FILTER(1L)

NAME

filter - filter incoming messages before adding to mailbox

SYNOPSIS

filter [-q] [-v] [-l] [-o output] [-f rules-file]
filter [-n] [-f rules-file]
filter [-r] [-o output] [-f rules-file]
filter [-c] [-s] [-o output] [-f rules-file]
filter [-c] [-S] [-o output] [-f rules-file]

DESCRIPTION

Filter uses a set of selection rules to process incoming mail messages. 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 | sender
         relationship ::= = | !=

        relop ::= = | != | < | > | <= | >=
         value ::= any quoted string
         numvalue ::= any integer value

Action can be any of:

         delete
        save foldername
        savecopy foldername
        execute command
        executec 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).

-f rules-file Get rules from specified file instead of default $HOME/.elm/filter-rules

-l Log actions only. Do not log information about mailed messages.

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

-o file Redirect stdout messages to the specified file or device. Logging of filter actions is not affected. (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.))

-q Quiet. Do not log filtering actions.

-r Rules. List the rules currently being used.

-s Summarize. List a summary of the message filtering 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

Elm Development Group

FILES

$HOME/.elm/filter-rules     Default rules file
$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

COMMENTS

Not really smart about pattern matching.

BUG REPORTS TO

Syd Weinsteinelm@DSI.COM(dsinc!elm)

Museum

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