developmentSMTP

DevelopmentSMTP is a simple, 100% pure Java SMTP server that can be used during development to catch all emails and forward or store them.

It was created to help with testing using real world data with real world email addresses. Emails should not really be sent, but instead they should be caught and it should be possible to check which emails have been sent.

usage

$ java -jar DevelopmentSMTPServer.jar --help
usage: DevelopmentSMTP
Listens for SMTP connections and handles all emails, regardless of header
or content using the configuration supplied by command line arguments
 -c,--http-port <arg>   Starts a http configuration server on this port.
 -f,--forward <arg>     Forward emails to this address. May be specified
                        multiple times.
 -h,--help              This page
 -o,--output <arg>      file to write to. Use '-' for stdout. May be
                        specified multiple times.
 -p,--port <arg>        port to listen on. Defaults to 25
 -s,--smtp-host <arg>   Use the following SMTP server for the forward mail
                        handler. Defaults to 'mail'

Example:

java -jar DevelopmentSMTPServer.jar --forward [email protected] --forward [email protected] --output -

This starts the SMTP Server, listening for incoming connections on port 25, forwarding alle emails to [email protected] and [email protected] and additionally echoing all emails in stdout in mbox format.

Reading the mbox format

You can use a capable tool to read the mbox format. E.g. Mutt is capable of displaying the mbox file if you call Mutt with the -f option:

mutt -f /path/to/your/mbox/file

Thunderbird supports mbox as well (at least on Linux). To read emails with thunderbird got to Edit->Account Settings->Account Actions->Add other account->Unix Mailspool (Movemail) and click next, filling in any required options with any text that satisfies Thunderbird. It does not make any difference what you use.

Not that Thunderbird searches you mbox file at /var/mail/`whoami`. Additionally automatic retrieval of mails does not work in Thunderbird: You need to press "Get Mail" for new mails to show up.

The HTTP configuration server

developmentSMTP ships with a small web server based on NanoHTTPD that allows you to reconfigure the server during runtime using a minimal http interface. Just supply the --http-port option to enable this service.

Building

Execute mvn package if you want to build to a "normal" jar file. Execute mvn compile assembly:single if you want to build to a jar file which includes all dependencies.

A word of warning

developmentSMTP is supplied in the hope that it is useful, but without any guarantee. It is not tested for multi threading issues which would be extremely unlikely in a development environment. Never use developmentSMTP in a production environment!