mail a 90Meg tar file.

[joe_91]

Hi Team:

I need to mail a 90Meg tar file. Is it possible? If so how?Please help.

Thanks
Joe.

[Martin Johnson]

The only way I know how to mail a 90MB file is to use PGP encryption and chunk the file into pieces. Not the most efficient way to do things, but it works.

HTH
Marty

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

Although it's possible to mail it - it's highly improbable that any mail system would accept a msg that large.
You probably should write it to tape & ship it.

You could try to compress it with compress or gzip & see what that size is. *Some* systems will accept up to 5-10 MB but some go as low as 1 MB.
compress file.tar results in file.tar.Z
OR
gzip file.tar results in file.tar.gz

To actually mail a binary file you have to uuencode then pipe it to mailx as follows:

uuencode file.tar file2.tar | mailx -s "Here's that tar file" username@domain.com

HTH,
Jeff

[Paul R. Dittrich]

Hi Joe,
There are utils available that will take any given file and cut it into chunks of a specified size or # of chunks.

I've done what you describe with one called Slice'nSplice.

FTP the file to your Windows desktop, carve to suit and mail. The far end uses the same util to rejoin the chunks into the original file.

There must be a similar util for Unix but we don't have it.

HTH,
Paul

[Shannon Petry]

You can mail it as a standard attachment, but your going to get killed if the other side gets hozed receiving it.
When an attachment is emailed, it is mime encoded (converted to ascii text) prior to being sent. This is to ensure stability in transfer and ease in network processing.
When a binary is mime-encoded, it will be expanded to about 2 times it's size. This means you need to make sure of the following.
1. your mail server has 300MB of free spool space. 100 for your message and 200 for the converted mime file.
2. the mail server receiving the file has at least 300MB of space.
3. Neither you or the receiver have restrictions for email this large.
4. Lots os patience! Mime encoding is really slow. I'd suggest you email your message at close of business to process when your not there. Then the receiver should not check mail till last thing that day (maybe lunch), and get the message out of the mail box ASAP!

Regards,
Shannon

[Darren Prior]

Hi Joe,

You could uuencode the file as previously suggested, then use split(1) to break the file into smaller pieces before emailing it.

I'd seriously consider some other method of transferring the file though - perhaps on a tape.

regards,

Darren.

[Donald Kok]

The largefile problem can be solved by
- the unix command split (man split)
- the windows program winzip

both can split af file in pieces, which can be mailed seperately.

The creating of a tape/CD would be my choice though.

Good luck
Donald

[Rodney Hills]

90Meg is overextending the "design" of most mail systems. Large files are usually transfered via "ftp" which has more robust features for handling of large amounts of data.
Put the file on a "ftp" server and send the email with instructions to the recepient on how to fetch. Or ask the recpient if they have a ftp server you could "put" the data to.

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Then use split to split the file into managable components.

The shar each component with the c option to add the cut-here.


Create a script to
sh *.shar
and cat each component together and redirect to original.tar

[Wodisch]

Hey Joe,

even using "split" won't solve your problem - the receipient's mailbox will probably choke, then the rest of the chunks would be re-transmitted over and over :-(
Create an account on a local server of yours, sent the file as instructed above from that local system to that new account, install and start a POP3 or IMAP4 service, and have the target recipient get it with their POP3- or IMAP4-client.

Just my $0.02,
Wodisch

[Anil C. Sedha]

My suggestion,

Mail is not a efficient way of sending 90Mb of data.

You can probably FTP it or send it in a tape. FTP should be a more faster solution for you.

Regards,
Anil

[Jose Mosquera]

Hi,

Have you considered to focus this problem from the form of obtaining the tar file?

Try with a shell script that:

1.- Zip all files needed
2.- Do a cycle that select groups of discreet size of previously compressed files (i.e. 3Mb)
3.- When concluding the cycle you will have "n" tar files, proceed sending one by one.

If you have an unique 90Mb binary file this rutine, off course, doesn't work!
In this case take a look in http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Text/ASplit-2.03/

Rgds