How Rules are Stored and Processed

All inbound rules are stored in the rules.ima file. Since inbound rules can be created for mail domains, users, and mailing lists, there can be multiple rules.ima files on your IMail Server. The location of the rules.ima file differs depending on whether the rule is for a mail domain, a user, or a list server mailing list.

Outbound delivery rules are stored in the orules.ima file. Since outbound rules can only be created for mail domains, the orules.ima file is located in the mail domain's folder. If you have more than one mail domain on your IMail Server, you may have multiple orules.ima files, one file for each host.

IMail Server reads the rules.ima and orules.ima files during the delivery process. The rule files for the virtual domain are evaluated first, then the rules for users and lists. For more information, see IMail Processing Order.

Any rules.ima or orules.ima file can be copied to other directories. For example, if you create inbound delivery rules for one user, you can copy the rules.ima file to the directories of other users to apply the same rules to them.

Related Topics

Overview of Mail Delivery Rules

Storing Search Strings in an External Text File