How to Install MailCatcher on macOS

MailCatcher is a simple SMTP server that intercepts and displays emails sent from web applications in a web interface. This tutorial will guide you through the installation of MailCatcher on macOS.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have the following on your system:

  • Ruby (version 2.0 or higher)
  • RubyGems (included with Ruby)
  • MailCatcher gem (to be installed)

Installation

  1. Open the Terminal app on macOS.

  2. Install the MailCatcher gem by running the following command:

    sudo gem install mailcatcher

    Note: This command requires administrator privileges, so you will be prompted to enter your password.

  3. Once the installation is complete, run the following command to start MailCatcher:

    mailcatcher

    This will start the SMTP server on port 1025 and the web interface on port 1080.

  4. Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:1080/ to view the MailCatcher web interface.

    Note: You may receive a warning from your browser that the connection is not secure. This is because MailCatcher uses a self-signed SSL certificate. You can safely ignore this warning and continue to the web interface.

Usage

To use MailCatcher with your web application, simply configure your application to use the SMTP server running on localhost:1025.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed MailCatcher on macOS and can now use it to intercept and display emails sent from your web applications.