Important Note For Users Upgrading From Earlier Versions
--------------------------------------------------------
SpamAssassin no longer includes code to handle local mail delivery, as it
was not reliable enough, compared to procmail. So now, if you relied on
spamassassin to write the mail into your mail folder, you'll have to
change your setup to use procmail as detailed below.
If you used spamassassin to filter your mail and then something else wrote
it into a folder for you, then you should be fine.
Installing SpamAssassin
-----------------------
The easiest way to do this is using CPAN.pm, like so:
perl -MCPAN -e shell [as root]
o conf prerequisites_policy ask
install Mail::SpamAssassin
quit
On Debian, you can apt-get it from unstable, thanks to Duncan Findlay.
Alternatively download the tarfile, zipfile or Red Hat RPM from
http://spamassassin.org/ , and install that, like so:
[unzip/untar the archive]
cd Mail-SpamAssassin-*
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install [as root]
To install as non-root, do something like this:
[unzip/untar the archive]
cd Mail-SpamAssassin-*
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/sausr SYSCONFDIR=~/saetc
make
make install
This will install the SpamAssassin modules and rules into the ~/sausr
and ~/saetc directories off your home directory.
(note: if you intend to package SpamAssassin as an RPM, deb, or other
package, please read the comments at the top of 'Makefile.PL'.)
SunOS Note
----------
Under SunOS, snprintf is not defined. A library containing a SunOS
version of snprintf is included in contrib/snp.tar.gz, which is usable for
building SpamAssassin. Mike Nolan <nolan AT naic dot edu> has built this,
and here's his directions:
I built SpamAssassin under SunOS 4.1.3. (...)
% cd contrib
% gtar xzf snp.tar.gz
% cd snp
% gmake libsnp.a
OK, now go to the spamassassin directory, and compile:
% cd ..
% gcc -g -O2 spamd/spamc.c spamd/libspamc.c spamd/utils.c \
-o spamd/spamc -ldl -lnsl contrib/snp/libsnp.a -lm
% gmake
Now you have spamc and spamd.
Installing SpamAssassin for Personal Use (Not System-Wide)
----------------------------------------------------------
These steps assume the following, so substitute as necessary:
- Your UNIX login is "user"
- Your home directory is /home/user
- The location of the procmail executable is /usr/bin/procmail
1. Uncompress and extract the SpamAssassin archive, using "unzip" or "tar
xvfz", in a temporary directory.
2. change directory into it:
cd Mail-SpamAssassin-*
3. Make SpamAssassin as normal, but using your home directory as the
target:
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/sausr SYSCONFDIR=~/saetc
make
make install
4. If you already use procmail, skip to step 6. If not, ensure procmail
is installed using "which procmail" or install it from www.procmail.org.
5. Create a .forward file in your home directory containing the below
lines:
"|IFS=' ' && exec /usr/bin/procmail -f- || exit 75 #user"
6. Edit or create a .procmailrc file in your home directory containing the
below lines. If you already have a .procmailrc file, add the lines to the
top of your .procmailrc file:
:0fw
| /home/user/sausr/bin/spamassassin
The above line filters all incoming mail through SpamAssassin and tags
probable spam with a unique header. If you would prefer to have spam
blocked and saved to a file called "caughtspam" in your home directory,
instead of passed through and tagged, append this directly below the above
lines:
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
caughtspam
7. Now, you should be ready to send some test emails and ensure everything
works as expected. First, send yourself a test email that doesn't contain
anything suspicious. You should receive it normally, but there will be a
header containing "X-Spam-Status: No". If you are only tagging your spam,
send yourself an obvious spam mail and check to be sure it is marked as
spam. If your test emails don't get through to you, immediately rename
your .forward file until you figure out cause of the the problem, so you
don't lose incoming email.
Required Modules
----------------
These modules are required for spamassassin to run.
- File::Spec >= 0.8 (from CPAN, or included in Perl 5.6 and higher)
The File::Spec module is required in version 0.8 (Mar 2000) or later.
This is included in Perl versions 5.6 and later.
- Pod::Usage (from CPAN, or included in Perl 5.6 and higher)
The Pod::Usage module is required. This is included in Perl versions
5.6 and later.
