Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3)
NAME
Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf - SpamAssassin configuration file
SYNOPSIS
# a comment
rewrite_header Subject *****SPAM*****
full PARA_A_2_C_OF_1618 /Paragraph .a.{0,10}2.{0,10}C. of S. 1618/i
describe PARA_A_2_C_OF_1618 Claims compliance with senate bill 1618
header FROM_HAS_MIXED_NUMS From =~ /\d+[a-z]+\d+\S*@/i
describe FROM_HAS_MIXED_NUMS From: contains numbers mixed in with letters
score A_HREF_TO_REMOVE 2.0
lang es describe FROM_FORGED_HOTMAIL Forzado From: simula ser de hotmail.com
lang pt_BR report O programa detetor de Spam ZOE [...]
DESCRIPTION
SpamAssassin is configured using traditional UNIX-style configuration files, loaded from the
"/usr/share/spamassassin" and "/etc/mail/spamassassin" directories.
The following web page lists the most important configuration settings used to configure
SpamAssassin; novices are encouraged to read it first:
http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/ImportantInitialConfigItems
FILE FORMAT
The "#" character starts a comment, which continues until end of line. NOTE: if the "#" character is
to be used as part of a rule or configuration option, it must be escaped with a backslash. i.e.:
"\#"
Whitespace in the files is not significant, but please note that starting a line with whitespace is
deprecated, as we reserve its use for multi-line rule definitions, at some point in the future.
Currently, each rule or configuration setting must fit on one-line; multi-line settings are not
supported yet.
File and directory paths can use "~" to refer to the user's home directory, but no other shell-style
path extensions such as globing or "~user/" are supported.
Where appropriate below, default values are listed in parentheses.
USER PREFERENCES
The following options can be used in both site-wide ("local.cf") and user-specific ("user_prefs")
configuration files to customize how SpamAssassin handles incoming email messages.
SCORING OPTIONS
required_score n.nn (default: 5)
Set the score required before a mail is considered spam. "n.nn" can be an integer or a real
number. 5.0 is the default setting, and is quite aggressive; it would be suitable for a single-
user setup, but if you're an ISP installing SpamAssassin, you should probably set the default to
be more conservative, like 8.0 or 10.0. It is not recommended to automatically delete or discard
messages marked as spam, as your users will complain, but if you choose to do so, only delete
messages with an exceptionally high score such as 15.0 or higher. This option was previously
known as "required_hits" and that name is still accepted, but is deprecated.
score SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME n.nn [ n.nn n.nn n.nn ]
Assign scores (the number of points for a hit) to a given test. Scores can be positive or
negative real numbers or integers. "SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME" is the symbolic name used by
SpamAssassin for that test; for example, 'FROM_ENDS_IN_NUMS'.
If only one valid score is listed, then that score is always used for a test.
If four valid scores are listed, then the score that is used depends on how SpamAssassin is being
used. The first score is used when both Bayes and network tests are disabled (score set 0). The
second score is used when Bayes is disabled, but network tests are enabled (score set 1). The
third score is used when Bayes is enabled and network tests are disabled (score set 2). The
fourth score is used when Bayes is enabled and network tests are enabled (score set 3).
Setting a rule's score to 0 will disable that rule from running.
If any of the score values are surrounded by parenthesis '()', then all of the scores in the line
are considered to be relative to the already set score. ie: '(3)' means increase the score for
this rule by 3 points in all score sets. '(3) (0) (3) (0)' means increase the score for this
rule by 3 in score sets 0 and 2 only.
If no score is given for a test by the end of the configuration, a default score is assigned: a
score of 1.0 is used for all tests, except those who names begin with 'T_' (this is used to
indicate a rule in testing) which receive 0.01.
Note that test names which begin with '__' are indirect rules used to compose meta-match rules
and can also act as prerequisites to other rules. They are not scored or listed in the 'tests
hit' reports, but assigning a score of 0 to an indirect rule will disable it from running.
WHITELIST AND BLACKLIST OPTIONS
whitelist_from add@ress.com
Used to whitelist sender addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as spam.
Use of this setting is not recommended, since it blindly trusts the message, which is routinely
and easily forged by spammers and phish senders. The recommended solution is to instead use
"whitelist_auth" or other authenticated whitelisting methods, or "whitelist_from_rcvd".
Whitelist and blacklist addresses are now file-glob-style patterns, so "friend@somewhere.com",
"*@isp.com", or "*.domain.net" will all work. Specifically, "*" and "?" are allowed, but all
other metacharacters are not. Regular expressions are not used for security reasons.
Multiple addresses per line, separated by spaces, is OK. Multiple "whitelist_from" lines is also
OK.
The headers checked for whitelist addresses are as follows: if "Resent-From" is set, use that;
otherwise check all addresses taken from the following set of headers:
Envelope-Sender
Resent-Sender
X-Envelope-From
From
In addition, the "envelope sender" data, taken from the SMTP envelope data where this is
available, is looked up. See "envelope_sender_header".
e.g.
whitelist_from joe@example.com fred@example.com
whitelist_from *@example.com
unwhitelist_from add@ress.com
Used to override a default whitelist_from entry, so for example a distribution whitelist_from can
be overridden in a local.cf file, or an individual user can override a whitelist_from entry in
their own "user_prefs" file. The specified email address has to match exactly the address
previously used in a whitelist_from line.
e.g.
unwhitelist_from joe@example.com fred@example.com
unwhitelist_from *@example.com
whitelist_from_rcvd addr@lists.sourceforge.net sourceforge.net
Use this to supplement the whitelist_from addresses with a check against the Received headers.
The first parameter is the address to whitelist, and the second is a string to match the relay's
rDNS.
This string is matched against the reverse DNS lookup used during the handover from the internet
to your internal network's mail exchangers. It can either be the full hostname, or the domain
component of that hostname. In other words, if the host that connected to your MX had an IP
address that mapped to 'sendinghost.spamassassin.org', you should specify
"sendinghost.spamassassin.org" or just "spamassassin.org" here.
Note that this requires that "internal_networks" be correct. For simple cases, it will be, but
for a complex network you may get better results by setting that parameter.
e.g.
whitelist_from_rcvd joe@example.com example.com
whitelist_from_rcvd *@axkit.org sergeant.org
def_whitelist_from_rcvd addr@lists.sourceforge.net sourceforge.net
Same as "whitelist_from_rcvd", but used for the default whitelist entries in the SpamAssassin
distribution. The whitelist score is lower, because these are often targets for spammer
spoofing.
whitelist_allows_relays add@ress.com
Specify addresses which are in "whitelist_from_rcvd" that sometimes send through a mail relay
other than the listed ones. By default mail with a From address that is in "whitelist_from_rcvd"
that does not match the relay will trigger a forgery rule. Including the address in
"whitelist_allows_relay" prevents that.
Whitelist and blacklist addresses are now file-glob-style patterns, so "friend@somewhere.com",
"*@isp.com", or "*.domain.net" will all work. Specifically, "*" and "?" are allowed, but all
other metacharacters are not. Regular expressions are not used for security reasons.
Multiple addresses per line, separated by spaces, is OK. Multiple "whitelist_allows_relays"
lines is also OK.
