# cron won't send mail, but ssmtp is working

## Dillinger

I know there are about a billion posts on cron and ssmtp but I've gone through them all and they haven't answered my question.  I made an alias in /etc/mail/aliases, cronmail:  SeizedPropaganda@socal.rr.com.  I changed the MAILTO=root to MAILTO=crontab in /etc/crontab and made a test cronjob, * * * * *    root     cat /home/tyler/testing.  I haven't recieved any mail yet, and I've confirmed ssmtp is working with echo test | /usr/sbin/sendmail SeizedPropaganda@socal.rr.com.  To me this all seems right so I'm stumped, thanks in advance for any help.

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## papal_authority

Did you run newaliases?

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## Dillinger

Yeah, it said 

```
newaliases: Aliases are not used in sSMTP
```

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## papal_authority

I saw you ran the command sendmail and glossed over the fact that you said you used ssmtp  :Embarassed: 

Unfortunately ssmtp doesn't use aliases or forward files as the man page makes clear:

 *ssmtp( 8 ) wrote:*   

> It does not do aliasing, which must be done either in the user agent or on the mailhub. Nor does it honor .forwards, which have to be  done  on the recieving host.  It especially does not deliver to pipelines.

 

Could you just change your MAILTO address to be SeizedPropaganda@socal.rr.com?

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## Dillinger

Ha, why couldn't I think of that?  Thanks your your help, that did the trick.

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