Comment 16 for bug 1799185

Verified for Kinetic:

$ lxc launch images:ubuntu/kinetic test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix
$ lxc exec test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix bash

# apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y

# cat <<EOF >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-$(lsb_release -cs)-proposed.list
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -cs)-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
EOF

# apt update
# apt install spamassassin

# spamd -d --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid -c -x --virtual-config-dir=/var/lib/spamassassin/vconfig/%u/ --allow-tell -u debian-spamd -g debian-spamd --max-children=5 --min-children=3 --max-spare=3 -D

# cat > test.mbox <<EOF
From: test
To: test
Subject: test

test
EOF

# spamc < test.mbox
# grep vconfig/ /var/log/mail.log
Apr 3 19:13:42 test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix spamd[2727]: spamd: using default config for root: /var/lib/spamassassin/vconfig/root//user_prefs
Apr 3 19:13:42 test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix spamd[2727]: config: using "/var/lib/spamassassin/vconfig/root/" for user state dir
Apr 3 19:13:42 test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix spamd[2727]: bayes: no dbs present, cannot tie DB R/O: /var/lib/spamassassin/vconfig/root//bayes_toks
Apr 3 19:13:42 test-spamassassin-kinetic-fix spamd[2727]: bayes: no dbs present, cannot tie DB R/O: /var/lib/spamassassin/vconfig/root//bayes_toks

The failure does not show up here.

As a side note, when fully updating to proposed for all packages, /var/log/mail.log is not created. This is likely due to systemd updates in proposed. Restarting the container and running the commands leads to /var/log/mail.log being created and the fix works