Computer Science
splitmail(1) splitmail(1)
NAME
splitmail - Split a large mail message into MIME-compliant
partial messages
SYNOPSIS
splitmail [-d] [-v] [-s splitsize] [-p prefix] [-i id-
suffix] [file-name]
DESCRIPTION
The splitmail program will take an email message and break
it up into smaller pieces using the "message/partial" type
defined by MIME, the proposed Internet standard for multi-
media mail formats.
By default it will take the message either from standard
input or the named file, and will produce a set of partial
message files with names like "/tmp/split.1" for the first
part, and so on. The prefix "/tmp/split." can be overrid-
den using the "-p" option.
If the -d option is specified, the mail will actually be
delivered. If -v is specified, the verbose flag will be
passed to sendmail.
The -i option can be used to make splitmail generate the
pieces with similar (but not identical) message-id fields,
in a format which allows them to be easily correlated with
one another and which end with the suffix provided on the
command line after -i.
The default chunk size for spliting messages is 250000 at
most sites, though this is also a compile-time option.
This can be overriden with the -s switch, or with the
environment variable SPLITSIZE.
Messages smaller than the chunk size will not be turned
into partial messages, but will be written to a single
file or delivered as a single message.
ENVIRONMENT
SPLITSIZE overrides the default chunk size. Setting
SPLITSIZE to, say, 4000000 will effectively ensure that
your messages are unlikely ever to be split, but it may
cause them to be rejected by some mail transport software.
SEE ALSO
mailto(1), metamail(1)
BUGS
If the size of the input is just on the fencepost, and if
it is coming from a file rather than standard input,
splitmail will sometimes estimate the number of parts
wrong and will have to write out an extra part. This is
harmless but annoying. It is especially annoying if the
estimate was 2 but the real number was 1.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1992 Bell Communications Research, Inc.
(Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this mate-
rial for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice and this permis-
sion notice appear in all copies, and that the name of
Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity pertain-
ing to this material without the specific, prior written
permission of an authorized representative of Bellcore.
BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR
SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PRO-
VIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
AUTHOR
Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bellcore
Release 1 1
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