{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "PROCMAIL", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PROCMAIL/1/json", "generated": "2026-10-22T14:23:54Z", "synopsis": "procmail [-ptoY] [-f fromwhom]\n[parameter=value | rcfile] ...\nprocmail [-toY] [-f fromwhom] [-a argument] ...\n-d recipient ...\nprocmail [-ptY] -m [parameter=value] ... rcfile\n[argument] ...", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "procmail - autonomous mail processor\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "procmail [-ptoY] [-f fromwhom]\n[parameter=value | rcfile] ...\nprocmail [-toY] [-f fromwhom] [-a argument] ...\n-d recipient ...\nprocmail [-ptY] -m [parameter=value] ... rcfile\n[argument] ...", "subsections": [ { "name": "procmail -v", "content": "" } ] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "For a quick start, see NOTES at the end.\n\nProcmail should be invoked automatically over the .forward file mechanism as soon as mail ar‐\nrives. Alternatively, when installed by a system administrator, it can be invoked from\nwithin the mailer immediately. When invoked, it first sets some environment variables to de‐\nfault values, reads the mail message from stdin until an EOF, separates the body from the\nheader, and then, if no command line arguments are present, it starts to look for a file\nnamed $HOME/.procmailrc. According to the processing recipes in this file, the mail message\nthat just arrived gets distributed into the right folder (and more). If no rcfile is found,\nor processing of the rcfile falls off the end, procmail will store the mail in the default\nsystem mailbox.\n\nIf no rcfiles and no -p have been specified on the command line, procmail will, prior to\nreading $HOME/.procmailrc, interpret commands from /etc/procmailrc (if present). Care must\nbe taken when creating /etc/procmailrc, because, if circumstances permit, it will be executed\nwith root privileges (contrary to the $HOME/.procmailrc file of course).\n\nIf running suid root or with root privileges, procmail will be able to perform as a function‐\nally enhanced, backwards compatible mail delivery agent.\n\nProcmail can also be used as a general purpose mail filter, i.e., provisions have been made\nto enable procmail to be invoked in a special sendmail rule.\n\nThe rcfile format is described in detail in the procmailrc(5) man page.\n\nThe weighted scoring technique is described in detail in the procmailsc(5) man page.\n\nExamples for rcfile recipes can be looked up in the procmailex(5) man page.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Signals", "content": "TERMINATE Terminate prematurely and requeue the mail.\n\nHANGUP Terminate prematurely and bounce the mail.\n\nINTERRUPT Terminate prematurely and bounce the mail.\n\nQUIT Terminate prematurely and silently lose the mail.\n\nALARM Force a timeout (see TIMEOUT).\n\nUSR1 Equivalent to a VERBOSE=off.\n\nUSR2 Equivalent to a VERBOSE=on.\n" } ] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-v", "content": "", "flag": "-v" }, { "name": "-p", "content": "except for the value of TZ. However, in any case: any default values will override any\npreexisting environment variables, i.e., procmail will not pay any attention to any pre‐\ndefined environment variables, it will happily overwrite them with its own defaults.\nFor the list of environment variables that procmail will preset see the procmailrc(5)\nman page. If both -p and -m are specified, the list of preset environment variables\nshrinks to just: LOGNAME, HOME, SHELL, USERSHELL, ORGMAIL and MAILDIR.\n", "flag": "-p" }, { "name": "-t", "content": "tinations you gave, the mail will not bounce, but will return to the mailqueue. Another\ndelivery-attempt will be made at some time in the future.\n", "flag": "-t" }, { "name": "-f _", "content": "Causes procmail to regenerate the leading `From ' line with fromwhom as the sender (in‐\nstead of -f one could use the alternate and obsolete -r). If fromwhom consists merely\nof a single `-', then procmail will only update the timestamp on the `From ' line (if\npresent, if not, it will generate a new one).