macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install bogofilterlocal Homebrew formula metadata
MacPortsverified · 94%
sudo port install bogofilterMacPorts ports tree · mail/bogofilter/Portfile · source: api.github.com
brew
Install bogofilter with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper
Mail filter via statistical analysis. Version 1.2.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Alpine Linux apkverified · 92%
sudo apk add bogofilterAlpine Linux edge package indexes · bogofilter · source: dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org
Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install bogofilterDebian stable package indexes · bogofilter · source: deb.debian.org
Fedora dnfverified · 92%
sudo dnf install bogofilterFedora Rawhide package metadata · bogofilter · source: dl.fedoraproject.org
Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#bogofilternixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/bo/bogofilter/package.nix · source: api.github.com
Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%
sudo pacman -S bogofilter-dbArch Linux sync databases · bogofilter-db · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com
openSUSE zypperverified · 92%
sudo zypper install bogofilter-dbopenSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · bogofilter-db · source: download.opensuse.org
overview
Package summary
Mail filter via statistical analysis
Project links
Commands and aliases
- bf_compact
- bf_copy
- bf_tar
- bogofilter
- bogolexer
- bogotune
- bogoupgrade
- bogoutil
history
Project history and usage
Bogofilter is a fast C-based Bayesian mail filter that classifies messages as spam or ham by statistical analysis of message headers and body text.
Project history
Bogofilter appeared during the early-2000s wave of Bayesian spam filtering. Its official home page credits Eric S. Raymond with the initial version and says that, since 2002, David Relson, Matthias Andree, Greg Louis, and other open source volunteers brought it to maturity.
The project explicitly roots its statistical approach in Paul Graham's 2002 article on Bayesian spam filtering and Gary Robinson's refinements, including the Fisher inverse chi-square technique. The man page describes further practical engineering: MIME decoding, HTML parsing, token handling for hosts and IP addresses, and production-oriented database lookups.
The release history shows a long maintenance arc from the 1.2.x line into 1.3.0 release candidates. Recent entries include the 2019 Git repository conversion, maintenance after David Relson's death, C99 cleanup, SQLite3 driver work, and the 2025 decision to make SQLite3 the default database driver.
Adoption history
Bogofilter was adopted by Unix mail users who wanted a local, trainable spam classifier that could plug into delivery agents and desktop mail clients. The official home page names KMail, Evolution, Claws Mail, maildrop, and procmail-style integration as usage surfaces.
Its package reach is broad for a mail-filtering utility: the input package facts list Alpine, Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Ubuntu, and openSUSE packaging. That distribution spread reflects how Bayesian filtering became normal infrastructure for local mail setups before hosted mail spam filtering took over much of the mainstream market.
How it is used
Common usage is pipeline-oriented: feed a message to `bogofilter`, inspect its spam, ham, or unsure result, and train it with known spam and non-spam examples. Companion tools such as `bogoutil`, `bogotune`, `bogolexer`, and database copy/compact helpers support training, tuning, inspection, and migration.
The man page emphasizes script-friendly behavior, including terse modes, passthrough headers, bulk processing, explicit registration as spam or non-spam, and configuration options for wordlists and database directories.
Why package nerds care
Bogofilter is package-nerd significant because it captures a specific era of open source mail culture: local Unix mail delivery, procmail/maildrop recipes, Berkeley DB wordlists, and statistical filtering that users trained themselves.
It is also an example of a mature C utility where packaging choices matter. Database backend support, Unicode and MIME handling, config-file defaults, and migration tooling all directly affect whether an upgrade preserves a user's trained corpus.
Timeline
- 2002: Initial Bogofilter work by Eric S. Raymond is followed by maturation by David Relson, Matthias Andree, Greg Louis, and volunteers.
- 2003: Paul Graham's later Bayesian filtering work and Gary Robinson's refinements are reflected in Bogofilter's documented algorithmic approach.
- 2013: Matthias Andree becomes maintainer after David Relson's long maintainership.
- 2019: The source repository is converted to Git; Bogofilter 1.2.5 is released.
- 2024: 1.3.0 beta work resumes with Unicode, lexer, and corruption fixes.
- 2025: 1.3.0 release candidates make SQLite3 the default database driver.
