Spamassassin conf files and MailScanner?

[Jan-Peter Koopmann]

Hi,

Hi,

> * /opt/MailScanner/etc/spam.assassin.prefs.conf  (your file)

This is the only realy important file. If you are using SpamAssassin
tools besides MailScanner then you should take a look at this a bit
more. I run a site-wide installation and linked my
spam.assassin.prefs.conf to local.cf e.g.

> * the /.spamassassin directory in root, which SA recreates if it
>   is removed, and contains .pag and .dir files.  For 2.52 there
>   is also bayes_msgcount as well as the DB files.  If I have a
>   user_prefs file in this directory, is it used?  Should I put
>   changes there?

The user_prefs file should not be used with MailScanner AFAIK.

> * /etc/mail/spamassassin directory, where I found a local.cf file
>   that I put there at one time.

As I said: That is the one I linked to spam.assassin.prefs.conf. I then
put all my relevant directives there. This is helpful here since I have
to run sa-learn etc. from time to time and I want it to use the same
directives.

> Q. How can I tell that the Bayes learning stuff is working right
>    for SA 2.5x?

Are you seeing BAYES_ scores in your Header/Logs (assuming you turned
the SpamScore on)? Do a

check_bayes_db -db pathtoyourdbfiles 

And have a look at the number of spam/ham messages in the bayes db. You
should really use DB_files btw. and either use the latest MailScanner
code or get rid of the use AnyDBM_File statement (I do not remember the
exact location and wording, look in the mailinglist-archives for that)
in on of the /opt/MailScanner/lib/MailScanner files.

> Q. My /.spamassassin directory has a huge 70 MB 
> auto-whitelist.pag file in it that grows over time.  Is this 
> a bad thing (assuming it
> doesn't fill up my root partition)?    Does it get zeroed out by
> MS occasionally, like at reboot or the four hour restart interval?
> Should I zero it out by hand?

To be honest I am not sure if SA shrinks the autowhitelist from time to
time. With SA 2.52 they managed to get this working for the Bayes DB but
for the autowhitelist I am not sure. Two questions/remarks though:

1. Why is this called .pag? What database format are you using?
2. root partition????? Files like this really should be in /var
somewhere and not in /. At least not for site wide installations. You
might try things like

auto_whitelist_path        /var/spool/spamassassin/auto-whitelist
auto_whitelist_file_mode   0666
                
bayes_path                 /var/spool/spamassassin/bayes
bayes_file_mode            0666

auto_learn 1    

use_bayes 1

in your SA config.

> Senior UNIX Sysadmin and Email Guru

I have to remember that... :-)


Regards,
  JP