Spamassassin is conflicting with postifx

Question

I am trying to install spamassassin. But it seems to be conflicting with POSTFIX.

When I restart spamassassin I get the following error code:

/usr/sbin/postconf: fatal: file /etc/postfix/master.cf: line 40: bad field count
postfix/postfix-script: fatal: cannot execute /usr/sbin/postconf!

The error appears when I add this line:

-o content_filter=spamassassin

So basically when direct emails through spamassassin. here my postfix.conf

# ==========================================================================
# service type  private unpriv  chroot  wakeup  maxproc command + args
#               (yes)   (yes)   (yes)   (never) (100)
# ==========================================================================
smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
#smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       1       postscreen
#smtpd     pass  -       -       -       -       -       smtpd
#dnsblog   unix  -       -       -       -       0       dnsblog
#tlsproxy  unix  -       -       -       -       0       tlsproxy
#submission inet n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
-o content_filter=spamassassin
#-o syslog_name=postfix/submission
#-o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
#-o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#-o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=
#  -o smtpd_relay_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
#smtps     inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
#  -o syslog_name=postfix/smtps
#  -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes
#  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=
#  -o smtpd_relay_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
#628       inet  n       -       -       -       -       qmqpd
pickup    unix  n       -       -       60      1       pickup
cleanup   unix  n       -       -       -       0       cleanup
qmgr      unix  n       -       n       300     1       qmgr
#qmgr     unix  n       -       n       300     1       oqmgr
tlsmgr    unix  -       -       -       1000?   1       tlsmgr
rewrite   unix  -       -       -       -       -       trivial-rewrite
bounce    unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
defer     unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
trace     unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
verify    unix  -       -       -       -       1       verify
flush     unix  n       -       -       1000?   0       flush
proxymap  unix  -       -       n       -       -       proxymap
proxywrite unix -       -       n       -       1       proxymap
smtp      unix  -       -       -       -       -       smtp
relay     unix  -       -       -       -       -       smtp
#       -o smtp_helo_timeout=5 -o smtp_connect_timeout=5
showq     unix  n       -       -       -       -       showq
error     unix  -       -       -       -       -       error
retry     unix  -       -       -       -       -       error
discard   unix  -       -       -       -       -       discard
local     unix  -       n       n       -       -       local
virtual   unix  -       n       n       -       -       virtual
lmtp      unix  -       -       -       -       -       lmtp
anvil     unix  -       -       -       -       1       anvil
scache    unix  -       -       -       -       1       scache
#
maildrop  unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
  flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient}
#
uucp      unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
  flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient)
#
# Other external delivery methods.
#
ifmail    unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
  flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient)
bsmtp     unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
  flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient
scalemail-backend unix  -   n   n   -   2   pipe
  flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension}
mailman   unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
  flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py
  ${nexthop} ${user}

spamassassin unix -     n       n       -       -       pipe
        user=spamd argv=/usr/bin/spamc -f -e  
        /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -f ${sender} ${recipient}

Does someone already encounter this issue? or might know a solution? Cheers

Solution

I found the solution. master.cf is sensitive to line indentation

-o content_filter=spamassassin

was missing a space before

Missing indentation in the master.cf

The /etc/postfix/master.cf file needs proper indentation. The first line of each service starts in the first column. Additional lines of the same service need to be indented by spaces.

https://workaround.org/article/troubleshooting

Comments

[sam_pan_mariusz]

This method of integrating SpamAssassin into Postfix is slow and has a good potential for DoS attacks. Why not to move to milter-based filtering instead?

[Admin]

Mainly because I am new to this and do not know milter-based filtering. But I will look at this. Thanks for the tip. Do you have a link where I can start looking?

[sam_pan_mariusz]

I don't know your OS/distribution. Under Debian-based systems you have spamass-milter package. This link seems to provide some details. Also look at spamass-milter manual, substituting Postfix for Sendmail.

[Admin]

I am using Ubuntu. Thanks a lot for the links; I'll start digging ;-)

[the-wabbit]

I would suggest using Amavisd-new which is rather easy to integrate with Postfix and has interfaces for SpamAssassin invocation.