Sending Messages from the Linux Terminal: Email, WhatsApp, Twitter, and SMS

In today’s interconnected world, the ability to send various types of messages directly from the Linux terminal can be a game-changer for system administrators and power users. This guide will walk you through the process of sending emails, WhatsApp messages, tweets, and SMS messages using command-line tools.

The Power of Email in Linux

Install and Configure mailx or mutt:

If you are using a Red Hat-based distribution, the correct command to install Mutt would be:

You can either install a mail transfer agent (MTA) that provides the sendmail binary or configure mailx to use a different MTA. On many systems, the default MTA is typically provided by the postfix package.

Setting Up Your Email Environment

Install the necessary packages:

sudo dnf install postfix mailx

Configure and activate Postfix:

sudo systemctl start postfix sudo systemctl enable postfix

Add the appropriate sendmail path to integrate with Postfix.

Customize mailx configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nail.rc

Add the following line to set the sendmail variable to point to the Postfix sendmail compatibility interface:

Press Ctrl+X to exit.

echo "Hiii!  This Mail is sent from Linux" | mailx -s "Mail" sham***********.com

This time, mailx should use the sendmail binary provided by Postfix to send the email.

The message “You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root” indicates that there is mail for the root user, and you can access it by reading the contents of the mailbox file. The default mailbox location for the root user is typically /var/spool/mail/root.

To check the contents of the mailbox, you can use a command-line text editor or a mail client

sudo nano /var/spool/mail/root

HOW TO SMS USING LINUX:

SMS gateways offer a bridge between your terminal and mobile devices.Many online SMS gateways allow you to send SMS messages through their APIs. Twilio and Nexmo are popular options. We typically need to sign up for an account, obtain API credentials, and use their provided libraries or HTTP APIs.

Example using curl and Twilio:

curl -X POST https://api.twilio.com/2010-08-09/Accounts/YOUR_ACCOUNT_SID/Messages.json \
--data-urlencode "Body=Hello, this is a test message" \
--data-urlencode "From=+123458590" \
--data-urlencode "To=+0987685321" \
-u YOUR_ACCOUNT_SID:YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

Here are some key details from the response:

• Status: The status of the SMS is currently “queued,” which means it is in the process of being sent.
• To: The recipient’s phone number is +91********52.
• From: The sender’s phone number is +1********86.
• Body: The content of the SMS is “Sent from your Twilio trial account — Hello, this is a test message.”
• Date Created: The date and time when the SMS was created is “Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:30:10 +0000.”
• Direction: The direction is “outbound-api,” indicating that the message was sent from your account.

Once the message is sent, its status will be updated. You can periodically check the status to see if it has been delivered successfully. If there are any issues with delivery, the error_message field may contain additional information.

HOW TO WHATSAPP MESSAGE USING LINUX:

To send WhatsApp messages using Twilio on Linux, you can follow these general steps. Please note that you’ll need to have a Twilio account and set up the WhatsApp integration before proceeding.

Prerequisites:

Twilio Account:

• Sign up for a Twilio account if you don’t have one: Twilio Sign Up

Twilio WhatsApp Sandbox:

• Set up the Twilio WhatsApp Sandbox in your Twilio console.

Twilio API Key and SID:

• Obtain your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio console.

pip install twilio

vi send_whatsapp_linux.py

Set the environment variables in your terminal:

export TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID='your_account_sid'
export TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN='your_auth_token'

Replace ‘your_account_sid’ and ‘your_auth_token’ with your actual Twilio account SID and authentication token.

Your script:

Run your script:

python your_script_name.py

This ensures that your script reads the Twilio credentials from environment variables. Remember to replace ‘your_script_name.py’ with the actual name of your Python script.

By using environment variables, you can keep sensitive information secure and easily switch between different Twilio accounts or tokens without modifying the script.

HOW TO TWEET USING LINUX:

To post tweets from the command line on Linux, you can use a tool called twurl or t (short for Twitter). Both tools provide a way to interact with the Twitter API and send tweets directly from the terminal.

On many Linux distributions, Ruby and its associated tools are not installed by default.

To install Ruby and gem, you can use the package manager for your Linux distribution. Here are commands for some common package managers:

For Red Hat-based systems (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora):

sudo dnf install ruby

Once you have installed Ruby, you should have access to the gem command. After that, you can proceed to install twurl or t for posting tweets.

Installing twurl:

sudo gem install twurl

After installing Ruby and the desired tool, follow the authentication steps to authenticate with Twitter and post tweets from the command line.

Authenticate with Twitter:

1. Run the following command to authenticate with your Twitter account:

twurl authorize --consumer-key <your-consumer-key> --consumer-secret <your-consumer-secret>

2. Replace <your-consumer-key> and <your-consumer-secret> with your Twitter API key and API secret. Follow the instructions to complete the authentication.

Post a Tweet:

• Once authenticated, you can post a tweet using the following command:

twurl -d "status=Your tweet here" /1.1/statuses/update.json

• Replace “Your tweet here” with the text of your tweet.

It’s important to mention that both tools necessitate a Twitter Developer account and the creation of a Twitter App to acquire the necessary API keys and secrets. Additionally, be aware that utilizing these tools may expose your Twitter API credentials, so it’s advisable to operate them in a secure environment.

So, whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a professional, or just someone who wants to learn more, I invite you to follow me on this journey. Subscribe to my blog and follow me on social media to stay in the loop and never miss a post.

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Happy coding! Happy learning!