confusing spam rules

[Kai Wang]

Hello,

We plan to use MailScanner to tag the spam messages. After
a few tests, I found the spam rules in MailScanner are very
confusing.

    In /etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Is Definitely Not Spam = /etc/MailScanner/rules/spam.whitelist.rules

    Is Definitely Spam = /etc/MailScanner/rules/spam.blacklist.rules

1) Domain name does not match but ip address matches

    I configured a host name in
/etc/MailScanner/rules/spam.blacklist.rules
    and sent a message from the machine, the message did not match the
rule.
    Then I replaced the hostname with its IP address and sent the same
    message again from the same machine, it matched the spam rule.

    cat /etc/MailScanner/rules/spam.whitelist.rules
    FromTo: default         no

    cat /etc/MailScanner/rules/spam.blacklist.rules
    From:     /lms5.acs.ucalgary.ca/   yes
    FromTo: default                 no

2) wildcard(*) sometimes works, sometimes not

    The black list rule "To: fs50*@ucalgary.ca yes" does not match
    a message to fs501 at ucalgary.ca. But the black list rule "From:
    fs50*@ucalgary.ca yes" matches a message from fs501 at ucalgary.ca.

Thanks
Kai Wang