BSFILTER(1)

💖 BSFILTER 💖

okay bestie, welcome to bsfilter(1) — the General Commands Manual page that's about to be your inbox's main character. it's a bayesian spam filter and honestly? it's giving bodyguard energy 🫶

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

bsfilter — bayesian spam filter. that's it, that's the name, slay.

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bsfilter [options]  [commands]  < MAIL

bsfilter [options]  [commands]  MAIL ...

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bsfilter filters out spam mails. periodt. 🔥

if commands are specified, bsfilter is in maintenance mode. otherwise it's in filtering mode. two whole modes, very versatile, we love range 💅

if bsfilter does not find spam in filtering mode, the exit status is 1. yes, literally, not finding spam is a "1". no cap.

if bsfilter runs with the --pipe option or finds spam, the exit status is 0. 👑

---

🎀 COMMANDS 🎀

• --add-clean, -c — add mails into the clean token database. 💖
• --add-spam, -s — add mails into the spam token database. 💀
• --sub-clean, -C — subtract mails from the clean token database.
• --sub-spam, -S — subtract mails from the spam token database.
• --update, -u — update the probability table from the clean and spam token databases.
• --export-clean — export the clean token database.
• --export-spam — export the spam token database.
• --import-clean — import the clean token database.
• --import-spam — import the spam token database.
• --export-probability — export the probability database (for debugging purpose, bestie).

---

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• --homedir directory — specify the name of the bsfilter's home directory.
  • if this option is not used, a directory specified with the environment variable BSFILTERHOME is used.
  • if the variable BSFILTERHOME is not defined, the .bsfilter directory under your home is used.
  • if the variable HOME is not defined, a directory which bsfilter is located at is used.
• --config-file file — specify the name of the bsfilter's configuration file. bsfilter.conf in bsfilter's home directory is used by default.
• --max-line number — check and/or study the first number of lines. default is 500. 0 means all. 🌟
• --db sdbm|gdbm|bdb1|bdb|qdbm — specify the name of database type. sdbm by default.
• --jtokenizer bigram|block|mecab|chasen|kakasi
• -j bigram|block|mecab|chasen|kakasi — specify algorithm of a tokenizer for Japanese language. bigram by default.
• --list-clean — print filename of clean mail.
• --list-spam — print filename of spam.
• --imap — access IMAP server.
• --imap-server hostname — specify hostname of IMAP server.
• --imap-port number — specify port number of IMAP server. default is 143.
• --imap-auth method — specify authorization method. default is "auto". "cram-md5" use AUTHENTICATE CRAM-MD5 command. "login" use AUTHENTICATE LOGIN command. "loginc" use LOGIN command. "auto" try "cram-md5", "login" and "loginc" in this order.
• --imap-user name — specify user name of IMAP server.
• --imap-password password — specify password of imap-user.
• --imap-folder-clean folder — specify destination folder for clean mails. "inbox.clean" for example.
• --imap-folder-spam folder — specify destination folder for spams. "inbox.spam" for example.
• --imap-fetch-unseen — filter or study mails without SEEN flag.
• --imap-fetch-unflagged — filter or study mails without "X-Spam-Flag" header.
• --imap-reset-seen-flag — reset SEEN flag when bsfilter moves or modifies mails.
• --pop — work as POP proxy.
• --pid-file file — specify filename for logging process ID of bsfilter. bsfilter.pid in bsfilter's home directory is used by default. this function is valid when "--pop" is specified.
• --tasktray — sit in tasktray. this is valid with "--pop" on VisualuRuby. 🙈
• --pop-server hostname — specify hostname of POP server.
• --pop-port number — specify port number of POP server. default is 110.
• --pop-proxy-if address — specify address of interface which bsfilter listens at. default is 0.0.0.0 and all interfaces are active.
• --pop-proxy-port number — specify port number which bsfilter listens at. default is 10110.
• --pop-user name — optional. specify username of POP server.

bsfilter checks match between value of this options and a name which MUA sends.

in case of mismatch, bsfilter closes sockets. not me getting ghosted by my own proxy 😭

• --pop-proxy-set set[,set...] — specify rules of pop proxy.

alternative way of pop-server, pop-port, pop-proxy-port and pop-user option.

format of "set" is "pop-server:pop-port:[proxy-interface]:proxy-port[:pop-user]".

if proxy-interface is specified and isn't 0.0.0.0 , other interfaces are not used.

"--pop-proxy-set 192.168.1.1:110::10110" is equivalent with "--pop-server 192.168.1.1 --pop-port 110 --pop-proxy-port 10110".

• --pop-max-size number — when mail is longer than the specified number, the mail is not filtered. when 0 is specified, all mails are tested and filtered. unit is byte. default is 50000.
• --ssl — use POP over SSL with --pop option and use IMAP over SSL with --imap option. 🔒
• --ssl-cert filename|dirname — specify a filename of a certificate of a trusted CA or a name of a directory of certificates.
• --method g|r|rf
• -m g|r|rf — specify filtering method. "rf" by default. "g" means Paul Graham method, "r" means Gary Robinson method, and "rf" means Robinson-Fisher method.
• --spam-cutoff number — specify spam-cutoff value. 0.9 by default for Paul Graham method. 0.582 by default for Gary Robinson method. 0.95 by default for Robinson-Fisher method.
• --auto-update
• -a — recognize mails, add them into clean or spam token database and update the probability table.
• --disable-degeneration
• -D — disable degeneration during probability table lookup.
• --disable-utf-8 — disable utf-8 support.
• --refer-header header[,header...] — refer specified headers of mails.

bsfilter refers Ufrom, From, To, Cc, Subject, Reply-to, Return-path, Received, Content-Transfer-Encoding, Content-Type, charset, and Content-Disposition by default.

• --refer-all-header — refer all headers of mails.
• --ignore-header
• -H — ignore headers of mails. (it is same as --refer-header "".)
• --ignore-body
• -B — ignore body of mails, except URL or mail address.
• --ignore-plain-text-part — ignore plain text part if html part is included in the mail.
• --ignore-after-last-atag — ignore text after last "A" tag.
• --mark-in-token characters — specify characters which are allowable in a token. "*'!" by default.
• --show-process — show summary of execution.
• --show-new-token — show tokens which are newly added into the token database.
• --mbox — use "unix from" to divide mbox format file.
• --max-mail number — reduce token database when the number of stored mails is larger than this one. 10000 by default.
• --min-mail number — reduce token database as if this number of mails are stored. 8000 by default.
• --pipe — write a mail to stdout. this options is invalid when "--imap" or "--pop" is specified.
• --insert-revision — insert "X-Spam-Revision: bsfilter release..." into a mail.
• --insert-flag — insert "X-Spam-Flag: Yes" or "X-Spam-Flag: No" into a mail.
• --insert-probability — insert "X-Spam-Probability: number" into a mail.
• --header-prefix string — insert "X-specified_string-..." headers, instead of "Spam". (it is valid with --insert-flag and/or --insert-probability option.)
• --mark-spam-subject — insert "[SPAM] " at the beginning of Subject header.
• --mark-subject-prefix string — insert specified string, instead of "[SPAM] ". (it is valid with --mark-spam-subject option.)
• --show-db-status — show numbers of tokens and mails in databases and quit.
• --help
• -h — show help message.
• --quiet
• -q — quiet mode. 🤫
• --verbose
• -v — verbose mode. 🗣️
• --debug
• -d — debug mode. 🐛

---

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

% bsfilter -s ~/Mail/spam/*             ## add spam
% bsfilter -u -c ~/Mail/job/* ~/Mail/private/*    ## add clean mails and update probability table
% bsfilter ~/Mail/inbox/1               ## show spam probability

## recipe of procmail
:0 HB
* ? bsfilter -a
spam/.

## recipe of procmail
:0 fw
| bsfilter -a --pipe --insert-flag --insert-probability

---

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

https://nbkenichi.github.io/bsfilter/index-e.html

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The original manual is in the bsfilter command it self which is written by NABEYA Kenichi (upstream author). This manual page was transrated from the manual by akira yamada <akira@debian.org> for the Debian system (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

---

and that's the whole page bestie 💅✨ you just read the bsfilter(1) page from the General Commands Manual — that's the manual name right there, cute little header energy, folded in like a hair clip 🎀 go forth and let your spam folder know who's boss, mwah 💖🦋🌸