---
name: "Mail::Audit"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libmail-audit-perl"
version: "2.1-5sarge4"
release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Mail::Audit"
---

# Mail::Audit(3pm)

Library for creating easy mail filters

## NAME

Mail::Audit - Library for creating easy mail filters

## SYNOPSIS

```
 use Mail::Audit; # use Mail::Audit qw(...plugins...);
 my $mail = Mail::Audit->new(emergency=>"~/emergency_mbox");
 $mail->pipe("listgate p5p")            if $mail->from =~ /perl5-porters/;
 $mail->accept("perl")                  if $mail->from =~ /perl/;
 $mail->reject("We do not accept spam") if $mail->rblcheck();
 $mail->ignore                          if $mail->subject =~ /boring/i;
 ...
 $mail->noexit(1); $mail->accept("~/Mail/Archive/%Y%m%d"); $mail->noexit(0);
 $mail->accept()
```

## DESCRIPTION

*procmail* is nasty. It has a tortuous and complicated recipe format, and I don't like it. I wanted something flexible whereby I could filter my mail using Perl tests.

`"Mail::Audit"` was inspired by Tom Christiansen's *audit\_mail* and *deliverlib* programs. It allows a piece of email to be logged, examined, accepted into a mailbox, filtered, resent elsewhere, rejected, replied to, and so on. It's designed to allow you to easily create filter programs to stick in a *.forward* file or similar.

`"Mail::Audit"` groks MIME; when appropriate, it subclasses `"MIME::Entity"`. Read the MIME::Tools man page for details.

## CONSTRUCTOR

- "new(%options)"

  The constructor reads a mail message from `"STDIN"` (or, if the `"data"` option is set, from an array reference) and creates a `"Mail::Audit"` object from it.

  Other options include the `"accept"`, `"reject"` or `"pipe"` keys, which specify subroutine references to override the methods with those names.

  You are encouraged to specify an `"emergency"` argument and check for the appearance of messages in that mailbox on a regular basis.  If for any reason an `"accept()"` is unsuccessful, the message will be saved to the `"emergency"` mailbox instead.  If no `"emergency"` mailbox is defined, messages will be deferred back to the MTA, where they will show up in your mailq.

  You may also specify `"log => $logfile"` to write a debugging log; you can set the verbosity of the log with the `"loglevel"` key, on a scale of 1 to 4. If you specify a log level without a log file, logging will be written to *.mail\_audit.log* in your home directory if the HOME environment variable is set, or to */tmp/mail\_audit.log-XXXXX* (where *XXXXX* contains random characters) if not.

  Usually, the delivery methods `"accept"`, `"pipe"`, and `"resend"` are final; Mail::Audit will terminate when they are done.  If you specify `"noexit => 1"`, `"Mail::Audit"` will not exit after completing the above actions, but continue running your script.

  The `"reject"` delivery method is always final; `"noexit"` has no effect.

  Percent (%) signs seen in arguments to `"accept"` and `"pipe"` do not undergo `"strftime"` interpolation by default.  If you want this, use the `"interpolate_strftime"` option.  You can override the "global" interpolate\_strftime option by passing an overriding option to `"accept"` and `"pipe"`.

  By default, MIME messages are automatically recognized and parsed.  This is potentially expensive; if you don't want MIME parsing, use the `"nomime"` option.

## DELIVERY METHODS

- "accept($where, ...)"

  You can choose to accept the mail into a mailbox by calling the `"accept"` method; with no argument, this accepts to */var/spool/mail/you*. The mailbox is opened append-write, then locked *LOCK\_EX*, the mail written and then the mailbox unlocked and closed.  If Mail::Audit sees that you have a maildir style system, where */var/spool/mail/you* is a directory, it'll deliver in maildir style.  If the path you specify does not exist, Mail::Audit will assume mbox, unless it ends in /, which means maildir.

  If multiple maildirs are given, Mail::Audit will use hardlinks to deliver to them, so that multiple hardlinks point to the same underlying file.  (If the maildirs turn out to be on multiple filesystems, you get multiple files.)