The specified email address does not have to match exactly the address previously used in a
whitelist_from_rcvd line as it is compared to the address in the header.
e.g.
whitelist_allows_relays joe@example.com fred@example.com
whitelist_allows_relays *@example.com
unwhitelist_from_rcvd add@ress.com
Used to override a default whitelist_from_rcvd entry, so for example a distribution
whitelist_from_rcvd can be overridden in a local.cf file, or an individual user can override a
whitelist_from_rcvd entry in their own "user_prefs" file.
The specified email address has to match exactly the address previously used in a
whitelist_from_rcvd line.
e.g.
unwhitelist_from_rcvd joe@example.com fred@example.com
unwhitelist_from_rcvd *@axkit.org
blacklist_from add@ress.com
Used to specify addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as non-spam, but
which the user doesn't want. Same format as "whitelist_from".
unblacklist_from add@ress.com
Used to override a default blacklist_from entry, so for example a distribution blacklist_from can
be overridden in a local.cf file, or an individual user can override a blacklist_from entry in
their own "user_prefs" file. The specified email address has to match exactly the address
previously used in a blacklist_from line.
e.g.
unblacklist_from joe@example.com fred@example.com
unblacklist_from *@spammer.com
whitelist_to add@ress.com
If the given address appears as a recipient in the message headers (Resent-To, To, Cc, obvious
envelope recipient, etc.) the mail will be whitelisted. Useful if you're deploying SpamAssassin
system-wide, and don't want some users to have their mail filtered. Same format as
"whitelist_from".
There are three levels of To-whitelisting, "whitelist_to", "more_spam_to" and "all_spam_to".
Users in the first level may still get some spammish mails blocked, but users in "all_spam_to"
should never get mail blocked.
The headers checked for whitelist addresses are as follows: if "Resent-To" or "Resent-Cc" are
set, use those; otherwise check all addresses taken from the following set of headers:
To
Cc
Apparently-To
Delivered-To
Envelope-Recipients
Apparently-Resent-To
X-Envelope-To
Envelope-To
X-Delivered-To
X-Original-To
X-Rcpt-To
X-Real-To
more_spam_to add@ress.com
See above.
all_spam_to add@ress.com
See above.
blacklist_to add@ress.com
If the given address appears as a recipient in the message headers (Resent-To, To, Cc, obvious
envelope recipient, etc.) the mail will be blacklisted. Same format as "blacklist_from".
whitelist_auth add@ress.com
Used to specify addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as spam. This is
different from "whitelist_from" and "whitelist_from_rcvd" in that it first verifies that the
message was sent by an authorized sender for the address, before whitelisting.
Authorization is performed using one of the installed sender-authorization schemes: SPF (using
"Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugins::SPF"), Domain Keys (using
"Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugins::DomainKeys"), or DKIM (using "Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugins::DKIM").
Note that those plugins must be active, and working, for this to operate.
Using "whitelist_auth" is roughly equivalent to specifying duplicate "whitelist_from_spf",
"whitelist_from_dk", and "whitelist_from_dkim" lines for each of the addresses specified.
e.g.
whitelist_auth joe@example.com fred@example.com
whitelist_auth *@example.com
def_whitelist_auth add@ress.com
Same as "whitelist_auth", but used for the default whitelist entries in the SpamAssassin
distribution. The whitelist score is lower, because these are often targets for spammer
spoofing.
unwhitelist_auth add@ress.com
Used to override a "whitelist_auth" entry. The specified email address has to match exactly the
address previously used in a "whitelist_auth" line.
e.g.
unwhitelist_auth joe@example.com fred@example.com
unwhitelist_auth *@example.com
BASIC MESSAGE TAGGING OPTIONS
rewrite_header { subject | from | to } STRING
By default, suspected spam messages will not have the "Subject", "From" or "To" lines tagged to
indicate spam. By setting this option, the header will be tagged with "STRING" to indicate that a
message is spam. For the From or To headers, this will take the form of an RFC 2822 comment
following the address in parantheses. For the Subject header, this will be prepended to the
original subject. Note that you should only use the _REQD_ and _SCORE_ tags when rewriting the
Subject header if "report_safe" is 0. Otherwise, you may not be able to remove the SpamAssassin
markup via the normal methods. More information about tags is explained below in the TEMPLATE
TAGS section.
Parentheses are not permitted in STRING if rewriting the From or To headers. (They will be
converted to square brackets.)
If "rewrite_header subject" is used, but the message being rewritten does not already contain a
"Subject" header, one will be created.
A null value for "STRING" will remove any existing rewrite for the specified header.
add_header { spam | ham | all } header_name string
Customized headers can be added to the specified type of messages (spam, ham, or "all" to add to
either). All headers begin with "X-Spam-" (so a "header_name" Foo will generate a header called
X-Spam-Foo). header_name is restricted to the character set [A-Za-z0-9_-].
"string" can contain tags as explained below in the TEMPLATE TAGS section. You can also use "\n"
and "\t" in the header to add newlines and tabulators as desired. A backslash has to be written
as \\, any other escaped chars will be silently removed.
All headers will be folded if fold_headers is set to 1. Note: Manually adding newlines via "\n"
disables any further automatic wrapping (ie: long header lines are possible). The lines will
still be properly folded (marked as continuing) though.
You can customize existing headers with add_header (only the specified subset of messages will be
changed).
See also "clear_headers" for removing headers.
Here are some examples (these are the defaults, note that Checker-Version can not be changed or
removed):
add_header spam Flag _YESNOCAPS_
add_header all Status _YESNO_, score=_SCORE_ required=_REQD_ tests=_TESTS_ autolearn=_AUTOLEARN_ version=_VERSION_
add_header all Level _STARS(*)_
add_header all Checker-Version SpamAssassin _VERSION_ (_SUBVERSION_) on _HOSTNAME_
remove_header { spam | ham | all } header_name
Headers can be removed from the specified type of messages (spam, ham, or "all" to remove from
either). All headers begin with "X-Spam-" (so "header_name" will be appended to "X-Spam-").
See also "clear_headers" for removing all the headers at once.
Note that X-Spam-Checker-Version is not removable because the version information is needed by
mail administrators and developers to debug problems. Without at least one header, it might not
even be possible to determine that SpamAssassin is running.
clear_headers
Clear the list of headers to be added to messages. You may use this before any add_header
options to prevent the default headers from being added to the message.
Note that X-Spam-Checker-Version is not removable because the version information is needed by
mail administrators and developers to debug problems. Without at least one header, it might not
even be possible to determine that SpamAssassin is running.
report_safe ( 0 | 1 | 2 ) (default: 1)
if this option is set to 1, if an incoming message is tagged as spam, instead of modifying the
original message, SpamAssassin will create a new report message and attach the original message
as a message/rfc822 MIME part (ensuring the original message is completely preserved, not easily
opened, and easier to recover).
If this option is set to 2, then original messages will be attached with a content type of
text/plain instead of message/rfc822. This setting may be required for safety reasons on certain
broken mail clients that automatically load attachments without any action by the user. This
setting may also make it somewhat more difficult to extract or view the original message.
If this option is set to 0, incoming spam is only modified by adding some "X-Spam-" headers and
no changes will be made to the body. In addition, a header named X-Spam-Report will be added to
spam. You can use the remove_header option to remove that header after setting report_safe to 0.
