Sending email from a gentoo guest on windows host

[nericsla]

I am a total newbie to linux servers, so please bear with my questions!

I have installed a virtual gentoo machine on a windows host. The guest has its own IP address on the network.

I am now trying to send email from the guest. What do I need to do?

To be specific, I am playing with an online database, called Eprints (www.eprints.org). Everything else is set-up and working, but I need to send mail to confirm a new user. Where is it sending the mail (cos I never received it)?????? I believe I need to set up a mail server...?

Please help.

[jeremy whiting]

when you say 'guest' do you mean the gentoo install from within windows? if so, you can try the mail command from the command line to test sending mail, you don't 'need' a mail server unless you want other computers to be able to use your computer as a relay point to send and receive mail from.

If all you are asking is how to set up a mail client for example KMail, or Evolution to send e-mail, that's one thing, but setting up your own mail server is completely different. Could you be a bit more specific as to what you're trying to do?

[nericsla]

I have vmware running with gentoo as a guest.

I have set up a domain: 'mobius.etc.co.uk' and I need to send and receive emails from/to that domain. So I guess i need a mail client

[ewtrowbr]

If you emerged vixie-cron, you probably emerged ssmtp, which is a vixie-cron dependency. There should be a /etc/ssmtp.conf file, that points to a smtp gateway for the command line mail utility. The default is mail.$DOMAINNAME .

try senting test mail from the command line with...

mail -s testing mailbox@somewhere.com
this is a test.
.

gl
erich

[jeremy whiting]

if you only have command line linux set up I'd use mutt or pine to send mail if you're doing it interactively, however if you're trying to send mail from a script (PHP, Perl, Bash, etc) I'd try what wetrowbr is suggesting and set the ssmtp package (a very lightweight sendmail clone) to send all email to your isp, or work's smtp server instead.

[nericsla]

I used ssmtp as suggested and got things working. Thanx.

[pjesi]