How to Send Email via SMTP Server from Linux Command Line (with SSMTP)

In the Global word, we always want to keep connect to everyone. To accomplish this email is also a very popular method to send and receive information. Linux systems also provide tools to send emails from the command line which is useful to get system details, to send emails from shell scripts etc.

When we simply send email from Linux terminal, email sends as system [email protected] Some of the SMTP servers can block these emails or mark them as spam. So we need a process which maximizes the email delivery to the inbox. Using this article we are configuring our server to send email from SMTP servers like Gmail, Amazon SES etc. This article will help you setup SSMTP server and send email through Gmail servers.

Step 1: Install SSMTP Server

SSMTP service packages are available under EPEL repository, So make you have EPEL yum repository configured in your system.

[[email protected] ~]# yum install ssmtp

Step 2: Configure SSMTP

Now edit SSMTP configuration file and add following values. In this article, I am using Gmail SMTP server. If you also want to setup with Gmail, make sure you have an email account with Gmail.

[[email protected] ~]# vim /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Change following values in configuration file

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

mailhub: you smtp server host/ip with port.
UseSTARTTLS: Set it Yes if SMTP server uses TLS else No.
AuthUser: Use Gmail ID here
AuthPass: Use Gmail ID’s password
TLS_CA_File: This may required some time, If you face issue like “send-mail: Cannot open smtp.gmail.com:587”

Step 3: Send Test Email

Now test the setup by sending a test email to your own email address, to send email use following command.

[[email protected] ~]# ssmtp [email protected]
Subject: This is Subject Line
Email content line 1
Email content line 2
Email content line 3
^d

To send email press button CTRL+d (^d). Now check your mailbox.

Step 4: Setup SSMTP as Default

Now set SSMTP as your default mail server, So that you can simply use mail command to send emails through SSMTP.

[[email protected] ~]# alternatives --config mta

There are 2 programs which provide 'mta'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           /usr/sbin/sendmail.ssmtp
*+ 2           /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 1

Verify the changes by

[[email protected] ~]# sendmail -V
sSMTP 2.61 (Not sendmail at all)

• Read – 5 Ways to Send Email From Linux Command Line