--- src/mysql_drv.c	2006-09-21 20:25:19.000000000 +0200
+++ src/mysql_drv.c.new	2007-09-21 22:12:17.092607928 +0200
@@ -2489,6 +2489,16 @@
     goto FAILURE;
   }
 
+#if MYSQL_VERSION_ID >= 50013
+  /* enable automatic reconnect for MySQL >= 5.0.13 */
+  snprintf(attrib, sizeof(attrib), "%sReconnect", prefix);
+  if (_ds_match_attribute(CTX->config->attributes, attrib, "true"))
+  {
+      my_bool reconnect = 1;
+      mysql_options(dbh, MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT, &reconnect);
+  }
+#endif
+
   if (hostname[0] == '/')
   {
     if (!mysql_real_connect (dbh, NULL, user, password, db, 0, hostname, 

--- src/dspam.conf.in	2006-06-23 05:11:31.000000000 +0200
+++ src/dspam.conf.in.new	2007-11-18 19:25:05.250073750 +0100
@@ -305,6 +305,7 @@
 #MySQLPass    		changeme
 #MySQLDb      	  	dspam
 #MySQLCompress		true
+#MySQLReconnect		true
 
 # If you are using replication for clustering, you can also specify a separate
 # server to perform all writes to.
@@ -315,6 +316,7 @@
 #MySQLWritePass		changeme
 #MySQLWriteDb		dspam_write
 #MySQLCompress		true
+#MySQLReconnect		true
 
 # If your replication isn't close to real-time, your retraining might fail if 
 # the  signature isn't found. One workaround for this is to use the write
@@ -486,6 +488,7 @@
 #MySQLPass.DECAlpha     changeme
 #MySQLDb.DECAlpha       dspam
 #MySQLCompress.DECAlpha true
+#MySQLReconnect.DECAlpha	true
 #
 #Profile Sun420R
 #MySQLServer.Sun420R    10.0.0.2
@@ -494,6 +497,7 @@
 #MySQLPass.Sun420R      changeme
 #MySQLDb.Sun420R        dspam
 #MySQLCompress.Sun420R  false
+#MySQLReconnect.Sun420R	true
 #
 #DefaultProfile DECAlpha
 
--- doc/mysql_drv.txt	2006-05-13 03:12:58.000000000 +0200
+++ doc/mysql_drv.txt.new	2007-11-18 19:41:19.438956750 +0100
@@ -127,6 +127,11 @@
 MySQLPass      changeme
 MySQLDb        dspam
 MySQLCompress  true
+MySQLReconnect true
+
+If you are using MySQL >= 5.0.13 and have problems with DSPAM dropping the 
+connection to your MySQL instance, then set MySQLReconnect to true to allow 
+the mysql_drv to try to re-establish stale and/or dead connections.
 
 Or if you'd like to connect via TCP, use the IP address and port of the 
 MySQL server. DSPAM checks to see if the first character of the HOSTNAME field