  If you want "%" signs to be expanded according to [*strftime*(3)](/strftime/3.md), you can pass `"accept"` the option `"interpolate_strftime"`:

  ```
   accept( {interpolate_strftime=>1}, file1, file2, ... );
  ```

  "interpolate\_strftime" is not enabled by default for two reasons: backward compatibility (though nobody I know has a % in any mail folder name) and username interpolation: many people like to save messages by their correspondent's username, and that username may contain a % sign.  If you are one of these people, you should

  ```
   $username =~ s/%/%%/g;
  ```

  If your arguments contain "/", `"accept"` will create arbitarily deep subdirectories accordingly.  Untaint your input by saying

  ```
   $username =~ s,/,-,g;
  ```

  By default, `"accept"` is final; Mail::Audit will terminate after successfully accepting the message.  If you want to keep going, set `"noexit"`.

  If for any reason `"accept"` is unable to write the message (eg. you're over quota), Mail::Audit will attempt delivery to the `"emergency"` mailbox.  If `"accept"` was called with multiple destinations, the `"emergency"` action will only be taken if the message couldn't be delivered to any of the desired destinations.  By default the `"emergency"` mailbox is set to the system mailbox.  If we were unable to save to the emergency mailbox, the message will be deferred back into the MTA's queue.  This happens whether or not `"noexit"` is set, so if you observe that some of your `"accept"`s somehow aren't getting run, check your mailq.

  If this isn't how you want local delivery to happen, you'll need to override this method.

- "reject($reason)"

  This rejects the email; it will be bounced back to the sender as undeliverable. If a reason is given, this will be included in the bounce.

  This is a final delivery method.  The `"noexit"` option has no effect here.

- "resend($address)"

  Bounces the email in its entirety to another address.

  This is a final delivery method.  Set `"noexit"` if you want to keep going.

  At this time this method is not overrideable by an argument to `"new"`.

- "pipe($program)"

  This opens a pipe to an external program and feeds the mail to it.

  This is a final delivery method.  Set `"noexit"` if you want to keep going.

- "ignore"

  This merely ignores the email, dropping it into the bit bucket for eternity.

  This is a final delivery method.  Set `"noexit"` if you want to keep going.

- " reply (body =\> "...", %options) "

  Sends an autoreply to the sender of the message.  Return value: the recipient address of the reply.

  Recognized content-related options are: from, subject, cc, bcc, body.  The "To" field defaults to the incoming message's "Reply-To" and "From" fields.  `"body"` should be a single multiline string.

  Set the option `"EVEN_IF_FROM_DAEMON"` to send a reply even if the original message was from some sort of automated agent. What that set, only X-Loop will stop loops.

  If you use this method, use KillDups to keep track of who you've autoreplied to, so you don't autoreply more than once.

  ```
   use Mail::Audit qw(KillDups);
   $mail->reply(body=>"I am on vacation") if not $self->killdups($mail->from);
  ```

  `"reply"` is not considered a final delivery method, so execution will continue after completion.

## HEADER MANAGEMENT METHODS

- "get($header)"

  Retrieves the named header from the mail message.

- "put\_header($header, $value)"

  Inserts a new header into the mail message with the given value.

- "replace\_header($header, $value)"

  Removes the old header, adds a new one.

- "delete\_header($header)"

  Guess.

## MISCELLANEOUS METHODS

- "tidy"

  Tidies up the email as per Mail::Internet.  If the message is a MIME message, nothing happens.

- "noexit( 0 or 1 )"

  Toggle noexit.

## ATTRIBUTE METHODS

The following attributes correspond to fields in the mail:

- •

  from

- •

  to

- •

  subject

- •

  cc

- •

  bcc

- "body"

  Returns a reference to an array of lines in the body of the email.

- "header"

  Returns the header as a single string.

- "is\_mime"

  am I a MIME message?  If so, MIME::Entity methods apply.  Otherwise, Mail::Internet methods apply.

## LICENSE

The usual. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

## BUGS

http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Mail-Audit

## CAVEATS

If your mailbox file in /var/spool/mail/ doesn't already exist, you may need to use your standard system MDA to create it.  After it's been created, Mail::Audit should be able to append to it.  Mail::Audit may not be able to create /var/spool/mail because programs run from .forward don't inherit the special permissions needed to create files in that directory.

## AUTHORS

Simon Cozens \<simon@cpan.org\> wrote versions 1 and 2.

Meng Weng Wong \<mengwong@pobox.com\> turned a petite demure v2.0 into a raging bloated v2.1, adding MIME support, emergency recovery, filename interpolation, and autoreply features.

## SEE ALSO

Mail::Internet, Mail::SMTP, Mail::Audit::List, Mail::Audit::PGP, Mail::Audit::MAPS, Mail::Audit::KillDups, Mail::Audit::Razor...