1SPAMD(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation SPAMD(1)
2
6 spamd - daemonized version of spamassassin
7
9 spamd [options]
10 Options:
12 -l, --allow-tell Allow learning/reporting
14 -c, --create-prefs Create user preferences files
15 -C path, --configpath=path Path for default config files
16 --siteconfigpath=path Path for site configs
17 --cf='config line' Additional line of configuration
18 -d, --daemonize Daemonize
19 -h, --help Print usage message
20 -i [ip_or_name[:port]], --listen=[ip_or_name[:port]] Listen on IP addr and port
21 -p port, --port=port Listen on specified port, may be overridden by -i
22 -4, --ipv4-only, --ipv4 Use IPv4 where applicable, disables IPv6
23 -6 Use IPv6 where applicable, disables IPv4
24 -A host,..., --allowed-ips=..,.. Restrict to IP addresses which can connect
25 -m num, --max-children=num Allow maximum num children
26 --min-children=num Allow minimum num children
27 --min-spare=num Lower limit for number of spare children
28 --max-spare=num Upper limit for number of spare children
29 --max-conn-per-child=num Maximum connections accepted by child
30 before it is respawned
31 --round-robin Use traditional prefork algorithm
32 --timeout-tcp=secs Connection timeout for client headers
33 --timeout-child=secs Connection timeout for message checks
34 -q, --sql-config Enable SQL config (needs -x)
35 -Q, --setuid-with-sql Enable SQL config (needs -x,
36 enables use of -H)
37 --ldap-config Enable LDAP config (needs -x)
38 --setuid-with-ldap Enable LDAP config (needs -x,
39 enables use of -H)
40 --virtual-config-dir=dir Enable pattern based Virtual configs
41 (needs -x)
42 -r pidfile, --pidfile Write the process id to pidfile
43 -s facility, --syslog=facility Specify the syslog facility
44 --syslog-socket=type How to connect to syslogd
45 --log-timestamp-fmt=fmt strftime(3) format for timestamps, may be
46 empty to disable timestamps, or 'default'
47 -u username, --username=username Run as username
48 -g groupname, --groupname=groupname Run as groupname
49 -v, --vpopmail Enable vpopmail config
50 -x, --nouser-config Disable user config files
51 --auth-ident Use ident to identify spamc user (deprecated)
52 --ident-timeout=timeout Timeout for ident connections
53 -D, --debug[=areas] Print debugging messages (for areas)
54 -L, --local Use local tests only (no DNS)
55 -P, --paranoid Die upon user errors
56 -H [dir], --helper-home-dir[=dir] Specify a different HOME directory
57 --ssl Enable SSL on TCP connections
58 --ssl-port port Override --port setting for SSL connections
59 --server-key keyfile Specify an SSL keyfile
60 --server-cert certfile Specify an SSL certificate
61 --socketpath=path Listen on a given UNIX domain socket
62 --socketowner=name Set UNIX domain socket file's owner
63 --socketgroup=name Set UNIX domain socket file's group
64 --socketmode=mode Set UNIX domain socket file's mode
65 --timing Enable timing and logging
66 -V, --version Print version and exit
67 The --listen option (or -i) may be specified multiple times, its syntax
69 is: [ ssl: ] [ host-name-or-IP-address ] [ : port ] or an absolute
70 path (filename) of a Unix socket. If port is omitted it defaults to
71 --port or to 783. Option --ssl implies a prefix 'ssl:'. An IPv6
72 address should be enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [::1]:783, an IPv4
73 address may be but need not be enclosed in square brackets. An
74 asterisk '*' in place of a hostname implies an unspecified address,
75 ('0.0.0.0' or '::'), i.e. it binds to all interfaces. An empty option
76 value implies '*'. A default is '--listen localhost', which binds to a
77 loopback interface only.
78
80 The purpose of this program is to provide a daemonized version of the
81 spamassassin executable. The goal is improving throughput performance
82 for automated mail checking.
83 This is intended to be used alongside "spamc", a fast, low-overhead C
85 client program.