See report_safe_copy_headers if you want to copy headers from the original mail into tagged
messages.
LANGUAGE OPTIONS
ok_locales xx [ yy zz ... ] (default: all)
This option is used to specify which locales are considered OK for incoming mail. Mail using the
character sets that are allowed by this option will not be marked as possibly being spam in a
foreign language.
If you receive lots of spam in foreign languages, and never get any non-spam in these languages,
this may help. Note that all ISO-8859-* character sets, and Windows code page character sets,
are always permitted by default.
Set this to "all" to allow all character sets. This is the default.
The rules "CHARSET_FARAWAY", "CHARSET_FARAWAY_BODY", and "CHARSET_FARAWAY_HEADERS" are triggered
based on how this is set.
Examples:
ok_locales all (allow all locales)
ok_locales en (only allow English)
ok_locales en ja zh (allow English, Japanese, and Chinese)
Note: if there are multiple ok_locales lines, only the last one is used.
Select the locales to allow from the list below:
en - Western character sets in general
ja - Japanese character sets
ko - Korean character sets
ru - Cyrillic character sets
th - Thai character sets
zh - Chinese (both simplified and traditional) character sets
normalize_charset ( 0 | 1) (default: 0)
Whether to detect character sets and normalize message content to Unicode. Requires the
Encode::Detect module, HTML::Parser version 3.46 or later, and Perl 5.8.5 or later.
NETWORK TEST OPTIONS
trusted_networks ip.add.re.ss[/mask] ... (default: none)
What networks or hosts are 'trusted' in your setup. Trusted in this case means that relay hosts
on these networks are considered to not be potentially operated by spammers, open relays, or open
proxies. A trusted host could conceivably relay spam, but will not originate it, and will not
forge header data. DNS blacklist checks will never query for hosts on these networks.
See "http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/TrustPath" for more information.
MXes for your domain(s) and internal relays should also be specified using the
"internal_networks" setting. When there are 'trusted' hosts that are not MXes or internal relays
for your domain(s) they should only be specified in "trusted_networks".
If a "/mask" is specified, it's considered a CIDR-style 'netmask', specified in bits. If it is
not specified, but less than 4 octets are specified with a trailing dot, that's considered a mask
to allow all addresses in the remaining octets. If a mask is not specified, and there is not
trailing dot, then just the single IP address specified is used, as if the mask was "/32".
If a network or host address is prefaced by a "!" the network or host will be excluded (or
included) in a first listed match fashion.
Note: 127/8 is always included in trusted_networks, regardless of your config.
Examples:
trusted_networks 192.168/16 # all in 192.168.*.*
trusted_networks 212.17.35.15 # just that host
trusted_networks !10.0.1.5 10.0.1/24 # all in 10.0.1.* but not 10.0.1.5
This operates additively, so a "trusted_networks" line after another one will result in all those
networks becoming trusted. To clear out the existing entries, use "clear_trusted_networks".
If "trusted_networks" is not set and "internal_networks" is, the value of "internal_networks"
will be used for this parameter.
If neither "trusted_networks" or "internal_networks" is set, a basic inference algorithm is
applied. This works as follows:
If the 'from' host has an IP address in a private (RFC 1918) network range, then it's trusted
If there are authentication tokens in the received header, and the previous host was trusted,
then this host is also trusted
Otherwise this host, and all further hosts, are consider untrusted.
clear_trusted_networks
Empty the list of trusted networks.
internal_networks ip.add.re.ss[/mask] ... (default: none)
What networks or hosts are 'internal' in your setup. Internal means that relay hosts on these
networks are considered to be MXes for your domain(s), or internal relays. This uses the same
format as "trusted_networks", above.
This value is used when checking 'dial-up' or dynamic IP address blocklists, in order to detect
direct-to-MX spamming.
Trusted relays that accept mail directly from dial-up connections should not be listed in
"internal_networks". List them only in "trusted_networks".
If "trusted_networks" is set and "internal_networks" is not, the value of "trusted_networks" will
be used for this parameter.
If neither "trusted_networks" or "internal_networks" is set, no addresses will be considered
local; in other words, any relays past the machine where SpamAssassin is running will be
considered external.
Every entry in "internal_networks" must appear in "trusted_networks"; in other words,
"internal_networks" is always a subset of the trusted set.
Note: 127/8 is always included in internal_networks, regardless of your config.
clear_internal_networks
Empty the list of internal networks.
msa_networks ip.add.re.ss[/mask] ... (default: none)
The networks or hosts are acting as MSAs in your setup. MSA means that the relay hosts on these
networks accept mail from your own users and authenticates them appropriately. These relays will
never accept mail from hosts that aren't authenticated in some way. Examples of authentication
include, IP lists, SMTP AUTH, POP-before-SMTP, etc.
All relays found in the message headers after the MSA relay will take on the same trusted and
internal classifcations as the MSA relay itself, as defined by your trusted_networks and
internal_networks configuration.
For example, if the MSA relay is trusted and internal so will all of the relays that precede it.
When using msa_networks to identify an MSA it is recommended that you treat that MSA as both
trusted and internal. When an MSA is not included in msa_networks you should treat the MSA as
trusted but not internal, however if the MSA is also acting as an MX or intermediate relay you
must always treat it as both trusted and internal and ensure that the MSA includes visible auth
tokens in its Received header to identify submission clients.
Warning: Never include an MSA that also acts as an MX (or is also an intermediate relay for an
MX) or otherwise accepts mail from non-authenticated users in msa_networks. Doing so will result
in unknown external relays being trusted.
clear_msa_networks
Empty the list of msa networks.
always_trust_envelope_sender ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 0)
Trust the envelope sender even if the message has been passed through one or more trusted relays.
See also "envelope_sender_header".
skip_rbl_checks ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 0)
By default, SpamAssassin will run RBL checks. If your ISP already does this for you, set this to
1.
dns_available { yes | test[: name1 name2...] | no } (default: test)
By default, SpamAssassin will query some default hosts on the internet to attempt to check if DNS
is working or not. The problem is that it can introduce some delay if your network connection is
down, and in some cases it can wrongly guess that DNS is unavailable because the test connections
failed. SpamAssassin includes a default set of 13 servers, among which 3 are picked randomly.
You can however specify your own list by specifying
dns_available test: domain1.tld domain2.tld domain3.tld
Please note, the DNS test queries for NS records.
SpamAssassin's network rules are run in parallel. This can cause overhead in terms of the number
of file descriptors required; it is recommended that the minimum limit on file descriptors be
raised to at least 256 for safety.
dns_test_interval n (default: 600 seconds)
If dns_available is set to 'test' (which is the default), the dns_test_interval time in number of
seconds will tell SpamAssassin how often to retest for working DNS.
LEARNING OPTIONS
use_bayes ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 1)
Whether to use the naive-Bayesian-style classifier built into SpamAssassin. This is a master
on/off switch for all Bayes-related operations.
use_bayes_rules ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 1)
Whether to use rules using the naive-Bayesian-style classifier built into SpamAssassin. This
allows you to disable the rules while leaving auto and manual learning enabled.
bayes_auto_learn ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 1)
Whether SpamAssassin should automatically feed high-scoring mails (or low-scoring mails, for non-
spam) into its learning systems. The only learning system supported currently is a naive-
Bayesian-style classifier.
