Re: [Evolution] How to handle unsolicited e-mails with evolution 2.32.2 ?

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> > I don't use bogofilter - I've never looked at it before this - but it is
> > clear from the bogofilter FAQ on the bogofilter site at 
> >
> >   http://bogofilter.sourceforge.net/faq.shtml
> >
> > that it is relatively easy to use bogoutil to report the state of the
> > database in terms of how much it's learned etc.  No doubt there is also
> > a way of poking a message through bogofilter itself to see if it does
> > indeed clasify something a spam outside of Evolution.
> That´s exactly the site, I´ve been reading up and down all morning.
> Maybe I´m dumb, maybe I´m german - but: where the hell is the use of
> bogoutil to check the installation described ?
> I don´t want to compact my DB, I don´t want to convert or switch
> anything, I don´t want to ignore tokens, I didn´t remove tokens nor do I
> want to do that. I just want that filter to filter :-O

It's the section "How do I manually query the database?" - which despite
what you said above, you seem to have found anyway:

> Anyway ...
> bogoutil -d .bogofilter/wordlist.db |wc -|
> displays: > --- VERY HELPFUL

Hmm, ok - first thing you should do is to have a quick read on how to
operate the shell/command line.  Second, before shouting about things,
it might be useful to check that YOU haven't made a mistake.  The
command you need is

  bogoutil -d .bogofilter/wordlist.db |wc -l

> bogoutil -w .bogofilter/wordlist.db .MSG_COUNT
> displays: 895 spam 6 good
> SO WHAT ? Isn´t 895 mails enough to learn a bit ?

This means that bogofilter is being trained, it's working.  This is a
GOOD thing. It means you have eliminated one of the possible areas of
problems.  

However, a spam filter needs to learn good mail as well as bad - only 6
good messages learnt means it still won't start filtering.  You need
about 100 of both types.

> bogoutil -p .bogofilter/wordlist.db thomas
> displays:
> spam    good    Fisher
> 1       0     0.991605
> What the hell does that mean ?
> Found 1 spam-mail including the word "thomas", found no good mail with
> it, so with 0.991605[dimensionless somethings created by Fisher], all
> mails including "thomas" are spam ???
>
> In the meantime I thought it can´t get worse, however ...
> dbverify -a .bogofilter/wordlist.db
> Fehler in der Datenbank: -- DB ist eine Datei, kein Verzeichnis.
> That means, it´s an error, that the DB is a file, not a directory ?:-|

Where does it say to use that command?  Shouldn't it be

  db_verify .bogofilter/wordlist.db

> ... and 
> What is a non-transaction mode ???
> Does that make sense ??? Database, that does no transactions ???
> Databases I set up, are always doing transactions ...

Try reading up on databases - non-transaction mode just means that
rather than going through an SQL type interface that performs atomic
operations on a backend database, the program interacts directly with
the database files - it's simpler but more risky.

> Sorry for stepping on people´s toes, but that´s the most disconcerting
> FAQ ever read :-(
I thought it was a reasonable FAQ - much better than many others I've
seen.

P.