shell script to mail data file not including data

[Joe Robinson_2]

I'm using the following shell to grab a data file and email it to another office. For some reason I can't explain, it recently stopped including the data file and just sends a blank email. I'd be grateful for a tip what the problem on this might be...

dest=username@email address
if [ -f /home/robinson/myfile* ]
then
cd /home/robinson
for file in `ls myfile*`
do
/usr/contrib/bin/gzip -c $file > ${file}.gz
echo "[include ${file}.gz application/octet-stream base64]" > ${file}.gz.uu

elm -s "Subject - $file" $dest < ${file}.gz.uu

rm -f ${file}.gz
rm -f ${file}.gz.uu

exit

[RAC_1]

ll /home/robinson/myfile*

Do you have that file?? and more than zero bytes??

[Biswajit Tripathy]

One obvious mistake is, there is no "done" for
the "for" loop. The syntax for "for" loop is:

for file in ....
do
....
done

You don't get any syntax error because of "exit".

- Biswajit

[harry d brown jr]

The best way to send files is with uuencode:

for i in `echo filename1 filename2 filename3 ...` do uuencode $i $i.txt
done|mailx -m -s "test" username@whereever.com

live free or die
harry d brown jr

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I suspect that you have a timing problem. The file is being removed before elm can process it. It would be a bit more apparent if you included siome text in your mail before the [include] clause.

[Joe Robinson_2]

Let's try this again...didn't include all the particulars last time. The data file is there, with data in it.

#dest=username@emailaddress

if [ -f /home/robinson/file* ]
then
cd /home/robinson
for file in `ls file*`
do
/usr/contrib/bin/gzip -c $file > ${file}.gz
echo "[include ${file}.gz application/octet-stream base64]" > ${file}.gz.uu
elm -s "Subject - $file" $dest < ${file}.gz.uu

rm -f ${file}.gz
rm -f ${file}.gz.uu
mv /home/robinson/file1 /bkup
exit

done
fi

[john korterman]

Hi,
try running your script like this:
# sh -x and post the output.

Btw: do not use "for file" as "file" is also a command.

regards,
John K.

[Biswajit Tripathy]

I would change the script to this:

cd /home/robinson
for file in `ls file*`
do
if [ -s $file ]
then
/usr/contrib/bin/gzip -c $file > ${file}.gz
echo "[include ${file}.gz application/octet-stream base64]" > ${file}.gz.uu
elm -s "Subject - $file" $dest < ${file}.gz.uu
sleep 3
rm -f ${file}.gz
rm -f ${file}.gz.uu
mv /home/robinson/file1 /bkup
exit
fi
done

The "sleep 3" should take care of Clay
Stephenson's suggestion that it might be timing
issue. You could remove it later if that turns out
to be a non-issue.

I'm not sure [ -f /home/robinson/file* ] is a good
idea as -f expects a single file name.

- Biswajit

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I'll stick with my original answer. I assumed the exit statement was a typo for done.

I think the included file is being unlinked before elm can read it. Remember, the include is a directive to read an external file. It's possible that elm has simply queued the mail job at this point but not processed the include statement.

Consider this ananlogous situation:
lp -dmyprinter myfile
rm myfile

It's possible that myfile will never be printed because though the printjob has been scheduled; it hasnt actually starter reading the file. On the other hand:
lp -dmyprinter -c myfile
OR
cat myfile | lp -dmyprinter
rm myfile

will work everytime because the file is either copied or is piped to the lp command before it can be used.

Again, I can't tell from your blank email but it would be a good idea to incluse some text before and after your [include] clause so that it would be very obvious what is happening.