junkfilter

a junk e-mail filter system for procmail

Copyright 1997-2002 Gregory Sutter <gsutter@zer0.org>

$Id: README,v 2.25 2002/04/21 03:16:14 gsutter Exp $

Contents:
	0.  What is junkfilter?
	1.  Use of junkfilter
	2.  How to get junkfilter
	3.  Mailing lists
	4.  Installation instructions
	5.  Sample .procmailrc file
	6.  Helping improve junkfilter
	7.  Customizing junkfilter
	8.  Contributors

0.  What is junkfilter?

	junkfilter is a spam filtering program built on top of the
	procmail email delivery system.  The goal is to create filter
	sets that will block as much spam as possible.  junkfilter
	functions equally well at the individual-user level or at the
	system level; however, since procmail can be slow and mail
	volumes high, its general use at the system level is discouraged.
	junkfilter makes an an excellent second stage spam filter when
	coupled with a first-stage MTA-based ruleset.

	As junkfilter requires the procmail system, it can only be
	used on a Unix-like system.  procmail does not work on
	Windows; this is a procmail FAQ:
	http://www.zer0.org/procmail/mini-faq.html#nt
	
1.  Use of junkfilter
	junkfilter is Copyright 1997-2002 Gregory Sutter.
	All rights reserved.

	junkfilter is licensed under a BSD-style license.  See the
	LICENSE file for the full text.

2.  How to get junkfilter
	The junkfilter web page is: http://junkfilter.zer0.org/
	junkfilter and this documentation are available at the web site.

	junkfilter has also been instantiated as a SourceForge
	project.  The URL there is:
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/junkfilter/

	junkfilter's CVS tree is available from:
	http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=13498

3.  Mailing lists
	junkfilter has two mailing lists, an announce list and a
	general-purpose list.  If you wish to receive announcements
	of new releases, subscribe by sending a message to
	junkfilter-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.  If you wish
	to also receive general mail from a two-way mailing list,
	subscribe by sending a message to
	junkfilter-users-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.  Thanks to
	eGroups.com, now part of Yahoo!, for hosting these lists.

4.  Installation of junkfilter
	We assume you've already got procmail installed and running
	properly, as this is explicitly a "junk email filter system for
	procmail".  Consult the procmail documentation or the FAQ,
	http://www.zer0.org/procmail/
	if you need help installing procmail.

	Set the $PMDIR variable.  It is recommended that you make a
	directory ".procmail" in your home directory and a symlink from
	$HOME/.procmailrc to $HOME/.procmail/procmailrc:
		mkdir -m 755 $HOME/.procmail
		mv -i $HOME/.procmailrc $HOME/.procmail/procmailrc
		ln -s $HOME/.procmail/procmailrc $HOME/.procmailrc
	If you do this, you can set PMDIR=$HOME/.procmail

	Place the junkfilter files wherever you want them.
	$PMDIR/junkfilter is a likely choice.  Set $JFDIR in
	your procmailrc (for junkfilter to run) and in your shell
	configuration files (for the Makefile) to the directory in
	which you placed junkfilter.

	In addition to the junkfilter files and default lists, you
	can make blocklists of your own.  To use these user blocklists,
	set $JFUSERDIR to the directory in which you want your user
	blocklists.  If you're installing junkfilter all for yourself,
	this can be the same as $JFDIR.  If you share the base
	junkfilter installation with other users on the system and
	don't want to share the blocklists, then put these user lists
	elsewhere, like $PMDIR/lists or $PMDIR.

	To update the lists after modifying them, be sure that $JFDIR
	and $JFUSERDIR are set in your current session, and use the
	Makefile to parse the data files and build regular expressions
	from them:
		cd $JFDIR
		make create
		make all
	You will find your $JFDIR populated with the default regexp
	data files, and your $JFUSERDIR populated likewise for your own
	data files.  When you modify the data files, you'll have to
	run 'make all'.

	To begin using junkfilter to filter incoming mail, either follow
	the instructions below to add to your existing .procmailrc file
	or just use the included file procmailrc.sample by copying it to
	your $PMDIR.

	To use your existing procmailrc, place the following line in an
	appropriate place in your procmailrc file:
		INCLUDERC=$JFDIR/junkfilter
	This will call junkfilter.  All other junkfilter files are called
	from within this first file.  After mail finishes passing through
	the included junkfilter system, it will not be changed or 
	filtered anywhere, but several procmail variables may be set.
	Depending upon the contents of these variables, the message can
	be filtered away to another mailbox so you don't have to read it.

	After the INCLUDERC statement, this procmail recipe will filter
	mail depending on whether junkfilter has marked the message as
	spam.  This example sends the junkmail to a mailbox called
	"junkmail" in your $MAILDIR directory.

	# Deal with mail that junkfilter has flagged.
	:0
	* JFEXP ?? .
	{
		# Check for whitelisted mail
		:0 f
		* JFSTATUS ?? 1
		| formail -i "X-junkfilter: $JFVERSION" \
			-i "X-Spammer: $JFEXP"

		# File as spam
		:0 E :
		| formail -i "X-junkfilter: $JFVERSION" \
			-i "X-Spammer: $JFEXP" >> junkmail
	}

	Here is an example demonstrating how to process mail, yet
	perform the filtering within your e-mail program instead of
	sending spam to a different directory.  (Tell your email
	program to check for the presence of an X-Is-Spam: header.)

