Let's get started. I'll use the user called 'generic.' Make sure to put your own info in when required. Copy and paste the commands.

generic@froody:~> mkdir -p ~/.tmda/lists
generic@froody:~> mkdir -p ~/.tmda/filters
        creates the main tmda directory in your home directory.
        creates the lists directory, where you store your whitelist,
        blacklists, etc.
        creates the filters directory, where you store your incoming,
	outgoing filters.
        tmda logs, the pending queue, configuration lists for
        incoming and outgoing mail will go here

generic@froody:~> touch .procmailrc-tmda
        creates an empty procmailrc just for tmda

generic@froody:~> touch .procmailrc 
        if you don't have one already

generic@froody:~> touch .tmda/config
        creates an empty config file for tmda

generic@froody:~> touch ~/.tmda/lists/whitelist
generic@froody:~> touch ~/.tmda/lists/whitelist_confirmed
generic@froody:~> touch ~/.tmda/lists/whitelist_wildcards
generic@froody:~> touch ~/.tmda/lists/blacklist

generic@froody:~> touch .tmda/filters/outgoing
        creates empty outgoing filter file

generic@froody:~> touch .tmda/filters/incoming
        creates empty incoming filter file

If you have not setup procmail yet, you *MUST* set that up first. See Rupture Procmail for information. If you need more help with procmail, email the admin.

generic@froody:~> cd
generic@froody:~> cp /root/tmda/rupture.config .tmda/config
generic@froody:~> chmod 600 .tmda/config
        makes nice permissions on that file.  you can edit it, but
	nobody else can even look at it.

Now you need a KEY to do the magic.

generic@froody:~> tmda-keygen -b > .tmda/crypt_key
generic@froody:~> chmod 600 .tmda/crypt_key

You might want to change some things in ~/.tmda/config, including your FULLNAME:

generic@froody:~> pico .tmda/config

# FULLNAME = "Your Name"

-->

FULLNAME = "Roberto Clemente"

See /usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/TMDA/Defaults.py for all possible config items. One especially nice trick is to add spammers to your blacklist when their messages are deleted by tmda-pending. This means that future messages from this sender will be automatically dropped without going through the confirmation process. If you want to do this, uncomment this line in ~/.tmda/config :

# PENDING_DELETE_APPEND = os.path.expanduser("~/.tmda/lists/blacklist")

-->

PENDING_DELETE_APPEND = os.path.expanduser("~/.tmda/lists/blacklist")

Now create the incoming and outgoing filter files.

generic@froody:~> cd
generic@froody:~> cp /usr/local/share/doc/tmda/contrib/rupture.incoming .tmda/filters/incoming
generic@froody:~> cp /usr/local/share/doc/tmda/contrib/rupture.outgoing .tmda/filters/outgoing

Feel free to edit those files. They might prove confusing - don't touch anything you're not sure about. A good idea might be to copy/paste lines to copy the sytax. Ie, in .tmda/filters/incoming, make:

# Accept all messages from rupture.net
from *@=rupture.net ok

-->

# Accept all messages from rupture.net
from *@=rupture.net ok
from *@=bighoser.com ok
from *@=bbglovepuppet.com ok
from *@=flavorj.com ok

This lets users @ bighoser.com, bbglovepuppet.com, and flavorj.com send email to you without require confirmation.

The outgoing filters are only required if you want to send dated emails. They're not enabled by default, and you probably don't want to mess with them. At least not at first. They're also only for use with terminal-based mail clients like pine, or mutt. If you use TWIG or a desktop mail client (Outlook Express, Entourage), these are not for you.

Now you should edit at ~/.tmda/lists/whitelist and make sure you really want all those people to send you unconfirmed emails.

If you sort ~/mail/* into subfolders, cd into those subfolders and run the collectaddys script >> ~/.tmda/lists/whitelist from there too.

