FAQ 9.19 How do I return the user"s mail address?

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9.19: How do I return the user's mail address?

On systems that support getpwuid, the $< variable, and the Sys::Hostname
module (which is part of the standard perl distribution), you can
probably try using something like this:

use Sys::Hostname;
$address = sprintf('%s@%s', scalar getpwuid($<), hostname);

Company policies on mail address can mean that this generates addresses
that the company's mail system will not accept, so you should ask for
users' mail addresses when this matters. Furthermore, not all systems on
which Perl runs are so forthcoming with this information as is Unix.

The Mail::Util module from CPAN (part of the MailTools package) provides
a mailaddress() function that tries to guess the mail address of the
user. It makes a more intelligent guess than the code above, using
information given when the module was installed, but it could still be
incorrect. Again, the best way is often just to ask the user.



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