How to send mail from the command line?

Question

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=780509 may help you. — User, Nov 12 '10 at 20:29
It's too bad the answers to this are so out of date. It's an important question that could use a good tutorial — Caleb Stanford, Dec 01 '17 at 03:45
You can also install msmtp and follow the instructions described in the ArchWiki — thiagowfx, Dec 19 '14 at 03:56
Re Out of date answers: I got this answer below to work, sending from a gmail account, after enabling "Less secure app access" in gmail settings, in 2020. — Ryan1729, Oct 17 '20 at 22:53

score 176 · Answer 1 · edited May 10 '18 at 06:09

176

Install ssmtp :
```
sudo apt-get install ssmtp
```
Edit the ssmtp config file:
```
gksu gedit /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
```

Append the following text:

root=username@gmail.com
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:465
rewriteDomain=gmail.com
AuthUser=username
AuthPass=password
FromLineOverride=YES
UseTLS=YES

Run ssmtp and provide the recipient email address:
```
ssmtp recepient_name@gmail.com
```

Provide the message details as follows:

To: recipient_name@gmail.com
From: username@gmail.com
Subject: Sent from a terminal!

Your content goes here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing.
(Notice the blank space between the subject and the body.)

Press Ctrl + D to send.

You can also put the text in file and send it as follows:

ssmtp recipient_name@gmail.com < filename.txt

edited May 10 '18 at 06:09

d a i s y

5,511

answered Nov 12 '10 at 21:32

Sid

10,533

38

It feels wierd leaving my email password exposed in some file on the computer. Is this safe? – oadams Nov 13 '10 at 02:50
2

@oadams not very safe. Use 2-step verification to lower your risk, or use a mail gateway that doesn't require a password, like your ISP's. – itsadok Mar 25 '12 at 13:54
9

Don't install ssmtp on a server with postfix installed. Postfix will be removed. Instead, just use sendmail user@example.com < file.txt which will work with either postfix or ssmtp. – Alistair Buxton Dec 09 '12 at 22:05
2

Another weird thing that I wanted to share here is, it didn't worked for me when I had a long/complex password but worked when I modified it to a simple password, strange but true. I also heard the same from someone else but tried it after lots of unsuccessful attempts to send mail & as soon as I simplified the password, to my surprise, it just worked ;) – Rajat Gupta Mar 01 '14 at 12:48
If Gmail doesn't allow your server to access, login to Gmail on the server with command line browser. http://askubuntu.com/questions/460022/using-terminal-as-a-web-browser – Sanghyun Lee Dec 28 '14 at 14:55
It would be great to have an answer here that wouldn't involve using Google servers. Among other things, they limit the amount of emails to be sent. – Meetai.com Mar 17 '15 at 22:41
Great. Thanks. This is exactly what I needed to get my notifications setup. @Air I easily made changes for RackSpace mail. – Weehooey Jun 28 '15 at 12:06
Avoid exposing the password using SSL: http://stackoverflow.com/a/11049483/59087 – Dave Jarvis Mar 26 '16 at 01:30
can anyone explain to me what the variable mailhub is and what 465 represents? – Abhishta Gatya Apr 12 '18 at 14:29
You can also send with subject like: echo -e "Subject: Sent from a terminal\n\nHere the boidy | ssmtp receipient@email.de – rubo77 Aug 15 '18 at 05:45
would this work with nodemailer module in nodejs in an ubuntu server? – Jan 01 '21 at 23:25

score 105 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 13 '15 at 01:00

105

Most of the time you shouldn't need to configure an SMTP server you can simply use mail from the commandline (if it's not already present, install with sudo apt-get install mailutils). (Or if you're on a server where sendmail is configured, etc)

marco@dagobah:~$ mail -v marco.ceppi.use@gmail.com
Subject: Hello World!
This is an email to myself.

Hope all is well.
.
Cc:

You terminate messages with a single . on line. That's when mail will prompt you for Cc: enter the information (or leave blank) and mail will then print out additional information on what it is attempting to do, as well as detailing the processing of connecting, transmitting, and receiving data from the mail server.

edited Nov 13 '15 at 01:00

Alois Mahdal

737

answered Nov 12 '10 at 22:52

Marco Ceppi

48,101

32

I would append the answer to include "sudo apt-get install mailutils" since it is not present on a clean Ubuntu 10.04 install. Also, terminating the message with a . on a single line didn't work. I had to "Ctrl-D" instead. Lastly, the message didn't go through! – Olivier Lalonde Nov 13 '10 at 20:40
Edit: the mail didn't go through because of my ISP nevermind. See http://askubuntu.com/questions/13072/my-isp-imposes-smtp-restrictions-on-outgoing-mail-is-it-possible-to-configure-a – Olivier Lalonde Nov 13 '10 at 20:59
Is there a way to send an attachment with this? My primary usage is to send a file to an e-mail address. – soandos Mar 17 '13 at 03:46
8

@OlivierLalonde sudo apt-get install mailutils will install a SMTP server which is postfix, which might be a little overweighted for some people. – vaab Oct 04 '13 at 07:47
ISSUE : /usr/lib/sendmail: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type "/home/abdennour/dead.letter" 9/261 . . . message not sent. – Abdennour TOUMI Jan 21 '14 at 17:31
7

mailutils will also install mysql! – chmike Apr 24 '14 at 09:16
20

-v option not in my install of mail 2.99.98, also had to use Ctrl+D to end – markmnl May 17 '14 at 17:53
1

"cannot send message: Process exited with a non-zero status" On checking echo $? gives me 36 error number. Any setup I am unaware of? – mtk Oct 09 '16 at 13:28
2

Please update this question, it is outdated. – phil294 May 18 '17 at 15:55
What happened to terminating message with a period on a separate line? I used to do it for too long to mention here and now it's no longer working. Is there some configuration file that affects this behaviour? – silverdr Nov 27 '19 at 10:11
Instead of dealing with <ctrl + D>, I redirected my message to the command from a file $ mail --debug-level=3 marco.ceppi.use@gmail.com < ./note.txt – mikeLundquist Feb 04 '20 at 18:18

score 59 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 16 '23 at 08:07

59

apt-get install sendemail

usage:

sendemail -f fromuser@gmail.com -t touser@domain.com -u subject -m "message" -s smtp.gmail.com:587 -o tls=yes -xu gmailaccount@gmail.com -xp gmailpassword

If you don't want to specify your password in the command line (generally not a good thing to do), you can omit that parameter and sendemail will prompt you for the password... and display it on the screen, but at least it won't be in your command line history.

edited Mar 16 '23 at 08:07

Community

1

answered Nov 14 '10 at 01:48

jet

7,274

1

Sending mail from a GMail account using sendmail most certainty very handy. Thank you. – Mark Tomlin Mar 05 '13 at 17:09
Find a patch here not to echo the password. – Arun Sep 09 '15 at 16:13
I had to specify the port with -s smtp.gmail.com:587. – Joe Mornin Mar 31 '16 at 23:19
11

add a space before a command line to not save it in the command line history – guhur Jan 05 '17 at 18:03
another way to not display it on the bash screen: save password to a file, then from file to environment variable, ex: pass=$(cat my_password); sendemail... -xp $name ... and of course if you're calling it programmatically you can do something similar, ex: ruby system("sendemail ... -xp #{File.read 'my_password'}...") also it might fail the first time, you should get an email to that account suggesting you "enable less secure apps" then it can work. – rogerdpack Apr 25 '17 at 21:34
on Ubuntu 16.04 in 2019: TLS setup failed: SSL connect attempt failed error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed – duhaime Sep 08 '19 at 16:47

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 12 '10 at 20:46

39

Try to install The Mutt E-mail Client. Other option is using emacs with gnus. Others options available too... IMHO, you should use more details in your questions, or several different answers to your question you will receive :-)

answered Nov 12 '10 at 20:46

crncosta

2,839

2

Accepted this one since it doesn't require any configuration and is quite user-friendly. – Olivier Lalonde Nov 13 '10 at 21:00
22

wait. mutt - user friendly? the craziest one-liner I've read today :) – Stann Apr 21 '11 at 22:19

score 26 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

26

You need an MTA to send mail. For this, use postfix:

sudo apt-get install postfix

To send email:

echo "test message" | mailx -s 'test subject' myemail@mydomain.com

HELP

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

1

answered Aug 10 '12 at 15:57

One Zero

27,153
26
88
109

You also need to install mailutils for mailx, right? – Nick Jul 15 '14 at 05:26
6

I wish it were really this simple, but unless you're someone very special, this isn't going to work. 99.9999% of ISPs will ignore mail from private postfix servers, because 9.99999 times out of 10 they're spammers. – Cerin Apr 13 '15 at 01:32
this didn't work for me, it asked to install mailutils when I entered this into the terminal – Mostafiz Rahman Feb 14 '16 at 05:59
2

Go ahead and install mailutils. You don't need postfix IIRC. – uav Jul 19 '18 at 13:51
1

@Cerin is right. I needed very simple mailing functionality for a cron job though. As a workaround, if you're receiving via a gmail account, you can set up a filter for the email (via keywords or the from address) and gmail will allow it to be sent. – Carrie Kendall Dec 03 '18 at 21:59

score 23 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 12 '10 at 22:47

23

mpack is excellent commandline way of sending file attachments.

apt-get install mpack

usage:

mpack -s "file you wanted" ./data.pdf loser@supergoober.cn

answered Nov 12 '10 at 22:47

BozoJoe

331

MhdSyrwan · Answer 7 · 2015-12-28T08:28:34.633

16

Install the package sendmail then type

sendmail -t receiver@example

then write your email then press Ctrl+D

edited Dec 28 '15 at 08:28

answered Jul 03 '12 at 17:14

MhdSyrwan

301

score 11 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 21 '13 at 19:34

11

mail -s "subjet" -a "attchedfile_name" someone@dest_email.com

or

cat "afile" | mail -s "subject" someone@dest_email.com

edited Mar 21 '13 at 19:34

Eric Carvalho

54,385

answered Mar 21 '13 at 19:16

user142345

111

just to add for easy testing: echo "Hello world!" | mail -s "Hello" mail@example.org – Bohne Sep 01 '15 at 12:54
4

If someone doesn't have the mail command, just run: sudo apt-get install mailutils in Ubuntu/Debian or yum install mailx in CentOS/Redhat – Giovanni Benussi Sep 22 '16 at 13:10

score 10 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

10

You can send an email from the command line with TelNet or NetCat.

Everything is explained here.

hanoo@hp_laptop% nc 127.0.0.1 25
220 hp_laptop.localdomain ESMTP Postfix
EHLO man
250 hp_laptop.localdomain
MAIL FROM: <netcat@postfix.com>
250 2.1.0 Ok
RCPT TO: <target@host.com>
250 2.1.5 Ok
data
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
This is the body of my mail,
this is the second line...
.
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 9C12E7F404

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Oct 30 '12 at 05:33

hanoo

200

2

It's a little hard to use SSL when using this method ;) – jacobq Dec 30 '12 at 23:09
1

@iX3 just use swaks and you're fine with SSL/TLS, too ;-) – Germar Jun 22 '15 at 23:28
Or openssl s_client -starttls smtp ... – Raman Mar 07 '17 at 16:54

score 7 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 12 '10 at 21:21

7

If you try to send e-mail from a system, whitch does not run an own e-mail-server (i. e. desktop system), you need to install something like nullmailer or esmtp, which forward your local mail to a "real" mail server.

As command line tools you can install mail or mailx (packages mailutils, heirloom-mailx or bsd-mailx). If you need attachments try biabam.

answered Nov 12 '10 at 21:21

ddeimeke

3,089

1

I like bsd-mailx for the -E command and cronjobs – Northstrider May 10 '15 at 05:46

score 6 · Answer 11 · edited Sep 30 '15 at 07:15

6

sudo apt-get install sharutils mailutils
uuencode filename filename | mail user@example.com

where filename is the same: it stands for input file and remote file.

edited Sep 30 '15 at 07:15

kos

35,891

answered Jan 10 '12 at 10:14

nisse

61

sudo apt-get install sharutils for uuencode – Janus Troelsen Oct 19 '12 at 22:53
3

mailutils installs mysql! oO – chmike Apr 24 '14 at 09:15

score 5 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 12 '15 at 05:02

5

I have never tried it but there is a mail command that can send mail. See man mail.

