Kill file

The kill file can be used to delete mail and/or news items during the unpacking stage so that they are not added to the database. Useful for persistent senders of spam etc. Note that the kill file does not prevent such messages from being downloaded - it can only exclude them from the database.

The kill file definition screen is invoked by pressing the 'Killfile' button on the main screen.

The kill file can be configured to delete mail, news, both or nothing by checking or unchecking the mail and news boxes at the top of the screen.

To add a new address or subject, enter it in the appropriate box and press Kill (or Except if you wish to override another entry).

Wild cards are supported as follows:

?A single character

*Zero or more characters

#A single digit

Please use wild cards carefully to ensure that the kill file only acts on the intended entries.

If the subject contains any of the special characters * ? [ or # then these must be enclosed in square brackets when the subject is added to the kill file. For example, if the subject is Windows XP ? then it should be entered as Windows XP [?].

The kill file can also be configured to ignore entries that otherwise would be deleted. Enter the specific address or subject that you wish to exclude from kill file processing then press Except.

Tip: Shift and right click on the subject when reading mail or news will do this automatically.

Tip: Highlight the author or subject in a main screen listbox and press k to add to the kill file without opening the item.

Tip: The Options screen can be used to enable a kill file log which tracks all deleted items as shown below:

Image KillLog.GIF

There are a number of special filters that enhance the kill file, some are entered as Author filters, others are entered as Subject filters.

_Trap2_ matches any mail with a forged address equal to one of your addresses.

_Trap6_ is an exclude filter that matches any address in your Address Book (Contact Manager).

_Trap1_ will match subjects that contain unprintable characters, typically spam from the far east. Not recommended if you receive genuine mail that contains foreign or accented characters. The number of acceptable foreign characters can be specified by appending :n to the filter, e.g. _Trap1_:3

_Trap3_ validates mail sent to a domain other than Zetnet.co.uk. For example, if you have a domain name of mydomain.co.uk the filter will reject mail unless it has been sent to a mailbox defined to ZIMACS.

_Trap4_ checks mail sent in HTML format and rejects if it contains 8 or more invalid tags.

_Trap5_ rejects mail or news if the Subject contains spelling errors. The number of acceptable errors can be specified by appending :n to the filter, e.g. _Trap5_:4 will fire if 5 or more spelling errors are found. Note that this filter may be inappropriate if the Subject contains words that are not in the spell checker dictionary.

Filters apply to both Mail and News. They can be limited to one or the other by appending /m (Mail) or /n (News) to the filter. For example, *.tw*/m only applies to mail.

What should I use for my kill file filters?

The choice of kill file filters is a difficult one, and will vary greatly from person to person. However, some general advice is offered here, along with some common scenarios. They will be discussed in general terms, and you will have to alter the specific details used. The descriptions below mention email specifically, but will apply equally well to news items if you have set the kill file to filter them. Please think carefully before using a kill file filter as it may delete emails you don't expect it to. If you are unsure, please seek advice in the zetnet.support.ZIMACS newsgroup. In general, to enter a filter you click the Killfile button in ZIMACS, enter the desired filter in either the Subject or Address boxes, and click the Kill button. The filter you have entered will then be displayed at the bottom of the window.

Some of the filters discussed below use wildcards, which are special characters used to represent characters or strings of characters of certain types.

I don't want to receive email from a specific person

Use the person's email address as a filter in the Address box (remember to click the Kill button after entering any kill file filter). Alternatively, open an email from the person, and right click on the author's email address.

I don't want to receive any email from a specific email provider

It is not uncommon to receive much unwanted email (or spam) from a specific source. As an example, suppose you received spam from different email addresses all ending @zetnet.co.uk. To kill all such emails, you would enter *@zetnet.co.uk as the Address in a kill file filter.

I want to kill all email from an email provider, with some specific exceptions

It is possible that you receive many spam emails from a provider, but receive legitimate emails from known users of that provider. Continuing the previous example, you might want to kill all email from zetnet.co.uk except email from address1@zetnet.co.uk, address2@zetnet.co.uk and so on. Firstly, follow the previous example to kill file all email from zetnet.co.uk. Then enter address1@zetnet.co.uk in the Address box and click the Except button. Repeat this for any other specific addresses you also want to receive. Clicking the Except button instead of the Kill button means that any email received from the specified address will never be killed, regardless of what other filters you are using.

I don't want to receive email with a specific subject line

Use the email subject as a filter in the Subject box (remember to click the Kill button after entering any kill file filter). Alternatively, open an email with the undesirable subject, and right click on the originating email address whilst holding the shift key.

I don't want to receive email with a specific word or phrase in the subject line

Unwanted emails often contain some specific word or phrase in the subject line that indicates they are spam. For example, you might want to kill all emails that contain the word "offer". To do this, you would enter *offer* as the kill file filter in the Subject box. Similarly, to kill subjects containing the phrase "special offer", you would enter *special offer* in the Subject box. Note that spam emails often use altered words to avoid detection in this manner. For example, the digit 1 and letter I (upper case i) are often used interchangeably with l (lower case L), and 0 (zero) with o. You may therefore need to use a range of filters to filter out variants of a specific word.

I don't want to receive any email that contains foreign characters in the subject

Enter _Trap1_ in the Subject box. You should be careful using this option if you expect to receive emails in a foreign language.

I have a filter containing a question mark or asterisk (*), but it doesn't seem to work as intended

These characters are wildcards and need to be treated differently to normal characters. They need to be enclosed in square brackets, so for example instead of the filter hello? you should use hello[?]

I want to filter out subjects that contain a string of consecutive spaces

You should use a filter similar to *[ ][ ][ ][ ]* in the Subject box. Note that there is a single space between each pair of brackets. This filter will kill any email with a subject containing at least four consecutive spaces. To change the minimum number of consecutive spaces required to kill the email, simply change the appropriate number of sequences of [ ] in the filter.

How can I find out what actions the kill file has taken?

Open the Killfile window by clicking the Killfile button in ZIMACS, and then click the View Log button. The log will tell you when an item was killed, whether it was a mail or news item, the author of the post, and for news items the newsgroup the post was made to.

If you click the Filters Used button in the kill file window, you will be able to find out the most recent date on which each kill file was used. If you press the F2 key, the view will switch to display filters that have not been used. This should assist you in evaluating the usefulness of the filters you have entered.