Gentoo Archives: gentoo-gwn

From: Kurt Lieber <klieber@g.o>
To: gentoo-gwn@g.o
Subject: [gentoo-gwn] Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 4
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 03:18:00
Message-Id: 20030127030902.GJ19214@mail.lieber.org
1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
3 http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
4 This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of January 27th, 2003.
5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
6
7 ==============
8 1. Gentoo News
9 ==============
10
11 Summary
12 -------
13
14 * Gentoo Linux at LinuxWorld Expo
15 * GLSAs being integrated into Portage
16
17 Gentoo Linux at LinuxWorld Expo
18 -------------------------------
19
20 Gentoo Linux had a strong showing at last week's LinuxWorld Expo. Showing
21 off the recently-released Linux port of Unreal Tournament 2003, the Gentoo
22 booth drew large crowds throughout the show. Many of the attendees were
23 unfamiliar with Gentoo Linux, so this was a great opportunity to educate a
24 highly-targeted audience about the many benefits of Gentoo. While we
25 received inquiries from a wide range of people, there seemed to be a
26 specific interest from the scientific community, with several attendees
27 expressing an interest in using Gentoo Linux for their research projects.
28
29 It was also a great opportunity for many of the developers and avid Gentoo
30 users to finally meet face to face. All told, nearly a dozen developers
31 showed up for part or all of the show. Amazingly, few people looked like
32 they do on IRC. For those who were unable to attend LWE, we've included a
33 few pictures with this week's issue.
34
35 Figure 1.1: The Gentoo Linux booth at LinuxWorld Expo
36 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/images/gwn/20030127_l
37 we_booth.jpg
38 Figure 1.2: Gerk spent much of his time burning CDs for attendees
39 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/images/gwn/20030127_l
40 we_gerk_burning.jpg
41 Figure 1.3: Seemant Kulleen (left) and Daniel Robbins
42 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/images/gwn/20030127_l
43 we_seemant_drobbins.jpg
44
45 GLSAs being integrated into Portage
46 -----------------------------------
47
48 Nick Jones announced his intention to integrate Gentoo Linux Security
49 Announcements into Portage The proposed method is converting GLSAs to XML
50 format to allow for easy integration into Portage, allowing users to only
51 update packages that are affected by GLSAs. While the details still need
52 to be worked out, this will certainly be a welcome feature by many Gentoo
53 users and will make running Gentoo on servers where stability is paramount
54 an easier task.
55
56 ==================
57 2. Gentoo Security
58 ==================
59
60 Summary
61 -------
62
63 * GLSA: vim vim-core gvim
64 * GLSA: cvs
65 * GLSA: kde-2.2.x
66 * New Security Bug Reports
67
68 GLSA: vim vim-core gvim
69 -----------------------
70
71 The vim editor and associated packages contain a bug which permits
72 execution of un-sandboxed modeline commands. This permits a maliciously
73 crafted textfile to execute arbitrary code with the user's privileges. The
74 advisory also notes an unconfirmed report of a similar problem with local
75 variables in emacs. An exploit has been demonstrated..
76 * Severity: Moderate to High - arbitrary code execution.
77 * Packages Affected: app-editors/vim-core (prior to 6-1-r4), vim (prior
78 to 6.1-r19), gvim (prior to 6.1-r6).
79 * Rectification: Synchronize and emerge -u vim-core vim gvim
80 * GLSA Announcement[1]
81 * Advisory[2]
82
83 1. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=31627
84 2. http://www.guninski.com/vim1.html
85
86 GLSA: cvs
87 ---------
88
89 Maliciously malformed directory names can be used to trigger an error in
90 CVS that can result in a global pointer being freed twice. This condition
91 could be used to determine heap memory locations as a prelude to other
92 attacks using the CVS servers' privilege level (potentially root). No
93 exploits in the wild are reported.
94 * Severity: Critical - remote information leak, security exposure of
95 systems vulnerable to double-free pointer bugs.
