release'
    print("Version: "+version)
    sys.exit(1)

# USER CONFIGURABLE ITEMS

maxmailsize = 10000000

# END USER CONFIGURABLE ITEMS, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE

def main():
    attachement1 = filepath
    attachement2 = filepath

    mailto = ['you@domain.tld']
    mailcc =  ['someoneelse@anotherdomain.tld','andmore@domain.tld']
    mailbcc = ['secret@domain.tld']     # Only include this in the final sendmail call, not in the headers.
    mailfrom = 'me@domain.tld'          # Some systems do not like this, just remove it from the sendmail call
    mailsubject = 'What this is about'
    mailtext = "Hi,\n\nI'd like to send you an email.\n\nBest Regards\n\nMe."
    sendmail(mailto, mailcc=mailcc, mailbcc=mailbcc, mailfrom=mailfrom, mailsubject=mailsubject, mailtext=mailtext, attachments=[attachment1,attachment2])
    return
 
 
def sendmail(mailto,mailcc = '',mailbcc = '',mailfrom = 'Sender',mailsubject = '',mailtext = '',attachments = ''):
    import smtplib
    from email import encoders
    from email.message import Message
    from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
    from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
    from email.mime.text import MIMEText

    outer = MIMEMultipart()
    outer['Subject'] = mailsubject
    outer['To'] = ",".join(mailto)
    outer['CC'] = ",".join(mailcc)
    outer['From'] = mailfrom
    msg = MIMEText(mailtext,'plain')
    outer.attach(msg)
    if attachments != '':
        attachtotsize = 0
        for attachment in attachments:
            attachsize = os.stat(attachment).st_size
            if  attachtotsize + attachsize > maxmailsize:
                mailtext += attachment+" makes the message bigger than "+maxmailsize+", it is not attached.\n"
            else:
                attachtotsize += attachsize
                filename = attachment.split('/')[-1]
                ctype = 'application/octet-stream'
                maintype, subtype = ctype.split('/', 1)
                fp = open(attachment, 'rb')
                msg = MIMEBase(maintype, subtype)
                msg.set_payload(fp.read())
                fp.close()
                # Encode the payload using Base64
                encoders.encode_base64(msg)
                # Set the filename parameter
                msg.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename=filename)
                outer.attach(msg)
    composed = outer.as_string()
    s = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
    s.sendmail(mailfrom, mailto+list(mailcc)+list(mailbcc) , composed)
    s.quit()
    return


main()

Reading mail with mailx

The web knows more[1].

mailx

Start mailx client and show 1 pages or messages. The Mailx prompt is a '&'

The current message is marked with a'>' at the start of the line.

&quit

Submit the changes you made and exit the client

&exit

Exit the client without submitting the changes

&<RET>

Read the current message

&d

Delete the current message

&d<id1> <id3>

Delete the messages with id <id1> and <id2>

&d<id1>-<id3>

Delete the messages with id <id1> up to and including <id2>

& h

Show a page of headers

& +

Go to next message

& -

Go to previous message