mutt smtp server support (no local mta)

Suppose you want to use a text-based mail client without having to install and setup a full-fledged mail-transfer agent (mta). Mutt from version 1.5 on, has support for your smtp
server (internet mta) on the internet.

All you need to do is recompile with the extra option --enable-smtp in ./configure.

See the last line of the following command:

# ...
./configure \
  --prefix=/usr \
  --mandir=/usr/man \
  --sysconfdir=/etc/mutt \
  --with-mailpath=/var/spool/mail \
  --enable-pop \
  --enable-imap \
  --with-ssl \
  --enable-locales-fix \
  --without-wc-funcs \
  --build=$ARCH-slackware-linux \
  --enable-smtp # <-- add this extra argument!
# ...

To configure the server you need to create a file called .muttrc in your $HOME and enter the following settings:

#openssl aes-256-cbc -in test.txt -out test.txt.enc # encrypt
#openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in test.txt.enc       # decrypt
#echo "body" | mutt -s "subject" -F muttrc addressee@somewhere.com -a attachment
set smtp_url="smtp://smtp.server.tld"
set realname="Mutt Forevah"
set from="Who-ay-Em Ayemhoo"

Adapt to your smtp server settings accordingly.

Simple script to alert you when websites are down

Suppose your clients and boss would like to know when a site you maintain should go down.

You can write your own script to achieve this goal, where you implement a light-weight http client in python-twisted... but why bother?

There is a thing called reinventing the wheel.


So what do we need?

1. curl;
2. logrotate;
3. mutt;
4. A list of urls;
5. A log file to record visits by curl;
6. A script called site-checker, which one puts in the /etc/cron.hourly/ and chmod 770 /etc/cron.hourly/site-checker:
   
   
   

   #!/bin/bash
   
   #set -e -x
   
   FILELOC=/home/user/bin/websites.list
   LOGFILE=/home/user/bin/log/site-checker.log
   WEBSITES=$(cat $FILELOC | xargs)
   UDATE=$(date -u)
   EMAILADDR=user@nowhere.com
   for w in $WEBSITES
   do
     echo "==Fetched $w on $UDATE==" >> $LOGFILE
     curl -sf $w || echo "Warning: $w is down on $UDATE" | mutt -s "[website down] $UDATE $w" $EMAILADDR $
   done
   

websites.list would contain something like this:

www.microsoft.com
www.google.com
www.sap.com
www.oracle.com

For mutt to send e-mails you either need to setup a MTA (mail-transfer agent) or add a .muttrc file to your $HOME, containing something like this:

set smtp_url="smtp://user@smtp.woohoo.com"
set smtp_pass="tuff2guess"

You also have to prevent your site-checker.log from growing too big with logrotate.

Type this in your bash shell:

echo -e "/home/user/bin/log/*.log {\n\
  daily\n\
  missingok\n\
  size=100k\n\
  rotate 5\n\
}" > /etc/logrotate.d/user-custom\

As with every single script on this blog, you must adapt the script to your own needs.

Happy hacking!


Update 21-dec-2010:

#!/bin/bash
FILELOC=/home/user/bin/websites.list
PEOPLELOC=/home/user/bin/people.list
LOGFILE=/home/user/bin/site-checker.log
WEBSITES=$(cat $FILELOC | xargs)
UDATE=$(date -u)

mail () {
  read message
  domainname=$1
  for addr in $(cat $PEOPLELOC | xargs)
  do
    echo $message | mutt $addr -s "[website down] $UDATE $domainname" 2> /dev/null
  done
}

for w in $WEBSITES
do
  touch $LOGFILE
  echo "==Fetched $w on $UDATE==" >> $LOGFILE
  curl -sf $w || echo "Warning: $w is down on $UDATE" | mail $w
done