Usually, you do not need to setup an email server under Linux desktop operating system. Most GUI email clients (such as Thunderbird) supports Gmail POP3 and IMAP configurations. But, how do you send mail via the standard or /usr/bin/mail user agents or a shell script? Programs such as sendmail / postfix / exim can be configured as a gmail smarthost but they are largely overkill for this use.
You can use gmail as a smart host to send all messages from your Linux / UNIX desktop systems. You need to use a simple program called ssmtp. It accepts a mail stream on standard input with recipients specified on the command line and synchronously forwards the message to the mail transfer agent of a mailhub for the mailhub MTA to process. Failed messages are placed in dead.letter in the sender’s home directory.
Install ssmtp
Type the following command under CentOS / RHEL / Red Hat / Fedora Linux:
# yum install ssmtp
Type the following command under Debian / Ubuntu Linux:
# apt-get update && apt-get install ssmtp
Configure gmail as a smarthost
Open /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, enter:
# vi /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
Update file with the following settings:
AuthUser=vivek@gmail.com AuthPass=Your-Gmail-Password FromLineOverride=YES mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587 UseSTARTTLS=YES
Also, make sure you disable Sendmail:
# service sendmail stop
# chkconfig sendmail off
# mkdir /root/.bakup
# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /root/.bakup
# ln -s /usr/local/ssmtp/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail
Now, you can use mail / mailx command to send email messages. You can also write a shell script to backup your files and email to somewhere else (see below). You can test settings using following syntax:
$ echo "This is a test" | mail -s "Test" vivek@nixcraft.co.in
A note about sSMTP
sSMTP works well for desktop systems, but it is not a replacement for Sendmail / Postfix / Exim / Qmail for email server environment. This software is perfect for a single user system.
Further readings:
- man page ssmtp
- A shell script to backup directories & files and email them as .tar.gz file.
- Alpine is a text-based e-mail client. It supports POP3 and IMAP configurations.
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echo “This is a test” | mail -s “Test” nimisha.mec@gmail.com
mail: cannot send message: Process exited with a non-zero status
One of the main reasons this method won’t work is that the ssmtp command may be located on a different directory. This is the updated version of the command lines in order to disable send mail:
# service sendmail stop
# chkconfig sendmail off
# mkdir /root/.bakup
# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /root/.bakup
# ln -s $(which ssmtp) /usr/sbin/sendmail
worked wonderfully!
thaanks!
You can create a dedicated Google password just for Gmail, that you are able to revoke at any time: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
Hi,
Unable to send mail’s getting error as below
“/usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
“/root/dead.letter” 9/220
. . . message not sent.”
Is ssmtp not available with “epel” repo of RHEL7? is not, what could be used as an alternative of ssmtp in RHEL7, for sending out emails using gmail?
[root@localhost /]# yum install ssmtp
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* addons: centos.excellmedia.net
* base: centos.excellmedia.net
* extras: centos.excellmedia.net
* updates: centos.excellmedia.net
Setting up Install Process
No package ssmtp available.
Nothing to do
WHY THIS KOLAVERI DI?
My OS is CentOS
You need to install epel repository before going to install ssmtp
still works like a charm 🙂
The first instructions posted 4 years ago, and still useful. Thanks.
You tutorial doesn’t work
google doesn’t like it when you help others “weaponize gmail”.
I have used gmail to torment 419 scammers… and subsequently had my accounts frozen
beware the do-not-evil (which is NOT “do good”)
Hi,
Thank you very much!
Exactly what I needed.
:))
Kudos for a simple-to-use solution!
I have a problem with sending mail in CentOS 5.6.
I need a script to send mail from gmail to other accounts.
Please help me.
Works like a charm. Thanks for sharing.
Outstanding information! This worked exactly right the first time. I have been mucking around with mail on a Fedora PC for a long time. This did the trick.
/usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
“/home/lavesh/dead.letter” 9/227
. . . message not sent.
for those who has problems like this:
Null message body; hope that’s ok
mail: /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
Can’t send mail: sendmail process failed with error code 1
try this:
the manual says that we must create a symlink:
ln -s /usr/local/ssmtp/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail
but, depends on ur distro or version the correct location of this directories. In my case I use Fedora 12-64 and find that “/usr/local/ssmtp/sbin/ssmtp” is “/usr/sbin/ssmtp”, why:
[root@kanafas ssmtp]# whereis ssmtp
ssmtp: /usr/sbin/ssmtp /etc/ssmtp /usr/share/man/man8/ssmtp.8.gz
so I change the link to ” ln -s /usr/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail ”
and now is working, any doubts or comments Ill be glad to help you.
I have tried above mentioned configured on my system. It worked nicely for a day but now it shows me following error.
“SSL_connect: Connection reset by peer. send-mail: Cannot open smtp.gmail.com:587”
Please get me to resolve this issue.
As always, Thanks Vivek.
For the sake of others wondering.
# vim /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
# service sendmail stop
# chkconfig sendmail off
# mkdir /root/.backup
# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /root/.backup/
# whereis ssmtp
ssmtp: /usr/sbin/ssmtp /etc/ssmtp /usr/share/man/man8/ssmtp.8.gz
# ln -s /usr/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail
# echo “This is a test email” | mail -s “Test” adriyas@gmail.com
Used it for my nagios email notification for repl
Will get your gmail account blocked for abusing service if you send too much email and too often.
There is some parts missing for CentOS 5:
ssmtp is available in the epel repository, that needs to be added before “yum install ssmtp”
The softlink is a bit off:
ln -s /usr/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail
And I love this article, made my day 😉
So much easier than some of the other overkill guides – thanks!
