Panix Help System: Setting up Procmail

Setting up Procmail

For the benefit of users who aren't already familiar with procmail (which used to be the only way we had to apply spam or virus filtering), we have created a procmail setup script. If you're already familiar with procmail, you might want to set things up for yourself, rather than use our script. That's fine with us, but we have the following suggestions if you do that:

Check our system defaults by looking at /etc/procmailrc.
Have a look at the .procmailrc file reproduced on this page so you can see what our setup includes.
Check the panix.upgrade newsgroup for announcements of changes that might affect procmail. (The group is fairly low traffic with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio.)

We recommend that you not set DEFAULT or ORGMAIL unless you're really sure you know how to set them for the way you want your mail handled at Panix.

Using our script

If you prefer to use the script, it's called install-procmail, and it's in /usr/local/bin, so it should be in your default path. As it's a shell script, you can read it and see exactly what it does, but here's what it gives you:

A .procmailrc file in your home directory
A .procmail directory in your home directory
The option of running SpamAssassin, and, if you run it, of having the supposed spam deleted unread or saved to a folder.
The option of running virus-checking, and, if you run it, of having virus-laden mail deleted unread or saved.
The option of setting your trash file to a file of your choosing.

If you're already running Procmail but not SpamAssassin, and you'd like to run SpamAssassin from Procmail, this line will do it:
INCLUDERC=/net/local/filters/rc.spamassassin
Make sure that you put that line after any rules that allowlist addresses. If you run vacation from procmail, you probably want to run SpamAssassin first, so you don't send your vacation reply to spammers.

Procmail index