sub process_request {
  my $self = shift;
  my $msg;

  eval {

      local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "Child server process timed out!\n"
+ };
      my $timeout = $self->{spampd}->{childtimeout};

      # start a timeout alarm  
      alarm($timeout);

      # start an smtp server
      my $smtp_server = SpamPD::Server->new($self->{server}->{client})
+;

      ...

                #close the temp file
                $smtp_server->{data}->close
                        or $self->log(1, ... );
      ...

    # close connections
    $client->{sock}->close
                        or die "Couldn't close client->{sock}: $!";
    $smtp_server->{sock}->close
                        or die "Couldn't close smtp_server->{sock}: $!
+";

        if ( $self->{spampd}->{debug} ) {
          $self->log(2, "Closed connections"); }

  }; # end eval block

  alarm(0);  # stop the timer
  # check for error in eval block
  if ($@ ne '') {
          chomp($@);
          $msg = "WARNING!! Error in process_request eval block: $@";
          $self->log(0, $msg);
          die ($msg . "\n");
  }

  $self->{spampd}->{instance}++;

}
[download]

Just calling die from an alarm handler inside eval, only to propagate $@, without any cleanup whatsoever (closing filehandles, destroying objects, removing tempfiles) doesn't seem like the right thing to do here, imho. The (second part of your) problem could well stem from here: abandoned open connections that can't be reused - that might be why spampd isn't responsive after a timeout.

This might help:

• after allocating my $smtp_server replace the alarm handler with a new anonymous sub that calls $smtp_server->{sock}->close
• same after my $client = SpamPD::Client->new, with cleanup of client connection also

but maybe the bug is elsewhere.. ;-)

--shmem

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}