Mailfilter News

Sep-04-2022: Released 0.8.9 (stable)

Most notably, this introduces SNI support when using SSL-encrypted connections as is necessary, for example, with Gmail. Also, fixes some build issues that were discovered in the Gentoo automatic build system.

Aug-14-2022: Released 0.8.8 (stable)

Mainly two updates: 1. added SSL certificate verification, and 2. added timestamp to logging output (thanks Holger Hoffstaette). See the NEWS file for details.

Aug-09-2020: Released 0.8.7 (stable)

Fixed bug in build system as outlined here.

Oct-25-2016: Released 0.8.6 (stable)

More fixes for build woes thanks to generous support from Elimar Riesebieter. See the NEWS file.

Jul-26-2016: Released 0.8.5 (stable)

Yet another maintenanance release thanks to the generous patches of Felix Janda and Holger Hoffstaette. Fixes some compilation woes and previously unresolved dependencies. Many thanks for that!

Mar-25-2016: Released 0.8.4 (stable)

Another maintenance release, after it was reported that Mailfilter no longer builds with newer systems due to a change inside the lexer, flex, which now uses a reference to the currently opened file as opposed to a pointer in previous versions; see also Debian bug 812681.

May-17-2014: Released 0.8.3 (stable)

For your spam killing pleasure, 0.8.3 is released today. I'd welcome feedback on any bugs you encounter, since it's been a while that made a release. This release fixes some build problem and Debian-reported bugs. Check out the NEWS to see what has changed.

May-11-2014: Uploaded pre-0.8.3 to SVN (stable)

Today I uploaded code for the upcoming 0.8.3 to SVN. To see what's new or has changed, take a look at the NEWS file.

Aug-15-2009: Released 0.8.2 (stable)

Mainly a security problem related to the APOP protocol was fixed. The problem is not Mailfilter-specific, in that other email programs had similar problems. The bug is documented, e.g., in no. 2846 on the mutt bug tracker. The same fix that was applied to mutt was applied to Mailfilter.

Jan-18-2009: Not dead

Hi folks, just a quick note to say that the project is far from dead. Sure, development has not really done much in the last year, but mailfilter is pretty stable and also usable as is. And I am not right now interested in adding nifty new features - I welcome patches, however.

As a matter of fact, I have just tested mailfilter with gcc 4.3 and recent autotools to see if there are any build issues. I have found a minor one and fixed it in svn, but apart from that it built fine. If you encounter anything unsuspected, I would like to hear from you, and try to keep mailfilter current with respect to compiler changes and the like. Afterall, a lot of distributions ship the program, and therefore this aspect is important, even if no new features are currently being added.

So, happy spam killing!

Sep-15-2007: Released 0.8.1 (stable)

Mailfilter development obviously has slowed down dramatically, but that means two things: 1. the program is already fairly mature and useable, and 2. I am very busy with other things. But here it is, a bug fix release to 0.8. It fixes mainly two annoying problems.

1. 0.8 would occasionally not create a log file.
2. 0.8, if compiled from source, would confuse the available getopt libraries. I am not 101 percent convinced that this is actually resolved on all systems alike, but those I had access to seemed to work.

Check the NEWS file for details!

Jan-01-2007: Released 0.8 (stable)

Happy new year everybody. Not hungover at all, I decided to turn the 0.7.x branch stable. Fixed some minor bugs, cleaned up some code and, most importantly, updated the documentation. So, compared to the previous 0.7.2 release, not much has changed. However, compared to 0.6.x A LOT is new. For details, consult the NEWS file, please.

Most noteworthy, however, is the fact that the rcfile format has changed (see also the news item from Feb-14-2004). You can check the man pages or the FAQ for details. In a nutshell: all strings have now to be enclosed in quotes, whereas numeral parameters do not have to be. You MUST update your rcfile, or write yourself a little Perl skript to do so, otherwise mailfilter won't start. Conversion should be easy, however, if you have aquired a lot of spam filter strings, you may be busy a while when doing it manually. Sorry about that.

Second big change affects translations: they are gone for the moment being. The reason is that the internals of mailfilter have changed a lot in contrast to the old stable release series. And so the communication and output of the program has changed, too. I intend to add translations again in the future, but my focus is right now on improving stability, debugging, etc. the new version.

Oct-01-2006: Released 0.7.2 (development)

It's been a while since I last put hands on the mailfilter code. However, here is a new development release which mainly fixes some compilation issues. I decided to make this release now to not loose touch with the latest developments of flex, gcc, etc. mailfilter should compile with recent versions of all those programs.
Apologies for the lack of development as of late, but I am in the process of finishing a PhD, and trying not to loose my sanity over it. Naturally, I had to prioritise, partly on the expense of spare-time hackery.
What's currently preventing me from turning this release stable, however, is the lack of translations. The development branch needs a major overhaul of the .po files, and I would not mind a hand with that. I can take care of the German files, but that's about it. Feel free to drop me a line, if you would like to clean up some of this mess. If in the foreseeable future nothing happens with translations, I will go ahead and remove them from the source tree.

Nov-27-2004: Released 0.7.1 (development)

The latest development release fixes a number of smaller bugs, e.g. MAXLENGTH would delete messages if unset previously. Also APOP support was reanimated and preliminary support for SSL encryption has been added via the OpenSSL library. Check out the NEWS and read the accompanying documentation.
If you find bugs, or want to suggest features, please use our newly established bug and feature trackers here.

Aug-08-2004: Released 0.6.2

Right before Debian's (Sarge) feature freeze, an important bug in 0.6.x has been fixed, thanks to Bulia Byak. This way, we can finally replace Debian's mailfilter version 0.3.3 with our 0.6.x release series. As always, have a look at the NEWS file to find out more.
On a sidenode, the current CVS development branch contains preliminary support for SSL encryption. If you want give it a try, please follow the instructions on the development page in order to get a working copy of the new source files.

Feb-14-2004: Released 0.6.1 and 0.7

Today I am happy to announce even two new releases: a new stable version as well as the premiere for our new development version, 0.7. The usual updates regarding the stable release are listed in the NEWS file, as always.
If you want to give 0.7 a whirl, please keep in mind that the configuration file format has slightly changed. Strings are now enclosed in quotation marks while numbers are not.

Given that 0.7 is the first release of our development series, you will most likely find a few things not yet implemented properly. For instance, the internationalisation is currently not working. It's probably too early to start adopting the .PO files, so do not worry too much about it. And don't hesitate from submitting bug reports, should it be necessary.

Dec-20-2003: New German tutorial, new Features

Kai Hildebrandt has written a very nice and lengthy Mailfilter tutorial for the Pro-Linux web site, which is linked up in our documentation section.
Thanks to Chris Vine, Mailfilter has received a few external patches regarding new keywords, (e.g. MAXSIZE_SCORE) and man page updates. This will be reflected when 0.6.1 is out, or 0.7, respectively. (Note, the code for 0.7 is currently only available via CVS.) Kudos to Kai and Chris.

Oct-26-2003: Released 0.6

The 0.6.x series is the new stable Mailfilter branch and should, hopefully, have solved all previous compile problems. However, in case of persisting problems, do not hesitate to contact the mailing list for help. Program news are available from the NEWS file.

Oct-11-2003: Released 0.5.2

The current release is a step forward to resolve our problems with the program GNU flex. Unfortunately, GNU flex is, nowadays, known to create incompatible code that modern compilers cannot handle.
Until the entire Mailfilter code restructuring is finished, we kindly advise people with an older system to try and compile version 0.4.0 of mailfilter first. People with up-to-date compilers and tools should attempt to install 0.5.2 using the following, more up-to-date version of flex: http://lex.sf.net/.
If you encounter further compilation woes, also be sure to read the updated FAQ.

Sep-24-2003: Project Status / Code Rewrite

Some may have been wondering what's happening with Mailfilter development as of lately. Hence, a little reminder that the program is far from dead, but, unfortunately, lacks developers. In other words, currently, there is only one active programmer involved (me), and the task of maintaining the 0.5.x branch as well as a rewrite is almost too much for a single person. In effect, I abstain from making any predictions regarding future release dates, or the status of the ongoing rewrite. Releases will be made when they are due.
But, if you have too much time at your hands, I would not mind a bit of help maintaining the 0.5.x branch. At the moment, I can only focus on the code rewrite and I'm plenty busy with that (and we should not forget that I have a real life, too). More news on that later...

Apr-12-2003: Released 0.5.1

Finally, a new development release has been made. This one mainly adds a scoring mechanism to achieve a more sophisticated filtering, e.g. to delete spam within mailing lists. The program's man pages have more details on that.
As usual, you find a summary of changes in the NEWS file. But, please be aware that this release is a development snapshot. It has been tested by various people, but may introduce bugs not present in earlier program versions. Should you encounter such problems, please submit a bug report. Thank you!
Also, you might have noticed the lack of RPMs this time. If you want to provide RedHat, SuSE, or Mandrake packages, please get in touch as I'm currently not using anything RPM based at home.

Oct-23-2002: Build Problems

Lately, we've been drowning in desperate cries for help. It seems that users who switched to a system based on gcc 3.x can not compile Mailfilter any longer. The reason for this is a broken version of flex (which Mailfilter relies upon to build) floating around the net. Flex, an automatic scanner generator, spits out C++ code that old releases of gcc would accept as correct, but it does not work with the latest versions of gcc.
Some systems (Debian or FreeBSD, for example) have reacted to this and updated/patched their flex programs, while others are only catching up slowly. If you are affected by this problem, please consider using an old version of gcc or, if that is not an option, contact your system's vendor to let them know about the bug. Sorry, for the inconvenience this may cause; hopefully all is well soon again.

Sep-14-2002: Released 0.5.0

I've opened a new development branch for Mailfilter. For the first time, Mailfilter speaks more than just one protocol: thanks to Greg Louis, the current development release also supports APOP in order to send encrypted password information over the net. To see what else is new, please read the NEWS file, as always.

May-29-2002: Released 0.4.0

The 0.3.x development series is over now and a new stable release of Mailfilter is available. Compared to the last development release nothing much has changed, but I highly recommend an update to all users of version 0.2.4 (because of better networking code, support for nested rcfiles and lots of other reasons). As always, you can find out the juicy details if you read the NEWS file.

May-21-2002: MailfilterX for MacOS X

I'm pleased to announce a new front-end for Mailfilter. Frank Blome has written an application that allows users of MacOS X to create proper configuration files at ease, due to an intuitive user-interface. Check out screenshots and further information regarding MailfilterX on his homepage. However, he has not yet finished work on this fine utility; so in the meantime you might have to e-mail him privately to access pre-releases and the like.

Apr-22-2002: Released 0.3.3

The latest offering fixes a few minor bugs (As always, see the NEWS file for details!) and introduces a new feature that allows you to split up your rc-config files. Hence, a new keyword, 'INCLUDE', was introduced which is explained in the man page. To give away a quick example: the directive 'INCLUDE = /home/username/.mailfilter/servers' in your main '.mailfilterrc' file could be used to load the mail server configuration from a different and independent location of your file system. Thanks to Ilgiz Kalmetev, we now also have a Russian program translation. So, keep sending in your feedback, but not in Russian, please! ;-)

Feb-20-2002: Released 0.3.2

Again, a new development version of Mailfilter has been released. To find out what has been changed and improved, please have a look at the according NEWS file. If you are using 0.3.0 or 0.3.1 at the moment, then I highly recommend to upgrade as a few limitations and bugs that were introduced by opening the development branch, have now been removed. Of course, I also invite those who are still using the last stable release 0.2.4 to go and check out this latest update and report potential software problems. Your feedback is very important!

Jan-01-2002: Happy New Year!

A happy new year to all the Mailfilter users! And many thanks to those who kept sending in their feedback, suggestions and bug reports. Your support is very important not only to improve the software, but also to give those nasty spammers something to worry about. ;-)

Dec-02-2001: Released 0.3.1

A new development version of Mailfilter is now available. To find out what was changed and improved this time, please have a look at the according NEWS file.
If you want to compile the sources yourself, you will also need the tools flex and yacc (or bison), but be aware of the fact that some Linux distributions (e. g. RedHat 7.0 or Mandrake 8.1) contain a more or less broken version of flex. The FAQ (inside the doc/ directory) that comes with your Mailfilter 0.3.1 package explains where to get a clean flex, if necessary at all.

Nov-08-2001: Revamped this Site

The Mailfilter project has gotten a face lift, at least in the world wide web. The old homepage grew a bit too large and became quite difficult to navigate. Hopefully that's fixed with the new design. As always, enjoy!

Nov-07-2001: Released 0.3.0

The first development release of the 0.3.x series was released earlier today. Please check out the NEWS file to find out what has changed. The main focus is on the new code and object structure though. So if you want to try out this latest offering and encounter oddities or even bugs (shrug), then please don't hesitate to send in your feedback! All mail is welcome!

Last updated on Sep 04, 2022 by Andreas Bauer. Copyright © 2000-2022 Andreas Bauer. All rights reserved.