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MIMEDEFANG-PROTOCOL(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual	MIMEDEFANG-PROTOCOL(7)

NAME
       mimedefang-protocol  - Conventions used by mimedefang(8)	to communicate
       with filter programs.

DESCRIPTION
       mimedefang(8) and mimedefang-multiplexor(8) provide a simplified	mecha-
       nism for	hooking	scripts	and programs into Sendmail's milter API.

       The milter API is multi-threaded	and written in C; mimedefang lets  you
       write  single-threaded  filters written in the language of your choice.
       Some of the flexibility and speed of milter is sacrificed, but the ease
       of writing filters more than compensates	for this slight	loss.

       This manual describes how mimedefang communicates with the filter  pro-
       gram, and gives you enough information to write your own	filter program
       as a replacement	for mimedefang.pl if you wish.

PROTOCOL OVERVIEW
       The protocol is a simple	file-based protocol.  For each invocation of a
       filter,	mimedefang creates a unique working directory and populates it
       with files.  It calls the filter, which is  expected  to	 populate  the
       working	directory  with	more files, which communicate the scan results
       back to mimedefang.  This simple	mechanism allows you to	 easily	 write
       filters in scripting languages without worrying about C-level details.

FILTER INVOCATION
       The filter program may be invoked in one	of five	ways:

       filter_prog directory
	      If the program is	invoked	with a single argument which is	an ab-
	      solute  path  name (called the working directory,	the program is
	      expected to perform filtering in that directory and then exit.

       filter_prog -server
	      If the program is	invoked	with the single	argument  -server,  it
	      is expected to run as a server.  See SERVER MODE for details.

       filter_prog -serveru
	      If  the program is invoked with the single argument -serveru, it
	      is expected to run as a server.  In addition, anything it	prints
	      to file descriptor 3 is used to update the "worker status" field
	      in the multiplexor.  This	lets the filter	inform	administrators
	      exactly what it is doing.	 (See the -Z option to mimedefang-mul-
	      tiplexor.)

       filter_prog -embserver
	      Similar  to  -server,  but  used by the embedded Perl code.  The
	      program should run any initialization routines  and  then	 exit.
	      The   multiplexor	  will	subsequently  call  the	 Perl  routine
	      do_main_loop when	it is time for the worker to begin running  in
	      server mode.

       filter_prog -embserveru
	      Similar  to -embserver with the additional magic of updating the
	      worker status from data written to file descriptor 3.

INITIAL	FILE LAYOUT
       When the	filter begins a	scan, it  should  change  directories  to  the
       working	directory.   In	 that  directory,  it  will find the following
       files.

       INPUTMSG
	      A	file containing	the complete input e-mail  message,  including
	      headers.

       HEADERS
	      A	file containing	just the headers, one per line.	 Headers which
	      are  continued  over  several  lines in the original message are
	      collapsed	into a single line in this file.

       COMMANDS
	      A	file containing	a list of commands.  Each command is a	single
	      letter and may be	followed by arguments.	Each command is	on its
	      own line.

THE COMMANDS FILE
       All  commands  have  their arguments encoded as follows:	All characters
       outside the range 33 to 126 ASCII, as well as the characters "%",  "\",
       "'"  and	 double-quote,	are replaced by	a percent sign followed	by two
       hex digits specifying the character's numerical value.  The filter must
       un-escape the arguments when it reads the COMMANDS file.

       The commands from the C to Perl filters are:

       Ssender
	      The sender of the	message.

       sesmtp_arg
	      An  ESMTP	 argument  associated  with  the   sender   (such   as
	      SIZE=54432).  There is one s line	for each ESMTP argument.

       Usubject
	      The message subject.

       Xmessage_id
	      The Message-ID.

       Rrecipient mailer host addr
	      A	 recipient.   There  is	 one  R	 line for each recipient.  The
	      mailer, host and addr parts of the line are the  values  of  the
	      Sendmail	{rcpt_mailer},	{rcpt_host}  and {rcpt_addr} macros if
	      they are available, or "?" if not.

       resmtp_arg
	      An ESMTP argument	associated  with  the  most  recent  recipient
	      (such as NOTIFY=never).  There is	one r line for each SMTP argu-
	      ment.

       !      If  this	command	is present, there are suspicious characters in
	      the message headers.

       ?      If this command is present, there	are suspicious	characters  in
	      the message body.

       Ihost_addr
	      The SMTP relay host's IP address in dotted-quad notation.

       iidentifier
	      An  identifier  generated	 by MIMEDefang.	 On a given host, this
	      identifier is very likely	to be unique over a timespan of	 about
	      24 years.

