How to allow monit to use gmail as a smtp relay to send out alert emails

monit-and-gmail

# visit https://accounts.google.com/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and click to allow access

# edit /etc/monit/monitrc to include the following

  set mailserver smtp.gmail.com port 587
       username "[email protected]" password "whatever"
       using tlsv1
       with timeout 30 seconds
       
# run the following to validate access

  /etc/init.d/monit restart
  monit validate

I found this solution (aug 2024):
turn on 2fa on gmail acc, go to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and create app password and use it for monit
here is my config:

set mailserver smtp.gmail.com port 587
    username "<gmail account name without @gmail.com>" password "<your app pass word>"
    using tlsv1
    with timeout 30 seconds