---
name: "spamd.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/spamd.conf"
---

# spamd.conf(5)

spamd-setup configuration file

## NAME

**spamd.conf** – spamd-setup configuration file

## DESCRIPTION

The **spamd.conf** file is read by [spamd-setup(8)](/spamd-setup/8.md) to configure *blacklists* for [spamd(8)](/spamd/8.md). Blacklists are lists of addresses of likely spammers. Mail from these addresses never reaches the actual mail server, but is instead redirected to [spamd(8)](/spamd/8.md) and tarpitted.

**spamd.conf** follows the syntax of configuration databases as documented in [cgetent(3)](/cgetent/3.md). Here is an example:

```
all:\
	:somelist:override:myblack:
somelist:\
	:black:\
	:msg="Your address %A is in an anti-spam list\n\
	See http://www.example.org/dnsbl/ for details":\
	:method=https:\
	:file=www.example.org/spamd/somelist.gz
override:\
	:white:\
	:method=file:\
	:file=/etc/mail/override.txt:
myblack:\
	:black:\
	:msg=/etc/mail/myblackmsg.txt:\
	:method=file:\
	:file=/etc/mail/myblack.txt:
```

The default configuration file must include the entry *all*, which specifies the order in which lists are to be applied. Lists are constructed by name: blacklists are identified by the capability :*black*:. If a list is instead given the :*white*: capability, addresses in it will not be blacklisted. The addresses in such a list are removed from the preceding blacklist.

In the above example, if an address was present in all three lists, blacklists *somelist* and *myblack*, as well as the exceptions list *override*, the address would be removed from list *somelist* by the subsequent *override* list. However, the address would not be removed from the *myblack* list. To remove all the addresses in *override* from *myblack*, the following configuration would be used instead:

```
all:\
	:somelist:override:myblack:override:
```

The source of the addresses for lists is specified using the *method* and *file* capability entries.

*method* specifies the method by which to retrieve a file containing a list of addresses and may be one of *http*, *https*, *ftp*, *file*, or *exec*. The *http*, *https*, *ftp*, and *file* methods will make **spamd.conf** retrieve the file from the location specified by the *file* capability. The *exec* method will make **spamd.conf** spawn the program with arguments indicated in the *file* capability for the list, and reads a list of addresses from the output of the program.

The format of the list of addresses is expected to consist of one network block or address per line (optionally followed by a space and text that is ignored). Comment lines beginning with *#* are ignored. Network blocks may be specified in any of the formats as in the following example:

```
# CIDR format
192.168.20.0/24
# A start - end range
192.168.21.0 - 192.168.21.255
# As a single IP address
192.168.23.1
```

Each blacklist must include a message, specified in the *msg* capability as a string. If the *msg* string is enclosed in double quotes, the characters in the quoted string are escaped as specified in [cgetent(3)](/cgetent/3.md) with the exception that a colon (:) is allowed in the quoted string. The resulting string is used as the message. Alternatively, if the *msg* string is not specified in quotes, it is assumed to be a local filename from which the message text may be read.

The message is configured in [spamd(8)](/spamd/8.md) to be displayed in the SMTP dialogue to any connections that match addresses in the blacklist. The sequence \\" in the message will produce a double quote in the output. The sequence %% will produce a single % in the output, and the sequence %A will be expanded in the message by [spamd(8)](/spamd/8.md) to display the connecting IP address in the output.

## FILES

- */etc/mail/spamd.conf*

  Configuration file for [spamd-setup(8)](/spamd-setup/8.md).

## SEE ALSO

[spamd(8)](/spamd/8.md), [spamd-setup(8)](/spamd-setup/8.md)