Sending mail via SMTP in Perl

Question

I am trying to send mail via SMTP in Perl.

I have written a script for this.

#!perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Net::SMTP;

my $smtpserver = 'server';
my $smtpport = 25;
my $smtpuser   = 'username';
my $smtppassword = 'password';

my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new($smtpserver, Port=>$smtpport, Timeout => 10, Debug => 1);
die "Could not connect to server!\n" unless $smtp;

$smtp->auth($smtpuser, $smtppassword);
$smtp->to('[email protected]');
$smtp->data();
$smtp->datasend("To: mymail\@gmail.com\n");
$smtp->quit;

When I run this script, my output is like following:

Net::SMTP>>> Net::SMTP(2.31)
Net::SMTP>>>   Net::Cmd(2.29)
Net::SMTP>>>     Exporter(5.65)
Net::SMTP>>>   IO::Socket::INET(1.31)
Net::SMTP>>>     IO::Socket(1.32)
Net::SMTP>>>       IO::Handle(1.31)
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 220 server GMX Mailservices E
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> EHLO localhost.localdomain
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-server GMX Mailservices
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-8BITMIME
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-SIZE
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-AUTH=LOGIN PLAIN
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 250 STARTTLS
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> RCPT TO:<[email protected]>
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 503 5.5.1 MAIL first {mp-eu001}
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> DATA
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 503 5.5.1 MAIL first {mp-eu001}
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> To: [email protected]
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> .
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 502 5.5.2 Unimplemented {mp-eu001}
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)>>> QUIT
Net::SMTP=GLOB(0x273faf0)<<< 502 5.5.2 Unimplemented {mp-eu001}

I don't have enough information about Perl and SMTP, so I couldn't understand this error.

How can I solve this?

Answer 1

You have to start a SMTP session (after authorization, if necessary) with a MAIL command giving the sender's email address. That's why the responses say "MAIL first" (5xx is an error response). So:

$smtp->auth($smtpuser, $smtppassword);
$smtp->mail('[email protected]');
$smtp->to('[email protected]');

But if you're not a SMTP expert, why not use a higher-level module like Email::Sender instead of the low-level Net::SMTP?

use strict;
use warnings;

use Email::Sender::Simple qw(sendmail);
use Email::Sender::Transport::SMTP ();
use Email::Simple ();
use Email::Simple::Creator ();

my $smtpserver = 'server';
my $smtpport = 25;
my $smtpuser   = 'username';
my $smtppassword = 'password';

my $transport = Email::Sender::Transport::SMTP->new({
  host => $smtpserver,
  port => $smtpport,
  sasl_username => $smtpuser,
  sasl_password => $smtppassword,
});

my $email = Email::Simple->create(
  header => [
    To      => '[email protected]',
    From    => '[email protected]',
    Subject => 'Hi!',
  ],
  body => "This is my message\n",
);

sendmail($email, { transport => $transport });