pemf

What is it?

Features:

• Simple, small, and easy to modify or improve.
• Very useful for people who own one or more domains and use many email addresses on their domains

License:

Download:

Install:

1. Install pemf somewhere (preferably on the same NFS server as the mail) and make it readable/executable
2. Install the example filter as Filter.pm in the same directory as pemf or in your home directory and make it readable
3. I also recommend that you install forge_pipe in a normal place in your path and do:

      % chown root:root forge_pipe
      % chmod +s forge_pipe

4. Edit the Filter.pm as desired
5. Make any directories you'll need that you don't have, such as ~/Mail and possibly ~/Mail/INBOUND
6. If desired, save an email and try running it through the filter with:

      % pemf < test_email

7. Make a gobally readable .forward file (probably in your home directory, check with your sysadmin) containing:

      "|/path/to/pemf -l"

Documentation?

The Filter.pm is what you customize to tailor the behavior of the script, through subroutines that 'pemf' will call if found. It's generally commented, here's a few extra notes:

Many of the subs are given ($home,$user) as arguments, these are the home directory and the user's login.

Configurations:
You only need to set/modify inbox() and save_mail() if the defaults don't work (they probably will). If your sendmail is in an unusual place you can create a sub sendmail() that returns the path to sendmail.

If you want to control where your logfile goes, change logfile(). If you don't want logging, don't use the '-l' option in your .forward file.

To save inbound your inbound mail, adjust save_inbound() and save_inbound_lines().

If you use the spam checking utilities, you'll want to adjust some of: is_spam_to(), is_spam_from(), is_spam_subject(), is_spam_hdr(), never_spam_from()

If you use auto_respond_mail (see below), then you should set my_name(), auto_respond_from() and respond_key()

Utilities:

is_spam($msg);

Check if a message is spam based upon Filter.pm settings

auto_respond_mail($msg,$subject,$message);

Send a response to a message, like "reply" in your email reader.

get_body($msg);

Returns the body of the message in an array. This is less efficient, especially with larger messages, so avoid it if possible.

change_header($msg,$re,$str);

Change any headers (in the header_list) that match $re to $str

send_to($msg,$box,$no_quit);

Finally, this is where the message is handled. If $box is 0 or undef, then it will use your default inbox. If $box is a path or a mailbox in your saved mail directory, it will save it there. $box can also be a forwarding email address or a '|command' (though consider the security implications!). Normally send_to will exit when done, unless $no_quit is specified, so that you can do further processing of the email.

Filter:
The actual filter itself is mail_filter(). It's called with a $msg data structure, this is a hash reference:

$msg->{headers}

Hash of all headers (lower case)

$msg->{header_list}

An array reference to the original headers, in order

$msg->{no_save_inbound}

Boolean. Set if you don't want to save this email, regardless of save_inbound() settings

$msg->{clean_equals}

Boolean. Set if you want to clean quoted_printable email. This is the email with all the = escapes throughout the message and at the end of lines. If you have a text email reader (like 'elm') then this probably aggravates you. See the example filter for an easy check.

Requires:

1. Perl, which kicks ass
2. sendmail or some equivalent that allows mail filters

Revision History:

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