       Jhost_addr
	      The "real" SMTP relay host's IP address in dotted-quad notation.
	      Multi-stage  MIMEDefang  relays  can use a special IP validation
	      header so	that even the innermost	MIMEDefang relay can  see  the
	      "original" relay's IP address.

       Hhost_name
	      The SMTP relay host name.

       Eargument
	      The argument to the SMTP "EHLO" or "HELO"	command.

       Qqid   The message's Sendmail queue-ID.

       =macro val
	      Set  the	value  of  the	specified Sendmail macro to val.  Both
	      macro and	val are	percent-encoded, but the single	space  charac-
	      ter between them is not.

FILTER OPERATION
       When the	filter performs	a scan,	it can make use	of all the information
       in the files mentioned previously.  If the filter needs temporary work-
       ing  files, it should create a subdirectory under the working directory
       for its own use.	 In this case, you do not have to clean	up your	 work-
       ing  files,  because  mimedefang	deletes	the working directory when the
       filter returns.

FINAL FILE LAYOUT
       The filter communicates the results of the scan back to	mimedefang  by
       creating	additional files in the	working	directory.  The	most important
       file  is	called RESULTS,	and it contains	a list of one-letter, one-line
       commands	back to	the filter.  As	usual, command arguments are  percent-
       escaped.	 The commands from the filter back to mimedefang are:

       Bcode dsn reply_text
	      Bounce  (reject) the message with	the specified SMTP reply code,
	      DSN code and reply text.

       D      Silently discard the message and pretend it was delivered.

       Tcode dsn reply_text
	      Return an	SMTP temporary failure code with  the  specified  SMTP
	      code, DSN	and reply text.

       C      Replace  the message body.  If this command is present, the file
	      NEWBODY must contain the new message body.

       Mheader_val
	      Replace the MIME Content-Type header with	a new value.  Used  to
	      change MIME boundaries or	convert	non-MIME to MIME messages.

       Hheader val
	      Add  a  new header header	with value val.	 The header should not
	      contain a	colon.	Each of	header and val is percent-escaped, but
	      the single space between them is not.

       Nheader index val
	      Adds a new header	header with value val in position  index.   An
	      index  of	zero specifies that the	new header should be prepended
	      before all existing headers.

       Iheader index val
	      Replace the index'th occurrence of header	with value  val.   The
	      index  is	1-based.  The header should not	contain	a colon.  Each
	      of header, index and val	is  percent-escaped,  but  the	single
	      space between them is not.

       Jheader index
	      Delete the index'th occurrence of	header.

       Rrecip Add a new	recipient recip	to the message.

       Srecip Delete recip from	the list of message recipients.

       fsender
	      Change the envelope sender to sender.  This is only supported by
	      Sendmail 8.14.0 and higher.

       F      Indicate that we have finished issuing commands.	Anything after
	      an F line	is ignored.

SERVER MODE
       In server mode, mimedefang-multiplexor runs the filter program continu-
       ously  in  a server loop.  The filter program reads commands from stan-
       dard input, and writes results to standard output.  The filter  program
       must  exit shortly after	it sees	EOF on its standard input.  If it does
       not exit	within 10 seconds, it will be  terminated  with	 SIGTERM.   If
       that still does not work, then after a further 10 seconds, it is	killed
       with SIGKILL.

       SERVER COMMANDS

	      All  server  commands are	single line commands.  Each command is
	      followed by a space-separated list of arguments;	each  argument
	      is percent-encoded.  The commands	defined	are:

       ping   Elicits a	reply of "PONG"	from the server.

       scan queue_id dir
	      Run  a  scan  for	 the mail identiefied by the Sendmail queue-ID
	      queue_id in the directory	dir.  The command is terminated	with a
	      newline.	The server must	write a	newline-terminated "ok"	if the
	      scan completed successfully, or "error: msg" if  something  went
	      wrong.

       relayok ip_addr hostname	client_port daemon_ip daemon_port
	      Test  whether  or	 not to	accept a connection from the specified
	      host.  The server	must write "ok 1" if we	will accept  the  con-
	      nection,	or "ok 0 error_message code dsn" if not.  It can indi-
	      cate a temporary failure by writing "ok  -1  error_message  code
	      dsn".   Note  that  even	if the connection is accepted, a later
	      scan can still reject  the  message  based  on  other  criteria.
	      "ip_addr"	 is  the IP address of the relay and "hostname"	is the
	      hostname (if it could be determined; otherwise, the  IP  address
	      in square	brackets).

       helook ip_addr hostname helo_string client_port daemon_ip daemon_port
	      Test whether or not to accept the	HELO/EHLO command.  The	server
	      must  write  "ok 1" if we	will accept the	mail attempt, or "ok 0
	      error_message code dsn" if not.  "ok -1 error_message code  dsn"
	      indicates	 a  temporary failure.	helo_string is the argument to
	      the HELO/EHLO command.  The remaining arguments  have  the  same
	      meaning as in relayok.

       senderok	sender_addr ip_addr hostname helo_string dir queue_id
       [esmtp_args...]

