From Sending Email in Jupyter to Sending Email in Linux Service

by Mike Levin

Ever need a running process to reach out and let you know how things are going? Per Zawinski’s Law, the time has come the Walrus said to make our Python Linux daemon service able to send emails using Python’s standard SMTP library and the gmail email servers. So long as we send from a gmail account, we have reliable and sufficiently permissive infrastructure to tap. Jumping into WebDev already? Take a moment to learn Linux basics with me, especially the world-changing Linux service management system called systemd.

• Mention Jamie Zawinski & Zawinski’s law

• Show how smtplib is built into the Python Standard Library

• Show it working in JupyterLab (why JupyterLab?)
• Show the files containing mail-from login credentials and mail-to list
  • Explain why Gmail, 2FA & App Password (reasonable precautions)
• Remind about the ~/data location shared
• Move the mail-from/mail-to files into Linux container pulse folder
• Create a sendmail.py file in the pulse folder

• Run it form there (send email)

• Define a run function using Popen to Python file
• Define sendmail function that calls external program
• Test it by running directly from Python (confirm emails being sent)
• Run it as a service