# uuencode making me nuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [October 19, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217 "2012-10-19T01:32:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/1 "2012-10-19T01:32:30Z")
So I’ve been working on this ksh script to attach a pdf file to an email using uuencode. Works absolutely brilliant until I put the the script inside a ‘while true do’ at which point it wants to attach the pdf as a zero byte .bin file. WTH? If I remove the while true and just run it against files in /export/share/pdf all is well. Anyone? ` #!/bin/ksh while true do for name in $(ls /export/share/pdf/ | awk ‘BEGIN {FS = “-”} {print $1}’) do for sendThis in $(ls /export/share/pdf/ | head -n 1) do case $name in “root”) uuencode /export/share/pdf/$sendThis report.pdf | mailx -s “Report from User1” [someone@somewhere.com](mailto:someone@somewhere.com);; “steveo”) uuencode /export/share/pdf/$sendThis report.pdf | mailx -s “Report from User2” [someone@somewhere.com](mailto:someone@somewhere.com);; esac rm /export/share/pdf/$sendThis done done done ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/2 "2012-10-19T01:43:34Z")
Guess I should mention it works brilliantly as well run from cron. However I was hoping to have it run as a background process for snappier response time rather than polling. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/3 "2012-10-19T01:55:48Z")
I thought perhaps there was a problem with what is getting assigned to $sendThis. If there is a file in the directory /export/share/pdf when it is run, the file is sent, and it is correct but each subsequent submission gets a zero byte file. There are no errors generated and the script keeps on running. If I put in an echo $sendThis just before the uuencode line it shows the correct filename. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/4 "2012-10-19T02:00:58Z")
LOL. Think I found the problem. I had a window open to the directory with KDE Dolphin which was creating a .directory file when a new file was created which made head -n 1 incorrect. LOL…oh man. Glad that’s over. LOL. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/5 "2012-10-19T02:05:08Z")
> LOL. Think I found the problem.[color=blue] > I had a window open to the directory with KDE Dolphin > which was creating a .directory file when a new file was created which > made > head -n 1 incorrect. LOL…oh man. Glad that’s over. LOL.[/color] Sadly that didn’t correct it. 😕 Oh well, tired of looking at it today. Pick it up again tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/6 "2012-10-19T02:15:44Z")
GofBorg wrote: [color=blue] > Sadly that didn’t correct it. 😕 > Oh well, tired of looking at it today. Pick it up again tomorrow.[/color] Ever get the feeling you’re talking to yourself? – Does this washcloth smell like chloroform? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/7 "2012-10-19T18:32:44Z")
> Ever get the feeling you’re talking to yourself?[color=blue] > [/color] > Often. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/8 "2012-10-19T19:16:14Z")
On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 23:05:08 GMT GofBorg [GofBorg@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org](mailto:GofBorg@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org) wrote: [color=blue][color=green] > > LOL. Think I found the problem. > > I had a window open to the directory with KDE Dolphin > > which was creating a .directory file when a new file was created > > which made > > head -n 1 incorrect. LOL…oh man. Glad that’s over. LOL.[/color] > > Sadly that didn’t correct it. 😕 > Oh well, tired of looking at it today. Pick it up again tomorrow. > > [/color] > Hi > Is there a trigger for the file to be generated that can be polled? You > could use something like SEC (simple event correlater) or perhaps a > udev rule? – Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86\_64) Kernel 3.4.11-2.16-desktop up 15:08, 4 users, load average: 0.07, 0.07, 0.12 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/9 "2012-10-19T20:32:32Z")
There is something terribly wrong with something. I have now tried 3 different methods for attaching and sending the attachment. All of them work until you put them in a simple while statement. Doesn’t matter if I use MUTT, Metasend, uuencod, mmencode. I get the email with a zero byte attachment. If run outside of a ‘while loop’ OR if there is a file already in the directory when the script is launched, the attachment is normal. Here is the latest pared down bone simple script. sendThis will echo the correct filename. #!/bin/ksh while true do for sendThis in $(ls /export/share/pdf/ | head -n 1) do echo $sendThis metasend -b -t [someone@somewhere.com](mailto:someone@somewhere.com) -s “Report for Someone” -m application/pdf -f /export/share/pdf/$sendThis rm /export/share/pdf/$sendThis done done ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/10 "2012-10-19T20:40:12Z")
I think I have it finally working with mutt. #!/bin/ksh while true do for sendThis in $(ls /export/share/pdf/ | head -n 1) do echo $sendThis echo | mutt -a /export/share/pdf/$sendThis – [someone@somewhere.com](mailto:someone@somewhere.com) rm /export/share/pdf/$sendThis done done ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/11 "2012-10-19T20:42:56Z")
On Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:32:32 GMT GofBorg [GofBorg@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org](mailto:GofBorg@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org) wrote: [color=blue] > There is something terribly wrong with something. > I have now tried 3 different methods for attaching and sending > the attachment. All of them work until you put them in a simple while > statement. Doesn’t matter if I use MUTT, Metasend, uuencod, mmencode. > I get the email with a zero byte attachment. If run outside of a > ‘while loop’ OR if there is a file already in the directory when the > script is launched, the attachment is normal. > > Here is the latest pared down bone simple script. sendThis will echo > the correct filename. > > #!/bin/ksh > while true > do > for sendThis in $(ls /export/share/pdf/ | head -n 1) > do > echo $sendThis > metasend -b -t [someone@somewhere.com](mailto:someone@somewhere.com) -s “Report for > Someone” -m application/pdf -f /export/share/pdf/$sendThis > rm /export/share/pdf/$sendThis > done > done > [/color] > Hi > This is what I use in my backup scripts; ```auto /usr/bin/tr -d '\\015' < $FILENAME | /usr/bin/mailx -s "$X backup via RSYNC to USB Disk" malcolml@localhost \\ ``` Where $FILENAME is what I’m sending. – Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86\_64) Kernel 3.4.11-2.16-desktop up 16:34, 4 users, load average: 0.13, 0.12, 0.08 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/uuencode-making-me-nuts/23217/12 "2012-10-19T20:51:36Z")
Thanks for the assist Malcolm but think I have it sorted. See above post. You missed the excitement this morning though when I flooded my mailbox with 3,200 messages…yah, got my loop a bit wrong when I left out the rm statement. 🙂