96 * Packages Affected: dev-util/cvs versions prior to 1.11.5
97 * Rectification: Synchronize and emerge -u cvs
98 * GLSA Announcement[3]
99 * Advisory[4]
100
101 3. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=31285
102 4. http://security.e-matters.de/advisories/012003.html
103
104 GLSA: kde-2.2.x
105 ---------------
106
107 In some cases, KDE may fail to properly quote execution parameters. This
108 could permit arbitrary command execution (with the target user's
109 privileges) through the use of carefully crafted URLs, email addresses and
110 filenames. Exploits have been demonstrated. This report is related to an
111 earlier report[5] of a vulnerability in kde-3.0.x.
112 * Severity: High - remote execution of code, exploits in the wild.
113 * Packages Affected: kde-base/kde2.2.x
114 * Rectification: Synchronize and emerge -u kde
115 * GLSA Announcement[6]
116 * Advisory[7]
117
118 The updated ebuilds for kde-2.2.2 are currently only marked stable for
119 x86.
120
121 5. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=27299
122 6. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=30777
123 7. http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20021220-1.txt
124
125 New Security Bug Reports
126 ------------------------
127
128 There are no new security bugs this week. The mpg123 bug mentioned last
129 week:
130
131 * media-sound/mpg123[8]
132
133 remains open, but the message traffic implies that the issue may not be a
134 concern for the version currently in the portage tree. The bug is still
135 open because of a potential issue with frame size calculation in the
136 current version.
137
138 8. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14076
139
140 =================================
141 3. Featured Developer of the Week
142 =================================
143
144 Nicholas Jones
145
146 Figure 3.1: Nicholas Jones
147 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/images/gwn/20030127_c
148 arpaski.jpg
149
150 Nicholas Jones[9], this week's (and the inaugural) Featured Developer, is
151 the current maintainer of Portage. Subscribers to the mailing lists will
152 have his response[10] to the recent /etc/make.conf fiasco fresh in their
153 minds, whereas those who frequent the IRC channel (#gentoo on
154 irc.freenode.net) or the forums will have seen him as carpaski, responding
155 to Portage feature requests and resolving various problems. IRC, actually,
156 is where Nick got started with the Gentoo team: a regular who helped out
157 with things and submitted ebuilds and patches, the developers snapped him
158 up and got him onboard. Now, as Portage maintainer, he plans and codes new
159 features for Portage, making sure that changes are as modular as possible
160 to facilitate testing and debugging, as well as reviewing bug reports,
161 looking for problems to solve and features that can be merged into
162 portage.
163
164 9. carpaski@g.o
165 10. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104272726519197&w=2
166
167 A self-proclaimed console junky, Nick's favorite applications include
168 Midnight Commander, vi, lsof, and bash. He uses Enlightenment 16.5 - and
169 only Enlightenment 16.5 - for window management, and mutt for mail. Using
170 his scripting skills, Nick has done some work remotely administering UNIX
171 machines, and has also worked as a network engineer on a US goverment
172 backbone. Amazingly enough, when he's not busy hacking and testing Portage
173 or doing administration work, you'll find him studying at the Illinois
174 Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. After all that it's hard to
175 imagine that he'd have time left for other pursuits, but Nick says he
176 likes wine and music - both listening to it and playing it on guitar, as
177 well as frisbee and racquetball.
178
179 =========================
180 4. Heard In The Community
181 =========================
182
183 Web Forums
184 ----------
185
186 emerge-webrsync Tool Problems
187
188 A recent thread[11] in the forums was promoted to an alert when it was
189 discovered that an upgrade to the emerge-webrsync tool from the gentoolkit
190 had resulted in the potential for it to delete the /usr directory on
191 machines where it was run. emerge-webrsync is a tool for automatically
192 updating the local portage directory from the daily snapshots on machines
193 that are prevented from using emerge sync (for example, on machines behind
194 firewalls that block rsync). A number of users reported substantial (and
195 possibly unrecoverable) damage to their installations. The problem was
196 reported in this bug report[12]. The issue was apparently resolved in
197 gentoolkit-r11.
198
199 11. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=31494
200 12. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14388
201
202 Much Moaning About ibiblio
203
204 People all over the planet are struggling to get decent download speeds
205 from the ibiblio server that provides the packages for Gentoo
206 installations. Not a major problem as long as everybody was content to
207 grab a stage1 tarball and take it from there, but since the introduction
208 of the Gentoo Reference Platform and its collection of precompiled
209 binaries, the CD images have grown to "normal" size around 500 MB each,
210 and the complaints are getting louder, on the IRC channels and the forums.
