temporary file spawning

[Ade Fewings]

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-some headers kept for reminder purposes-

>>>>>>>>>> We have two mail servers running on Solaris 9 Sparc.  Sendmail
>>>>>>>>>> 8.12.10
>>>>>>>>>> utilizing MailScanner 4.36.4 to call SpamAssassin 3.0.1.
>>>>>>>>>> Earlier
>>>>>>>>>> today, one of our large mailing lists got hit a couple of times
>>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>>> the servers got a bit busy.  However, something went wrong and
>>>>>>>>>> /tmp
>>>>>>>>>> filled up with
>>>>>>>>>> spamassassin.25755.Bdgxlb.tmp esque files.  Hundred of thousands
>>>>>>>>>> were
>>>>>>>>>> created in a short time, running /tmp out of i-nodes and thus
>>>>>>>>>> effectively stopping MailScanner.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Killing MailScanner, cleaning /tmp and restarting would then
>>>>>>>>>> reproduce
>>>>>>>>>> the problem again soon after.  I truss'd the output of a few of
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> MailScanner processes that were going bad and all they were
>>>>>>>>>> doing
>>>>>>>>>> was
>>>>>>>>>> trying to open new files in /tmp.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> We have further discovered that this problem definitely only
>>>>>>>>> occurs
>>>>>>>>> when
>>>>>>>>> MailScanner is set to use SpamAssassin.  Switch off SpamAssassin
>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>> there are zero problems.  So, being relatively unknowledgable
>>>>>>>>> about
>>>>>>>>> MailScanner, the question that comes up is what is creating these
>>>>>>>>> temporary files?  It is either SpamAssassin itself or
>>>>>>>>> something in
>>>>>>>>> MailScanner that gets switched on when you tell it to use
>>>>>>>>> SpamAssassin.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Can anybody offer any guidance on whether MailScanner itself
>>>>>>>>> creates
>>>>>>>>> these files?
>>>>>>>>
Just to prove that I do (eventually) update when I say i'm going to......

I am now happy to say that this problem has been fixed.  The solution
was an updated Perl.  5.6.1 should have been fine but wasn't.  5.8.6
is.  Much relief.

Cheers for all suggestions
Ade

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