See the documentation for the "Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::AutoLearnThreshold" plugin module for
details on how Bayes auto-learning is implemented by default.
bayes_ignore_header header_name
If you receive mail filtered by upstream mail systems, like a spam-filtering ISP or mailing list,
and that service adds new headers (as most of them do), these headers may provide inappropriate
cues to the Bayesian classifier, allowing it to take a "short cut". To avoid this, list the
headers using this setting. Example:
bayes_ignore_header X-Upstream-Spamfilter
bayes_ignore_header X-Upstream-SomethingElse
bayes_ignore_from add@ress.com
Bayesian classification and autolearning will not be performed on mail from the listed addresses.
Program "sa-learn" will also ignore the listed addresses if it is invoked using the
"--use-ignores" option. One or more addresses can be listed, see "whitelist_from".
Spam messages from certain senders may contain many words that frequently occur in ham. For
example, one might read messages from a preferred bookstore but also get unwanted spam messages
from other bookstores. If the unwanted messages are learned as spam then any messages discussing
books, including the preferred bookstore and antiquarian messages would be in danger of being
marked as spam. The addresses of the annoying bookstores would be listed. (Assuming they were
halfway legitimate and didn't send you mail through myriad affiliates.)
Those who have pieces of spam in legitimate messages or otherwise receive ham messages containing
potentially spammy words might fear that some spam messages might be in danger of being marked as
ham. The addresses of the spam mailing lists, correspondents, etc. would be listed.
bayes_ignore_to add@ress.com
Bayesian classification and autolearning will not be performed on mail to the listed addresses.
See "bayes_ignore_from" for details.
bayes_min_ham_num (Default: 200)
bayes_min_spam_num (Default: 200)
To be accurate, the Bayes system does not activate until a certain number of ham (non-spam) and
spam have been learned. The default is 200 of each ham and spam, but you can tune these up or
down with these two settings.
bayes_learn_during_report (Default: 1)
The Bayes system will, by default, learn any reported messages ("spamassassin -r") as spam. If
you do not want this to happen, set this option to 0.
bayes_sql_override_username
Used by BayesStore::SQL storage implementation.
If this options is set the BayesStore::SQL module will override the set username with the value
given. This could be useful for implementing global or group bayes databases.
bayes_use_hapaxes (default: 1)
Should the Bayesian classifier use hapaxes (words/tokens that occur only once) when classifying?
This produces significantly better hit-rates, but increases database size by about a factor of 8
to 10.
bayes_journal_max_size (default: 102400)
SpamAssassin will opportunistically sync the journal and the database. It will do so once a day,
but will sync more often if the journal file size goes above this setting, in bytes. If set to
0, opportunistic syncing will not occur.
bayes_expiry_max_db_size (default: 150000)
What should be the maximum size of the Bayes tokens database? When expiry occurs, the Bayes
system will keep either 75% of the maximum value, or 100,000 tokens, whichever has a larger
value. 150,000 tokens is roughly equivalent to a 8Mb database file.
bayes_auto_expire (default: 1)
If enabled, the Bayes system will try to automatically expire old tokens from the database.
Auto-expiry occurs when the number of tokens in the database surpasses the
bayes_expiry_max_db_size value.
bayes_learn_to_journal (default: 0)
If this option is set, whenever SpamAssassin does Bayes learning, it will put the information
into the journal instead of directly into the database. This lowers contention for locking the
database to execute an update, but will also cause more access to the journal and cause a delay
before the updates are actually committed to the Bayes database.
MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
lock_method type
Select the file-locking method used to protect database files on-disk. By default, SpamAssassin
uses an NFS-safe locking method on UNIX; however, if you are sure that the database files you'll
be using for Bayes and AWL storage will never be accessed over NFS, a non-NFS-safe locking system
can be selected.
This will be quite a bit faster, but may risk file corruption if the files are ever accessed by
multiple clients at once, and one or more of them is accessing them through an NFS filesystem.
Note that different platforms require different locking systems.
The supported locking systems for "type" are as follows:
nfssafe - an NFS-safe locking system
flock - simple UNIX "flock()" locking
win32 - Win32 locking using "sysopen (..., O_CREAT|O_EXCL)".
nfssafe and flock are only available on UNIX, and win32 is only available on Windows. By
default, SpamAssassin will choose either nfssafe or win32 depending on the platform in use.
fold_headers ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 1)
By default, headers added by SpamAssassin will be whitespace folded. In other words, they will
be broken up into multiple lines instead of one very long one and each other line will have a
tabulator prepended to mark it as a continuation of the preceding one.
The automatic wrapping can be disabled here. Note that this can generate very long lines.
report_safe_copy_headers header_name ...
If using "report_safe", a few of the headers from the original message are copied into the
wrapper header (From, To, Cc, Subject, Date, etc.) If you want to have other headers copied as
well, you can add them using this option. You can specify multiple headers on the same line,
separated by spaces, or you can just use multiple lines.
envelope_sender_header Name-Of-Header
SpamAssassin will attempt to discover the address used in the 'MAIL FROM:' phase of the SMTP
transaction that delivered this message, if this data has been made available by the SMTP server.
This is used in the "EnvelopeFrom" pseudo-header, and for various rules such as SPF checking.
By default, various MTAs will use different headers, such as the following:
X-Envelope-From
Envelope-Sender
X-Sender
Return-Path
SpamAssassin will attempt to use these, if some heuristics (such as the header placement in the
message, or the absence of fetchmail signatures) appear to indicate that they are safe to use.
However, it may choose the wrong headers in some mailserver configurations. (More discussion of
this can be found in bug 2142 and bug 4747 in the SpamAssassin BugZilla.)
To avoid this heuristic failure, the "envelope_sender_header" setting may be helpful. Name the
header that your MTA adds to messages containing the address used at the MAIL FROM step of the
SMTP transaction.
If the header in question contains "<" or ">" characters at the start and end of the email
address in the right-hand side, as in the SMTP transaction, these will be stripped.
If the header is not found in a message, or if it's value does not contain an "@" sign,
SpamAssassin will issue a warning in the logs and fall back to its default heuristics.
(Note for MTA developers: we would prefer if the use of a single header be avoided in future,
since that precludes 'downstream' spam scanning.
"http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/EnvelopeSenderInReceived" details a better proposal, storing
the envelope sender at each hop in the "Received" header.)
example:
envelope_sender_header X-SA-Exim-Mail-From
describe SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME description ...
Used to describe a test. This text is shown to users in the detailed report.
Note that test names which begin with '__' are reserved for meta-match sub-rules, and are not
scored or listed in the 'tests hit' reports.
Also note that by convention, rule descriptions should be limited in length to no more than 50
characters.
report_charset CHARSET (default: unset)
Set the MIME Content-Type charset used for the text/plain report which is attached to spam mail
messages.
report ...some text for a report...
Set the report template which is attached to spam mail messages. See the "10_default_prefs.cf"
configuration file in "/usr/share/spamassassin" for an example.
If you change this, try to keep it under 78 columns. Each "report" line appends to the existing
template, so use "clear_report_template" to restart.
Tags can be included as explained above.
clear_report_template
Clear the report template.
report_contact ...text of contact address...
