HOWTOs, tips and tricks

HOWTO setup Exim4 to work with Gmail account

Setup Exim4 to use Gmail as an external SMTP server:

# dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Choose the answers:

Choose “mail sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail”
Set to “localhost” for “System mail name:”.
Set to “127.0.0.1” for “IP-addresses to listen on for incoming SMTP connections” to refuse external connections.
Leave as empty for “Other destinations for which mail is accepted:”.
Leave as empty for “Machines to relay mail for:”.
Set to “smtp.gmail.com::587” for “IP address or host name of the outgoing smarthost:”.
Choose “NO” for “Hide local mail name in outgoing mail?”.
Choose “NO” for “Keep number of DNS-queries minimal (Dial-on-Demand)?”.
Choose “mbox format in /var/mail/” for “Delivery method for local mail”.
Choose “YES” for “Split configuration into small files?”.

Enable 2-factor authentication on your Gmail account used for sending emails and follow Google instruction to create app specific password.

Edit /etc/exim4/passwd.client and add the following line inside:

smtp.gmail.com:<gmail-sender-account-name>:<your-app-password>

You should use account name not email address here.

If it is new or restored file then ensure the permissions are correct:

# chown root:Debian-exim /etc/exim4/passwd.client
# chmod 640 /etc/exim4/passwd.client

You can also configure replacement of the local sender address to your Gmail one:

# echo '<local-user-name>: <gmail-sender-account-name>@gmail.com' >> /etc/email-addresses
# echo '<local-user-name>@localhost: <gmail-sender-account-name>@gmail.com' >> /etc/email-addresses
# echo '<local-user-name>@<hostname>: <gmail-sender-account-name>@gmail.com' >> /etc/email-addresses

Update Exim4 configuration, remove stale mail:

# update-exim4.conf
# invoke-rc.d exim4 restart
# exim4 -qff

Check that email is sent using:

$ echo "Subj" | mail -s "Test email from Exim4" <email-address>

Check logs to see if email was sent successfully:

# less /var/log/exim4/mainlog

Check if email is received by <email-address>. If it is Gmail address you may need add filtering rule to prevent email be classified as a spam.

In order to redirect the local mail to the external address, edit the /etc/aliases file and add the following line:

<local-user-name>: <email-address>

and execute:

$ newaliases

in order to update aliases configuration.

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