phpman > man > send(1)

Markdown | JSON | MCP    

SEND(1mh)                                                                                  SEND(1mh)



NAME
       send - send an nmh message

SYNOPSIS
       send [-help] [-version] [-alias aliasfile] [-draft] [-draftfolder +folder] [-draftmessage
            msg] [-nodraftfolder] [-filter filterfile] [-nofilter] [-format | -noformat] [-forward |
            -noforward] [-mime | -nomime] [-msgid | -nomsgid] [-messageid localname | random] [-push
            | -nopush] [-split seconds] [-verbose | -noverbose] [-watch | -nowatch] [-mts smtp |
            sendmail/smtp | sendmail/pipe] [-sendmail program] [-server servername] [-port port-
            name/number] [-sasl] [-nosasl] [-saslmech mechanism] [-authservice service] [-snoop]
            [-user username] [-tls] [-initialtls] [-notls] [-certverify] [-nocertverify] [-width
            columns] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       send will cause each of the specified files to be delivered to each of  the  destinations  in
       the “To:”, “cc:”, “Bcc:”, “Dcc:”, and “Fcc:” fields of the message.  If send is re-distribut‐
       ing a message, as invoked from dist, then the corresponding “Resent-xxx” fields are  examined
       instead.

       By  default,  send  uses the program post to do the actual delivery of the messages, although
       this can be changed by defining the postproc profile component.  Most of the features attrib‐
       uted to send are actually performed by post.

       Before  send  gives  the message to post for delivery, the message is processed by mhbuild to
       perform any necessary MIME encoding of the outgoing message.  This  can  be  changed  by  the
       buildmimeproc profile component.  mhbuild is invoked with the -auto switch, so mhbuild direc‐
       tives are not processed by default.  See mhbuild(1) for more information.

       mhbuild will scan the message draft for a header named Attach.  The draft is converted  to  a
       MIME  message if one or more matches are found.  This conversion occurs before all other pro‐
       cessing.  The whatnow(1) man page describes the user interface for managing MIME  attachments
       via this mechanism.

       The  first  part  of  the  MIME message is the draft body if that body contains any non-blank
       characters.  The body of each Attach header field is interpreted as a  file  name,  and  each
       file named is included as a separate part in the MIME message.

       Determination  of  the  content MIME type inserted into the Content-Type header for each part
       depends on how the nmh installation was configured.  If a program, such as file with a --mime
       or  -i option, was found that can specify the type of a file as a MIME type string, then that
       will be used.  To determine if your nmh was so configured, run mhparam mimetypeproc  and  see
       if a non-empty string is displayed.

       If your nmh was not configured with a program to specify a file type as a MIME string, then a
       different method is used to determine the content-type string.  For file names with dot  suf‐
       fixes,  the  profile is scanned for a mhshow-suffix- entry for that suffix.  The content-type
       for the part is taken from that profile entry if a match is found.  If a match is  not  found
       in  the  user profile, the mhn.defaults profile is scanned next.  If no match is found or the
       file does not have a dot suffix, the content-type is text/plain if  the  file  contains  only
       ASCII  characters  or application/octet-stream if it contains characters outside of the ASCII
       range.  See mhshow(1) for more details and example syntax.

       Each attached MIME part contains a “Content-Description” header that includes  the  filename,
       and  adds a “Content-Disposition” header.  Here is an example of MIME part headers for an at‐
       tachment:

       Content-Type: text/plain; name="VERSION"; charset="us-ascii"
       Content-Description: VERSION
       Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="VERSION"

       See mhbuild(1) for explanation of how the Content-Disposition value is selected.

       If -push is specified, send will detach itself from the user's terminal and perform  its  ac‐
       tions  in  the background.  If push'd and the draft can't be sent, then an error message will
       be sent (using the mailproc) back to the user.  If -forward is given,  then  a  copy  of  the
       draft  will be attached to this failure notice.  Using -push differs from putting send in the
       background because the output is trapped and analyzed by nmh.

       If -verbose is specified, send will indicate the interactions occurring  with  the  transport
       system,  prior  to actual delivery.  If -watch is specified send will monitor the delivery of
       local and network mail.  Hence, by specifying both switches, a large  detail  of  information
       can be gathered about each step of the message's entry into the transport system.

