SSMTP Local MTA Using Google Apps Account

While there are plenty of MTAs out there, I find it quite handy to have SSMTP installed locally; it’s quick to install and configure and lacks some of the overhead of a more enterprise MTA such as Sendmail, Postfix, Exim etc. The following assumes you have a “Google Apps for Domains” user account, e.g. ssmtp_user@domain.com, through which you will relay all email. Additionally, the steps below work on Ubuntu 10.10, similar steps should work on other distributions.

Install SSMTP

sudo apt-get install ssmtp

Edit configuration in /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Backup the original first

sudo cp /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf.out

Truncate the file and add the following

mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
hostname=ssmtp_user@domain.com
root=ssmtp_user@domain.com
AuthUser=ssmtp_user@domain.com
AuthPass=<ssmtp_user_password>
UseSTARTTLS=yes
UseTLS=yes
FromLineOverride=yes

Edit revaliases map in /etc/ssmtp/revaliases.conf

Add a line for each local user who should be able to send email

root:smtp_user@domain.com:smtp.gmail.com:587
max:smtp_user@domain.com:smtp.gmail.com:587

Send email

You should now be able to send email, e.g. from the shell using

echo "Testing" | mail -s "Test Email" someone@example.com

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