[Mimedefang] Notice: Dropping support for RAV AntiVirus

[Justin Shore]

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003, Kris Deugau wrote:

> Justin Shore wrote:
> > I tried it once a while back.  The very first thing I noticed was
> > that it insisted on using what I consider an oddball directory
> > structure that I do not use: /opt.
> 
> I started using on a production box here, and at the time it *did*
> install under /usr/local/rav8 (IIRC).  Then they released an updated
> version, which installed under /opt.

I probably attempted to use it on the older release then.  IIRC correctly 
I was trying to use the client/server CLI version with MD.

> I originally called it via their provided milter, but...  let's just say
> it lacked some configurability.  I couldn't specify which viruses had
> notifications sent out- it was either on or off.  I couldn't reword the
> notification message.  I couldn't specify viruses to discard silently- I
> don't have time to sort through several hundred forged-sender virus
> mails every day to track down which dialup luser has gotten infected
> (again).
> 
> Of course, even after switching to MD and *very* carefully wording the
> notification, I *still* got calls about it.  :(

I never rolled it out for production use by others.  In fact the target 
server for all my testing still hasn't received any email AV checking.  
It's out of my hands though. :)  I had planned on directing the users to a 
website that could answer any possible question they could come up with 
that wasn't clearly answered in the bounce.  I was even going to include 
lots of colorful (read: XP fruity / PlaySchool colors) graphics to assist 
the lower user (luser?) even further.  Alas it never happened.  If I ever 
do roll that out for users in a production environment, that's what I'll 
do.  I'll also take the phone off the hook. :)

> I'm planning on switching to ClamAV, as soon as I can either:
> a) Package it properly for RH7.3  (There's a package built for PLD, and
>    Mandrake (IIRC), but they don't install cleanly on RedHat.)
> b) Roll the production boxes here over to Debian so I don't have to
>    reinstall them every year as RedHat drops errata support for that
>    release.

I'd recommend compiling it from source.  The latest snapshots are the
best.  I don't run any daemon from RPM if I can help it.  If I knew how to
build a SPEC file, RPM scripting for user addition and permission setting,
and roll you an RPM I would.  I took one guy's rc scripts from about a
year ago for the ClamAV daemons and rewrote them (so they actually worked
:) ) to handle clamd and freshclam.  I'm using it now without any
problems.

I dislike Debian.  I know some love it but I am not among them.  Frankly
I'd rather take a RH installation and make it my own (which doesn't
resemble RH much after I'm done).  I've heard Gentoo is nice too.  It may
be more suited for me.  All my servers are running either RH 7.2 or 7.3.  
I have no intention of going to 8.0 or 9.0 (even though 9.0 is more like
8.1).  I may consider 9.1 when it coms out.  In all honesty there's no
reason to rebuild a server just because RH drops support for it.  No admin
wants to run a RH server on their latest code release anyways.  We tend to
hang back a minor release or two.  Just about everything is upgradable to
boot.  If you know RH then I'd recommend sticking with what you know,
until of course you learn something else. :)

Justin