Linux – How to send raw mail message on Linux

I would open the file directly in mutt using this command and just start selecting and deleting messages that are of no consequence to get the size down.

$ mutt -f /path/to/inbox

Example

$ mutt -f /var/spool/mail/[username]

Mutt has the ability to tag messages based on patterns so I'd use this feature and try and select large groupings of messages and then delete them.

References

• Mutt Advanced Usage

First some context: I am using heirloom-mailx version as the one on the following thread: https://serverfault.com/questions/136106/what-package-to-install-for-sending-emails-from-localhost-ubuntu

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial. Tried also on Ubuntu Server 16.04.

In order to send emails I am using the following function for sending mail using mailx (heirloom mailx in bash):

sendmail() {
#Sending Report Email
heirloom-mailx -a $2 -v -s ""$(echo -e "subject 3\nContent-Type: text/html")"" \
-S smtp-use-starttls \
-S ssl-verify=ignore \
-S smtp-auth=login \
-S smtp=smtp://mail.mymailserver:port \
-S from="example@mymailserver.com" \
-S smtp-auth-user=example@mymailserver.com \
-S smtp-auth-password='password' \
-S ssl-verify=ignore \
$1 < body.html
}

Where $2 is the attachment and $1 is the destination. Notes: 1. Files attached are printed inside the body as well but this could be useful to you if you wish just to send an html file with no attachments. 2. Using "-v" option prints verbose so you might get an issue with .mime.types that can be ignored. Remove the option if you don't want verbose on mailx. 3. You will still get the following in the body if you use the "-a" option: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --=-=fFPa7dLqoSF1TGj-YDc2k8bdvmjpix_4sKFT=-= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Disposition: inline

In this case I am attaching a plain text file. Removing "-a $2" from the command and you are all set to print the html message. So the final result would be:

sendmail() {
    #Sending Report Email
    heirloom-mailx -s ""$(echo -e "subject 3\nContent-Type: text/html")"" \
    -S smtp-use-starttls \
    -S ssl-verify=ignore \
    -S smtp-auth=login \
    -S smtp=smtp://mail.mymailserver:port \
    -S from="example@mymailserver.com" \
    -S smtp-auth-user=example@mymailserver.com \
    -S smtp-auth-password='password' \
    -S ssl-verify=ignore \
    $1 < body.html
    }

Try it out and let me know. I have tested on my end and it works.