Mailwasher like app for Linux

Bill Marshal

I don't know what you used then, but I have a little POP3 mail checker that does the same thing. My original goal was to write something like xbiff, but which only alerted me when "good" mail arrived. Not spam.

I called it xpopcheck. Usually I leave it iconified, and the icon shows the mailbox's state: empty, spam only, at least one piece of desired bulk mail (e.g., from a mailing list that I subscribed to), or at least one piece of non-bulk "good" mail. When deiconified, you get a list of senders and subjects, with spam highlighted differently than bulk or non-bulk "good" mail. Clicking on an item toggles it between spam and non-spam. You can then click an All spam must die! button before clicking Read mail now.

Its spam checking prowess is limited by the fact that it only examines the mail's headers. A misleading subject line and a cleverly forged header can trick it into mistaking spam for "good" mail. Conversely, "good" mail sent from an oddly configured mail server can be flagged as spam. xpopcheck has a configuration file that lets you adjust the rules so you can correct this on a sender-by-sender basis, but you'll always want to glance over the sender-subject lines before hitting the All spam must die! button.