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XDG-EMAIL(1) xdg-email Manual XDG-EMAIL(1)

NAME

xdg-email - command line tool for sending mail using the user's preferred e-mail composer

SYNOPSIS

xdg-email [--utf8] [--cc address] [--bcc address] [--subject text] [--body text] [--attach file] [mailto-uri | address(es)]

xdg-email {--help | --manual | --version}

DESCRIPTION

xdg-email opens the user's preferred e-mail composer in order to send a mail to address(es) or mailto-uri. RFC2368 defines mailto: URIs. xdg-email limits support to, cc, subject and body fields in mailto-uri, all other fields are silently ignored. address(es) must follow the syntax of RFC822. Multiple addresses may be provided as separate arguments.

All information provided on the command line is used to prefill corresponding fields in the user's e-mail composer. The user will have the opportunity to change any of this information before actually sending the e-mail.

Do not use xdg-email as the default handler for mailto: links. Its main purpose is to assemble mailto: links and hand them over to a capable program (usually the defult handler for mailto: links.

xdg-email is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended to use xdg-email as root.

OPTIONS

--utf8

Indicates that all command line options that follow are in utf8. Without this option, command line options are expected to be encoded according to locale. If the locale already specifies utf8 this option has no effect. This option does not affect mailto URIs that are passed on the command line.

--cc address

Specify a recipient to be copied on the e-mail.

--bcc address

Specify a recipient to be blindly copied on the e-mail.

--subject text

Specify a subject for the e-mail.

--body text

Specify a body for the e-mail. Since the user will be able to make changes before actually sending the e-mail, this can be used to provide the user with a template for the e-mail. text may contain linebreaks.

--attach file

Specify an attachment for the e-mail. file must point to an existing file.

Some e-mail applications require the file to remain present after xdg-email returns.

The attach option currently is only implemented for Thunderbird and Icedove on Gnome, Cinnamon, Lxde, Mate, Deepin, KDE, Lxqt and generic desktops with thunderbird as the mailclient or through a custom xdg-email-hook.sh. It will not work with the MAILER environment variable.

--help

Show command synopsis.

--manual

Show this manual page.

--version

Show the xdg-utils version information.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

xdg-email honours the following environment variables:

XDG_UTILS_DEBUG_LEVEL

Setting this environment variable to a non-zero numerical value makes xdg-email do more verbose reporting on stderr. Setting a higher value increases the verbosity.

MAILER

With this variable a custom command can be set as opener for mailto: links, when set it will be preferred over desktop specific behavior unless a xdg-email-hook.sh is present.

The set command will be run with the URI appended as the last argument.

The MAILER is not standardized, keep the command as simple as possible.

HOOK SCRIPT

If a xdg-email-hook.sh command is present, it will be used as the opener.

It is called with the URL as it's first argument: xdg-email-hook.sh mailto_URL

If an attachment is specified it will be called with an additional --attach-files option followed by a list of one or more URI-encoded, comma seperated filepaths. (This is compatible with the thunderbird -compose option)

Like this: xdg-email-hook.sh mailto_URL --attach-files file-list

EXIT CODES

An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

1

Error in command line syntax.

2

One of the files passed on the command line did not exist.

3

A required tool could not be found.

4

The action failed.

5

No permission to read one of the files passed on the command line.

SEE ALSO

xdg-open(1), xdg-mime(1), xdg-utils-common(7), MIME applications associations specification[1], RFC 6068 - The 'mailto' URI Scheme[2]

EXAMPLES

xdg-email 'Jeremy White <jwhite@example.com>'

xdg-email --attach /tmp/logo.png \


          --subject 'Logo contest' \


          --body 'Attached you find the logo for the contest.' \


          'jwhite@example.com'

xdg-email --subject 'Your password is about to expire' \


          'jwhite@example.com' 'bastian@example.com' 'whipple@example.com'

AUTHORS

Kevin Krammer

Author.

Jeremy White

Author.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2006

NOTES

1.
MIME applications associations specification
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-apps-spec/
2.
RFC 6068 - The 'mailto' URI Scheme
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6068
03/11/2026 xdg-utils 1.0