-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 02/21/07 18:53, Grok Mogger wrote: > Miles Fidelman wrote: >> Grok Mogger wrote: >>> I was hoping someone could help me understand how cron magically >>> sends email. My ultimate goal is to configure cron to send real >>> Internet email so instead of just getting mail on my unix accounts on >>> my linux box (which I read via the 'mail' command) I can get email at >>> my gmail account. >> Basic answer comes from the manpage for cron: >> >> When executing commands, any output is mailed to the owner >> of the >> crontab (or to the user named in the MAILTO environment variable >> in the >> crontab, if such exists). >> so... simple answer is define MAILTO in your crontab >> >> broader answer depends on what mail you want sent - you can always >> include a sendmail command in whatever script you're running >> >> Miles >> >> >> > > I have read the cron manpage. I understand what cron mails and under > what conditions it mails it, what I don't understand is HOW it mails > it. I know that cron just sends the output of whatever script it runs. > I don't understand how it mails that output. I'd like to understand how > it does that so that I can make it send email to a gmail account or a > similar "real" Internet account. > > Are you telling me that if I set my MAILTO entry to something like > '[EMAIL PROTECTED]', that's actually going to send legitimate > Internet mail to Joe at his gmail account? I find that hard to believe.
Every *ix box has a mail server (aka MTA, Mail Transfer Agent) on it. The default Debian MTA is exim4, but many use/like postfix. That's how local mail is delivered, and how not-local mail is delivered "up the chain". AIUI, if configured as "Internet with smarthost", you tell your MTA what your machine's name and domain are, and what the relay_host is (that's your ISP's smtp server, which you typically enter into your mail client). Then, when "you" send an email, it gets piped to your MTA which then looks at the address to determine whether it's a local or remote address. If local, it's sent to the correct local mailbox. If "To:" is remote, the mail stream gets relayed to what ever machine is specified by the MTA config file's relay_host variable. Next comes /etc/aliases. Let's say some cron job sends an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your MTA then looks into /etc/aliases has an alias definition for 'root'. If so, it replaces root with the new address. If the new address is a non-local, it gets piped to the system you define as the relay_host. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFF3POyS9HxQb37XmcRAlc9AJ9oh2fXjr8/0LN9nEShXRcoFGa0KQCgslJx 41VdVYE9hj6U2bKwBYRlWwM= =ZAAv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
