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Perl MIME date format help

Hi experts,

I'm writing a Perl script to run on a Linux box which needs to send emails. I'm using Net::SMTP to send the mail, with a subroutine adding the headers etc. being called from the body of the script.

I'm struggling to work out how to generate an RFC2183 date for use in the MIME headers - the top half of the SMTP subroutine is attached.

sub send_mail # send SMTP mail
	{
        my ($from, $to_addr, $subject, $body, $msg, $date);

        $from       = shift;
        $to_addr    = shift;
        $subject	= shift;
        $body       = shift;
        
        $msg = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
             . "From: $from\n"
             . "To: " . ( ref($to_addr) ? join(';', @$to_addr) : $to_addr ) . "\n"
             . "Date: " . date_r() . "\n"
             . "Subject: $subject\n\n"      # Double \n
             . $body;

<snip!>

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The format of the time string that I need for the MIME header is: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 16:29:51 -0500

I would like to know what commands will generate this format of date, and which modules I need to include to use them.

Thanks!

George

nognew

Hi there!
Please see the script below:
Cheers,
t.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use POSIX;

print strftime("%a, %d %b %y %H:%M:%S %z \n",localtime);

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georgemason

ASKER

Hi, thanks for that - I get the following output:

Usage: POSIX::strftime(fmt, sec, min, hour, mday, mon, year, wday = -1, yday = -1, isdst = -1) at ./ftp_create.perl line 52, <FILE> line 35.

georgemason

ASKER

I have done some more testing, and in my script, strftime works if passed gmtime but not localtime - but obviously it then doesn't take account of daylight savings.

I've run it in a script on its own and it runs fine as shown above

I'm confused :-/

nognew

May I see your ftp_create.perl around line 52 please?
I have a feeling something amiss there.
Cheers,
t.

georgemason

ASKER

I've made some changes to the script, so now the problem is at line 63. See below for that section of code.

sub send_mail # send SMTP mail
	{
        my ($from, $to_addr, $subject, $body, $msg);

        $from       = shift;
        $to_addr    = shift;
        $subject	= shift;
        $body       = shift;
		$date 		= strftime "%a, %d %b %y %H:%M:%S %z",localtime;
        
        $msg = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
             . "From: $from\n"
             . "To: " . ( ref($to_addr) ? join(';', @$to_addr) : $to_addr ) . "\n"
             . "Date: $date\n"
             . "Subject: $subject\n\n"      # Double \n
             . $body;

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nognew

Could you please pin point which line on the given snip produce the error and the error message?
Cheers,
t.

georgemason

ASKER

Sure, no problem. I get the following error when the end of line 9 is set to localtime rather than gmtime:

Usage: POSIX::strftime(fmt, sec, min, hour, mday, mon, year, wday = -1, yday = -1, isdst = -1) at ./ftp_create.perl line 62, <FILE> line 205.

georgemason

ASKER

(sorry, line 62 in the error relates to line 9 in the snippet)

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nognew

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georgemason

ASKER

I had use "POSIX qw(strftime);" but I added "use POSIX;" too, and then the script still didn't work, but I also got this warning:

Prototype mismatch: sub main::ctime (;$) vs none at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/Exporter.pm line 65.
at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/POSIX.pm line 19

I'm using Perl5.

Suhas .

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