Specify the from user when sending email using the

Question

Does anyone know how to change the from user when sending email using the mail command? I have looked through the man page and can not see how to do this.

We are running Redhat Linux 5.

Answer 1

This works on Centos7

echo "This is the main body of the mail" | mail -s "Subject of the Email" -r [e-mail] [e-mail]

Answer 2

None of these worked for me (Ubuntu 12.04) but finally with trial & error I got:

echo 'my message blabla\nSecond line (optional of course)' | 
mail -s "Your message title"
-r 'Your full name<[e-mail]>'
-Sreplyto="[e-mail]"
[e-mail][,[e-mail]]

(all in one line, there is no space in "-Sreplyto")

I got this mail command from:

apt-get install mailutils

Answer 3

Here's a solution.

The second easiest solution after -r (which is to specify a From: header and separate it from the body by a newline like this

 $mail -s "Subject" [e-mail]
 From: Joel <[e-mail]>

 Hi!
 .

works in only a few mail versions, don't know what version redhat carries).

PS: Most versions of mail suck!

Answer 4

Here's an answer from 2018, on Debian 9 stretch.

Note the -e for echo to allow newline characters, and -r for mailx to show a name along with an outgoing email address:

$ echo -e "testing email via yourisp.com from command line\n\nsent on: $(date)" | mailx -r "Foghorn Leghorn <[e-mail]>" -s "test cli email $(date)" -- [e-mail]

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Most people need to change two values when trying to correctly forge the from address on an email. First is the from address and the second is the orig-to address. Many of the solutions offered online only change one of these values.

If as root, I try a simple mail command to send myself an email it might look like this. echo "test" | mail -s "a test" [e-mail]

And the associated logs: Feb 6 09:02:51 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: B10322269D: from=<[e-mail]>, size=437, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Feb 6 09:02:52 myserver postfix/smtp[19848]: B10322269D: to=<[e-mail]>, relay=myMTA[x.x.x.x]:25, delay=0.34, delays=0.1/0/0.11/0.13, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 Ok 0000014b5f678593-a0e399ef-a801-4655-ad6b-19864a220f38-000000)

Trying to change the from address with -- echo "test" | mail -s "a test" [e-mail] -- [e-mail]

This changes the orig-to value but not the from value: Feb 6 09:09:09 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: 6BD362269D: from=<[e-mail]>, size=474, nrcpt=2 (queue active) Feb 6 09:09:09 myserver postfix/smtp[20505]: 6BD362269D: to=<me@noone>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=myMTA[x.x.x.x]:25, delay=0.31, delays=0.06/0/0.09/0.15, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 Ok 0000014b5f6d48e2-a98b70be-fb02-44e0-8eb3-e4f5b1820265-000000)

Next trying it with a -r and a -- to adjust the from and orig-to. echo "test" | mail -s "a test" -r [e-mail] [e-mail] -- [e-mail]

And the logs: Feb 6 09:17:11 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: E3B972264C: from=<[e-mail]>, size=459, nrcpt=2 (queue active) Feb 6 09:17:11 myserver postfix/smtp[21559]: E3B972264C: to=<[e-mail]>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=myMTA[x.x.x.x]:25, delay=1.1, delays=0.56/0.24/0.11/0.17, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 Ok 0000014b5f74a2c0-c06709f0-4e8d-4d7e-9abf-dbcea2bee2ea-000000)

This is how it's working for me. Hope this helps someone.

Answer 6

on CentOs5: -r [e-mail]