Any way to add multiple email accounts to this list? For example user1 and user2?
also :
ls -latr /usr/sbin/ | grep mail
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root mail 81304 2008-12-30 21:34 imapd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 2010-03-23 16:36 mailq -> ssmtp*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 2010-03-23 16:40 sendmail -> /usr/local/ssmtp/sbin/ssmtp
I Got this error? Any help ? Pleaseeeeee
$ echo “This is a test” | mail -s “Test” sakal@sakal.sk
-su: $: command not found
Null message body; hope that’s ok
mail: /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
Can’t send mail: sendmail process failed with error code 1
Thanks
Is anyone know how to config ssmtp to rewrite the RCPT TO header? Thanks.
TO: Sergio Montini
[Ideally, I would like a script to email me my system logs (cron, login, etc)]
Here is a line of code that may help. It was pulled from Linux Pro Magazine August2009 issue, page 61. You should be able to add it to your backup script that cron launches. You’ll probably need to tweak it to suit your needs and not copy it verbatim, but this is the basic idea. Rather than sending the list of files in a backup directory, you could also send the contents of a log file.
ls -l /my-backups/’date +%y-%m-%d’ | mail -s “daily backup report” your@email.address
OMG you are the best if it weren’t for you i’d still be messing around with nc/sendmail (sendmail.mc,m4)/telnet
I have a single user comp (root+my user) and this is perfect
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Recently I have configured sandmail on Linux RH 9, and capable to send and receive mail from outlook express. But problem is domain name show diffenence in outlook express Inbox , that is : but I have configured domain name “bgdnyk.com” on linux send mail server.
Could you please asists, how can I get accurate domain name in outlook express.
Awesome .. exactly what I needed for the machines at home .. I refuse to use my ISP’s unauthenticated mail server, mostly because it’s a bit of a blackhole.. and I’ve been moving away from using mail on my hosted servers … most stuff has been ported to gmail servers.
Thanks for the quick and easy fix to using gmail as my smarthost!
Thanks for the Info! I have a Debian Squeeze system and when I tried to install ssmtp I couldn’t because exim4 was already installed. aptitude gave me the option to uninstall it, but I decided to try and use exim4 with gmail, so I ended in http://wiki.debian.org/GmailAndExim4 and followed those steps. It now works perfectly!
Great! I can now email directly from my NSLU2 (Slug).
Ideally, I would like a script to email me my system logs (cron, login, etc)
Any suggestions?
Many thanks!
HI , i made the above configurations as stated but when i a m sending mail to test then the following error is being showed:
/usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
“/root/dead.letter” 9/232
. . . message not sent.
please help
Sorry, just big delay in mail delivery. Everything works fine!
I have a problem sending mail to the same domain.
For example, I have foo.ru configured in Google Apps. From 1@foo.ru I can send email to 2@bar.ru, but not to 2@foo.ru. Can you help me resolve this problem?
what about creating a .forward file in your /home/myname instead of all this. And you can add as many emails as you like… homename@gmail.com,myworkname@work.com
Good man…
I love this blog……
I use MSMTP for bellsouth where they accept mail from CLIENTS but not from sendmail.
http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/
You just replace sendmail with this and it looks like a mail client to your ISP.
easy to use and interesting
Love this blog! I look after around 100 linux servers. There have been many useful tips and contributions is this blog.
Really useful!
😉
Thanks!
This is perfect us on consumer Internet lines where SMTP ports are blocked by ISP. Brilliant! Thanks, Vivek.
I am using this already. I read this earlier here http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/10/21/sending-email-from-your-system-with-ssmtp/. I have also seen some articles in tombuntu referring to Vivek. Thanks to read this once again to refresh :D.
Thanks for the tips
Thanks a lot Vivek for the tip that you have given us and please continue the good work
🙂
Yes, you have to add changes provided by me. If there is already config line update it; otherwise just append new config line.
thanks, no worries
Hello !
thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I am using Ubuntu 8.04.
when i opened .conf file i got the following script:
#
# Config file for sSMTP sendmail
#
# The person who gets all mail for userids < 1000
# Make this empty to disable rewriting.
root=postmaster
# The place where the mail goes. The actual machine name is required no
# MX records are consulted. Commonly mailhosts are named mail.domain.com
mailhub=mail
# Where will the mail seem to come from?
#rewriteDomain=
# The full hostname
hostname=nee-pc
# Are users allowed to set their own From: address?
# YES – Allow the user to specify their own From: address
# NO – Use the system generated From: address
#FromLineOverride=YES
~
~
Now how to update this file with tha changes you provided??
pls tell me!
thanka in advance!
You can eddit it with the command nano .
@Ulver,
Thanks for sharing email project.
another good program like sstmp are email (encrypted email not electronic email !! ) you could see at http://www.cleancode.org/projects/email it have similar features than ssmtp plus the file attachment by command line.
Cheers and happy shell mailing ! xD
hi, thanks for the wonderful tip..
i went through the conf file…….but i m stuck somewhere in between…
should i update this file adding the lines you hav provided..and what abt the disabling Sendmail…I can find those mentioned lines..
Thanks in advance.
Yes, you should update configuration by adding appropriate values.
Command related to sendmail disabling works on RHEL / Fedora and CentOS.
HTH
Thanks for the info. Today I was searching for a way out for logwatch to send email via using external SMTP without installing sendmail or other MTA in my cache server and then after an hour I got this solution. Thanks
Thanks for the heads-up.
Typo in the header: relay.
“/root/dead.letter” 9/224
. . . message not sent.
unable to send email getting error
^C
I am getting the same message…
[sudo] password for ron:
[ron@localhost ~]$ /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
“/home/ron/dead.letter” 9/227
. . . message not sent.
[ron@localhost ~]$