       The -draftfolder +folder and -draftmessage msg switches invoke the nmh draft folder facility.
       This is an advanced (and highly useful) feature.  Consult the mh-draft(5) man page  for  more
       information.

       If  -split is specified, send will split the draft into one or more partial messages prior to
       sending.  This makes use of the MIME features in nmh.  Note however that if send  is  invoked
       under  dist,  then  this  switch is ignored -- it makes no sense to redistribute a message in
       this fashion.  Sometimes you want send to pause after posting a  partial  message.   This  is
       usually  the  case when you are running sendmail and expect to generate a lot of partial mes‐
       sages.  The argument to -split tells it how long to pause between postings.

       send with no file argument will query whether the draft is the intended file, whereas  -draft
       will  suppress this question.  Once the transport system has successfully accepted custody of
       the message, the file will be renamed with a site-dependent prefix (usually a  comma),  which
       allows  it  to be retrieved until the next draft message is sent.  If there are errors in the
       formatting of the message, send will abort with a (hopefully) helpful error message.

       If a “Bcc:” field is encountered, its addresses will be used for  delivery,  and  the  “Bcc:”
       field will be removed from the message sent to sighted recipients.  The blind recipients will
       receive an entirely new message with a minimal set of headers. The body of this  new  message
       will  contain a copy of the message sent to the sighted recipients, either marked up with the
       indicator text "Blind-Carbon-Copy" or encapsulated as a MIME digest.

       If a “Dcc:” field is encountered and the sendmail/pipe mail transport method is not  in  use,
       its  addresses  will be used for delivery, and the “Dcc:” field will be removed from the mes‐
       sage.  The blind recipients will receive exactly the same message as the sighted  recipients.
       *WARNING* Recipients listed in the “Dcc:” field receive no explicit indication that they have
       received a “blind copy”.  This can cause blind recipients to inadvertently reply  to  all  of
       the  sighted  recipients  of the original message, revealing that they received a blind copy.
       On the other hand, since a normal reply to a message sent via a “Bcc:” field will generate  a
       reply  only  to  the sender of the original message, it takes extra effort in most mailers to
       reply to the included message, and so would usually only be done deliberately, rather than by
       accident.

       If  the  sendmail/pipe mail transport method is used, then messages containing a “Dcc:” field
       are rejected.


       If -filter filterfile is specified, then this copy is filtered (re-formatted) by mhl prior to
       being  sent to the blind recipients.  Alternately, if you specify the -mime switch, then send
       will use the MIME rules for encapsulation.

       Prior to sending the message, the “Date: now” field will be appended to the  headers  in  the
       message.   If  -msgid is specified, then a “Message-ID:” field will also be added to the mes‐
       sage.

       The -messageid switch selects the style used for the part appearing  after  the  @  in  “Mes‐
       sage-ID:”, “Resent-Message-ID:”, and “Content-ID:” header fields.  The two acceptable options
       are localname (which is the default), and random.  With  localname,  the  local  hostname  is
       used.   With  random,  a random sequence of characters is used instead.  Note that the -msgid
       switch must be enabled for this switch to have any effect.

       If send is re-distributing a message (when invoked by dist), then “Resent-” will be prepended
       to each of these fields: “From:”, “Date:”, and “Message-ID:”.

       A  “From:”  field is required for all outgoing messages.  Multiple addresses are permitted in
       the “From:” field, but a “Sender:” field is required in this  case.   Otherwise  a  “Sender:”
       field is optional.

       If  a message with multiple “From:” addresses does not include a “Sender:” field but does in‐
       clude an “Envelope-From:” field, the “Envelope-From:” field  will  be  used  to  construct  a
       “Sender:” field.

       When  using  SMTP for mail submission, the envelope-from used for the SMTP transaction is de‐
       rived from the  “Envelope-From:”  field.   If  no  “Envelope-From:”  field  is  present,  the
       “Sender:” field is used.  If neither the “Envelope-From:” nor the “Sender:” field is present,
       the “From:” field is used.  When “Envelope-From:” appears in a message  it  will  be  removed
       from the final outgoing message.

