How to Send Mail From Command Line Using SMTP Server in Linux.

SSMTP is a program which allow to send email to a designed mailhost (mailhub). It accepts a mail stream on standard input with recipients on the command line.We can send mail using SSMTP program & failed messages are placed in dead.letter in the sender’s home directory.

SSMTP delivers emails from a user’ system or a server to a configured mail host. SSMTP is not an mail server and does not receive emails or manage a queue.

Prerequisites

• SMTP Configurations (SMTP server details and authentication credentials)
• Configure Gmail SMTP/ready with any other custom SMTP server details.

Google SMTP server configurations:

• SMTP Server/Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
• SMTP Username:[email protected]
• SMTP password: password
• SMTP Port: 587
• TLS/SSL: Required

Update the System.

apt-get update

Install SSMTP

apt-get install ssmtp -y

Configure sSMTP.

vim /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Add the following line in the ssmtp.conf file.

hostname=system-host-name
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
UseSTARTTLS=YES
[email protected]
AuthPass=password
TLS_CA_File=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

vim /etc/ssmtp/revaliases

root:[email protected]:smtp.gmail.com:587

vim msg.txt

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Example email

Testing!

/usr/sbin/ssmtp [email protected] < msg.txt

echo "Test message using ssmtp" | sudo ssmtp -vvv [email protected]

ssmtp to send mail from a shell script.Create a shell script file.

vim mail.sh

Add the following line.

#!/bin/sh  
SUBJECT="Test Subject"
TO="[email protected]"
MESSAGE="This is a test mail"

echo $MESSAGE | sudo ssmtp -vvv $TO

Set the permission.

chmod 755 mail.sh 

Run the script.

bash mail.sh
or
sudo ./mail.sh