[Tutor] Mail Server

[Danny Yoo]

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, Ali Polatel wrote:

> hi dear tutors,
> I have learned the smtp module to send e-mails with Python...

Hi Ali,

Yes, 'smtplib' should do the trick:

http://www.python.org/doc/faq/library.html#how-do-i-send-mail-from-a-python-script



> but for this we need a mail server... can't a programmer write a mail
> server that can send e-mails with Python?

Yes, it's possible.  There is even an undocumented one in the Standard
Libary as 'smtpd', although I think it might just be a proxy, and not a
full-fledged mail server.  There's a program called 'tmda':

    http://tmda.net/

but I have no personal experience with it.  And it, too, looks like it
depends on a dedicated Mail Transfer Agent (MTA).  There are several free
ones out there, including 'qmail', 'postfix', and 'sendmail'.


But mail servers are actually a bit complicated to set up, and perhaps
thankfully so:  the spam mail problem might be even more acute than it is
now if it were casually easy to set up a fly-by-night mail server.

If you want to set up your own mail server, you'll probably need some
specialized help to set up your own MTA.  You might want to, instead, use
the one you have from your internet service provider.



Hope this helps!