SPAMD(1)

📦 version 4.0.2, in arch rolling

💅 SPAMD(1) — like, the spamd manual page, bestie

okay so this is spamd, from the "User Contributed Perl Documentation" section of your man pages 🎀 and we're gonna get through it together, no cap. grab a snack, there's a lot here and every single bit of it matters.

✨ NAME ✨

spamd — the daemonized version of spamassassin. yes. that's the whole name section. slay.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

spamd [options]

Options, and I'm giving you the whole list exactly as it is, because I would never do you dirty like that:

 -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
 --pre='config line'               Additional line of ".pre" (prepended to 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
 -U username, --default-user=username  Fall back to this username if spamc user
                                   is not found (default: nobody)
 -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-verify                      Request a client certificate and verify it
 --ssl-ca-file cafile              Certificate Authority certificate file
 --ssl-ca-path capath              Certificate Authority directory
 --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

so about --listen (aka -i) 🦋 — the way this one works is you can literally hand it multiple times, and the syntax is:

[ ssl: ] [ host-name-or-IP-address ] [ : port ]  or an absolute path (filename) of a Unix socket

if you dip on the port, it defaults to --port or to 783. and guess what, --ssl implies a prefix of ssl:. an IPv6 address should be wrapped in square brackets, like [::1]:783, and an IPv4 address may be but doesn't have to be in square brackets. an asterisk '*' where a hostname would go implies an unspecified address ('0.0.0.0' or '::'), meaning it binds to all interfaces. an empty option value implies '*'. and the default is '--listen localhost', which — you guessed it — binds to a loopback interface only. 💫

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so the whole point of this program is to give you a daemonized version of the spamassassin executable. the goal? improving throughput performance for automated mail checking. it's giving efficiency, it's giving main character energy.

this is meant to be used alongside "spamc", which is a fast, low-overhead C client program. they're a duo, your honor. 🫶

for the full tea, check the README file in the "spamd" directory of the SpamAssassin distribution.

⚠️ note time, bestie: even though "spamd" will check per-user config files for every message, any changes to the system-wide config files require either restarting spamd or forcing it to reload itself via SIGHUP for those changes to actually take effect. no sneaky hot-reloading of the system-wide stuff. 😭
⚠️ another one: if "spamd" receives a SIGHUP, it internally reloads itself, which means 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). so if you plan to use SIGHUP, you should always start "spamd" with the -r switch so you know its current pid. literally do not skip this. 🔥

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

before we get into the list — long-form options can be shortened as long as they stay 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. iykyk. 💅

  • -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, 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). simple as that. ✨
  • -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/mail/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. 🌈
  • --pre='config line' — Add additional lines of .pre configuration directly from the command-line, parsed before the configuration files are read. Multiple --pre 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). bye, see you never, off to the background you go 💨
  • -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 one is the ✨per-user prefs✨ hookup for virtual users, and it's what makes -x do its thing. The pattern is your base pattern for the directory name, and you get these escapes to play with:
    • %u — swapped for the full name of the current user, exactly as spamc sent it.
    • %l — swapped for the 'local part' of the current username. Basically if the username is an email address, it's the bit before the @. 🎀
    • %d — swapped for the 'domain' of the current username. So the part after the @ if it's an email address.
    • %x — swapped for the full name of the current user as sent by spamc, but if the resulting config directory doesn't exist, it gets replaced with the domain part instead, so you fall back to a domain-wide default. 🦋
    • %% — swapped for 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 is restricted to:

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

Everything else gets replaced by underscores (_).

This path must be a writable directory. It will be created if it doesn't 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 get stored in this directory too. 💾

Heads up: this requires that -x is used, and it 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. That file gets unlinked when the parent exits. Note that when running with the -u option, the file must be writable by that user. 👑
  • -v, --vpopmail — enables vpopmail config. If you specify this with -u set to the vpopmail user, spamd can look up / create user_prefs in the vpopmail user's own maildir. This option is useful for vpopmail virtual users who don't 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 — tell it which syslog facility to use (default: mail). If stderr is specified, output gets written to stderr. (Super useful if you're running spamd under the daemontools package.) With a facility of file, all output goes to spamd.log. Oh and bestie, 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 gets rotated, the spamd server must be restarted with a SIGHUP. (If the log file is just truncated, this isn't needed but it's 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 — how should spamd send messages to syslogd? type can be any of the socket types or logging mechanisms accepted by the subroutine Sys::Syslog::setlogsock(). Depending on the version of Sys::Syslog and on the underlying operating system, one of the following values (or a subset of them) can be used: native, eventlog, tcp, udp, inet, unix, stream, pipe, or console. The value eventlog is specific to the Win32 events logger and requires a perl module Win32::EventLog to be installed. For more info, go consult the Sys::Syslog documentation. 📚

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

The 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) ship with old or straight-up dysfunctional versions of the Sys::Syslog module that don't support some socket types, so you may need to set this option explicitly. If you get error messages regarding __PATH_LOG or similar from spamd, try changing this setting.

