[SOLVED] BASH email script Help

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 09:31 PM

Hi all,

I am sending out Holiday Greeting emails via a script that loops through my aContactList.csv file but have problems.
It is not evaluating the email address in $EMAIL
NOTE: If I handjam the email address it will work, although this defeats the entire purpose of the script.

aContactList.csv:

Bob,Roberts,broberts@someDomain.com
Sam,Fowlers,sfowlers@someDomain.com
Tom,Buttler,tbuttler@someDomain.com

Thank you.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

INPUT="aContactList.csv"
OLDIFS=$IFS
IFS=","
[ ! -f $INPUT ] && { echo "$INPUT file not found"; exit 99; }

while read FIRSTNAME LASTNAME EMAIL; do
clear
SUBJECT="Holidays"
EM1=" Dear $FIRSTNAME $LASTNAME, \n\n"
EM2="Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\n"
EM3="From Me. \n\n"

EMAILMESSAGE=$"$EM1$EM2$EM3 Sent To: $EMAIL"

echo -e "$EMAILMESSAGE"
#Here is where the problem lies.
echo -e "$EMAILMESSAGE" |mailx -s "$SUBJECT" "$EMAIL"
sleep 2

done < $INPUT
IFS=$OLDIFS
exit 0

custangro · 12-10-2011, 09:40 PM

I would do something like this (maybe you'll get some ideas...)

Code:

#!/bin/ksh -fuh
cat file.csv | while IFS=',' read fname lname email
do
mailx -s "Subject" ${email} <<-EOF

Dear ${fname} ${lname}

Some Lame Text

Love,

me

EOF
done
#
#

Dark_Helmet · 12-10-2011, 09:47 PM

As far as I can tell, the script works as-is, but your problem may rest in how you reference your variables. I switched it around to use curly braces whenever substituting variables, and it worked "out of the box:"

Code:

#!/bin/bash

INPUT="aContactList.csv"
OLDIFS=${IFS}

IFS=","
[ ! -f ${INPUT} ] && { echo "${INPUT} file not found"; exit 99; }

while read FIRSTNAME LASTNAME EMAIL; do
  clear
  SUBJECT="Holidays"
  EM1=" Dear ${FIRSTNAME} ${LASTNAME}, \n\n"
  EM2="Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\n"
  EM3="From Me. \n\n"

  EMAILMESSAGE=$"${EM1}${EM2}${EM3} Sent To: ${EMAIL}"

  echo -e "${EMAILMESSAGE}"

  #Ok, so I lied... I didn't want to actually send anything. So I did not execute mailx, though I echo'd the command

  #Here is where the problem lies.
  echo "echo -e \"${EMAILMESSAGE}\" | mailx -s \"${SUBJECT}\" \"${EMAIL}\""
  sleep 2

done < ${INPUT}
IFS=${OLDIFS}
exit 0

If you don't use the curly braces, you run the risk of an ambiguous reference.

EDIT:
Oh, and, given the clear command used, all I can show is the last name of my output run:

Code:

 Dear Tom Buttler, 

Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! 

From Me. 

 Sent To: tbuttler@someDomain.com
echo -e " Dear Tom Buttler, \n\nSeasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\nFrom Me. \n\n Sent To: tbuttler@someDomain.com" | mailx -s "Holidays" "tbuttler@someDomain.com"

EDIT2:
And speaking of ambiguous references, you do have one. You have two variables: EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE. When you use "$EMAILMESSAGE" in your code, bash might interpret that as "the contents of the EMAIL variable followed by a literal 'MESSAGE'" (e.g. "tbuttler@someDomain.comMESSAGE")

I'm not saying that's the cause of your problem, but it's something to avoid.

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 10:43 PM

Dark_Helmet,

Thanks for the advices on the ambiguous references to variables and curly braces, also I have changed

Code:

$EMAILMESSAGE to $MYMESSAGE

I still have the problem of the script not evaluating the $EMAIL variable.

The only line that is not functioning is:

Code:

echo "echo -e \"${MYMESSAGE}\" | mailx -s \"${SUBJECT}\" \"${EMAIL}\""

To test I replaced $EMAIL with a real email address and it works.

Code:

echo -e "${MYMESSAGE}" | mailx -s "${SUBJECT}" "someAddress@domain.com"

Any ideas?

Thanks
------------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark_Helmet

As far as I can tell, the script works as-is, but your problem may rest in how you reference your variables. I switched it around to use curly braces whenever substituting variables, and it worked "out of the box:"

Code:

#!/bin/bash

INPUT="aContactList.csv"
OLDIFS=${IFS}

IFS=","
[ ! -f ${INPUT} ] && { echo "${INPUT} file not found"; exit 99; }

while read FIRSTNAME LASTNAME EMAIL; do
  clear
  SUBJECT="Holidays"
  EM1=" Dear ${FIRSTNAME} ${LASTNAME}, \n\n"
  EM2="Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\n"
  EM3="From Me. \n\n"

  EMAILMESSAGE=$"${EM1}${EM2}${EM3} Sent To: ${EMAIL}"

  echo -e "${EMAILMESSAGE}"

  #Ok, so I lied... I didn't want to actually send anything. So I did not execute mailx, though I echo'd the command

  #Here is where the problem lies.
  echo "echo -e \"${EMAILMESSAGE}\" | mailx -s \"${SUBJECT}\" \"${EMAIL}\""
  sleep 2

done < ${INPUT}
IFS=${OLDIFS}
exit 0

If you don't use the curly braces, you run the risk of an ambiguous reference.

EDIT:
Oh, and, given the clear command used, all I can show is the last name of my output run:

Code:

 Dear Tom Buttler, 

Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! 

From Me. 

 Sent To: tbuttler@someDomain.com
echo -e " Dear Tom Buttler, \n\nSeasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\nFrom Me. \n\n Sent To: tbuttler@someDomain.com" | mailx -s "Holidays" "tbuttler@someDomain.com"

EDIT2:
And speaking of ambiguous references, you do have one. You have two variables: EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE. When you use "$EMAILMESSAGE" in your code, bash might interpret that as "the contents of the EMAIL variable followed by a literal 'MESSAGE'" (e.g. "tbuttler@someDomain.comMESSAGE")

I'm not saying that's the cause of your problem, but it's something to avoid.

Dark_Helmet · 12-10-2011, 10:49 PM

If you could, please post your script again as-is.

In the meantime, just to compare, here's the version of bash that I'm running:

Code:

user@localhost ~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.1.5(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

I seriously doubt there's a version problem, but might as well check.

catkin · 12-10-2011, 10:50 PM

The original code works perfectly for me, regards getting the email addresses:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

INPUT="aContactList.csv"
OLDIFS=$IFS
IFS=","
[ ! -f $INPUT ] && { echo "$INPUT file not found"; exit 99; }

while read FIRSTNAME LASTNAME EMAIL; do
    echo "DEBUG: EMAIL: '$EMAIL'"
done < $INPUT

Output:

Code:

DEBUG: EMAIL: 'broberts@someDomain.com'
DEBUG: EMAIL: 'sfowlers@someDomain.com'
DEBUG: EMAIL: 'tbuttler@someDomain.com'

catkin · 12-10-2011, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark_Helmet

If you don't use the curly braces, you run the risk of an ambiguous reference.

And speaking of ambiguous references, you do have one. You have two variables: EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE. When you use "$EMAILMESSAGE" in your code, bash might interpret that as "the contents of the EMAIL variable followed by a literal 'MESSAGE'" (e.g. "tbuttler@someDomain.comMESSAGE")

Curly braces -- { and } -- are not required except when the immediately following character could be part of the variable name.

For bash EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE are distinct names.

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 10:59 PM

My version:

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.2.8(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark_Helmet

If you could, please post your script again as-is.

In the meantime, just to compare, here's the version of bash that I'm running:

Code:

user@localhost ~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.1.5(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

I seriously doubt there's a version problem, but might as well check.

custangro · 12-10-2011, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

Curly braces -- { and } -- are not required except when the immediately following character could be part of the variable name.

For bash EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE are distinct names.

It would be useful if you post the output of...

Code:

bash -x ./send_email_script.sh

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 11:07 PM

I am using Ububtu 11.04 - 2.6.38-11-generic x86_64

$ mail --version
mail (GNU Mailutils 2.1)

Quote:

Originally Posted by custangro

It would be useful if you post the output of...

Code:

bash -x ./send_email_script.sh

Dark_Helmet · 12-10-2011, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

Curly braces -- { and } -- are not required except when the immediately following character could be part of the variable name.

For bash EMAIL and EMAILMESSAGE are distinct names.

I'll take your word on that because I haven't dug that deeply into the bash man page re: parameter substitution. That said, it's my personal opinion that it's better practice to always use curly braces. I would rather use the curly braces than get in the habit of relying on the default behavior of the shell--because future releases may have a different idea of what default behavior should be.

Good scripting practice discussion aside, cia_gov, it would still help if you could post the output of the command custangro provided and/or the exact text of the script you're running now... just so that everyone is on the same page.

EDIT:
And just to be explicit, the command custangro gave, when executed as expected, will dump the script commands followed by their evaluation one-by-one to the terminal.

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 11:23 PM

Repost the code as is.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

INPUT="aContactList.csv"
OLDIFS=${IFS}
IFS=","
[ ! -f ${INPUT} ] && { echo "${INPUT} file not found"; exit 99; }

while read FIRSTNAME LASTNAME EMAIL; do
clear
SUBJECT="Holidays"
EM1=" Dear ${FIRSTNAME} ${LASTNAME}, \n\n"
EM2="Seasons Greetings & Happy Holidays to you all! \n\n"
EM3="From Me. \n\n"

MYMESSAGE=$"${EM1}${EM2}${EM3} Sent To: ${EMAIL}"

echo -e "${MYMESSAGE}"
#Here is where the problem lies.
echo -e "${MYMESSAGE}" |mailx -s "${SUBJECT}" "${EMAIL}"
sleep 2

done < ${INPUT}
IFS=${OLDIFS}
exit 0

-----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark_Helmet

If you could, please post your script again as-is.

In the meantime, just to compare, here's the version of bash that I'm running:

Code:

user@localhost ~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.1.5(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

I seriously doubt there's a version problem, but might as well check.

cia_gov · 12-10-2011, 11:26 PM

Here is the output.

Code:

$ bash -x ./send_email_script.sh
bash: ./send_email_script.sh: No such file or directory

Quote:

Originally Posted by custangro

It would be useful if you post the output of...

Code:

bash -x ./send_email_script.sh

catkin · 12-10-2011, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cia_gov

Here is the output.

Code:

$ bash -x ./send_email_script.sh
bash: ./send_email_script.sh: No such file or directory

Replace ./send_email_script.sh with whatever is necessary for bash to run your script.

Dark_Helmet · 12-10-2011, 11:30 PM

Replace "./send_email_script.sh" with the path and filename to the script you've written and saved.