1. What version of spamassassin should I get?
3.0.2. If you're stuck with an old version of perl (ie: 5.0005) get 2.64.
Can I get the rpm?
As per the downloads page, you can use rpmbuild on it http://spamassassin.apache.org/downloads.cgi
rpmbuild -tb Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.2.tar.gz
Realistically, pre-packed RPMs of perl modules don't work out very well unless they are pre-built for a *specific* release of the OS and specific version of perl.
2. What other pieces do I need to get with Spamassasin?
Not much really. You need perl if it's not installed. You may need to add some perl modules you don't already have installed.. See the INSTALL file under "Required Perl Modules".
http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/spamassassin/branches/3.0/INSTALL
Most of these are available as RPMs on your distro CD.
I keep hearing razor, don't know what it is and amavisd?
Amavisd is one of many "MTA integration" tools that hooks into your mailserver and feeds messages to SA and various virus scanners. You may or may not want to use amavis, or some other MTA integration. I'm not real familiar with postfix, but a lot of the postfix sorts seem to either use amavis, or call spamc directly from master.cf.
http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/IntegratedInPostfixWithAmavis
http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/IntegratedSpamdInPostfix
As for Razor:
Razor, dcc, and pyzor are all optional tools that add more kinds of tests SA can use to detect spam. They work by hashing various parts of the email to create signatures for specific spam messages report them to a server. If you have any of these installed, SA will find it and use it automatically.
The Net::DNS perl module is another nice extra.. if that's installed SA will start using RBLs and other DNS lookup based tests.
3. What is the most optimal way to configure spamassasin? By that do I run it as a daemon or what?
There are a two preferred ways:
1) use the spamd deamon, and feed your mail to spamc, or use an integration that calls spamc.
2) use an integration tool that directly calls the perl API (ie: MailScanner and MimeDefang do this). These tools wind up acting as their own spamd.
I'm pretty sure amavis falls into one of these two categories, but I forget which.. I personally use MailScanner with sendmail so I'm not an amvavis or postfix expert
