Piping Mime String to Metamail Fails

I've tried everything I can to pipe a string with mime content to metamail, but it fails in every variation of: exec("echo $mime_string | /usr/bin/metamail -d -q -r -w -x -y ", $met_res) ; I can successfully write the mime string to a tmp file, and then: exec(" cat /tmp/mime_mail | /usr/bin/metamail -d -q -r -w -x -y ", $met_res) ; but this seems very inefficient (writing a string to a file only to pass it to a program). I'm also afraid the file may still be busy from the write at the time I try to pass it to metamail. I've tried using PassThru, System and the backtick operator as well. I've tried the -e switch for echo, with nothing. The closest I've gotten, running php as a cgi from the terminal, is the bash response: sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `|' sh: -c: line 1: ` | /usr/bin/metamail -d -q -r -w -x -y ' I suspect that the problem is in echoing mime content, but I'm uncertain how else I could pipe the string to metamail? This is the last hitch in my script for handling incoming e-mail and putting the mime into attachments as appropriate in a mysql database. I looked through the archives at the various methods for handling mime, and using metamail seemed like the best idea, but now I'm wondering. Thanks for any suggestions. Jeff Hill, No programmer here