VRFY command—Verify whether a mailbox exists on the local host

Purpose

Use the VRFY command to verify whether a given mailbox exists on the local host.

Format


>>-VRFY--mailbox-----------------------------------------------><

Parameters

mailbox: Specifies a user-defined identifier for a mailbox. This name can specify a single mailbox or a mailing list.

Examples

Verify whether mike is a mailbox on host abc.com:

SMTP client: VRFY mike
SMTP server: 250 mike@abc.com

Verify whether users-hackers is a mailing list on host abc.com:

SMTP client:  VRFY users-hackers
SMTP server:  250-carol@abc.com
              250-greg@abc.com
              250-marsha@abc.com
              250 peter@abc.com

The hyphen (-) as the fourth character of a response indicates that the response is continued on the next line.

Usage

The VRFY command operates exactly the same as the EXPN command.
The VRFY command can verify the existence of one or more mailboxes on the system. The mailboxes are defined by configuration statements in the SMTP.SMTP.CONFIG data set.
The MVS™ SMTP server verifies only TSO user IDs if RACF® is installed on the local system. TSO user IDs that are verified as valid are accepted with a reply code of 250. If RACF is not installed, any character string up to eight characters is accepted with a reply code of 250.