Amavisd-new by itself or amavisd-new + spamassassin???

[jsdds]

Hi all,

I'm a little confused. I've done alot of reading on the web but still need some help. I have a working postfix virtual mail server. Now I've emerged amavisd-new. When emerged, it also emerges clamd and freshclam. I know it also installs some spamassassin code as well. Here are my questions:

1. My interpertation is that I am getting basic clam and spamassassin support right out of the box. Am I correct here? (yes I have configured amavisd.conf to not bypass spam or av.)

2. I think I need to configure the clamd and freshclam packages to enable virus definition updates as well. Also, I think I need to add clamd as a backup virus scanner. Am I correct in this?

3. As I said above, I think that spamassassin is active already. I think that I can emerge the separate spamassassin package if I want greater configuration control. Am I correct here?

4. I know amavisd-new is like the gule that hold these helper programs together and calls them when needed. So I assume I only need to start the daemon clamd if I want to use it as abackup av scanner and utilize the updated databases gotten by freshclamd which would also need to be run separately.

5. If I emerge the separate spamassassin package, would I then need to run the spamd daemon as well and not rely on amavisd-new to call spamassassin?

6. If I want to use clamd, freshclamd and spamd as daemons, do I even need amavisd-new at all?

If someone could address each of these points of confusion, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Jeff

[Rider]

[Ateo]

In a nutshell, amavis-new does what procmail does. It's just an alternative. Also, you don't run both clamd and freshclam (yes, both are installed but if you read, it states to select one which is configured with /etc/conf.d/clamd).

Also, you need to actually tell amavisd-new what to do. Nothing works "right out of the box". You still DO need to configure amavisd-new to use clamav and spamassassin. You also need to tell your MTA to use amavisd-new.....

As to what needs to be started at boot (run as daemon)... all of them need to be started. amavisd-new, clamd (or freshclam) and spamassassin.

[jsdds]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm pretty sure I've got clamd and freshclam working properly now. I'll tackle spamassassin next.

Ateo,
I assume you meant that you just modify /etc/conf.d/clamd and start both daemons from there with the one /etc/init.d/clamd start statement? That is what I did and Clamd now seems to be working as the primary antivirus scanner for amavisd-new.

Rider,
Thanks for taking the time for that detailed answer. You basically confirmed my thinking, and gave me the confidence to forge ahead.

I do have one more question, however. If clamscan (the builtin code that amavisd-new uses for failsafe antivirus testing, uses clamd libraries, is the clamd daemon even needed as a primary scanner? Is this just causing a daemon scan with the same definitions? If this is the case, is it even necessary to cause clamd to start by modifying /etc/conf.d/clamd at all? Wouldn't it be fine to just start freshclam thru the /etc/init.d/clamd daemon, as is the default, to keep the database up to date?

Thanks again,

Jeff

[j-m]