How do I use Procmail to route my mail locally?

You can filter and locally reroute your e-mail using Procmail.

Uses for Procmail

• Send spam into a black hole
• Ignore chronic harrassers
• Route your incoming mail to special folders

Here's how:

You can do this when you are in the shell by typing pico, and hitting enter. Cut and paste the text below into the file, editing it to include the name of the spammer in question, then use the commands at the bottom of the screen to quit, save changes and name the file .procmailrc.

If you want to use an FTP program instead, you can create a file in a simple text editor like Simple Text or Notepad, cut and paste the text below, save it as .procmailrc, then FTP it to your account using the host drizzle.com (NOT ftp.drizzle.com).

To check whether or not the file is in there when you finish, in the shell at the name prompt, type ls -a . That should list all of your files.

Copy one of the following commands for .procmailrc to carry out. (/dev/null is the place on the server where things go and never come back. It is like a black hole for files and other information.)

Send spam to a black hole

:0
* ^From.*badperson@spammer\.org
/dev/null

(badperson@spammer.org is the address from which the spam comes.)

Ignore chronic harrassers

:0
* ^From.*badperson@badperson\.com
/dev/null

(badperson@badperson.com is the address of the person whose e-mails you no longer wish to receive.)

If you want to block out more than one address, you can just stack the requests, one after another, with one space between them.

If you want to get rid of e-mail from a company who's spamming you with an address like "1800bagadonuts.224632394@s2u2.com" try listing the address as something like ".*1800bagadonuts.* " The .* will help you catch anything by anybody that has "bagadonuts" in the address.

A valuable suggestion from a trusted coworker: "When you first set up procmail, send the messages to a special folder (see below), instead of sending them to the black hole. Then you can check and make sure that you're not actually catching someone legitimate." Listen and learn.