spamd

SPAMD(8p) User Contributed Perl Documentation SPAMD(8p)

NAME
spamd - daemonized version of spamassassin

SYNOPSIS
spamd [options]

Options:

-l, --allow-tell Allow learning/reporting
-c, --create-prefs Create user preferences files
-C path, --configpath=path Path for default config files
--siteconfigpath=path Path for site configs
--cf='config line' Additional line of configuration
-d, --daemonize Daemonize
-h, --help Print usage message
-i [ip_or_name[:port]], --listen=[ip_or_name[:port]] Listen on IP addr and port
-p port, --port=port Listen on specified port, may be overridden by -i
-4, --ipv4-only, --ipv4 Use IPv4 where applicable, disables IPv6
-6 Use IPv6 where applicable, disables IPv4
-A host,..., --allowed-ips=..,.. Restrict to IP addresses which can connect
-m num, --max-children=num Allow maximum num children
--min-children=num Allow minimum num children
--min-spare=num Lower limit for number of spare children
--max-spare=num Upper limit for number of spare children
--max-conn-per-child=num Maximum connections accepted by child
before it is respawned
--round-robin Use traditional prefork algorithm
--timeout-tcp=secs Connection timeout for client headers
--timeout-child=secs Connection timeout for message checks
-q, --sql-config Enable SQL config (needs -x)
-Q, --setuid-with-sql Enable SQL config (needs -x,
enables use of -H)
--ldap-config Enable LDAP config (needs -x)
--setuid-with-ldap Enable LDAP config (needs -x,
enables use of -H)
--virtual-config-dir=dir Enable pattern based Virtual configs
(needs -x)
-r pidfile, --pidfile Write the process id to pidfile
-s facility, --syslog=facility Specify the syslog facility
--syslog-socket=type How to connect to syslogd
--log-timestamp-fmt=fmt strftime(3) format for timestamps, may be
empty to disable timestamps, or 'default'
-u username, --username=username Run as username
-g groupname, --groupname=groupname Run as groupname
-v, --vpopmail Enable vpopmail config
-x, --nouser-config Disable user config files
--auth-ident Use ident to identify spamc user (deprecated)
--ident-timeout=timeout Timeout for ident connections
-D, --debug[=areas] Print debugging messages (for areas)
-L, --local Use local tests only (no DNS)
-P, --paranoid Die upon user errors
-H [dir], --helper-home-dir[=dir] Specify a different HOME directory
--ssl Enable SSL on TCP connections
--ssl-port port Override --port setting for SSL connections
--server-key keyfile Specify an SSL keyfile
--server-cert certfile Specify an SSL certificate
--socketpath=path Listen on a given UNIX domain socket
--socketowner=name Set UNIX domain socket file's owner
--socketgroup=name Set UNIX domain socket file's group
--socketmode=mode Set UNIX domain socket file's mode
--timing Enable timing and logging
-V, --version Print version and exit

The --listen option (or -i) may be specified multiple times, its syntax
is: [ ssl: ] [ host-name-or-IP-address ] [ : port ] or an absolute
path (filename) of a Unix socket. If port is omitted it defaults to
--port or to 783. Option --ssl implies a prefix 'ssl:'. An IPv6
address should be enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [::1]:783, an IPv4
address may be but need not be enclosed in square brackets. An
asterisk '*' in place of a hostname implies an unspecified address,
('0.0.0.0' or '::'), i.e. it binds to all interfaces. An empty option
value implies '*'. A default is '--listen localhost', which binds to a
loopback interface only.

DESCRIPTION
The purpose of this program is to provide a daemonized version of the
spamassassin executable. The goal is improving throughput performance
for automated mail checking.

This is intended to be used alongside "spamc", a fast, low-overhead C
client program.

See the README file in the "spamd" directory of the SpamAssassin
distribution for more details.

Note: Although "spamd" will check per-user config files for every
message, any changes to the system-wide config files will require
either restarting spamd or forcing it to reload itself via SIGHUP for
the changes to take effect.

Note: If "spamd" receives a SIGHUP, it internally reloads itself, which
means that it will change its pid and might not restart at all if its
environment changed (ie. if it can't change back into its own
directory). If you plan to use SIGHUP, you should always start "spamd"
with the -r switch to know its current pid.

