NAME

filter - filter incoming messages before adding to mailbox

SYNOPSIS

filter [-v] [-o output]
filter [-n]
filter [-r] [-o output]
filter [-c] [-s] [-o output]
filter [-c] [-S] [-o output]

DESCRIPTION

Filter is a sophisticated program that allows incoming mail to be filtered against a wide set of criteria.  The format for the rules, located in $HOME/.elm/filter-rules, is;

 
        rule  ::=  if  (expression)  then  action
 

where expression is:

         expression  ::=  {  not  }  condition  expr2
         expr2  ::=  NULL  |  and  condition  expr2
         condition  ::=  field  relationship  value
                   ::=  lines  relop  numvalue
or                 ::=  always
 

These further break down as:

         field  ::=  from  |  subject  |  to  |  lines
         relationship  ::=  =  |  !=
 
        relop  ::=  =  |  !=  |  <  |  >  |  <=  |  >=
         value  ::=  any  quoted  string
         numvalue  ::=  any  integer  value
 

Action can be any of:

         delete
        save  foldername
        savecopy foldername
        execute  command
        forward  address
        leave
 

For further information about the rules language, please see The Elm Filter Guide.  The flags the filter program understands are;

-c Clear logs.  If this flag is used, the log files will be removed after being summarized by either "-s" or "-S" (see below). 

-n Not really.  Output what would happen if given message from standard input, but don’t actually do anything with it. 

-o file Redirect all log messages to the specified file or device.  (This is added to more gracefully deal with changes in the file system (since sendmail is quite picky about modes of files being redirected into.))

-r Rules.  List the rules currently being used. 

-s Summarize.  List a summary of the message filtered log. 

-S This is the same as ‘-s’ but includes message-by-message information additionally. 

-v Verbose.  Give output on standard out for each message filtered.  Useful to have redirected to “/dev/console” and such.  (see -o too). 

AUTHOR

Dave Taylor, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. 

FILES

$HOME/.elm/filter-rules     The ruleset for the users filter
$HOME/.elm/filterlog        A log of what has been done
$HOME/.elm/filtersum        A summary of what has been done
/etc/passwd             Used to get users home directory

SEE ALSO

The Elm Filter Guide, by Dave Taylor. 
readmsg(1L), elm(1L), mail(1), mailx(1), sendmail(1,8)

COMMENTS

Not real smart about pattern matching. 

BUG REPORTS TO

Syd Weinsteinelm@DSI.COM(dsinc!elm)

COPYRIGHTS

© Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor
© Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by The USENET Community Trust

Amiga Unix  —  Last change: Elm Version 2.3