       By  using  the  -format switch, each of the entries in the “To:” and “cc:” fields will be re‐
       placed with “standard” format entries.  This standard format is designed to be usable by  all
       of  the  message handlers on the various systems around the Internet.  If -noformat is given,
       then headers are output exactly as they appear in the message draft.

       If an “Fcc: folder” is encountered, the message will be copied to the  specified  folder  for
       the  sender  in  the  format in which it will appear to any non-Bcc receivers of the message.
       That is, it will have the appended fields and field reformatting.  The “Fcc:” fields will  be
       removed from all outgoing copies of the message.

       Beware  that  if an “Fcc:” with one or more folders is present but none of the folders exist,
       and the default fileproc and postproc are in use, then refile will prompt the user to  create
       the  folder(s) if -push is not specified.  If all responses are negative, or creation of each
       folder fails, or -push is specified, the message will not be copied to any folder and will be
       removed by post.  With the default refile switches, the message draft will be renamed accord‐
       ing to the specification of its -nolink switch.

       By using the -width columns switch, the user can direct send as to how long  it  should  make
       header lines containing addresses.

       The mail transport system default is provided in /etc/nmh/mts.conf but can be overridden here
       with the -mts switch.

       If nmh is using as its mail transport system sendmail/pipe, the -sendmail switch can be  used
       to override the default sendmail program.

       If  nmh is using the SMTP MTA, the -server and the -port switches can be used to override the
       default mail server (defined by the /etc/nmh/mts.conf servers entry).  The -snoop switch  can
       be  used to view the SMTP transaction.  (Beware that the SMTP transaction may contain authen‐
       tication information either in plaintext or  easily  decoded  base64.)   If  -sasl  -saslmech
       xoauth2 is used, the HTTP transaction is also shown.

       If  nmh  has  been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl and -nosasl switches will enable and
       disable the use of SASL authentication with the SMTP MTA.  Depending on  the  SASL  mechanism
       used, this may require an additional password prompt from the user (but the netrc file can be
       used to store this password, as described in the  mh-profile(5)  man  page).   The  -saslmech
       switch can be used to select a particular SASL mechanism, and the -user switch can be used to
       select a authorization userid to provide to SASL other than  the  default.   The  credentials
       profile entry in the mh-profile(5) man page describes the ways to supply a username and pass‐
       word.

       If SASL authentication is successful, nmh will attempt to negotiate a security layer for ses‐
       sion  encryption.  Encrypted data is labelled with `(encrypted)' and `(decrypted)' when view‐
       ing the SMTP transaction with the -snoop switch; see the post man page description of  -snoop
       for its other features.

       If  nmh  has  been compiled with OAuth support, the -sasl and -saslmech xoauth2 switches will
       enable OAuth authentication.  The -user switch must be used, and  the  username  must  be  an
       email  address  the  user  has for the service, which must be specified with the -authservice
       service switch.  Before using OAuth authentication, the user must authorize  nmh  by  running
       mhlogin  and  grant  authorization to that account.  See the mhlogin(1) man page for more de‐
       tails.

       If nmh has been compiled with TLS support, the -tls and -initialtls switches will require the
       negotiation  of  TLS  when connecting to the SMTP MTA.  The -tls switch will negotiate TLS as
       part of the normal SMTP protocol using the STARTTLS command.  The -initialtls will  negotiate
       TLS  immediately  after  the connection has taken place, before any SMTP commands are sent or
       received.  Encrypted data is labelled with `(tls-encrypted)' and `(tls-decrypted)' when view‐
       ing  the SMTP transaction with the -snoop switch; see the post man page description of -snoop
       for its other features.  The -notls switch will disable all attempts to negotiate TLS.

       If port 465 is specified and none of the TLS switches were enabled, -initialtls will  be  im‐
       plied if TLS support was compiled in.  Though port 465 for SMTPS (SMTP over SSL) was deregis‐
       tered by IANA in 1998, it is still used for that service.

       When using TLS the default is to verify the remote certificate and  SubjectName  against  the
       local trusted certificate store.  This can be controlled by the -certverify and -nocertverify
       switches.  See your OpenSSL documentation for more information on certificate verification.

