Right, you can make an entire word optional by "grouping" it (enclosing it in parentheses) and marking the group as optional by tacking a question mark on the end. In your case (a single character) it is better to use one of the other examples where you mark either a character class that only matches a space "[ ]?" or just the space itself " ?" as optional.
You can use groupings to denote alternates as well (this is where they become quite useful), such as: body LOCAL_FREE_DRUGS /(free|cheap)\s+(drugs|herbs)/i which matches "free drugs" "cheap drugs" "free herbs" "cheap herbs" In perl, a grouping that starts with "?:" doesn't capture the matching text. You basically can't do anything with captured matches in SpamAssassin, so add the ?: to reduce overhead: body LOCAL_FREE_DRUGS /(?:free|cheap)\s+(?:drugs|herbs)/i HTH -- Chris Thielen Easily generate SpamAssassin rules to catch obfuscated spam phrases: http://www.sandgnat.com/cmos/ ian douglas said: >> did you mean: >> rawbody W98_UNSUBSCRIBE4 /prefer not to(?: )?see/i >> Better yet: >> rawbody W98_UNSUBSCRIBE4 /prefer not to[ ]?see/i >> or even: >> rawbody W98_UNSUBSCRIBE4 /prefer not to ?see/i > > Ah, didn't know I needed a trailing ? after the set of parentheses, I > thought the syntax was only (?:MatchSomethingThatMayOrMayNotBeHere) > > So I should have it as > > (?:MatchSomethingThatMayOrMayNotBeHere)? > > then? > > -id ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive? Does it help you create better code? SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help YOU! Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/ _______________________________________________ Spamassassin-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spamassassin-talk
