How to validate email addresses from shell script

Validate e-mail from shell with cURL

Here is some sample code for how you can validate an e-mail address from the shell in Mac OSX / Linux with cURL:

curl --request GET \
    --url 'https://mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com/?domain=EMAIL-OR-DOMAIN' \
	--header 'x-rapidapi-host: mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com' \
	--header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR-API-KEY'
                

This will return a JSON-array with information about the domain, and if you should block it or not.

Validate e-mail from shell with wget

You can easily validate an e-mail address from the shell in Mac OSX / Linux with wget also:

wget --quiet \
	--method GET \
	--header 'x-rapidapi-host: mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com' \
	--header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR-API-KEY' \
	--output-document \
	- 'https://mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com/?domain=EMAIL-OR-DOMAIN'
                

Verify e-mail from shell with HTTPie

http GET 'https://mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com/?domain=EMAIL-OR-DOMAIN' \
	x-rapidapi-host:mailcheck.p.rapidapi.com \
	x-rapidapi-key:YOUR-API-KEY
                

You can of course just send it as a regular GET-request to that URL also, in your favorite way, as long as you have the API-key in the header.

You will receive a JSON response, telling you if this is a disposable e-mail to block, or if there are other issues with the domain:

{
    "valid": true,
    "block": true,
    "disposable": true,
    "domain": "tmail.ws",
    "text": "Disposable e-mail",
    "reason": "Heuristics (2a)",
    "risk": 91,
    "mx_host": "tmail.ws",
    "mx_info": "Using MX pointer tmail.ws from DNS with priority: 0",
    "mx_ip": "69.162.74.142",
    "last_changed_at": "2020-06-11T09:56:02+02:00"
}
               

This will tell you if you should block the domain tmail.ws or not, and the reason to why the API thinks so (disposable e-mail, etc). You can also see more detailed documentation of the response here.

To get started for free, and get an API key, click here!