mutt - send attachment with specific file

Symbiot78 · 08-29-2016, 04:16 PM

ok, so I'm going out of my mind.

I'm trying to send an email attachment I generate from a find command.
it does indeed send the email with the attachment but the file is empty..

the command is as follows:

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt | mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/file.txt

the above generates the 0 byte email attachment

If I go to /tmp and view the file.txt I see a 4Kb file with contents.

If I create a filed with a few chars.... say fish.txt and use the following:

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt | mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/fish.txt

(yes I know it generates file.txt and I send fish.txt)
then I get content in the attachment...
So I am thinking it must somehow be the file itself.. but I cannot spot the problem...

anyone have any ideas?

Guttorm · 08-30-2016, 08:58 AM

Hi

The | character looks strange. First you send output to a file, then to the mutt command. I think mutt will send the mail before the find command is finished. Try a ; instead.

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt ; mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/file.txt

michaelk · 08-30-2016, 09:13 AM

Don't use the pipe (|). Run it as two separate commands.

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt; mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/file.txt

Or pipe it directly without saving to file.

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" | mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com

It is the file itself. Since > redirects to the file.txt file there is nothing on stdout that gets piped to the mutt command. Since > will erase the existing contents it appears as an empty file.

Another option would be to use the tee command but you don't need to pipe and have an attachment concurrently.

Symbiot78 · 08-30-2016, 12:27 PM

hi guys

thx for this... I got it working..

I used this solution:

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt; mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/file.txt

but I had to do this to automate it completely:

Code:

find /media/2A06DF4A06DF1623/media/limited\ time\ only/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +120 -printf "%f\n" > /tmp/file.txt; mutt -s "to be deleted" myemail@gmail.com -a /tmp/file.txt < /tmp/body.txt

if I omit the < /tmp/body.txt mutt opens it's mailsend options and ask for email recipient, body text etc etc. but adding a dummy body.txt file works