spamd lock up

[br...@highstream.net]

I get a lot of lock ups of spamd.

When I use strace I see this:

$ strace -f -p 27428
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 290000}) = 0 (Timeout)
write(8, "hsa13.27428\n", 12)           = 12
link("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock.hsa13.27428",
"/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock") = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
lstat64("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock.hsa13.27428",
{st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=156, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock",
{st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=12, ...}) = 0
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 762303}) = 0 (Timeout)
write(8, "hsa13.27428\n", 12)           = 12
link("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock.hsa13.27428",
"/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock") = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
lstat64("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock.hsa13.27428",
{st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=168, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/mailuser/.spamassassin/auto-whitelist.lock",
{st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=12, ...}) = 0
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 884471}) = 0 (Timeout)


over and over. this is in a set up with 1 virtual user with a huge AWL, spawning
15-20 spamd (depending on machine).
the process usually eventually starts responding again (my check test is just
doing this: echo hi | spamc) but it's usually in this locked state for 2-5
minutes.

this is 3.0.2 and 3.0.3

Any ideas on what's going on exactly and any possible workaround?

Thank you,

bdm