Python MTA

[Itamar Shtull-Trauring]

"David LeBlanc" <whisper at oz.net> wrote in message news:<mailman.1023489912.30571.python-list at python.org>...

> Has anyone developed a simple/stupid Mail Transfer Agent using Python that
> does't rely on any external mail agents (and thus would be platform
> independent)?
> 
> What I have in mind is an app that sits between my mail client (outlook
> (dev/null=flames)) and, at most, a few mail hosts. It would act like a
> client to those mail hosts and as a host to outlook. The idea is to be able
> to insert a spam filter like ASK (or something better?).

Twisted comes with a SMTP server that can act as a smarthost -
forwarding requests on to other mailhosts. It can also act as an
incoming server, delivering mail to mailboxes which you can then read
with POP3 (also in Twisted), but this functionality is less developed.

Here's a quick guide to getting started - download and install
Twisted:
http://www.twistedmatrix.com

Debian unstable users:
apt-get install python2.1-twisted

Then:
$ mktap mail --help
$ mktap --xml mail ....   # with appropriate options

Now you have a mail.tax file you can run:
$ twistd -n -x mail.tax

mail.tax is a XML pickle, so you can edit it with a text file to
change the configuration.