Sending multiple email attachments using a shell script

Hi,

Since i liked the script idea and i am always extending my library i completed the script with basic error handling, command line parsing and dynamic inclusion of any number of files. There is still alot missing to make this a real tool but i think this will at least do what you wanted and get you going. If the options are not working try using double quotes (-r "your@email.com").

#!/bin/ksh

#
# Error Message function
#
errorMessage ()
{
    cat <<EOF
$1
Usage  : email-rep -r <recipient> [options] files ...
options: -s Subject line of the email
         -f From line of the email
EOF
exit 1
}

#
# Get Command line options
#
while getopts ":r:s:f:" Options
do
  case $Options in
      r ) recipient=$OPTARG;;
      s ) subject=$OPTARG;;
      f ) sender=$OPTARG;;
      * ) errorMessage "Error  : Unknown option";;
  esac
done

#
# Check if recipient option has been set (REQUIRED)
#
if [ ! $recipient ]
then
    errorMessage "Error  : Missing recipient"
fi

sender=${sender:-"ABC  <abc@abc.com>"}             # default if sender not set
subject=${subject:-"Your Excel Report"}            # default if subject not set

shift $(($OPTIND - 1))
#  $1 now references the first non option item supplied on the command line
#  $@ now holds all remaining options (in our case the files to include)

#
# Check if filenames are available
#
if [ ! $@ ]
then
    errorMessage "Error  : Please specify at least one file to attach"
fi

#
# Create the Mail Header in temporary file (tmp.mail)
#
cat <<EOF >tmp.mail
MIME-Version: 1.0
From:${sender}
To: ${recipient}
Subject: ${subject}
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="_boundarystring"

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
EOF

#
# Create Multipart attachments
#
for i in $@
do
  if [ ! -f $i ]
      then
      errorMessage "File not found: $i"
  fi
  filepath="$i"
  filename=`basename "${filepath}"`
  cat <<EOF >>tmp.mail

--_boundarystring
Content-Transfer-Encoding: Base64
Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="${filename}"

`base64.pl -filename="${filepath}"`
--_boundarystring
EOF
done

#
# Send the mail
#
`/usr/lib/sendmail -t -n <tmp.mail`
if [ $? -ne 0 ]
    then
    errorMessage "Error  : Unable to send email"
fi

exit 0

And the perl script. Of cause you are free to use the java base64 if you want. Just replace it with your original line. Replace the first line with the location of your perl executable (try 'whereis perl').

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
# import module
use Getopt::Long;

# read options
$result = GetOptions ( "filename=s" => \$filename );  
     
use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);
open(FILE, $filename) or die "$!";
while (read(FILE, $buf, 60*57)) {
    print encode_base64($buf);
}

If you have any questions to parts of the script feel free to ask.

Sascha