Using curl to send email

curl --ssl-reqd \
  --url 'smtps://smtp.gmail.com:465' \
  --user '[email protected]:password' \
  --mail-from '[email protected]' \
  --mail-rcpt '[email protected]' \
  --upload-file mail.txt

mail.txt file contents:

From: "User Name" <[email protected]>
To: "John Smith" <[email protected]>
Subject: This is a test

Hi John,
I’m sending this mail with curl thru my gmail account.
Bye!

Additional info:

1. I’m using curl version 7.21.6 with SSL support.

2. You don't need to use the --insecure switch, which prevents curl from performing SSL connection verification. See this online resource for further details.

3. It’s considered a bad security practice to pass account credentials thru command line arguments. Use --netrc-file. See the documentation.

4. You must turn on access for less secure apps or the newer App passwords.

if one wants to send mails as carbon copy or blind carbon copy:

curl --url 'smtps://smtp.gmail.com:465' --ssl-reqd \
  --mail-from '[email protected]' --mail-rcpt '[email protected]' \
  --mail-rcpt '[email protected]' --mail-rcpt '[email protected]' \
  --upload-file mail.txt --user '[email protected]:password' --insecure

From: "User Name" <[email protected]>
To: "John Smith" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Mary Smith" <[email protected]>
Subject: This is a test

a BCC recipient eli is not specified in the data, just in the RCPT list.