mail command doesnt work!

Ajit Gunge · 05-10-2012, 08:41 AM

I have recently installed fedora16 now when I am trying to run the command

mail -s "Test email" x@somewhere.com.I am getting the error command not found.How can I downlaod it.

Snark1994 · 05-10-2012, 10:03 AM

Not tested, and I don't know the package name, but something like:

Code:

sudo yum install mail

might work.

chrism01 · 05-10-2012, 07:17 PM

Try 'mailx' instead.
Actually, try

Code:

rpm -qa|grep -i mail

to see what mail related pkgs are installed.

Ajit Gunge · 05-11-2012, 05:45 AM

Hi Chris,
I have downloaded the mailx utility but when I am trying to send the mail mentioned in the thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d-line-943861/ I am not able to send the mail.I have installed fedora 16 on a virtual machine and then I am trying to send a mail to my yahoo account from the terminal.
When I run this command mail -s "Test mail" xyz@somewhere.com my bash prompt gets stuck and I have to press ctrl D to get it back.
When I run your other command (uname -n) |mail -s "test email" xyz@somewhere.com it runs but when I check my yahoo account I dont have the mail.I am behind a proxy.But I can access the internet from my guest OS.Is there some setting that I am missing?

catkin · 05-11-2012, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajit Gunge

When I run this command mail -s "Test mail" xyz@somewhere.com my bash prompt gets stuck and I have to press ctrl D to get it back.

That's normal. mail (and mailx) read the body of the email from stdin. Either you type the mail directly and terminate with Ctrl+D or you use echo <text of mail body> | mail -s "Test mail" <email address>

You also need a "mail transfer agent" (MTA) to transfer mail from the local machine to the likes of Yahoo's servers. Popular MTAs are exim, postfix and sendmail.

Ajit Gunge · 05-11-2012, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

That's normal. mail (and mailx) read the body of the email from stdin. Either you type the mail directly and terminate with Ctrl+D or you use echo <text of mail body> | mail -s "Test mail" <email address>

You also need a "mail transfer agent" (MTA) to transfer mail from the local machine to the likes of Yahoo's servers. Popular MTAs are exim, postfix and sendmail.

Hi catkin.Thanks for the information.I have downlaoded the sendmail MTA.I run the command mail -s "Test mail" <email address> but I still dotn see the email at my yahoo account.Is there something more that I have to do.

catkin · 05-11-2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajit Gunge

Is there something more that I have to do.

Yes -- you need to configure sendmail.

sendmail is powerful and flexible. So it needs a lot of configuring. Depending on exactly what you want to do, you will need "smarthost" and "masquerade" in the configuration.

Sendmail links:

Let us know how you get on.

Ajit Gunge · 05-14-2012, 07:28 AM

Thanks catkin for your inputs.I have doubts.I installed the sendmail using the [QUOTE][/yum install sendmail command.QUOTE].Now what I want is to read the readme file for the sendmail but I dontknow where it is install and how to access the readme file.I am following the links mentioned by you.

catkin · 05-14-2012, 09:52 AM

How do you want to configure sendmail? Which ISP (mail service provider) do you want to send mail to?

Your outgoing mail will have to appear to come from a publicly resolvable domain name. Which domain name do you want to use?

Ajit Gunge · 05-14-2012, 10:03 AM

Right now all I want to do is test if I can send a mail to my yahoo account from command line.I am not sure of which ISP I want to use.I want it at my yahoo account so I guess it is yahoo.The domain name should be yahoo.com I guess.

catkin · 05-14-2012, 10:37 AM

IDK RHEL or Fedora so don't know what they give you as a starting point for configuring sendmail.

Here's how I set it up on Slackware for a similar setup (but not Yahoo for either the SMTP server to send the mail to or as the masqueraded origin domain). My computer is called CW8 so you will want to change that. In case of multiple attempts, this is version 1 or v1. You may have a /usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf directory but you will not have the sendmail-slackware.mc sample configuration file.

