1.6 The Body

The body of a mail message consists of everything following the first blank line to the end of the file. When you sent your sendstuff file, it contained only a body. Now edit the file sendstuff and add a small header.

Subject: a test              add
                             add
This is a one line message.

The Subject: header line is an optional one. The sendmail program passes it through as is. Here, the Subject: line is followed by a blank line and then the message text, forming a header and a body. Note that a blank line must be truly blank. If you put space or tab characters in it, thus forming an "empty-looking" line, the header will not be separated from the body as intended.

Send this file to yourself again, running sendmail by hand as you did before:

% /usr/lib/sendmail you <sendstuff

Notice that our Subject: header line was carried through without change:

From [email protected]  Fri Dec 13 08:11:44 1996
Return-Path: [email protected]
Received: (from you@localhost) by Here.US.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4)
       id AA04599 for you; Fri, 31 Dec 96 08:11:44 -0700
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 96 08:11:43
From: [email protected] (Your Full Name)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: a test                                  note
To: you

This is a one line message.