DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

FASTMAIL(1L)                                                      FASTMAIL(1L)

NAME
       fastmail - quick batch mail interface to a single address

SYNOPSIS
       fastmail [-b bcc-list] [-c cc-list] [-C comments] [-d] [-f fromname]
       [-i msg-id] [-r replyto] [-R references] [-s subject] filename|-
       address-list

DESCRIPTION
       Fastmail is a low-level interface to the mail system that allows batch
       processing of mail.  It's intended for mailing to very large groups of
       people in a staggered fashion.

       The starting options are;

       -b bcc-list
                 This allows a list of people to receive blind-carbon copies,
                 or BCCs, of the message.  This list should be full email
                 addresses.

       -c cc-list
                 This allows a list of people to receive carbon copies, or
                 CCs, of the message.  This list should be full email
                 addresses.

       -C comments
                 This allows a Comments: line to be added to the RFC822 header
                 with any text you desire.

       -d        Debug.  This is helpful for strange, unfriendly errors from
                 the program (etc).

       -f from   This overrides the users name in the From: line, so that if
                 the user was x@y, and their name was MrX then the default
                 From: line would be "From: x@y (MrX)".  Using "-f Joe" when
                 invoking this, though, would change it to "From: x@y (Joe)"

       -i msg-id This allows a message-id to which this message refers.

       -r replyto
                 Occasionally, you might send mail but want the replies to go
                 to a different address (very common with mailing lists).
                 There is a header for this purpose called "Reply-To:" which
                 can be utilized by using this starting option.  For example,
                 we could send mail with a reply-to to list-request by using
                 "-r list-request".  The header generated would then be of the
                 form "Reply-To: list-request".

       -R references
                 This allows descriptive/reference text for this message.

       -s subject
                 The subject of the message is specified by using this
                 starting option.

       Either the name of the file containing the message, or a - to indicate
       usage of standard-in is required.

EXAMPLE
       Let's say we're user "big" on machine "big-vax" and we have a shell
       script called 'batch-mail' that contains the following lines:

          #
          # Batch Mail - batch mailing of a file to a LOT of users
          #
          # Usage: batch-mail "from" "subject" filename

          sender_copy = $LOGIN
          replyto = "The-Mr-Big-list"

          fastmail -b $sender_copy -r $replyto -f "$1" -s "$2" $3 person1
          sleep 10
          fastmail -r $replyto -f "$1" -s "$2" $3 person2
          sleep 10
          fastmail -r $replyto -f "$1" -s "$2" $3 person3
          sleep 10
          fastmail -r $replyto -f "$1" -s "$2" $3 person4

          < etc >

       with the invocation:

          batch-mail "Mr. Big" "Warning to all" warning.text

       would mail a copy of the 'warning.text' file to person1, person2,
       person3, etc.  "$LOGIN" will also receive a copy of the first message
       in the mail, silently.  Each resultant message will include the
       headers:

           From: big-vax!big (Mr. Big)
           Subject: Warning to all
           Reply-To: The-Mr-Big-list

       This program should turn out to be considerably faster than the
       alternative methods of accomplishing this task.

FILES
       /usr/lib/sendmail       sendmail transport if available
       /bin/rmail              transport if no sendmail
       /tmp/fastmail.$$        temporary file

AUTHOR
       Elm Development Group

SEE ALSO
       sendmail(1), rmail(1), elm(1L)

BUG REPORTS TO
       Bill Pemberton  flash@virginia.edu

COPYRIGHTS
       Copyright 1988-1995 by The USENET Community Trust
       Derived from Elm 2.0,  Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor

USENET Community Trust          Elm Version 2.5                   FASTMAIL(1L)