NAME
Email::Filter - Library for creating easy email filters
SYNOPSIS
use Email::Filter;
my $mail = Email::Filter->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->subject =~ /enlarge/;
$mail->ignore if $mail->subject =~ /boring/i;
...
$mail->exit(0);
$mail->accept("~/Mail/Archive/backup");
$mail->exit(1);
$mail->accept()
DESCRIPTION
This is another module produced by the "Perl Email Project", a reaction
against the complexity and increasing bugginess of the "Mail::*"
modules. It replaces "Mail::Audit", and allows you to write programs
describing how your mail should be filtered.
TRIGGERS
Users of "Mail::Audit" will note that this class is much leaner than the
one it replaces. For instance, it has no logging; the concept of "local
options" has gone away, and so on. This is a deliberate design decision
to make the class as simple and maintainable as possible.
To make up for this, however, "Email::Filter" contains a trigger
mechanism provided by Class::Trigger, to allow you to add your own
functionality. You do this by calling the "add_trigger" method:
Email::Audit->add_trigger( after_accept => \&log_accept );
Hopefully this will also help subclassers.
The methods below will list which triggers they provide.
ERROR RECOVERY
If something bad happens during the "accept" or "pipe" method, or the
"Email::Filter" object gets destroyed without being properly handled,
then a fail-safe error recovery process is called. This first checks for
the existence of the "emergency" setting, and tries to deliver to that
mailbox. If there is no emergency mailbox or that delivery failed, then
the program will either exit with a temporary failure error code,
queuing the mail for redelivery later, or produce a warning to standard
error, depending on the status of the "exit" setting.
METHODS
new
Email::Filter->new(); # Read from STDIN
Email::Filter->new(data => $string); # Read from string
Email::Filter->new(emergency => "~simon/urgh");
# Deliver here in case of error
This takes an email either from standard input, the usual case when
called as a mail filter, or from a string.
You may also provide an "emergency" option, which is a filename to
deliver the mail to if it couldn't, for some reason, be handled
properly.
Hint
If you put your constructor in a "BEGIN" block, like so:
use Email::Filter;
BEGIN { $item = Email::Filter->new(emergency => "~simon/urgh"); }
right at the top of your mail filter script, you'll even be protected
from losing mail even in the case of syntax errors in your script.
How neat is that?
This method provides the "new" trigger, called once an object is
instantiated.
exit
$mail->exit(1|0);
Sets or clears the 'exit' flag which determines whether or not the
following methods exit after successful completion.
The sense-inverted 'noexit' method is also provided for backwards
compatibility with "Mail::Audit", but setting "noexit" to "yes" got a
bit mind-bending after a while.
simple
$mail->simple();
Gets and sets the underlying "Email::Simple" object for this filter; see
Email::Simple for more details.
header
$mail->header("X-Something")
Returns the specified mail headers. In scalar context, returns the first
such header; in list context, returns them all.
body
$mail->body()
Returns the body text of the email
from
to
cc
bcc
subject
received
$mail-><header>()
Convenience accessors for "header($header)"
ignore
Ignores this mail, exiting unconditionally unless "exit" has been set to
false.
This method provides the "ignore" trigger.
accept
$mail->accept();
$mail->accept(@where);
Accepts the mail into a given mailbox or mailboxes. Unix "~/" and
"~user/" prefices are resolved. If no mailbox is given, the default is
determined according to Email::LocalDelivery: $ENV{MAIL},
/var/spool/mail/you, /var/mail/you, or ~you/Maildir/.
This provides the "before_accept" and "after_accept" triggers, and exits
unless "exit" has been set to false.
reject
$mail->reject("Go away!");
This rejects the email; if called in a pipe from a mail transport agent,
(such as in a ~/.forward file) the mail will be bounced back to the
sender as undeliverable. If a reason is given, this will be included in
the bounce.
This calls the "reject" trigger. "exit" has no effect here.
pipe
$mail->pipe('sendmail foo@bar.com');
Pipes the mail to an external program, returning the standard output
from that program if "exit" has been set to false. This allows you to do
things like
$mail->exit(0);
$mail->simple(Email::Simple->new($mail->pipe("spamassassin")));
$mail->exit(1);
in the absence of decent "Mail::SpamAssassin" support. (Coming soon...)
If the program returns a non-zero exit code, the behaviour is dependent
on the status of the "exit" flag. If this flag is set to true (the
default), then "Email::Filter" tries to recover. (See "ERROR RECOVERY")
If not, nothing is returned.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2003, Simon Cozens <simon@cpan.org>
LICENSE
You may use this module under the terms of the BSD, Artistic, or GPL
licenses, any version.
AUTHOR
Casey West, "casey@geeknest.com"
Simon Cozens, "simon@cpan.org"
SEE ALSO
http://pep,kwiki.org