Spamassasin rules - location, I am confused.

[nabuhonodozor]

Hi,
I am trying to edit SA rules but I am little confused. I found their two location in my server.
1st. location: [Home]/var/lib/spamassassin
2nd. loc.: [Home]/usr/share/spamassassin

How can I find which of them use SA, or maybe SA use them both?

best regards,
Piotr

[Sarah]

Both of those locations are used by SA. The default rules included with SA are in /usr/share/spamassassin/, and the added rules (i.e. from SARE) are in /var/lib/spamassassin/[version]/. If you want to edit a rule, however, you should NOT edit the original rule file, but you should put any changes to scores etc. in /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf or in your own .cf file in /etc/mail/spamassassin/. Otherwise your changes will be overwritten.

[nabuhonodozor]

Thanks Alot Sarah,
I wasnt sure what about update. Ill create separate file with rules instead.
Best,
Piotr

[jols]

Regarding:

"but you should put any changes to scores etc. in /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf"

Is this (7 year old) advice still good?

It seems that the rules we've established in local.cf at the above location, are no longer taking effect.

Thanks.

[Sarah]

Rules in local.cf should work, unless they are overridden somewhere else, like in another .cf file in /etc/mail/spamassassin/. Try moving your rules to your own .cf file in /etc/mail/spamassassin/ and see if that works. We usually recommend using a separate file (like /etc/mail/spamassassin/configserver.cf, which we create) to ensure it is not overridden by mailscanner or spamassassin updates.