OPTIONS
Options of the long form can be shortened as long as they remain
unambiguous. (i.e. --dae can be used instead of --daemonize) Also,
boolean options (like --user-config) can be negated by adding no
(--nouser-config), however, this is usually unnecessary.

-l, --allow-tell
Allow learning and forgetting (to a local Bayes database),
reporting and revoking (to a remote database) by spamd. The client
issues a TELL command to tell what type of message is being
processed and whether local (learn/forget) or remote
(report/revoke) databases should be updated.

Note that spamd always trusts the username passed in (unless
--auth-ident is used) so clients could maliciously learn messages
for other users. (This is not usually a concern with an SQL Bayes
store as users will typically have read-write access directly to
the database, and can also use "sa-learn" with the -u option to
achieve the same result.)

-c, --create-prefs
Create user preferences files if they don't exist (default: don't).

-C path, --configpath=path
Use the specified path for locating the distributed configuration
files. Ignore the default directories (usually
"/usr/share/spamassassin" or similar).

--siteconfigpath=path
Use the specified path for locating site-specific configuration
files. Ignore the default directories (usually "/etc/spamassassin"
or similar).

--cf='config line'
Add additional lines of configuration directly from the command-
line, parsed after the configuration files are read. Multiple
--cf arguments can be used, and each will be considered a separate
line of configuration.

-d, --daemonize
Detach from starting process and run in background (daemonize).

-h, --help
Print a brief help message, then exit without further action.

-V, --version
Print version information, then exit without further action.

-i [ipaddress[:<port>]], --listen[=ipaddress[:<port>]]
Additional alias names for this option are --listen-ip and
--ip-address. Tells spamd to listen on the specified IP address,
defaults to a loopback interface, i.e. "--listen localhost"). If
no value is specified after the switch, or if an asterisk '*'
stands in place of an <ipaddress>, spamd will listen on all
interfaces - this is equivalent to address '0.0.0.0' for IPv4 and
to '::' for IPv6. You can also use a valid hostname which will make
spamd listen on all addresses that a name resolves to. The option
may be specified multiple times. See also options -4 and -6 for
restricting address family to IPv4 or to IPv6. If a port is
specified it overrides for this socket the global --port (and
--ssl-port) setting. An IPv6 addresses should be enclosed in square
brackets, e.g. [::1]:783. For compatibility square brackets on an
IPv6 address may be omitted if a port number specification is also
omitted.

-p port, --port=port
Optionally specifies the port number for the server to listen on
(default: 783).

If the --ssl switch is used, and --ssl-port is not supplied, then
this port will be used to accept SSL connections instead of
unencrypted connections. If the --ssl switch is used, and
--ssl-port is set, then unencrypted connections will be accepted on
the --port at the same time as encrypted connections are accepted
at --ssl-port.

-q, --sql-config
Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been
disabled with -x. this is useful for spamd hosts which don't have
user's home directories but do want to load user preferences from
an SQL database.

If your spamc client does not support sending the "User:" header,
like "exiscan", then the SQL username used will always be nobody.

This inhibits the setuid() behavior, so the "-u" option is
required. If you want the setuid() behaviour, use "-Q" or
"--setuid-with-sql" instead.

--ldap-config
Turn on LDAP lookups. This is completely analog to "--sql-config",
only it is using an LDAP server.

Like "--sql-config", this disables the setuid behavior, and
requires "-u". If you want it, use "--setuid-with-ldap" instead.

-Q, --setuid-with-sql
Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been
disabled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is useful for
spamd hosts which want to load user preferences from an SQL
database but also wish to support the use of -H (Helper home
directories.)

--setuid-with-ldap
Turn on LDAP lookups even when per-user config files have been
disabled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is again
completely analog to "--setuid-with-sql", only it is using an LDAP
server.

--virtual-config-dir=pattern
This option specifies where per-user preferences can be found for
virtual users, for the -x switch. The pattern is used as a base
pattern for the directory name. Any of the following escapes can
be used:

%u -- replaced with the full name of the current user, as sent by
spamc.
%l -- replaced with the 'local part' of the current username. In
other words, if the username is an email address, this is the part
before the "@" sign.
%d -- replaced with the 'domain' of the current username. In other
words, if the username is an email address, this is the part after
the "@" sign.
%x -- replaced with the full name of the current user, as sent by
spamc. If the resulting config directory does not exist, replace
with the domain part to use a domain-wide default.
%% -- replaced with a single percent sign (%).

