On Wed, 2007-02-21 at 19:53 -0500, 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.
I have all of my machines at home configured to send all "administrative" mail to my server which is on the internet. There fore they need to have a real e-mail address. You know you have an MTA running on your machine... Just a snippet from /etc/aliases # /etc/aliases mailer-daemon: postmaster postmaster: root nobody: root hostmaster: root usenet: root news: root webmaster: root www: root ftp: root abuse: root noc: root security: root root: [EMAIL PROTECTED] That is just from my personal workstation. I have my MTA (exim4, exim4-base, exim4-config, exim4-daemon-light) configured to have zero local mail. Any mail being forwarded to a smart mailer. Which would happen to be my machine. Though I could configure it to use Comcast's crappy servers, which would then send it to my gregfolkert.net MX record. Hope this helps. -- greg, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Novell's Directory Services is a competitive product to Microsoft's Active Directory in much the same way that the Saturn V is a competitive product to those dinky little model rockets that kids light off down at the playfield. -- Thane Walkup -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]