MS/SA: SA problem

[David Lee]

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006, Scott Silva wrote:

> David Lee spake the following on 11/2/2006 4:22 AM:
> > We've been running MS/SA on Fedora machines for a few years.  Earlier this
> > week, I set up yet another machine, expecting it to be straightforward.
> > Clean OS install (FC5), clean install of MS (4.56.8) etc.
> >
> > All seems well, including "spamassassin --lint --debug".
> >
> > But when it starts to try to process email, MailScanner seems to take a
> > very long time.  Running it in debug mode shows:
> >
> >    Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/Plugin/URIDNSBL.pm line 718.
> >    Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/Plugin/URIDNSBL.pm line 718.
> >    Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/Plugin/URIDNSBL.pm line 718.
> >    dns: sendto() failed: Connection refused at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/DnsResolver.pm line 339, <GEN131> line 67.
> >    dns: sendto() failed: Connection refused at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/DnsResolver.pm line 339, <GEN131> line 67.
> >    dns: sendto() failed: Connection refused at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/DnsResolver.pm line 339, <GEN131> line 67.
> >    dns: sendto() failed: Connection refused at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin/DnsResolver.pm line 339, <GEN131> line 67.
> >
> > and lots more similar lines (although the "<GENxxx> line yy" varies).
> >
> > Any thoughts on this?
> >
> > Over the last couple of days I've tried various versions of SA (the above
> > details are from 3.1.3) installed in various different ways, but all
> > giving this set of errors.
> >
> >
> Did you try Julians install script for spamassassin and clam? It might toss in
> any perl modules that are lacking. And maybe remove the spamassassin rpm in
> core before you try.

Yes, that's one of the "installed in various different ways" that I tried.
And what was worrying me is that this is the first time I had ever tried
Julian's Clam/SA package and is the only time I've had this problem.
Coincidence?

Well, actually, yes, coincidence.  Nothing more.

I have just tracked down the problem, and it was a subtle difference of
our own making in the OS install, completely outside of MS/SA-type things.
(That is, all the email-y-type things are innocent.)

For various local reasons our local OS re-install had included 127.0.0.1
as the first line in "/etc/resolv.conf" but didn't set a local DNS server
running.  (The hint was staring me in the face all along from the reported
error messages... sigh!)

Anyway, I have resolved this inconsistency between resolv.conf and lack of
local DNS server, and all now seems well.

Thanks to both Scott and Res for their replies and thoughts.


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