How do I send e-mails from a shell script including file attachments?
The easiest solution is to send email from within shell scripts is mail command as follows. To send a message to one or more people, mail can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent:
mail -s 'subject' username mail -s 'subject' vivek@nixcraft.net.in mail -s 'Duplicate ip detected' -c vivek@nixcraft.net.in ipadmin@nixcraft.net.in </var/log/ipscan.log mail -s 'yum update failed' -c vivek@nixcraft.net.in -b sysadins@groups.nixcraft.net.in </var/log/yum.log mail -s 'Disk failure' vivek@nixcraft.net.in < /tmp/message
Where,
- -s ‘word1 word2’ : Specify subject on command line.
- -c : Send carbon copies to list of users.
- -b : Send blind carbon copies to list. List should be a comma-separated list of names.
- < /path/to/file : Read email body using this /path/to/file.
Method #1: Sending File Attachments
The mail command will not work. You need to use uuencode command to send a binary file called reports.tar.gz:
uuencode reports.tar.gz reports.tar.gz | mail -s "Weekly Reports for $(date)" admin@groups.mgmt.nixcraft.net.in
You can email images or any file using the same format:
uuencode file1.png file1.png | mail -s "Funny" users@groups.nixcraft.net.in
Method #2: File Attachments with mutt Command
The mutt is a MUA (mail user agent) – an email client for text based session. It can be used for reading electronic mail under unix like operating systems, including support color terminals, MIME (attachments), and a threaded sorting mode. You can use mutt command as follows to send email attachments:
mutt -s "Filewall logs" -a /tmp/fw.logs.gz vivek@nixcraft.net.in < /tmp/emailmessage.txt
Tip # 1: Empty Mail Body
To use an empty line as the mail body use special file /dev/null or echo command as follows:
echo | mutt -s 'Subject' -a attachment.tar.gz vivek@nixcraft.net.in mutt -s 'Subject' -a attachment.tar.gz vivek@nixcraft.net.in </dev/null mail -s "Disk failed @ $(hostname)" mobilenumber@services.api.nixcraft.net.in </dev/null
Tip #2: Writing Mail Body Using Here documents
The here documents (redirection) tells the shell to read input from the current source (HERE) until a line containg only word (HERE) is seen:
#!/bin/bash ... .... mail -s "Disk Failed" vivek@nixcraft.net.in<<EOF NAS server [ mounted at $(hostname) ] is running out of disk space!!! Current allocation ${_SPACE} @ $(date) EOF ... ..
Tip # 3: Conditional Mail
Use the if else if and the exit status of a command as follows:
[ $(grep -c -i "hardware error" /var/log/mcelog) -gt 0 ] && { echo "Hardware errors found on $(hostname) @ $(date). See log file for the details /var/log/mcelog." | mail -s "HW Errors" mobilephone@api.nixcraft.net.in ;}
OR
#!/bin/bash .... ..... # backup dirs using gnu/tar /usr/bin/tar --exclude "*/proc/*" --exclude "*/dev/*" --exclude '*/cache/*' -zcvf /nas05/backup.tar.gz /var/www/html /home/vivek # send an email if backup failed if [ $? -ne 0 ] then /usr/bin/mail -s "GNU/TAR Backup Failed" vivek@nixcraft.net.in<<EOF GNU/Tar backup failed @ $(date) for $(hostname) EOF else /usr/bin/logger "Backup done" fi .... .. # clean up rm $_filename
🐧 9 comments so far... add one ↓
| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
| File Management | cat |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
| Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
| User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
That’s great and very helpful!
Thanks for introducing “uuencode”.
good stuff !!!
it took me months to figure out how to send HTML,
so here’s hoping this can save some1 else head ache…
mail -a ‘Content-Type: text/html’ -s “$ERROR” “$EMAIL” << EOF
NAS server [ mounted at $(hostname) ] is running out of disk space!!!
Current allocation ${_SPACE} @ $(date)
EOF
I tried the -a option for specifying content-type in Fedora and it did not work. what version of mail are you using on what OS?
How do i add email notification to my shell when runed
I have tried all the ways, but none of them is working for me. Its throwing error
mail: invalid option — ‘c’
Try `mail –help’ or `mail –usage’ for more information.
I have tried installing mutt and mailutils. But no luck.
Please help me in getting this error resolved.
How could I send an email notification when a certain process (configures to run at startup) is not running or fails?
Check for process id using pgrep. If not found send an email. Create a script and call at @reboot cron job.
It is bizarre that anyone would still suggest using uuencode for mail message attachments when there is an actual standard that specifies how attachments should be included in a mail message. That standard is MIME, and it’s been an Internet standard (RFC 2045) for over 20 years now.
Hi,
i created a job in jenkins, in s single job am running two builds, one is Ant build that i run through shell script and second by triggering build.In this single build both Ant and further process runs.I am getting mail notifications for final build thats fine.but i need an mail notification for Ant build which i am running by shell script.what Commands should i use to get mail notifc.please any one guid me in that.