- HTML::Parser >= 3.0 (from CPAN)
HTML is used for an ever-increasing amount of email so this dependency
is unavoidable. Run "perldoc -q html" for additional information.
If you use Debian, you can get HTML::Parser from the libhtml-parser-perl
package.
Optional Additional Modules
---------------------------
In addition, the following modules will be used for some checks, if
available. If they are not available, SpamAssassin will still work, just
not as effectively -- some of the spam-detection tests will have to be
skipped.
- Net::DNS (from CPAN)
Used to check the RBL, RSS, DUL etc. and perform MX checks.
Recommended.
perl -MCPAN -e shell
o conf prerequisites_policy ask
install Net::DNS
quit
- Razor http://razor.sourceforge.net/
Used to check message signatures against Vipul's Razor collaborative
filtering network. Razor is not available from CPAN -- you have to
download it from the URL above.
Razor has a large number of dependencies on CPAN modules. Feel free
to skip installing it, if this makes you nervous; SpamAssassin will
still work well without it.
- DCC http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/dcc/
DCC (Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse) is a system similar to Razor.
It supports fuzzy checksums and therefore detects some more spams than
Razor does at the moment.
To install it, download
http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/dcc/source/dcc-dccproc.tar.Z and
perform the following steps:
# tar xfvz dcc-dccproc.tar.Z
# cd dcc-dccproc-X.X.X
# ./configure && make && make install
# cdcc 'info'
The last command will give some output. One line of it should contain
something like:
dcc.rhyolite.com,- RTT+0 ms anon
- Pyzor http://pyzor.sourceforge.net/
Used to check message signatures against the Pyzor collaborative
filtering network. Pyzor was initially "a Python implementation of
Razor", but now also uses its own (free) server architecture and is
"based upon a new, lighter, more language-independent protocol."
Pyzor requires at least Python 2.2.1 which can be found at
http://www.python.org/ .
To install Pyzor, download the latest revision from
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50000 and
perform the following steps:
# bunzip2 pyzor-*.tar.bz2
# cd pyzor-*
# python setup.py build
# python setup.py install
Note that your system might install the modules and scripts with
non-world-readable permissions. Correct this with a command such as:
# chmod -R a+rX /usr/share/doc/pyzor \
/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/pyzor \
/usr/bin/pyzor /usr/bin/pyzord
Read the INSTALL document if you want to setup your own Pyzor server and
signature store. Otherwise, you can just use the public servers.
- Mail::Audit, Mail::Internet, Net::SMTP (from CPAN)
If you want to use SpamAssassin with Mail::Audit, you will (obviously)
require the Mail::Audit module, and any modules it requires (there's
lots of them, unfortunately).
Additionally, Mail::Internet is required if you wish to use the
"-r/-w" options of the spamassassin program (reporting and replying,
for spam-trap mail accounts).
If you use procmail, KMail, 'spamassassin', or you plan to use
'spamd', you will *not* need these.
Here's how to install them using CPAN.pm:
perl -MCPAN -e shell
o conf prerequisites_policy ask
install Mail::Audit
quit
- Digest::SHA1 (from CPAN)
The Digest::SHA1 module will speed up some cryptographic hash tests,
but is not required (although it may be required by another module).
If you use Debian, you can get Digest::SHA1 from the libdigest-sha1-perl
package.
Using SpamAssassin
------------------
Steps to take for every installation:
- Install Mail::SpamAssassin on your mail server, as above.
- Test it:
spamassassin -t < sample-nonspam.txt > nonspam.out
spamassassin -t < sample-spam.txt > spam.out
Verify (using a text viewer, ie. "less" or "notepad") that nonspam.out
has not been tagged as spam, and that spam.out has. The files should
contain the full text and headers of the messages, the "spam.out"
message should be annotated with "****SPAM****" in the subject line
and a report from SpamAssassin, and there should be no errors when you
run the commands.
Even though sample-nonspam.txt is not spam, nonspam.out will contain a
SpamAssassin report anyway. This is a side-effect of the "-t" (test)
switch. However, there should be less than 5 hits accumulated; when
the "-t" switch is not in use, the report text would not be added.
If the commands do not work, DO NOT PROCEED TO THE NEXT STEP, as you
will lose mail!
