Filtering Spam with alpine

Note: These settings will filter your mail when you are using alpine. It is most appropriate to use this when you only use alpine to read your mail and/or you want the spam mail filtered to a UNIX mbox file (alpine local folder). If you anticipate that you will use WebMail or an IMAP client (such as Outlook Express or Kmail), then we suggest utilizing sieve instead.

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First, start up alpine and either arrow down to select Setup or press S to enter the setup screen.

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Now you should see the above picture. At this screen, press R for Rules, and then F for Filter.

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This above screen will look differently for you. Depending on whether you have previously set up filters, then this screen will have other filtering rules or be blank. Press A to add a new filtering rule.

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At the CHANGE THIS FILTERING RULE screen, make certain that Nickname is highlighted (you may use arrow keys to change selection), and press A to add a value. Enter in some name for the filter. I chose Spam.

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Now arrow-down to the FILTERED MESSAGE CONDITIONS section. Once you the To pattern highlighted, then press the X key to add an extra header field. Now type in X-Perlmx-Spam and press enter. The header you just added should now be highlighted. If it is not, then arrow down or up to select it. Now press A to add a value. Depending on your preference, enter in Gauge=XXXXXXX, or any number of X's that you feel appropriate. Each 'X' corresponds to a 10% spam marking. A value of 'XXXXXXX' would correspond to a 70% spam marking.

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Paging down further will bring you to the ACTION section, and then immediately the Filter Action subsection. Highlight the Move option and press * to make certain that it is selected. Now move the selection down one more line to select Folder List, press A to add a value, and enter the name of the folder you wish to filter to. I am filtering to an IMAP folder that I called 'spam'. You may wish to just filter to a local mail folder, and call it simply Spam. Note that the folder does not need to exist prior to this.

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This final step is not necessary, however I find it convenient. It will only filter messages that are marked as NEW in your Inbox. If you arrow-up about three subsections to the Message is New? subsection, then highlight Yes and press *, it will only move NEW messages and not anything that is already read.

Maintained by itweb.
Last modified: Jan 29, 2010, 17:33 UTC