Mail::...in::AWL(3pm)

📦
version 4.0.2+svn1935691 · 17 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::AWL — the plugin that Normalize scores via auto-welcomelist 🦋

(and yes bestie, the manual page header shortens her name to Mail::...in::AWL(3pm) — that's just her nickname, the government name is the full one above 💅)

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay so if you wanna try this out: add this line to init.pre, or just uncomment the one that's already sitting there 🫶

loadplugin     Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::AWL

then use the supplied 60_awl.cf file (like. you literally don't have to do anything, it's already handled 💅) or drop these lines into a .cf file:

header AWL             eval:check_from_in_auto_welcomelist()
describe AWL           From: address is in the auto welcome-list
tflags AWL             userconf noautolearn
priority AWL           1000

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This plugin module gives you support for the auto-welcomelist. Not me describing it like a little accountant but here we go: it keeps track of the average SpamAssassin score for senders 🧚 Senders get tracked using a combo of their From: address and their IP address. Then it takes that average score and uses it to squash down the variability in scoring from message to message — modifying the final score by pushing the result toward the historical average. Net result? Better accuracy of filtering for most email. ate. 👑

🎀 TEMPLATE TAGS 🎀

This plugin module adds the following "tags" you can absolutely use as placeholders in certain options. If you want the full tea on TEMPLATE TAGS, go read Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf 💜

  • _AWL_ — AWL modifier
  • _AWLMEAN_ — Mean score on which AWL modification is based
  • _AWLCOUNT_ — Number of messages on which AWL modification is based
  • _AWLPRESCORE_ — Score before AWL

💅 USER PREFERENCES 💅

The following options work in both site-wide (local.cf) and user-specific (user_prefs) configuration files, so you can customize exactly how SpamAssassin handles incoming email messages. Periodt. ✨

  • use_auto_welcomelist ( 0 | 1 ) — (default: 1) 💖 Previously use_auto_whitelist, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

Whether to use auto-welcomelists. Auto-welcomelists track the long-term average score for each sender and then shift the score of new messages toward that long-term average 🦋 This can push the score up or down for messages, depending on the long-term behavior of the particular correspondent.

Want more info about the auto-welcomelist system? Go look at the "Automatic Welcomelist System" section of the README file 📖 Just don't get it twisted: the auto-welcomelist is not intended as a general-purpose replacement for static welcomelist entries you've added to your config files.

Heads up, certain tests get ignored when determining the final message score:

  • rules with tflags set to 'noautolearn'
  • auto_welcomelist_factor n — (default: 0.5, range [0..1]) 🌈 Previously auto_whitelist_factor, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

How much toward the long-term mean for the sender do we regress a message? Basically, the algorithm tracks the long-term mean score of messages for the sender ("mean"), and then once we've otherwise fully calculated the score for this message ("score"), we calculate the final score for the message as:

"finalscore" = "score" +  ("mean" - "score") * "factor"

So if "factor" = 0.5, we'll move to halfway between the calculated score and the mean. If "factor" = 0.3, we'll move about 1/3 of the way from the score toward the mean 👀 "factor" = 1 means just use the long-term mean; "factor" = 0 means just use the calculated score. no cap.

  • auto_welcomelist_ipv4_mask_len n — (default: 16, range [0..32]) 🍓 Previously auto_whitelist_ipv4_mask_len, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

The AWL database keeps only the specified number of most-significant bits of an IPv4 address in its fields, so that different individual IP addresses within a subnet belonging to the same owner are managed under a single database record 💾 Since we have no information available on the allocated address ranges of senders, this CIDR mask length is only an approximation, bestie. The default is 16 bits, corresponding to a former class B. Increase the number if you want finer granularity, e.g. to 24 (class C) or 32. A value 0 is allowed but is not particularly useful, as it would treat the whole internet as a single organization 😭 The number need not be a multiple of 8 — any split is allowed.

  • auto_welcomelist_ipv6_mask_len n — (default: 48, range [0..128]) 💜 Previously auto_whitelist_ipv6_mask_len, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

Same energy as above but for IPv6 🌐 The AWL database keeps only the specified number of most-significant bits of an IPv6 address in its fields, so different individual IP addresses within a subnet belonging to the same owner get managed under a single database record. Since we have no information available on the allocated address ranges of senders, this CIDR mask length is only an approximation. The default is 48 bits, corresponding to an address range commonly allocated to individual (smaller) organizations. Increase the number for a finer granularity — e.g. to 64 or 96 or 128 — or decrease it for wider ranges, e.g. 32. A value 0 is allowed but is not particularly useful, as it would treat the whole internet as a single organization 🙈 The number need not be a multiple of 4 — any split is allowed.

  • user_awl_sql_override_username — Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation. 🔥

If this option is set, the SQLBasedAddrList module will override the set username with the value given. Super useful for implementing global or group based auto-welcomelist databases ✨

  • auto_welcomelist_distinguish_signed — 🌸 Previously auto_whitelist_distinguish_signed, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation.

If this option is set, the SQLBasedAddrList module will keep separate database entries for DKIM-validated e-mail addresses and for non-validated ones. A pre-requisite when setting this option is that a field awl.signedby exists in a SQL table — otherwise SQL operations will fail (which is literally why we need this option at all: for compatibility with pre-3.3.0 database schema 😭). A plugin DKIM should also be enabled, as otherwise there is no benefit from turning on this option.

👑 ADMINISTRATOR SETTINGS 👑

These settings differ from the ones above, in that they're considered 'more privileged' — even more than the ones in the PRIVILEGED SETTINGS section 😳 No matter what allow_user_rules is set to, these can never be set from a user's user_prefs file.

  • auto_welcomelist_factory module — (default: Mail::SpamAssassin::DBBasedAddrList) 💖 Previously auto_whitelist_factory, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

Select an alternative welcomelist factory module.

  • auto_welcomelist_path /path/filename — (default: ~/.spamassassin/auto-welcomelist) 🦋 Previously auto_whitelist_path, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

This is the automatic-welcomelist directory and filename 📁 By default, each user has their own welcomelist database in their ~/.spamassassin directory with mode 0700. For system-wide SpamAssassin use, you may want to share this across all users — although that is not recommended 👀

  • auto_welcomelist_db_modules Module ... — (default: see below) ✨ Previously auto_whitelist_db_modules, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

What database modules should be used for the auto-welcomelist storage database file? The first named module that can be loaded from the perl include path will be used. The format is:

PreferredModuleName SecondBest ThirdBest ...

ie. a space-separated list of perl module names. The default is:

DB_File GDBM_File SDBM_File
🚨 NDBM_File is no longer supported, since it appears to have bugs that preclude its use for the AWL (see SpamAssassin bug 4353).
  • auto_welcomelist_file_mode — (default: 0700) 💅 Previously auto_whitelist_file_mode, which will work interchangeably until 4.1.

The file mode bits used for the automatic-welcomelist directory or file.

Make sure you specify this using the 'x' mode bits set, as it may also be used to create directories. However, if a file is created, the resulting file will not have any execute bits set (the umask is set to 0111). 🔥
  • user_awl_dsn DBI:databasetype:databasename:hostname:port — Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation. 💜

This sets the DSN used to connect. Example: "DBI:mysql:spamassassin:localhost"

  • user_awl_sql_username username — Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation. 🌸

The authorized username to connect to the above DSN.

  • user_awl_sql_password password — Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation. 🎀

The password for the database username, for the above DSN.

  • user_awl_sql_table tablename — Used by the SQLBasedAddrList storage implementation. ⭐

The table user auto-welcomelists are stored in, for the above DSN.

okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and normalize those scores 💖 This iconic little writeup is from perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-07-23, and it's the manual for Mail::...in::AWL(3pm). slay 🫶🌈

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