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I easily implemented throw-away mailing addresses over an IMAP/SMTP setup.

https://www.kylheku.com/cgit/tamarind/

This is a CGI-scripted web application without any kind of web framework, in an original programming language.

It authenticates you using IMAP or SASL: with direct socket work in a few lines of code. (That's the only integration with IMAP.)

It manages aliases in a standard aliases file. If configured, it can work with the master /etc/aliases file, in which cases it will carve out a section of the file for itself and respect the surrounding file when it adds or removes aliases. I run a separate aliases file, though.



I do most of my mailing using the RoundCube webmail interface. I made some patches to it.

In connection with the throw-away mail aliases, the issue that comes up is that when you use them for sending, rather than just receiving mails, you want that to be available in the list of sender identities in the mail client.

While it isn't automatic, I put in a hack which at least makes it easier to identify the mail identities. In RoundCube, a mail identity has an "Organization" field: what org you belong to. There is a mail header for that, IIRC.

I changed the UI so that when you look at the identities list box, the Organization field is listed in parentheses (if it is non-blank). Then I use Organization to describe the purpose of the mail alias, e.g "Foo Mailing List" or "ABC Company".

Only a small subset of my throw-away mail aliases become sender identities; I do that manually.


I use catch all aliasing and sieve out the offenders. Seems easier.


Yes; this is for the control freak that wants to shut down the offenders at the SMTP level.

Plus there are some other benefits.

Each one is associated with note field. URLs in the note field are rendered navigable. I use the note fields not only as a reminder about what the alias is for but also for PW management. Throwaway mail aliases often have throwaway passwords associated with them too.

The explicitly created aliases track their creation date, which can be informative from time to time.

UI has a regex search over the aliases (any field).




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