\n", "flag": "-f" }, { "name": "-o", "content": "", "flag": "-o" }, { "name": "-Y", "content": "", "flag": "-Y" }, { "name": "-a _", "content": "This will set $1 to be equal to argument. Each succeeding -a argument will set the next\nnumber variable ($2, $3, etc). It can be used to pass meta information along to proc‐\nmail. This is typically done by passing along the $@x information from the sendmail\nmailer rule.\n", "flag": "-a" }, { "name": "-d _", "content": "This turns on explicit delivery mode, delivery will be to the local user recipient.\nThis, of course, only is possible if procmail has root privileges (or if procmail is al‐\nready running with the recipient's euid and egid). Procmail will setuid to the intended\nrecipients and delivers the mail as if it were invoked by the recipient with no argu‐\nments (i.e., if no rcfile is found, delivery is like ordinary mail). This option is in‐\ncompatible with -p.\n", "flag": "-d" }, { "name": "-m", "content": "specified on the command line. After the rcfile, procmail will accept an unlimited num‐\nber of arguments. If the rcfile is an absolute path starting with /etc/procmailrcs/\nwithout backward references (i.e. the parent directory cannot be mentioned) procmail\nwill, only if no security violations are found, take on the identity of the owner of the\nrcfile (or symbolic link). For some advanced usage of this option you should look in\nthe EXAMPLES section below.\n", "flag": "-m" } ] }, "ARGUMENTS": { "content": "Any arguments containing an '=' are considered to be environment variable assignments, they\nwill all be evaluated after the default values have been assigned and before the first rcfile\nis opened.\n\nAny other arguments are presumed to be rcfile paths (either absolute, or if they start with\n`./' relative to the current directory; any other relative path is relative to $HOME, unless\nthe -m option has been given, in which case all relative paths are relative to the current\ndirectory); procmail will start with the first one it finds on the command line. The follow‐\ning ones will only be parsed if the preceding ones have a not matching HOST-directive entry,\nor in case they should not exist.\n\nIf no rcfiles are specified, it looks for $HOME/.procmailrc. If not even that can be found,\nprocessing will continue according to the default settings of the environment variables and\nthe ones specified on the command line.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "Examples for rcfile recipes can be looked up in the procmailex(5) man page. A small sample\nrcfile can be found in the NOTES section below.\n\nSkip the rest of this EXAMPLES section unless you are a system administrator who is vaguely\nfamiliar with sendmail.cf syntax.\n\nThe -m option is typically used when procmail is called from within a rule in the sendmail.cf\nfile. In order to be able to do this it is convenient to create an extra `procmail' mailer\nin your sendmail.cf file (in addition to the perhaps already present `local' mailer that\nstarts up procmail). To create such a `procmail' mailer I'd suggest something like:\n\nMprocmail, P=/usr/bin/procmail, F=mSDFMhun, S=11, R=21,\nA=procmail -m $h $g $u\n\nThis enables you to use rules like the following (most likely in ruleset 0) to filter mail\nthrough the procmail mailer (please note the leading tab to continue the rule, and the tab to\nseparate the comments):\n\nR$*<@some.where>$*\n$#procmail $@/etc/procmailrcs/some.rc $:$1@some.where.procmail$2\nR$*<@$*.procmail>$*\n$1<@$2>$3 Already filtered, map back\n\nAnd /etc/procmailrcs/some.rc could be as simple as:\n\nSENDER = \"<$1>\" # fix for empty sender addresses\nSHIFT = 1 # remove it from $@\n\n:0 # sink all junk mail\n* ^Subject:.*junk\n/dev/null\n\n:0 w # pass along all other mail\n! -oi -f \"$SENDER\" \"$@\"\n\nDo watch out when sending mail from within the /etc/procmailrcs/some.rc file, if you send\nmail to addresses which match the first rule again, you could be creating an endless mail\nloop.