211 If it wasn't for the fact that many of those complaining have simply
212 failed to embrace any of the dozens of mirrors listed[13] at the official
213 Gentoo website and Ibiblio itself...
214
215 * ibiblio esta lenta...[14]
216 * Problems accessing ibiblio...[15]
217 * ibiblio suddenly slow![16]
218 * ibiblslow.org[17]
219
220 13. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml
221 14. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=31478
222 15. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=25724
223 16. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=28560
224 17. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=22830
225
226 Automatic Writing Resurrected
227
228 One of the Forum's all-time classics is back: After a break over Christmas
229 and New Year's, the "Story By Post" thread has been reanimated. Knitted
230 with one-liners that fit exceptionally well within the general direction
231 the story will take (except that nobody actually knows where it's going),
232 each contribution adds to a great recital involving (so far) the marmalade
233 cat, Ellen Feiss, the wonder boy, Peter Falk and many others still rubbing
234 their eyes in disbelief, wondering how they ended up starring in a prose
235 artifact hovering on a technical support forum. Another thread in a
236 similar genre has been left alone for a while - well, until now. This one
237 actually comes with its own meta-thread:
238
239 * Story By Post[18]
240 * Chain Thread[19]
241 * Chain Thread Offramp[20]
242
243 18. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=21618
244 19. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=20571
245 20. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=20599
246
247 Forum Statistics
248
249 fghellar[21], one of the Forum's bodhisattvas and an honorary headcounter,
250 has posted an update on the number of users currently registered at the
251 site. Hard to estimate how many of these are active or at least passively
252 reading stuff, but the sheer numbers are impressive. Constantly updated
253 statistics can be watched by clicking on the official statistics link in
254 the top menu, but for a historical perspective on growth in the Gentoo
255 forums check the first link:
256
257 * 1k users[22]
258 * Official forum statistics[23]
259
260 21. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=20
261 22. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=1593
262 23. http://forums.gentoo.org/statistics.php
263
264 gentoo-user
265 -----------
266
267 More praise for Phoenix
268
269 A lengthy discussion took place on gentoo-user about the buggy misbehavior
270 of Mozilla. It seems that almost everyone and their mother has complained
271 about bad plugin support, sluggishness and crashes -- especially when
272 dealing with Gentoo's Mozilla sources. Even with Rafa's tip[24] on
273 compiling Mozilla without mail and news support and Steve's point[25] on
274 using the mozilla.org tarballs, the complaints remained widespread.
275 Phoenix was mentioned as an alternative and the audience gave nothing but
276 praise. Phoenix is a non-bloated redesign of the Mozilla browser component
277 which admittedly runs much faster and embraces the java and flash plugins
278 on Gentoo systems without hesitation. The thread[26] even encouraged happy
279 Mozilla users to switch to Phoenix. If you've been fighting with Mozilla,
280 you may want to experiment with Phoenix if you don't need Moz's mail &
281 news.
282
283 24. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104300159002182&w=2
284 25. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104297434515022&w=2
285 26. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104296768011912&w=2
286
287 Kernel Performance
288
289 Most of us gentoo users are not satisfied with an OK system. We'd much
290 rather have our software tweaked just enough to squeeze an extra 5hp out
291 of that already souped up 750hp big block. The number one place to muster
292 this extra horsepower is the Linux kernel. We can worry about the CFLAGS
293 later. Gentoo is stocked with many different kernel sources other than the
294 -gentoo ones, and all come with their unique advantages and disavantages
295 as determined by the patches involved with them. These patches are applied
296 against the 'vanilla' source resulting in a modified kernel. An example of
297 these patches, rmap[27] , was described within the thread. Aniruddha
298 Shankar started the discussion[28] by boasting his happines with using Con
299 Kolivas's kernel (-ck sources) for his desktop system. As always, Gentoo
300 users are encouraged to tailor their system to their needs, and a good
301 place to start is the kernel.
