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+= Send emails using the command line for fun and profit!
+
+:ssmtp: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSMTP
+:mailutils: https://mailutils.org/
+
+Here are a few reasons why:
+
+. send yourself and other people notification of cronjobs, scripts runs, CI
+ jobs, _etc._
+. leverage the POSIX pipe `|`, and pipe emails away!
+. because you can.
+
+Reason 3 is the fun part, reasons 1 and 2 are the profit part.
+
+First {ssmpt}[install and configure SSMTP] for using, say, Gmail as the email
+server:
+
+[source,shell]
+----
+# file /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
+FromLineOverride=YES
+MailHub=smtp.gmail.com:587
+UseSTARTTLS=YES
+UseTLS=YES
+rewriteDomain=gmail.com
+root=username@gmail.com
+AuthUser=username
+AuthPass=password
+----
+
+Now install {mailutils}[GNU Mailutils] (`sudo apt-get install mailutils` or the
+equivalent on your OS), and send yourself your first email:
+
+[source,shell]
+----
+echo body | mail -aFrom:email@example.com email@example.com -s subject
+----
+
+And that's about it, you've got mail. Here are some more places where it might
+be applicable:
+
+[source,shell]
+----
+# report a backup cronjob, attaching logs
+set -e
+
+finish() {
+ status=$?
+ if [[ $status = 0 ]]; then
+ STATUS="SUCCESS (status $status)"
+ else
+ STATUS="FAILURE (status $status)"
+ fi
+
+ mail user@example.com \
+ -s "Backup job report on $(hostname): ${STATUS}" \
+ --content-type 'text/plain; charset=utf-8' \
+ -A"$LOG_FILE" <<< 'The log report is in the attachment.'
+}
+trap finish EXIT
+
+do-long-backup-cmd-here
+----
+
+....
+# share the output of a cmd with someone
+some-program | mail someone@example.com -s "The weird logs that I was talking about"
+....
+
+...and so on.
+
+You may consider adding a `alias mail='mail -aFrom:email@example.com'` so you
+don't keep re-entering the ``From:'' part.
+
+Send yourself some emails to see it working!