Configure
Postfix to use Gmail as a Mail Relay
If
you have a Gmail account, you can configure your MTA to relay
outgoing mail through Gmail. This gives you the benefit of Gmail's
reliability and robust infrastructure, and provides you with a simple
means of sending email from the command line.
In
this tutorial, we will use Postfix
as our MTA. Postfix is a free, open-source, actively maintained, and
highly secure mail
transfer agent.
At
each step, we'll cover instructions specific to the following
operating systems:.
-
-
-
-
Arch
Linux 2016.02.01
FreeBSD
10.2
We
will also install mailutils/mailx so that we can send a test email.
Where necessary, we will install supplemental SASL libraries.
Ubuntu/Debian:-
# apt-get update && apt-get install postfix mailutils
When
prompted for "General type of mail configuration,"
choose
Internet
Site
.
When
prompted for a "Mail name," choose a hostname to be used in
mail
headers as the origin of your emails. A fully-qualified domain name
is preferred, but using your machine's simple hostname is OK.
Regardless of what you enter here, your return address will appear to
recipients as your Gmail address.
You
may be prompted to set the "Root and postmaster mail recipient."
Enter
root
,
or another user who should receive mail subsystem notifications.
For
any other prompts, you can choose the default values.
Fedora
#
dnf update && dnf install postfix mailx
CentOS
#
yum update && yum install postfix mailx cyrus-sasl cyrus-sasl-plain
OpenSUSE
#
zypper update && zypper install postfix mailx cyrus-sasl
Arch
Linux
#
pacman -Sy postfix mailutils
FreeBSD
Compile
Postfix
from the ports collection to incorporate support for SASL:
#
portsnap fetch extract update
#
cd /usr/ports/mail/postfix
#
make config
In
the configuration dialogs, select
SASL
support
.
All other options can remain the same. Then:
#
make install clean
Mailx
can be installed from the binary package:
#
pkg install mailx
Configure Gmail Authentication
Create
or modify a password file which will be used by Postfix to establish
authentication with Gmail. In the authentication information below,
replace
username
with
your Gmail username and
password
with
your Gmail password. If you are using a custom Gmail Apps domain
name, you may replace
gmail.com
with
your Google Apps domain.
The password file will reside in the
Postfix
configuration directory. The file can be named whatever you like, but
the recommended filename is
sasl_passwd
.
Debian,
Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux:
Postfix
configuration files reside in the directory
/etc/postfix
.
Create or edit the password file:
#
vi /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Add
the line:
[smtp.gmail.com]:587 username@gmail.com:password
Save
and close the file. Your Gmail password is stored as plaintext, so
make the file accessible only by root:
# chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
FreeBSD:
Postfix
configuration files reside in the directory
/usr/local/etc/postfix
.
Create or edit the password file:
# vi /usr/local/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Add
the line:
[smtp.gmail.com]:587 username@gmail.com:password
Save
and close the file. Make it accessible only by root:
#chmod 600 /usr/local/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Configure
Postfix
There
are six parameters which must be set in the Postfix configuration
file
main.cf
.
The parameters are:
relayhost
,
which specifies the mail relay host and port number. The host name
will be enclosed in brackets to specify that no MX lookup is
required.
smtp_use_tls
,
which enables (or disables) transport layer
security.
smtp_sasl_auth_enable
,
which enables (or disables) SASL
authentication.
smtp_sasl_security_options
,
which in the following configuration will be set to empty, to ensure
that no Gmail-incompatible security options are
used.
smtp_sasl_password_maps, which specifies the password file
to use. This file will be compiled and hashed by
postmap
in
a later step.
smtp_tls_CAfile
,
which specifies the list of certificate authorities to use when
verifying server identity.
Debian,
Ubuntu, Arch Linux:
Edit
the main Postfix configuration file:
#
vi /etc/postfix/main.cf
Add
or modify the following values:
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
Save
and close the file.
Fedora,
CentOS:
Edit
the main Postfix configuration file:
#vi /etc/postfix/main.cf
Add
or modify the following values:
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
Save
and close the file.
OpenSUSE:
Edit
the main Postfix configuration file:
#vi /etc/postfix/main.cf
Add
or modify the following values:
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
Save
and close the file.
OpenSUSE
also requires that the Postfix master process configuration file
master.cf be modified. Open it for editing:
#
vi /etc/postfix/master.cf
Locate
the line which reads:
#tlsmgr unix - - n 1000? 1 tlsmg
Uncomment
it, so it reads:
tlsmgr unix - - n 1000? 1 tlsmg
Save
and close the file.
FreeBSD:
Edit
the main Postfix configuration file:
#
vi /usr/local/etc/postfix/main.cf
Add or modify
the following values:
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/usr/local/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/mail/certs/cacert.pem
Save and
close the file.
Process
Password File
Use
postmap to compile and hash the contents of sasl_passwd. The results
will be stored in your Postfix configuration directory in the file
sasl_passwd.db.
Debian,
Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux:
#
postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
FreeBSD
#
postmap /usr/local/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Restart
Postfix
Restart
the Postfix service, putting your changes into effect.
Debian,
Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux:
#
systemctl restart postfix.service
FreeBSD:
To
start the Postfix service for this session only:
#
service postfix onestart
To
start Postfix automatically when the system initializes, open
/etc/rc.conf
for editing:
#
vi /etc/rc.conf
Add
the line:
postfix_enable=YES
Save
and close the file. You may then run:
#
service postfix start
To
start Postfix.
Enable
"Less Secure Apps" In Gmail
By
default, only the most secure sign-ins, such as logging in to Gmail
on the web, are allowed for your Gmail account. To permit relay
requests, log in to your Gmail account and turn on Allow less secure
apps.
Send
A Test Email
Test
your new configuration by sending an email using the mail
command. Run:
mail -s "Test subject" recipient@domain.com
You
will be presented with a blank line (or a CC: field, which you can
bypass by pressing Enter). Type the body of your message, pressing
Enter for new lines. When you are finished composing the email, type
CTRL-D to send it. To cancel the email, press CTRL-C twice.
To
send a precomposed email, use the command:
mail -s "Subject Here" recipient@domain.com < textfile
Where
textfile is the name of a file containing the text to be sent.
Troubleshooting(Through
Log)
If
it's not working, check the logs for any Postfix errors:
Debian:
less /var/log/mail.log
Ubuntu,
Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux:
journalctl
FreeBSD:
less /var/log/maillog
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