302
303 27. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104341729031736&w=2
304 28. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=gentoo-user&m=104341350726805&w=2
305
306 gentoo-dev
307 ----------
308
309 Methods for managing etc files.
310
311 Jeff Kowing asked[29] about the techniques to use to manage updateing etc
312 files after an upgrade. Matthew Walker answer very succinctly[30] that
313 etc-update may be what he was looking for.
314
315 29. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6702
316 30. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6704
317
318 Gentoo-sources vs "stock" kernels.
319
320 Dewet Diener wrote[31] to ask: "I'm wondering what the general status of
321 gentoo-sources is compared to the more "stock" kernels, like vanilla and
322 -ac? Is it being used in production-class setups without hitches?". Kim
323 Nielsen replied[32] with "The gentoo kernel is quite stable but Gentoo was
324 never ment as a server distribution even though it serves just as well as
325 others like Redhat or Debian. It was intedned for network/developer use."
326 Thomas T. Veldhouse chipped in[33] with: "I don't think there is any such
327 intent. By what I can see and know about Gentoo, it is for any use that
328 one sees fit. It was never designed for any particular application. [...]
329 it is up to the administrator to make sure that gentoo changes don't hose
330 a production machine".
331
332 31. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6705
333 32. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6710
334 33. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/6711
335
336 =======================
337 5. Gentoo International
338 =======================
339
340 Unofficial European Gentoo Websites
341
342 While the official Gentoo website struggles to keep up with the
343 multilingual cacophony created by the enormous wave of popularity crashing
344 over its head, many non-English websites have taken over the part of
345 support for local communities. Today we take a closer look at some
346 European sites: French-speaking users, for example, have been blessed with
347 a dynamic news and discussion site of their own for many months now. The
348 forum section is not as active as the French board at forums.gentoo.org,
349 but manages to coexist peacefully. But the real strength of "Da Gentoo"
350 lies in its news coverage, delivered not only to common browsers:
351 Gentoofr.org news are being served for PDAs and for WAP-enabled mobile
352 phones. The German Gentoo project is probably the oldest outside of the US
353 (it started sometime back in April 2002), but hasn't lost its appetite
354 yet. Gentoo.de (like many other international sites, e.g. Korea and Japan)
355 is focussed on documentation, but more importantly provides a large number
356 of supplementary "regional" ebuilds with spellcheckers and localized
357 Openoffice-bin versions, and the occasional tool for users with specific
358 homegrown problems (a PPPoE tarball for DSL users in Germany can be
359 downloaded from the project's FTP-server). The Danish site has its
360 emphasis equally on projects and development, and is currently looking for
361 contributors and people who can help with PHP coding. The news section
362 definitely needs a blood transfusion, there haven't been any updates since
363 May 2002. The Norwegian website has a comparatively low profile,
364 apparently content to just provide a few links to mirror servers and
365 information resources. But it's highly unfair to just point out the
366 websites: The most buzz for the buck comes from the many non-English IRC
367 channels on Freenode! Anybody who wants to get a feel for the huge user
368 base Gentoo has in many European countries, just check out the Dutch or
369 the Portuguese #gentoo-nl or #gentoo-pt channels via irc.freenet.org...
370 With a channel like #gentoo-fi, who needs a Finnish website, and the
371 Swedes even have their own IRC statistics:
372
373 * France: Da Gentoo French Page[34]
374 * Germany: Gentoo Linux - Das deutschsprachige Portal[35]
375 * Denmark: Gentoo Linux Danmark[36]
376 * Norway: Gentoo Linux Norge[37]
377 * Sweden: IRC channel statistics[38]
378
379 34. http://www.gentoofr.org/
380 35. http://www.gentoo.de
381 36. http://www.gentoo.dk
382 37. http://www.gentoo.no
383 38. http://gentoo-se.ath.cx
384
385 ================
386 6. Portage Watch
387 ================
388
389 The following stable packages were added to portage this week
390 -------------------------------------------------------------
391
392 Because of the pending release of 1.4_final, the Portage tree is currently
393 frozen. As such, no new stable packages were introduced to Portage this
394 week
395
396 Updates to notable packages
397 ---------------------------
398
399 * sys-devel/gcc - gcc-3.2.1-r7.ebuild;
400 * sys-kernel/* - aa-sources-2.4.21_pre3-r1.ebuild;
401 development-sources-2.5.59-r1.ebuild;
402 development-sources-2.5.59-r2.ebuild; development-sources-2.5.59.ebuild;
403 gs-sources-2.4.21_pre3-r1.ebuild; gs-sources-2.4.21_pre3-r2.ebuild;
404 mips-sources-2.4.19.ebuild; openmosix-sources-2.4.20-r2.ebuild;
405 * net-www/apache - apache-2.0.44.ebuild;
406 * app-admin/gentoolkit - gentoolkit-0.1.17-r10.ebuild;
407 gentoolkit-0.1.17-r11.ebuild;
408
409 ===========
410 7. Bugzilla
411 ===========
412
413 Summary
414 -------
415
416 * Statistics
417 * Closed Bug Ranking
418 * New Bug Rankings
419
420 Statistics
421 ----------
422
423 The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[39]) to record and
424 track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the
425 development team. In the last 7 days, activity on the site has resulted
426 in:
427
428 * 258 new bugs this week
429 * 1491 total bugs currently marked 'new'
430 * 559 total bugs curently assigned to developers
431 * 54 bugs that were previously closed have been reopened.
432
433 There are currently 2104 bugs open in bugzilla. Of these: 40 are labelled
434 'blocker', 76 are labelled 'critical', and 144 are labelled 'major'.
435
436 39. http://bugs.gentoo.org
437
438 The current list of developers' open bugs may be found at the Gentoo Bug
439 Count Report[40].
440
441 40.
442 http://bugs.gentoo.org/reports.cgi?product=-All-&output=most_doomed&links=1
443 &banner=1&quip=0
444
445 Closed Bug Rankings
446 -------------------
447
448 The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs this week are:
449
450 * Martin Schlemmer[41], with 38 closed bugs[42]
451 * Nick Hadaway[43], with 17 closed bugs[44]
452 * M. Holzer[45], with 14 closed bugs[46]
453 * Donny Davies[47], with 10 closed bugs[48]
454 * Seemant Kulleen[49], with 8 closed bugs[50]
455
456 41. azarah@g.o
457 42.
458 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_s
459 tatus=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&resolution=TEST-REQUEST&emailassigned_to1=1&e
460 mailtype1=exact&email1=azarah%40gentoo.org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2
461 003-01-18
462 43. raker@g.o
463 44.
464 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_s
465 tatus=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&resolution=TEST-REQUEST&emailassigned_to1=1&e
466 mailtype1=exact&email1=raker%40gentoo.org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=20
467 03-01-18
468 45. mholzer@g.o
469 46.
470 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_s
471 tatus=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&resolution=TEST-REQUEST&emailassigned_to1=1&e
472 mailtype1=exact&email1=mholzer%40gentoo.org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=
473 2003-01-18
474 47. woodchip@g.o
475 48.
476 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_s
477 tatus=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&resolution=TEST-REQUEST&emailassigned_to1=1&e
478 mailtype1=exact&email1=woodchip%40gentoo.org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom
479 =2003-01-18
480 49. seemant@g.o
481 50.
482 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_s
483 tatus=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&resolution=TEST-REQUEST&emailassigned_to1=1&e
484 mailtype1=exact&email1=seemant%40gentoo.org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=
485 2003-01-18
486
487 New Bug Rankings
488 ----------------
489
490 The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs this
491 week are:
492
493 * Martin Schlemmer[51], with 10 new bugs[52]
494 * Nick Hadaway[53], with 6 new bugs[54]
495 * Seth Chandler[55], with 6 new bugs[56]
496 * The Gnome Team[57], with 5 new bugs[58]
497
498 51. azarah@g.o
499 52.
500 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
501 tatus=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=exact&email1=azarah%40gentoo.
502 org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-01-18
503 53. raker@g.o
504 54.
505 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
506 tatus=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=exact&email1=raker%40gentoo.o
507 rg&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-01-18
508 55. sethbc@g.o
509 56.
510 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
511 tatus=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=exact&email1=sethbc%40gentoo.
