mail: cannot send message: process exited with a non-zero status

Question

I've had a cronjob working for about a fortnight without any problems. Then last night I checked I didn't get the email that I usually get. I went to the terminal to try send myself an email, I got the following error:

mail: cannot send message: process exited with a non-zero status

I haven't changed anything with my ssmtp cfg file. It just stopped working, when I check and recheck everything, the code, ssmtp, everything is perfect.

I send out my emails twice a day via cronjob. The crontab hasn't been interfered either. I really don't know why it would stop working.

The system sends out emails via gmail - I've gone into the gmail account and sent out test emails, they are sent and received without any problems.

Additionally I've checked throughout google, forums, websites I don't see any mistakes. This makes sense as everything was working fine 24 hours ago, and now it's just stopped.

Q: Is there any way of diagnosing and troubleshooting how to solve such a problem?

1) Have you tried running that cron command in your usual terminal to see the output? 2) Have you checked logs (usually in `/var/log`) 3) Have you checked that network ports used for mailing are not blocked on your Internet connection? — webknjaz -- Слава Україні, Feb 18 '15 at 01:08
__Q1__ Yes, I did. When I did it gave the error. __Q2__ Looked at the /var/log, couldn't see any problems __Q3__ I've tried sending mail, from home, from thethering with my cell phone, and also from work - each of them have different internet connection - and all resulted with the error in the title. — 3kstc, Feb 18 '15 at 01:18
var/log/sudo syslog - it looks fine.. seems everything is working like crock work and then it started working again, I can send emails out from the terminal now.... — 3kstc, Feb 18 '15 at 21:47
gmail has some limitations for sending emails via SMTP. I guess that's it. However there should have been smth in your MTA's logs. — webknjaz -- Слава Україні, Feb 19 '15 at 15:13
@webknjaz I suspect the higher powers of gmail, bar my cron emails (perhaps considering it as spam) - but if this was the case my syslog would pick it up with someting like error 550 5.4.5 or something similiar.. It's currently unpredictable like a teenagers temper. — 3kstc, Feb 19 '15 at 21:19
I think you shouldn't look for this in syslog. I'd check the log of ssmtp. — webknjaz -- Слава Україні, Feb 20 '15 at 00:56
@webKnjaZ /var/log/sudo ssmtp? how does one check the ssmtp logs? — 3kstc, Feb 20 '15 at 01:08

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited May 01 '15 at 15:28

35

I have get the same problem in an Ubuntu 14.04 server. And I find error message in /var/log/mail.err, which said:

postfix/sendmail[27115]: fatal: open /etc/postfix/main.cf: No such file or directory

Then I just reconfigured postfix and solved this problem.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

edited May 01 '15 at 15:28

roaima

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answered May 01 '15 at 11:51

Liangxu Wang

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Could you tell us what reconfig option you selected? – Fernando Sep 06 '15 at 14:29
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I selected server as "internet server" and domain as server domain all rest were first choice. This worked for me. – Bartosz Dabrowski Aug 16 '16 at 15:24
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thanks for the hint: `/var/log/mail.err` - big help for newbie – bkwdesign Aug 18 '20 at 03:43

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 02 '16 at 19:56

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Its mainly due to file size is very large, You can zip the file and resend them..

answered Oct 02 '16 at 19:56

Rock

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 23 '18 at 13:50

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On Debian I got the error

mail: cannot send message: process exited with a non-zero status error

and an exit code of

$ echo $?
$ 36

because the hostname in /etc/hostname and the name for 127.0.0.1 in /etc/hosts differed.

answered Mar 23 '18 at 13:50

Frank

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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 04 '20 at 09:27

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I don't know if it helps to anyone, but here is my experience. I configure ssmtp just to send emails from my Ubuntu 18.04 server.

What cause me the error was that gmail had "less secure apps off", this caused that google couldn't authenticate my server's certificate. Once enabled, I could start sending emails from the server. Hope it helps!

edited Dec 04 '20 at 09:27

AdminBee

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answered Dec 03 '20 at 19:17

Pablish

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Thing to note for all future viewers; Less Secure Apps will be blocked/disabled permanently from 15 feb 2021. – Asitis Feb 03 '21 at 12:52

leesagacious · Answer 5 · 2018-09-07T17:40:18.430

0

sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

system mail name.

please read the log : vim /var/log/mail.err

ff@ubuntu:/var/log$ head -n 20 mail.err 
Sep  7 10:36:39 ubuntu sm-msp-queue[6302]: unable to qualify my own domain name 
(ubuntu) -- using short name
ff@ubuntu:/var/log$

edited Sep 07 '18 at 17:40

answered Sep 07 '18 at 09:27

leesagacious

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Can you spell this out a bit more? It starts with [roaima’s answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/199834/117549) but I don’t understand the next three words. – Jeff Schaller Sep 07 '18 at 10:05

pableiros · Answer 6 · 2020-06-16T00:32:05.363

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I had the same error. I was using a gmail account to send emails. After checking my gmail I notice Google was sending to me Critical security alerts via email. I had to give permissions to unsecure apps in my Google account security section to make it works.

I'm using Docker and I have to implement the following in my Dockerfile too:

RUN echo "localhost localhost.localdomain" >> /etc/hosts

edited Jun 16 '20 at 00:32

answered Jun 16 '20 at 00:26

pableiros

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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 04 '22 at 13:07

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What caused me the error was that gmail had "less secure apps" set as "off", this caused google to be unable to authenticate my server's certificate. Once enabled, I could start sending emails from the server.

Go to your google account and search for "less secure apps" turn it on and test again! Worked like a charm from then on...

edited Apr 04 '22 at 13:07

Greenonline

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answered Mar 27 '22 at 20:52

allsky neel

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wruckie · Answer 8 · 2023-03-25T00:58:01.913

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Sorry this is so simple, but fought this error for hours and nothing worked. But a simple uninstall and reinstall did.

I copied out my config files for reference and ran WARNING - the purge will delete your config files

sudo apt purge postfix

https://askubuntu.com/a/1371568

It reinstalled and ran without issue

edited Mar 25 '23 at 00:58

answered Mar 21 '23 at 17:10

wruckie

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As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Mar 23 '23 at 14:45

Feriman · Answer 9 · 2020-12-16T11:08:37.450

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The solution was on my Debian is run the mail command as root.

Login as root

sudo su

or send mail as root

echo "Test message" | sudo mail -s "Subject" [email protected]

edited Dec 16 '20 at 11:08

answered May 15 '20 at 05:14

Feriman

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Your second command runs echo as root, it does not send mail as root. Regardless, running something as root isn't really a solution, it just shows that you have permission issues somewhere. – Matthew Sharp Dec 15 '20 at 10:31

mail: cannot send message: process exited with a non-zero status

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