Removing the Spam is not really about spam (junk email). The subtitle "email processing and filtering" is far more accurate, as the book covers general email processing using some popular Unix software tools. The opening chapter provides a brief history of electronic mail and an introduction to how it works; three chapters then cover sendmail, procmail, and mailing lists (Majordomo and SmartList).

Installation, configuration, and basic operation are covered for each of the tools. The chapter on procmail, for example, describes how to obtain, build, and install it. It then describes basic .procmailrc syntax and offers some examples of what can be implemented with procmail, such as auto-responders and file-servers — and spam filters.

Removing the Spam will be a useful guide for Unix administrators and power users who use the tools it covers.

June 1999

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