[SOLVED] smtplib sending multiple messages instead of one

Issue

I am trying to run a python script at bootup which will take a ~10 second video on applying an external input (such as push button, IR sensor etc, and in our case an ultrasonic sensor), and then mail this video to specified email addresses using the SMTPlib library of Python.

All of this is working fine. However, when using this input multiple times, the Raspberry Pi sends multiple videos (taken by pushing the button in the past) to the email address instead of the one initiated by the last input. Hence, pushing the button 1 time would send 1 video; pushing it 2 times would send a new one along with the last one; pushing it 3 times would send a new one and the last two as well, and so on.

I even tried inserting an os.remove() right after the mail is sent in the python script. After running the program, running an ls shows the file is indeed deleted. Yet somehow, these deleted videos make its way into the email. Could it be it is stored somewhere in the memory when smtplib is used?

The script in mention is below :

from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email import encoders
from email.message import Message
from email.mime.audio import MIMEAudio
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
from email.mime.text import MIMEText


emailfrom = "[email protected]"
emailto = "[email protected]"

username = "[email protected]"
password = "pass"

msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg["From"] = emailfrom
msg["To"] = emailto
msg["Subject"] = "Email Subject -- "
msg.preamble = "Email Body --"


while(True):
        d=0
        # Possibly the relevant section
        d = pulse_d*17150
        d= round(d, 2)  

        if(d<100):
            with picamera.PiCamera() as camera:
                camera.start_preview()
                camera.start_recording('/home/pi/video.h264')
                time.sleep(5)
                camera.stop_recording()
                camera.stop_preview()
        time.sleep(5)
                fileToSend = "/home/pi/video.h264"

                ctype, encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(fileToSend)
                if ctype is None or encoding is not None:
            GPIO.output(test, True)
                    ctype = "application/octet-stream"

            maintype, subtype = ctype.split("/", 1)
                fp = open(fileToSend, "rb")
            GPIO.output(test,False)
                attachment = MIMEBase(maintype, subtype)
                attachment.set_payload(fp.read())
                fp.close()
                encoders.encode_base64(attachment)
                attachment.add_header("Content-Disposition", "attachment", filename=fileToSend)
                msg.attach(attachment)  
                server = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com:587") 
                server.starttls()
                server.login(username,password) 
                server.sendmail(emailfrom, emailto, msg.as_string())
                server.quit()
        os.remove("/home/pi/video.h264")

Solution

I think you should create new message instead of reuse the old one.

Move the code where you create msg inside while loop

The problem is here:

msg.attach(attachment)

You attach files to the same message, but don't remove old attachments.

Answered By - Aleksandr Kovalev