Re: SpamAssissan doesn't run after installation ?

On 2026-04-25 at 20:34:28 UTC-0400 (Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:34:28 -0400)
FalconChristopher <[email protected]>
is rumored to have said:

> I hope someone can help. I installed SpamAssissan using cpan. And 
> although everything installed correctly, and I checked where 
> SpamAssissan is installed. I'm unable to get it to run. I locate the 
> executable files but when I run, nothing happens ?

SpamAssassin is not one executable, it is a Perl module for classifying 
mail as spam or 'ham' (i.e. non-spam) and can be used in many different 
ways with mail servers and clients. You really need to know how you want 
to use it for any of us to help you do that.

The most common use of SpamAssassin is integrated with a MTA (Sendmail, 
Postfix, Exim, etc.) to filter mail as it arrives. That can be done with 
a Milter program that loads the Mail::SpamAssassin module tree (e.g. 
Amavis, MIMEDefang, MailMunge) and handles calling SA to do the message 
analysis, or a Milter like spamass-milter that handles communication 
with the 'spamd' daemon, which can run locally or remotely. It is also 
possible to integrate SpamAssassin in a MTA's delivery path, using tools 
like procmail, sieve, or Postfix's "content_filter" parameter.

Installed from CPAN, SpamAssassin has none of the add-on integrations 
that are often done by distribution package maintainers, so you need to 
figure out what you want to use and how you want to use it. The 
installation from CPAN does no OS-specific or system-specific setup. See 
'man spamassassin' for an overview of the documentation. If you wish to 
use spamd, you will need to look at the various startup scripts included 
in the spamd directory of the SA distribution to figure out which one 
suits your OS and perhaps adapt it to your local details.



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