	# Deal with mail that junkfilter has flagged.
	:0
	* JFEXP ?? .
	{
		# Check for whitelisted mail
		:0 f
		* JFSTATUS ?? 1
		| formail -i "X-junkfilter: $JFVERSION" \
			-i "X-Spammer: $JFEXP"
 
		# File as spam
		:0 E f
		| formail -i "X-junkfilter: $JFVERSION" \
			-i "X-Spammer: $JFEXP" \
			-i "X-Is-Spam: YES"
	}

	In addition to these examples, you can change the action recipe
	to whatever you prefer.  The most common change will be the name
	of the mailbox in which the junk mail is stored.  You can change
	it to /dev/null if you wish, but remember that no matter how good
	the filter, mistakes will be made.  The author does NOT recommend
	immediately discarding any mail filtered by junkfilter.

	You now have a basic junkfilter setup.  You now need to configure
	junkfilter to fit your every desire.  Edit junkfilter.config and
	change the various options from 0 to 1 and vice-versa.  0 means
	"false"; 1 means "true".  A given piece of code will only
	execute if it is set true.  Please read the comments at the
	beginning of each one before changing anything.

	If you are installing junkfilter as a systemwide solution, and
	want each user to have customizable defaults, you can copy the
	junkfilter.config file to their home directories, calling it
	".junkfilterrc".  junkfilter will check $HOME/.junkfilterrc for
	local configuration overrides each time it is called.
	
	You can change the default action of jf to whatever you prefer.
	The only action command in junkfilter is to set the variable
	JFEXP to a relevant piece of text.  It is up to you to then
	take some action.  Since you've called junkfilter from your
	.procmailrc file, you can easily take action depending on the
	output (in the JFEXP variable) of junkfilter.

	The whitelist feature is a way of making sure that certain
	people/mails are not blocked, even if junkfilter would block
	them ordinarily.  The implementation of the whitelist does not
	break compatibility with older releases of junkfilter, but
	does require that a more complex set of recipes be used to
	decide whether or not to take action on the message.

5. Sample .procmailrc file that calls junkfilter
	Please see the file procmailrc.sample for a working example
	of how to call junkfilter from your procmailrc.  If you have
	no other procmail recipes, you can simply install this in
	$PMDIR and make a symbolic link to it from your $HOME.

6.  Helping 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.

	junkfilter users who wish to see more of their spam caught by
	the filter in the future may wish to forward their spam which
	was _not_ caught by junkfilter to an email address set up for
	this purpose.  To do this, you should enable JF_OPT_SENDBACK in
	your junkfilter.config file.  It's near the end.  This will
	enable some settings that will mark each email that passes
	through junkfilter.  If a spam has the headers added by this
	setting, it will be accepted at the email address
	<junkfilter-misses@lists.sourceforge.net>.  Spam sent here may
	be analyzed and used to improve junkfilter.

	Only spam that has been processed by junkfilter, yet not
	caught, will be of use.  junkfilter must have JF_OPT_SENDBACK
	enabled to be of use.

	An easy way to test junkfilter when modifying the code is to
	put a sample e-mail in a file such as 'test-mail' then invoke
	procmail directly with:
		procmail < test-mail > test-output 2>&1
	If you're using a csh variant, the command line is:
		procmail < test-mail >& test-output

	You can then look at the test-output file to see how procmail
	handled the test e-mail. The sample e-mail you put in
	'test-mail' should be the raw source of the message including
	all headers.

7.  Customizing junkfilter
	junkfilter can be customized in three ways: through the
	junkfilter.user file, through the individual section user
	files, or by modifying the procmail code directly.

	The file junkfilter.user is provided as a convenient place for
	you to store your own personal junk filtration recipes.  If you
	follow the recommended format (given at the beginning of that
	file), junkfilter will treat your recipes the same as the rest
	of the files.  The "user" section is the first section checked
	when junkfilter is called.  In the distribution, the stock
	junkfilter.user is called junkfilter.user-default so that your
	personalized copy is not overwritten when you upgrade later.

	The user files for each individual section (domains, bodychk,
	etc.) are made up of lists of regular expressions.  For each
	file, which has the same name as the corresponding built-in
	section, suffixed with "-user", as in 'bodychk-user', add
	each entry on its own line.  To compile your lists into the
	format that junkfilter can use, run the 'jf' utility with the
	arguments 'build' and the section name you're building:
		jf build bodychk-user
		jf build domains-user
	The shortcut section name "all-user" will build all of the 
	user configurable data files:
		jf build all-user
	When you use the 'jf' utility in this manner, it will take
	your raw data files and build files with names like 
	'jf-bodychk-user' or 'jf-ip-user'.  These files should not
	be edited directly, or your changes will be lost when you 
	next use 'jf' to rebuild them.
	
	If you enable any of the user- rules or options in junkfilter,
	you MUST be sure that the files referenced by them in
	junkfilter.config exist!  This means that you must rename the
	files distributed as *-default, removing the dash and the word
	"default". If you don't do this, the most likely occurrence is
	that all your mail will be classified as junk.

8.  Contributors to junkfilter
	Many people have contributed to junkfilter in various ways; the
	author would like to thank the following people in particular:

	Matthew Hunt <mph@pobox.com>, who co-developed junkfilter for the
			 	      first few months.  Thanks, Matt!
	Jeff A. Earickson <jaearick@colby.edu>
	Era Eriksson <era@iki.fi>
	Brian Goetz <brian@quiotix.com>
	Philip Guenther <guenther@gac.edu>
	Brad Knowles <brad@his.com>
	Bryan D. McMeen <bryan.mcmeen@symtecinc.com>
	John Perry <perry@jpunix.com>
	Edward Sabol <sabol@alderaan.gsfc.nasa.gov>
	David Tamkin <dattier@wwa.com>
	John Wilkes <john@wilkes.com>
	and
	the procmail mailing list <procmail@Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE>