sSMTP - Simple SMTP
sSMTP is a simple MTA to deliver mail from a computer to a mail hub (SMTP server). sSMTP is simple and lightweight, there are no daemons or anything hogging up CPU; Just sSMTP. Unlike Exim4, sSMTP does not receive mail, expand aliases, or manage a queue.
Package is currently unmaintained
This package has been orphaned since 2019-03-19. msmtp can be used as an alternative.
Interested in becoming sSMTP maintainer? Find out how in section 5.9.5 of Debian's Developer Manual.
List of other orphaned packages
Setting up sSMTP
sSMTP's main configuration file is located at /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
Here is a sample configuration file taken from my /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf:
# # Config file for sSMTP sendmail # # The person who gets all mail for userids < 1000 # Make this empty to disable rewriting. root=yourmail@mail.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.yourmail.com # Where will the mail seem to come from? rewriteDomain= # The full hostname hostname=yourserver.example.com # 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 FromLineOverride=YES # Username and password for Google's Gmail servers # From addresses are settled by Mutt's rc file, so # with this setup one can still achieve multi-user SMTP AuthUser=username@gmail.com AuthPass=password #### VERY IMPORTANT !!! If other people have access to this computer # Your GMAIL Password is left unencrypted in this file # so make sure you have a strong root password, and make sure # you change the permissions of this file to be 640: # chown root:mail /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf # chmod 640 /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf # # add your user to the group mail # usermod -a -G mail <yourUserName> # quit all your sessions # login again # send a test mail: # user@yourmachine ~ $ ssmtp "testing ssmtp setup" yourMail@gmail.com
Using sSMTP with Gmail
Using sSMTP with Gmail is simple, you just have to change a few options around and add in TLS encryption and change Google's server to port 587
AuthMethod=LOGIN UseTLS=YES UseSTARTTLS=YES mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
And that's all. Now just tell your MUA to run /usr/sbin/ssmtp for outgoing mails, and you should be set. This also works with Google for Domains.