86 See the README file in the "spamd" directory of the SpamAssassin
88 distribution for more details.
89 Note: Although "spamd" will check per-user config files for every
91 message, any changes to the system-wide config files will require
92 either restarting spamd or forcing it to reload itself via SIGHUP for
93 the changes to take effect.
94 Note: If "spamd" receives a SIGHUP, it internally reloads itself, which
96 means that it will change its pid and might not restart at all if its
97 environment changed (ie. if it can't change back into its own
98 directory). If you plan to use SIGHUP, you should always start "spamd"
99 with the -r switch to know its current pid.
100
102 Options of the long form can be shortened as long as they remain
103 unambiguous. (i.e. --dae can be used instead of --daemonize) Also,
104 boolean options (like --user-config) can be negated by adding no
105 (--nouser-config), however, this is usually unnecessary.
106 -l, --allow-tell
108 Allow learning and forgetting (to a local Bayes database),
109 reporting and revoking (to a remote database) by spamd. The client
110 issues a TELL command to tell what type of message is being
111 processed and whether local (learn/forget) or remote
112 (report/revoke) databases should be updated.
113 Note that spamd always trusts the username passed in (unless
115 --auth-ident is used) so clients could maliciously learn messages
116 for other users. (This is not usually a concern with an SQL Bayes
117 store as users will typically have read-write access directly to
118 the database, and can also use "sa-learn" with the -u option to
119 achieve the same result.)
120 -c, --create-prefs
122 Create user preferences files if they don't exist (default: don't).
123 -C path, --configpath=path
125 Use the specified path for locating the distributed configuration
126 files. Ignore the default directories (usually
127 "/usr/share/spamassassin" or similar).
128 --siteconfigpath=path
130 Use the specified path for locating site-specific configuration
131 files. Ignore the default directories (usually
132 "/etc/mail/spamassassin" or similar).
133 --cf='config line'
135 Add additional lines of configuration directly from the command-
136 line, parsed after the configuration files are read. Multiple
137 --cf arguments can be used, and each will be considered a separate
138 line of configuration.
139 -d, --daemonize
141 Detach from starting process and run in background (daemonize).
142 -h, --help
144 Print a brief help message, then exit without further action.
145 -V, --version
147 Print version information, then exit without further action.
148 -i [ipaddress[:<port>]], --listen[=ipaddress[:<port>]]
150 Additional alias names for this option are --listen-ip and
151 --ip-address. Tells spamd to listen on the specified IP address,
152 defaults to a loopback interface, i.e. "--listen localhost"). If
153 no value is specified after the switch, or if an asterisk '*'
154 stands in place of an <ipaddress>, spamd will listen on all
155 interfaces - this is equivalent to address '0.0.0.0' for IPv4 and
156 to '::' for IPv6. You can also use a valid hostname which will make
157 spamd listen on all addresses that a name resolves to. The option
158 may be specified multiple times. See also options -4 and -6 for
159 restricting address family to IPv4 or to IPv6. If a port is
160 specified it overrides for this socket the global --port (and
161 --ssl-port) setting. An IPv6 addresses should be enclosed in square
162 brackets, e.g. [::1]:783. For compatibility square brackets on an
163 IPv6 address may be omitted if a port number specification is also
164 omitted.
165 -p port, --port=port
167 Optionally specifies the port number for the server to listen on
168 (default: 783).
169 If the --ssl switch is used, and --ssl-port is not supplied, then
171 this port will be used to accept SSL connections instead of
172 unencrypted connections. If the --ssl switch is used, and
173 --ssl-port is set, then unencrypted connections will be accepted on
174 the --port at the same time as encrypted connections are accepted
175 at --ssl-port.
176 -q, --sql-config
178 Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been
179 disabled with -x. this is useful for spamd hosts which don't have
180 user's home directories but do want to load user preferences from
181 an SQL database.
182 If your spamc client does not support sending the "User:" header,
184 like "exiscan", then the SQL username used will always be nobody.
