Bayes Rebuild not happening

[David Lee]

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:

> [...]
> The logs show these 3 lines each day roughly 24-27 hours apart (it seems
> to be happenning later each night):
> Mar 23 02:47:00 scotty MailScanner[7751]: Bayes database rebuild is due
> Mar 23 02:47:01 scotty MailScanner[7751]: SpamAssassin Bayes database rebuild preparing
> Mar 23 02:47:01 scotty MailScanner[7751]: SpamAssassin Bayes database rebuild starting
>
>
> But expiry doesn't appear to be happening:
>
> # sa-learn --dump magic -p /opt/MailScanner/etc/spam.assassin.prefs.conf
> 0.000          0          2          0  non-token data: bayes db version
> 0.000          0      14458          0  non-token data: nspam
> 0.000          0      31835          0  non-token data: nham
> 0.000          0     272940          0  non-token data: ntokens
> 0.000          0 1075925447          0  non-token data: oldest atime
> 0.000          0 1080071560          0  non-token data: newest atime
> 0.000          0 1080070932          0  non-token data: last journal sync atime
> 0.000          0 1079477438          0  non-token data: last expiry atime
> 0.000          0     345600          0  non-token data: last expire atime delta
> 0.000          0       1515          0  non-token data: last expire reduction count
> [...]
>
> Any ideas? Anyone else seen this?

I think I might have tracked it and fixed it.

This problem had been puzzling us, too.  I had been working around it by
periodic "sa-learn --rebuild --force-expire" done manually (others have
worked around it with a cron job).

Earlier today, I copied the "eval" change from Julian's recent beta
(4.29.6-1) and applied it to our production version (4.26.8).  This
revealed log entries:
   Mar 26 09:49:01 mailrelay1 MailScanner[11548]: SpamAssassin Bayes database rebuild preparing
   Mar 26 09:49:01 mailrelay1 MailScanner[11548]: SpamAssassin Bayes database rebuild starting
   Mar 26 09:49:01 mailrelay1 MailScanner[11548]: SpamAssassin Bayes database rebuild failed with error: Can't call method "sync" on an undefined value at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/Mail/SpamAssassin.pm line 495.


Whether this is a buglet in SpamAssassin or MailScanner's use of SA I
don't know.

But I looked into the relevant part of SA (2.63), and have tried this
patch:

========================== snip =======================
--- SpamAssassin.pm.orig        Tue Jan 20 21:40:17 2004
+++ SpamAssassin.pm     Fri Mar 26 14:22:24 2004
@@ -476,6 +476,8 @@
   if (defined $opts->{learn_to_journal}) { $self->{learn_to_journal} = $opts->{learn_to_journal}; }
   if (defined $opts->{caller_will_untie}) { $self->{learn_caller_will_untie} = $opts->{caller_will_untie}; }
   if (defined $opts->{wait_for_lock}) { $self->{learn_wait_for_lock} = $opts->{wait_for_lock}; }
+
+  $self->{bayes_scanner} = new Mail::SpamAssassin::Bayes ($self);
   1;
 }

========================== snip =======================

which seems to fix the problem, and lets the expiry run.

You might, at own risk of course, wish to try that patch.

An alternative might be to use something like "$self->init(1);" instead at
around that place.  (I don't know the code well enough to judge that.)


Could those who know the internals of SA comment on whether this analysis
is correct, and whether the patch is correct?  If so, could someone on
the list who is in routine contact with the SA folk please submit this
patch (or variant thereof) to the SA folk?  Thanks.

Hope that helps.

--

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