[Mimedefang] MIMEDefang embedded perl stability issues

[Chris Gauch]

A couple weeks ago I opted to use the MIMEDefang embedded perl interpreter
(by turning on MX_EMBED_PERL=yes in the MD init script), however, I have
noticed some stability problems when using the embedded interpreter.  Every
morning at 5am the MD multiplexor essentially craps out, requiring
MIMEDefang, clamd, and sendmail to be restarted.  I didn't see much in the
log files indicating what was causing the multiplexor to die off, but I do
know that the daily CRON jobs run at around 4-5am every night.    

The embedded perl interpreter definitely minimizes the memory usage by the
MD slaves, but I don't really notice an overall improvement in total memory
usage when using the embedded perl option.  All 1.5GB of RAM is still used
up entirely, and I have the same number of min/max slaves that I used when I
was not using the embedded perl interpreter.  I also use a RAM disk for the
/var/spool/MIMEDefang directory, and have that set at 128MB.  Maybe I'm
doing something wrong here, but I haven't found much documentation on the
embedded perl interpreter, other than it improves throughput and reduces
memory usage.

Any insight would be appreciated.

- Chris