# phpman > man > sendfiles(1mh) [SENDFILES(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SENDFILES/1mh/markdown) [SENDFILES(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SENDFILES/1mh/markdown) ## NAME sendfiles - send multiple files by MIME message with nmh ## SYNOPSIS **sendfiles** [**-help**] [**-version**] [**-compress** _bzip2_ | _compress_ | _gzip_ | _lzma_ | _none_] [**-from** _sender_] [_-delay_ _n_ | _-n_] **-to** _recipient_ **-subject** _subject_ | _recipient_ _subject_ _file/directory1_ [_file/directory2_ ...] ## DESCRIPTION The shell script **sendfiles** is used to send a collection of files and directories via elec‐ tronic mail. **sendfiles** will archive the files and directories you name with the **tar** command, and then mail the compressed archive to the “recipient” with the given “subject”. The archive will be au‐ tomatically split up into as many messages as necessary in order to get past most mailers. The **-to** switch specifies the recipient. The **-subject** switch specifies the subject. Alterna‐ tively, these two required values can be provided without their corresponding switch names. The **-from** switch can, and should, be used to specify the sender's mailbox (name and email ad‐ dress). Alternatively, the **PERSON** environment variable can be used for the same purpose. If neither is used, **sendfiles** will supply a “From:” header field using the sender's local mail‐ box, see _localmbox_ in [_mh-format_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-format/5/markdown). The **-compress** command line switch can be used to override the run-time determination of the compression program by **sendfiles**. **-compress** _none_ (alternatively, **-none**) disables compres‐ sion. Sometimes you want **sendfiles** 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 messages. The ### -delay sendfiles -delay 30 -to recipient -subject “subject” files ... will pause 30 seconds in between each posting. An alternate form of the switch with just the delay time, **-30**, for example, is also supported. ### Extracting the Received Files When these messages are received, invoke **mhstore** once for the list of messages. The default is for **mhstore** to store the combined parts as a new message in the current folder, although this can be changed using storage formatting strings. You can then use **mhlist** to find out what's inside; possibly followed by **mhstore** again to write the archive to a file where you can subsequently uncompress and untar it. For instance: % mhlist 5-8 msg part type/subtype size description 5 message/partial 47K part 1 of 4 6 message/partial 47K part 2 of 4 7 message/partial 47K part 3 of 4 8 message/partial 18K part 4 of 4 % mhstore 5-8 reassembling partials 5,6,7,8 to folder inbox as message 9 % mhlist -verbose 9 msg part type/subtype size description 9 application/octet-stream 118K (extract with uncompress | tar xvpf -) type=tar conversions=compress % mhstore 9 % uncompress < 9.tar.Z | tar xvpf - Alternately, by using the **-auto** switch, **mhstore** will automatically do the extraction for you: % mhlist 5-8 msg part type/subtype size description 5 message/partial 47K part 1 of 4 6 message/partial 47K part 2 of 4 7 message/partial 47K part 3 of 4 8 message/partial 18K part 4 of 4 % mhstore 5-8 reassembling partials 5,6,7,8 to folder inbox as message 9 % mhlist -verbose 9 msg part type/subtype size description 9 application/octet-stream 118K (extract with uncompress | tar xvpf -) type=tar conversions=compress % mhstore -auto 9 -- tar listing appears here as files are extracted As the second **tar** listing is generated, the files are extracted. A prudent user will never put **-auto** in the _.mh_profile_ file. The correct procedure is to first use **mhlist** to find out what will be extracted. Then **mhstore** can be invoked with **-auto** to perform the extraction. ## FILES $HOME/.mh_profile The user profile ## PROFILE COMPONENTS Path: To determine the user's nmh directory Current-Folder: To find the default current folder ## SEE ALSO [_mhbuild_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhbuild/1/markdown), [_mhlist_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhlist/1/markdown), [_mhshow_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhshow/1/markdown), [_mhstore_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhstore/1/markdown), [_mh-format_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-format/5/markdown) _Proposed_ _Standard_ _for_ _Message_ _Encapsulation_ (RFC 934) ## DEFAULTS `**-delay** **0**' `**-from** **localmbox**' ## CONTEXT None nmh-1.7.1 2012-11-14 [SENDFILES(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SENDFILES/1mh/markdown)