Set what _CONTACTADDRESS_ is replaced with in the above report text. By default, this is 'the
administrator of that system', since the hostname of the system the scanner is running on is also
included.
report_hostname ...hostname to use...
Set what _HOSTNAME_ is replaced with in the above report text. By default, this is determined
dynamically as whatever the host running SpamAssassin calls itself.
unsafe_report ...some text for a report...
Set the report template which is attached to spam mail messages which contain a non-text/plain
part. See the "10_default_prefs.cf" configuration file in "/usr/share/spamassassin" for an
example.
Each "unsafe-report" line appends to the existing template, so use "clear_unsafe_report_template"
to restart.
Tags can be used in this template (see above for details).
clear_unsafe_report_template
Clear the unsafe_report template.
RULE DEFINITIONS AND PRIVILEGED SETTINGS
These settings differ from the ones above, in that they are considered 'privileged'. Only users
running "spamassassin" from their procmailrc's or forward files, or sysadmins editing a file in
"/etc/mail/spamassassin", can use them. "spamd" users cannot use them in their "user_prefs" files,
for security and efficiency reasons, unless "allow_user_rules" is enabled (and then, they may only
add rules from below).
allow_user_rules ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 0)
This setting allows users to create rules (and only rules) in their "user_prefs" files for use
with "spamd". It defaults to off, because this could be a severe security hole. It may be
possible for users to gain root level access if "spamd" is run as root. It is NOT a good idea,
unless you have some other way of ensuring that users' tests are safe. Don't use this unless you
are certain you know what you are doing. Furthermore, this option causes spamassassin to
recompile all the tests each time it processes a message for a user with a rule in his/her
"user_prefs" file, which could have a significant effect on server load. It is not recommended.
Note that it is not currently possible to use "allow_user_rules" to modify an existing system
rule from a "user_prefs" file with "spamd".
redirector_pattern /pattern/modifiers
A regex pattern that matches both the redirector site portion, and the target site portion of a
URI.
Note: The target URI portion must be surrounded in parentheses and
no other part of the pattern may create a backreference.
Example: http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/whatever/spammer.domain/yo/dude
redirector_pattern /^https?:\/\/(?:opt\.)?chkpt\.zdnet\.com\/chkpt\/\w+\/(.*)$/i
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME header op /pattern/modifiers [if-unset: STRING]
Define a test. "SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME" is a symbolic test name, such as 'FROM_ENDS_IN_NUMS'.
"header" is the name of a mail header, such as 'Subject', 'To', etc.
Appending ":raw" to the header name will inhibit decoding of quoted-printable or base-64 encoded
strings.
Appending ":addr" to the header name will cause everything except the first email address to be
removed from the header. For example, all of the following will result in "example@foo":
example@foo
example@foo (Foo Blah)
example@foo, example@bar
display: example@foo (Foo Blah), example@bar ;
Foo Blah <example@foo>
"Foo Blah" <example@foo>
"'Foo Blah'" <example@foo>
Appending ":name" to the header name will cause everything except the first real name to be
removed from the header. For example, all of the following will result in "Foo Blah"
example@foo (Foo Blah)
example@foo (Foo Blah), example@bar
display: example@foo (Foo Blah), example@bar ;
Foo Blah <example@foo>
"Foo Blah" <example@foo>
"'Foo Blah'" <example@foo>
There are several special pseudo-headers that can be specified:
"ALL" can be used to mean the text of all the message's headers.
"ToCc" can be used to mean the contents of both the 'To' and 'Cc' headers.
"EnvelopeFrom" is the address used in the 'MAIL FROM:' phase of the SMTP transaction that
delivered this message, if this data has been made available by the SMTP server. See
"envelope_sender_header" for more information on how to set this.
"MESSAGEID" is a symbol meaning all Message-Id's found in the message; some mailing list software
moves the real 'Message-Id' to 'Resent-Message-Id' or 'X-Message-Id', then uses its own one in
the 'Message-Id' header. The value returned for this symbol is the text from all 3 headers,
separated by newlines.
"X-Spam-Relays-Untrusted", "X-Spam-Relays-Trusted", "X-Spam-Relays-Internal" and
"X-Spam-Relays-External" represent a portable, pre-parsed representation of the message's network
path, as recorded in the Received headers, divided into 'trusted' vs 'untrusted' and 'internal'
vs 'external' sets. See "http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/TrustedRelays" for more details.
"op" is either "=~" (contains regular expression) or "!~" (does not contain regular expression),
and "pattern" is a valid Perl regular expression, with "modifiers" as regexp modifiers in the
usual style. Note that multi-line rules are not supported, even if you use "x" as a modifier.
Also note that the "#" character must be escaped ("\#") or else it will be considered to be the
start of a comment and not part of the regexp.
If the "[if-unset: STRING]" tag is present, then "STRING" will be used if the header is not found
in the mail message.
Test names must not start with a number, and must contain only alphanumerics and underscores. It
is suggested that lower-case characters not be used, and names have a length of no more than 22
characters, as an informal convention. Dashes are not allowed.
Note that test names which begin with '__' are reserved for meta-match sub-rules, and are not
scored or listed in the 'tests hit' reports. Test names which begin with 'T_' are reserved for
tests which are undergoing QA, and these are given a very low score.
If you add or modify a test, please be sure to run a sanity check afterwards by running
"spamassassin --lint". This will avoid confusing error messages, or other tests being skipped as
a side-effect.
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME exists:name_of_header
Define a header existence test. "name_of_header" is the name of a header to test for existence.
This is just a very simple version of the above header tests.
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:name_of_eval_method([arguments])
Define a header eval test. "name_of_eval_method" is the name of a method on the
"Mail::SpamAssassin::EvalTests" object. "arguments" are optional arguments to the function call.
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:check_rbl('set', 'zone' [, 'sub-test'])
Check a DNSBL (a DNS blacklist or whitelist). This will retrieve Received: headers from the
message, extract the IP addresses, select which ones are 'untrusted' based on the
"trusted_networks" logic, and query that DNSBL zone. There's a few things to note:
duplicated or private IPs
Duplicated IPs are only queried once and reserved IPs are not queried. Private IPs are those
listed in <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space,
<http://duxcw.com/faq/network/privip.htm, <http://duxcw.com/faq/network/autoip.htm, or
<ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3330.txt as private.
the 'set' argument
This is used as a 'zone ID'. If you want to look up a multiple-meaning zone like NJABL or
SORBS, you can then query the results from that zone using it; but all check_rbl_sub() calls
must use that zone ID.
Also, if more than one IP address gets a DNSBL hit for a particular rule, it does not affect
the score because rules only trigger once per message.
the 'zone' argument
This is the root zone of the DNSBL, ending in a period.
the 'sub-test' argument
This optional argument behaves the same as the sub-test argument in "check_rbl_sub()" below.
selecting all IPs except for the originating one
This is accomplished by placing '-notfirsthop' at the end of the set name. This is useful
for querying against DNS lists which list dialup IP addresses; the first hop may be a dialup,
but as long as there is at least one more hop, via their outgoing SMTP server, that's
legitimate, and so should not gain points. If there is only one hop, that will be queried
anyway, as it should be relaying via its outgoing SMTP server instead of sending directly to
your MX (mail exchange).
selecting IPs by whether they are trusted
When checking a 'nice' DNSBL (a DNS whitelist), you cannot trust the IP addresses in Received
headers that were not added by trusted relays. To test the first IP address that can be
trusted, place '-firsttrusted' at the end of the set name. That should test the IP address
of the relay that connected to the most remote trusted relay.
