Cannot attach file and include a body while sending an email in Linux

Question

The command below will send an email with a Subject and Body, but no Attachment. If I remove < /usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL I receive the email with Subject and Attachment, but no Body.

cat /usr/tmp/ATTACHMENT.xls | uuencode ATTACHMENT.xls | mailx -s "Subject of email!" emailaddress@company.com < /usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL

/usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL contains the text "Email Body."

The `mailx` process (like every process) has only one stdin. You probably want to use `cat` to concatenate the body and the uuncoded file (BTW, calling it "attachment" suggests a MIME multipart/mixed, but that's not what you're doing - even if your MUA makes them look the same!). — Toby Speight, Sep 13 '18 at 17:13

Cupcake Protocol · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-13T17:25:36.153

1

Using mailx:

(cat /usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL;
 echo; 
 uuencode ATTACHMENT.xls < /usr/tmp/ATTACHMENT.xls ) | 
 mailx -s "Subject of email!" emailaddress@company.com

Using nail:

nail -s "Subject of email!" -a /usr/tmp/ATTACHMENT.xls emailaddress@company.com < /usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL

The nail mailer is sometimes installed as mail, but it understands MIME, for real attachments.

edited Sep 13 '18 at 17:25

answered Sep 13 '18 at 17:17

Cupcake Protocol

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Toby Speight · Answer 2 · 2018-09-13T17:22:34.203

Firstly, there's no need to use cat to feed uuencode, which can read from a file quite happily:

uuencode /usr/tmp/ATTACHMENT.xls ATTACHMENT.xls | ...

The main problem you have is with this part:

... | mailx < body_text_file

There's only one standard input stream, so when you give the shell contradictory instructions like this, it has to choose which redirection takes effect (what actually happens is that stdin is initially set to come from the process pipeline, and then when the < is read, that's disconnected and replaced by a file stream).

What you probably want to do is to use cat to concatenate the body text with the uuencoded file, like this:

... | cat body_text_file - | mailx

(I'm assuming the body text is an introduction and so comes first - swap the arguments to cat if I'm wrong).

Your full command would then be

uuencode /usr/tmp/ATTACHMENT.xls ATTACHMENT.xls \
  | cat /usr/tmp/BODY_OF_EMAIL - \
  | mailx -s "Subject of email!" emailaddress@example.com

I was concerned in my answer that BODY_OF_EMAIL may lack a final newline, and used a solution that compensates. — Cupcake Protocol, Sep 13 '18 at 17:21
Yes, good idea. An alternative is to keep a file containing just a newline, and include that in `cat`'s arguments. — Toby Speight, Sep 13 '18 at 17:23

Cannot attach file and include a body while sending an email in Linux

2 Answers2