Specify the from user when sending email using the mail command

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.

You can specify any extra header you may need with -a

$mail -s "Some random subject" -a "From: [email protected]" [email protected]

<http://www.mindspill.org/962> seems to have a solution.

Essentially:

echo "This is the main body of the mail" | mail -s "Subject of the Email" [email protected] -- -f [email protected]

mail -r [email protected] -R [email protected]

-r = from-addr -R = reply-to addr

The author has indicated his version of mail doesn't support this flag. But if you have a version that does this works fine.

When sending over SMTP, the mail man page advises to set the from variable, in this way (Tested on CentOS 6):

mail -s Subject -S from=sender@example.com recipient@example.com

You could also attach a file using the -a option:

mail -s Subject -S from=sender@example.com -a path_to_attachement recipient@example.com

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<[email protected]>'
-Sreplyto="[email protected]"
[email protected][,[email protected]]

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

I got this mail command from:

apt-get install mailutils

You can append sendmail options to the end of the mail command by first adding --. -f is the command on sendmail to set the from address. So you can do this:

mail [email protected] -- -f [email protected]

None of the above worked for me. And it took me long to figure it out, hopefully this helps the next guy.

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with mailutils v2.1.

I found this solutions somewhere on the net, don't know where, can't find it again:

-aFrom:Servername-Server@mydomain.com

Full Command used:

cat /root/Reports/ServerName-Report-$DATE.txt | mail -s "Server-Name-Report-$DATE" [email protected] -aFrom:[email protected]

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" [email protected]
 From: Joel <[email protected]>

 Hi!
 .

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

PS: Most versions of mail suck!

on CentOs5: -r [email protected]

echo "This is the main body of the mail" | mail -s "Subject of the Email" recipent_address@example.com -- -f from_user@example.com -F "Elvis Presley"

or

echo "This is the main body of the mail" | mail -s "Subject of the Email" recipent_address@example.com -aFrom:"Elvis Presley<[email protected]>"

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" [email protected]

And the associated logs: Feb 6 09:02:51 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: B10322269D: from=<[email protected]>, size=437, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Feb 6 09:02:52 myserver postfix/smtp[19848]: B10322269D: to=<[email protected]>, 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" [email protected] -- [email protected]

This changes the orig-to value but not the from value: Feb 6 09:09:09 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: 6BD362269D: from=<[email protected]>, size=474, nrcpt=2 (queue active) Feb 6 09:09:09 myserver postfix/smtp[20505]: 6BD362269D: to=<me@noone>, orig_to=<[email protected]>, 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 [email protected] [email protected] -- [email protected]

And the logs: Feb 6 09:17:11 myserver postfix/qmgr[28875]: E3B972264C: from=<[email protected]>, size=459, nrcpt=2 (queue active) Feb 6 09:17:11 myserver postfix/smtp[21559]: E3B972264C: to=<[email protected]>, orig_to=<[email protected]>, 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.

This works on Centos7

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

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 <[email protected]>" -s "test cli email $(date)" -- [email protected]

Hope this helps!

For CentOS here is the working command :

mail -s Subject -S from=sender@example.com recipient@example.com

Thanks to all example providers, some worked for some not. Below is another simple example format that worked for me.

echo "Sample body" | mail -s "Test email" from=sender-addrs@example.com recepient-addres@example.com

I faced the same issue. But i solved the problem just be setting geko field in /ect/passwd field. Postfix by default send the mail from user login. Lets suppose you want to change from field to Alert. You just need to edit /ect/passwd file in any editor you like.

1. vim /ect/passwd

root:x:0:0:Alerts:/root:/bin/bash

2. Restart postfix.

Now check the result.

3. echo "This is the main body of the mail" | mail -s "Subject of the Email" [email protected]

Now in recipient. From will be shown as Alerts as you have specified in geko field. Hope this solution works for you.