Now import the rc.tmda file for procmail:

generic@froody:~> cp /root/tmda/rupture.procmail.tmda.rc .procmail/rc.tmda

Now edit your .procmailrc-tmda file you created in the beginning:

DEFAULT=$HOME/mbox

If you followed the Procmail Setup Instructions and have your ~/.procmailrc and ~/.procmail/rc.tmda files in place, edit ~/.procmailrc and allow rc.tmda to run:

#INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.tmda

-->

INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.tmda

This is also covered in the Procmail Setup Instructions. Make sure that rc.tmda is the last INCLUDERC file included. It goes at the VERY END because you want procmail to do whatever procmail does FIRST before hand-off to TMDA. For example, this lets you sort all your list mail to inboxes before TMDA gets involved. It also means, however, that you will need to specify rules for all your mailing list. Otherwise, all hell is likely to break loose. Every mailing list email will get a confirm request, and people on the list will not stand for that. Be careful that your mailing list email is properly sorted first. See the Rupture Procmail page for comprehensive help.

Next, make sure you don't have a ~/.forward file:

generic@froody:~> mv .forward .crap.forward

With procmail as our Local Delivery Agent, a .forward pointing things to procmail actually breaks stuff.

You're filtering mail with TMDA now.

Should something go wrong, remove the .procmailrc file, or mv it to something else like .procmailrc-busted-as-shit.

How do you know if something goes wrong? Look at the logs.

generic@froody:~> tail ~/.tmda/debug.log
generic@froody:~> tail ~/.tmda/incoming.log

Date: Sat Apr 6 13:19:16 EST 2002
Sndr: error-1-2231807-126-643037@staff.theuseful.com
From: Casino Elegance 
  To: generic@rupture.net
Subj: Deposit $1 and get $30 Free Cash
Actn: CONFIRM pending 1018117156.14975.msg 

You never had to see that message. It is pending CONFIRMation from the sender, which will never happen. Ie you dodged a bullet of spam.

You can also keep track of all the spam attempts. Run tmda-pending and see what you have:

generic@froody:~> tmda-pending

1018375599.60935.msg (13 of 20 / 4009 bytes)
  >> Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 13:41:07 -0400
  >> From: Unitek 
  >>   To: generic@rupture.net
  >> Subj: Get MCSE & MCSA certified in 14 days!  GUARANTEED!!
([p]ass / [s]how / [r]elease / [d]elete / [q]uit) [pass]: 

Pass means leave it be. If you think there is a chance this is a legitimate message and the sender will confirm, choose to pass.
Show means to view the message. After you view it and have a better idea of whether or not it is valid, you get the same choices again.
Release means to let the message through to your inbox. Do this if it is a legitimate robot sender who won't confirm the email yet you want it to get through to your mailbox. You can then add the sender's address to your whitelist manually or set up a procmail rule to catch it.
Delete means to just delete the message. Do this if you're confident it is junk. If you delete a message before the sender has a chance to confirm it, they will receive an error messsage and need to go through the confirmation process again upon the next email they send you.
Quit means to quit the tmda-pending program.

But the point is not to see these spams! If you reach the point where you're comnfident all pending messages are spam, you can delete them all:

generic@froody:~> tmda-pending -b -d

Or, just delete the messages that have been pending for more than 10 days or so (It might make sense to put this in your crontab):

generic@froody:~> tmda-pending -q -b -d -O 10d

Cron is tricky. Please see Rupture Cron for more information. Once you've read that, make this your crontab:

# my happy cron jobs
PATH="/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/home/generic/bin"
30 3 * * * tmda-pending -q -b -d -O 14d
30 15 * * * tmda-pending -C -b -s | mail -E -s 'TMDA pending summary'
generic+keyword+summary.XXXXXX@rupture.net > /dev/null 2>&1

The second entry will send you a summary of new pending messages at 3:30PM daily. Make sure that this entry is all on one line. Also, you should probably use a keyword address as the recipient. Ie from the command line, do:

generic@froody:~> tmda-address -k summary
generic+keyword+summary.XXXXXX@rupture.net
generic@froody:~> 

Insert this keyword address in the crontab entry above. Using a keyword recipient will ensure that the pending summary gets through to your mailbox. You can also try 'tmda-pending -h | more' or 'tmda-address -h | more' to see all the options. You can do a lot of cool stuff with it.