So for example, if "/vhome/users/%u/spamassassin" is specified, and
spamc sends a virtual username of "jm@example.com", the directory
"/vhome/users/jm@example.com/spamassassin" will be used.

The set of characters allowed in the virtual username for this path
are restricted to:

A-Z a-z 0-9 - + _ . , @ =

All others will be replaced by underscores ("_").

This path must be a writable directory. It will be created if it
does not already exist. If a file called user_prefs exists in this
directory (note: not in a ".spamassassin" subdirectory!), it will
be loaded as the user's preferences. The Bayes databases for that
user will be stored in this directory.

Note that this requires that -x is used, and cannot be combined
with SQL- or LDAP-based configuration.

The pattern must expand to an absolute directory when spamd is
running daemonized (-d).

Currently, use of this without -u is not supported. This inhibits
setuid.

-r pidfile, --pidfile=pidfile
Write the process ID of the spamd parent to the file specified by
pidfile. The file will be unlinked when the parent exits. Note
that when running with the -u option, the file must be writable by
that user.

-v, --vpopmail
Enable vpopmail config. If specified with with -u set to the
vpopmail user, this allows spamd to lookup/create user_prefs in the
vpopmail user's own maildir. This option is useful for vpopmail
virtual users who do not have an entry in the system /etc/passwd
file.

Currently, use of this without -u is not supported. This inhibits
setuid.

-s facility, --syslog=facility
Specify the syslog facility to use (default: mail). If "stderr" is
specified, output will be written to stderr. (This is useful if
you're running "spamd" under the "daemontools" package.) With a
facility of "file", all output goes to spamd.log. facility is
interpreted as a file name to log to if it contains any characters
except a-z and 0-9. "null" disables logging completely (used
internally).

Examples:

spamd -s mail # use syslog, facility mail (default)
spamd -s ./mail # log to file ./mail
spamd -s stderr 2>/dev/null # log to stderr, throw messages away
spamd -s null # the same as above
spamd -s file # log to file ./spamd.log
spamd -s /var/log/spamd.log # log to file /var/log/spamd.log

If logging to a file is enabled and that log file is rotated, the
spamd server must be restarted with a SIGHUP. (If the log file is
just truncated, this is not needed but still recommended.)

Note that logging to a file does not use locking, so you cannot
intermix logging from spamd and other processes into the same file.
If you want to mix logging like this, use syslog instead.

If you use syslog logging, it is essential to send a SIGHUP to the
spamd daemon when you restart the syslogd daemon. (This is due to
a shortcoming in Perl's syslog handling, where the disappearance of
the connection to the syslogd is considered a fatal error.)

--syslog-socket=type
Specify how spamd should send messages to syslogd. The type can be
any of the socket types or logging mechanisms as accepted by the
subroutine Sys::Syslog::setlogsock(). Depending on a version of
Sys::Syslog and on the underlying operating system, one of the
following values (or their subset) can be used: "native",
"eventlog", "tcp", "udp", "inet", "unix", "stream", "pipe", or
"console". The value "eventlog" is specific to Win32 events logger
and requires a perl module Win32::EventLog to be installed. For
more information please consult the Sys::Syslog documentation.

A historical setting --syslog-socket=none is mapped to
--syslog=stderr.

A default for Windows platforms is "none", otherwise the default is
to try "unix" first, falling back to "inet" if perl detects errors
in its "unix" support.

Some platforms, or versions of perl, are shipped with old or
dysfunctional versions of the Sys::Syslog module which do not
support some socket types, so you may need to set this option
explicitly. If you get error messages regarding __PATH_LOG or
similar spamd, try changing this setting.

The socket types "file" is used internally and should not be
specified. Use the "-s" switch instead.

--log-timestamp-fmt=format
The --log-timestamp-fmt option can provide a POSIX strftime(3)
format for timestamps included in each logged message. Each logger
(stderr, file, syslog) has its own default value for a timestamp
format, which applies when --log-timestamp-fmt option is not given,
or with --log-timestamp-fmt=default . Timestamps can be turned off
by specifying an empty string with this option, e.g.
--log-timestamp-fmt='' or just --log-timestamp-fmt= . Typical use:
--log-timestamp-fmt='%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y' (provides localized
weekday and month names in the ctime(3) style), or '%a, %e %b %Y
%H:%M:%S %z (%Z)' for a RFC 2822 format, or maybe '%Y-%m-%d
%H:%M:%S%z' for an ISO 8601 (EN 28601) format, or just
'%Y%m%dT%H%M%S' .