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "/etc/passwd to set the recipient's LOGNAME, HOME and USERSHELL variable defaults\n\n/var/mail/$LOGNAME system mailbox; both the system mailbox and the immediate directory it\nis in will be created every time procmail starts and either one is not\npresent\n\n/etc/procmailrc initial global rcfile\n\n/etc/procmailrcs/ special privileges path for rcfiles\n\n$HOME/.procmailrc default rcfile\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "/var/mail/$LOGNAME.lock", "content": "lockfile for the system mailbox (not automatically used by procmail,\nunless $DEFAULT equals /var/mail/$LOGNAME and procmail is delivering\nto $DEFAULT)\n\n/usr/sbin/sendmail default mail forwarder\n\n????`hostname` temporary `unique' zero-length files created by procmail\n" } ] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "procmailrc(5), procmailsc(5), procmailex(5), sh(1), csh(1), mail(1), mailx(1), uucp(1),\naliases(5), sendmail(8), egrep(1), grep(1), biff(1), comsat(8), lockfile(1), formail(1),\ncron(1)\n", "subsections": [] }, "DIAGNOSTICS": { "content": "Autoforwarding mailbox found\nThe system mailbox had its suid or sgid bit set, procmail terminates\nwith EXNOUSER assuming that this mailbox must not be delivered to.\n\nBad substitution of \"x\"\nNot a valid environment variable name specified.\n\nClosing brace unexpected\nThere was no corresponding opening brace (nesting block).\n\nConflicting options Not all option combinations are useful\n\nConflicting x suppressed\nFlag x is not compatible with some other flag on this recipe.\n\nCouldn't create \"x\" The system mailbox was missing and could not/will not be created.\n\nCouldn't create maildir part \"x\"\nThe maildir folder \"x\" is missing one or more required subdirectories\nand procmail could not create them.\n\nCouldn't create or rename temp file \"x\"\nAn error occurred in the mechanics of delivering to the directory\nfolder \"x\".\n\nCouldn't determine implicit lockfile from \"x\"\nThere were no `>>' redirectors to be found, using simply `$LOCKEXT' as\nlocallockfile.\n\nCouldn't read \"x\" Procmail was unable to open an rcfile or it was not a regular file, or\nprocmail couldn't open an MH directory to find the highest numbered\nfile.\n\nCouldn't unlock \"x\" Lockfile was already gone, or write permission to the directory where\nthe lockfile is has been denied.\n\nDeadlock attempted on \"x\"\nThe locallockfile specified on this recipe is equal to a still active\n$LOCKFILE.\n\nDenying special privileges for \"x\"\nProcmail will not take on the identity that comes with the rcfile be‐\ncause a security violation was found (e.g. -p or variable assignments\non the command line) or procmail had insufficient privileges to do so.\n\nDescriptor \"x\" was not open\nAs procmail was started, stdin, stdout or stderr was not connected\n(possibly an attempt to subvert security)\n\nEnforcing stricter permissions on \"x\"\nThe system mailbox of the recipient was found to be unsecured, proc‐\nmail secured it.\n\nError while writing to \"x\"\nNonexistent subdirectory, no write permission, pipe died or disk full.\n\nExceeded LINEBUF Buffer overflow detected, LINEBUF was too small, PROCMAILOVERFLOW has\nbeen set.\n\nMAILDIR is not an absolute path\n\nMAILDIR path too long\n\nORGMAIL is not an absolute path\n\nORGMAIL path too long\n\ndefault rcfile is not an absolute path\n\ndefault rcfile path too long\nThe specified item's full path, when expanded, was longer than LINEBUF\nor didn't start with a file separator.\n\nExcessive output quenched from \"x\"\nThe backquoted expression \"x\" tried to produce too much output for the\ncurrent LINEBUF; the rest was discarded and PROCMAILOVERFLOW has been\nset.\n\nExtraneous x ignored The action line or other flags on this recipe make x meaningless.\n\nFailed forking \"x\" Process table is full (and NORESRETRY has been exhausted).\n\nFailed to execute \"x\" Program not in path, or not executable.\n\nForced unlock denied on \"x\"\nNo write permission in the directory where lockfile \"x\" resides, or\nmore than one procmail trying to force a lock at exactly the same\ntime.\n\nForcing lock on \"x\" Lockfile \"x\" is going to be removed by force because of a timeout (see\nalso: LOCKTIMEOUT).\n\nIncomplete recipe The start of a recipe was found, but it stranded in an EOF.\n\nInsufficient privileges\nProcmail either needs root privileges, or must have the right (e)uid", "subsections": [ { "name": "and (e)", "content": "Invalid regexp \"x\" The regular expression \"x\" contains errors (most likely some missing\nor extraneous parens).\n\nKernel-lock failed While trying to use the kernel-supported locking calls, one of them\nfailed (usually indicates an OS error), procmail ignores this error\nand proceeds.\n\nKernel-unlock failed See above.\n\nLock failure on \"x\" Can only occur if you specify some real weird (and illegal) lockfile‐\nnames or if the lockfile could not be created because of insufficient\npermissions or nonexistent subdirectories.\n\nLost \"x\" Procmail tried to clone itself but could not find back rcfile \"x\" (it\neither got removed or it was a relative path and you changed directory\nsince procmail opened it last time).\n\nMissing action The current recipe was found to be incomplete.\n\nMissing closing brace A nesting block was started, but never finished.\n\nMissing name The -f option needs an extra argument.\n\nMissing argument You specified the -a option but forgot the argument.\n\nMissing rcfile You specified the -m option, procmail expects the name of an rcfile as\nargument.\n\nMissing recipient You specified the -d option or called procmail under a different name,\nit expects one or more recipients as arguments.\n\nNo space left to finish writing \"x\"\nThe filesystem containing \"x\" does not have enough free space to per‐\nmit delivery of the message to the file.\n\nOut of memory The system is out of swap space (and NORESRETRY has been exhausted).\n\nProcessing continued The unrecognised options on the command line are ignored, proceeding\nas usual.\n\nProgram failure (nnn) of \"x\"\nProgram that was started by procmail returned nnn instead of EXITSUC‐\nCESS (=0); if nnn is negative, then this is the signal the program\ndied on.\n\nQuota exceeded while writing \"x\"\nThe filesize quota for the recipient on the filesystem containing \"x\"\ndoes not permit delivering the message to the file.\n\nRenaming bogus \"x\" into \"x\"\nThe system mailbox of the recipient was found to be bogus, procmail\nperformed evasive actions.\n\nRescue of unfiltered data succeeded/failed\nA filter returned unsuccessfully, procmail tried to get back the orig‐\ninal text.\n\nSkipped: \"x\" Couldn't do anything with \"x\" in the rcfile (syntax error), ignoring\nit.\n\nSuspicious rcfile \"x\" The owner of the rcfile was not the recipient or root, the file was\nworld writable, or the directory that contained it was world writable,\nor this was the default rcfile ($HOME/.procmailrc) and either it was\ngroup writable or the directory that contained it was group writable\n(the rcfile was not used).\n\nTerminating prematurely whilst waiting for ...\nProcmail received a signal while it was waiting for ...\n\nTimeout, terminating \"x\"\nTimeout has occurred on program or filter \"x\".\n\nTimeout, was waiting for \"x\"\nTimeout has occurred on program, filter or file \"x\". If it was a pro‐\ngram or filter, then it didn't seem to be running anymore.\n\nTruncated file to former size\nThe file could not be delivered to successfully, so the file was trun‐\ncated to its former size.\n\nTruncating \"x\" and retrying lock\n\"x\" does not seem to be a valid filename or the file is not empty.\n\nUnable to treat as directory \"x\"\nEither the suffix on \"x\" would indicate that it should be an MH or\nmaildir folder, or it was listed as an second folder into which to\nlink, but it already exists and is not a directory.\n\nUnexpected EOL Missing closing quote, or trying to escape EOF.\n\nUnknown user \"x\" The specified recipient does not have a corresponding uid.\n" } ] }, "EXTENDED DIAGNOSTICS": { "content": "Extended diagnostics can be turned on and off through setting the VERBOSE variable.\n\n[pid] time & date Procmail's pid and a timestamp. Generated whenever procmail logs a\ndiagnostic and at least a second has elapsed since the last timestamp.\n\nAcquiring kernel-lock Procmail now tries to kernel-lock the most recently opened file (de‐\nscriptor).\n\nAssigning \"x\" Environment variable assignment.\n\nAssuming identity of the recipient, VERBOSE=off\nDropping all privileges (if any), implicitly turns off extended diag‐\nnostics.\n\nBypassed locking \"x\" The mail spool directory was not accessible to procmail, it relied\nsolely on kernel locks.\n\nExecuting \"x\" Starting program \"x\". If it is started by procmail directly (without\nan intermediate shell), procmail will show where it separated the ar‐\nguments by inserting commas.\n\nHOST mismatched \"x\" This host was called \"x\", HOST contained something else.\n\nLocking \"x\" Creating lockfile \"x\".\n\nLinking to \"x\" Creating a hardlink between directory folders.\n\nMatch on \"x\" Condition matched.\n\nMatched \"x\" Assigned \"x\" to MATCH.\n\nNo match on \"x\" Condition didn't match, recipe skipped.\n\nNon-zero exitcode (nnn) by \"x\"\nProgram that was started by procmail as a condition or as the action\nof a recipe with the `W' flag returned nnn instead of EXITSUCCESS\n(=0); the usage indicates that this is not an entirely unexpected con‐\ndition.\n\nNotified comsat: \"$LOGNAME@offset:file\"\nSent comsat/biff a notice that mail arrived for user $LOGNAME at `off‐\nset' in `file'.\n\nOpening \"x\" Opening file \"x\" for appending.\n\nRcfile: \"x\" Rcfile changed to \"x\".\n\nReiterating kernel-lock\nWhile attempting several locking methods, one of these failed. Proc‐\nmail will reiterate until they all succeed in rapid succession.\n\nScore: added newtotal \"x\"\nThis condition scored `added' points, which resulted in a `newtotal'\nscore.\n\nUnlocking \"x\" Removing lockfile \"x\" again.\n", "subsections": [] }, "WARNINGS": { "content": "You should create a shell script that uses lockfile(1) before invoking your mail shell on any\nmailbox file other than the system mailbox (unless of course, your mail shell uses the same\nlockfiles (local or global) you specified in your rcfile).\n\nIn the unlikely event that you absolutely need to kill procmail before it has finished, first\ntry and use the regular kill command (i.e., not kill -9, see the subsection Signals for sug‐\ngestions), otherwise some lockfiles might not get removed.\n\nBeware when using the -t option, if procmail repeatedly is unable to deliver the mail (e.g.,\ndue to an incorrect rcfile), the system mailqueue could fill up. This could aggravate both\nthe local postmaster and other users.\n\nThe /etc/procmailrc file might be executed with root privileges, so be very careful of what\nyou put in it. SHELL will be equal to that of the current recipient, so if procmail has to\ninvoke the shell, you'd better set it to some safe value first. See also: DROPPRIVS.\n\nKeep in mind that if chown(1) is permitted on files in /etc/procmailrcs/, that they can be\nchowned to root (or anyone else) by their current owners. For maximum security, make sure\nthis directory is executable to root only.\n\nProcmail is not the proper tool for sharing one mailbox among many users, such as when you\nhave one POP account for all mail to your domain. It can be done if you manage to configure\nyour MTA to add some headers with the envelope recipient data in order to tell Procmail who a\nmessage is for, but this is usually not the right thing to do. Perhaps you want to investi‐\ngate if your MTA offers `virtual user tables', or check out the `multidrop' facility of\nFetchmail.\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "After removing a lockfile by force, procmail waits $SUSPEND seconds before creating a new\nlockfile so that another process that decides to remove the stale lockfile will not remove\nthe newly created lock by mistake.\n\nProcmail uses the regular TERMINATE signal to terminate any runaway filter, but it does not\ncheck if the filter responds to that signal and it only sends it to the filter itself, not to\nany of the filter's children.\n\nA continued Content-Length: field is not handled correctly.\n\nThe embedded newlines in a continued header should be skipped when matching instead of being\ntreated as a single space as they are now.\n", "subsections": [] }, "MISCELLANEOUS": { "content": "If there is an existing Content-Length: field in the header of the mail and the -Y option is\nnot specified, procmail will trim the field to report the correct size. Procmail does not\nchange the fieldwidth.\n\nIf there is no Content-Length: field or the -Y option has been specified and procmail appends\nto regular mailfolders, any lines in the body of the message that look like postmarks are\nprepended with `>' (disarms bogus mailheaders). The regular expression that is used to\nsearch for these postmarks is:\n`\\nFrom '\n\nIf the destination name used in explicit delivery mode is not in /etc/passwd, procmail will\nproceed as if explicit delivery mode was not in effect. If not in explicit delivery mode and\nshould the uid procmail is running under, have no corresponding /etc/passwd entry, then HOME\nwill default to /, LOGNAME will default to #uid, USERSHELL will default to /bin/sh, and\nORGMAIL will default to /tmp/dead.letter.\n\nWhen in explicit delivery mode, procmail will generate a leading `From ' line if none is\npresent. If one is already present procmail will leave it intact. If procmail is not in‐\nvoked with one of the following user or group ids: root, daemon, uucp, mail, x400, network,\nlist, slist, lists or news, but still has to generate or accept a new `From ' line, it will\ngenerate an additional `>From ' line to help distinguish fake mails.\n\nFor security reasons procmail will only use an absolute or $HOME-relative rcfile if it is\nowned by the recipient or root, not world writable, and the directory it is contained in is\nnot world writable. The $HOME/.procmailrc file has the additional constraint of not being\ngroup-writable or in a group-writable directory.\n\nIf /var/mail/$LOGNAME is a bogus mailbox (i.e., does not belong to the recipient, is un‐\nwritable, is a symbolic link or is a hard link), procmail will upon startup try to rename it\ninto a file starting with `BOGUS.$LOGNAME.' and ending in an inode-sequence-code. If this\nturns out to be impossible, ORGMAIL will have no initial value, and hence will inhibit deliv‐\nery without a proper rcfile.\n\nIf /var/mail/$LOGNAME already is a valid mailbox, but has got too loose permissions on it,\nprocmail will correct this. To prevent procmail from doing this make sure the u+x bit is\nset.\n\nWhen delivering to directories, MH folders, or maildir folders, you don't need to use lock‐\nfiles to prevent several concurrently running procmail programs from messing up.\n\nDelivering to MH folders is slightly more time consuming than delivering to normal directo‐\nries or mailboxes, because procmail has to search for the next available number (instead of\nhaving the filename immediately available).\n\nOn general failure procmail will return EXCANTCREAT, unless option -t is specified, in which\ncase it will return EXTEMPFAIL.\n\nTo make `egrepping' of headers more consistent, procmail concatenates all continued header\nfields; but only internally. When delivering the mail, line breaks will appear as before.\n\nIf procmail is called under a name not starting with `procmail' (e.g., if it is linked to an‐\nother name and invoked as such), it comes up in explicit delivery mode, and expects the re‐\ncipients' names as command line arguments (as if -d had been specified).\n\nComsat/biff notifications are done using udp. They are sent off once when procmail generates\nthe regular logfile entry. The notification messages have the following extended format (or\nas close as you can get when final delivery was not to a file):\n$LOGNAME@offsetofmessageinmailbox:absolutepathtomailbox\n\nWhenever procmail itself opens a file to deliver to, it consistently uses the following ker‐\nnel locking strategies: fcntl(2).\n\nProcmail is NFS-resistant and eight-bit clean.\n", "subsections": [] }, "NOTES": { "content": "Calling up procmail with the -h or -? options will cause it to display a command-line help\nand recipe flag quick-reference page.