185 This inhibits the setuid() behavior, so the "-u" option is
187 required. If you want the setuid() behaviour, use "-Q" or
188 "--setuid-with-sql" instead.
189 --ldap-config
191 Turn on LDAP lookups. This is completely analog to "--sql-config",
192 only it is using an LDAP server.
193 Like "--sql-config", this disables the setuid behavior, and
195 requires "-u". If you want it, use "--setuid-with-ldap" instead.
196 -Q, --setuid-with-sql
198 Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been
199 disabled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is useful for
200 spamd hosts which want to load user preferences from an SQL
201 database but also wish to support the use of -H (Helper home
202 directories.)
203 --setuid-with-ldap
205 Turn on LDAP lookups even when per-user config files have been
206 disabled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is again
207 completely analog to "--setuid-with-sql", only it is using an LDAP
208 server.
209 --virtual-config-dir=pattern
211 This option specifies where per-user preferences can be found for
212 virtual users, for the -x switch. The pattern is used as a base
213 pattern for the directory name. Any of the following escapes can
214 be used:
215 %u -- replaced with the full name of the current user, as sent by
217 spamc.
218 %l -- replaced with the 'local part' of the current username. In
219 other words, if the username is an email address, this is the part
220 before the "@" sign.
221 %d -- replaced with the 'domain' of the current username. In other
222 words, if the username is an email address, this is the part after
223 the "@" sign.
224 %x -- replaced with the full name of the current user, as sent by
225 spamc. If the resulting config directory does not exist, replace
226 with the domain part to use a domain-wide default.
227 %% -- replaced with a single percent sign (%).
228 So for example, if "/vhome/users/%u/spamassassin" is specified, and
230 spamc sends a virtual username of "jm@example.com", the directory
231 "/vhome/users/jm@example.com/spamassassin" will be used.
232 The set of characters allowed in the virtual username for this path
234 are restricted to:
235 A-Z a-z 0-9 - + _ . , @ =
237 All others will be replaced by underscores ("_").
239 This path must be a writable directory. It will be created if it
241 does not already exist. If a file called user_prefs exists in this
242 directory (note: not in a ".spamassassin" subdirectory!), it will
243 be loaded as the user's preferences. The Bayes databases for that
244 user will be stored in this directory.
245 Note that this requires that -x is used, and cannot be combined
247 with SQL- or LDAP-based configuration.
248 The pattern must expand to an absolute directory when spamd is
250 running daemonized (-d).
251 Currently, use of this without -u is not supported. This inhibits
253 setuid.
254 -r pidfile, --pidfile=pidfile
256 Write the process ID of the spamd parent to the file specified by
257 pidfile. The file will be unlinked when the parent exits. Note
258 that when running with the -u option, the file must be writable by
259 that user.
260 -v, --vpopmail
262 Enable vpopmail config. If specified with -u set to the vpopmail
263 user, this allows spamd to lookup/create user_prefs in the vpopmail
264 user's own maildir. This option is useful for vpopmail virtual
265 users who do not have an entry in the system /etc/passwd file.
266 Currently, use of this without -u is not supported. This inhibits
268 setuid.
269 -s facility, --syslog=facility
271 Specify the syslog facility to use (default: mail). If "stderr" is
272 specified, output will be written to stderr. (This is useful if
273 you're running "spamd" under the "daemontools" package.) With a
274 facility of "file", all output goes to spamd.log. facility is
275 interpreted as a file name to log to if it contains any characters
276 except a-z and 0-9. "null" disables logging completely (used
277 internally).
278 Examples:
280 spamd -s mail # use syslog, facility mail (default)
282 spamd -s ./mail # log to file ./mail
283 spamd -s stderr 2>/dev/null # log to stderr, throw messages away
284 spamd -s null # the same as above
285 spamd -s file # log to file ./spamd.log
286 spamd -s /var/log/spamd.log # log to file /var/log/spamd.log
287 If logging to a file is enabled and that log file is rotated, the
289 spamd server must be restarted with a SIGHUP. (If the log file is
290 just truncated, this is not needed but still recommended.)
