[Pkg-dspam-misc] Bug#577661: Status of DSPAM in Debian

[Stevan Bajić]

On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:20:48 +0100
Ana Guerrero <ana at debian.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 10:16:00PM +0100, Julien Valroff wrote:
> > 
> > I plan to upload current git snapshot to experimental very soon - not
> > everything was tested as much as I would have expected, and I think some
> > documentation would need to be checked/rephrased/updated but the package has
> > been in use on several production servers for some time now, which makes me
> > confident for the future.
> >
> 
> Experimental is experimental after all :-)
>
Maybe the Debian package is experimental but the product it self is not experimental. Version 3.8.x of DSPAM has been used for ages in other distros. The new 3.9.x series of DSPAM is the result of many bug fixes that DSPAM users have reported after the community has taken over from Sensory Networks (that is the company used to hold the copyright for DSPAM).

I know the codebase pretty well and I would say that the current 3.9.x series of DSPAM is by far the best DSPAM you can get today. I might be biased but I think by looking at the GIT commit history you will see yourself that many bug fixes, memory leaks and stability issues have been resolved.

I respect the decision to go with 3.6.8 but that version is almost 5 years old (release date was 2006-06-06). I know, I know. Good software does not need to be constantly updated. But in case of DSPAM I would say that there are way to many issues with that older version. To many memory leaks and to many bugs and a lot of stability issues.

I am no Debian user and maybe I don't understand the whole thing.... but why is it so hard to get an updated version of DSPAM into Debian? What is the problem? How can I help? What needs to be done in order to allow Debian users to enjoy a more recent DSPAM version?

Regarding documentation: Tell me what needs to be rephrased or rewritten or added and I will do it. Just send me patches for existing text or send me new text and I will commit it. I think the DSPAM project never rejected changes in the past regarding documentation.

Regarding confidence: The Rice University is using DSPAM since ages for all their students. I think they have about 65'000 mail boxes that they filter with DSPAM. If DSPAM would be unstable or unusable then they would for sure not use it. Beside that the DSPAM mailing list is full of users using DSPAM in various scenarios. Just recently Nate Custer from Hostgator.com said on the DSPAM mailing list that they filter mail for 3 million mail boxes with DSPAM. If that does not speak for DSPAM then I don't know what would?


> Also, most of the DSPAM uploaders are MIA. Well, I think all are MIA except
> Christoph Haas.  Could you please update the list in your upload? Same with
> the DM flag (!?).
> 
> Thanks,
> Ana
> 
-- 
Kind Regards from Switzerland,

Stevan Bajić