FreeBSD send mail with attachments from command line / shell prompt

Install mutt under FreeBSD

Mutt is a small but very powerful text based program for reading electronic mail under unix operating systems, including support color terminals, MIME, and a threaded sorting mode. Use the pkg_add command to install binary software package distributions.

Searching for mutt

The command is:
# pkg search mutt
Here is what we see

font-mutt-misc-1.0.3_4         X.Org miscellaneous Mutt fonts
mutt-2.0.2                     Small but powerful text based program for read/writing e-mail
mutt_vc_query-002              vCard query utility for mutt
mutter-3.36.6                  Window and compositing manager based on Clutter
muttprint-0.73_4               Utility to print mail for most any mail client
neomutt-20200925_1             Bringing together all the Mutt Code
notmuch-mutt-0.31              Integrates the Notmuch email search and tagging application with Mutt
rubygem-mutter-0.5.3           Tiny command-line interface library

Installing mutt on FreeBSD

Older FreeBSD users type:
# pkg_add -v -r mutt
For the latest version of FreeBSD, run the following pkg command:
# pkg install mutt
Alternatively, you can use FreeBSD ports collections:
# cd /usr/ports/mail/mutt
# make install clean

Installing mutt to send attachments from FreeBSD jail or cloud server

FreeBSD send mail with attachments

Send reports.tar.gz file to vivek@gmail.co.in as attachment, enter:
$ mutt -s "Reports" -a reports.tar.gz vivek@gmail.co.in < /dev/null
## NOTE: latest version of mutt uses -- before email-id ##
mutt -s "Reports" -a /root/.viminfo -- vivek.gite@gmail.com < /dev/null

OR
$ mutt -s "Subject" -a reports.tar.gz vivek@gmail.co.in < /tmp/mail-message.txt
$ mutt -s "Subject" -a reports.tar.gz -- vivek@gmail.co.in < /tmp/mail-message.txt
Where,

• -a file : Attach a file to your message using MIME.
• -s subject : Specify the subject of the message.
• -- email-id : Attach a file using MIME. Separating file and email-id arguments with “--” is mandatory. For example: mutt -a screenshot.jpg -- you@example OR mutt -a foo.jpg bar.tiff *.png -- you@example1 you@example2-dot-com. The -a option must be placed at the end of command line options.
• < /tmp/mail-message.txt : Read email body text from the /tmp/mail-message.txt file.
• < /dev/null : Send an email without body text.

Sending multiple attachments using mutt on FreeBSD

For multiple file attachments use the -a option for each file as follows:
$ mutt -s "Subject" -a file1.tar.gz -a file2.tar.gz -- vivek@gmail.co.in < /dev/null

How to specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address mutt

The syntax is as follows with the -b option:
$ mutt -s "FreeBSD server disk failed" -b alert@sysadmin-email-list -a disk.log.gz -- vivek@gmail.co.in < /dev/null

Specify a carbon-copy (CC) address with mutt

Pass the -c option to the mutt on FreeBSD Unix server:
$ mutt -s "ZFS problem" -c admin@somwhere-com -a zfs.disk.log.gz -- vivek@nixcraft.co.in < /dev/null

Getting help

All you have to do is type the following command:
$ mutt -h

Summing up

For more information read mutt command man page or docs online:
$ man mutt