notifymail 1.0

Allows scripts to send email to a preconfigured address.

notifymail
==========

``notifymail`` allows scripts to send email to a preconfigured address.
It is particularly useful for unattended and scheduled scripts to report
their status to an administrator.

``notifymail`` is designed to be very easy to install and use. I wrote
it because I couldn't figure out how to configure the built-in
``sendmail`` command to forward emails appropriately and I couldn't get
the similar ``ssmtp`` package to work.

Requirements
------------

- OS X or Linux
- Python 2.6 or 2.7
- An email account

Installation
------------

::

$ pip install notifymail

Configuration
-------------

You must know the SMTP settings of your email provider, which can
typically looked up on your provider's website. For example here are
`Gmail's SMTP
settings <https://support.google.com/mail/troubleshooter/1668960?hl=en#ts=1665119,1665162>`__,
obtained with a internet search for "gmail SMTP settings":

- **Gmail SMTP Server:** smtp.gmail.com
- **Gmail SMTP Port:** 587 (for TLS)
- **Gmail SMTP Uses TLS?** yes

Usually your SMTP username will be the same as your email address, and
your SMTP password will be the same as your email password.

Once you have the settings in hand, run the ``notifymail.py --setup``
command:

::

$ notifymail.py --setup
SMTP Server Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Server Port [465]: 587
SMTP Server Uses TLS (y/n) [n]: yes
SMTP Username: [e-mail]
SMTP Password: ********
From Address [[e-mail]]: [e-mail]
From Name (optional) []: notifymail
To Address: [e-mail]

Verifying connection to SMTP server... OK

Usage
-----

From the Command Line
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::

$ echo "Hello World" | notifymail.py -s "Subject"

``notifymail`` will read the message body from standard input and allow
you to specify a subject line with the ``-s`` option. You may also
specify a custom sender name using the ``--from-name`` option.

The encoding of the message body and all arguments is assumed to be
UTF-8.

Full usage information:

::

Usage: notifymail.py --setup | -s SUBJECT [-b BODY] [--from-name NAME] | --probe

Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--setup setup mail server configuration
--probe check whether mail server is reachable
-s SUBJECT, --subject=SUBJECT
subject line. Required.
-b BODY, --body=BODY body. Read from standard input if omitted.
--from-name=NAME sender name. Overrides the default sender name.

From a Python Script
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::

import notifymail
notifymail.send("Subject", "Hello World")

String arguments can be either Unicode strings or UTF-8 encoded
bytestrings.

From a Non-Python Script
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just execute the ``notifymail`` command using your language's normal API
for running system commands.

For example, in Ruby:

::

require 'open3'

Open3.popen3('notifymail.py', '-s', 'Subject') {|stdin, stdout, stderr, wait_thr|
stdin.puts('Hello World!')
stdin.close

exit_code = wait_thr.value.to_i
if exit_code != 0
raise "notifymail exited with error code #{exit_code}."
end
}

For example, in Java:

::

import java.io.*;

try {
Process notifymail = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {
"notifymail.py", "-s", "Subject" });
PrintStream stdin = new PrintStream(
notifymail.getOutputStream(), /*autoFlush=*/false, "UTF-8");

stdin.println("Hello World!");
stdin.close();

int exitCode = notifymail.waitFor();
if (exitCode != 0) {
throw new Exception("notifymail exited with error code " + exitCode + ".");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Unable to send email.", e);
}

Limitations
-----------

- The configured SMTP settings are stored in plaintext, including the
SMTP password.

License
-------

This code is provided under the MIT License.