How can I send emails with sendmail command (MUA) to a smarthost without running a local SMTP server (MTA)

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

Mail should be sent from the system via the sendmail command.

Running a local SMTP server is undesired. Mail should be sent directly to a mail relay server.

No SMTP port should be open for security reasons.

If the sendmail service is stopped or DAEMON=no is set in /etc/sysconfig/sendmail sending a mail will produce a error like this:

sendmail: o44F8Gqi030336: from=root, size=8, class=0, nrcpts=2, msgid=<201005041508.o44F8Gqi030336@dhcp-1-216.fab.redhat.com>, relay=root@localhost
sendmail: o44F8Gqi030336: to=noreply@redhat.com,test, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:04, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=60008, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

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