Start by install ssmtp
$ sudo apt-get install ssmtp
Next modify /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf file with the following:
# Config file for sSMTP sendmail # # The person who gets all mail for userids < 1000 # Make this empty to disable rewriting. root=*YOUREMAIL*@gmail.com # The place where the mail goes. The actual machine name is required no # MX records are consulted. Commonly mailhosts are named mail.domain.com mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587 # Where will the mail seem to come from? rewriteDomain=gmail.com # The full hostname hostname=localhost # Are users allowed to set their own From: address? # YES - Allow the user to specify their own From: address # NO - Use the system generated From: address UseTLS=Yes FromLineOverride=Yes UseSTARTTLS=Yes AuthUser=*YourUsername* AuthPass=*YourPassword* TLS_CA_File=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
Last step is to add a translation to the revaliases file:
$ sudo su
$ nano /etc/ssmtp/revaliases
Add the following line to the bottom of the file (modified with your settings:
root:*YOUREMAIL*@gmail.com:smtp.gmail.com
Now send a test by running the following command:
$ echo "Test message from your linux server" | sudo ssmtp -vvv EXAMPLE@DOMAIN.COM
The reason I set this up was so I could implement a network monitoring script that emails me if the ping fails. If you are interested in that functionality please view the "Setup Network Monitoring" document on this site.