[Esd-l] Setup and configuration

[Bjarni R. Einarsson]

On 2002-11-06, 03:23:03 (-0800), esd-l-request at spconnect.com wrote:
> > I have a few stubborn customers who do not want me to filter any
> > type of their mail.  So, I would like to enable procmail and
> > sanitizer on individual mailboxes.
> > 
> > Is this possible?
> 
> Sure. Procmail is *very* flexible.
> 
> It's fairly easy to set up, but it can become a maintenance hassle if
> many users want to be excluded. Giving the end-users the ability to
> control it for themselves makes it somewhat more complex but relieves 
> you of maintenance.
> 
> I'll give a basic example. Others who may have more direct experience
> with doing this can chime in with their suggestions.

One way to make this sort of thing easier to manage, is to simply
check the user's home directory for a "flag file" which disables the
check.  I wrap the anti-spam/anti-virus procmails on my friends &
family box with rules like this:

## EXCEPTIONS FROM SPAM PROTECTION
:0
* ! ? test -f /home/$LOGNAME/.wantspam
{

<... insert anti-spam rules here ...>

} # END OF ESCAPING FOR EXCEPTIONS FROM SPAM PROTECTION


Thus if your users know how to create/delete files, they can easily
opt in/out of the spam protection (or whatever else you're doing in
/etc/procmailrc).  This sort of approach is also very easy to
interface with CGI scripts, since turning something on or off is
simply a matter of doing a "touch" or "rm". :-)

Obviously the flag files don't have to be kept in the user's home
directory - you could just as easily keep them somewhere else.  This
may be better if you're writing CGI scripts which don't have
permission to mess with users's home directories.

-- 
Bjarni R. Einarsson                           PGP: 02764305, B7A3AB89
 bre at klaki.net                -><-              http://bre.klaki.net/

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