Re: flat file bayes locking issue and difference errors depending on file locking method

[Alex <my...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

> spamd[30339]: bayes: cannot open bayes databases
> /home/spamd/.spamassassin/bayes_* R/W: lock failed: Interrupted system call
>
> what is bayes_mutex  ?

Many years ago Matt wrote this post that describes it:

http://lists.mailscanner.info/pipermail/mailscanner/2004-November/043067.html

"In short, a mutex is a MUTual EXclusion. It's used to lock access to
some piece of data so you don't run into consistency problems where
two different threads are both trying to update the same data and one
winds up stomping on the changes of the other."

> is bayes_seen necessary ?  (i seem to recall it is not and can be deleted)
>
> if bayes_seen is large, isnt that the file we can delete and it will not
> make a difference?

Here's a post from Matt quite a while ago where he says that it's okay
to delete it, but doesn't really say what the implications are -- will
you effectively then lose its ability to recognize patterns?

http://markmail.org/message/ju6424xy6r2doslb

> should i stop spamd, restore bayes info and then restart spamd ?

It sounds like you either have multiple copies of SA running at the
same time, or lock files aren't being deleted after the process
closes.

> other options to preserve bayes?

You could always shut down spamd, make a physical copy of it, then
restart. You can also use sa-learn to back it up:

# sa-learn --backup > /var/backup/bayes-backup.sa

> ...or should i stop SA, whack the files, and restart and retrain?

What is the actual problem you're having, outside of the locking
errors? Or did I somehow miss that written in your post...

> spamd[2489]: bayes: cannot open bayes databases
> /home/spamd/.spamassassin/bayes_* R/W: lock failed: Interrupted system call

What's the status of the system? Are you sure the integrity of it
(disks, RAM, etc) are sound? Have you run memtest?

> spamd[19334]: bayes: cannot open bayes databases
> /home/spamd/.spamassassin/bayes_* R/W: lock failed: File exists

Have you stopped spamd, deleted these files, then restarted? They are
just temporary lock files and should be refreshed and deleted as
necessary.

Best,
Alex