Linux / UNIX Change Crontab Email Settings ( MAILTO )

I would like to send an email to user@example.com instead of default system root user for crond service on a Linux or Unix-like system. How do I change the email settings under crontab file on a Linux or Unix-like systems?

A crontab file contains instructions to the cron daemon. It wakes up every minute, examining all stored crontabs, checking each command to see if it should be run in the current minute. When executing commands, any output is mailed to the owner of the crontab or to the user named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists.

Tutorial details
Difficulty level	Easy
Root privileges	No
Requirements	cron on Linux/Unix
Est. reading time	1m

How To Change Crontab Email Settings ( MAILTO )

The MAILTO syntax is:
name = value
Where the spaces around the equal-sign (=) are optional, and any subsequent non-leading spaces in value will be part of the value assigned to name. The value string may be placed in quotes (single or double, but matching) to preserve leading or trailing blanks. The value string is not parsed for environmental substitutions, thus lines like:

PATH = $HOME/bin:$PATH

will not work as you might expect.

Set MAILTO Variable To Change Crontab Email Setting

In addition to LOGNAME, HOME, and SHELL, cron will look at MAILTO if it has any reason to send mail as a result of running commands in “this” crontab. If MAILTO is defined (and non-empty), mail is sent to the user so named. First open your crontab file:
# vi /etc/crontab
OR
$ crontab -e
To send email to vivek@nixcraft.in, enter:
MAILTO=vivek@nixcraft.in
Let us send email local user named sai:
MAILTO=sai
If MAILTO is defined but empty (MAILTO=””), no mail will be sent.
MAILTO=""
Otherwise email is sent to the owner of the crontab.

Examples

MAILTO="vivek@nixcraft.in"
@midnight       /root/scripts/backup-servers
10 20 * * sun   /bin/php-cli /wwwroot/apps/cleanup.php
#
# We can switch email alert too
#
MAILTO="sysadmin.it@domain-name-here"
@daily /root/scripts/push-backup-host.sh 
MAILTO="storage.admin@domain-name-here"
* 10 * * * /root/scripts/check-hardware-raid-array-health.pl
#
# Disable email alert for rest of jobs
#
MAILTO=""
5 0 * * *       /scripts/bin/daily.sh >> /tmp/daily.shoutput.txt 2>&1

A note about routing email outside of your network or local network

Setting MAILTO will not magically send an email. To send an email, you must have an email server running either on the same host or in your LAN. In other words, Linux and Unix users need an SMTP server like Sendmail or Postfix running. Most modern SMTP allows SMARTHOST where you can forward email using cloud computing or ISP email server. See the following tutorials:

• How to configure Postfix relayhost (smarthost) to send eMail using an external smptd
• How to configure AWS SES with Postfix MTA

Another option is to configure your Gmail account. See

• How To Use Gmail Account To Relay Email From a Shell Prompt

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