       The files specified by the profile entry “Aliasfile:” and any additional alias files given by
       the -alias aliasfile switch will be read (more than one file, each preceded by -alias, can be
       named).  See mh-alias(5) for more information.

   Selection based on sender address: sendfrom
       One or more sendfrom profile components can be used to select a  mail  server  address,  mail
       server  port, or any other switch that can be supplied to post.  It works by first looking at
       the sender address and domain name in the message draft, as described below.  It  then  looks
       for  a corresponding profile entry, which contains the post switches.  To enable, add profile
       entries of the form:

            sendfrom-address/domain name: post switches

       The email address is extracted from the Envelope-From:  header, if  not  blank,  the  Sender:
       header,  or  the From: header line in the message draft.  Multiple profile entries, with dif‐
       ferent email addresses or domain names, are supported.  This  allows  different  switches  to
       post,  such  as  -user, to be associated with different email addresses.  If a domain name is
       used, it matches all users in that domain.

       Here is an example profile entry using OAuth for an account hosted by gmail:

            sendfrom-gmail_address AT example.com: -sasl -saslmech xoauth2
                 -authservice gmail -tls -server smtp.gmail.com
                 -user gmail_login AT example.com

       (Indentation indicates a continued line, as supported in MH profiles.)  The username need not
       be  the  same  as the sender address, which was extracted from the appropriate header line as
       noted above.

       Here are example profile entries that use an nmh credentials file:

            credentials: file:nmhcreds
            sendfrom-sendgrid_address AT example.com: -sasl -tls
                 -server smtp.sendgrid.net
            sendfrom-outbound.att.net: -sasl -initialtls
                 -server outbound.att.net -port 465
            sendfrom-fastmail.com: -initialtls -sasl -saslmech LOGIN
                 -server smtps-proxy.messagingengine.com -port 80

       where nmhcreds is in the user's nmh directory (from the Path profile component) and contains:

            machine smtp.sendgrid.net
                 login sendgrid_login AT example.com
                 password ********
            machine outbound.att.net
                 login att_login AT example.com
                 password ********
            machine smtps-proxy.messagingengine.com
                 login fastmail_login AT example.com
                 password ********

       For more information on authentication to mail servers, see the mhlogin(1) man page for OAuth
       services, and mh-profile(5) man page for login credentials.

FILES
       $HOME/.mh_profile          The user profile

PROFILE COMPONENTS
       Path:                To determine the user's nmh directory
       Draft-Folder:        To find the default draft-folder
       Aliasfile:           For a default alias file
       Signature:           To determine the user's mail signature
       mailproc:            Program to post failure notices
       postproc:            Program to post the message
       sendfrom-address:    Switches to post for sender address
       sendfrom-domain:     Switches to post for sender domain name

SEE ALSO
       comp(1),  dist(1),  file(1), forw(1), mhbuild(1), mhparam(1), mhlogin(1), refile(1), repl(1),
       whatnow(1), mh-alias(5), mh-profile(5), mh-tailor(5), post(8)

DEFAULTS
       `file' defaults to <mh-dir>/draft
       `-alias' defaults to /etc/nmh/MailAliases
       `-nodraftfolder'
       `-nofilter'
       `-format'
       `-forward'
       `-nomime'
       `-nomsgid'
       `-messageid localname'
       `-nopush'
       `-noverbose'
       `-nowatch'
       `-width 72'
       `-certverify'

CONTEXT
       None

BUGS
       Under some configurations, it is not possible  to  monitor  the  mail  delivery  transaction;
       -watch is a no-op on those systems.

       Using -split 0 doesn't work correctly.



nmh-1.7.1                                    2017-05-11                                    SEND(1mh)
send(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION
Selection based on sender address: sendfrom
FILES PROFILE COMPONENTS SEE ALSO DEFAULTS CONTEXT BUGS
-watch is a no-op on those systems.

Generated by phpman v3.7.12 Author: Che Dong Under GNU General Public License
2026-06-13 17:23 @216.73.216.233
CrawledBy Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Valid XHTML 1.0 TransitionalValid CSS!

^_back to top