[Mimedefang] ANNOUCEMENT: Net::validMX v2.2.0 now available.

[Kevin A. McGrail]

Happy to announce that we have released Net::validMX v2.2.0 at 
http://search.cpan.org/~kmcgrail/Net-validMX-2.2.0/ and at 
http://www.thoughtworthy.com/downloads/NOTE: As of this release we have 
reached the design goals we set out to meet and this code is in use on 
production systems. Sincerely,KAMNAME
    Net::validMX - PERL Module to use DNS and/or regular expressions to
    verify if an email address could be valid.

SYNOPSIS
    Net::validMX - I wanted the ability to use DNS to verify if an email
    address COULD be valid by checking for valid MX records. This could be
    used for sender verification for emails with a program such as
    MIMEDefang or for websites to verify email addresses prior to
    registering users and/or sending a confirmation email.

PRE-REQUISITE MODULES
    Net::DNS v0.53 or greater. Test::More.

INSTALLATION
    To install this package, uncompress the distribution, change to the
    directory where the files are present and type:

            perl Makefile.PL
            make
            make test
            make install

USE
    To use the module in your programs you will use the line:

            use Net::validMX;

  check_valid_mx
    To check if an email address could be valid by checking the DNS, call
    the function check_valid_mx with a single email address as the only
    argument:

            ($rv, $reason) = 
&Net::validMX::check_valid_mx('kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com');

    check_valid_mx will return a true/false integer as the first value and a
    descriptive text message as warranted.

    NOTE: In the event of a DNS resolution problem, we do NOT return a
    failure. We return a success to prevent DNS outages and delays from
    producing too many false positives.

  check_email_validity
    To check if an email address is formatted correctly, call the function
    check_email_validity with a single email address as the only argument:

            $rv = 
&Net::validMX::check_valid_mx('kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com');

    check_email_validity will return a true/false integer where > 0
    indicates that the email address looks valid.

  check_email_and_mx
    To check if an email address is formatted correctly, sanitize the email
    address some common end-user errors(*) and run check_valid_mx all from a
    single function, use the function check_email_and_mx with a single email
    address as the only argument:

            ($rv, $reason, $sanitized_email) = 
&Net::validMX::check_valid_mx('kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com');

    check_email_and_mx will return a true/false integer where > 0 indicates
    that the email address looks valid, a descriptive text message as
    warranted, and a sanitized version of the email address argument .

    (*) Common end-user errors that are fixed:

    All spaces are stripped. Many users seem to enter things like Bob and
    Carol @ a big isp.com.
    Emails ending in @aol. or @aol

  EXAMPLE
    The distribution contains an example program to demonstrate working
    functionality as well to utilize as a command line interface to query
    one or more email addresses.

    Run the program with the space-seperated email addresses to test as your
    arguments:

            perl example/check_email_and_mx.pl 
kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com
    or
            perl example/check_email_and_mx.pl 
kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com google at google.com president at whitehouse.gov

    If you supply only one email address argument, the program will exit
    with a exit status of 0 for a success and 1 for a failure:

            perl example/check_email_and_mx.pl kevin.mcgrail at failed || echo 
'This email is no good'

  MIMEDEFANG
    We are using this routine with MIMEDefang and have been for many months
    via the filter_sender hooks. For example, make a function that excludes
    authorized senders for your particular setup and add the following code
    snippets to your mimedefang-filter:

    sub filter_initialize { #for Check Valid MX use Net::validMX
    qw(check_valid_mx); }

    sub is_authorized_sender { my ($sender, $RelayAddr) = @_;

      if ([test for authorized user]) {
        return 1;
      } else {
        return 0;
      }
    }

    sub filter_sender { my ($sender, $ip, $hostname, $helo) = @_; my ($rv,
    $reason); #md_syslog('warning', "Testing $sender, $ip, $hostname,
    $helo");

      if (&is_authorized_sender($sender, $RelayAddr)) {
        return ('CONTINUE', "ok");
      }

      if ($sender ne '<>') {
        ($rv, $reason) = &check_valid_mx($sender);
        unless ($rv) {
          md_syslog('warning', "Rejecting $sender - Invalid MX: $reason.");
          return ('REJECT', "Sorry; $sender has an invalid MX record: 
$reason.");
        }
      }
    }

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2006 Kevin A. McGrail. All rights reserved.

    This distribution, including all of the files in the Net::validMX
    package, is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the Perl Artistic License v1.0 available at
    http://www.perlfoundation.org/legal/licenses/artistic-1_0.html

    perlartistic

AUTHOR INFORMATION
    Kevin A. McGrail kevin.mcgrail at thoughtworthy.com

UPDATE HISTORY
    v1.0 Released Oct 11, 2005. Original release for MIMEDefang filter.
    v2.0 Released Nov 3, 2005. Incorporated many user updates.
    v2.1 Released May 23, 2006. Switched to a perl Library (Net::validMX).
    Small efficiency change to short-circuit the DNS resolution of an IP
    address.
    v2.2 Under Development. Clarified the LICENSE by pointing readers to the
    README. Added functions check_email_and_mx & check_email_validity.
    Expanded documentation and added check_email_and_mx &
    check_email_validity calls to example. Cleaned up distribution
    production. Changed logic to check MX records that resolve to IPs to see
    if it is privatized first.

HOMEPAGE
    Releases can be found at http://www.thoughtworthy.com/downloads/ and on
    CPAN at http://search.cpan.org/~kmcgrail/.

CAVEATS
    THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
    WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
    MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

TODO
    - I'd like to have the example script automatically built to have the
    correct #!/usr/bin/perl line and possibly installed in /usr/local/bin.

SOLVED TODO ITEMS
    - I'd like to convert the example script(s) into test script(s).
        ANSWER: Test::More was a great way to achieve this!

    - I'd like to know more info on what/how to make a META.yml file.
        ANSWER: I was using MakeMaker v6.03. Instead I upgraded to 6.30 and
        make dist or make distdir then created the META.yml file. I also
        used a trick from Net::DNS' Makefile.PL to add the license, author
        and abstract data directly to the META.yml file.

    - I'd like to make it so that the Makefile.PL creates a README on the
    fly from the pod in the library instead of pod2text lib/Net/validMX.pm >
    README.
        ANSWER: Thanks to Andreas J. Koenig for a post he wrote that dealt
        with my exact problem. I added the PREOP and DIST_DEFAULT to the
        Makefile.PL. I then modified this to use the same MANIFEST trick
        that is used for metafile and I'm happy with the end result.

CREDITS
    Based on an idea from Les Miksell and much input from Jan Pieter Cornet.
    Additional thanks to David F. Skoll, Matthew van Eerde, and Mark Damrose
    for testing and suggestions. And sincere apologies in advance if I
    missed anyone!