notifymail 1.1
Allows scripts to send email to a preconfigured address.
License: MIT

notifymail
==========

``notifymail`` allows scripts to send email to a preconfigured address.
It is particularly useful for unattended and scheduled scripts to report
their status to an administrator.

``notifymail`` is designed to be very easy to install and use. I wrote
it because I couldn't figure out how to configure the built-in
``sendmail`` command to forward emails appropriately and I couldn't get
the similar ``ssmtp`` package to work.

Requirements
------------

-  OS X or Linux
-  Python 2.7 or 3.4
-  An email account

Installation
------------

::

    $ pip install notifymail  # or pip3 (for Python 3.x)

Configuration
-------------

You must know the SMTP settings of your email provider, which can
typically looked up on your provider's website. For example here are
`Gmail's SMTP
settings <https://support.google.com/mail/troubleshooter/1668960?hl=en#ts=1665119,1665162>`__,
obtained with a internet search for "gmail SMTP settings":

-  **Gmail SMTP Server:** smtp.gmail.com
-  **Gmail SMTP Port:** 587 (for TLS)
-  **Gmail SMTP Uses TLS?** yes

Usually your SMTP username will be the same as your email address, and
your SMTP password will be the same as your email password.

Once you have the settings in hand, run the ``notifymail.py --setup``
command:

::

    $ notifymail.py --setup
    SMTP Server Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
    SMTP Server Port [465]: 587
    SMTP Server Uses TLS (y/n) [n]: yes
    SMTP Username: robot@gmail.com
    SMTP Password: ********
    From Address [robot@gmail.com]: robot@gmail.com
    From Name (optional) []: notifymail
    To Address: admin@example.com

    Verifying connection to SMTP server... OK

Usage
-----

From the Command Line
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::

    $ echo "Hello World" | notifymail.py -s "Subject"

``notifymail`` will read the message body from standard input and allow
you to specify a subject line with the ``-s`` option. You may also
specify a custom sender name using the ``--from-name`` option.

In Python 2 the encoding of the message body and all arguments is
assumed to be UTF-8. In Python 3 the encoding of both is autodetected in
`the usual
fashion <https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.stdin>`__.

Full usage information:

::

    Usage: notifymail.py --setup | -s SUBJECT [-b BODY] [--from-name NAME] | --probe

    Options:
      -h, --help            show this help message and exit
      --setup               setup mail server configuration
      --probe               check whether mail server is reachable
      -s SUBJECT, --subject=SUBJECT
                            subject line. Required.
      -b BODY, --body=BODY  body. Read from standard input if omitted.
      --from-name=NAME      sender name. Overrides the default sender name.

From a Python Script
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::

    import notifymail
    notifymail.send('Subject', 'Hello World')

String arguments can be either Unicode strings or UTF-8 encoded
bytestrings.

From a Non-Python Script
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just execute the ``notifymail`` command using your language's normal API
for running system commands.

For example, in Ruby:

::

    require 'open3'

    Open3.popen3('notifymail.py', '-s', 'Subject') {|stdin, stdout, stderr, wait_thr|
      stdin.puts('Hello World!')
      stdin.close
      
      exit_code = wait_thr.value.to_i
      if exit_code != 0
        raise "notifymail exited with error code #{exit_code}."
      end
    }

For example, in Java:

::

    import java.io.*;

    try {
        Process notifymail = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {
            "notifymail.py", "-s", "Subject" });
        PrintStream stdin = new PrintStream(
            notifymail.getOutputStream(), /*autoFlush=*/false, "UTF-8");
        
        stdin.println("Hello World!");
        stdin.close();
        
        int exitCode = notifymail.waitFor();
        if (exitCode != 0) {
            throw new Exception("notifymail exited with error code " + exitCode + ".");
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Unable to send email.", e);
    }

Limitations
-----------

-  The configured SMTP settings are stored in plaintext, including the
   SMTP password.

License
-------

This code is provided under the MIT License.

Release Notes
-------------

-  1.1

   -  Add support for Python 3.4. Remove support for Python 2.6.
   -  Fix ``--from-name`` to actually work.
   -  Fix ``--setup`` to not print usage info after completing setup.

-  1.0

   -  Initial version.