NAME

Mail::SpamAssassin - Mail::Audit spam detector plugin

SYNOPSIS

  my $mail = Mail::SpamAssassin::NoMailAudit->new();
  my $spamtest = Mail::SpamAssassin->new();
  my $status = $spamtest->check ($mail);
  if ($status->is_spam ()) {
    $status->rewrite_mail ();
    $mail->accept("spamfolder");
  } else {
    $mail->accept();            # to default incoming mailbox
  }
  ...

DESCRIPTION

Mail::SpamAssassin is a module to identify spam using text analysis and several internet-based realtime blacklists.

Using its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text to identify ``spam'', also known as unsolicited commercial email.

Once identified, the mail can then be optionally tagged as spam for later filtering using the user's own mail user-agent application.

This module also implements a Mail::Audit plugin, allowing SpamAssassin to be used in a Mail::Audit filter. If you wish to use a command-line filter tool, try the spamassassin or spamd tools provided.

Note that, if you're using Mail::Audit, the constructor for the Mail::Audit object must use the nomime option, like so:

        my $ma = new Mail::Audit ( nomime => 1 );

SpamAssassin also includes support for reporting spam messages to collaborative filtering databases, such as Vipul's Razor ( http://razor.sourceforge.net/ ).

METHODS

$f = new Mail::SpamAssassin( [ { opt => val, ... } ] )
Constructs a new Mail::SpamAssassin object. You may pass the following attribute-value pairs to the constructor.
rules_filename
The filename to load spam-identifying rules from. (optional)

userprefs_filename
The filename to load preferences from. (optional)

userstate_dir
The directory user state is stored in. (optional)

config_text
The text of all rules and preferences. If you prefer not to load the rules from files, read them in yourself and set this instead. As a result, this will override the settings for rules_filename and userprefs_filename.

local_tests_only
If set to 1, no tests that require internet access will be performed. (default: 0)

dont_copy_prefs
If set to 1, the user preferences file will not be created if it doesn't already exist. (default: 0)

save_pattern_hits
If set to 1, the patterns hit can be retrieved from the Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus object. Used for debugging.

home_dir_for_helpers
If set, the HOME environment variable will be set to this value when using test applications that require their configuration data, such as Razor, Pyzor and DCC.

If none of rules_filename, userprefs_filename, or config_text is set, the Mail::SpamAssassin module will search for the configuration files in the usual installed locations.

$status = $f->check ($mail)
Check a mail, encapsulated in a Mail::Audit object, to determine if it is spam or not.

Returns a Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus object which can be used to test or manipulate the mail message.

Note that the Mail::SpamAssassin object can be re-used for further messages without affecting this check; in OO terminology, the Mail::SpamAssassin object is a ``factory''. However, if you do this, be sure to call the finish() method on the status objects when you're done with them.

$status = $f->check_message_text ($mailtext)
Check a mail, encapsulated in a plain string, to determine if it is spam or not.

Otherwise identical to $f-check()> above.

$f->report_as_spam ($mail, $options)
Report a mail, encapsulated in a Mail::Audit object, as human-verified spam. This will submit the mail message to live, collaborative, spam-blocker databases, allowing other users to block this message.

Options is an optional reference to a hash of options. Currently these can be:

dont_report_to_razor
Inhibits reporting of the spam to Razor; useful if you know it's already been listed there.

$f->add_address_to_whitelist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, add it to the automatic whitelist database.

$f->add_all_addresses_to_whitelist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find as many addresses in the usual headers (To, Cc, From etc.), and the message body, and add them to the automatic whitelist database.

$f->remove_address_from_whitelist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, remove it from the automatic whitelist database.

$f->remove_all_addresses_from_whitelist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find as many addresses in the usual headers (To, Cc, From etc.), and the message body, and remove them from the automatic whitelist database.

$f->add_address_to_blacklist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, add it to the automatic whitelist database with a high score, effectively blacklisting them.

$f->add_all_addresses_to_blacklist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find as many addresses in the usual headers (To, Cc, From etc.), and the message body, and adds them to the automatic whitelist database with a high score, effectively blacklisting them.

$f->reply_with_warning ($mail, $replysender)
Reply to the sender of a mail, encapsulated in a Mail::Audit object, explaining that their message has been added to spam-tracking databases and deleted. To be used in conjunction with report_as_spam. The $replysender argument should contain an email address to use as the sender of the reply message.

$text = $f->remove_spamassassin_markup ($mail)
Returns the text of the message, with any SpamAssassin-added text (such as the report, or X-Spam-Status headers) stripped.

Note that the $mail object is not modified.

$f->read_scoreonly_config ($filename)
Read a configuration file and parse only scores from it. This is used to safely allow multi-user daemons to read per-user config files without having to use setuid().

$f->load_scoreonly_sql ($username)
Read configuration paramaters from SQL database and parse scores from it. This will only take effect if the perl DBI module is installed, and the configuration parameters user_scores_dsn, user_scores_sql_username, and user_scores_sql_password are set correctly.

$f->set_persistent_address_list_factory ($factoryobj)
Set the persistent address list factory, used to create objects for the automatic whitelist algorithm's persistent-storage back-end. See Mail::SpamAssassin::PersistentAddrList for the API these factory objects must implement, and the API the objects they produce must implement.

$f->compile_now ($use_user_prefs)
Compile all patterns, load all configuration files, and load all possibly-required Perl modules.

Normally, Mail::SpamAssassin uses lazy evaluation where possible, but if you plan to fork() or start a new perl interpreter thread to process a message, this is suboptimal, as each process/thread will have to perform these actions.

Call this function in the master thread or process to perform the actions straightaway, so that the sub-processes will not have to.

If $use_user_prefs is 0, this will initialise the SpamAssassin configuration without reading the per-user configuration file and it will assume that you will call read_scoreonly_config at a later point.

$failed = $f->lint_rules ()
Syntax-check the current set of rules. Returns the number of syntax errors discovered, or 0 if the configuration is valid.

$f->init ($use_user_prefs)
Read and parse the current configuration. $use_user_prefs can be 0 (do not read user preferences) or 1 (do).

$f->create_default_prefs ()
Copy default prefs file into home directory for later use and modification.

PREREQUISITES

Mail::Audit Mail::Internet

COREQUISITES

Net::DNS

MORE DOCUMENTATION

See also http://spamassassin.org/ for more information.

SEE ALSO

Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus spamassassin

AUTHOR

Justin Mason <jm /at/ jmason.org>

COPYRIGHT

SpamAssassin is distributed under Perl's Artistic license.

AVAILABILITY

The latest version of this library is likely to be available from CPAN as well as:

  http://spamassassin.org/