512 org&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-01-18
513 57. gnome@g.o
514 58.
515 http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
516 tatus=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=exact&email1=gnome%40gentoo.o
517 rg&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-01-18
518
519 ==================
520 8. Tips and Tricks
521 ==================
522
523 Using Procmail and SpamAssassin to Block Spam and Filter Mailing Lists
524
525 The proliferation of unsolicited email, or spam, is becoming more and more
526 widespread. However, there are many tools to help prevent spam. This week,
527 we look at using Procmail and SpamAssassin to filter incoming mail and to
528 block incoming spam. Procmail[59] is a mail filter than can be used to
529 sort incoming mail into separate folders as well as many other types of
530 mail preprocessing. SpamAssassin[60] is a mail filter that uses heuristic
531 scanning to identify spam.
532
533 59. http://www.procmail.org
534 60. http://www.spamassassin.org
535
536 Since both Procmail and SpamAssassin are in Portage, installation is a
537 simple emerge.
538
539 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
540 | Code Listing 8.1: |
541 | Installing Procmail and SpamAssassin |
542 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
543 | |
544 |# emerge net-mail/procmail |
545 |# emerge dev-perl/Mail-SpamAssassin |
546 | |
547 |Add the SpamAssassin daemon to the default runlevel |
548 |# rc-update add spamd default |
549 | |
550 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
551
552 When upgrading Perl to a higher version, you need to re-emerge
553 dev-perl/Net-DNS, dev-perl/HTML-Parser, and dev-perl/Time-HiRes or
554 SpamAssassin will exit and possibly discard valid emails.
555
556 Each procmail filter is known as a recipie. To keep things organized,
557 we're going to create the directory $HOME/.procmail for separate recipies.
558
559 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
560 | Code Listing 8.1: |
561 | Creating ~/.procmail |
562 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
563 | |
564 |% mkdir $HOME/.procmail |
565 | |
566 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
567
568 Upon invocation, procmail first reads the $HOME/.procmailrc file. This
569 file should contain the location of your mailbox and where to look for
570 other recipies.
571
572 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
573 | Code Listing 8.1: |
574 | Example $HOME/.procmailrc |
575 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
576 | |
577 |VERBOSE=no |
578 | |
579 |DEFAULT="$HOME/.maildir/" |
580 |MAILDIR="$HOME/.maildir/" |
581 | |
582 |PMDIR="$HOME/.procmail" |
583 |LOGFILE="$PMDIR/log" |
584 | |
585 |INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/lists.rc |
586 |INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/spam.rc |
587 | |
588 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
589
590 This assumes that you are using the Maildir method of storing email. If
591 you are using the mbox method, simply change .maildir to your mbox folder
592 and remove the trailing slash $HOME/.procmailrc is read from top to
593 bottom. This means that your recipies will be read in the order in which
594 they appear. Procmail stops checking on the first recipie that matches.
595 Keeping lists.rc above spam.rc ensures that mailing lists filters are
596 checked first, avoiding expensive spam checking operations where possible.
597
598 The next step is to set up mailing list filters. Since most lists use the
599 List-Id header, we can easily filter out mailing lists from normal email.
600
601 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
602 | Code Listing 8.1: |
603 | Example $HOME/.procmail/lists.rc |
604 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
605 | |
606 |:0 |
607 |* ^List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-security\.gentoo\.org> |
608 |.gentoo-security/ |
609 | |
610 |:0 |
611 |* ^List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-user\.gentoo\.org> |
612 |.gentoo-user/ |
613 | |
614 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
615
616 To see the actual List-Id header, you may need view all email headers.
617 See your mail client's documentation to enable that feature.
618
619 Next, we can set up the spam filter. This recipie first invokes
620 SpamAssassin using spamc and then checks the X-Spam-Status header. If the
621 message is identified as spam, it is moved to the spam folder.
