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Attempting to send mails using mail(1) from the macOS terminal shell results in the following message and the mail is not sent.

postdrop: warning: unable to look up public/pickup: No such file or directory

I have checked for the directory where I think it should be and it's there:

root# ls -ld /var/spool/postfix/public/pickup
prw--w--w-  1 _postfix  _postdrop  0 Dec 31  2016 /var/spool/postfix/public/pickup

I've read that Postfix is launched ephemerally to send mail but I don't know how - I have no idea how Postfix is configured on macOS. I know Postfix from Linux but am unfamiliar with macOS.

I'd just like to fix this so my script can send email its output.

Pertinent system details:

  System Version: macOS 10.12.6 (16G29) (Sierra)
  Kernel Version: Darwin 16.7.0
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  • Did you apply any configuration for Postfix before using it? – nohillside♦ Jun 15 at 11:33
  • No. I expected it to "just work" because it is a mac :) And it has "just worked" in the past, but likely before an OS update. I have mails sent it the same way dated 2014 so it worked back then. – starfry Jun 15 at 11:36
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    To my rather big surprise I just learned that it indeed "just works" :-) – nohillside♦ Jun 15 at 11:41
  • My answer might not nail your situation. But, we don’t have an answer that I’ve seen saying you should troubleshoot this in the graphical mail app - connection doctor. Can you validate my assumption that you don’t have mail sending from the GUI at the same time as you get failures from the command line? – bmike♦ Jun 15 at 12:47
  • Mails send fine using outlook. I'm going to do some more digging based on your answer and report back... – starfry Jun 15 at 12:57
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Sending mail from the command line involves two things.

  1. Open the Apple mail app (/Applications/Mail.app only) and make sure your default account can send mail (or be sure you configured internet accounts preference pane to provide Apple mail credentials for sendmail )

  2. Send the mail without making any command line or Unix changes.

Step 1 is missing and assumed in the linked question / selected answer. Also, if you don’t want to send mail from an account you enter in your mail app, grab a stand alone install of sendemail as it’s quite easy to set up with your smtp server of choice:

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