291 Note that logging to a file does not use locking, so you cannot
293 intermix logging from spamd and other processes into the same file.
294 If you want to mix logging like this, use syslog instead.
295 If you use syslog logging, it is essential to send a SIGHUP to the
297 spamd daemon when you restart the syslogd daemon. (This is due to
298 a shortcoming in Perl's syslog handling, where the disappearance of
299 the connection to the syslogd is considered a fatal error.)
300 --syslog-socket=type
302 Specify how spamd should send messages to syslogd. The type can be
303 any of the socket types or logging mechanisms as accepted by the
304 subroutine Sys::Syslog::setlogsock(). Depending on a version of
305 Sys::Syslog and on the underlying operating system, one of the
306 following values (or their subset) can be used: "native",
307 "eventlog", "tcp", "udp", "inet", "unix", "stream", "pipe", or
308 "console". The value "eventlog" is specific to Win32 events logger
309 and requires a perl module Win32::EventLog to be installed. For
310 more information please consult the Sys::Syslog documentation.
311 A historical setting --syslog-socket=none is mapped to
313 --syslog=stderr.
314 A default for Windows platforms is "none", otherwise the default is
316 to try "unix" first, falling back to "inet" if perl detects errors
317 in its "unix" support.
318 Some platforms, or versions of perl, are shipped with old or
320 dysfunctional versions of the Sys::Syslog module which do not
321 support some socket types, so you may need to set this option
322 explicitly. If you get error messages regarding __PATH_LOG or
323 similar spamd, try changing this setting.
324 The socket types "file" is used internally and should not be
326 specified. Use the "-s" switch instead.
327 --log-timestamp-fmt=format
329 The --log-timestamp-fmt option can provide a POSIX strftime(3)
330 format for timestamps included in each logged message. Each logger
331 (stderr, file, syslog) has its own default value for a timestamp
332 format, which applies when --log-timestamp-fmt option is not given,
333 or with --log-timestamp-fmt=default . Timestamps can be turned off
334 by specifying an empty string with this option, e.g.
335 --log-timestamp-fmt='' or just --log-timestamp-fmt= . Typical use:
336 --log-timestamp-fmt='%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y' (provides localized
337 weekday and month names in the ctime(3) style), or '%a, %e %b %Y
338 %H:%M:%S %z (%Z)' for a RFC 2822 format, or maybe '%Y-%m-%d
339 %H:%M:%S%z' for an ISO 8601 (EN 28601) format, or just
340 '%Y%m%dT%H%M%S' .
341 -u username, --username=username
343 Run as the named user. If this option is not set, the default
344 behaviour is to setuid() to the user running "spamc", if "spamd" is
345 running as root.
346 Note: "--username=root" is not a valid option. If specified,
348 "spamd" will exit with a fatal error on startup.
349 -g groupname, --groupname=groupname
351 Run as the named group if --username is being used. If this option
352 is not set when --username is used then the primary group for the
353 user given to --username is used.
354 -x, --nouser-config, --user-config
356 Turn off (on) reading of per-user configuration files (user_prefs)
357 from the user's home directory. The default behaviour is to read
358 per-user configuration from the user's home directory
359 (--user-config).
360 This option does not disable or otherwise influence the SQL, LDAP
362 or Virtual Config Dir settings.
363 --auth-ident
365 Verify the username provided by spamc using ident. This is only
366 useful if connections are only allowed from trusted hosts (because
367 an identd that lies is trivial to create) and if spamc REALLY
368 SHOULD be running as the user it represents. Connections are
369 terminated immediately if authentication fails. In this case,
370 spamc will pass the mail through unchecked. Failure to connect to
371 an ident server, and response timeouts are considered
372 authentication failures. This requires that Net::Ident be
373 installed. Deprecated.
374 --ident-timeout=timeout
376 Wait at most timeout seconds for a response to ident queries.
377 Ident query that takes longer that timeout seconds will fail, and
378 mail will not be processed. Setting this to 0.0 or less results in
379 no timeout, which is STRONGLY discouraged. The default is 5
380 seconds.