\n\nThere exists an excellent newbie FAQ about mailfilters (and procmail in particular); it is\nmaintained by Nancy McGough and can be obtained by sending a mail to mail-\nserver@rtfm.mit.edu with the following in the body:\nsend usenet/news.answers/mail/filtering-faq\n\nIf procmail is not installed globally as the default mail delivery agent (ask your system ad‐\nministrator), you have to make sure it is invoked when your mail arrives. In this case your\n$HOME/.forward (beware, it has to be world readable) file should contain the line below. Be\nsure to include the single and double quotes, and unless you know your site to be running\nsmrsh (the SendMail Restricted SHell), it must be an absolute path.\n\n\"|exec /usr/bin/procmail\"\n\nSome mailers (notably exim) do not currently accept the above syntax. In such case use this\ninstead:\n\n|/usr/bin/procmail\n\nProcmail can also be invoked to postprocess an already filled system mailbox. This can be\nuseful if you don't want to or can't use a $HOME/.forward file (in which case the following\nscript could periodically be called from within cron(1), or whenever you start reading mail):\n\n#!/bin/sh\n\nORGMAIL=/var/mail/$LOGNAME\n\nif cd $HOME &&\ntest -s $ORGMAIL &&\nlockfile -r0 -l1024 .newmail.lock 2>/dev/null\nthen\ntrap \"rm -f .newmail.lock\" 1 2 3 13 15\numask 077\nlockfile -l1024 -ml\ncat $ORGMAIL >>.newmail &&\ncat /dev/null >$ORGMAIL\nlockfile -mu\nformail -s procmail <.newmail &&\nrm -f .newmail\nrm -f .newmail.lock\nfi\nexit 0\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "A sample small $HOME/.procmailrc:", "content": "PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin\nMAILDIR=$HOME/Mail #you'd better make sure it exists\nDEFAULT=$MAILDIR/mbox #completely optional\nLOGFILE=$MAILDIR/from #recommended\n\n:0:\n* ^From.*berg\nfromme\n\n:0\n* ^Subject:.*Flame\n/dev/null\n\nOther examples for rcfile recipes can be looked up in the procmailex(5) man page.\n" } ] }, "SOURCE": { "content": "This program is part of the procmail mail-processing-package (v3.24) available at\nhttp://www.procmail.org/ or ftp.procmail.org in pub/procmail/.\n", "subsections": [] }, "MAILINGLIST": { "content": "There exists a mailinglist for questions relating to any program in the procmail package:\n\nfor submitting questions/answers.\n\nfor subscription requests.\n\nIf you would like to stay informed about new versions and official patches send a subscrip‐\ntion request to\nprocmail-announce-request@procmail.org\n(this is a readonly list).\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHORS": { "content": "Stephen R. van den Berg\n\n\nBuGless PROCMAIL(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "procmail - autonomous mail processor", "flags": [ { "flag": "-v", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-p", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "except for the value of TZ. However, in any case: any default values will override any preexisting environment variables, i.e., procmail will not pay any attention to any pre‐ defined environment variables, it will happily overwrite them with its own defaults. For the list of environment variables that procmail will preset see the procmailrc(5) man page. If both -p and -m are specified, the list of preset environment variables shrinks to just: LOGNAME, HOME, SHELL, USERSHELL, ORGMAIL and MAILDIR." }, { "flag": "-t", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "tinations you gave, the mail will not bounce, but will return to the mailqueue. Another delivery-attempt will be made at some time in the future." }, { "flag": "-f", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Causes procmail to regenerate the leading `From ' line with fromwhom as the sender (in‐ stead of -f one could use the alternate and obsolete -r). If fromwhom consists merely of a single `-', then procmail will only update the timestamp on the `From ' line (if present, if not, it will generate a new one)." }, { "flag": "-o", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-Y", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-a", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "This will set $1 to be equal to argument. Each succeeding -a argument will set the next number variable ($2, $3, etc). It can be used to pass meta information along to proc‐ mail. This is typically done by passing along the $@x information from the sendmail mailer