I recently upgraded my Mac to use Apple’s latest operating system, Mountain Lion, and in so doing, wiped out my postfix configuration that I had previously set up with advice from many different blogs. Postfix is essential for my line of business where I send many emails through MAMP on my local machine.
After hours of updating settings and getting nowhere, I stumbled across a blog post that set me in the right direction.
Rather than do this process again when Apple releases a new upgrade, I decided to document the steps I took to get this working (more for a reference for myself, but also to help those with the same issues).
I personally use Google Apps, so this process is for those also trying to authenticate through Gmail. This process is much simpler if you don’t need SSL encryption when sending mail. I use TextMate as a text editor, so the following command line options use the ‘mate’ command. Alternatively, you can use ‘vi’, ‘vim’ or ‘nano’ depending on what you are familiar with.
Step 1
First, we need to create a Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) password file. To do this, open up Terminal and enter in the following command:
1 | sudo mate /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd |
You will be required to enter your root password to edit the file. Enter in the following information, replacing <username@domain.com> with your google apps username and domain or your gmail account, and <password> with your password:
Save and exit.
Step 2
Next, we need to create a postfix lookup for our new SASL password file. To do this, type the following command in the Terminal:
1 | sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd |
Step 3
Then we need to configure Postfix’s main.cf file which has all the configuration information for Postfix. I would recommend backing up this file in case anything happens. The first line of the following commands does just that, by creating a copy before editing it:
1 2 | sudo cp /etc/postfix/main.cf /etc/postfix/main.cf.orig sudo mate /etc/postfix/main.cf |
Most of the information here is commented out. You just need to scroll down to the bottom and paste in the following lines:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | # Minimum Postfix-specific configurations. mydomain_fallback = localhost mail_owner = _postfix setgid_group = _postdrop relayhost=smtp.gmail.com:587 # Enable SASL authentication in the Postfix SMTP client. smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes smtp_sasl_password_maps=hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd smtp_sasl_security_options= # Enable Transport Layer Security (TLS), i.e. SSL. smtp_use_tls=yes smtp_tls_security_level=encrypt tls_random_source=dev:/dev/urandom |
Save and exit.
Step 4
At this point, we just need to start up Postfix with our changes. Use the following command:
1 | sudo postfix start |
If you entered in any information incorrectly in the main.cf file, this may throw errors. Fix the errors and then reload Postfix:
1 | sudo postfix reload |
Step 5
You can test this configuration by sending a test email from Terminal:
1 | date | mail -s test youremailaddress@yourdomain.com |
If all goes well, you should receive an email to your inbox.
Step 6
Once you have everything working, you can set Postfix to start on boot by adding a key to /System/Library/ LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist file.
The key to add is:
1 2 | <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> |
The updated file looks like this (text version below):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>org.postfix.master</string> <key>Program</key> <string>/usr/libexec/postfix/master</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>master</string> <string>-e</string> <string>60</string> </array> <key>QueueDirectories</key> <array> <string>/var/spool/postfix/maildrop</string> </array> <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key> <true/> <key>OnDemand</key> <true/> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> </dict> </plist> |
And that’s it! You should now be able to send mail using Mac OS X and Postfix from a PHP install. I am not an expert at this by any means, but feel free to leave a comment below letting me know if this helped you or if you have any issues with it. I would be glad to help in any way I can!