Installing Sendmail on nixOS

Sendmail is an open-source email solution that provides email protection for your system. In this tutorial, we will help you install Sendmail on nixOS Latest.

Step 1: Install Sendmail package

The first step is to install the Sendmail package. Open the terminal and enter the following command:

$ sudo nix-env -iA nixos.sendmail

Step 2: Configure Sendmail

After the installation is complete, we can configure Sendmail. You can do this by editing the sendmail.mc file located in the /etc/mail directory. You can use the following command to open the file:

$ sudo nano /etc/mail/sendmail.mc

Now add the following lines at the end of the file:

define(`SMART_HOST', `smtp.gmail.com')dnl
define(`RELAY_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl
define(`ESMTP_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl
define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS', `A p')dnl
TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`EXTERNAL DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `EXTERNAL GSSAPI DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl

Save and close the file.

Step 3: Create Sendmail Configuration File

We need to create a Sendmail configuration file. To do this, open the terminal and enter the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Now, add the following lines in the file:

D{authinfo}/etc/mail/auth/client-info
*define(`SMART_HOST', `smtp.gmail.com')dnl
*define(`RELAY_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl
*define(`ESMTP_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl
*define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS', `A p')dnl
*TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`EXTERNAL DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl
*define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `EXTERNAL GSSAPI DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl

Save and close the file.

Step 4: Configure authentication

Sendmail requires you to set up authentication to enable sending and receiving emails. You can set up authentication by creating a file named client-info in the /etc/mail/auth directory.

Open the terminal and enter the following command:

$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/mail/auth
$ sudo touch /etc/mail/auth/client-info
$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/mail/auth/client-info
$ sudo nano /etc/mail/auth/client-info

Add your Gmail username and password to this file in the following format:

AuthInfo:smtp.gmail.com:587 [email protected] YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE

Save and close the file.

Step 5: Restart Sendmail

Finally, we need to restart Sendmail for the changes to take effect. Enter the following command in the terminal:

$ sudo systemctl restart sendmail

Conclusion

That's it! You have successfully installed and configured Sendmail on nixOS Latest. Now, you can send and receive emails through your system.