381 -A host,..., --allowed-ips=host,...
383 Specify a comma-separated list of authorized hosts or networks
384 which can connect to this spamd instance. Each element of the list
385 is either a single IP addresses, or a range of IP addresses in
386 address/masklength CIDR notation, or ranges of IPv4 addresses by
387 specifying 3 or less octets with a trailing dot. Hostnames are not
388 supported, only IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. This option can be
389 specified multiple times, or can take a list of addresses separated
390 by commas. IPv6 addresses may be (but need not be) enclosed in
391 square brackets for consistency with option --listen. Examples:
392 -A 10.11.12.13 -- only allow connections from 10.11.12.13.
394 -A 10.11.12.13,10.11.12.14 -- only allow connections from
396 10.11.12.13 and 10.11.12.14.
397 -A 10.200.300.0/24 -- allow connections from any machine in the
399 range "10.200.300.*".
400 -A 10. -- allow connections from any machine in the range
402 "10.*.*.*".
403 -A [2001:db8::]/32,192.0.2.0/24,::1,127.0.0.0/8 -- only accept
405 connections from specified test networks and from localhost.
406 In absence of the -A option, connections are only accepted from IP
408 address 127.0.0.1 or ::1, i.e. from localhost on a loopback
409 interface.
410 -D [area,...], --debug [area,...]
412 Produce debugging output. If no areas are listed, all debugging
413 information is printed. Diagnostic output can also be enabled for
414 each area individually; area is the area of the code to instrument.
415 For example, to produce diagnostic output on bayes, learn, and dns,
416 use:
417 spamassassin -D bayes,learn,dns
419 Higher priority informational messages that are suitable for
421 logging in normal circumstances are available with an area of
422 "info".
423 For more information about which areas (also known as channels) are
425 available, please see the documentation at:
426 C<http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/DebugChannels>
428 -4, --ipv4only, --ipv4-only, --ipv4
430 Use IPv4 where applicable, do not use IPv6. The option affects a
431 set of listen sockets (see option "--listen") and disables IPv6 for
432 DNS tests.
433 -6 Use IPv6 where applicable, do not use IPv4. The option affects a
435 set of listen sockets (see option "--listen") and disables IPv4 for
436 DNS tests. Installing a module IO::Socket::IP is recommended if
437 spamd is expected to receive requests over IPv6.
438 -L, --local
440 Perform only local tests on all mail. In other words, skip DNS and
441 other network tests. Works the same as the "-L" flag to
442 spamassassin(1).
443 -P, --paranoid
445 Die on user errors (for the user passed from spamc) instead of
446 falling back to user nobody and using the default configuration.
447 -m number , --max-children=number
449 This option specifies the maximum number of children to spawn.
450 Spamd will spawn that number of children, then sleep in the
451 background until a child dies, wherein it will go and spawn a new
452 child.
453 Incoming connections can still occur if all of the children are
455 busy, however those connections will be queued waiting for a free
456 child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is 5.
457 Please note that there is a OS specific maximum of connections that
459 can be queued (Try "perl -MSocket -e'print SOMAXCONN'" to find this
460 maximum).
461 Note that if you run too many servers for the amount of free RAM
463 available, you run the danger of hurting performance by causing a
464 high swap load as server processes are swapped in and out
465 continually.
466 --min-children=number
468 The minimum number of children that will be kept running. The
469 minimum value is 1, the default value is 1. If you have lots of
470 free RAM, you may want to increase this.
471 --min-spare=number
473 The lower limit for the number of spare children allowed to run. A
474 spare, or idle, child is one that is not handling a scan request.
475 If there are too few spare children available, a new server will be
476 started every second or so. The default value is 1.
477 --max-spare=number
479 The upper limit for the number of spare children allowed to run.
480 If there are too many spare children, one will be killed every
481 second or so until the number of idle children is in the desired
482 range. The default value is 2.