Related projects
- Related projects include SpamAssassin, DSPAM, CRM114, procmail, maildrop, KMail, Evolution, and Claws Mail. Bogofilter occupies the small, fast, user-trained filter niche rather than the rule-heavy network-scored niche associated with SpamAssassin.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
- Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 10 platform targets.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
/etc/bogofilter.cf~/.bogofilter.cf
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
bf_compact | cli | global executable | |
bf_copy | cli | global executable | |
bf_tar | cli | global executable | |
bogofilter | cli | global executable | |
bogolexer | cli | global executable | |
bogotune | cli | global executable | |
bogoupgrade | cli | global executable | |
bogoutil | cli | global executable |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-07-08
manager version1.2.5
manager updated
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected
https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io
- infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
- infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://bogofilter.sourceforge.ionone confidence
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:bogofilter |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.2.5 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Package manager page | https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/bogofilter |
| Homepage | https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io |
| Repository | https://gitlab.com/bogofilter/bogofilter |
| Upstream docs | https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io/ |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later AND GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Source archive | https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bogofilter/bogofilter-stable/bogofilter-1.2.5.tar.xz |
| Uses from macOS | sqlite |
| Bottle | available (on arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux) |
| Homebrew post-install | not defined |
| Service | none declared |
registry facts
Source database details
| Source Database | Homebrew formula API |
|---|---|
| Tap | homebrew/core |
| Full Name | bogofilter |
| Version Scheme | 0 |
| Revision | 0 |
| Bottle Stable Root URL | https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core |
| Deprecated | no |
| Disabled | no |
| Keg Only | no |
| URL Keys |
|
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Debian apt95%
bogofilter 1.2.5-1+b4
fast Bayesian spam filter (meta package)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter- Section: mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 3 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Debian apt95%
bogofilter-bdb 1.2.5-1+b4
fast Bayesian spam filter (Berkeley DB)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-bdb- Section: mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 4 dependencies
- 1 provides
- 1 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Debian apt95%
bogofilter-common 1.2.5-1+b4
fast Bayesian spam filter (common files)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-common- Section: mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 1 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Debian apt95%
bogofilter-sqlite 1.2.5-1+b4
fast Bayesian spam filter (sqlite)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-sqlite- Section: mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 4 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Debian apt95%
bogofilter-tokyocabinet 1.2.5-1+b4
fast Bayesian spam filter (tokyocabinet)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-tokyocabinet- Section: mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 4 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Nix95%
bogofilter
nix profile install nixpkgs#bogofilter- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Ubuntu apt95%
bogofilter 1.2.5-1build4
fast Bayesian spam filter (meta package)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter- Section: universe/mail
- Architecture: amd64
- 3 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Ubuntu apt95%
bogofilter-bdb 1.2.5-1build4
fast Bayesian spam filter (Berkeley DB)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-bdb- Section: universe/mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 4 dependencies
- 1 provides
- 1 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Ubuntu apt95%
bogofilter-common 1.2.5-1build4
fast Bayesian spam filter (common files)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-common- Section: universe/mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 1 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
Ubuntu apt95%
bogofilter-sqlite 1.2.5-1build4
fast Bayesian spam filter (sqlite)
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo apt install bogofilter-sqlite- Section: universe/mail
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 4 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
apk95%
bogofilter 1.2.5-r4
Fast Bayesian spam filter
https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io/
sudo apk add bogofilter- License: GPL-2.0-or-later
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 1 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
apk95%
bogofilter-doc 1.2.5-r4
Fast Bayesian spam filter (documentation)
https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io/
sudo apk add bogofilter-doc- License: GPL-2.0-or-later
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
dnf95%
bogofilter 1.2.5-22.fc44
Fast anti-spam filtering by Bayesian statistical analysis
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo dnf install bogofilter- License: GPL-2.0-only
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 8 dependencies
- 2 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
dnf95%
bogofilter-bogoupgrade 1.2.5-22.fc44
Upgrades bogofilter database to current version
http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/
sudo dnf install bogofilter-bogoupgrade- License: GPL-2.0-only
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: bogofilter
- 3 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
pacman95%
bogofilter-db 1.2.5-12
A fast Bayesian spam filtering tool - Berkeley DB v5.3 backend
https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io/
sudo pacman -S bogofilter-db- License: GPL-2.0-or-later
- Architecture: x86_64
- 5 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
pacman95%
bogofilter-kyotocabinet 1.2.5-12
A fast Bayesian spam filtering tool - Kyotocabinet DB backend
https://bogofilter.sourceforge.io/
sudo pacman -S bogofilter-kyotocabinet- License: GPL-2.0-or-later
- Architecture: x86_64
- 5 dependencies
- 1 provides
- 1 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Bogofilter
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- av.db category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- package relationship graph
- package version freshness
- package-page enrichment