Mailfilter README.Windows
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0.   GENERAL INFORMATION 

Mailfilter is a flexible utility for UNIX (-like) operating systems to get rid
of unwanted spam mails, before having to go through the trouble of downloading
them into the local computer. It offers support for one or many POP3 accounts
and is especially useful for dialup connections via modem, ISDN, etc. 

Mailfilter connects to any POP3 mail box and compares part of its content to a
set of user defined filter rules. That way the spam gets deleted directly on
the mail server. 

With Mailfilter you can define your own filters (rules) to determine which
e-mails should be delivered and which are considered waste. Rules are regular
expressions, so you can make use of familiar options from other mail delivery
programs such as e.g. procmail. 

Mailfilter is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. For
more information, see the COPYING file provided with the Mailfilter program.

The latest version of Mailfilter can be obtained from this web page:

       http://mailfilter.sourceforge.net/


2.   HOW TO INSTALL MAILFILTER ON WINDOWS 9X/2000/NT

Mailfilter was originally designed to run on UNIX (-like) operating systems.
With some additional libraries installed such as for example, the Cygwin
environment, DJGPP or MinGW, it is possible to compile and run Mailfilter on
the Windows 9x/2000/NT platforms as well. All three products can be obtained
entirely for free from:

       http://www.cygwin.com/

       http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

       http://www.mingw.org/

After you have installed Cygwin or DJGPP for example, you should have all the
necessary tools and libraries on your hard disk to translate the Mailfilter
source code.


2.1  USING THE RIGHT CONFIG FILES

Even though Mailfilter should compile out of the box with any of the above
mentioned compilers, you should use some specially modified config files.
Inside your main working directory of Mailfilter (i.e. mailfilter-x.y.z/)
copy the according files from doc/ to the correct locations:

       mv doc/win_Makefile.am Makefile.am
       mv doc/win_configure.in configure.in
       mv doc/win_src_Makefile.am src/Makefile.am


2.2  CONFIGURATION AND COMPILATION

Now you should be able to just run the standard installation procedure as
outlined in the INSTALL document: ./configure, make and make install. This
will guess system specific values and start compilation. Be sure to have a
look at the INSTALL file, as it tells you how to set up Mailfilter's servers,
spam filters and all the other program options.


3.   FURTHER READING

Bob Paddock provides further Mailfilter installation guidelines for MS-Windows
users and offers some binaries to download. If you are interested to find out
how he compiled and installed everything, then read his detailed explanation
online:

       http://www.csonline.net/bpaddock/mailfilter/default.htm