Note that this requires that SpamAssassin know which relays are trusted. For simple cases,
SpamAssassin can make a good estimate. For complex cases, you may get better results by
setting "trusted_networks" manually.
In addition, you can test all untrusted IP addresses by placing '-untrusted' at the end of
the set name. Important note -- this does NOT include the IP address from the most recent
'untrusted line', as used in '-firsttrusted' above. That's because we're talking about the
trustworthiness of the IP address data, not the source header line, here; and in the case of
the most recent header (the 'firsttrusted'), that data can be trusted. See the Wiki page at
"http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/TrustedRelays" for more information on this.
Selecting just the last external IP
By using '-lastexternal' at the end of the set name, you can select only the external host
that connected to your internal network, or at least the last external host with a public IP.
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:check_rbl_txt('set', 'zone')
Same as check_rbl(), except querying using IN TXT instead of IN A records. If the zone supports
it, it will result in a line of text describing why the IP is listed, typically a hyperlink to a
database entry.
header SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:check_rbl_sub('set', 'sub-test')
Create a sub-test for 'set'. If you want to look up a multi-meaning zone like
relays.osirusoft.com, you can then query the results from that zone using the zone ID from the
original query. The sub-test may either be an IPv4 dotted address for RBLs that return multiple
A records or a non-negative decimal number to specify a bitmask for RBLs that return a single A
record containing a bitmask of results, a SenderBase test beginning with "sb:", or (if none of
the preceding options seem to fit) a regular expression.
Note: the set name must be exactly the same for as the main query rule, including selections like
'-notfirsthop' appearing at the end of the set name.
body SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME /pattern/modifiers
Define a body pattern test. "pattern" is a Perl regular expression. Note: as per the header
tests, "#" must be escaped ("\#") or else it is considered the beginning of a comment.
The 'body' in this case is the textual parts of the message body; any non-text MIME parts are
stripped, and the message decoded from Quoted-Printable or Base-64-encoded format if necessary.
The message Subject header is considered part of the body and becomes the first paragraph when
running the rules. All HTML tags and line breaks will be removed before matching.
body SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:name_of_eval_method([args])
Define a body eval test. See above.
uri SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME /pattern/modifiers
Define a uri pattern test. "pattern" is a Perl regular expression. Note: as per the header
tests, "#" must be escaped ("\#") or else it is considered the beginning of a comment.
The 'uri' in this case is a list of all the URIs in the body of the email, and the test will be
run on each and every one of those URIs, adjusting the score if a match is found. Use this test
instead of one of the body tests when you need to match a URI, as it is more accurately bound to
the start/end points of the URI, and will also be faster.
rawbody SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME /pattern/modifiers
Define a raw-body pattern test. "pattern" is a Perl regular expression. Note: as per the header
tests, "#" must be escaped ("\#") or else it is considered the beginning of a comment.
The 'raw body' of a message is the raw data inside all textual parts. The text will be decoded
from base64 or quoted-printable encoding, but HTML tags and line breaks will still be present.
The pattern will be applied line-by-line.
rawbody SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:name_of_eval_method([args])
Define a raw-body eval test. See above.
full SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME /pattern/modifiers
Define a full message pattern test. "pattern" is a Perl regular expression. Note: as per the
header tests, "#" must be escaped ("\#") or else it is considered the beginning of a comment.
The full message is the pristine message headers plus the pristine message body, including all
MIME data such as images, other attachments, MIME boundaries, etc.
full SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME eval:name_of_eval_method([args])
Define a full message eval test. See above.
meta SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME boolean expression
Define a boolean expression test in terms of other tests that have been hit or not hit. For
example:
meta META1 TEST1 && !(TEST2 || TEST3)
Note that English language operators ("and", "or") will be treated as rule names, and that there
is no "XOR" operator.
meta SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME boolean arithmetic expression
Can also define a boolean arithmetic expression in terms of other tests, with an unhit test
having the value "0" and a hit test having a nonzero value. The value of a hit meta test is that
of its arithmetic expression. The value of a hit eval test is that returned by its method. The
value of a hit header, body, rawbody, uri, or full test which has the "multiple" tflag is the
number of times the test hit. The value of any other type of hit test is "1".
For example:
meta META2 (3 * TEST1 - 2 * TEST2) > 0
Note that Perl builtins and functions, like "abs()", can't be used, and will be treated as rule
names.
If you want to define a meta-rule, but do not want its individual sub-rules to count towards the
final score unless the entire meta-rule matches, give the sub-rules names that start with '__'
(two underscores). SpamAssassin will ignore these for scoring.
tflags SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME [ {net|nice|learn|userconf|noautolearn|multiple} ]
Used to set flags on a test. These flags are used in the score-determination back end system for
details of the test's behaviour. Please see "bayes_auto_learn" for more information about tflag
interaction with those systems. The following flags can be set:
net The test is a network test, and will not be run in the mass checking system or if -L is used,
therefore its score should not be modified.
nice
The test is intended to compensate for common false positives, and should be assigned a
negative score.
userconf
The test requires user configuration before it can be used (like language- specific tests).
learn
The test requires training before it can be used.
noautolearn
The test will explicitly be ignored when calculating the score for learning systems.
multiple
The test will be evaluated multiple times, for use with meta rules. Only affects header,
body, rawbody, uri, and full tests.
priority SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME n
Assign a specific priority to a test. All tests, except for DNS and Meta tests, are run in
increasing priority value order (negative priority values are run before positive priority
values). The default test priority is 0 (zero).
The values <-99999999999999> and <-99999999999998> have a special meaning internally, and should
not be used.
ADMINISTRATOR SETTINGS
These settings differ from the ones above, in that they are considered 'more privileged' -- even more
than the ones in the PRIVILEGED SETTINGS section. No matter what "allow_user_rules" is set to, these
can never be set from a user's "user_prefs" file when spamc/spamd is being used. However, all
settings can be used by local programs run directly by the user.
version_tag string
This tag is appended to the SA version in the X-Spam-Status header. You should include it when
modify your ruleset, especially if you plan to distribute it. A good choice for string is your
last name or your initials followed by a number which you increase with each change.
The version_tag will be lowercased, and any non-alphanumeric or period character will be replaced
by an underscore.
e.g.
version_tag myrules1 # version=2.41-myrules1
test SYMBOLIC_TEST_NAME (ok|fail) Some string to test against
Define a regression testing string. You can have more than one regression test string per
symbolic test name. Simply specify a string that you wish the test to match.
These tests are only run as part of the test suite - they should not affect the general running
of SpamAssassin.
rbl_timeout n (default: 15)
All DNS queries are made at the beginning of a check and we try to read the results at the end.
This value specifies the maximum period of time to wait for an DNS query. If most of the DNS
queries have succeeded for a particular message, then SpamAssassin will not wait for the full
period to avoid wasting time on unresponsive server(s). For the default 15 second timeout, here
is a chart of queries remaining versus the effective timeout in seconds:
queries left 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
timeout 15 15 14 14 13 11 10 8 5 3 0
In addition, whenever the effective timeout is lowered due to additional query results returning,
the remaining queries are always given at least one more second before timing out, but the wait
time will never exceed rbl_timeout.
