Searching for Outgoing Mail Client Meeting Needs

[Blair Combs]

Box: HP-UX B.11.11 U 9000/800 (tb)

I have been searching in vain for a good mail client for outgoing mail using a command line scripted interface that meets all my needs, i.e. attachments using MIME (text & binary), Custom 'From' Address.

Note: I am being pushed off the HP3000 where we are using a great mail client from Telamon.

Please provide feedback on where I have missed the boat as I detail my investigation below.

Is there another product that will provide what I am looking for?

What I have found:

1) mpack:
Works well but -- can't customize 'From' address; can't send text/plain or text/html attachments. Funny thing though, if I don't provide a Content-Type for the attachment then it seems to work with text/plain attachments. However, still no 'From' address customization. Is there an undocumented method available?

2) elm:
Also works but -- can't customize 'From' address; can't name attachments, i.e. they show up in the attachment window of the receiver with a name like 'part 1.2'. Is there a method available to customize the 'From' address and name the attachment of all types?

3) metamail:
Downloaded a script called Metamail that looked promising. Then discovered that it required a mail client 'splitmail' that is not available to me. I don't want any email I send to be split anyway regardless of size. Can another mail client be utilized in place of splitmail? Where can I find 'splitmail' for download.

4) mailx:
Can't customize 'From' address; MIME does not work for attachments. Attachments appear in the body of the email and not in the attachments window of the receiving mail client. Some have turned off MIME (-m) and plugged their own MIME coding. I could do this but would rather not if I can avoid it. How do I customize 'From' address? Must I ux2dos all text type attachments (plain and html)? Must I uuencode all binary type attachments? Appears to be a very messy and support heavy solution.

5) sendmail:
Also appears very messy, cryptic and support heavy. I admit to not having investigated this option very much. Is this the only option that will meet my needs? I worry that it could take weeks to figure out and test all the necessary coding and scripting.

Thanks for your assistance.

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

1. - look at mutt, it should handle the stuff You need in non-interactive mode.
2. - beware of metamail, i have running versions of it and splitmail around (2 days' googling result), but this is outdated since 1995 as far as it's my experience. But it won't actually split email unless You specify it.
3. - if You really end up wishing for metamail, I can supply splitmail.

[Blair Combs]

I downloaded mutt from the hpux porting and archive centre, and it won't install because there are three dependencies that we don't have: something called ncurses, guile, and libidn.