If you use Mail::Audit already:
- run "perldoc Mail::SpamAssassin" and take a look at the synopsis, it
outlines what you need to add to your audit script.
- Copy the configuration files (see CUSTOMISING, below) to a known
location, so your script can set the appropriate options for the
Mail::SpamAssassin constructor to load them.
If you use KMail:
- http://kmail.kde.org/tools.html mentions:
The filter setup is the work of five minutes (if that!) if you have a
working spamassassin set up.
The filter in question is "<any header><matches regexp> ."
The action is "<pipe through> spamassassin"
Then, in the advanced options, uncheck the "If this filter matches,
stop processing here" box. If you keep this filter at the top, it will
analyze any incoming mail, decide whether it's spam or not, and flag
it accordingly.
[Then add] a second filter behind it, which searches for the added
spam-flags and diverts them into a specific spam folder. [...]
If you use procmail, or haven't decided on any of the above examples:
- Make a backup of your .procmailrc (if you already have one).
cp ~/.procmailrc ~/.procmailrc.bak
- add the line from procmailrc.example to ~/.procmailrc, at the top of
the file before any existing recipes.
That'll process all mail through SA, and refile spam messages to
a folder called "caughtspam" in your home directory.
- Send yourself a mail message, and ensure it gets to you. If it does
not, copy your old backed-up .procmailrc file back into place and ask
your sysadmin for help! Here's commands to do that:
cp ~/.procmailrc.bak ~/.procmailrc
echo "Help!" | mail root
If you want to use SpamAssassin site-wide:
- take a look at the notes on the website, at
http://spamassassin.org/sitewide.html . You will probably want to use
'spamd' (see below).
- Note that procmail users adding spamc to /etc/procmailrc should
add the line 'DROPPRIVS=yes' at the top of the file.
Other Installation Notes
------------------------
- SpamAssassin now uses a temporary file in /tmp (or $TMPDIR, if that's
set in the environment) for Pyzor and DCC checks. Make sure that this
directory is either (a) not writable by other users, or (b) not shared
over NFS, for security.
- You can create your own system-wide rules files in
/etc/mail/spamassassin; their filenames should end in ".cf". Multiple
files will be read, and SpamAssassin will not overwrite these files
when installing a new version.
- The auto-whitelist is enabled using the -a flag to spamassassin or
spamd.
- spamc can now be built as a shared library for use with milters or
to link into other existing programs; simply run "make libspamc.so"
to build this.
- If you get spammed, it is helpful to everyone else if you re-run
spamassassin with the "-r" option to report the message in question as
"verified spam". This will add it to Vipul's Razor
(http://razor.sourceforge.net/), a collaborative spam filtering
network, if you've installed the Razor modules.
spamassassin -r < spam-message
If you use mutt as your mail reader, this macro will bind the X key to
report a spam message.
macro index X "| spamassassin -r"
This is, of course, optional -- but you'll get lots of good-netizen
karma. ;)
- Quite often, if you've been on the internet for a while, you'll have
accumulated a few old email accounts that nowadays get nothing but
spam. You can set these up as spam traps using SpamAssassin; see the
''SPAM TRAPPING'' section of the spamassassin manual page for details.
If you don't want to go to the bother of setting up a system yourself
to do this, feel free to set up a simple alias to forward any mails to
<someaddress@spamtraps.taint.org> -- replace "someaddress" with
something to identify you, such as your email addr or website with
non-alphanumeric chars replaced by underscores, or similar. This
will feed it into my spam-trapping system running on taint.org, where
it will be fed into Razor.
- The distribution now includes 'spamd', a daemonized version of the
perl script, and 'spamc', a low-overhead C client for this,
contributed by Craig R. Hughes. This greatly reduces the overhead of
checking large volumes of mail with SpamAssassin. Take a look in the
'spamd' directory for more details.
- Scores and other user preferences can now be loaded from an SQL
database; see the 'sql' subdirectory for more details.
- Edward Fang <edfang /at/ visi.net> has contributed the
'communigate.sh' script for CommunigatePro (see the 'contrib'
directory).
- James Henstridge <james /at/ daa.com.au> has contributed an LMTP proxy
server (designed for Cyrus, but probably will work fine with others),
again it's in the contrib directory.
(end of INSTALL)
// vim:tw=74:
