Anatomy of a Recipe

Recipes are basically pattern matchers (hence the need for regular expressions). A line starting with ':' marks the beginning of a recipe. It has the following format:

	# Comments start with the hash symbol

        :0 [flags] [ : [locallockfile] ]

        * <zero or more conditions (one per line)>

        <exactly one action line>

Trailing colon means "lock the mail file when processing." Don't bother with locallockfile since Procmail creates a temporary default. The only flags you are likely to care about are


H — look in the message header (default)
B — look in the message body


Simple examples:


# Sourceforge
:0:
* ^From:.*sourceforge.net.*
| ${FORMAIL} -A"X-MyRecipe: Sourceforge" >>${BULKFOLDER}

# A catcher for UM mail
:0B:
* (.*This note was authorized for distribution to\
     University of Maryland Faculty and Staff by:\
       The Office of the President.*)
| ${FORMAIL} -A"X-MyRecipe: UM Mail" >>${BULKFOLDER}


# Astro-ph: split up and fake as if it were separate messages.
# Courtesy PJT.  
:0:
* ^Subject:.*astro-ph.*
| ${FORMAIL} +1 -eds | tr -s '\n'|sed -f /local/mail/astro-ph.script >> ${MAILDIR}/astro-ph


# CARMA programmer position applicants
:0:
* (^Subject:.*CARMA*Programmer.*|\
   ^Subject:.*Programmer - Software Development Astrophysics.*)
| ${FORMAIL} -A"X-MyRecipe: CARMA job">> ${DEFAULT}