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Great--that's exactly what I wanted to know. To make sure I'm interpreting it right, are the following both correct? 1) A vacation message is sent in response to spam as well as non-spam, and 2) If a user has chosen the preference to redirect spam to the SPAM mailbox, those spam messages will still be processed by any filters the user has set up. Thanks. At 01:57 PM 7/8/2005, m. kolb wrote: >Chris Wolf <[log in to unmask]> writes: > >> Could someone from the mail team document for us the order in which >> various parts of the mail processing are carried out for incoming >> mail? This would include: >> >> Virus blocking >> (Auto)Forwarding >> Blocked Domains >> Blocked Senders >> SPAM processing >> Vacation message >> Filters >> [Any others I've forgotten?] >> >> At each stage it would be important to know whether a message that is >> acted upon in that stage then leaves the processing stream, or if it >> continues on to the next stage. >> > >1. Virus scan: > If a virus is found the message does not get delivered (it in fact is > rejected during the data ACL of the SMTP transaction). Otherwise, > the message goes to step 2. > >2. Forward (from the preferences menu): > This is "forward file forwarding." If your forward file is not > empty (you set it on the preferences page in webmail), the message is > sent to the forwarding address without further processing. If the > forward file is empty or non-existant, processing continues with step > 3. > > >3. Blocked Domains: > If the domain of a sender matches one of the blocked domains in your > webmail "blocked domains" preference, the message is delivered to > /dev/null, at which point, obviously the delivery process is ended. > If the domain does not match one of those in your "blocked domains" > it continues to step 4. > >4. Blocked/Trusted Senders: > Very similar to step 3. > >5. Vacation: > Regardless of whether or not you have your vacation message turned > on, delivery continues. > >6. Spam Assassin: > There are no drops that happen here, message delivery continues. > >7. Filters (set up via webmail): > This is the last step before delivery. Obviously a variety of things > can happen here, including forwarding to a different address. > >> I tried to find this information on line but could not. Having this >> documented would allow us to answer user questions like "If I forward >> my mail, is it still checked for viruses and spam by MSU?" > >I know these are just examples, but I decided to answer them anyway. > >It will be scanned for viruses, but not checked by Spam Assassin via the >"forward file" mechanism. However, if you have your SPAM filtering or >flagging turned on and you forward via a filter, it will be scanned. > > >> "Will my vacation message go to every single message that is addressed >> to me?". > >Only once per week per sender. That is, say you turn on your vacation >message on Monday the 18th: >1. On Tuesday the 19th [log in to unmask] sends you a message. >2. [log in to unmask] immediately receives a copy of your vacation message. >3. On Friday the 22nd [log in to unmask] forgets and sends you another >message. He does not receive the vacation message. >4. On Wednesday the 27th, [log in to unmask] sends you another message, >this time (as it is greater than a week) he gets your vacation message >again. > >> I think some individual questions like this have been discussed here >> in the past, but the full processing sequence has never been >> documented. Thanks. > >No problem. I will talk with the proper people about having this >documented at http://help.msu.edu/ > >./muk > >-- >m. kolb <[log in to unmask]> --Chris ============================================== Chris Wolf Computer Service Manager Agricultural Economics [log in to unmask] Michigan State University 517 353-5017