SSMTP Messenger 📲

A simple way for users to use a send-only sendmail emulator.

Abstract

1. Setup
2. Weather Messaging

Instructions

1. Operating System
Before you start, you need to have at lease one of these platforms in place

1. Windows 10 using a Linux subsystem
2. Ubuntu
3. Linux
4. Raspberry Pi

2. Google Account

1. Login to your Gmail account
2. Select Security.
3. Under "Signing in to Google" select 2-Step Verification.
4. At the bottom of the page, select App passwords.
5. Enter a name that helps you remember where you’ll use the app password.
6. Select Generate.
7. To enter the app password, follow the instructions on your screen. The app password is the 16-character code that will be used for your email password in the python script.
8. Select Done.

3. Open up your terminal
Enter these commands below

foo@bar:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade    
foo@bar:~$ sudo apt-get install ssmtp mailutils   
foo@bar:~$ sudo apt-get install postfix   
foo@bar:~$ sudo apt-get install ssmtp   

4. Save original conf file

foo@bar:~$ sudo mv /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf.bak    

5 . Create new conf file (with vi, or some other text editor)

foo@bar:~$ sudo vi /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf    

In your file content, apply these changes

root=your_account@gmail.com
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587

FromLineOverride=YES
AuthUser=your_account@gmail.com
AuthPass=your_password
UseSTARTTLS=YES
UseTLS=YES

# Debug=Yes

Now enter
ctrl o
y to save your file
ctrl x to exit

6. Secure conf file

foo@bar:~$ sudo groupadd ssmtp
foo@bar:~$ sudo chown :ssmtp /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Now lets create a text file to create some content for our message!

foo@bar:~$ nano test.txt

In your file content, apply these changes

Hello 1 2 3 

Now enter
ctrl o
y to save your file
ctrl x to exit

7. Last but not least, the test!

foo@bar:~$ ssmtp recipient.address@some_domain.com < test.txt

Added bonus
Try texting from your computer to your phone! Look at link 3 for your carrier gateway

foo@bar:~$ ssmtp 1234567890@smsgateway < test.txt

Try texting from your computer to your phone using shell!

foo@bar:~$ nano test.sh

#!/bin/bash
   ssmtp ssmtp 1234567890@smsgateway < test.txt
   echo "Message sent" #prints in console/terminal

Now enter
ctrl o
y to save your file
ctrl x to exit

foo@bar:~$ chmod 777 test.sh
foo@bar:~$ ./test.sh
Message sent
foo@bar:~$

Weather

Take your SSMTP messaging skills a bit further using the OpenWeatherMap API! After signing up for a free key, you can use my weatherapi.py script as a guide to get a weather report on your phone. The output for my code is

_{Weather Output}

References

How to send mail from command line using gmail smtp server
How to write a shell script
SMS gateway lookup
Cell phone lookup

Terminology

1. What is ssmtp?
   SSMTP is a send-only sendmail emulator for machines which normally pick their mail up from a centralized mailhub.
2. What is mailutils?
   Mailutils is a swiss army knife of electronic mail handling and offers a set of utilities and daemons for processing e-mail.
3. What is postfix?
   Postfix is a free open-source mail transfer agent (MTA) that routes and delivers electronic mail.