I want the subjects of mails to be rewritten. /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf looks like this : rewrite_subject 1 required_hits 2.5 subject spam Status _YESNO_, hits=_HITS_ strace -f spamd -- -d -a -c -L returns : stat64("/etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=381, ...}) = 0 munmap(0x403a1000, 135168) = 0 close(6) = 0 open("/etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 6 ioctl(6, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or TCGETS, 0xbffff22c) = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioctl for device) _llseek(6, 0, [0], SEEK_CUR) = 0 fstat64(6, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=381, ...}) = 0 fcntl64(6, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) = 0 read(6, "rewrite_subject 1\nrequired_hits "..., 4096) = 381 read(6, "", 4096) = 0 close(6) = 0 I think this is the reason why the subject isn't rewritten The lines 2 and 3 are never read Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. $ emerge info Portage 2.0.50-r8 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r0, 2.6.6) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.6 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) processor Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 ccache version 2.3 [enabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -mcpu=athlon-tbird -funroll-loops -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -mcpu=athlon-tbird -funroll-loops -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/ ftp://ftp. belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/ rsync://ftp.belnet.be/gentoo/ ftp: //sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo http://linux.rz. ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum. de/gentoo-mirror/ rsync://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo/ http://mirrors. sec.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/gentoo rsync://mirrors.sec.informatik. tu-darmstadt.de/gentoo http://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.easynet. nl/mirror/gentoo/ http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo ftp://ftp.snt. utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo rsync://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/gentoo http://gentoo. tiscali.nl/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.tiscali.nl/pub/mirror/gentoo ftp://ftp. tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen. de/pub/Linux/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo-mirror/ http://ftp.uni-erlangen. de/pub/mirrors/gentoo ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/gentoo ftp://ftp. join.uni-muenster.de/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo ftp://ftp.wh2.tu-dresden. de/pub/mirrors/gentoo http://mirrors.sec.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/gentoo/ ftp: //mirrors.sec.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/gentoo/ http://ftp.easynet. nl/mirror/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/ http://ftp.snt.utwente. nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo http://vlaai.snt.ipv6.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/ ftp://vlaai.snt.ipv6.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/ http://gentoo.tiscali. nl/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.tiscali.nl/pub/mirror/gentoo ftp://ftp.uninett. no/pub/linux/Gentoo http://src.gentoo.pl ftp://ftp.du.se/pub/os/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dfx 3dnow X aalib alsa amd apm avi berkdb cdr chroot crypt cups curl directfb encode ext-png ext-zlib fbcon fbdev ffmpeg foomaticdb freetype gdbm gif gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mozilla mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis openal opengl pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl slang spell ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"
The ioctl() doesn't seem to be directly related to the file access, it talks about some kind of timer. The second and thrid lines *are* read, see the \n new line markers inside the read() command. The problem is that the third line of the config file is invalid. There is no option "subject"; you use the syntax of the add_header option but what you want is the subject_tag option (rewrite_header in 3.0.0).