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Accepted
richo
Asked: 2010-12-01 14:32:17 +0800 CST

How to setup a fake SMTP server to catch all mails?

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I'm looking for an smtp service that essentially obeys the RFC, except rather than sending mail it simply logs to a file

[date] sent mail to <address>

Or whatever. I can bash this together with the bare minimum of functionality I need in python in about half an hour I reckon but if there's an existing project that works better I'd rather use that.

The reason for needing it is debugging an app that keeps sending 7* the amount of mail it's supposed to.

EDIT: And already asked: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1006650/dummy-smtp-server-for-testing-apps-that-send-email

smtp debugging

9 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If you have python lying around this will write the SMTP conversation to stdout.

    sudo python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:25

    http://docs.python.org/library/smtpd.html#debuggingserver-objects

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  2. You should have a look at smtp-sink which is a part of Postfix. You don't have to run Postfix to make it work. Just install it to have the executable. Everything you need can be configured via command line parameters:

    http://www.postfix.org/smtp-sink.1.html

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  3. There is also a ruby gem called mailcatcher.

    You can read the emails directly in your browser through the integrated web interface, there's a screenshot from their homepage below.

    Mailcatcher interface

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  4. We use http://mailtrap.io web service in developement and staging environment. It is platform-independent and doesn't require you to run your own SMTP.

    It offers:

    • All emails in one place
    • Shared access for dev team to the inbox
    • Developer tools to analyze emails
    • Flexible configuration
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  5. smtp4dev has worked well for me. (Windows only)

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  6. http://quintanasoft.com/dumbster/

    This looks like a it'll probably do the job, for anyone else who stumbles upon this.

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  7. Disclaimer: This is a late answer, but I genuinely believe it will help out future viewers. Also note that I worked on this product.

    We built Mailosaur in order to solve this exact problem. We've since built it out to add test email addresses as well as SMTP.

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  8. FakeSMTP https://nilhcem.github.io/FakeSMTP/ is cross-platform and open-source.

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  9. I just fork up just about any smtp service then send the result to a bit bucket!

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