	      Test  whether  or	 not to	accept mail from the specified sender.
	      The server must write "ok	1" if we will accept the mail attempt,
	      or "ok 0 error_message code dsn" if not.	"ok  -1	 error_message
	      code  dsn" indicates a temporary failure.	 Note that even	if the
	      sender is	accepted, a later scan can still  reject  the  message
	      based  on	 other criteria.  "sender_addr"	is the sender's	e-mail
	      address. The "ip_addr" and "hostname" arguments are  as  in  re-
	      layok.  "helo_string" is the argument to the SMTP	HELO/EHLO com-
	      mand. "dir" is the MIMEDefang spool directory, and "queue_id" is
	      the Sendmail queue identifier.

	      The optional "esmtp_args"	are  space-separated,  percent-encoded
	      ESMTP arguments supplied with the	MAIL FROM: command.

       recipok recip_addr sender_addr ip_addr hostname first_recip helo_string
       dir queue_id [esmtp_args...]
	      Test  whether or not to accept mail for the specified recipient.
	      The server must write "ok	1" if we will accept it, or "ok	0  er-
	      ror_message code dsn" if not.  ok	-1 error_message code dsn" in-
	      dicates a	temporary-failure.

	      "recip_addr"  is	the  argument  to  the	RCPT  TO: command, and
	      "first_recip" is the argument to the first RCPT TO: command  for
	      this message.  Other arguments are as in senderok.

       map map_name key
	      If  you are using	a map socket (the -N option to mimedefang-mul-
	      tiplexor), then the server should	look up	the key	key in the map
	      map_name.	 The server should print a  single  line  to  standard
	      output.	The  first  word on the	line should be one of OK, NOT-
	      FOUND, TEMP, TIMEOUT or PERM, indicating	a  successful  lookup,
	      absence  of  the key, a temporary	failure, a timeout or a	perma-
	      nent failure, respectively.  This	should be followed by a	 space
	      and  a  percent-encoded string representing the value of the key
	      (if it was found)	or an optional	error  message	(if  something
	      went wrong.)

       tick band
	      The  filter should run filter_tick with the specified band argu-
	      ment.  It	should print a single line to standard output:

	      tock band

       Additional Commands
	      The filter can define a function filter_unknown_cmd that can ex-
	      tend the list of server commands.	 If you	do this, make sure all
	      of your commands start with an upper-case	letter to  avoid  con-
	      flicts if	more built-in commands are defined in the future.

       SERVER REPLIES

	      The reply	codes are:

       ok [return_code]	[parameters]
	      The  operation  completed	successfully.  Some operations have an
	      associated return	code, and possibly other parameters  as	 well.
	      See the source code for the gory details.

       error: Message
	      The operation failed.  Message may give additional details.

       In server mode, you should not write anything to	standard output	except
       reply  codes,  or the multiplexor will become confused.	You should not
       terminate the program in	server mode; simply echo an error:  reply  and
       return to the server loop.

       When  you  send a reply code back to the	multiplexor, be	sure to	termi-
       nate it with a newline, and to flush standard output.  If your  program
       uses the	Standard I/O library, standard output may not be flushed imme-
       diately,	 and mimedefang-multiplexor will wait forever for the filter's
       reply, and eventually kill the filter on	the assumption it has hung up.

       In server mode, if the filter program receives a	SIGINT signal, it must
       terminate.  This	is used	by mimedefang-multiplexor to terminate workers
       after they have processed a given number	of e-mail messages.

AUTHOR
       mimedefang was written by Dianne	Skoll  <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>.   The
       mimedefang home page is http://www.mimedefang.org/.

SEE ALSO
       mimedefang.pl(8), mimedefang(8),	mimedefang-multiplexor(8), mimedefang-
       filter(5)

4th Berkeley Distribution	8 February 2005		MIMEDEFANG-PROTOCOL(7)

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