POPFile
Current Version: 1.0.1 (May 27, 2008)
From the POPFile home page: "POPFile is a free, automatic mail classification tool. Once properly set up and trained, it will scan all email as it arrives and classify it based on your training. You can give it a simple job, like separating out junk e-mail, or a complicated one, like filing mail into a dozen folders. Think of it as a personal assistant for your inbox." (The technical scoop: essentially, POPFile is a local proxy server for pre-processing mail between your "real" email server and your email client.) POPFile is written in Perl and runs on Mac OS X; the online Quick Start Guide explains what's involved in setting it up. Note: the author is looking for assistance in making the software easier to run on the Macintosh.
Version 1.0.1 adds/changes the following since version 1.0:
- When POPFile starts up it no longer complains about a missing IMAP file if IMAP has not been installed.
- Fixed a bug in the IMAP module that allowed for unintentional reclassification to the unclassified bucket.
- Fixed a bug that causes segmentation faults when displaying messages which have very long To, Cc or From headers in the POPFile UI.
- Fixed a bug that causes a few warnings during the corpus upgrade process.
- Add code to check for unexpected NULL characters in email messages (to avoid SQLite problems).
- POPFile's Brazilian Portuguese language file has been renamed. The new name does not include any spaces.
- The simplified and traditional Chinese language translations have been updated.
- POPFile's log file now includes entries showing when POPFile starts up and shuts down. This makes it easier to read the log file.
- The startup messages in the log file have been made easier to read by splitting the long entries into shorter lines.
- The IMAP module now issues a log message when it fails to connect to the server.
- Deletion of messages from the message history has been made faster.
- When upgrading an existing installation the installer now recommends upgrading the existing SSL support files.
- The installer and all of the NSIS-based programs have been built using the latest NSIS compiler and newer versions of the plugins used to download files from the internet. These NSIS-related improvements should reduce the number of false alarms from various anti-virus packages.
- The latest version of the SQLite command-line utility is now included.
- The links to the wiki have been improved.
- The (outdated) manual is no longer included in the download. All documentation for POPFile is online and can be found at http://getpopfile.org/docs/
The online roadmap has more information on various releases, including all past, present and future.
User Reviews
[0.22.4] "POPfile wasn't terribly easy to install (you'll need some basic knowledge of the command line), but the setup and web based interface are very simple. You create at least two 'buckets', e.g. Personal and Spam. When email is processed by the POPfile proxy it analyses the email and determines which bucket the email should be in. At first everything is marked as unclassified, but as you teach POPfile and correct it's mistakes it builds a filter that grows quickly in accuracy. You can even have other buckets like Work or Mailing Lists and teach POPfile which email goes into which bucket. In your email client you filter based on a header POPfile adds and thus sort the SPAM from the legitimate email (or personal from work, or whatever). In short, POPfile was an excellent solution to add SPAM filtering to email clients without a built in SPAM filter. I recommend it, if you can get past the user-unfriendly installation."
—Jamie Kahn Genet, August 12, 2006
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the Mac OS X (Perl) version.
Version 1.1 Release Candidate 6 is available (November 12, 2008). This version includes a lot of changes, including support for SQLite 3.x, improved versions of the Windows service and system tray programs and, at last, an installer for Mac OS X. More information is available in the online release notes.
Also See . . .
Can't find what you're looking for? Try a search:
Also, if you have an older Mac, be sure to check out the "Classic" applications page for more options.
Finally, take a look at ALEMIA if you think you know that name of an application, but aren't quite sure.
Related Links
Andrew Starr has a marvelous page of Eudora plug-ins and enhancements that Eudora users must check out. His entire site (known as eMailman) is worthwhile for every email junkie out there.
Graham Orndorff has written a superb collection of articles on setting up email servers and secure email clients on Mac OS X.
Adam Engst has put together a comprehensive overview of email attachment formats that is invaluable for anyone who wants or needs to understand the complexities behind them.
Also Consider . . .
These are applications that are newer and of potential interest, but which I haven't yet selected for permanent inclusion. Have a look, and let me know if you think they deserve to be part of the permanent collection!