For example, if 20 queries are made at the beginning of a message check and 16 queries have
returned (leaving 20%), the remaining 4 queries must finish within 5 seconds of the beginning of
the check or they will be timed out.
util_rb_tld tld1 tld2 ...
This option allows the addition of new TLDs to the RegistrarBoundaries code. Updates to the list
usually happen when new versions of SpamAssassin are released, but sometimes it's necessary to
add in new TLDs faster than a release can occur. TLDs include things like com, net, org, etc.
util_rb_2tld 2tld-1.tld 2tld-2.tld ...
This option allows the addition of new 2nd-level TLDs (2TLD) to the RegistrarBoundaries code.
Updates to the list usually happen when new versions of SpamAssassin are released, but sometimes
it's necessary to add in new 2TLDs faster than a release can occur. 2TLDs include things like
co.uk, fed.us, etc.
bayes_path /path/filename (default: ~/.spamassassin/bayes)
This is the directory and filename for Bayes databases. Several databases will be created, with
this as the base directory and filename, with "_toks", "_seen", etc. appended to the base. The
default setting results in files called "~/.spamassassin/bayes_seen",
"~/.spamassassin/bayes_toks", etc.
By default, each user has their own in their "~/.spamassassin" directory with mode 0700/0600.
For system-wide SpamAssassin use, you may want to reduce disk space usage by sharing this across
all users. However, Bayes appears to be more effective with individual user databases.
bayes_file_mode (default: 0700)
The file mode bits used for the Bayesian filtering database files.
Make sure you specify this using the 'x' mode bits set, as it may also be used to create
directories. However, if a file is created, the resulting file will not have any execute bits
set (the umask is set to 111).
bayes_store_module Name::Of::BayesStore::Module
If this option is set, the module given will be used as an alternate to the default bayes storage
mechanism. It must conform to the published storage specification (see
Mail::SpamAssassin::BayesStore). For example, set this to Mail::SpamAssassin::BayesStore::SQL to
use the generic SQL storage module.
bayes_sql_dsn DBI::databasetype:databasename:hostname:port
Used for BayesStore::SQL storage implementation.
This option give the connect string used to connect to the SQL based Bayes storage.
bayes_sql_username
Used by BayesStore::SQL storage implementation.
This option gives the username used by the above DSN.
bayes_sql_password
Used by BayesStore::SQL storage implementation.
This option gives the password used by the above DSN.
bayes_sql_username_authorized ( 0 | 1 ) (default: 0)
Whether to call the services_authorized_for_username plugin hook in BayesSQL. If the hook does
not determine that the user is allowed to use bayes or is invalid then then database will not be
initialized.
NOTE: By default the user is considered invalid until a plugin returns a true value. If you
enable this, but do not have a proper plugin loaded, all users will turn up as invalid.
The username passed into the plugin can be affected by the bayes_sql_override_username config
option.
user_scores_dsn DBI:databasetype:databasename:hostname:port
If you load user scores from an SQL database, this will set the DSN used to connect. Example:
"DBI:mysql:spamassassin:localhost"
If you load user scores from an LDAP directory, this will set the DSN used to connect. You have
to write the DSN as an LDAP URL, the components being the host and port to connect to, the base
DN for the seasrch, the scope of the search (base, one or sub), the single attribute being the
multivalued attribute used to hold the configuration data (space separated pairs of key and
value, just as in a file) and finally the filter being the expression used to filter out the
wanted username. Note that the filter expression is being used in a sprintf statement with the
username as the only parameter, thus is can hold a single __USERNAME__ expression. This will be
replaced with the username.
Example: "ldap://localhost:389/dc=koehntopp,dc=de?spamassassinconfig?uid=__USERNAME__"
user_scores_sql_username username
The authorized username to connect to the above DSN.
user_scores_sql_password password
The password for the database username, for the above DSN.
user_scores_sql_custom_query query
This option gives you the ability to create a custom SQL query to retrieve user scores and
preferences. In order to work correctly your query should return two values, the preference name
and value, in that order. In addition, there are several "variables" that you can use as part of
your query, these variables will be substituted for the current values right before the query is
run. The current allowed variables are:
_TABLE_
The name of the table where user scores and preferences are stored. Currently hardcoded to
userpref, to change this value you need to create a new custom query with the new table name.
_USERNAME_
The current user's username.
_MAILBOX_
The portion before the @ as derived from the current user's username.
_DOMAIN_
The portion after the @ as derived from the current user's username, this value may be null.
The query must be one one continuous line in order to parse correctly.
Here are several example queries, please note that these are broken up for easy reading, in your
config it should be one continuous line.
Current default query:
"SELECT preference, value FROM _TABLE_ WHERE username = _USERNAME_ OR username = '@GLOBAL'
ORDER BY username ASC"
Use global and then domain level defaults:
"SELECT preference, value FROM _TABLE_ WHERE username = _USERNAME_ OR username = '@GLOBAL' OR
username = '@~'||_DOMAIN_ ORDER BY username ASC"
Maybe global prefs should override user prefs:
"SELECT preference, value FROM _TABLE_ WHERE username = _USERNAME_ OR username = '@GLOBAL'
ORDER BY username DESC"
user_scores_ldap_username
This is the Bind DN used to connect to the LDAP server.
Example: "cn=master,dc=koehntopp,dc=de"
user_scores_ldap_password
This is the password used to connect to the LDAP server.
loadplugin PluginModuleName [/path/module.pm]
Load a SpamAssassin plugin module. The "PluginModuleName" is the perl module name, used to
create the plugin object itself.
"/path/to/module.pm" is the file to load, containing the module's perl code; if it's specified as
a relative path, it's considered to be relative to the current configuration file. If it is
omitted, the module will be loaded using perl's search path (the @INC array).
See "Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin" for more details on writing plugins.
tryplugin PluginModuleName [/path/module.pm]
Same as "loadplugin", but silently ignored if the .pm file cannot be found in the filesystem.
PREPROCESSING OPTIONS
include filename
Include configuration lines from "filename". Relative paths are considered relative to the
current configuration file or user preferences file.
if (conditional perl expression)
Used to support conditional interpretation of the configuration file. Lines between this and a
corresponding "else" or "endif" line, will be ignored unless the conditional expression evaluates
as true (in the perl sense; that is, defined and non-0).
The conditional accepts a limited subset of perl for security -- just enough to perform basic
arithmetic comparisons. The following input is accepted:
numbers, whitespace, arithmetic operations and grouping
Namely these characters and ranges:
( ) - + * / _ . , < = > ! ~ 0-9 whitespace
version
This will be replaced with the version number of the currently-running SpamAssassin engine.
Note: The version used is in the internal SpamAssassin version format which is "x.yyyzzz",
where x is major version, y is minor version, and z is maintenance version. So 3.0.0 is
3.000000, and 3.4.80 is 3.004080.
plugin(Name::Of::Plugin)
This is a function call that returns 1 if the plugin named "Name::Of::Plugin" is loaded, or
"undef" otherwise.
If the end of a configuration file is reached while still inside a "if" scope, a warning will be
issued, but parsing will restart on the next file.
