Mail::Transport::Mailx

Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (3)
Updated: 2021-01-27
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NAME

Mail::Transport::Mailx - transmit messages using external mailx program

INHERITANCE

 Mail::Transport::Mailx
   is a Mail::Transport::Send
   is a Mail::Transport
   is a Mail::Reporter

SYNOPSIS

 my $sender = Mail::Transport::Mailx->new(...);
 $sender->send($message);

DESCRIPTION

Implements mail transport using the external programs 'mailx', "Mail", or 'mail'. When instantiated, the mailer will look for any of these binaries in specific system directories, and the first program found is taken.

WARNING: There are many security issues with mail and mailx. DO NOT USE these commands to send messages which contains data derived from any external source!!!

Under Linux, freebsd, and bsdos the "mail", "Mail", and "mailx" names are just links to the same binary. The implementation is very primitive, pre-MIME standard, what may cause many headers to be lost. For these platforms (and probably for other platforms as well), you can better not use this transport mechanism.

Extends ``DESCRIPTION'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

METHODS

Extends ``METHODS'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

Constructors

Extends ``Constructors'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

Mail::Transport::Mailx->new(%options)

 -Option    --Defined in     --Default
  executable  Mail::Transport  undef
  hostname    Mail::Transport  'localhost'
  interval    Mail::Transport  30
  log         Mail::Reporter   'WARNINGS'
  password    Mail::Transport  undef
  port        Mail::Transport  undef
  proxy       Mail::Transport  undef
  retry       Mail::Transport  <false>
  style                        <autodetect>
  timeout     Mail::Transport  120
  trace       Mail::Reporter   'WARNINGS'
  username    Mail::Transport  undef
  via         Mail::Transport  'mailx'

executable => FILENAME
hostname => HOSTNAME|ARRAY
interval => SECONDS
log => LEVEL
password => STRING
port => INTEGER
proxy => PATH
retry => NUMBER|undef
style => 'BSD'|'RFC822': There are two version of the "mail" program. The newest accepts RFC822 messages, and automagically collect information about where the message is to be send to. The BSD style mail command predates MIME, and expects lines which start with a '~' (tilde) to specify destinations and such. This field is autodetect, however on some platforms both versions of "mail" can live (like various Linux distributions).
timeout => SECONDS
trace => LEVEL
username => STRING
via => CLASS|NAME

Sending mail

Extends ``Sending mail'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

$obj->destinations( $message, [$address|ARRAY] ): Inherited, see ``Sending mail'' in Mail::Transport::Send
$obj->putContent($message, $fh, %options): Inherited, see ``Sending mail'' in Mail::Transport::Send
$obj->send($message, %options): Inherited, see ``Sending mail'' in Mail::Transport::Send
$obj->trySend($message, %options)

Server connection

Extends ``Server connection'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

$obj->findBinary( $name, [@directories] ): Inherited, see ``Server connection'' in Mail::Transport
$obj->remoteHost(): Inherited, see ``Server connection'' in Mail::Transport
$obj->retry(): Inherited, see ``Server connection'' in Mail::Transport

Error handling

Extends ``Error handling'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

$obj->AUTOLOAD(): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->addReport($object): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->defaultTrace( [$level]|[$loglevel, $tracelevel]|[$level, $callback] )
Mail::Transport::Mailx->defaultTrace( [$level]|[$loglevel, $tracelevel]|[$level, $callback] ): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->errors(): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->log( [$level, [$strings]] )
Mail::Transport::Mailx->log( [$level, [$strings]] ): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->logPriority($level)
Mail::Transport::Mailx->logPriority($level): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->logSettings(): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->notImplemented(): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->report( [$level] ): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->reportAll( [$level] ): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->trace( [$level] ): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter
$obj->warnings(): Inherited, see ``Error handling'' in Mail::Reporter

Cleanup

Extends ``Cleanup'' in Mail::Transport::Send.

$obj->DESTROY(): Inherited, see ``Cleanup'' in Mail::Reporter

DIAGNOSTICS

Warning: Message has no destination

It was not possible to figure-out where the message is intended to go to.

Error: Package $package does not implement $method.

Fatal error: the specific package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package.

Warning: Resent group does not specify a destination

The message which is sent is the result of a bounce (for instance created with Mail::Message::bounce()), and therefore starts with a "Received" header field. With the "bounce", the new destination(s) of the message are given, which should be included as "Resent-To", "Resent-Cc", and "Resent-Bcc".

The "To", "Cc", and "Bcc" header information is only used if no "Received" was found. That seems to be the best explanation of the RFC.

As alternative, you may also specify the "to" option to some of the senders (for instance Mail::Transport::SMTP::send(to) to overrule any information found in the message itself about the destination.

Error: Sending via mailx mailer $program failed: $! ($?)

Mailx (in some shape: there are many different implementations) did start accepting messages, but did not succeed sending it.

LICENSE

Copyrights 2001-2020 by [Mark Overmeer]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/