How to Send Mail From Ubuntu Precise

July 26, 2013

Configuration

To send mail from the command line in Ubuntu Precise

sudo apt-get install mailutils

If you mess up configuring or want to reconfigure

dpkg-reconfigure mailutils

Sending your test email

Let’s send a test email!

echo "test email body" | mail -s "test email subject" [email protected]

Debugging issues

tail -f /var/log/mail.err
tail -f /var/log/mail.log

Config File

This file is auto-generated by the command “dpkg-reconfigure mailutils”

  • Located at: /etc/postfix/main.cf
  • If you ever manually edit this file you must run

    sudo newaliases && sudo service postfix restart
    

Example Config File

 # See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete version


# Debian specific:  Specifying a file name will cause the first
# line of that file to be used as the name.  The Debian default
# is /etc/mailname.
#myorigin = /etc/mailname

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
biff = no

# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h

readme_directory = no

# TLS parameters
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache

# See /usr/share/doc/postfix/TLS_README.gz in the postfix-doc package for
# information on enabling SSL in the smtp client.

myhostname = localhost
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
mydestination = localhost, localhost.localdomain, , localhost
relayhost =
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
inet_protocols = ipv4