In this step by step example I am upgrading SpamAssassin version 3.0.3-4.fc4 to 3.2.5 on my Fedora 4 server.

After you download the lastest version, build the rpm using this file, the command to do that is below.

sudo rpmbuild -tb Mail-SpamAssassin-3.2.5.tar.gz

This will create two files, perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.2.5-1.i386.rpm and spamassassin-3.2.5-1.i386.rpm in the folder /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386.

Install this file first with the following command,

rpm -i perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.2.5-1.i386.rpm

Uninstall Evolution first because it dependencies that relies on Spamassassin 3.0.3-4.fc4, otherwise you will receive an error when uninstalling SpamAssassin version 3.0.3. Evolution is an email client for Linux, similar to Outlook for Windows.

Uninstall in the following order:
rpm -e evolution-connector-2.2.2-5.i386
rpm -e evolution-devel-2.2.2-5.i386
rpm -e evolution-2.2.2-5.i386

Check to see whcih version of Spam Assassin is installed.

rpm -q spamassassin
spamassassin-3.0.3-4.fc4

To uninstall run this command.

rpm -e spamassassin-3.0.3-4.fc4

You will see this warning message.
warning: /etc/mail/spamassassin/spamassassin-default.rc saved as /etc/mail/spamassassin/spamassassin-default.rc.rpmsave

Confirm that SpamAssassin has been uninstalled.
rpm -q spamassassin
package spamassassin is not installed

Now install the new version of SpamAssassin.

rpm -i spamassassin-3.2.5-1.i386.rpm

Check to see if the installation was successful.
rpm -q spamassassin
spamassassin-3.2.5-1

Now copy this file that was renamed during the uninstallation of the previous version.
cp -i spamassassin-default.rc.rpmsave spamassassin-default.rc

If you are interested here is the contents of the file spamassassin-default.rc.
# send mail through spamassassin
:0fw
| /usr/bin/spamassassin
# Drop all spam emails to /dev/null
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
/dev/null
# send mail through spamassassin
:0fw
| /usr/bin/spamassassin
# Drop all spam emails to /dev/null
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
/dev/null

The final step is to start the SpamAssassin service.

service spamassassin start
Starting spamd: [ OK ]

If you wish you can now download and install the latest version of Evolution from projects.gnome.org/evolution. I may do that sometime, as I do not use it.

Well after I completed the above steps, it seems that SpamAssassin was not working. I then decided to read the documentation avaiable on the website. I guess I should have doen that first.

Anyhow, these are the steps I missed. Edit the file /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf.

Remove the comment (#) from these lines as shown below

# Add *****SPAM***** to the Subject header of spam e-mails
#
rewrite_header Subject *****SPAM*****

# Bayesian classifier auto-learning (default: 1)
#
bayes_auto_learn 1

Then edit the file /etc/mail/spamassassin/spamassassin-default.rc, and add these lines if it’s not there.

# send mail through spamassassin
DROPPRIVS=yes

:0fw
| /usr/bin/spamassassin

Restart spamd.
service spamassassin restart

I have disabled comments, but comments continue to be posted

If you have unchecked Allow people to post comments on the article on the Options > Discussion panel, then you have only disabled comments on future posts. To completely disable comments, you will have to edit each past post and uncheck Allow Comments from the Write Post SubPanel. Alternatively, you could delete the wp-comments-post.php file, or run this MySQL query, from the command line on a shell account, or using phpMyAdmin: UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status="closed";

I have disabled trackbacks, but trackbacks continue to be posted

If you have unchecked Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.) on the Options > Discussion panel, then you have only disabled trackbacks on future posts. To completely disable trackbacks, you will have to edit each past post and uncheck Allow Pings from the Write Post SubPanel. Alternatively, you could just simply delete the wp-trackback.php file, or run this MySQL query, from the command line on a shell account, or using PHPMyAdmin: UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status="closed";