[Mimedefang] spamassassin

[Steve Jordan]

I'm lost when it comes to spamassassin. First, do you need to call
spam_assassin_init($config_file)->compile_now(1) once at the beginning of
mimedefang-filter or once with each user? Second, can you tell
spamassassin that you are using mysql and the password, etc. or should I
get the user preferences myself and put it into the config file? We are
busy enough that we plan on using at least 8 machines to handle the load.
Right now I have it on a demo machine and I am using stream_by_recipient.
For each email, I get the user preferences from mysql and append them to
a copy of the sa-mimedefang.cf file. I then invoke
spam_assassin_init($config_file)->compile_now(1). Then I call
spam_assassin_check() and add appropriate headers using
action_change_header. I think I could speed it up by using periodic dumps
of the mysql table if necessary (may have to do this to lighten the load
on the mysql server). Right now we are using spamc on some of the email.
We are hoping to break even or speed things up by using spamassassin from
mimedefang as a sendmail milter. So, is using the milter worthwhile, or is
spamc more efficient? Oh yeah, forgot to say we are using mimedefang 2.47
and clamd already as a sendmail milter. Adding spamassassin is not much
more code in mimedefang-filter I am sure, but I am unsure of the best way
of coding it in general terms. I am willing to upgrade if needed.
Efficiency is needed because of our volume of mail (peaks of over 1000
email / minute without stream_by_recipient).

Steve Jordan