Mail::Transport::Mailx(3)

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.

$class->new(%options)
    Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Reporter

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

    executable => $file
    hostname => $host|\@hosts
    interval => $span
    password => $password
    port => $port
    proxy => $path
    retry => $count|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 => $span
    username => $username
    via => CLASS|$name

  Attributes
Extends "Attributes" in Mail::Transport::Send.

  Sending mail
Extends "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send.

$obj->destinations( $message, [$address|\@addresses] )
    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)
    Inherited, see "Sending mail" in Mail::Transport::Send

  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->notImplemented()
    Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

  Cleanup
Extends "Cleanup" in Mail::Transport::Send.

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

DIAGNOSTICS

Error: cannot find binary of mailx.
    Cast by new()

Fault: cannot open pipe to $program: $!
    Cast by trySend()

Error: class $package does not implement method $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. Cast by notImplemented()

Warning: message has no destination.
    It was not possible to figure-out where the message is intended to go to. Cast by destinations()

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. Cast by destinations()

Fault: 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. Cast by trySend()

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Mail-Transport version 4.01, built on December 13, 2025. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/

LICENSE
For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This software is copyright (c) 2001-2025 by Mark Overmeer.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.