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MIMEDEFANG.PL

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: 8 February 2005
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NAME

mimedefang.pl - Perl script to scan MIME messages.

SYNOPSIS

mimedefang.pl -f filter] dir

DESCRIPTION

mimedefang.pl is a Perl script designed to work with mimedefang(8). It takes a single argument which is a directory which should contain files laid out as described in mimedefang(8).

OPTIONS

-f filter: Specifies the name of the file containing the filter. If this option is omitted, the default filter /etc/mail/mimedefan-filter is used.

OPERATION

mimedefang.pl evaluates the file /etc/mail/mimedefan-filter as a Perl fragment. This file should define the filter procedure. For each part of a MIME message, mimedefang.pl calls filter and disposes of the part as instructed by the filter. The various modes of disposition are described in mimedefan-filter(5).

TESTING FILTERS

You are strongly recommended to test your filter before installing it in /etc/mail/mimedefan-filter. To test the filter, save it in a file (e.g. tes-filter) and run this command:

        mimedefang.pl-f tes-filter-test

This tests the filter for syntactic correctness. If it passes, you can install it as a production filter. (Note that the test tests only for correct Perl syntax; it doesn't make sure your filter does something sensible.)

MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS

There are a few other ways to invoke mimedefang.pl:

        mimedefang.pl-features

prints a list of detected optional Perl modules. The output looks something like this:

        SpamAssassin: yes

        mimedefang.pl-validate

calls the function filter_validate, if it is defined in your filter. filter_validate should return an integer; this becomes the exit code. If filter_validate does not exist, an error message is printed and mimedefang.pl exits with an exit code of 1.

AUTHOR

mimedefang.pl was written by Dianne Skoll <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>. The mimedefang home page is http://www.mimedefang.org/.