rule." }, { "flag": "-d", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "This turns on explicit delivery mode, delivery will be to the local user recipient. This, of course, only is possible if procmail has root privileges (or if procmail is al‐ ready running with the recipient's euid and egid). Procmail will setuid to the intended recipients and delivers the mail as if it were invoked by the recipient with no argu‐ ments (i.e., if no rcfile is found, delivery is like ordinary mail). This option is in‐ compatible with -p." }, { "flag": "-m", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "specified on the command line. After the rcfile, procmail will accept an unlimited num‐ ber of arguments. If the rcfile is an absolute path starting with /etc/procmailrcs/ without backward references (i.e. the parent directory cannot be mentioned) procmail will, only if no security violations are found, take on the identity of the owner of the rcfile (or symbolic link). For some advanced usage of this option you should look in the EXAMPLES section below." } ], "examples": [ "Examples for rcfile recipes can be looked up in the procmailex(5) man page. A small sample", "rcfile can be found in the NOTES section below.", "Skip the rest of this EXAMPLES section unless you are a system administrator who is vaguely", "familiar with sendmail.cf syntax.", "The -m option is typically used when procmail is called from within a rule in the sendmail.cf", "file. In order to be able to do this it is convenient to create an extra `procmail' mailer", "in your sendmail.cf file (in addition to the perhaps already present `local' mailer that", "starts up procmail). To create such a `procmail' mailer I'd suggest something like:", "Mprocmail, P=/usr/bin/procmail, F=mSDFMhun, S=11, R=21,", "A=procmail -m $h $g $u", "This enables you to use rules like the following (most likely in ruleset 0) to filter mail", "through the procmail mailer (please note the leading tab to continue the rule, and the tab to", "separate the comments):", "R$*<@some.where>$*", "$#procmail $@/etc/procmailrcs/some.rc $:$1@some.where.procmail$2", "R$*<@$*.procmail>$*", "$1<@$2>$3 Already filtered, map back", "And /etc/procmailrcs/some.rc could be as simple as:", "SENDER = \"<$1>\" # fix for empty sender addresses", "SHIFT = 1 # remove it from $@", ":0 # sink all junk mail", "* ^Subject:.*junk", "/dev/null", ":0 w # pass along all other mail", "! -oi -f \"$SENDER\" \"$@\"", "Do watch out when sending mail from within the /etc/procmailrcs/some.rc file, if you send", "mail to addresses which match the first rule again, you could be creating an endless mail", "loop." ], "see_also": [ { "name": "procmailrc", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/procmailrc/5/json" }, { "name": "procmailsc", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/procmailsc/5/json" }, { "name": "procmailex", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/procmailex/5/json" }, { "name": "sh", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sh/1/json" }, { "name": "csh", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/csh/1/json" }, { "name": "mail", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mail/1/json" }, { "name": "mailx", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mailx/1/json" }, { "name": "uucp", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/uucp/1/json" }, { "name": "aliases", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/aliases/5/json" }, { "name": "sendmail", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sendmail/8/json" }, { "name": "egrep", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/egrep/1/json" }, { "name": "grep", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grep/1/json" }, { "name": "biff", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/biff/1/json" }, { "name": "comsat", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/comsat/8/json" }, { "name": "lockfile", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lockfile/1/json" }, { "name": "formail", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/formail/1/json" }, { "name": "cron", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cron/1/json" } ] }