# Adding and Modifying a List Rule

Inbound processing Rules can be used to sort incoming mail messages for a list server mailing list. processing rules for a list are stored in the rules.ima file, which is located in IMail Top Directory\listname.

## Adding a New List Rule

1. From the Field box, select the field that you want the rule to search. You can select from (Subject, To, From, Sender, Header and Body).

2. Select contains to have the processing rule look for messages that contain the search text. Select does not contain to look for messages that do not contain the search text.

3. To enter search text, you can either enter it into the PHRASE text box as described below, or specify an external file that contains the search text you want to use.

Enter the search text by doing one or more of the following:

- Enter the literal text (up to 255 characters) that you want to search for. For example, if you want to find the word jazz, type: jazz

- Type search expressions and quantifiers as shown in Text Patterns.

- Paste a portion of a mail message that meets your search criteria. For example, you could copy and paste text such as "XMSMailPriority(High)" from the header of a message; this would search for High priority messages.

4. Select Search string from file if you have placed the search text in an external text file. The list box contains all of the existing rule files, if any.

5. Turn on Case Sensitive Match to search for text that matches the case of the search text. To ignore case, clear Case Sensitive Match.

6. Click Add Condition. The condition that you just created is added to the rule and is displayed in the Rule text box.

7. Specify what will be done with messages meeting the rule criteria by choosing one of the following options:

- Send the message to a mailbox. Select Move the message to this mailbox. Then, in the text box to the right of this option, enter the name of the mailbox to which messages meeting the rule criteria will be sent. If you enter a mailbox that does not exist, one will be created for the user on the IMail Server system. A POP3 user will see this mailbox only if he logs on to this mailbox using the format userid-mailbox. By default, if nothing is entered in this text box, messages meeting the rule criteria will be sent to the user's Main mailbox.

- Send the message to an address. Select Forward the message to. Then, in the text box to the right of this option, enter the e-mail address, of the person or list, to which messages meeting the rule criteria will be sent. You must enter the full e-mail address, such as Fred@domain1.com.

- Delete the message. Select Delete the message to delete the message.

- Deliver the message and copy to an additional mailbox. Select Copy to deliver the message to its intended recipient as well as copy it to an additional mailbox that you specify in the Address text box.

- Send a Bounce message to sender. Select Bounce to send a message back to the sender informing them that the message was not processed.

Note: The above options cannot be combined, you must choose only one.

8. If this is the only condition you want the rule to have, click Finish and the rule will be activated. If you want to add more conditions, read the next section.

## Adding Multiple Conditions

To add more than one condition to a rule, create the first condition by following steps 1 through 6 above and then click either the "Insert AND" or the "Insert OR" button. Create the second condition as you did the first, then proceed with steps 7 and 8.

## Modifying an Existing List Rule

1. To edit an existing processing rule, select the rule from the Rules text box. The previously grayed out options will display the settings for the selected rule.

2. Edit the rule as desired and click Update Rule. Click Finish to save your changes.

## Deleting a Condition

To delete any single condition or line from the Rule text box, select the line to delete and click Remove.

## Changing the Processing Order of Conditions

Conditions are processed in the order that they appear from top to bottom, as boolean expressions. To change the processing order of a condition, select the condition in the Rule text box and click either Move Up or Move Down.

Related Topics

Rule Syntax

Overview of processing Rules