New and noteworthy open source email implementations

By Ben Gross
in

New SMTP implementations are often error prone and take a long time to mature. That said, the following two new SMTP server implementations are innovative and worth following as they develop.

LamsonProject: Lamson The Python SMTP Server: Zed Shaw has a new SMTP server written in pure Python. The server is intended as a framework for other email-based applications in the flavor of a web application stack. Lamson currently works as a SMTP server, a, mail proxy, a mail relay and is able to use most relational databases as a backend-store.

Developer Blog - gilles@ on smtpd: Last year, Gilles Chehade began working on a new smtpd implementation for OpenBSD. One interesting aspect of the project is that its configuration files use a clean readable syntax similar to that of the PF firewall. The OpenBSD project has a long history of rewriting core system components that become popular in their own right. OpenSSH and PF are notable examples.

RFC-compliant email address validator: It is well known that many email address validation routines do not accept the full range of valid email addresses. This can be maddening for people with addresses that fall outside of this range. Dominic Sayers posted a PHP email address validator that is RFC-compliant.

Published June 19, 2009