How do I filter out spam that turns up on mailing lists?

[David Relson]

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:22:45 +0100
Nigel Henry wrote:

...[snip]...

> Hi David. Meanwhile back at the ranch, I'm not really on my way to
> creating this ignore.db. Not being one to give up (although a few
> days have passed), here's how things stand at present.
> 
> I already had an /etc/bogofilter.cf.example file, but also created 
> an /etc/bogofilter.cf file. I have added the following 2 lines to
> this newly created file.
> 
> wordlist i,ignore,ignore.db,1
> wordlist r,word,wordlist.db,2

good

> Question 1:
> Do entries in /etc/bogofilter.cf override default settings 
> in /etc/bogofilter.cf.example?

bogofilter.cf.example is only an example.  It is not used by
bogofilter.


> Next I created a file named ignore_list.txt, and put the full headers
> from one of my Debian list emails within.
> 
> Now I ran the following command.
> [djmons at localhost djmons]$ bogoutil -l ~/.bogofilter/ignore.db < 
> ignore_list.txt
> bogoutil: Unexpected input [ Received:] on line 2. Expecting
> whitespace before count.
> read or write error, aborting.
> [djmons at localhost djmons]$

bogoutil expects lines containing 1 token, 2 counts, and a timestamp.
It isn't smart enough to parse real headers.  

You could use the following to parse and import in a single command:

   bogolexer < message.headers | bogoutil -l ignore.db

> Even though there are complaints above, a new file named ignore.db
> was created in ~/.bogofilter, with a size of 8.0KB.

8.0KB is the minimal size for a BerkeleyDB database.

> Not sure what this means, but running the following gives this output.
> 
> [djmons at localhost djmons]$ bogoutil -d .bogofilter/ignore.db
> Return-Path: 0 0 20080125

Looks like you have 1 token, i.e. "Return-Path:", in your ignore list.

...[snip]...
 
> Sorry David, if I've gone over the edge, but am totally pissed off
> with spam, and obviously nobody can resolve the problem, without
> shutting down the Internet.
> 
> A reply, or no reply, personally I couldn't care less. The Internet
> has become a bit of a joke. 

Truly, email is hurting badly.  However I suggest the internet is still
quite useful.  Google and wikipedia are 2 sites that come to mind.  Add
in newspapers, radio stations, online shopping, company websites, etc,
etc and there's quite a bit that's useful.

Regards,

David