Nits - Non Intrusive Test SMTP Server

A simple SMTP server for testing email sending in development environments.

This is a simple SMTP server. It listens for clients sending mails, then stores email into an mbox file and may send notifications to the desktop.

Its purpose is to provide a simple debugging tool for applications sending emails.

Based on the work of Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz gradha@efaber.net

Features

• Listens for SMTP connections and saves emails to an mbox file
• Optional desktop notifications when emails are received (macOS and Linux)
• Simple command-line interface
• Perfect for development and testing

Installation

For users

pip install nits

For development

make dev
# or
pip install -e .[dev]

Usage

# Start with defaults (port 12345)
nits

# Custom port and spool file
nits -p 12345 -s /tmp/spool

# Verbose mode
nits -v

# With desktop notifications
nits -n

# All options combined
nits -p 12345 -s /tmp/spool -v -n

Options

• -h, --help - Print help screen
• -v, --verbose - Tell when a mail passes
• -p xxx, --port-number xxx - Use xxx as port number (default: 12345)
• -s yyy, --spool-file yyy - Write mails to this file (default: ~/.fake_spool)
• -n, --notify - Send desktop notification when mail passes

Development

Building and Publishing

# Install in development mode
make dev

# Run nits in verbose mode
make run

# Build distribution packages
make release

# Publish to PyPI (requires PyPI credentials)
make publish

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Author

Jean Schurger jean@schurger.org

Repository

https://github.com/jeansch/nits