RCMail is an AppleScript that, when attached to a rule in Apple Mail, sends commands written in an email to the shell for processing, logs the results and emails them back to you. This allows you to control your Mac remotely.

For security reasons, the sender’s email address and a prefix for the message (a kind of password) have to be specified by you in the script. These must match before processing takes place. Likewise administrator-level commands are not supported.

The script is clearly not for the faint of heart. But if your heart is strong, there are instructions for setting the script up after the jump.

First, download the script for MacScripters.

Then save the script in your ~/Library/Scripts folder.

Then open the script in Script Editor and enter the default email address to which the emails will be sent, the default sender’s email address and the subject prefix that you would like to use to validate the emails containing the commmands.

Next set up a rule in Apple Mail like this:

If you want to save the script in another palce, you need to Choose the right path to it in the rule.

Now, you are ready to start emailing shell commands to your Mac.

The readme file forcefully says:

TAKE CARE WITH THIS SCRIPT WHEN USING! YOU MAY ALTER YOUR SYSTEM ACCIDENTIALLY! DO ONLY USE IT IF YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU DO!

So I haven’t tried it out.

The author of this script, Thomas Kuehner, has a blog.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, 18th October, 2005 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Apple, Apple Mail Plug-ins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.