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Mail::SpamAssassin(3)User
NAME
Mail::SpamAssassin - Spam detector and markup engine
SYNOPSIS
my $spamtest = Mail::SpamAssassin->new();
my $mail = $spamtest->parse( $message );
my $status = $spamtest->check( $mail );
if ($status->is_spam()) {
$mail = $status->rewrite_mail();
} else {
...
}
...
$status->finish();
$mail->finish();
DESCRIPTION
Mail::SpamAssassin is a module to identify spam using several methods
including text analysis, internet-based realtime blacklists, statistical
analysis, and internet-based hashing algorithms.
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 bulk
email.
Once identified, the mail can then be tagged as spam for later filtering
using the user's own mail user-agent application or at the mail transfer
agent.
If you wish to use a command-line filter tool, try the "spamassassin" or
the "spamd"/"spamc" tools provided.
SpamAssassin also includes support for reporting spam messages to
collaborative filtering databases, such as Vipul's Razor (
http://razor.sourceforge.net/ ).
METHODS
$f = new Mail::SpamAssassin( [ { opt => val, ... } ] )
Constructs a new "Mail::SpamAssassin" object. You may pass the
following attribute-value pairs to the constructor.
rules_filename
The filename to load spam-identifying rules from. (optional)
site_rules_filename
The directory to load site-specific spam-identifying rules from.
(optional)
userprefs_filename
The filename to load preferences from. (optional)
userstate_dir
The directory user state is stored in. (optional)
config_text
The text of all rules and preferences. If you prefer not to load
the rules from files, read them in yourself and set this instead.
As a result, this will override the settings for "rules_filename",
"site_rules_filename", and "userprefs_filename".
languages_filename
If you want to be able to use the language-guessing rule
"UNWANTED_LANGUAGE_BODY", and are using "config_text" instead of
"rules_filename", "site_rules_filename", and "userprefs_filename",
you will need to set this. It should be the path to the languages
file normally found in the SpamAssassin rules directory.
local_tests_only
If set to 1, no tests that require internet access will be
performed. (default: 0)
dont_copy_prefs
If set to 1, the user preferences file will not be created if it
doesn't already exist. (default: 0)
save_pattern_hits
If set to 1, the patterns hit can be retrieved from the
"Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus" object. Used for debugging.
home_dir_for_helpers
If set, the HOME environment variable will be set to this value
when using test applications that require their configuration data,
such as Razor, Pyzor and DCC.
username
If set, the "username" attribute will use this as the current
user's name. Otherwise, the default is taken from the runtime
environment (ie. this process' effective UID under UNIX).
If none of "rules_filename", "site_rules_filename",
"userprefs_filename", or "config_text" is set, the "Mail::SpamAssassin"
module will search for the configuration files in the usual installed
locations.
parse($message, $parse_now)
Parse will return a Mail::SpamAssassin::Message object with just the
headers parsed. When calling this function, there are two optional
parameters that can be passed in: $message is either undef (which will
use STDIN), a scalar of the entire message, an array reference of the
message with 1 line per array element, or a file glob which holds the
entire contents of the message; and $parse_now, which specifies whether
or not to create the MIME tree at parse time or later as necessary.
The $parse_now option, by default, is set to false (0). This allows
SpamAssassin to not have to generate the tree of
Mail::SpamAssassin::Message::Node objects and their related data if the
tree is not going to be used. This is handy, for instance, when
running "spamassassin -d", which only needs the pristine header and
body which is always parsed and stored by this function.
$status = $f->check ($mail)
Check a mail, encapsulated in a "Mail::SpamAssassin::Message" object,
to determine if it is spam or not.
Returns a "Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus" object which can be used
to test or manipulate the mail message.
Note that the "Mail::SpamAssassin" object can be re-used for further
messages without affecting this check; in OO terminology, the
"Mail::SpamAssassin" object is a "factory". However, if you do this,
be sure to call the "finish()" method on the status objects when you're
done with them.
$status = $f->check_message_text ($mailtext)
Check a mail, encapsulated in a plain string $mailtext, to determine if
it is spam or not.
Otherwise identical to "check()" above.
$status = $f->learn ($mail, $id, $isspam, $forget)
Learn from a mail, encapsulated in a "Mail::SpamAssassin::Message"
object.
If $isspam is set, the mail is assumed to be spam, otherwise it will be
learnt as non-spam.
