HowTo: make XSane and Gmail play nice

[flabdablet]

XSane has a scan-to-email facility that knows how to talk to an SMTP server. Gmail uses an SMTP server that requires a secure (SSL) connection. XSane's SMTP support doesn't do SSL. I didn't want to install and configure a full-blown MTA like Postfix or Exim just to make these things work together. Here's what I did instead.

First thing is to make sure the necessary packages are installed:

sudo apt-get install openssl xinetd

Next, create a little wrapper to talk to the Gmail SMTP server without injecting extra text we don't want:

sudo tee /usr/bin/gmail-smtp <<EOF >/dev/null
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/openssl s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465 -quiet 2>/dev/null
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/gmail-smtp

Test the connection:

gmail-smtp

After a short delay, you should see something like
220 mx.google.com ESMTP f42sm17489123rvb.6
If you then type
helo
you should get something like
250 mx.google.com at your service
and typing
quit
should get you
221 2.0.0 mx.google.com closing connection f42sm17489123rvb.6
and your shell prompt back.

Now we need to make that wrapper available as a local network service, so XSane can use it:

sudo tee /etc/xinetd.d/gmail-smtp <<EOF >/dev/null
# default: on
# description: Gmail SMTP wrapper for clients without SSL support
service gmail-smtp
{
    disable         = no
    bind            = localhost
    port            = 10025
    socket_type     = stream
    protocol        = tcp
    wait            = no
    user            = root
    server          = /usr/bin/gmail-smtp
    type            = unlisted
}
EOF
sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd reload

The output of

netstat -ltn

should now include a line that looks like this:
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:10025 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
and

telnet localhost 10025

should get you a conversation with Gmail's SMTP server like the one you had above.

All that remains is to configure XSane. Under the Email tab in the Setup menu, set the SMTP server address to localhost, the port to 10025, fill in your Gmail account details, and select ASMTP Login authorization.

I'm subscribed to this thread in case you have trouble. Enjoy!

[FedeGhigo]

A fantastic & easy guide ! Thank you very much.

[toasted124]

Thank-you so much for publishing this guide and sharing this information!!!!!! I used it to create a connection to yahoo mail as well.

I followed the procedure exactly, replacing gmail-smtp with yahoo-smtp and it works!

Xsane now is able to send scanned images to recipients via SSL on yahoo mail.

[p1mpn8nt3z]

Extremely well written, concise and helpful!
Thank you very much for your help, and btw: that was SO phat how you figured out that the underlying problem was SSL-

For Me: Another giant step away from Winblows
For You: Beers on me if ever we perchance should meet!

[fcorades]

Great work!!! Thank you.

In my server openssl go to 100% cpu, to avoid this i suggest to change (/usr/bin/gmail-smtp):

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/killgmail&
/usr/bin/openssl s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465 -quiet 2>/dev/null

and create the file (/usr/bin/killgmail) :

#!/bin/sh
sleep 10
killall openssl

and then make it exec:

chmod +x /usr/bin/killgmail

With this mod openssl is terminated after 10 sec ... is enough to send 1 mail.
Of course this solution is a bad idea if you have concurrent openssl sessions.

[High Roller]

Great work!!! Thank you.

In my server openssl go to 100% cpu, to avoid this i suggest to change

I have the same problem.
I guess the more important question would be why is it doing this? Seems like some kind of bug.

[flabdablet]

I have not seen this behavior, so I can't help much with the bug. But I'd like to offer the following alternative workaround, which is a little less convoluted and avoids using "killall" (I've never been a fan of risking the death of more processes than necessary).

Replace the gmail-smtp script creation step from my original post with this:

sudo tee /usr/bin/gmail-smtp <<EOF >/dev/null
#!/bin/sh
exec 3>&0
/usr/bin/openssl s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465 -quiet 2>/dev/null 0<&3 &
sleep 10
kill $! 2>/dev/null
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/gmail-smtp

In the initial testing stages you might want to replace the "sleep 10" with something more generous.

[High Roller]

Replace the gmail-smtp script creation step from my original post with this:

Your alternative doesn't appear to function for some reason.
This bug is occurring on 3 separate computers that I have.
Openssl continues to run at 100% and more instances spawn each time an e-mail is sent.
I can only see the process running under the "top" command and not under "System"-->"Administration"-->"System Monitor"-->"Processes(tab)".

And yes, I feel icky using "killall".

[flabdablet]

Weird.

What happens if you exercise gmail-smtp directly, and what happens via telnet?

[High Roller]

Weird.

What happens if you exercise gmail-smtp directly, and what happens via telnet?

When I use gmail-smtp as described in your how-to the "openssl" process ends after I type "quit".

When I use telnet as described in your how-to the "openssl" process remains active even after telnet has been closed.