-u username, --username=username
Run as the named user. If this option is not set, the default
behaviour is to setuid() to the user running "spamc", if "spamd" is
running as root.

Note: "--username=root" is not a valid option. If specified,
"spamd" will exit with a fatal error on startup.

-g groupname, --groupname=groupname
Run as the named group if --username is being used. If this option
is not set when --username is used then the primary group for the
user given to --username is used.

-x, --nouser-config, --user-config
Turn off (on) reading of per-user configuration files (user_prefs)
from the user's home directory. The default behaviour is to read
per-user configuration from the user's home directory
(--user-config).

This option does not disable or otherwise influence the SQL, LDAP
or Virtual Config Dir settings.

--auth-ident
Verify the username provided by spamc using ident. This is only
useful if connections are only allowed from trusted hosts (because
an identd that lies is trivial to create) and if spamc REALLY
SHOULD be running as the user it represents. Connections are
terminated immediately if authentication fails. In this case,
spamc will pass the mail through unchecked. Failure to connect to
an ident server, and response timeouts are considered
authentication failures. This requires that Net::Ident be
installed. Deprecated.

--ident-timeout=timeout
Wait at most timeout seconds for a response to ident queries.
Ident query that takes longer that timeout seconds will fail, and
mail will not be processed. Setting this to 0.0 or less results in
no timeout, which is STRONGLY discouraged. The default is 5
seconds.

-A host,..., --allowed-ips=host,...
Specify a comma-separated list of authorized hosts or networks
which can connect to this spamd instance. Each element of the list
is either a single IP addresses, or a range of IP addresses in
address/masklength CIDR notation, or ranges of IPv4 addresses by
specifying 3 or less octets with a trailing dot. Hostnames are not
supported, only IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. This option can be
specified multiple times, or can take a list of addresses separated
by commas. IPv6 addresses may be (but need not be) enclosed in
square brackets for consistency with option --listen. Examples:

-A 10.11.12.13 -- only allow connections from 10.11.12.13.

-A 10.11.12.13,10.11.12.14 -- only allow connections from
10.11.12.13 and 10.11.12.14.

-A 10.200.300.0/24 -- allow connections from any machine in the
range "10.200.300.*".

-A 10. -- allow connections from any machine in the range
"10.*.*.*".

-A [2001:db8::]/32,192.0.2.0/24,::1,127.0.0.0/8 -- only accept
connections from specified test networks and from localhost.

In absence of the -A option, connections are only accepted from IP
address 127.0.0.1 or ::1, i.e. from localhost on a loopback
interface.

-D [area,...], --debug [area,...]
Produce debugging output. If no areas are listed, all debugging
information is printed. Diagnostic output can also be enabled for
each area individually; area is the area of the code to instrument.
For example, to produce diagnostic output on bayes, learn, and dns,
use:

spamassassin -D bayes,learn,dns

Higher priority informational messages that are suitable for
logging in normal circumstances are available with an area of
"info".

For more information about which areas (also known as channels) are
available, please see the documentation at:

C<http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/DebugChannels>

-4, --ipv4only, --ipv4-only, --ipv4
Use IPv4 where applicable, do not use IPv6. The option affects a
set of listen sockets (see option "--listen") and disables IPv6 for
DNS tests.

-6 Use IPv6 where applicable, do not use IPv4. The option affects a
set of listen sockets (see option "--listen") and disables IPv4 for
DNS tests. Installing a module IO::Socket::IP is recommended if
spamd is expected to receive requests over IPv6.

-L, --local
Perform only local tests on all mail. In other words, skip DNS and
other network tests. Works the same as the "-L" flag to
spamassassin(1).

-P, --paranoid
Die on user errors (for the user passed from spamc) instead of
falling back to user nobody and using the default configuration.

-m number , --max-children=number
This option specifies the maximum number of children to spawn.
Spamd will spawn that number of children, then sleep in the
background until a child dies, wherein it will go and spawn a new
child.

Incoming connections can still occur if all of the children are
busy, however those connections will be queued waiting for a free
child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is 5.

Please note that there is a OS specific maximum of connections that
can be queued (Try "perl -MSocket -e'print SOMAXCONN'" to find this
maximum).