The socket type file is used internally and should not be specified. Use the -s switch instead.
  • --log-timestamp-fmt=format — this one lets you provide a POSIX strftime(3) format for the timestamps included in each logged message. Each logger (stderr, file, syslog) has its own default value for a timestamp format, and that default applies when the --log-timestamp-fmt option isn't given, or with --log-timestamp-fmt=default. Timestamps can be turned off entirely 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' (gives you localized weekday and month names in the ctime(3) style), or '%a, %e %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z (%Z)' for an 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 isn't 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. Fr fr, don't do it.
  • -g groupname, --groupname=groupname — run as the named group if --username is being used. If this option isn't set when --username is used, then the primary group for the user given to --username is used. 🎀
  • -x, --nouser-config, --user-config — turns off (or 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.

  • -U username, --default-user=username — fall back to this username if the username provided by spamc isn't found. Default is nobody, which might not exist or might not have a usable home directory — so use this setting to define a suitable user if you need to. 🫶
  • -A host,..., --allowed-ips=host,... — the guest list, basically. 💅 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 address, or a range of IP addresses in address/masklength CIDR notation, or a range of IPv4 addresses given by specifying 3 or fewer 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 the specified test networks and from localhost.

In the 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,...] — produces 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 info about which areas (also known as channels) are available, please see the documentation at:

C<https://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/DebugChannels>
  • -4, --ipv4only, --ipv4-only, --ipv4 — use IPv4 where applicable, do not use IPv6. This 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. This 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 --default-user and using the default configuration. No chill, no fallback. 💀
  • -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, at which point it goes and spawns a new child. 👑

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

Please note there's an OS-specific max on how many connections can be queued up — find yours with perl -MSocket -e'print SOMAXCONN' ✨

💀 Also, real talk: if you run too many servers for the amount of free RAM you actually have, you're gonna hurt performance by causing a high swap load as server processes get swapped in and out continually. Like, not the cute kind of chaos.
  • --min-children=number — the minimum number of children that will be kept running. Minimum value is 1, default value is 1. Got lots of free RAM? Bestie, you may wanna bump this up 💅
  • --min-spare=number — the lower limit for the number of spare children allowed to run. A spare (a.k.a. idle) child is one that's not handling a scan request. If there are too few spare children available, a new server gets started every second or so. 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 gets killed every second or so until the number of idle children is in the desired range. Default value is 2.
  • --max-conn-per-child=number — the max number of connections each child should process before dying and letting the master spamd process spawn a new child. Minimum value is 1, default value is 200. it's giving "out with the old" 🦋
  • --round-robin — by default, spamd tries to keep a small number of "hot" child processes as busy as possible and keep the others as idle as possible, using something similar to the Apache httpd server scaling algorithm. The master process coordinates the children to pull this off. This switch disables that scaling algorithm, and instead you get the behaviour from the 3.0.x versions, where all processes receive an equal load and no scaling takes place. retro era, no cap 🎀
  • --timeout-tcp=number — the number of seconds to wait for headers from a client (spamc) before closing the connection. Minimum value is 1, default value is 30, and a value of 0 will disable socket timeouts completely.
  • --timeout-child=number — the number of seconds to wait for a spamd child to process or check a message. Minimum value is 1, default value is 300, and a value of 0 will disable child timeouts completely.
  • -H directory, --helper-home-dir=directory — say that external programs like Razor, DCC, and Pyzor should have a HOME environment variable set to a specific directory. Default is to use the HOME environment variable setting from the shell running spamd. And if you specify no argument at all, spamd uses 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, so check that first bestie.

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. two sockets, one icon ✨

  • --ssl-verify — implies --ssl. Requests a client certificate and verifies the certificate. Requires --ssl-ca-file or --ssl-ca-path. no certificate, no entry 🚪
  • --ssl-ca-file=cafile — implies --ssl-verify. Use the specified Certificate Authority certificate to verify the client certificate. The client certificate must be signed by this certificate. periodt.
  • --ssl-ca-path=capath — implies --ssl-verify. Use the Certificate Authority certificate files in the specified set of directories to verify the client certificate. The client certificate must be signed by one of these Certificate Authorities. See the man page for IO::Socket::SSL for additional details 👑
  • --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. multi-socket main character energy 💅
⚠️ 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, bestie, shorter path = happy 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 the 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. permissions lore, iykyk 😭
  • --socketgroup name — set the UNIX domain socket to be owned by the group named name. See --socketowner for notes on ownership and permissions.
  • --socketmode mode — set the 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. same vibe, different flag 🫶
  • --timing — enable timing measurements and output the information for logging. This is the same information as provided by the TIMING tag. numbers go brrr ⏱️

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

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

the whole friend group fr fr 🫶

🧚 PREREQUISITES 🧚

"Mail::SpamAssassin" — yeah you need it, no cap 💜

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The SpamAssassin(tm) Project (https://spamassassin.apache.org/) — icons only ✨

📜 LICENSE 📜

SpamAssassin is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, as described in the file "LICENSE" included with the distribution. read it, it's giving legal slay 💅

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🌈 this beauty is perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-18, and it's SPAMD(1) — go forth and spam-block the timeline 💖 🎀

📦 where this page comes from