POST - send a message that is already formatted.

The POST Command

Syntax:

          POST filename [+Privileged] [+MUTE]

Example:

          post cat/file

Description:

The POST command sends a pre-formatted message to one or more users. The command is primarily intended for sending out mail messages that have been generated by programs. For human users, we recommend the command

          to user subject="text" <file

to send a message from a file. This form obtains the body of the message from the given file, but generates important header lines automatically. Thus it is not as prone to error (if you make a typo when entering one of the header lines).

In order to use POST, you must first store a pre-formatted message in a file. The first line of the file must have the form

          To: name,name,name,...

This may be followed by lines of the form

          Cc: name,name,name,...
          Bcc: name,name,name ...
          Subject: subject ...

In all of the above lines, the letters of To:, Cc:, Bcc: and Subject: may be uppercase, lowercase, or a mixture of cases. In an address list, names must be separated by commas.

The header lines may also contain

          Sender: text

If the given text matches the format of the Sender: line MAIL8 usually produces, MAIL8 uses this sender line. Otherwise, MAIL8 encloses the given text in double quotes and adds <userid@site> to the end of the quoted text. If you do not supply a Sender: header line, MAIL8 creates one in the normal format.

The header lines may also contain

          Organization: text

Anything can be used for the given text. If you do not supply an Organization: line explicitly, POST generates one by consulting your Option Organization=.

You may attach files to a POSTed letter using a header line of the form

          X-file: filename filename filename ...

The specified files are attached in the same way that files are attached using the Filename= option of the To command. Note that the file names are separated by spaces; you may put commas after the file names, but the commas must be followed by spaces.

To make a POSTed letter confidential, add a header line of the form

          Sensitivity: 1

To make a POSTed letter registered, add a header line of the form

          X-registered: 1

A line of the form

          X-registered: 0

sends an unregistered message even if you have set Option +Register_All).

The POST command also recognizes the header lines

          Comment:
          In-Reply-To:
          References:
          Keywords:

These have no effect on what POST does with the message, but they are kept intact as part of the header. If you specify the +Privileged option, MAIL8 also retains the twelve RFC822-style fields specified by the RFC987 document, section 5.2. (RFC822 and RFC987 are standards documents prescribing the behavior of electronic mail systems.)

If MAIL8 encounters a header line with an incorrect format or an unknown keyword, MAIL8 simply discards the line without any diagnostic.

After all the header lines, there must be a blank line. After this comes the text of the message. The text of the message extends to the end of the file. You do not need a "." followed by RETURN to mark the end of the message. MAIL8 sends the message to the users named on the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines.

The +MUTE option sends the message without displaying any information messages. You will not see the usual "Message sent to user" message, nor will you see any advisory messages set up by recipients. Error messages are still displayed. You may wish to use +MUTE to reduce the amount of output sent to your screen or to a command file. If you want to determine whether a +MUTE message was sent successfully, use Summary +Outbound.