How to add an attachment with smtplib module

[Sean Berry]

I have the sample script that uses the smtplib module
that is available at python.org.

How can I use this to send an attachment?

Help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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[Dennis Lee Bieber]

I have the sample script that uses the smtplib module
that is available at python.org.

How can I use this to send an attachment?

By brute force... You create the proper MIME headers to identify
the presence of an attachment; you use the proper module(s) to convert
the file of the attachment into an SMTP safe format (Base64?); you copy
the attachment, with proper MIME boundary markers, into the body of the
email.

No doubt there is a simpler, more automated method, but by
knowing what goes into the process, you can get more control over it.

smtplib is merely the low level interface between a sending
client and the receiving smtp daemon. The "msg" argument has to be a
fully formed message with all headers and body.

Check mimetools, mimify, and email modules.

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[Seo Sanghyeon]

I have the sample script that uses the smtplib module
that is available at python.org.

How can I use this to send an attachment?

You don't. smtplib is a transport for an already formatted email
message. You create a message with email package, like this:

from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
from email.MIMEImage import MIMEImage
msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg.attach(MIMEText(file("text.txt").read())
msg.attach(MIMEImage(file("image.png").read())

And then send it:

import smtplib
mailer = smtplib.SMTP()
mailer.connect()
mailer.sendmail(from_, to, msg.as_string())
mailer.close()

Read email package documentation for more details.

 

[Steve Holden]

I have the sample script that uses the smtplib module
that is available at python.org.

How can I use this to send an attachment?

Help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Take a look at the "email" module, which is the usual way of generating
messages of complex structure. Then, specifically, look at "Creating
email and MIME objects from scratch" at (e.g.)
http://docs.python.org/lib/node501.html - you'll probably have the same
page in your local Python docs.

regards
Steve