Overview
Sendmail creates and sends email messages from a DreamHost server, either by running the sendmail command in a Shell environment or by calling it from within a programming script. This article covers two ways to send a message with Sendmail — from the command line and from within a script.
What is Sendmail?
Sendmail is a mail transfer agent (MTA) used to route email to a specific recipient. It can be used by running the sendmail command in a Shell environment or within a programming script. For more information, see this page for a list of different parameters you can use with Sendmail.
Sendmail is subject to SMTP quota limits. DreamHost recommends that you configure any scripts relying on Sendmail to use SMTP authentication.
How do I create a Sendmail message?
The following explains two different options to create a Sendmail message.
In the following examples, you only need to adjust the highlighted text.
Option one — Using Sendmail from the command line
The following are two examples of how to send email from the command line using Sendmail.
Simple example
Log into your server via SSH. Once logged in, you can run the following command to send email:
[server]$ /usr/sbin/sendmail youremail@example.com Subject: Test Send Mail Hello World control d (this key combination of control key and d will finish the email.)
The above example sends an email as follows:
- The first line indicates the email address Sendmail will send the email TO.
- The Subject is Test Send Mail.
- The body of the message is Hello World.
- When the message is received, the FROM email address will appear as your user@server. For example, username@servername.dreamhost.com.
Option two — Using Sendmail in a script
You can also use Sendmail in a script as well. Consult the documentation for the programming language of your choice for examples.
When creating the file on a DreamHost server, make sure the permissions are set to 755, or it will not run.