Log all mails and content (sSMTP)

Question

How can I log all emails going through sSMTP?

I can point my applications to a wrapper script, I just don't know how to write a wrapper script which logs headers and contents to a file (as much information as possible).

Thanks! :-)

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 05 '13 at 17:48

14

sSMTP has debug logging built in. In your ssmtp.conf file, include the following line: Debug=YES

When debug logging is active, the entire contents of emails sent via sSMTP, including headers, is logged to syslog.

answered Dec 05 '13 at 17:48

Daniel

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the `ssmtp.conf` man page doesn't mention this parameter :/ – cweiske Nov 21 '17 at 10:15
Syslog file is usually here in Ubuntu: `/var/log/syslog` – Dzmitry Kulahin Sep 08 '20 at 21:33

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 03 '12 at 20:12

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The following should work as an sSMTP wrapper script. It logs the parameters it is called with and the data provided on stdin. Change the logfile location and name of the real sSMTP as appropriate.

#!/bin/sh
set -e
LOGFILE="/tmp/ssmtp-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S-$$)"
echo "$0 $@" > "$LOGFILE"
tee -a "$LOGFILE" | ssmtp.real "$@"

Remember to make the script executable:

chmod +x /path/to/script

edited Jul 03 '12 at 20:12

Thomas Jensen

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answered Jul 03 '12 at 19:36

mgorven

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Can I log the response from Amazon to the log file as well? – Thomas Jensen Oct 04 '12 at 09:32

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 19 '20 at 09:22

2

My working solution is: ssmtp -d9 <email-recipient>.

answered Mar 19 '20 at 09:22

Antonio Petricca

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '12 at 19:07

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Why don't you just have your SMTP server log all of the messages received, hence capture the entire message?

If you use an external server you could just setup a simple internal server that then relays to the external server.

answered Jul 03 '12 at 19:07

Brent Pabst

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I use Amazon SES, which doesn't provide logging. I thought sSMTP was that simple internal server? – Thomas Jensen Jul 03 '12 at 19:11

Log all mails and content (sSMTP)

4 Answers4