Sendmail Errno[61] Connection Refused

Question

I've been trying to get my application to mail some outputted text to an email. For simplification I have isolated the script :

import smtplib
import sys
import os

SERVER = "localhost"

FROM = os.getlogin()
TO = [raw_input("To : ")]

SUBJECT = "Message From " + os.getlogin()

print "Message : (End with ^D)"
TEXT = ''
while 1:
    line = sys.stdin.readline()
    if not line:
        break
    TEXT = TEXT + line

# Prepare actual message

message = """\
From: %s
To: %s
Subject: %s

%s
""" % (FROM, ", ".join(TO), SUBJECT, TEXT)

# Send the mail

server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER)
server.sendmail(FROM, TO, message)
server.quit()

This script outputs :

    Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/christianlaustsen/Dropbox/Apps - Python/mail/smtplib_mail.py", line 32, in <module>
    server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 239, in __init__
    (code, msg) = self.connect(host, port)
  File "/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 "/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 "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/socket.py", line 512, in create_connection
    raise error, msg
error: [Errno 61] Connection refused

So as you can see, the connection is being refused. I'm running Python 2.6 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (if that's relevant).

I have tried searching around a lot, but haven't been able to find a solution. Any help will be appreciated.

Solution 1

My guess is that you do not have any SMTP server installed on your local machine.

If your emails are not sensitive, open a Gmail account and send your emails using it with Python.

Solution 2

If you start a local server as follows:

python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:1025

Make sure to modify the mail-sending code to use the non-standard port number:

server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER, 1025)
server.sendmail(FROM, TO, message)
server.quit()

Solution 3

Start a simple SMTP server with Python like so:

python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:1025

Solution 4

If you don't want to run a separate server, and if you're only using Unix, you can use this technique, copied from http://www.yak.net/fqa/84.html, and originally from the Python FAQ:

On Unix, it's very simple, using sendmail. The location of the sendmail program varies between systems; sometimes it is /usr/lib/sendmail, sometime /usr/sbin/sendmail. The sendmail manual page will help you out. Here's some sample code:

SENDMAIL = "/usr/sbin/sendmail" # sendmail location
import os
p = os.popen("%s -t" % SENDMAIL, "w")
p.write("To: [email protected]\n")
p.write("Subject: test\n")
p.write("\n") # blank line separating headers from body
p.write("Some text\n")
p.write("some more text\n")
sts = p.close()
if sts != 0:
    print "Sendmail exit status", sts

Solution 5

I wanted to create something so that you could just copy paste it and have it work but this is the closest I got:

from email.message import EmailMessage
import smtplib
import os

def send_email(message,destination):
    # important, you need to send it to a server that knows how to send e-mails for you
    server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
    server.starttls()
    # don't know how to do it without cleartexting the password and not relying on some json file that you dont git control...
    server.login('[email protected]', 'password_for_gmail')
    msg = EmailMessage()
    msg.set_content(message)

    msg['Subject'] = 'TEST'
    msg['From'] = '[email protected]'
    msg['To'] = destination
    server.send_message(msg)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    send_email('msg','destination@email')

I feel the tutorial is misleading because it assumes without telling you very well that you already have a running server that sends e-mails for you...its odd. The only issue with my script is that I dont know how to make it work without having the cleartext password just written there but alas...at least it sends it? Just make a fake e-mail address or something...

---

made this question long time ago, so I don't remember what this means exactly put will put it here just in case:

It works only if you enable access for less secure apps: myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps . I think you should put that in answer.

I probably went around it by using a fake email only for that or somehting like that or an email from my org can't remember. Good luck!

View more solutions

Comments

[Mike Pennington]

Your first step in debugging... Go to the shell and type 'telnet localhost 25' If that does not work, the problem does not belong in SO

[Adam]

@MikePennington or they could use Gabriel's answer, which is very helpful. ;)

[Charlie Parker]

I don't understand, docs.python.org/3/library/email.examples.html this is the first link given by google search and this question doesn't have a clear answer? How does one copy paste some piece of code that will work 100% and send an e-mail?

[Tehnix]

Thank you, I was just stomped (don't know that much about smtp), since I could send a mail with sendmail and os.popen, I couldn't see why this would have been any different, but your answer clarifies it I guess :)... Thanks...

[Charlie Parker]

what should "EMAIL_HOST, EMAIL_PORT" be? can you provide an example?

[Charlie Parker]

is it possible to not rely on running something before the actual python script starts?

[Hrvoje]

It really cannot be that easily done: smtplib.SMTPAuthenticationError: (535, b'5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. Learn more at\n5.7.8 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=BadCredentials p25sm6790964edm.60 - gsmtp') You'll get that for correct combination of usr/pss.

[Charlie Parker]

@Harvey what are you referring to? I've been using my solution for months now...daily...

[Hrvoje]

It works only if you enable access for less secure apps: myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps . I think you should put that in answer.

[Charlie Parker]

sure why not, pasted your comment and upvoted your comment.

[Charlie Parker]

@Harvey did you try creating a fake email or something like that? Did it work for you?

[Hrvoje]

Yes, it worked only after I enabled access for less secure apps.

[j413254]

how would you close it after its job is done?

[Max]

I did this, and I see output when I run my script that makes me think it is successful, but the email never shows up in my inbox. Any tips for debugging? The output when I run my script is --MESSAGE FOLLOWS-- ... --END MESSAGE--.

[dhgoratela]

@j413254, keep it running in one terminal and hit ctrl+c when you're done

[Josh Friedlander]

the debugging server is only meant for debugging, it doesn't actually send email. you need to run (or rent) an SMTP server for that