NAME

spamassassin - mail filter to identify spam using text analysis


SYNOPSIS

spamassassin [options] < mailmessage > output

spamassassin -d < mailmessage > <output>

spamassassin -r [-w addr] < mailmessage

spamassassin -W|-R < mailmessage

Options:

 -P, --pipe                        Deliver to STDOUT (now default)
 -L, --local                       Local tests only (no online tests)
 -r, --report                      Report message as spam
 -w addr, --warning-from=addr      Send a warning mail to sender from addr
 -d, --remove-markup               Remove spam reports from a message
 -C file, --config-file=file       Set configuration file
 -p prefs, --prefs-file=file       Set user preferences file
 -x, --nouser-config               Disable user config files
 -e, --exit-code                   Exit with a non-zero exit code if the
                                   tested message was spam
 -l filename, --log-to-mbox=file   Log messages to a mbox file
 -t, --test-mode                   Pipe message through and add extra
                                   report to the bottom
 --lint                            Lint the rule set: report syntax errors
 -a, --auto-whitelist              Use auto-whitelists
 -W, --add-to-whitelist            Add addresses in mail to whitelist
 --add-to-blacklist                Add addresses in mail to blacklist
 -R, --remove-from-whitelist       Remove all addresses found in mail
                                   from whitelist
 --add-addr-to-whitelist=addr      Add addr to whitelist
 --add-addr-to-blacklist=addr      Add addr to blacklist
 --remove-addr-from-whitelist=addr Remove addr from whitelist
 -M, --whitelist-factory           Select whitelist factory
 -D, --debug [area=n,...]          Print debugging messages
 -V, --version                     Print version
 -h, --help                        Print usage message


OPTIONS

-P, --pipe
The -P parameter will cause SpamAssassin to pipe the output to STDOUT. This is now the default mode of operation, so this switch is obsolete, and should not be used anymore.

-a, --auto-whitelist, --whitelist
Use auto-whitelists. Auto-whitelists track the long-term average score for each sender and then shift the score of new messages toward that long-term average. This can increase or decrease the score for messages, depending on the long-term behavior of the particular correspondent. See the README file for more details.

-e, --error-code, --exit-code
Exit with a non-zero error code, if the message is determined to be spam.

-h, --help
Print help message and exit.

-t, --test-mode
Test mode. Pipe message through and add extra report. Note that the report text assumes that the message is spam, since in normal use it is only visible in this case. Pay attention to the score instead.

If you run tests with the -a option, the scores will be added to the AWL. This may not be what you want to do. If it is not, then don't use -a -t.

-r, --report
Report this message as verified spam. This will submit the mail message read from STDIN to various spam-blocker databases. Currently, these are Vipul's Razor ( http://razor.sourceforge.net/ ) and the Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse ( http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/dcc/ ).

If the message contains SpamAssassin markup, this will be stripped out automatically before submission. The support modules for DCC and Razor must be installed for spam to be reported to each service.

--lint
Syntax check (lint) the rule set and configuration files, reporting typos and rules that do not compile correctly. Exits immediately with 0 if there are no errors, or greater than 0 if any errors are found.

-W, --add-to-whitelist
Add all email addresses, in the headers and body of the mail message read from STDIN, to the automatic whitelist. Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch for this to work.

--add-to-blacklist
Add all email addresses, in the headers and body of the mail message read from STDIN, to the automatic whitelist with a high score (ensuring they will be ''blacklisted''). Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch.

-R, --remove-from-whitelist
Remove all email addresses, in the headers and body of the mail message read from STDIN, from the automatic whitelist. STDIN must contain a full email message, so to remove a single address you should use --remove-addr-from-whitelist instead.

Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch.

--add-addr-to-whitelist
Add the named email address to the automatic whitelist. Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch.

--add-addr-to-blacklist
Add the named email address to the automatic whitelist with a high score (ensuring they will be ''blacklisted''). Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch.

--remove-addr-from-whitelist
Remove the named email address from the automatic whitelist. Note that you must be running spamassassin or spamd with the -a switch.

-w fromaddr, --warning-from=fromaddr
This flag is only useful in conjunction with -r. It will send a reply mail to the sender of the tested mail, notifying them that their message has been trapped as spam, from the address supplied in fromaddr. See SPAM TRAPPING.

-l filename, --log-to-mbox=filename
Log all mail messages that pass through the filter, to an mbox-format file named by filename. Handy for use with -r and -w.

-L, --local
Do only the ''local'' tests, ones that do not require an internet connection to operate. Normally, SpamAssassin will try to detect whether you are connected to the net before doing these tests anyway, but for faster checks you may wish to use this.