If $forget is set, the attributes of the mail will be removed from both
the non-spam and spam learning databases.
$id is an optional message-identification string, used internally to
tag the message. If it is "undef", the Message-Id of the message will
be used. It should be unique to that message.
Returns a "Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgLearner" object which can be used
to manipulate the learning process for each mail.
Note that the "Mail::SpamAssassin" object can be re-used for further
messages without affecting this check; in OO terminology, the
"Mail::SpamAssassin" object is a "factory". However, if you do this,
be sure to call the "finish()" method on the learner objects when
you're done with them.
"learn()" and "check()" can be run using the same factory.
"init_learner()" must be called before using this method.
$f->init_learner ( [ { opt => val, ... } ] )
Initialise learning. You may pass the following attribute-value pairs
to this method.
caller_will_untie
Whether or not the code calling this method will take care of
untie'ing from the Bayes databases (by calling "finish_learner()")
(optional, default 0).
force_expire
Should an expiration run be forced to occur immediately? (optional,
default 0).
learn_to_journal
Should learning data be written to the journal, instead of directly
to the databases? (optional, default 0).
wait_for_lock
Whether or not to wait a long time for locks to complete (optional,
default 0).
$f->rebuild_learner_caches ({ opt => val })
Rebuild any cache databases; should be called after the learning
process. Options include: "verbose", which will output diagnostics to
"stdout" if set to 1.
$f->finish_learner ()
Finish learning.
$f->dump_bayes_db()
Dump the contents of the Bayes DB
$f->signal_user_changed ( [ { opt => val, ... } ] )
Signals that the current user has changed (possibly using "setuid"),
meaning that SpamAssassin should close any per-user databases it has
open, and re-open using ones appropriate for the new user.
Note that this should be called after reading any per-user
configuration, as that data may override some paths opened in this
method. You may pass the following attribute-value pairs:
username
The username of the user. This will be used for the "username"
attribute.
user_dir
A directory to use as a 'home directory' for the current user's
data, overriding the system default. This directory must be
readable and writable by the process. Note that the resulting
"userstate_dir" will be the ".spamassassin" subdirectory of this
dir.
userstate_dir
A directory to use as a directory for the current user's data,
overriding the system default. This directory must be readable and
writable by the process. The default is "user_dir/.spamassassin".
$f->report_as_spam ($mail, $options)
Report a mail, encapsulated in a "Mail::SpamAssassin::Message" object,
as human-verified spam. This will submit the mail message to live,
collaborative, spam-blocker databases, allowing other users to block
this message.
It will also submit the mail to SpamAssassin's Bayesian learner.
Options is an optional reference to a hash of options. Currently these
can be:
dont_report_to_dcc
Inhibits reporting of the spam to DCC.
dont_report_to_pyzor
Inhibits reporting of the spam to Pyzor.
dont_report_to_razor
Inhibits reporting of the spam to Razor.
dont_report_to_spamcop
Inhibits reporting of the spam to SpamCop.
$f->revoke_as_spam ($mail, $options)
Revoke a mail, encapsulated in a "Mail::SpamAssassin::Message" object,
as human-verified ham (non-spam). This will revoke the mail message
from live, collaborative, spam-blocker databases, allowing other users
to block this message.
It will also submit the mail to SpamAssassin's Bayesian learner as
nonspam.
Options is an optional reference to a hash of options. Currently these
can be:
dont_report_to_razor
Inhibits revoking of the spam to Razor.
$f->add_address_to_whitelist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, add it to the automatic
whitelist database.
$f->add_all_addresses_to_whitelist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find as many addresses in the usual headers (To,
Cc, From etc.), and the message body, and add them to the automatic
whitelist database.
$f->remove_address_from_whitelist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, remove it from the
automatic whitelist database.
$f->remove_all_addresses_from_whitelist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find as many addresses in the usual headers (To,
Cc, From etc.), and the message body, and remove them from the
automatic whitelist database.
$f->add_address_to_blacklist ($addr)
Given a string containing an email address, add it to the automatic
whitelist database with a high score, effectively blacklisting them.
$f->add_all_addresses_to_blacklist ($mail)
Given a mail message, find addresses in the From headers and add them
to the automatic whitelist database with a high score, effectively
blacklisting them.
Note that To and Cc addresses are not used.
$text = $f->remove_spamassassin_markup ($mail)
Returns the text of the message, with any SpamAssassin-added text (such
as the report, or X-Spam-Status headers) stripped.
