With the minimum installation of any Linux operating system, you will not see most of the commands in your system. In minimum operating system installation only required packages are installed for running an operating system and skipped unnecessary packages. mail command is useful for sending emails from Linux command line which is used for almost Linux operating system. Most of Debian based systems will show error like “The program ‘mail’ is currently not installed. You can install it by typing”
There are many other alternatives to mail command for sending emails from Linux command line interface.
Installing mail Command
Let’s use one of below command to install mail command as per your operating system. For RHEL based systems, this command installed from mailx rpm packages and on Debian based system this command found in mailutils package.
Execute one the following command based on the operating system:
- Install mail command on CentOS/Redhat 7/6
sudo yum install mailx - Install mail command on Fedora 22+ and CentOS/RHEL 8
sudo dnf install mailx - Install mail command on Ubuntu/Debian/LinuxMint
sudo apt-get install mailutils
Sending Test Email
After installing mail command packages in your system, send a test email using below command.
echo "Message Body" | mail -s "Message Subject" [email protected]
6 Comments
it is good if you explain how did you solved, it will help for others.
Hi Rahul,
I have installed AMAZON ec2-instance on which I have installed Postfix email service.
I am not able to send emails using Postfix.
Can you help?
I installed the package, and it’s asking for a “postfix configuration.” I can’t select anything. Help!
Never mind. I solved it.
hi,
i am not able to send mail with non root user
Mr. Bharath
First to send some email, pleas check if you have a tiny file “.mailrc” in $HOME of this “non root user”.
Fill the file “.mailrc” with:
set smtp=smtp.puthereyoursmtpserver
set ssl-verify=ignore
set [email protected]
set font-family:monospace
enjoy