Best way to send email with Python on Mac or Linux?

Question

I want to send emails with my python script, but unfortunately it's not as straightforward and smooth as php, where I can just use mail() function.

I've used this example:

    import smtplib
    FROM = "[email protected]"
    TO = ["[email protected]"]

    SUBJECT = "Hello!"

    TEXT = "This message was sent with Python's smtplib."
    server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER)
    server.sendmail(FROM, TO, message)
    server.quit()

but it only returns a whole bunch of errors I don't even know the meaning of...

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mylo.py", line 70, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "mylo.py", line 66, in main
    send_mail()
  File "mylo.py", line 37, in send_mail
    server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 239, in __init__
    (code, msg) = self.connect(host, port)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 295, in connect
    self.sock = self._get_socket(host, port, self.timeout)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 273, in _get_socket
    return socket.create_connection((port, host), timeout)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/socket.py", line 512, in create_connection
    raise error, msg
socket.error: [Errno 61] Connection refused

How do I send emails with python?

Answer 1

I rewrote the emailing logic :

#!/usr/bin/python -tt

from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from datetime import date
import smtplib

SMTP_SERVER = "smtp.gmail.com"
SMTP_PORT = 587
SMTP_USERNAME = "[email protected]"
SMTP_PASSWORD = "yourpassword"

EMAIL_TO = ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"]
EMAIL_FROM = "[email protected]"
EMAIL_SUBJECT = "Demo Email : "

DATE_FORMAT = "%d/%m/%Y"
EMAIL_SPACE = ", "

DATA='This is the content of the email.'

def send_email():
    msg = MIMEText(DATA)
    msg['Subject'] = EMAIL_SUBJECT + " %s" % (date.today().strftime(DATE_FORMAT))
    msg['To'] = EMAIL_SPACE.join(EMAIL_TO)
    msg['From'] = EMAIL_FROM
    mail = smtplib.SMTP(SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT)
    mail.starttls()
    mail.login(SMTP_USERNAME, SMTP_PASSWORD)
    mail.sendmail(EMAIL_FROM, EMAIL_TO, msg.as_string())
    mail.quit()

if __name__=='__main__':
    send_email()

This is very much configurable script.

Answer 2

I suggest you employ mailtools 2 http://pypi.python.org/pypi/mailtools/2

It can send plain text and HTML email. Very easy to use.