CentOS 4.6, Amavisd-new 2.5.3 update and troubles with Perl

Yesterday, I had a little trouble with one of my mail servers based on CentOS distribution enhanced with amavisd-new package from Dag Wieers's repository. The system had configured automated update and during the night the latest version of amavisd-new package was installed. It was 2.5.3 I think. Naturally, it led to the service restart and rereading required system libraries and dependent Perl modules.

The perl-MIME-tools package seemed to be the most critical part. It is responsible for disassembling MIME parts of messages containing multimedia attachments and it is used by amavisd-new content filter. I noticed that behaviour when the following error messages were appearing it the mail log:

• ... amavis[28144]: (28144-01) (!!)TROUBLE in check_mail: mime_decode-1 FAILED: Can't locate object method "seek" via package "File::Temp" at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/MIME/Parser.pm line 816 ...

I thought something strange had to happen to the File::Temp module. Perhaps its integrity could be broken. So I began checking the module! I was looking through the system update history but I didn't find anything updated recently. The module is part of the perl package and it wasn't updated recently nor there weren't any updates of it since the system's installation. Finally, I prove it by verifying the metadata of the package with command:

• rpm -V perl

It showed me the package wasn't broken and any file wasn't modified or corrupted. The File::Temp module was in version 0.14. You can check it like this:

• perl -le 'use File::Temp; print File::Temp->VERSION'
  

Further, I went through the update log again and noticed the package perl-MIME-tools was updated a few weeks ago as well. Its new version was 5.424.
The next phase was about trying to google through mailing lists to find anything related to the problem.

I found out a few people had the similar issues with the amavisd-new filter but nobody was sure how to solve it. The most denoted advice was to reinstall the File::Temp module.

I was deciding if I should use a latest version from the CPAN repository but Dag's repository contains standalone perl-File-Temp package with the module so I downloaded it. The package was in conflict with the perl package. The conflicting part was man page of the module. You don't have to install it or clearly you can bypass installing documentation of the package. Use this command to achieve it:

• rpm -Uvh --nodocs perl-File-Temp-0.20-1.el4.rf.noarch.rpm
  

I installed the module in version 0.20, restarted the service and nothing changed. The error was still there. So what next? The File::Temp module should be O.K., the perl package wasn't corrupted.

Let's try to check the MIME::Parser module which the error message mentioned as well. I installed the newest version from the CPAN which was 5.425. According to the changelog of the package this version solves some compatibility issues with tmp_recycling() method of the module. I restarted the service and it seemed to be working. The problem dismissed and the mail log was clean in the end.

To be sure with the previous steps I searched with Google once more. But now, I focused on misbehaviour between the File::Temp and MIME::Parser modules. I found this interesting article which mentions some incompatibilities between them and that new version of the File::Temp module is solving it.

The mail server and its content filter is healthy now. The troubles with Perl are away.