Spam Filtering with Procmail

Current version: 20030115

About junkfilter

junkfilter is a procmail -based filter system for electronic mail. Procmail is a popular and powerful mail-processing program available for nearly all Unix systems. This means that junkfilter doesn't work on Windows, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Juno, WebTV, or any other type of system--just Unix (BSD, Linux, Solaris, etc.).

junkfilter filters a wide range of spam using many different types of filters. It is configurable on a systemwide or per-user basis. Is unsolicited commercial email (UCE) filling up your mailbox? Can't stand the thought of webmail-style throwaway email addresses? Take control of your inbox: filter out 90+% of that spam with junkfilter.

Copyright and Terms of Use

junkfilter is copyright 1997-2002 Gregory Sutter.

junkfilter is free software; you can use it under a BSD-style license.

Older releases of junkfilter were licensed under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Obtaining junkfilter

I strongly suggest that you read the README file before you download or try to install.

Then you can:

• Download the current release,
• view the files in the current release,
• browse the CVS tree [sourceforge.net], or
• checkout from anonymous CVS [sourceforge.net].

If you are a FreeBSD user, you may want to use the FreeBSD port/package of junkfilter instead.

You can also download older releases, but I really don't recommend it.

Mailing List

junkfilter has several mailing lists:

junkfilter-announce@groups.yahoo.com

This is a one-way moderated list for announcements related to junkfilter. To subscribe, send a message to junkfilter-announce-subscribe@groups.yahoo.com. In addition, this list is available on the web at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/junkfilter-announce/.

junkfilter-users@groups.yahoo.com

This list is available for discussions and questions regarding junkfilter. To subscribe, send a message to junkfilter-users-subscribe@groups.yahoo.com. In addition, this list is available on the web at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/junkfilter-users/.

junkfilter-misses@lists.sourceforge.net

This list is for spam that is processed by, but not successfully filtered by, junkfilter. There are certain conditions that must be met before spam is forwarded to the list; please read the section entitled "Helping improve junkfilter" in the README file. You probably do not want to subscribe to this list unless you plan to help improve junkfilter's spam catching abilities. This list is available on the web at http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/junkfilter-misses/.

Help Improve junkfilter!

Help improve junkfilter! If you know procmail, or would like an example of a working procmail-based tool of medium complexity to play with or hack around on, take a look at the junkfilter code. There are lots of ways to improve the system. Please submit bugs (and preferably patches) to the management systems at SourceForge:

bugs:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=113498&group_id=13498&func=browse

patches:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=313498&group_id=13498&func=browse

Bugs, patches, questions, and comments may also be posted to the junkfilter-users mailing list or to the author. Note that emailing the author directly has the lowest probability of receiving a timely response.

If you can't use junkfilter

(If you don't have procmail or access to procmail (through a shell account on your ISP), you could try Myles White's filtering strategies for popular programs such as Eudora, Outlook, Netscape, and Pegasus. They're not as good as procmail, but they're a whole lot better than nothing.)