qmail + spamassassin + clamav quick reference

Last modified April 10, 2005. 26031. Questions, comments? Email mark at rauros. Like this guide? Link to it!

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Author: Mark (mark at rauros dot net)
Special Thanks: Carlos (rockwithme.org)
Special Thanks: Mike (atomos13.com)

Guide: Using Courier-IMAP to train Spamassassin's Baysian filter through shared IMAP folders

1. You're using Courier-IMAP, along with the Maildir system created by DJB.
2. You have the proper directory structure under /etc/skel/ to automatically create .qmail files and add a Maildir when users are added to the system.
3. You want to be able to log in and check what users are putting in to be learned as ham (non-spam) and spam.

You're going to need to add users to the system and force created Maildirs on users.

So - add the users "ham" and "spam" to your system using your favorite method. Make sure they get home directories (I'm assuming /home/ham/ and /home/spam).

Next, you're going to need to make sure that any users added to the system will have a "Ham" and "Spam" folder they can drag and drop entries in. We're going to use soft links to do this.

• cd /etc/skel/Maildir/
• ln -s /home/spam/Maildir /etc/skel/Maildir/.Spam
• ln -s /home/ham/Maildir /etc/skel/Maildir/.Ham

Now you're faced with a certain problem: users probably don't mind other people seeing their spam, but they almost definitely don't want other people being able to look at their ham. What to do? Ahh, permissions.

• chmod -R 733 /home/ham/Maildir
• chmod -R 777 /home/spam/Maildir

Now, any user that looks inside the Ham folder from their mail reader will see an empty folder. Of course, you have the choice of setting the same permissions on the Spam folder if you desire. The next step is to subscribe the folders for users (again, I'm using a default install of Courier-IMAP to show how to do this). Use your favorite text editor and open /etc/skel/Maildir/courierimapsubscribed. Add INBOX.Spam and INBOX.Ham to the bottom of the file and save the changes.

Now, any and all users added to the system will have a public Spam/Ham folder they can move mails to in order to train the system! First, though, you need to write the script that actually trains SpamAssassin:

cd /home/ham/Maildir/cur
mv ../new/* ./
sa-learn --debug-level --ham *
rm -rf *

Save that as learnham under /usr/local/bin/. Now, make one just like it for spam (I'm sure you can figure it out) and call it learnspam. Execute these commands:

• chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/learnham
• chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/learnspam
• ln -s /usr/local/bin/learnham /usr/local/bin/learnspam /etc/cron.daily

Finally, you need to make sure that the users "ham" and "spam" don't get added to qmail when you recreate the user database. Use your favorite text editor to modify /var/qmail/users/exclude (create the file, if necessary) and append

ham
spam

to the end of it.

Now, users can drag-and-drop Spam or Ham into the system to their heart's content, easily training the bayesian filter.

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