Grey verifier: Smart SMTP Email Verifier (python)

Grey Verifier makes correct SMTP conversation to verify email address or list of addresses and properly handles 4xx SMTP errors (such as greylisting).

This tool could be slow - it's not working parallel.

verifier prints successfully verified email addresses to stdout, and failed addresses (and reason) to stderr.

Why yet another mail list verifier?

Because many other verifiers are working incorrectly, e.g. They use incorrect HELO host, do not issue MAIL FROM command before RCPT TO and on some mailserver this makes incorrect result (e.g. RCPT TO fails because of missed MAIL FROM, but not because something wrong with recipient).

SMTP Email verifier:

1. Connects to main MX for domain (with lowest MX priority)
2. Makes correct (configurable) SMTP conversation with HELO / MAIL FROM / RCPT TO
3. For each failed email prints (easy to parse with cut -f 1 -d: )
4. Supports Greylisting! If verification returns a temporary error, it will retry every --retry seconds for up to --max-retry seconds.
5. Supports IPv6 (and IPv4-only, sure). Yes, some recipients in your big maillist has main MX on IPv6 address.

Install

pipx install grey-verifier

Usage

Verify one email address

$ grey-verifier yaroslaff@gmail.com
yaroslaff@gmail.com

$ grey-verifier yaroslaff-NoSuchEmail@gmail.com
yaroslaff-NoSuchEmail@gmail.com: RCPT TO error: 550 b"5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try\n5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or\n5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. For more information, go to\n5.1.1  https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser 38308e7fff4ca-2ef05d163c2si289891fa.270 - gsmtp"

Optionally provide options --helo HOSTNAME and --from ADDRESS. Some mail servers will give false negative results if will not like HELO or FROM address.

Verify list

# See verification status for each email address
$ grey-verifier -f /tmp/test.txt 
aaa@example.com: DNS error for example.com
bbb@example.com: DNS error for example.com
yaroslaff@gmail.com

# Get only verified emails
$ grey-verifier -f /tmp/test.txt 2> /dev/null 
yaroslaff@gmail.com

# Or with redirections and custom HELO and MAIL FROM address
$ grey-verifier -f /tmp/test.txt --helo localhost --from noreply@example.com > /tmp/test-ok.txt 2> /tmp/test-fail.txt
# now get all failed addresses:
$cut -f 1 -d: < /tmp/test-fail.txt

Greylisting

To pass greylisting protection, use --max-retry N option to set retry limit (in seconds). If --max-retry is set, verifier will retry every --retry N seconds (default: 60), for up to --max-retry limit.

Note: Default value for --max-retry is 0 (retries disabled). Set it to something like --max-retry 600 (or even more) to properly handle greylisting.

Verbose

If you want to see how exactly verification happens for email address, use -v / --verbose to see internal debug messages and -s / --smtp-verbose to see SMTP conversation. Example:

$ grey-verifier -sv yaroslaff@gmail.com
# Verifying yaroslaff@gmail.com
connect: to ('gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.', 25) None
reply: b'220 mx.google.com ESMTP 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp\r\n'
reply: retcode (220); Msg: b'mx.google.com ESMTP 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp'
connect: b'mx.google.com ESMTP 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp'
send: 'helo mir.localdomain\r\n'
reply: b'250 mx.google.com at your service\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: b'mx.google.com at your service'
send: 'mail FROM:<noreply@example.com>\r\n'
reply: b'250 2.1.0 OK 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: b'2.1.0 OK 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp'
send: 'rcpt TO:<yaroslaff@gmail.com>\r\n'
reply: b'250 2.1.5 OK 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp\r\n'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: b'2.1.5 OK 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp'
send: 'quit\r\n'
reply: b'221 2.0.0 closing connection 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp\r\n'
reply: retcode (221); Msg: b'2.0.0 closing connection 2adb3069b0e04-52ed252cfc0si2901698e87.159 - gsmtp'

yaroslaff@gmail.com

Command-line parameters

usage: grey-verifier [-h] [--file FILE] [-4] [--dns] [--from EMAIL] [--helo HELO] [--timeout N] [--retry N] [--max-retry N] [--verbose] [--smtp-verbose] [email]

grey-verifier Email address verifier (0.1.6) which knows about SMTP, Greylisting and IPv6

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Main Options:
  email                 Email address to verify
  --file FILE, -f FILE  email list

Verification options:
  -4                    Check only IPv4 MXes, ignore IPv6 ones
  --dns                 Simplified DNS-only domain check, without connecting to mailserver and checking recipient address
  --from EMAIL          email for MAIL FROM
  --helo HELO           HELO host
  --timeout N           Timeout for SMTP operations

Options for retries (Greylisting):
  --retry N             Delay (in seconds) if get temporary 4xx error (greylisting) for each retry
  --max-retry N         Do not retry for more then N seconds (use 180+, maybe 600).

Verbosity:
  --verbose, -v         Verbosity for verifier logic
  --smtp-verbose, -s    Verbosity for SMTP conversation