# $Id: README,v 1.1.1.1 2001/07/26 18:33:27 petef Exp $ NAME Mail::Verify - Utility to verify an email address SYNOPSIS use Mail::Verify; DESCRIPTION `Mail::Verify' provides a function CheckAddress function for verifying email addresses. First the syntax of the email address is checked, then it verifies that there is at least one valid MX server accepting email for the domain. Using the Net::DNS manpage and the IO::Socket manpage a list of MX records (or, falling back on a hosts A record) are checked to make sure at least one SMTP server is accepting connections. ERRORS Here are a list of return codes and what they mean: 0 The email address appears to be valid. 1 No email address was supplied. 2 There is a syntaxical error in the email address. 3 There are no DNS entries for the host in question (no MX records or A records). 4 There are no live SMTP servers accepting connections for this email address. EXAMPLES This example shows obtaining an email address from a form field and verifying it. use CGI qw/:standard/; use Mail::Verify; my $q = new CGI; [...] my $email = $q->param("emailaddr"); my $email_ck = Mail::Verify::CheckAddress( $email ); if( $email_ck ) { print '<h1>Form input error: Invalid email address.</h1>'; } [...]