If you want to forward all mail to root to your Yahoo mail, add a line to /etc/mail/aliases, something like

Code:

root:Ajit@yahoo.co.in

and maybe (I do this but it may not be necessary with the alias), /root/.forward with

Code:

Ajit@yahoo.co.in

You will need to put your Yahoo username and password in /etc/mail/authinfo, something like

Code:

AuthInfo: "U:Ajit@yahoo.co.in" "P:really_hard_password_no_one_can_guess" "M:PLAIN"

Code:

root@CW8:~# cd /etc/mail \
    && chmod 400 authinfo \
    && makemap hash authinfo < authinfo \
    && newaliases \
    && mv sendmail.cf sendmail.cf.original\
    && cd /usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf \
    && cp -p sendmail-slackware.mc sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.mc \
    && vi sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.mc \
    && diff -u sendmail-slackware.mc sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.mc 
/etc/mail/aliases: 16 aliases, longest 22 bytes, 188 bytes total
--- sendmail-slackware.mc	2010-04-24 04:26:15.000000000 +0530 
+++ sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.mc	2012-04-10 21:32:47.597000287 +0530 
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ 
+dnl#@ Local changes identified by comment introducer dnl#@ 
 dnl# This is the default sendmail .mc file for Slackware.  To generate 
 dnl# the sendmail.cf file from this (perhaps after making some changes), 
 dnl# use the m4 files in /usr/share/sendmail/cf like this: 
@@ -10,13 +11,15 @@ 
 dnl# cp config.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf 
 dnl# 
 include(`../m4/cf.m4') 
-VERSIONID(`default setup for Slackware Linux')dnl 
+dnl#@VERSIONID(`default setup for Slackware Linux')dnl 
+VERSIONID(`CW8 version 1')dnl 
 OSTYPE(`linux')dnl 
 dnl# These settings help protect against people verifying email addresses 
 dnl# at your site in order to send you email that you probably don't want: 
 define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS', `authwarnings,novrfy,noexpn,restrictqrun')dnl 
 dnl# Uncomment the line below to send outgoing mail through an external server: 
-dnl define(`SMART_HOST',`mailserver.example.com') 
+dnl#@ define(`SMART_HOST',`mailserver.example.com') 
+dnl define(`SMART_HOST',`<here you put the name of Yahoo's SMTP server>') 
 dnl# No timeout for ident: 
 define(`confTO_IDENT', `0')dnl 
 dnl# Enable the line below to use smrsh to restrict what sendmail can run: 
@@ -34,9 +37,18 @@ 
 FEATURE(`redirect')dnl 
 dnl# Turn this feature on if you don't always have DNS, or enjoy junk mail: 
 dnl FEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl 
-EXPOSED_USER(`root')dnl 
+dnl#@ Local additional FEATURES 
+FEATURE(authinfo) 
+FEATURE(delay_checks)dnl 
+FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl 
+FEATURE(allmasquerade)dnl 
+FEATURE(masquerade_entire_domain)dnl 
+dnl#@EXPOSED_USER(`root')dnl 
 dnl# Also accept mail for localhost.localdomain: 
 LOCAL_DOMAIN(`localhost.localdomain')dnl 
 MAILER(local)dnl 
 MAILER(smtp)dnl 
 MAILER(procmail)dnl 
+dnl#@ Local additions 
+MASQUERADE_AS(`<here you put the domain you masqureade as -- yahoo.com?>')dnl 
+DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA') 
root@CW8:/usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf# sh Build sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.mc
root@CW8:/usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf# cp -p sendmail-slackware.CW8.v1.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Good luck. The above are ideas to get you started. Maybe Yahoo has special requirements. I've done similar for Gmail and Google mail; they required the SMTP server port to be specified.

Ajit Gunge · 05-17-2012, 03:09 AM

Hi Catkin,
Thanks for you response.I am uisng Fedora 16.You said your cmputer is called CW8 mine currently is called localhost.How can I change that.Also it seems that a lot of files that you mentioned are not there in my setup like /etc/mail/alaises,/root/.forward.I am trying to figure out how to do the changes you suggested for fedora following few tutotials online.Will let you know if I succeed.Thanks

catkin · 05-17-2012, 04:15 AM

IDK Fedora but ...

A netsearch suggests you have to edit /etc/sysconfig/network to change the hostname.

A netsearch suggests that Fedora uses /etc/alaises. Does that exist?

/root/.forward does not normally exist. It may not be necessary when using aliases. Pages about /root/.forward on Fedora listed here.

Ajit Gunge · 05-17-2012, 05:13 AM

HI catkin.
For the hostname changes I am trying to follow the instruction given here but I am stuck at the steps 4-7 as I cannot find the sytem tab under my system to configure the dns.Please let me know what am I missing.I do have the file /etc/alaises.I am trying with the changes you suggested.Will let you know my findings.

catkin · 05-17-2012, 06:50 AM

If System -> Administration -> Network isn't working for you, edit /etc/sysconfig/network directly. You will need to be root to do that.