483 --max-conn-per-child=number
485 This option specifies the maximum number of connections each child
486 should process before dying and letting the master spamd process
487 spawn a new child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is
488 200.
489 --round-robin
491 By default, "spamd" will attempt to keep a small number of "hot"
492 child processes as busy as possible, and keep any others as idle as
493 possible, using something similar to the Apache httpd server
494 scaling algorithm. This is accomplished by the master process
495 coordinating the activities of the children. This switch will
496 disable this scaling algorithm, and the behaviour seen in the 3.0.x
497 versions will be used instead, where all processes receive an equal
498 load and no scaling takes place.
499 --timeout-tcp=number
501 This option specifies the number of seconds to wait for headers
502 from a client (spamc) before closing the connection. The minimum
503 value is 1, the default value is 30, and a value of 0 will disable
504 socket timeouts completely.
505 --timeout-child=number
507 This option specifies the number of seconds to wait for a spamd
508 child to process or check a message. The minimum value is 1, the
509 default value is 300, and a value of 0 will disable child timeouts
510 completely.
511 -H directory, --helper-home-dir=directory
513 Specify that external programs such as Razor, DCC, and Pyzor should
514 have a HOME environment variable set to a specific directory. The
515 default is to use the HOME environment variable setting from the
516 shell running spamd. By specifying no argument, spamd will use the
517 spamc caller's home directory instead.
518 --ssl
520 Accept only SSL connections on the associated port. The
521 IO::Socket::SSL perl module must be installed.
522 If the --ssl switch is used, and --ssl-port is not supplied, then
524 --port port will be used to accept SSL connections instead of
525 unencrypted connections. If the --ssl switch is used, and
526 --ssl-port is set, then unencrypted connections will be accepted on
527 the --port, at the same time as encrypted connections are accepted
528 at --ssl-port.
529 --ssl-port=port
531 Optionally specifies the port number for the server to listen on
532 for SSL connections (default: whatever --port uses). See --ssl for
533 more details.
534 --server-key keyfile
536 Specify the SSL key file to use for SSL connections.
537 --server-cert certfile
539 Specify the SSL certificate file to use for SSL connections.
540 --socketpath pathname
542 Listen on a UNIX domain socket at path pathname, in addition to
543 sockets specified with a "--listen" option. This option is provided
544 for compatibility with older versions of spamd. Starting with
545 version 3.4.0 the "--listen" option can also take a UNIX domain
546 socket as its value (an absolute path name). Unlike "--socketpath",
547 the "--listen" option may be specified multiple times if spamd
548 needs to listen on multiple UNIX or INET or INET6 sockets.
549 Warning: the Perl support on BSD platforms for UNIX domain sockets
551 seems to have a bug regarding paths of over 100 bytes or so
552 (SpamAssassin bug 4380). If you see a 'could not find newly-
553 created UNIX socket' error message, and the path appears truncated,
554 this may be the cause. Try using a shorter path to the socket.
555 By default, use of --socketpath without --listen will inhibit SSL
557 connections and unencrypted TCP connections. To add other sockets,
558 specify them with --listen, e.g. '--listen=:' or '--listen=*:'
559 --socketowner name
561 Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the user named name. Note
562 that this requires that spamd be started as "root", and if "-u" is
563 used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the file
564 later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.
565 --socketgroup name
567 Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the group named name. See
568 "--socketowner" for notes on ownership and permissions.
569 --socketmode mode
571 Set UNIX domain socket to use the octal mode mode. Note that if
572 "-u" is used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the
573 file later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.
574 --timing
576 Enable timing measurements and output the information for logging. This
577 is the same information as provided by the TIMING tag.
578
580 spamc(1) spamassassin(1) Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf(3)
581 Mail::SpamAssassin(3)
582
584 "Mail::SpamAssassin"
585
587 The SpamAssassin(tm) Project (https://spamassassin.apache.org/)
588
590 SpamAssassin is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, as
591 described in the file "LICENSE" included with the distribution.
592perl v5.36.0 2022-07-23 SPAMD(1)