Send Emails From Gmail Through Shell/Script – Linux

[[[TOC]]]
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=Intro=
Sometimes there is a need to send an email via command line, or in a script (such as using PHP’s `mail()` method); but there is not an MTA (postfix, sendmail, etc) running on the machine. Note that while it is possible to set an MTA up as a gmail smarthost, they will be overkill for this simple scenario. The best program to use for this purpose is `ssmtp` – it accepts a mails stream from standard input and forwards the message to a remote MTA for processing.
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=Install ssmtp=
# Install `ssmtp` using your distro’s package manager
{{{
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install ssmtp
# CentOS/RedHat/Fedora
sudo yum install ssmtp
}}}
# Disable sendmail (if enabled)
{{{
sudo service sendmail stop
sudo chkconfig sendmail off
mkdir /root/.sendmail_backup
mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /root/.sendmail_backup
}}}
# (Optional) Symlink `ssmtp` in place of sendmail
{{{
mv /usr/bin/sendmail /usr/bin/sendmail.orig
ln -s /usr/local/ssmtp/sbin/ssmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail
}}}
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=Configure ssmtp=
# Edit `/etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf`, update the following settings:
{{{
AuthUser=email@gmail.com
AuthPass=Super_Secret_Password
FromLineOverride=YES
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
UseSTARTTLS=YES
}}}
# Test
{{{
echo “Test email body” | mail -s “Test Subject” email@domain.com
}}}
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=Credits=
* [[http://linux.die.net/man/8/ssmtp]]