Name

xdg-email — command line tool for sending mail using the user's preferred e-mail composer

Synopsis

xdg-email [--utf8] [--cc address] [--bcc address] [--subject text] [--body text] [--attach file] [ mailto-uri | address(es) ]

xdg-email { --help | --manual | --version }

Description

xdg-email opens the user's preferred e-mail composer in order to send a mail to address(es) or mailto-uri. RFC2368 defines mailto: URIs. xdg-email limits support to, cc, subject and body fields in mailto-uri, all other fields are silently ignored. address(es) must follow the syntax of RFC822. Multiple addresses may be provided as separate arguments.

All information provided on the command line is used to prefill corresponding fields in the user's e-mail composer. The user will have the opportunity to change any of this information before actually sending the e-mail.

xdg-email is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended to use xdg-email as root.

See http://portland.freedesktop.org/EmailConfig for information on how the user can change the e-mail composer that is used.

Options

--utf8
Indicates that all command line options that follow are in utf8. Without this option, command line options are expected to be encoded according to locale. If the locale already specifies utf8 this option has no effect. This option does not affect mailto URIs that are passed on the command line.
--cc address
Specify a recipient to be copied on the e-mail.
--bcc address
Specify a recipient to be blindly copied on the e-mail.
--subject text
Specify a subject for the e-mail.
--body text
Specify a body for the e-mail. Since the user will be able to make changes before actually sending the e-mail, this can be used to provide the user with a template for the e-mail. text may contain linebreaks.
--attach file

Specify an attachment for the e-mail. file must point to an existing file.

Some e-mail applications require the file to remain present after xdg-email returns.

--help
Show command synopsis.
--manual
Show this manualpage.
--version
Show the xdg-utils version information.

Environment Variables

xdg-email honours the following environment variables:

XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL
Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value makes xdg-email do more verbose reporting on stderr. Setting a higher value increases the verbosity.

Exit Codes

An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

1
Error in command line syntax.
2
One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.
3
A required tool could not be found.
4
The action failed.
5
No permission to read one of the files passed on the command line.

Configuration

Visit http://portland.freedesktop.org/EmailConfig for information how to configure xdg-email to use the email client of your choice.

Examples

xdg-email 'Jeremy White <jwhite@example.com>'


xdg-email --attach /tmp/logo.png \
          --subject 'Logo contest' \
          --body 'Attached you find the logo for the contest.' \
          'jwhite@example.com'


xdg-email --subject 'Your password is about to expire' \
          'jwhite@example.com' 'bastian@example.com' 'whipple@example.com'