Options

The options are as follows:

-d debug-level

Set the debug level to debug-level. Debugging traces become more verbose as the debug level increases. Maximum is 9.

-D delivery-care-of

Set AM.PDP request attribute delivery_care_of to client (default) or server. When client method is used then amavisd-milter is responsible to forward the message to recipients. This method doesn't allow personalized header or body modification.

When server method is used then amavisd-new is responsible to forward the message to recipients and can provide personalized header and body modification. $forward_method in amavisd.conf must point to some place willing to accept mail without further checking in amavisd-new.

-f

Run amavisd-milter in the foreground (i.e. do not daemonize). Print debug messages to the terminal.

-h

Print help page and exit.

-m max-conns

Maximum concurrent amavisd connections (default 0 - unlimited number of connections). It must agree with the $max_servers entry in amavisd.conf.

-M max-wait

Maximum wait for connection to amavisd in seconds (default 300 = 5 minutes). It must be less then sending MTA timeout for a response to the final "." that terminates a message on sending MTA. sendmail has default value 1 hour, postfix 10 minutes and qmail 20 minutes. We suggest to use less than 10 minutes.

-p pidfile

Use this pid file (default /var/run/amavis/amavisd-milter.pid).

-P

When amavisd-new fails mail will be passed through unchecked.

-q backlog

Sets the incoming socket backlog used by listen(2). If it is not set or set to zero, the operating system default is used.

-s socket

Communication socket between sendmail and amavisd-milter (default /var/lib/amavis/amavisd-milter.sock). The protocol spoken over this socket is MILTER (Mail FILTER). It must agree with the INPUT_MAIL_FILTER entry in sendmail.mc

The socket should be in "proto:address" format:

• {unix|local}:/path/to/file - A named pipe.
• inet:port@{hostname|ip-address} - An IPV4 socket.
• inet6:port@{hostname|ip-address} - An IPV6 socket.

-S socket

Communication socket between amavisd-milter and amavisd-new (default /var/lib/amavis/amavisd.sock). The protocol spoken over this socket is AM.PDP (AMavis Policy Delegation Protocol). It must agree with the $unix_socketname entry in amavisd.conf.

The socket should be in "proto:address" format:

• {unix|local}:/path/to/file - A named pipe.

-t timeout

sendmail connection timeout in seconds (default 600 = 10 minutes). It must agree with the INPUT_MAIL_FILTER entry in sendmail.mc and must be greater than or equal to the amavisd-new connection timeout. When you use other milters (especially time-consuming), the timeout must be sufficient to process message in all milters.

-T timeout

amavisd-new connection timeout in seconds (default 600 = 10 minutes). This timeout must be sufficient for message processing in amavisd-new. It's usually a good idea to adjust them to the same value as sendmail connection timeout.

-v

Report the version number and exit.

-w directory

Set working directory (default /var/lib/amavis/tmp).

Limited support for sendmail 8.12

• smfi_addheader() is used instead of smfi_insheader() for insheader and addheader AM.PDP responses. This works well with amavisd-new 2.4.3 or newer.
• smfi_progress() isn't called when amavisd-milter wait for amavisd-new communication socket.
• AM.PDP response quarantine isn't implemented.

Configuring amavisd-new

In amavisd.conf file change protocol and socket settings to:

$protocol = "AM.PDP";                      # Use AM.PDP protocol
$unix_socketname = "$MYHOME/amavisd.sock"; # Listen on Unix socket
### $inet_socket_port = 10024;             # Don't listen on TCP port

Then (re)start amavisd daemon.

Configuring sendmail

To the sendmail.mc file add the following entries:

define(`confMILTER_MACROS_ENVFROM',
	confMILTER_MACROS_ENVFROM`, r, b')
INPUT_MAIL_FILTER(`amavisd-milter',
	`S=local:/var/lib/amavis/amavisd-milter.sock,
	F=T, T=S:10m;R:10m;E:10m')

Then rebuild your sendmail.cf file, install it (usually to /etc/mail/sendmail.cf) and (re)start sendmail daemon.

Running amavisd-milter

This example assume that amavisd-new is running as user amavis. It must agree with the entry $daemon_user in amavisd.conf.

First create working directory:

mkdir /var/lib/amavis/tmp
chmod 750 /var/lib/amavis/tmp
chown amavis /var/lib/amavis/tmp

Then start amavisd-milter as non-priviledged user amavis:

Limiting maximum concurrent connections to amavisd

To limit concurrent connections to 4 and fail after 10 minutes (10*60 secs) of waiting run amavisd-milter with this options:

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting run amavisd-milter on the foreground and set debug level to appropriate level:

where debug levels are:

1

Not errors but unexpected states (connection abort etc).

2

Main states in message processing.

3

All amavisd-milter debug messages.

4-9

Milter communication debugging (smfi_setdbg 1-6).