Email filtering wisdom needed!

[erick_paper]

Hi, two question:

1. How do I bounce email from a specific sender? Not "fail" (which bounces email from an entire email address) and not "discard" (which doesn't bounce at all)...I remember long ago there used to be a command "::bounce::". It doesn't work anymore? Do I need to muck around with the EXIM filter file for this?

2. Secondly, if I set up a filter to send all incoming email to a PHP program, how does that work? How does PHP get the values from email, with "$_GET" variables?

Many thanks!!

 

[Stefaans]

1. How do I bounce email from a specific sender? Not "fail" (which bounces email from an entire email address) and not "discard" (which doesn't bounce at all)...I remember long ago there used to be a command "::bounce::". It doesn't work anymore? Do I need to muck around with the EXIM filter file for this?

I stand to be corrected, but do not think the Exim Filter specification mentions a command to bounce emails. You could possibly achieve the effect with an autoresponse as follows:

Edit your filter file at /etc/valiase/yourdomain.com

if $sender_address matches [email protected] then
mail to $sender_address
subject "Undeliverable email"
expand file /home/username/bounce.msg
file $home/vacation/messageendif

In the above /home/username/bounce.msg is a file that contains the body of the bounce message. Be aware of the fact that the filter file will be overwritten when you use the cPanel Mail Filters command. I have not tested the above, so please use with caution

2. Secondly, if I set up a filter to send all incoming email to a PHP program, how does that work? How does PHP get the values from email, with "$_GET" variables?

No, $_GET will not work. You have to decode the message and look at the MIME parts. Using the PEAR MAIL package (http://pear.php.net/packages.php?catpid=14&catname=Mail) is an easy way of doing this

 

[erick_paper]

Thanks Stefaans.

About bouncing. That file doesn't exist. Is the path correct "/etc/valiase/mydomain.com"? Or should I create a new one to put that code in it?

Thanks also for info about grabbing text from incoming mail. Is there any specific part of that MAIL pear package that I need to look at? I find the PEAR library in general quite a bloated one (which serves the purpose it is meant for, I guess) so I wouldn't want to install the whole thing.

Thanks!

 

[Stefaans]

That file doesn't exist. Is the path correct "/etc/valiase/mydomain.com"? Or should I create a new one to put that code in it?

Typo alart! The file resides in /etc/valiases/ (I missed an "s"). If you do not have such a file, simply add a filter in cPanel. You will then have the file in /etc/valiases that you can overwrite as neeeded.

Is there any specific part of that MAIL pear package that I need to look at? I find the PEAR library in general quite a bloated one (which serves the purpose it is meant for, I guess) so I wouldn't want to install the whole thing.

Maybe it's bloated, maybe it's just very comprehensive. It's a matter of opinion The PEAR packages are generally small smiles; it will not really hurt of you install a few packages that you do not really need.

Mail_mimeDecode is the package you want to use. Below is an example; it is an abstract from an actual script we use. I do not suggest that it is the best way of doing things or that the script is complete. Please test and use at your own risk

// Mail_mimeDecode example by Stephen @ ANNO
// Read the piped message
$pipe = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
while (!feof($pipe)) {
    $buffer = fgets($pipe, 4096);
    $input.= $buffer;
}
fclose($pipe);

// DeMIME with Pear packages
$params['include_bodies'] = true;
$params['decode_bodies'] = true;
$params['decode_headers'] = true;
$params['input'] = $input;
$structure = Mail_mimeDecode::decode($params);

// Message headers
$mail_from = strip_address($structure->headers['from']);
$mail_return = strip_address($structure->headers['return-path']);
$mail_to = strip_address($structure->headers['to']);
$mail_date = $structure->headers['date'];
$mail_delivered = $structure->headers['delivery-date'];
$mail_subject = $structure->headers['subject'];

// Check message format
if ( ($structure->ctype_primary=='text') and ($structure->ctype_secondary=='plain') )
    $mail_body = $structure->body;
elseif (isset($structure->parts)) { // HTML email; get plain text part
    foreach ($structure->parts as $part) {
        if ( (isset($part->body)) and ($part->ctype_primary=="text") and ($part->ctype_secondary=="plain") )
        $mail_body = $part->body;
    }  // end foreach
}  // end elseif

To pipe the email into this script, set up forwarder for the relevant email address to

|/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/pipescript.php >/dev/null 2>&1

 

[erick_paper]

Typo alart! The file resides in /etc/valiases/ (I missed an "s"). If you do not have such a file, simply add a filter in cPanel. You will then have the file in /etc/valiases that you can overwrite as neeeded.

Thanks so much for this. But it isn't working. The code I have is this:

if $sender_address matches [email protected] then
mail to $sender_address
subject "Undeliverable email"
expand file /home/MYDOMAIN/bounce.msg
file [COLOR="Red"]$home/vacation/message[/COLOR]
endif

[email protected]: [email protected]
[email protected]: [email protected]
....long list of these....

I've masked the names and such for this public forum, but is this the basic way to enter the information into that valiases file? Or should I place the code elsewhere?

Thanks so much also for the mimedecode class, will look for it and pester you with questions when I do

 

[Stefaans]

I have dabbled with the Exim filters, but do not think I am an expert. Be cautious taking my advice

It seems like I am guilty of yet another typo! The line "file $home/vacation/message" should not be there. Try:

if $sender_address matches [email][email protected][/email] then
  mail to $sender_address
  subject "Undeliverable email"
  expand file /home/MYDOMAIN/bounce.msg
endif

I notice now (did not see it before) that the Exim Filter Spec mentions a fail command. The following may possible be a much simpler solution:

if $sender_address matches [email][email protected][/email] then
  fail "Undeliverable emai"
endif

Something I should have mentioned before, is that errors in your filter file could mess up delivery of all email to your domain. So, perhaps a good idea to clear/delete /etc/vfilters/MYDOMAIN, and edit and test an "offline" filter file first.

You can test your filter as follows:

exim -bf filterfile <email_message

where filterfile is the Exim filter file you are editing, and email_message is a test email message stored somewhere on your server, e.g. /home/username/mail/MYDOMAIN/test/new/1233blah_blah

And then, once you are happy with the results, copy the filter file to /etc/vfilters/MYDOMAIN.