linux - Emailed output of 'cat' removes random spaces and newlines -

first time posting here.
have following file , contents:

linux$ cat file.txt     line 1 line 2 line 3 line 4

i have following code:

output=$(cat file.txt) echo "$output" | mail -s "[test]" -a test.txt host@domain.com

i send file attachment debugging purpose. problem encounter email body containing output of 'cat file.txt' looks this:

line 1
line 2 line
3 line 4

the attached file contains correctly formatted output of 'cat file.txt', no characters, newlines, spaces added or removed.

what might causing this? appreciate help!

i think need specify in format email content should sending out.

utf-8 great option since it's world wide almost.

this might helpful:

cat file.txt | mail -s '$(echo -e "test\ncontent-type: text/html")' -a test.txt host@domain.com

or charset

cat file.txt | mail -s '$(echo -e "test\ncontent-type: text/html; charset="us-ascii")' -a test.txt host@domain.com

or without unix pipeline

mail -a 'content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"' foo@bar.com < file.txt

more info can found here.

it depends on version of mail.

hope helpful

Live one