What is "procmail"?
Procmail is a mail filtering tool for Unix systems that uses a well-formed rules file to determine what messages, if any, should be sent to what mailboxes. If you would like server-side mail filtering and are not already comfortable with using procmail, please feel free to contact CSEHelp for assistance in setting up procmail filtering for spam.

To filter with procmail, you'll need to log on to your mail server with SSH and edit the file ".procmailrc" in your home directory. Exactly what you use for the rule will depend on how you file your email messages, but it would look something like this:

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Status: Yes.*
	mail/Spam-Barracuda
    

Looking at this in detail, the first line tells procmail that this is a new rule. The second line tells procmail to look for a line that starts with "X-Barracuda-Spam-Status: Yes" and might or might not have any text after that. If a mail message has that line in it, then the third line tells procmail what to do with it. In this case, we're filing it in a mailbox called "Spam-Barracuda".

The location of the mailbox file is important, and for historical reasons, it varies between users. Your mail folders will typically be in one of the following locations in your home directory (${HOME}):

• ${HOME}/mail
• ${HOME}/Imail
• ${HOME}/Mail

Any message which scores a 5.0 or higher in the Barracuda's spam scoring system will be tagged as spam and receive a "Yes" in the "X-Barracuda-Spam-Status" header, and the above rule will file all such messages away from your Inbox for you. Be sure to check this folder for legitimate messages, as occasionally the Barracuda can mark a non-spam message as spam due to some characteristic of the message.

If you find that not enough spam messages are being caught by the Barracuda's spam scoring, and would like to use a slightly more aggressive filter, you can add another rule to your .procmailrc file to filter messages with Barracuda scores lower than 5. For example, you might decide that you don't really want to see anything that scores a 4.0 or higher, and add something that might look like this after the above rule:

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Score: [4-9].*
	mail/Spam-Maybe
    

This will take any message that didn't get caught by the first rule above, and, if it has a spam score of 4 or higher, file it in a mailbox called "Spam-Maybe". The same caveats for the first rule apply here as well, and you will likely need to adjust the mailbox path to suite your personal configuration.

Be careful about lowering the spam score, however, as being too agressive with the spam score can lead to legitimate email messages being filed away in your spam mailbox. It is your own responsibility to check your spam folders for messages which should not have been filed as spam.

Procmail Examples
Here are some example procmail recipies you can use. Be sure to replace "YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE" with the path to your mail folder directory.

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Status: Yes.*
	YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE/Spam
    

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Status: Yes.*
	YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE/Spam-Barracuda

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Score: [4-9].*
	YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE/Spam-Maybe
    

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Score: ([4-9]|[1-9][0-9]).*
	YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE/Spam
    

	:0
	* ^X-Barracuda-Spam-Score: (3\.[5-9]|[4-9]|[1-9][0-9]).*
	YOUR_MAIL_DIRECTORY_HERE/Spam