To test local email:

echo message | mail username@localhost

edited Apr 12 '15 at 05:02

answered Nov 12 '10 at 20:30

dv3500ea

37,204

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered May 01 '20 at 15:44

You can use cURL. Take a file like this:

From: Sunday <sunday@gmail.com>
To: Monday <monday@gmail.com>
Subject: Tuesday

Wednesday

and send it:

curl \
--netrc \
--mail-rcpt monday@gmail.com \
--upload-file a.txt \
smtps://smtp.gmail.com

https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps

score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Nov 07 '12 at 13:14

2

You can try this:

mail name@mailserver.com -s "Attached file" <<EOF                 
Hi

~| uuencode $HOME/filename.txt filename.txt

EOF

It works with GNU Mailutils, check the website for more information.

edited Nov 07 '12 at 13:14

Peachy

7,117
10
38
46

answered Apr 25 '12 at 18:19

Sharad

39

score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Jul 28 '17 at 09:14

Run:

sudo apt-get install ssmtp
sudo -H gedit /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

The following needs to be added there:

# The user that gets all the mails (UID < 1000, usually the admin)
root=yourusernameofgmail@gmail.com

# The mail server (where the mail is sent to), both port 465 or 587 should be acceptable
# See also https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78799
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587

# The address where the mail appears to come from for user authentication.
rewriteDomain=gmail.com

# Use SSL/TLS before starting negotiation
UseTLS=Yes
UseSTARTTLS=Yes

# Username/Password
AuthUser=yourusernameofgmail
AuthPass=yourGmailPassowrd
AuthMethod=LOGIN

# Email 'From header's can override the default domain?
FromLineOverride=yes

Run:

sudo -H gedit /etc/ssmtp/revaliases

Enter there:

root:yourusernameofgmail@gmail.com:smtp.gmail.com:587

Enable "less secure apps" on Gmail:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en

Test it by running the following on terminal:

echo "Body of mail is abc" | mail -s "Subject is xyz" "someusername@gmail.com"`

score 1 · Answer 16 · edited Apr 17 '22 at 20:02

I want to add another quite simple yet interesting way to do, provided by AWS (link)

So, you need to prepare this text file, save it as input.txt. Please remember to change the values:

Replace example.com with your sending domain.
Replace Base64EncodedSMTPUserName with your base64-encoded SMTP username.
Replace Base64EncodedSMTPPassword with your base64-encoded SMTP password.
Replace sender@example.com with the email address you are sending from. This identity must be verified.

Replace recipient@example.com with the destination email address. If your Amazon SES account is still in the sandbox, this address must be verified.

EHLO example.com
AUTH LOGIN
Base64EncodedSMTPUserName
Base64EncodedSMTPPassword
MAIL FROM: sender@example.com
RCPT TO: recipient@example.com
DATA
From: Sender Name <sender@example.com>
To: recipient@example.com
Subject: Amazon SES SMTP Test
This message was sent using the Amazon SES SMTP interface.
.
QUIT

To send using explicit SSL over port 587 – Enter the following command:

openssl s_client -crlf -quiet -starttls smtp -connect smtp-server-endpoint:587 < input.txt

To send using implicit SSL over port 465 – Enter the following command:

openssl s_client -crlf -quiet -connect smtp-server-endpoint:465 < input.txt

Impatient SMTP servers

If you face Client host rejected: Improper use of SMTP command pipelining errors, try waiting for the responses:

openssl s_client -crlf -quiet -starttls smtp -connect smtp.example.com:587 < \
    <(
        echo "EHLO foo.tld"
        sleep 2
        echo "AUTH LOGIN"
        sleep 2
        echo "Base64EncodedSMTPUserName"
        sleep 2
        echo "Base64EncodedSMTPPassword"
        sleep 2
        echo "MAIL FROM: sender@example.com"
        sleep 2
        echo "RCPT TO: recipient@example.com"
        sleep 2
        echo "DATA"
        sleep 2
        echo "Sender Name <sender@example.com>"
        echo "recipient@example.com"
        echo "Subject: Test"
        echo ""
        echo "Lorem Ipsum"
        echo "."
        echo "QUIT"
    )

How to send mail from the command line?

16 Answers16

You can send an email from the command line with TelNet or NetCat.

Linked

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