Problem getting ar_mailer/ar_sendmail working on new server

Question

Hey all. I've got a new app up and running on a new ubuntu server. It's working fine generally but i can't get ar_sendmail working. I'm following the instructions on this page: http://www.ameravant.com/posts/sending-tons-of-emails-in-ruby-on-rails-with-ar_mailer

The setup is all done, ie i can "deliver mails" which just saves records in my Email table. Now i want to get the ar_sendmail daemon running to actually send them. (so i'm at 'Running ar_sendmail in daemon mode' in that web page).

First thing:

ar_sendmail --mailq
>>ar_sendmail: command not found

Ok...so, where is ar_sendmail? I have a look and there's an ar_sendmail file in the bin folder of the ar_mailer plugin, so i add the location of that to my path. I don't know if this was the right thing to do or not.

Ok, so try again.

ar_sendmail --mailq
/var/www/apps/millionaire/vendor/plugins/ar_mailer/bin/ar_sendmail:3:in `require': no such file to load -- action_mailer/ar_sendmail (LoadError)
    from /var/www/apps/millionaire/vendor/plugins/ar_mailer/bin/ar_sendmail:3

hmm. Here's the offending file, there's not much there.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'action_mailer/ar_sendmail'

ActionMailer::ARSendmail.run

ok...so it literally is just trying to require this and can't find it. The file, action_mailer/ar_sendmail.rb is in the ar_mailer plugin, in it's lib folder. So, given that it's being called from inside the plugin, it should be able to see this right?

I've got a feeling that i'm way off the track here and have missed something simple. Can anyone set me straight? I'm using rails 2.3.4 in case that's relevant.

EDIT - i just realised something kind of dumb: when i call ar_sendmail from the command line like this, i'm just loading that one file, which doesn't know where it's supposed to look for the rest of the stuff, i think. Which really makes me think that i'm not trying to run the right thing. Is the ar_sendmail daemon a seperate program altogether, that i would get with apt_get or something?

EDIT2 - i made some progress by installing the ar_mailer gem (which the guide said i shouldn't do) and that does seem to run. It's sending some mail request somewhere and clearing the Email table of pending emails. Running ar_sendmail in -ov (oneshot verbal) mode i see it report this for example:

sent email 00000000019 from [email protected] to [email protected]: #

So, it actually looks like it's working now and i just need to set up the ACTUAL THING WHICH SENDS EMAILS. sigh. still grateful for any advice.

thanks, max

Answer 1

What you need is an smtp server. Checkout www.sendgrid.com.