[Mimedefang] AWL and local.cf

[Kris Deugau]

Gary Funck wrote:
> We're in the process of moving MDf over from an FC5
> system to Centos5, upgrading versions along the way.
> 
> We're using the mimedefang-2.64-1.el5.rf (rpmforge) RPM.
> 
> We're seeing the following mail log entry at boot time:
> [...] mimedefang-multiplexor[18383]: Slave 1 stderr: auto-whitelist:
> open of auto-whitelist file failed: locker: safe_lock: cannot create tmp lock

Just at boot, or on an ongoing basis?  What AWL options do you have set 
for SA right now?

> Reading some past e-mail traffic, apparently this problem has
> a work-around, where "lock_method flock" is commented out.
> 
> We can do that, however ...
> 
> Q: Is AWL meaningful, when run on a separate mail server?
> Isn't AWL implicitly a per-user facitlity?  Is it best
> practice to disable AWL, when running MDf on a separate
> mail server?

I'd say no;  in fact, spammers are *less* likely than legitimate senders 
to regularly send email from the same IP (block) and so while the 
spammers won't have their scores kept high, legitimate senders are more 
likely to have their scores *dropped*.

> Q: Related question - does Bayes auto-learn work when
> SA is being invoked from MDf on a separate mail server?

Not quite sure exactly what you mean here by "SA is being invoked from 
MDf on a separate mail server";  Bayes will autolearn if you have it 
enabled, IME.  Aside from locking issues with file-based Bayes beyond a 
certain scale, I've never seen major issues other than the usual caveats 
of "don't rely only on autolearn".

Depending on the scale you may want to move the AWL into SQL - note this 
also allows you to conveniently expire old entries where the standard 
file-based AWL... doesn't.

> Regarding SA's config. file ... MDf tells SA to use
> /etc/mail/sa-mimedefang.cf ...
> 
> Q: will SA also read /etc/mail/local.cf when invoked from MDf?

Yes, and any standard SA config locations as well.  This hasn't been a 
problem for a while now - check the MD changelogs as IIRC this was a 
change in how MD created the SA object.

> Q: How can I find out SA's configuration/settings when
> invoked from MDf?

mmm..  Start with this:

# su -s /bin/bash -c "spamassassin -D config --lint 2>&1 |more" defang

and adjust slightly based on MD's man page info on SA config fiddling.

-kgd