Jo Rhett wrote:
> No, I didn't. I asked where a given rule was. I was given a reference
> to a page that described how to set up sa-update.
That page not only described how to set up sa-update it also described
where the files were stored. Also SM included the name of the rule
that was expected to catch pdf spam. Those two things were the two
key pieces of information that answered the question.
> This is exactly identical to giving someone a reference to "how to
> program in c" when they've asked a very specific question about a
> function. Perhaps it wasn't intended as an insult, but as an answer its
> utterly worthless.
Many people believe that because email is ephemeral (aka the net has
no memory) that it is much better to place answers in documentation
pages such as on the web rather than to place answers in email.
Otherwise the same answers will need to be posted again and again and
any incorrect answers will remain in the archives forever possibly
misleading those that look them up later. Also most people consider
having documentation available to be superior to having an email
archive of questions and answers.
A common trend these days is to document an answer on a web page and
simply refer to the web page when answering questions. This way
incorrect answers can be corrected on the web page when in the future
other people look up the same information. The answer you were given
was following that best practice.
On the documentation page you were pointed to you must have missed
this section which answers your question.
Installed Updates
When updates are downloaded, they are put into a directory under the
local state dir (default /var/lib/spamassassin/<spamassassin version>)
similar to:
/var/lib/spamassassin
`-- 3.001004
|-- updates_spamassassin_org
`-- updates_spamassassin_org.cf
The files from the update go into updates_spamassassin_org, and the
*.cf files are then included by updates_spamassassin_org.cf, which
also keeps track of what update version is installed. Therefore, if it
is desired to change the update directory, the .cf and the update
directory will exist there.
There is the answer to your question. The files are stored in
/var/lib/spamassassin under a versioned directory under the
subdirectory there.
SM wrote:
> TVD_PDF_FINGER01 Mail matches standard pdf spam fingerprint
That is the key piece of information. Using 'grep' to find which file
contains that rule is now trivial. On my Debian Stable Etch system
running the backports spamassassin with sa-update (justifying the
older version number) shows:
grep -l -r TVD_PDF_FINGER01 /var/lib/spamassassin
/var/lib/spamassassin/3.001007/updates_spamassassin_org/80_additional.cf
> FYI I have seen several other threads with people complaining that
> sa-update is not providing the PDF updates, so this is apparently a
> common problem.
The sa-update rules catch most of the pdf spam here but I do see a few
pdf spams slip through the rules because they are not perfect. Rarely
are spam rules 100% perfect and seeing some corner cases slip through
is not unusual. It is a process of continual improvement.
Bob