622
623 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
624 | Code Listing 8.1: |
625 | Example $HOME/.procmail/spam.rc |
626 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
627 | |
628 |:0 fw |
629 || /usr/bin/spamc -f |
630 | |
631 |:0 |
632 |* X-Spam-Status: Yes |
633 |.spam/ |
634 | |
635 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
636
637 While SpamAssassin is very good, it is not 100% accurate so using
638 /dev/null as your spam folder may result in some lost email. It is better
639 to move spam to a separate folder and manually delete messages. spamc
640 connects to the SpamAssassin daemon (spamd). If for some reason you cannot
641 use the daemon, SpamAssassin can be called directly using
642 /usr/bin/spamassassin -a
643
644 You should now be set up to filter your email and block most spam. For
645 more information on Procmail or SpamAssassin, see their system
646 documentation with man procmail and perldoc Mail::SpamAssassin or the
647 associated websites at http://www.procmail.org and
648 http://www.spamassassin.org.
649
650 ==========================
651 9. Moves, Adds and Changes
652 ==========================
653
654 Moves
655 -----
656
657 The following developers recently left the Gentoo team:
658
659 * none this week
660
661 Adds
662 ----
663
664 The following developers recently joined the Gentoo team:
665
666 * none this week
667
668 Changes
669 -------
670
671 The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project.
672
673 * none this week
674
675 =====================
676 10. Contribute to GWN
677 =====================
678
679 Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an
680 email[61].
681
682 61. gwn-feedback@g.o
683
684 ================
685 11. GWN Feedback
686 ================
687
688 Please send us your feedback[62] and help make GWN better.
689
690 62. gwn-feedback@g.o
691
692 ===================
693 12. Other Languages
694 ===================
695
696 The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
697
698 * Dutch
699 * English
700 * German
701 * French
702 * Japanese
703 * Italian
704 * Portuguese (Brazil)
705 * Portuguese (Portugal)
706 * Spanish
707
708 Kurt Lieber <klieber@g.o> - Editor
709 AJ Armstrong <aja@×××××××××××××.com> - Contributor
710 Brice Burgess <nesta@×××××××.net> - Contributor
711 Yuji Carlos Kosugi <carlos@g.o> - Contributor
712 Rafael Cordones Marcos <rcm@×××××××.net> - Contributor
713 David Narayan <david@×××××××.net> - Contributor
714 Ulrich Plate <plate@×××.com> - Contributor
715 Peter Sharp <mail@××××××××××××××.net> - Contributor
716 Mathy Vanvoorden <matje@×××××××.be> - Dutch Translation
717 Tom Van Laerhoven <tom.vanlaerhoven@××××××.be> - Dutch Translation
718 Roel Adriaans <roel@××××××××.cx> - Dutch Translation
719 Nicolas Ledez <nicolas.ledez@××××.fr> - French Translation
720 Guillaume Plessis <gui@×××××××××.com> - French Translation
721 Eric St-Georges <thevedge@××××××××.net> - French Translation
722 John Berry <anfini@××××.fr> - French Translation
723 Martin Prieto <riverdale@×××××××××.org> - French Translation
724 Michael Kohl <citizen428@g.o> - German Translation
725 Steffen Lassahn <madeagle@g.o> - German Translation
726 Matthias F. Brandstetter <haim@g.o> - German Translation
727 Thomas Raschbacher <lordvan@g.o> - German Translation
728 Marco Mascherpa <mush@××××××.net> - Italian Translation
729 Claudio Merloni <paper@×××××××.it> - Italian Translation
730 Daniel Ketel <kage-chan@g.o> - Japanese Translation
731 Yoshiaki Hagihara <hagi@×××.com> - Japanese Translation
732 Andy Hunne <andy@×××××××××.com> - Japanese Translation
733 Yuji Carlos Kosugi <carlos@g.o> - Japanese Translation
734 Ventura Barbeiro <venturasbarbeiro@××××××.br> - Portuguese (Brazil)
735 Translation
736 Bruno Ferreira <blueroom@××××××××××××.net> - Portuguese (Portugal)
737 Translation
738 Lanark <lanark@××××××××××.ar> - Spanish Translation
739 Rafael Cordones Marcos <rcm@×××××××.net> - Spanish Translation
740 Julio Castillo <julio@×××××××××××××.com> - Spanish Translation
741 Jaime Freire <jfreire@××.com> - Spanish Translation
742 Sergio Gómez <s3r@××××××××××××.ar> - Spanish Translation