Note that the $mail object is not modified.
$f->read_scoreonly_config ($filename)
Read a configuration file and parse user preferences from it.
User preferences are as defined in the "Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf"
manual page. In other words, they include scoring options, scores,
whitelists and blacklists, and so on, but do not include rule
definitions, privileged settings, etc. unless "allow_user_rules" is
enabled; and they never include the administrator settings.
$f->load_scoreonly_sql ($username)
Read configuration paramaters from SQL database and parse scores from
it. This will only take effect if the perl "DBI" module is installed,
and the configuration parameters "user_scores_dsn",
"user_scores_sql_username", and "user_scores_sql_password" are set
correctly.
The username in $username will also be used for the "username"
attribute of the Mail::SpamAssassin object.
$f->load_scoreonly_ldap ($username)
Read configuration paramaters from an LDAP server and parse scores from
it. This will only take effect if the perl "Net::LDAP" and "URI"
modules are installed, and the configuration parameters
"user_scores_dsn", "user_scores_ldap_username", and
"user_scores_ldap_password" are set correctly.
The username in $username will also be used for the "username"
attribute of the Mail::SpamAssassin object.
$f->set_persistent_address_list_factory ($factoryobj)
Set the persistent address list factory, used to create objects for the
automatic whitelist algorithm's persistent-storage back-end. See
"Mail::SpamAssassin::PersistentAddrList" for the API these factory
objects must implement, and the API the objects they produce must
implement.
$f->compile_now ($use_user_prefs, $keep_userstate)
Compile all patterns, load all configuration files, and load all
possibly-required Perl modules.
Normally, Mail::SpamAssassin uses lazy evaluation where possible, but
if you plan to fork() or start a new perl interpreter thread to process
a message, this is suboptimal, as each process/thread will have to
perform these actions.
Call this function in the master thread or process to perform the
actions straightaway, so that the sub-processes will not have to.
If $use_user_prefs is 0, this will initialise the SpamAssassin
configuration without reading the per-user configuration file and it
will assume that you will call "read_scoreonly_config" at a later
point.
If $keep_userstate is true, compile_now() will revert any configuration
options which have a default with __userstate__ in it post-init(), and
then re-change the option before returning. This lets you change
$ENV{'HOME'} to a temp directory, have compile_now() and create any
files there as necessary (auto-whitelist, etc,) without disturbing the
actual files as changed by a configuration option. By default, this is
disabled.
$f->debug_diagnostics ()
Output some diagnostic information, useful for debugging SpamAssassin
problems.
$failed = $f->lint_rules ()
Syntax-check the current set of rules. Returns the number of syntax
errors discovered, or 0 if the configuration is valid.
$f->finish()
Destroy this object, so that it will be garbage-collected once it goes
out of scope. The object will no longer be usable after this method is
called.
$f->create_default_prefs ($filename, $username [ , $userdir ] )
Copy default preferences file into home directory for later use and
modification, if it does not already exist and "dont_copy_prefs" is not
set.
$f->copy_config ( [ $source ], [ $dest ] )
Used for daemons to keep a persistent Mail::SpamAssassin object's
configuration correct if switching between users. Pass an associative
array reference as either $source or $dest, and set the other to
'undef' so that the object will use its current configuration. i.e.:
# create object w/ configuration
my $spamtest = Mail::SpamAssassin->new( ... );
# backup configuration to %conf_backup
my %conf_backup = ();
$spamtest->copy_config(undef, \%conf_backup) ||
die "error returned from copy_config!\n";
... do stuff, perhaps modify the config, etc ...
# reset the configuration back to the original
$spamtest->copy_config(\%conf_backup, undef) ||
die "error returned from copy_config!\n";
PREREQUISITES
"HTML::Parser" "Sys::Syslog"
MORE DOCUMENTATION
See also <http://spamassassin.apache.org/> and
<http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/> for more information.
SEE ALSO
Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3) Mail::SpamAssassin::PerMsgStatus(3)
spamassassin(1)
BUGS
See <http://bugzilla.spamassassin.org/>
AUTHORS
The SpamAssassin(tm) Project <http://spamassassin.apache.org/>
COPYRIGHT
SpamAssassin is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, as
described in the file "LICENSE" included with the distribution.
AVAILABILITY
The latest version of this library is likely to be available from CPAN as
well as:
E<lt>http://spamassassin.apache.org/E<gt>
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