How to send an e-mail with attachment from the command line

 January 3, 2013

Have you ever had to develop a script in UNIX that has to send an email?

If you have, probably you have used the “mail” function since this program is the standard program to send e-mails in UNIX environments if you are using the CLI (Command Line Interface).

The manual for mail reports this as mail usage prototype:

mail -r [sender] -s [subject] receiver-1[,receiver-2,...,receiver-n] > [File with the body]

I think all the parameters are pretty straightforward except the “File with the body” one. This has to be an ASCII file (ie: .txt) with the e-mail body content in the text-only mode.

SCO filed for liquidation

 August 10, 2012

As already mentioned in a previous post, the SCO economic situation is not one of the best ones.

After close to 10 years from SCO litigious policy against all UNIX companies and having already declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they have filled for Chapter 7.

The difference between the Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 is that Chapter 11 is a situation where the management is still confident that the company can survive after restructuring and reorganization. Chapter 11, on the other hand, is filled when the management believes there is no way the company can survive and will therefore initiate the liquidation process.

SCO v. Novell

 June 18, 2010

Back in the 80s, SCO was one of the first companies to sell a UNIX operating system. The history of SCO is a complex one, with many acquisitions, merges, and renames. But, long story short, they affirmed to be the rightful owner of many aspects of UNIX. SCO leveraged this supposed ownership and sued many companies such as AutoZone, DaimlerChrysler, IBM, and Novell to obtain royalties.

The importance of those litigations is given by the fact that if it is true that SCO is the owner of UNIX, this will imply that they are also the owner of Linux or at least some parts of it. The fact that such a litigious company like SCO would be the owner of Linux would be a nightmare with a substantial impact on open source companies and communities to the point that Linux’s future would be in danger.