How To Install And Configure Sendmail On Ubuntu

https://gist.github.com/adamstac/7462202

https://www.abeautifulsite.net/configuring-sendmail-on-ubuntu-1404

1. Install Sendmail

$ sudo apt-get install sendmail

2. Configure /etc/hosts file:

Find your hostname by typing:

$ hostname

Then:

$ sudo nano /etc/hosts

On the line starting with 127.0.0.1, add the hostname to the end so it looks the same as:

127.0.0.1 localhost hostname

(You willl notice that your hostname can also be identified on the line that starts with 127.0.1.1 where it appears twice)

Ctrl+x, then ‘Y' to save and exit.

3. Run Sendmail's config and answer ‘Y' to everything:

$ sudo sendmailconfig

4. Restart Apache

$ sudo service apache2 restart

5. Using sendmail:

To quickly send an email:

$ sendmail -v [email protected]

After hitting the enter key, on the line directly below, enter a From address (each line after you hit enter will be blank):

From: [email protected]

Hit enter again and type a subject:

Subject: This is the subject field of the email

Hit enter again and type the message:

This is the message to be sent.

Hit enter again. To send the email, type a ‘.‘ (period/dot) on the empty line and press enter:

.

Wait a few seconds and you will see the output of the email being sent. To see more usage examples, check out the links below.

https://www.computerhope.com/unix/usendmai.htm
https://clients.javapipe.com/knowledgebase/132/How-to-Test-Sendmail-From-Command-Line-on-Linux.html
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/216687518-How-do-I-use-Sendmail-

ERRORS & SOLUTIONS

If you can not send mail.

When sending emails from your server, make sure to check any spam folders for receipt. If email is for some reason not working, try the steps below (modify the php version below as necessary):

$ sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini

Ctrl+w to search for and find ‘sendmail_path'. Uncomment this line and add the path below:

sendmail_path= /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i

Restart php:

$ sudo service php7.0-fpm restart

Hosting

Develop and scale your apps globally with DigitalOcean and/or Vultr – or use shared hosting with no server maintenance required at iMarketHost.com.

Installation & Maintenance

If you would like to get this app installed, maintained or need training, Contact Me to get current rates.

27 thoughts on “How To Install And Configure Sendmail On Ubuntu”

    1. Hello, localhost is your server which sendmail uses to send the email. The post has been updated to reflect a basic usage example that includes a ‘From’ field. To configure sendmail to always use a specific email address, check out this link at https://clients.javapipe.com/knowledgebase/132/How-to-Test-Sendmail-From-Command-Line-on-Linux.html where you would create a template file, for example:

      $ cd ~
      $ sudo nano mail.txt

      with some content like:

      To: [email protected]
Subject: sendmail test
From: [email protected]

And here goes the e-mail body, test test test..

      and send email with:

      $ sendmail -vt < ~/mail.txt
      Reply

  3. Hi all – I’ve always had trouble with sendmail – but I thought I would try again with a new server
    When you config it you are supposed to say ‘Y’ to everything – there no option to to add/change parameters.
    Hence I get ‘connection timed out’ message – In NZ port 25 is not allowed .
    Question – were is the parameters file to change sendmail configuration.
    Much appreciated.

    Reply

  4. Hi,

    I am not able to send a mail, can you please help me out ?

    root@test:/etc/mail# sendmail -v [email protected]
    Subject: Test
    This is test mail
    .
    [email protected]… Connecting to [127.0.0.1] via relay…
    220 localhost.localdomain ESMTP Sendmail 8.15.2/8.15.2/Debian-10; Mon, 24 Aug 2020 06:29:45 GMT; (No UCE/UBE) logging access from: localhost(OK)-localhost [127.0.0.1]
    >>> EHLO localhost.localdomain
    250-localhost.localdomain Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
    250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
    250-PIPELINING
    250-EXPN
    250-VERB
    250-8BITMIME
    250-SIZE
    250-DSN
    250-ETRN
    250-AUTH DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5
    250-STARTTLS
    250-DELIVERBY
    250 HELP
    >>> VERB
    250 2.0.0 Verbose mode
    >>> STARTTLS
    220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
    >>> EHLO localhost.localdomain
    250-localhost.localdomain Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
    250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
    250-PIPELINING
    250-EXPN
    250-VERB
    250-8BITMIME
    250-SIZE
    250-DSN
    250-ETRN
    250-AUTH DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5
    250-DELIVERBY
    250 HELP
    >>> VERB
    250 2.0.0 Verbose mode
    >>> MAIL From: SIZE=32 [email protected]
    250 2.1.0 … Sender ok
    >>> RCPT To:
    >>> DATA
    250 2.1.5 … Recipient ok
    354 Enter mail, end with “.” on a line by itself
    >>> .

    Reply

      1. Check your “mailq”. It’s probably stuck in the queue pending. You might see something like this

        r…@100pumpkins:~$ mailq
        MSP Queue status…
        /var/spool/mqueue-client is empty
        Total requests: 0
        MTA Queue status…
        /var/spool/mqueue (11 requests)
        —–Q-ID—– –Size– —–Q-Time—– ————Sender/Recipient———–
        22KHToXi011696* 18 Sun Mar 20 10:29
        (Deferred: Connection timed out with alt4.gmail-smtp-in.l.goo)

        Reply

        1. Nope. there is nothing in the mailq and still mail not getting delivered

          MSP Queue status…
          /var/spool/mqueue-client is empty
          Total requests: 0
          MTA Queue status…
          /var/spool/mqueue is empty
          Total requests: 0

          Reply

  5. Thanks, it worked for me. I have question, i need to configure to use Sendmail only as Sending SMTP server. I have apps hosted in EC2 instance and from those apps i want send emails to specific email-groups basaed on events, for example JIRA or from Confluence. How can i do that ?, do you have any other article which can help me in this ?

    Reply

  7. Do you know what the problem might be when an additional name is added to the sender?

    liwa@BRITNEYSPEARS:~$ sendmail -v

    >>> MAIL From: SIZE=49 [email protected]
    250 2.1.0 … Sender ok

    It just adds a FQDN, and then the domain on top of that. Might it be a corrupt SPF1 record or something?

    Reply

  8. How does sendmail know with which credentials it has to log in into let´s says an gmail account? sending mail via sendmail from command line works, but i don´t understand why. Why can i login into the account without me having told it what the credentials are?

    Reply

  13. Hello
    I got the below error after installing and now email is not working for me could you please have any solution for it thanks.
    stat=Deferred: Connection refused by _dc-mx.2c58b923df4b.iceel.net.client_loop: send disconnect: Connection reset

    Reply

  14. HI!
    I need Sendmail to get server status updates, so I need the server to only send to my personal email address. Is it possible to do this by following this guide?

    Thank you

    Reply

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