format for manually constructing outgoing email text file

[Jason Dixon]

On Jun 9, 2004, at 7:34 PM, Chris W. Parker wrote:

> Jason Dixon <mailto:jason at dixongroup.net>
>     on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 4:11 PM said:
>
>> You've just reiterated the point everyone has already made... dump it
>> to your MTA and allow it to handle the spooling and delivery.
>
> but what exactly does it mean to "dump it to your MTA and allow it to
> handle the spooling and delivery"??
>
> but *that's* what i'm asking about. i already know i need to give it to
> the MTA (hence my original query) but i just don't know *how*. do i  
> make
> files and put them in a directory? and if i do need to make files what
> is the format for an outgoing email or where can i read about the
> format? OR do i use the commandline to individually send each email?
> etc.

You've gravitated into questions specific to your programming task  
(which aren't kosher for this list).  I don't know any php, so I won't  
be a lick of help.  But, hopefully I can get you started in the right  
direction.  First, the php Mail functions chapter:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.mail.php

The RFC draft on SMTP pipelining:
http://public.research.mimesweeper.com/Standards/IETF/Draft/draft- 
freed-smtp-pipeline-02.txt

And a brief explanation of how pipelining is supposed to work:

"[T]he SMTP service whereby a server can indicate the extent of its  
ability to accept multiple commands in a single TCP send operation.  
Using a single TCP send operation for multiple commands can improve  
SMTP performance significantly."

In short, rely on your programming language's interface to the mail  
subsystem.  If you have special needs (like pipelining), then use the  
extended interface available which supports those advanced features.  I  
can't tell you where to find the answer, but I hope you can find it  
given this information.  And one last thing, a way of telling if your  
MTA supports pipelining:

bash-2.05b# telnet localhost 25
Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.dixongroup.net ESMTP Postfix
EHLO localhost
250-mail.dixongroup.net
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-VRFY
250-ETRN
250-STARTTLS
250-XVERP
250 8BITMIME

Notice the 250-PIPELINING?  :)

--
Jason Dixon, RHCE
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net