[wellylug] email virus scanners

[Jim Cheetham]

On Thu, Dec 28, 2006 at 10:53:48AM +1300, Cliff Pratt wrote:
> If you still want to scan for viruses, (and this *may* become necessary 
> if Linux is ever targetted by virus writers), then one thing you can do 
> is pick up your mail with 'fetchmail' and feed it to your own local 
> server running postfix, exim, or even (for the masochists) sendmail. 
> Then you can scan with AVG as the mail comes in, before it is delivered 
> to your (local) mail box.
> 
Feeding "delivered" email into an MTA for re-delivery is an inherently
risky task; email that came *to* you but did not have your name on the
message headers (for example, mailing lists like this) can be easily
bounced back to the originator by accident.

So just make sure that you read all the warnings in the readme files :-)
Also consider alternatives to fetchmail like getmail; the prevalance or
fetchmail is based on two main factors; age and ESR's reputation.

(Having said all that, I use fetchmail myself, so it can't be all that
bad!)

-jim