Note that if you run too many servers for the amount of free RAM
available, you run the danger of hurting performance by causing a
high swap load as server processes are swapped in and out
continually.

--min-children=number
The minimum number of children that will be kept running. The
minimum value is 1, the default value is 1. If you have lots of
free RAM, you may want to increase this.

--min-spare=number
The lower limit for the number of spare children allowed to run. A
spare, or idle, child is one that is not handling a scan request.
If there are too few spare children available, a new server will be
started every second or so. The default value is 1.

--max-spare=number
The upper limit for the number of spare children allowed to run.
If there are too many spare children, one will be killed every
second or so until the number of idle children is in the desired
range. The default value is 2.

--max-conn-per-child=number
This option specifies the maximum number of connections each child
should process before dying and letting the master spamd process
spawn a new child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is
200.

--round-robin
By default, "spamd" will attempt to keep a small number of "hot"
child processes as busy as possible, and keep any others as idle as
possible, using something similar to the Apache httpd server
scaling algorithm. This is accomplished by the master process
coordinating the activities of the children. This switch will
disable this scaling algorithm, and the behaviour seen in the 3.0.x
versions will be used instead, where all processes receive an equal
load and no scaling takes place.

--timeout-tcp=number
This option specifies the number of seconds to wait for headers
from a client (spamc) before closing the connection. The minimum
value is 1, the default value is 30, and a value of 0 will disable
socket timeouts completely.

--timeout-child=number
This option specifies the number of seconds to wait for a spamd
child to process or check a message. The minimum value is 1, the
default value is 300, and a value of 0 will disable child timeouts
completely.

-H directory, --helper-home-dir=directory
Specify that external programs such as Razor, DCC, and Pyzor should
have a HOME environment variable set to a specific directory. The
default is to use the HOME environment variable setting from the
shell running spamd. By specifying no argument, spamd will use the
spamc caller's home directory instead.

--ssl
Accept only SSL connections on the associated port. The
IO::Socket::SSL perl module must be installed.

If the --ssl switch is used, and --ssl-port is not supplied, then
--port port will be used to accept SSL connections instead of
unencrypted connections. If the --ssl switch is used, and
--ssl-port is set, then unencrypted connections will be accepted on
the --port, at the same time as encrypted connections are accepted
at --ssl-port.

--ssl-port=port
Optionally specifies the port number for the server to listen on
for SSL connections (default: whatever --port uses). See --ssl for
more details.

--server-key keyfile
Specify the SSL key file to use for SSL connections.

--server-cert certfile
Specify the SSL certificate file to use for SSL connections.

--socketpath pathname
Listen on a UNIX domain socket at path pathname, in addition to
sockets specified with a "--listen" option. This option is provided
for compatibility with older versions of spamd. Starting with
version 3.4.0 the "--listen" option can also take a UNIX domain
socket as its value (an absolute path name). Unlike "--socketpath",
the "--listen" option may be specified multiple times if spamd
needs to listen on multiple UNIX or INET or INET6 sockets.

Warning: the Perl support on BSD platforms for UNIX domain sockets
seems to have a bug regarding paths of over 100 bytes or so
(SpamAssassin bug 4380). If you see a 'could not find newly-
created UNIX socket' error message, and the path appears truncated,
this may be the cause. Try using a shorter path to the socket.

By default, use of --socketpath without --listen will inhibit SSL
connections and unencrypted TCP connections. To add other sockets,
specify them with --listen, e.g. '--listen=:' or '--listen=*:'

--socketowner name
Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the user named name. Note
that this requires that spamd be started as "root", and if "-u" is
used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the file
later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.

--socketgroup name
Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the group named name. See
"--socketowner" for notes on ownership and permissions.

--socketmode mode
Set UNIX domain socket to use the octal mode mode. Note that if
"-u" is used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the
file later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.

--timing
Enable timing measurements and output the information for logging. This
is the same information as provided by the TIMING tag.

SEE ALSO
spamc(1) spamassassin(1) Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3)
Mail::SpamAssassin(3)

PREREQUISITES
"Mail::SpamAssassin"

AUTHORS
The SpamAssassin(tm) Project (https://spamassassin.apache.org/)

LICENSE
SpamAssassin is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, as
described in the file "LICENSE" included with the distribution.

perl v5.30.0 2023-03-24 SPAMD(8p)

spamd

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