Linux – How to change mailx

debiandebian-wheezyemaillinux

I am having a problem in my VMs.

I used the same template (Debian 7min) in OpenVZ, but for whatever reason those two are using a different mailx. I have a small script which I use to send statusmails:

    mailx -v -s "$subject" -S smtp=$smtphost -S from="$mailfrom" -S smtp-auth-user=$smtpuser \
 -S smtp-auth-password=$smtppwd $emailto </dev/null

It works find on one server, the other one give me an error message 'unknown command -S'.

Ok, I know mailx is just a virtual package, and I usually install bsd-mailx, but both server show they are setup identical

ls -al /etc/alternatives/ma*

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Feb  9 20:07 /etc/alternatives/mailx -> /usr/bin/bsd-mailx

dpkg –get-selections | grep mail

bsd-mailx                   install
fetchmail                   install
procmail                    install
rmail                       install
sendmail                    install
sendmail-base                   install
sendmail-bin                    install
sendmail-cf                 install
sendmail-doc                    install

Problem is, mailx like never supports any kind of version info, so mailx –help or –version just says 'unknown option' – so I cant even figure out what 'version' of mailx it is

This is output from server 1

mailx: illegal option -- -
Usage: mailx -eiIUdEFntBDNHRV~ -T FILE -u USER -h hops -r address -s SUBJECT -a FILE -q FILE -f FILE -A ACCOUNT -b USERS -c USERS -S OPTION users

this is output from server 2

mailx: invalid option -- '-'
usage: mailx [-dEIinv] [-a header] [-b bcc-addr] [-c cc-addr] [-s subject] to-addr ...
             [-- sendmail-options ...]
       mailx [-dEIiNnv] -f [name]
       mailx [-dEIiNnv] [-u user]

Clearly not idential. Any helps how I can 'get' the mailx from server 1 to server 2? I am out of ideas.

Best Answer

So in the server1 you have heilroom-mailx i.e. /etc/alternatives/mailx -> /usr/bin/heirloom-mailx, the second server uses bsd-mailx.

Do apt-get install heirloom-mailx on both servers if you want to have mailx from server1.

After installing, server should automatically use heirloom as mailx, if not do:

sudo update-alternatives --set mailx /usr/bin/heirloom-mailx
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