formatted_mail.pl

Description

Formatted_mail.pl is a HFPM module that instantiates (fills in) a file with field values and environmental variable values and mails the result to some given e-mail addresses.

Usage

formatted_mail.pl formatfile {recipient} in the pipeline.

Usage Explanation

This module e-mails a formatted message to a number of e-mail addresses specified on the pipeline as arguments. If no recipients are given as arguments, then the field "_mailto" is interpreted as a whitespace-separated list of e-mail recipients. If "no one" is the first (or only) recipient, then no mail is sent.

The file indicated as the first argument on the pipeline is instantiated with field values and environmental variable values as in variable encoded format. The result is then mailed to the e-mail addresses. Note that the header of the e-mail message can also be specified in the file.

If the formatfile can't be found, the value of field "_comment_dir" is used as the base directory for the formatfile if that field is defined.

Examples

"formatted_mail.pl /usr/www/comments/mailformat you@there" on the pipeline: Instantiates "/usr/www/comments/mailformat" and e-mails it to you@there.
"formatted_mail.pl mailformat" on the pipeline, "you@there me@here" in the field "_mailto" and "/usr/web/comments" in the field "_comment_dir": Instantiates "/usr/web/comments/mailformat" (unless a file "mailformat" is found in the current directory) and mail it to you@there and me@here.

Other Notes

The current version number is 1.0.

This module is not 8-bit character clean; character 255 may be clobbered.

The is module should work on any Unix machine with sendmail.

This module can be used more than once in the pipeline.