How to Perform a Yagmail Custom SMTP Setup

yagmail is a user-friendly library for sending emails from Python. It simplifies the process of composing and sending emails, including handling attachments and HTML content. This guide will show you how to configure yagmail to use a custom SMTP server with a custom port, including SSL/TLS settings.

Table of Contents

1. Personal Experience
2. Prerequisites
3. Configuration
   1. Step 1: Install yagmail
   2. Step 2: Set Up SMTP Configuration
      • Option 1: Using Environment Variables
      • Option 2: Directly in Python Script
   3. Step 3: Sending Emails
      • Basic Email
      • Email with Attachments
      • HTML Email
   4. Step 4: Using SSL/TLS
   5. Troubleshooting
4. Example Python Script

Personal Experience

Normally, I would recommend using native utilities for email sending, especially on Linux. Tools like sendmail and mutt are commonly used. However, these utilities can be quite finicky to set up, with many moving parts and configuration nuances. In my experience, setting up these tools can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially when integrating them into automation scripts.

If you’re looking for a straightforward solution to attach to your automation script without much fuss, yagmail is the simplest option I have encountered so far. It abstracts away much of the complexity and allows you to get up and running quickly with minimal configuration.

Prerequisites

Python Installed: Ensure you have Python installed on your system.

Yagmail Installed: Install yagmail using pip.

$ pip install yagmail

Configuration

Step 1: Install yagmail

First, install yagmail if you haven’t already:

$ pip install yagmail

Step 2: Set Up SMTP Configuration

To perform a yagmail custom SMTP setup, you need to configure yagmail with your SMTP server details. You can either use environment variables or configure it directly in your Python script.

Option 1: Using Environment Variables

Set Environment Variables: Add the following lines to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

export YAGMAIL_SMTP_SERVER="smtp.yourprovider.com"
export YAGMAIL_SMTP_PORT=587  # or 465 for SSL
export YAGMAIL_SMTP_USER="your-email@yourprovider.com"
export YAGMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD="your-password"

Reload Your Shell Profile:bashCopy code

$ source ~/.bashrc
# OR
$ source ~/.zshrc

Option 2: Directly in Python Script

You can configure yagmail directly in your script by providing SMTP settings:

import yagmail

# Initialize yagmail with custom SMTP settings
yag = yagmail.SMTP(
    user='your-email@yourprovider.com',
    password='your-password',
    host='smtp.yourprovider.com',
    port=587,  # or 465 for SSL
    smtp_starttls=True  # Use TLS (set to False for SSL)
)

Step 3: Sending Emails

With yagmail configured, you can now send emails. Here are examples for basic emails, emails with attachments, and HTML emails.

Basic Email

import yagmail

# Initialize yagmail
yag = yagmail.SMTP('your-email@yourprovider.com', 'your-password')

# Send a basic email
yag.send(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='Test Subject',
    contents='This is the email body'
)

Email with Attachments

import yagmail

# Initialize yagmail
yag = yagmail.SMTP('your-email@yourprovider.com', 'your-password')

# Send an email with attachments
yag.send(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='Test Subject',
    contents='This is the email body',
    attachments='/path/to/attachment.file'
)

HTML Email

import yagmail

# Send an HTML email
yag.send(
    to='recipient@example.com',
    subject='Test Subject',
    contents='<h1>This is an HTML email</h1>'
)

Step 4: Using SSL/TLS

For SSL: Use port 465 and set smtp_starttls=False.

yag = yagmail.SMTP(
    user='your-email@yourprovider.com',
    password='your-password',
    host='smtp.yourprovider.com',
    port=465,  # SSL port
    smtp_starttls=False
)

For TLS: Use port 587 and set smtp_starttls=True.

yag = yagmail.SMTP(
    user='your-email@yourprovider.com',
    password='your-password',
    host='smtp.yourprovider.com',
    port=587,  # TLS port
    smtp_starttls=True
)

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Check SMTP Server Details: Verify that the SMTP server address, port, and credentials are correct.
2. Test Connectivity: Use tools like openssl to ensure you can connect to the SMTP server.
3. Review Errors: Check error messages for details and adjust configuration as needed.

Example Python Script

Here’s a complete example that uses custom SMTP settings with yagmail:

import yagmail

# Initialize yagmail with custom SMTP settings
yag = yagmail.SMTP(
    user='your-email@yourprovider.com',
    password='your-password',
    host='smtp.yourprovider.com',
    port=587,  # TLS port
    smtp_starttls=True
)

# Send an email
try:
    yag.send(
        to='recipient@example.com',
        subject='Test Subject',
        contents='This is the email body'
    )
    print("Email sent successfully!")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Failed to send email: {e}")