Routing Discarded Messages Out the FILTER_DISCARD Channel

By default, messages discarded via a mailbox filter are immediately discarded (deleted) from the system. However, when users are first setting up mailbox filters (and perhaps making mistakes), or for debugging purposes, it can be useful to have the deletion operation delayed for a period.

To have mailbox filter discarded messages temporarily retained on the system for later deletion, first add a filter_discard channel to your MTA configuration with the notices channel keyword specifying the length of time (normally number of days) to retain the messages before deleting them, as shown in the following example:

filter_discard notices 7
FILTER-DISCARD

Then set the option FILTER_DISCARD=2 in the MTA option file. Messages in the filter_discard queue area should be considered to be in an extension of users’ personal wastebasket folders. As such, note that warning messages are never sent for messages in the filter_discard queue area, nor are such messages returned to their senders when a bounce or return is requested. Rather, the only action taken for such messages is to eventually silently delete them, either when the final notices value expires, or if a manual bounce is requested using a utility such as imsimta return.

Prior to Messaging Server 6 2004Q2, the use of the filter_discard channel by the jettison Sieve action was controlled by the FILTER_DISCARD MTA option. This is now controlled by the option FILTER_JETTISON, which takes its default from the FILTER_DISCARD setting. FILTER_DISCARD in turn defaults to 1 (discards go to the bitbucket channel).