[Mimedefang] ANNOUNCE: SpamAssassin 3.0.0 information (fwd)

[Kenneth Porter]

New 3.0 users should read the UPGRADE file. Much of the information there 
is reproduced below under the installation notes.

------------ Forwarded Message ------------
Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 4:37 AM -0700
From: Daniel Quinlan <quinlan at pathname.com>
To: users at spamassassin.apache.org
Subject: ANNOUNCE: SpamAssassin 3.0.0 information

(technical information about SpamAssassin 3.0.0 release)

SpamAssassin 3.0.0 is released!  SpamAssassin 3.0.0 is a major update and
includes a number of new email and anti-spam technologies.

SpamAssassin is a mail filter which uses advanced statistical and
heuristic tests to identify spam (also known as unsolicited bulk email).

Contents:

  Downloading
  MD5 checksums
  SHA1 checksums
  GPG key information
  Major feature list
  Important installation notes
  New rules
  Spamd changes
  Engine changes
  Translations:

Downloading:

  Please use a mirror off of <http://spamassassin.apache.org/>.

MD5 checksums:

  b77c7b29ddc4283d597610bf540670d9  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.tar.bz2
  e38035c260310e18158d95a41cadae93  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.tar.gz
  7b5d10c33d33e16a849fdba7b2c9bc43  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.zip

SHA1 checksums:

  d722c0e27b4b9c8117e5c583c0924a0b81f62a30  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.tar.bz2
  d52c317483483874f2b7e5dd544094249bedbdad  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.tar.gz
  3a0c3373b2655c14c14ababa61b7c3791340ee72  Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0.zip

GPG key information:

  The release files also have a .asc accompanying them.  The file serves
  as an external GPG signature for the given release file.  The signing
  key is available via the wwwkeys.pgp.net key server, as well as a file
  named GPG-SIGNING-KEY in the download directory.

  pub  1024D/265FA05B 2003-06-09 Apache SpamAssassin
<release at spamassassin.org>        Key fingerprint =3D 26C9 00A4 6DD4 0CD5
AD24  F6D7 DEE0 1987 265F A05B

Major feature list:

  - SpamAssassin is now part of the Apache Software Foundation and has an
    improved software license, the 2.0 version of the Apache License.

  - SpamAssassin now includes support for SPF (the Sender Policy
    Framework, http://spf.pobox.com/).

  - Web site links contained in the message are checked against SURBL and
    SBL.  SURBL and SBL track sites that advertise with spam, known spam
    sources, and spam services.

  - The new 3.0 architecture allows third-parties to easily add plugin
    modules.

  - There is now SQL database support for both the Bayes and
    auto-whitelist modules, allowing more large sites to easily deploy
    SpamAssassin.

  - A more accurate simulation of email client handling of MIME and HTML
    improves our accuracy.  In addition, there is better detection and
    handling of spammer techniques that try to trick anti-spam software.

Important installation notes:

  - The SpamAssassin 2.6x release series was the last set of releases to
    officially support perl versions earlier than perl 5.6.1.  If you are
    using an earlier version of perl, you will need to upgrade before you
    can use the 3.0.0 version of SpamAssassin.

  - SpamAssassin 3.0.0 has a significantly different API (Application
    Program Interface) from the 2.x series of code.  This means that if
    you use SpamAssassin through a third-party utility (milter, etc,) you
    need to make sure you have an updated version which supports 3.0.0.

  - The --auto-whitelist and -a options for "spamd" and "spamassassin" to
    turn on the auto-whitelist have been removed and replaced by the
    "use_auto_whitelist" configuration option which is also now turned on
    by default.

  - The "rewrite_subject" and "subject_tag" configuration options were
    deprecated and are now removed. Instead, using "rewrite_header Subject
    [your desired setting]".  e.g.

      rewrite_subject 1
      subject_tag ****SPAM(_SCORE_)****

    becomes

      rewrite_header Subject ****SPAM(_SCORE_)****

  - The Bayesian storage modules have been completely re-written and now
    include Berkeley DB (DBM) storage as well as SQL based storage (see
    sql/README.bayes for more information).  In addition, a new format has
    been introduced for the bayes database that stores tokens in fixed
    length hashes.  All DBM databases should be automatically converted to
    this new format the first time they are opened for write.  You can
    manually perform the upgrade by running "sa-learn --sync" from the
    command line.

    The "sa-learn --rebuild" command has been deprecated; please use
    "sa-learn --sync" instead.  The --rebuild option will remain
    temporarily for backwards compatibility.

