E-Mail-Filterung auf altmodische Art

Before Getting Things Done and Inbox Zero, before graphical email programs were common — before web browsers were common, if you can imagine that — the average internet user actually had more control over their email environment than most do now. That level of control is only now beginning to reappear, with smart automated filters and so forth — but we would do well to learn from history.

The most common mail filtering program on unix-like systems was (and still is) procmail, which has been around since at least 1990. A procmail rules file looks like line noise (something else today’s users are largely unaware of), and there’s a steep learning curve, but it was (and still is) very powerful. Rather than a full tutorial, though, I’ll just list some of the features that are still missing from most email software today.

First, and perhaps most importantly, procmail operates at delivery time — either before the SMTP conversation is complete, or between the mail receiving process and storing the message in the user’s inbox. Contrast this with desktop mail software that can’t apply filters until it downloads the message, or some webmail clients where filters don’t run until the user logs in.