Postfix is a popular mail transfer agent (MTA) used to route and deliver email on Linux and Unix systems. In this tutorial, we will install Postfix on Debian Latest.
Before you start, ensure you have:
Ensure that your Debian Latest system is up to date by running:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
To install Postfix on Debian Latest, run the following command:
sudo apt install postfix
During the installation, you will be prompted to choose a mail server configuration option. Choose Internet Site and press Enter.
In the next screen, enter your system's fully qualified domain name (FQDN) (e.g. example.com) and press Enter.
Postfix's primary configuration file is located at /etc/postfix/main.cf. We'll make some changes to this file to configure Postfix.
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf
Add the following lines at the end of the file to configure Postfix to use Google's SMTP server to send email:
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
Save and close the file.
Create a file /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd with the following contents:
[smtp.gmail.com]:587 USERNAME@gmail.com:PASSWORD
Replace USERNAME@gmail.com with your Gmail account's email address and PASSWORD with your Gmail account's password.
Secure the authentication file by running:
sudo chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Restart Postfix by running:
sudo systemctl restart postfix
Test if Postfix is working by sending a test email:
echo "This is a test email" | mail -s "Test Email Subject" recipient@example.com
Replace recipient@example.com with the target email address.
If the email is sent successfully, you'll receive a message in your inbox.
And you're done!
Postfix has been successfully installed and configured on your Debian Latest server. You can now use it to send email from your server or applications.
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