  - "spamd" now has a default max-children setting of 5; no more than 5
    child scanner processes will be run in parallel.  Previously, there
    was no default limit unless you specified the "-m" switch when
    starting spamd.

  - If you are using a UNIX machine with all database files on local
    disks, and no sharing of those databases across NFS filesystems, you
    can use a more efficient, but non-NFS-safe, locking mechanism.  Do
    this by adding the line "lock_method flock" to the
    /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf file. This is strongly recommended if
    you're not using NFS, as it is much faster than the NFS-safe locker.

  - Please note that the use of the following command line parameters for
    spamassassin and spamd have been deprecated and are now removed.  If
    you currently use these flags, please remove them:

      in the 2.6x series: --add-from, --pipe, -F, -P, --stop-at-threshold,
-S       in the 3.0.x series: --auto-whitelist, -a

  - The following flags are deprecated and will be removed in a future
    major release: --whitelist-factory, -M, --warning-from, -w,
    --log-to-mbox, -l.

  - SpamAssassin runs in "taint mode" by default for improved security.
    Certain third-party modules, such as Razor v2, may be incompatible
    with taint mode. For Razor v2, you will need to be using v2.40 of
    razor-agents or higher which allows taint mode by default.  Earlier
    versions which are patched to allow taint mode may be used as well.

  - Finally, 2.6x deprecated the use of the "check_bayes_db" script, and
    it is now no longer available.  Please see the sa-learn man/pod
    documentation for more info.

New rules:

  - SPF is supported using the Mail::SPF::Query module.

  - There are new rules and code to combat Bayes-poisoning text and random
    hash-busters; Habeas rules now check against the Habeas user list to
    combat forged marks used in spam.

  - URIDNSBL rules: these do DNSBL lookups on URLs using SURBL and SBL,
    allowing spamvertised URLs found in the message body to be scored.

  - Spamhaus XBL and a variety of new DNSBL rules were added.

  - Hashcash is supported.

  - Bob Menschel's "longwords" rules were added.

  - The "backhair" rules were added to combat HTML obfuscation, a
    technique based on Jennifer Wheeler's "backhair" ruleset.

  - Matt Kettler's "antidrug" rules were added.

  - Anti-fraud rules from Matt Yackley were added.

  - Some hostname-based blocklist tests based on the envelope sender
    address were added.

  - And more...

Spamd changes:

  - spamd now uses a "preforking" model instead of "fork per message".

  - There is a new log format, detailing message-id, resent-message-id,
    tests hit, autolearn status, and other data in a format compatible
    with mass-check to provide more information for spamd log-summary
    scripts.

Engine changes:

  - Plugins: third-party modules can now be written and loaded dynamically
    from inside SpamAssassin, to provide support for entirely new tests
    and functionality.

  - SQL support for Bayes and AWL storage was added, thanks to Michael
    Parker.  See sql/README.bayes and sql/README.awl for additional
    information.

  - There was a ground-up rewrite of the MIME parser.  It now deals
    correctly with complex MIME structures, including entire
    message/rfc822 message attachments.

  - Rules can now test the "MAIL FROM:" address used in the SMTP
    transaction if it was logged to the message headers using the
    "EnvelopeFrom" pseudo-header.  This allows rules such as SPF to be
    applied.

  - Added an optional fast Bayes locking mechanism for local usage only
    (it's not NFS safe) using "lock_method flock".

  - Support for parsing mbx mailboxes (as used by UW IMAP) was
    added.  Thanks to John Newman for this patch.

  - There is a refactored configuration parser to split parser code from
    the configuration settings.

  - Bayes databases can now be backed up and restored using --backup and
    --restore.

  - Config files can now include other files using the "include" command.

  - The GA-based evolver was replaced with a fast Perceptron score
    generation tool by Henry Stern; scores can now be generated much more
    quickly.

  - The "spamassassin" script can now check collections of mail en masse.
    This allows commands such as "spamassassin -d --mbox file1" to run
    over an entire mbox file.  It also works for checks, adding to
    white/black-lists, etc.

  - The Windows support improved.

Translations:

  - A Dutch translation was added, thanks to Jesse Houwing.

  - A French translation was added, thanks to Michel Bouissou.

  - A German translation was added, thanks to Klaus Heinz.

  - A Polish translation was added, thanks to Jerzy Szczudlowski and radek
    at alter dot pl.

-- 
Daniel Quinlan                     ApacheCon! 13-17 November (3 SpamAssassin
http://www.pathname.com/~quinlan/  http://www.apachecon.com/  sessions &
more)

---------- End Forwarded Message ----------