0

enter code hereI have text file which contains the following:

#MailTo ESC BCC ESC Subject ESC Message Body 
user1@example.com|||user1@xyz.com|||Subject1|||Message Body1
user2@example.com|||user2@xyz.com|||Subject2 |||Message Body2
user3@example.com|||user3@xyz.com|||Subject3|||Message Body3
user4@example.com|||user4@xyz.com|||Subject4|||Message Body4
user5@example.com|||user5@xyz.com|||Subject5|||Message Body5
user6@example.com|||user6@xyz.com|||Subject6|||Message Body6
user7@example.com|||user7@xyz.com|||Subject7|||Message Body7
usern@example.com|||usern@xyz.com|||Subjectn|||Message Bodyn

Please note that I am using "ESC" pattern as a delimiter between the fields ( I don't use ";" as a delimiter to avoid any conflicts in the Message body if ";" exists in the message body) so i think i can't parse it as a csv file.

please advice, how to create a bash script to parse this file to send emails to different users with different subject, and different message body, please?

Here is my suggested solution for my question (I replaced "ESC" word with "|||" as a delimiter):

#!/bin/bash

# Functions
function is_valid_email
{
  pattern='^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]\+@[a-zA-Z0-9]\+\.[a-z]\{2,\}'
  echo "$1" | grep "$pattern" > /dev/null
}


# read file line by line

COUNTER=0
while read -r line
do

  # check if we are one the first line or not which contains heading
  if [ ! $COUNTER -eq 0 ]; then
    # we are not in the first line so we may continue

    # extract variables from the line
    TO=$(echo $line | awk -F '\\|\\|\\|' '{print $3}');
    CC=$(echo $line | awk -F '\\|\\|\\|' '{print $4}');
    BCC=$(echo $line | awk -F '\\|\\|\\|' '{print $5}');
    SUBJECT=$(echo $line | awk -F '\\|\\|\\|' '{print $6}');
    BODY=$(echo $line | awk -F '\\|\\|\\|' '{print $7}');

    COMMAND="echo \"$BODY\" | mail -s \"$SUBJECT\" "

        # check if CC is a valid email
    is_valid_email "$CC"
    if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then
      echo "TODO: handle invliad cc email ($CC)"
    else
      COMMAND_CC=" -c \"$CC\""
      COMMAND=$COMMAND$COMMAND_CC
    fi

    # check if BCC is a valid email
    is_valid_email "$BCC"
    if [ $? != 0 ]; then
      echo "TODO: handle invliad bcc email ($BCC)"
    else
      COMMAND_BCC=" -b \"$BCC\""
      COMMAND=$COMMAND$COMMAND_BCC
    fi

    # check if TO is a valid email
    is_valid_email "$TO"
    if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then
      echo "TODO: handle invliad to email ($TO)"
    else
      COMMAND_TO=" \"$TO\""
      COMMAND=$COMMAND$COMMAND_TO
    fi

    eval $COMMAND


  else
    # we are on the first line so increase the counter and continue
    COUNTER=$((COUNTER+1))
  fi

done < test_file
Mostafa Yasin
  • 1
  • 1
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8260858/how-to-send-email-from-terminal – ntj Nov 27 '17 at 16:28
  • Thanks for your reply but my question is different. – Mostafa Yasin Nov 27 '17 at 16:59
  • @tripleee: This question is NOT an exact duplicate of an existing question. – Pierre François Nov 27 '17 at 20:12
  • @Mostafa Yasin: using ";" as field separator it is not a problem when you have extra ";" only in the last field. It should only be a problem when you have ";" in the subject. – Pierre François Nov 27 '17 at 20:15
  • If this is not a duplicate then it's too broad. Maybe the OP could [edit] the question to show how they already solved those two problems and explain what problem still remains...? – tripleee Nov 27 '17 at 20:28
  • @tripleee: And if I have a solution, where do I post that? – Pierre François Nov 27 '17 at 20:42
  • Then you can raise this on [meta] and explain how your answer contains novel parts which are not covered in the duplicates but isn't suitable as an answer on either of them; or realize that you spent time on a "gimmeh codez" question which was going to be closed anyway. Maybe review the close reasons in the [help] if they are unfamiliar. – tripleee Nov 28 '17 at 04:37
  • FWIW, in case it's not obvious, `IFS=$'\x1b'` – tripleee Nov 28 '17 at 04:40
  • @tripleee: I put "ESC" as a pattern (normal word) i.e it is not something like space of tab. – Mostafa Yasin Nov 28 '17 at 05:17
  • That's https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40686922/howto-split-a-string-on-a-multi-character-delimiter-in-bash but if you can use a single-character delimiter (perhaps a nonprinting control character, though tab is also popular) that would probably simplify things. – tripleee Nov 28 '17 at 05:22
  • Here is my suggested solution for my question (I replaced "ESC" word with "|||" as a delimiter): – Mostafa Yasin Nov 29 '17 at 05:02

0 Answers0