For example:
if (version > 3.000000)
header MY_FOO ...
endif
loadplugin MyPlugin plugintest.pm
if plugin (MyPlugin)
header MY_PLUGIN_FOO eval:check_for_foo()
score MY_PLUGIN_FOO 0.1
endif
ifplugin PluginModuleName
An alias for "if plugin(PluginModuleName)".
else
Used to support conditional interpretation of the configuration file. Lines between this and a
corresponding "endif" line, will be ignored unless the conditional expression evaluates as false
(in the perl sense; that is, not defined and 0).
require_version n.nnnnnn
Indicates that the entire file, from this line on, requires a certain version of SpamAssassin to
run. If a different (older or newer) version of SpamAssassin tries to read the configuration
from this file, it will output a warning instead, and ignore it.
Note: The version used is in the internal SpamAssassin version format which is "x.yyyzzz", where
x is major version, y is minor version, and z is maintenance version. So 3.0.0 is 3.000000, and
3.4.80 is 3.004080.
TEMPLATE TAGS
The following "tags" can be used as placeholders in certain options. They will be replaced by the
corresponding value when they are used.
Some tags can take an argument (in parentheses). The argument is optional, and the default is shown
below.
_YESNOCAPS_ "YES"/"NO" for is/isn't spam
_YESNO_ "Yes"/"No" for is/isn't spam
_SCORE(PAD)_ message score, if PAD is included and is either spaces or
zeroes, then pad scores with that many spaces or zeroes
(default, none) ie: _SCORE(0)_ makes 2.4 become 02.4,
_SCORE(00)_ is 002.4. 12.3 would be 12.3 and 012.3
respectively.
_REQD_ message threshold
_VERSION_ version (eg. 3.0.0 or 3.1.0-r26142-foo1)
_SUBVERSION_ sub-version/code revision date (eg. 2004-01-10)
_HOSTNAME_ hostname of the machine the mail was processed on
_REMOTEHOSTNAME_ hostname of the machine the mail was sent from, only
available with spamd
_REMOTEHOSTADDR_ ip address of the machine the mail was sent from, only
available with spamd
_BAYES_ bayes score
_TOKENSUMMARY_ number of new, neutral, spammy, and hammy tokens found
_BAYESTC_ number of new tokens found
_BAYESTCLEARNED_ number of seen tokens found
_BAYESTCSPAMMY_ number of spammy tokens found
_BAYESTCHAMMY_ number of hammy tokens found
_HAMMYTOKENS(N)_ the N most significant hammy tokens (default, 5)
_SPAMMYTOKENS(N)_ the N most significant spammy tokens (default, 5)
_DATE_ rfc-2822 date of scan
_STARS(*)_ one "*" (use any character) for each full score point
(note: limited to 50 'stars')
_RELAYSTRUSTED_ relays used and deemed to be trusted (see the
'X-Spam-Relays-Trusted' pseudo-header)
_RELAYSUNTRUSTED_ relays used that can not be trusted (see the
'X-Spam-Relays-Untrusted' pseudo-header)
_RELAYSINTERNAL_ relays used and deemed to be internal (see the
'X-Spam-Relays-Internal' pseudo-header)
_RELAYSEXTERNAL_ relays used and deemed to be external (see the
'X-Spam-Relays-External' pseudo-header)
_LASTEXTERNALIP_ IP address of client in the external-to-internal
SMTP handover
_LASTEXTERNALRDNS_ reverse-DNS of client in the external-to-internal
SMTP handover
_LASTEXTERNALHELO_ HELO string used by client in the external-to-internal
SMTP handover
_AUTOLEARN_ autolearn status ("ham", "no", "spam", "disabled",
"failed", "unavailable")
_AUTOLEARNSCORE_ portion of message score used by autolearn
_TESTS(,)_ tests hit separated by "," (or other separator)
_TESTSSCORES(,)_ as above, except with scores appended (eg. AWL=-3.0,...)
_SUBTESTS(,)_ subtests (start with "__") hit separated by ","
(or other separator)
_DCCB_ DCC's "Brand"
_DCCR_ DCC's results
_PYZOR_ Pyzor results
_RBL_ full results for positive RBL queries in DNS URI format
_LANGUAGES_ possible languages of mail
_PREVIEW_ content preview
_REPORT_ terse report of tests hit (for header reports)
_SUMMARY_ summary of tests hit for standard report (for body reports)
_CONTACTADDRESS_ contents of the 'report_contact' setting
_HEADER(NAME)_ includes the value of a message header. value is the same
as is found for header rules (see elsewhere in this doc)
If a tag reference uses the name of a tag which is not in this list or defined by a loaded plugin,
the reference will be left intact and not replaced by any value.
The "HAMMYTOKENS" and "SPAMMYTOKENS" tags have an optional second argument which specifies a format.
See the HAMMYTOKENS/SPAMMYTOKENS TAG FORMAT section, below, for details.
HAMMYTOKENS/SPAMMYTOKENS TAG FORMAT
The "HAMMYTOKENS" and "SPAMMYTOKENS" tags have an optional second argument which specifies a format:
"_SPAMMYTOKENS(N,FMT)_", "_HAMMYTOKENS(N,FMT)_" The following formats are available:
short
Only the tokens themselves are listed. For example, preference file entry:
"add_header all Spammy _SPAMMYTOKENS(2,short)_"
Results in message header:
"X-Spam-Spammy: remove.php, UD:jpg"
Indicating that the top two spammy tokens found are "remove.php" and "UD:jpg". (The token itself
follows the last colon, the text before the colon indicates something about the token. "UD"
means the token looks like it might be part of a domain name.)
compact
The token probability, an abbreviated declassification distance (see example), and the token are
listed. For example, preference file entry:
"add_header all Spammy _SPAMMYTOKENS(2,compact)_"
Results in message header:
"0.989-6--remove.php, 0.988-+--UD:jpg"
Indicating that the probabilities of the top two tokens are 0.989 and 0.988, respectively. The
first token has a declassification distance of 6, meaning that if the token had appeared in at
least 6 more ham messages it would not be considered spammy. The "+" for the second token
indicates a declassification distance greater than 9.
long
Probability, declassification distance, number of times seen in a ham message, number of times
seen in a spam message, age and the token are listed.
For example, preference file entry:
"add_header all Spammy _SPAMMYTOKENS(2,long)_"
Results in message header:
"X-Spam-Spammy: 0.989-6--0h-4s--4d--remove.php, 0.988-33--2h-25s--1d--UD:jpg"
In addition to the information provided by the compact option, the long option shows that the
first token appeared in zero ham messages and four spam messages, and that it was last seen four
days ago. The second token appeared in two ham messages, 25 spam messages and was last seen one
day ago. (Unlike the "compact" option, the long option shows declassification distances that are
greater than 9.)
LOCALI[SZ]ATION
A line starting with the text "lang xx" will only be interpreted if the user is in that locale,
allowing test descriptions and templates to be set for that language.
The locales string should specify either both the language and country, e.g. "lang pt_BR", or just
the language, e.g. "lang de".
SEE ALSO
"Mail::SpamAssassin" "spamassassin" "spamd"
POD ERRORS
Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained below:
Around line 269:
You forgot a '=back' before '=head2'
perl v5.8.8 2007-06-19 Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3)
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