-d, --remove-markup
Remove SpamAssassin markup (the ``SpamAssassin results'' report, X-Spam-Status headers, etc.) from the mail message. The resulting message, which will be more or less identical to the original, pre-SpamAssassin input, will be output to stdout.

(Note: the message will not be exactly identical; some headers will be reformatted due to some features of the Mail::Internet package, but the body text will be.)

-C config, --config-file=config, -c config (deprecated)
Read configuration from config.

-p prefs, --prefs-file=prefs
Read user score preferences from prefs.

-D [area=n,...], --debug [area=n,...]
Produce diagnostic output. The level of diagnostic output can be set for each area separately; area is the area of the code to instrument, and n is a positive or negative number indicating the debug level or bitmask for that area of code. For example, to produce diagnostic output on all rules that hit, use:
        spamassassin -D rulesrun=255

-x, --nouser-config
Disable per-user configuration files.

-M factory, --whitelist-factory=factory
Select alternative whitelist factory.


DESCRIPTION

SpamAssassin is a mail filter 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 is then tagged as spam for later filtering using the user's own mail user-agent application.

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

The default tagging operations that take place are detailed in TAGGING.


CONFIGURATION FILES

The rule base, text templates, and rule description text are loaded from the configuration files.

By default, configuration data is loaded from the first existing directory in: /usr/local/share/spamassassin;/usr/share/spamassassin;./rules;../rules

The configuration data in the first existing directory in: /usr/local/etc/spamassassin;/usr/pkg/etc/spamassassin;/usr/etc/spamassassin;/etc/mail/spamassassin;/etc/spamassassin are used to override any values which had already been set

Spamassassin will read *.cf in these directories, in alphanumeric order within each directory (similar to SysV-style startup scripts). In other words, it will read 10_misc.cf before 50_scores.cf and 20_body_tests.cf before 20_head_test.cf. Options in later files will override earlier files.

The user preferences (such as scores to attach to each rule), are loaded from the file specified in the -p argument. If this is not specified, ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs is used if it exists. spamassassin will create this file if it does not exist, using user_prefs.template as a template. This file will be looked for in /etc/spamassassin/user_prefs.template;/usr/local/share/spamassassin/user_prefs.template;/usr/share/spamassassin/user_prefs.template


TAGGING

The following two sections detail the tagging that takes place for spam messages, first of all, and for non-spam messages.

Note that if you use the -t argument, all mails will be tagged as if they are spam messages.

TAGGING FOR SPAM MAILS

The modifications made are as follows:

Subject: header
The string *****SPAM***** is prepended to the subject, unless the rewrite_subject 0 configuration option is given.

X-Spam-Status: header
A string, Yes, hits=nn required=nn is set in this header to reflect the filter status.

X-Spam-Flag: header
Set to YES.

X-Spam-Report: header for spam mails
The SpamAssassin report is added to the mail header if the report_header 1 configuration option is given.

Content-Type: header
Set to text/plain, in order to defang HTML mail or other active content that could ``call back'' to the spammer.

spam mail body text
The SpamAssassin report is added to top of the mail message body, unless the report_header 1 configuration option is given.

TAGGING FOR NON-SPAM MAILS

X-Spam-Status: header
A string, No, hits=nn required=nn is set in this header to reflect the filter status.


SPAM TRAPPING

Quite often, if you've been on the internet for a while, you'll have accumulated a few old email accounts that nowadays get nothing but spam.

SpamAssassin lets you set them up as aliases, as follows:

spamtrap1: ``| /path/to/spamassassin -r -w spamtrap1''

This will add any incoming mail messages straight into spam-tracking databases, such as Vipul's Razor; send an explanatory reply message to the sender, from the spamtrap1 address; then drop the mail into the bit-bucket.

The explanatory reply text is taken from the SpamAssassin configuration file, where it is stored in the spamtrap lines.

If you want to keep a copy of the mails, use something like this:

spamtrap1: ``| /path/to/spamassassin -r -w spamtrap1 -l /var/spam/caught''

It is suggested you familiarise yourself with how MTAs run programs specified in aliases, if you plan to do this; for one thing, spamassassin will not run under your user id in this case. If you are nervous about this, create a user for spamtrapping, and set up spamassassin in its .forward file.


INSTALLATION

The spamassassin command is part of the Mail::SpamAssassin Perl module. Install this as a normal Perl module, using perl -MCPAN -e shell, or by hand.


ENVIRONMENT

No environment variables, aside from those used by perl, are required to be set.


SEE ALSO

Mail::SpamAssassin(3) Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3) Mail::Audit(3) Razor(3)


AUTHOR

Justin Mason <jm /at/ jmason.org>


PREREQUISITES

Mail::Audit


COREQUISITES

Net::DNS Razor