Re: [cobalt-users] upgrading perl/spamassassin 2.53

[Parker Morse <morse@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, May 5, 2003, at 04:34  PM, admin wrote:
> I was thinking about upgrading to spamassassin 2.53 on my Qube3 (I'm 
> currently using spamassassin 2.2) but then I found out I need to upgrade 
> perl first and/or install a bunch of modules. I'm not really interested 
> in upgrading perl--just got done reading some horror stories in the 
> archives of this list and elsewhere about perl upgrades resulting in 
> non-functional Qubes.
>
> So, my question for the list:
>
> Is spamassassin 2.5 a significant enough improvement over 2.2 to make the 
> perl hassle worthwhile? If so, what is the least dangerous way of going 
> about the upgrade?

SA 2.5 is a notable improvement, particularly if you're way back in 2.2. 
Remember that SpamAssassin's weakness is that the spammers are constantly 
changing their dodges in order to get around SA. It's a little like virus 
definitions. I went to 2.5x when I noticed that the stuff coming in via 
our ISP (they do backup MX for us - a lot of spew we bounce with 
blacklists comes back in through them, unfortunately) was tagged much more 
accurately than our own, because they were using SA 2.5x and we were on 2.
4x.

The least dangerous way of going about the upgrade is through CPAN, 
believe it or not. Scott Blomquist told us that he had done it 
successfully on the qube-users list, so when my Qube was offline due to a 
recent hack, I took the chance and installed SA 2.53 via CPAN. It did the 
upgrade to Perl 5.8, but installed it in /usr/local/bin/ rather than /usr/
bin/, where the Cobalt Perl is. (I think it actually defaulted there, but 
I suspect CPAN will ask where it should go.)

SpamAssassin has a SLEW of required modules which CPAN will grab and 
install for you, which is very helpful. I wish I had a script of the stuff 
I did; at some point one of the modules failed installation, and I changed 
the link at /usr/bin/perl to point to /usr/local/bin/perl rather than /usr/
bin/perl5.00503. That allowed module installation, but you !!MUST!! change 
it back ASAP! I lost control of the Qube through the LCD and had to do 
some very interesting network gymnastics to get back in and point the link 
back to perl5.00503.

However, with that all over, I still have my GUI using Perl 5.00503 and SA 
2.53 using Perl 5.8. I think I could only have managed that through CPAN.

I'm sorry I can't be more definite about specific steps, but if you back 
up certain  bits before you start (in case they're overwritten) and keep 
your wits about you, you should be able to follow the CPAN instructions in 
the SpamAssassin documentation.

pjm