# MailCatcher Catches mail and serves it through a dream. MailCatcher runs a super simple SMTP server which catches any message sent to it to display in a web interface. Run mailcatcher, set your favourite app to deliver to smtp://127.0.0.1:1025 instead of your default SMTP server, then check out http://127.0.0.1:1080 to see the mail that's arrived so far. ![MailCatcher screenshot](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/14028/14093249/4100f904-f598-11e5-936b-e6a396f18e39.png) ## Features * Catches all mail and stores it for display. * Shows HTML, Plain Text and Source version of messages, as applicable. * Rewrites HTML enabling display of embedded, inline images/etc and opens links in a new window. * Lists attachments and allows separate downloading of parts. * Download original email to view in your native mail client(s). * Command line options to override the default SMTP/HTTP IP and port settings. * Mail appears instantly if your browser supports [WebSockets][websockets], otherwise updates every thirty seconds. * Runs as a daemon in the background, optionally in foreground. * Sendmail-analogue command, `catchmail`, makes using mailcatcher from PHP a lot easier. * Keyboard navigation between messages ## How 1. `gem install mailcatcher` 2. `mailcatcher` 3. Go to http://127.0.0.1:1080/ 4. Send mail through smtp://127.0.0.1:1025 ### Command Line Options Use `mailcatcher --help` to see the command line options. ``` Usage: mailcatcher [options] MailCatcher v0.8.0 --ip IP Set the ip address of both servers --smtp-ip IP Set the ip address of the smtp server --smtp-port PORT Set the port of the smtp server --http-ip IP Set the ip address of the http server --http-port PORT Set the port address of the http server --messages-limit COUNT Only keep up to COUNT most recent messages --http-path PATH Add a prefix to all HTTP paths --no-quit Don't allow quitting the process -f, --foreground Run in the foreground -b, --browse Open web browser -v, --verbose Be more verbose -h, --help Display this help information --version Display the current version ``` ### Upgrading Upgrading works the same as installation: ``` gem install mailcatcher ``` ### Ruby If you have trouble with the setup commands, make sure you have [Ruby installed](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/): ``` ruby -v gem environment ``` You might need to install build tools for some of the gem dependencies. On Debian or Ubuntu, `apt install build-essential`. On macOS, `xcode-select --install`. If you encounter issues installing [thin](https://rubygems.org/gems/thin), try: ``` gem install thin -v 1.5.1 -- --with-cflags="-Wno-error=implicit-function-declaration" ``` ### Bundler Please don't put mailcatcher into your Gemfile. It will conflict with your application's gems at some point. Instead, pop a note in your README stating you use mailcatcher, and to run `gem install mailcatcher` then `mailcatcher` to get started. ### RVM Under RVM your mailcatcher command may only be available under the ruby you install mailcatcher into. To prevent this, and to prevent gem conflicts, install mailcatcher into a dedicated gemset with a wrapper script: rvm default@mailcatcher --create do gem install mailcatcher ln -s "$(rvm default@mailcatcher do rvm wrapper show mailcatcher)" "$rvm_bin_path/" ### Rails To set up your rails app, I recommend adding this to your `environments/development.rb`: config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = { :address => '127.0.0.1', :port => 1025 } config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false ### PHP For projects using PHP, or PHP frameworks and application platforms like Drupal, you can set [PHP's mail configuration](https://www.php.net/manual/en/mail.configuration.php) in your [php.ini](https://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.php) to send via MailCatcher with: sendmail_path = /usr/bin/env catchmail -f some@from.address You can do this in your [Apache configuration](https://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.changes.php) like so: php_admin_value sendmail_path "/usr/bin/env catchmail -f some@from.address" If you've installed via RVM this probably won't work unless you've manually added your RVM bin paths to your system environment's PATH. In that case, run `which catchmail` and put that path into the `sendmail_path` directive above instead of `/usr/bin/env catchmail`. If starting `mailcatcher` on alternative SMTP IP and/or port with parameters like `--smtp-ip 192.168.0.1 --smtp-port 10025`, add the same parameters to your `catchmail` command: sendmail_path = /usr/bin/env catchmail --smtp-ip 192.160.0.1 --smtp-port 10025 -f some@from.address ### Django For use in Django, add the following configuration to your projects' settings.py ```python if DEBUG: EMAIL_HOST = '127.0.0.1' EMAIL_HOST_USER = '' EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '' EMAIL_PORT = 1025 EMAIL_USE_TLS = False ``` ### Docker There is a Docker image available [on Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/sj26/mailcatcher): ``` $ docker run -p 1080 -p 1025 sj26/mailcatcher Unable to find image 'sj26/mailcatcher:latest' locally latest: Pulling from sj26/mailcatcher 8c6d1654570f: Already exists f5649d186f41: Already exists b850834ea1df: Already exists d6ac1a07fd46: Pull complete b609298bc3c9: Pull complete ab05825ece51: Pull complete Digest: sha256:b17c45de08a0a82b012d90d4bd048620952c475f5655c61eef373318de6c0855 Status: Downloaded newer image for sj26/mailcatcher:latest Starting MailCatcher v0.9.0 ==> smtp://0.0.0.0:1025 ==> http://0.0.0.0:1080 ``` How those ports appear and can be accessed may vary based on your Docker configuration. For example, your may need to use `http://127.0.0.1:1080` etc instead of the listed address. But MailCatcher will run and listen to those ports on all IPs it can from within the Docker container. ### API A fairly RESTful URL schema means you can download a list of messages in JSON from `/messages`, each message's metadata with `/messages/:id.json`, and then the pertinent parts with `/messages/:id.html` and `/messages/:id.plain` for the default HTML and plain text version, `/messages/:id/parts/:cid` for individual attachments by CID, or the whole message with `/messages/:id.source`. ## Caveats * Mail processing is fairly basic but easily modified. If something doesn't work for you, fork and fix it or [file an issue][mailcatcher-issues] and let me know. Include the whole message you're having problems with. * Encodings are difficult. MailCatcher does not completely support utf-8 straight over the wire, you must use a mail library which encodes things properly based on SMTP server capabilities. ## Thanks MailCatcher is just a mishmash of other people's hard work. Thank you so much to the people who have built the wonderful guts on which this project relies. ## Donations I work on MailCatcher mostly in my own spare time. If you've found Mailcatcher useful and would like to help feed me and fund continued development and new features, please [donate via PayPal][donate]. If you'd like a specific feature added to MailCatcher and are willing to pay for it, please [email me](mailto:sj26@sj26.com). ## License Copyright © 2010-2019 Samuel Cochran (sj26@sj26.com). Released under the MIT License, see [LICENSE][license] for details. [donate]: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=522WUPLRWUSKE [license]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher/blob/master/LICENSE [mailcatcher-github]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher [mailcatcher-issues]: https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher/issues [websockets]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6455