Linux Procmail Overview
If you run a Linux server, and use it for your email server, one of the best utilities to run is procmail. Procmail is a package that is used in conjunction with your Mail Transport Agent (MTA), to process incoming mail messages.
Some of the many uses of procmail include anti-spam, and anti-virus. More about these in a future blog. Additionally, it can be used for many types of filtering, redirecting, incoming mail.
On most, if not all, versions of Linux, procmail is one of the standard packages that can be added. So, installation is easy, and supported. The method required varies, depending on what Linux release you are running, and is beyond the scope of this blog. Additionally, your MTA must be configured to use procmail. This varies depend on what MTA you are using. Again, this is beyond the scope of this blog.
How does procmail fit in to the mail system? When an incoming mail is received, the MTA passes it to procmail. Procmail then processes the message, based on the rules that it is given. These rules can be simple, or complex. Based on the processing rules, procmail can do several things. Among them, it can deliver the message, drop it, bounce it back to the sender, pass it to other programs to process and then act on the results.
The end result of all of this, is that by using procmail, you can really fine tune your email system.
You can read more about procmail at the procmail home page.
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