there is an attachment, but it is almost empty, unreadable file

If you look at the raw mail message, does it look like you would expect?

$smtp->datasend("Content-type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=\"frontier\"\n");
[download]

Is that line wrap after multipart/mixed; just an artifact of cut-n-pasting, or is that in your actual code like this? (hint: the Content-type header should be one line)

___

(BTW, if you closed your code tags like this </code>, you wouldn't have the problem with [$_] being turned into links... :)

Email really only deals with the ASCII charset. As a result anything outside of this charset really needs to be base 64 encoded. You are already torturing the mailserver by sending non ascii chars in the body (ie e acute). It may be your CSV contains non ASCII chars and this is causing the mail server to barf.

However, the problem is probably this:

$smtp->datasend("Content-type: multipart/mixed; 
boundary=\"frontier\"\n");

# needs to be all on one line or like this:

$smtp->datasend("Content-type: multipart/mixed; 
    boundary=\"frontier\"\n");
[download]

The whitespace before boundary indicates that is the line continuation (it is), but in your code you send it as a header line (it isn't). It does not really explain your symptoms as described, but is wrong and should fail.

As you seem hell bent on rolling your own solution I suggest you base64 encode your CSV and send it as binary. You can just cut and paste the < 30 lines of code from MIME::Base64 encode routine to do this. BTW I would not use just "frontier" as your multipart boundary. "==frontier==", which will become "--==frontier==" would seem a far more improbable boundary.

You can make your code a lot more readable if you use a HEREDOC.

my $body   = ....
my $attach = ....  # base 64 encoded data
my $a_name = .....

my $email =<<EMAIL;
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="==frontier=="

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--==frontier==
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: text/plain

$body
--==frontier==
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="$a_name"

$attach
--==frontier==--
EMAIL

$smtp->datasend($email)
$smtp->dataend()
$smtp->quit;
[download]

Found the problems.

Replace lines :
$smtp->datasend("--frontier\n");
with
$smtp->datasend("\n--frontier\n");

Swap the 2 following lines :
$smtp->datasend("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$csvfile\"\n");
$smtp->datasend("Content-Type: application/text; name= $csvfile ");

And finally, replace
$smtp->datasend("Content-Type: application/text; name= $csvfile ");
with
$smtp->datasend("Content-Type: application/text; name=\"$csvfile\"\n");

@ almut : the line you mentionned appeared on 2 lines when copy/pasting, it normally appears on one line. And I formot to close the <code> tags at the end. I'll get them right next time :)

@ tachyon-II : I'm still not 100% comfortable with all the ins and outs of Perl, coming from a ASM/C/C++/Java background. So I'll have to look into the HERECDOC stuff soon. thanks for the heads-up.

You can edit your node and have it right this time. When you do you ought add: "Update: fixed code tags" to your node so later visitors are not confused by almut's reply.

---

Perl is environmentally friendly - it saves trees

I think I made the corrections correctly. Going to give this a try in one of my programs so I thoguht I would pass it along to anyone else who stumbles across it. Thanks for the update Mad Ant!

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use DBI;
use Net::SMTP;
use utf8;

my @addr_to_send = qw/anton.harris@beirtelecom.com/;
my $from_addr = 'systemplus@joursheureux.be';
my $smtp_addr = 'smtp.skynet.be';
my $csvfile = "appelerr.csv";

... # gets info from a database, creates a CSV file

foreach my $to_send (@addr_to_send) {
print "Sending mail to $to_send\n";
my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new($smtp_addr);
$smtp->mail($from_addr);
$smtp->to($to_send);
$smtp->data();
$smtp->datasend("Subject: Appels S+ erronés");
$smtp->datasend("\n");
$smtp->datasend("MIME-Version: 1.0\n");
$smtp->datasend("Content-type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=\"frontier\"\n");
$smtp->datasend("\n--frontier\n");
$smtp->datasend("Content-type: text/plain\n");
$smtp->datasend("Explication sur cet e-mail :\n");
$smtp->datasend("Cet e-mail contient la liste des appels effectués par
+ les pensionnaires et qui ne se sont pas terminés normalement.\n");
$smtp->datasend("Il peut s'agir d'un moment où l'infirmière a pu résou
+dre les raisons de l'appel sans devoir appeler la chambre,\n");
$smtp->datasend("puis effectue un reset, ou que le pensionnaire, impat
+ient, sonne de manière répétitive,\n");
$smtp->datasend("mais cela peut également etre un temps de réponse bea
+ucoup trop long.\n\n");
if ($#badcalls < 0) {
$smtp->datasend("Aucun appel erroné n'a été détecté.\n");
} else {
for (sort @badcalls) {
print "Bad call in line : $_ : $dbtime$_ - $dbroomid$_ - $dbevent$_\n"
+;
$smtp->datasend("$dbtime$_ - numèro de local : $rooms{$dbroomid$_}\n")
+;
}

# THIS IS WHERE THE ATTACHMENT IS DONE
$smtp->datasend("--frontier\n");
$smtp->datasend("Content-Type: application/text; name=\"$csvfile\"\n")
+; 
$smtp->datasend("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$csvfile\
+"\n");
$smtp->datasend("\n");
open CSVFH, "< $csvfile";
while (<CSVFH>) { chomp; $smtp->datasend("$_\n"); }
close CSVFH;
}
$smtp->datasend("--frontier--\n");
$smtp->dataend();
$smtp->quit;
}
[download]

Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks