Scientific Supercomputing at the NIH
Filtering SPAM with Pine

Before email messages are delivered to Helix users they are checked for both SPAM and viruses. In messages rated possibly but not certainly spam, the Subject: is prefixed with Potential SPAM:
Below are instructions to automatically move such messages into a special folder with the Pine mail client.

1. Start up Pine at the Helix prompt. Use the '<' key to get to the main Pine menu. Use the arrow keys to move to 'S Setup Configure Pine Options' and hit the return key to get into the Pine setup options.

2. Enter R to select the Rules submenu. The prompt will say

Type of rule setup

Enter F for Filters.

4.Enter A to add a new filter. Leave the Nickname, and 'Current Folder Conditions' with the default options. Scroll down to 'Subject pattern' (under 'Filtered Message Conditions'). Type C to Change this value. The prompt will say

Enter the text to be added:

Type in Potential SPAM.

5. Scroll down several screens to the section labelled 'ACTIONS BEGIN HERE'. The default option is to move the filtered messages to another folder. You can choose the appropriate folder by entering its name in the 'Folder List' option. Use the arrow key to move to 'Folder list', type A to add a value. The prompt will say

Enter the text to be added:

you should enter the folder name to which you want your spam-flagged messages moved. In the image below, filtered messages will be moved to the 'spam' folder. You can enter the name of a new folder which does not exist -- Pine will create it.

6. Once the filter is set up to your satisfaction, type E to exit setup. The prompt will say

Commit changes (("Yes" replaces settings, "No" abandons changes)?

Enter Yes to save this filter. If the folder you have chosen does not exist, Pine will ask if it should be created. When you exit Setup, the filter has been activated. You should check the 'spam' folder from time to time to make sure that no legitimate messages are being flagged as spam.

7. More examples of setting up pine filters from the Pine documentation at the University of Washington.