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= How do I setup my Linux computer to relay mail through May First/People Link? =

[Reposted from a submission by abh.]

If you're using Remote Backups on Mayfirst, and you've tried to follow the instructions provided for offsite backups you might still find that you need to set up some kind of mail program. You'll need a mail client and a mail server.

I opted for mailx as a mail client because someone told me to:

{{{
sudo aptitude install mailx
}}}

Since our backup server isn't anything but a file server most of the time, I don't want to run (or deal with) a full scale postfix installation. Instead, I'm running esmtp-run, a lightweight mailer. Installing it on ubuntu linux is easy:

{{{
sudo aptitude install esmtp-run
}}}

Once it is there though, you're supposed to just magically know how to configure it. In case you can't read minds, look for a file like /etc/esmtprc in your file system (you might need the terminal for this) and edit it. I'm partial to vim but if you aren't a command line cowboy, you can try gedit instead:

{{{
sudo gedit /etc/esmtprc
}}}

Since I'm a Mayfirst member, my file looks like this:

{{{
# Config file for ESMTP sendmail

# The SMTP host and service (port)
hostname=mail.mayfirst.org:587

# The user name
username=rab

# The password
password=notyourbeeswax

# Whether to use Starttls
starttls=enabled

# The certificate passphrase
#certificate_passphrase=

# The Mail Delivery Agent
mda="/usr/bin/procmail -d %T"
}}}

Additions from dkg:

It's probably also worth making sure that the permissions on /etc/esmtprc are set correctly. If it's world-readable, then every account on your system will know your username and password, which would be a Bad Thing.