Train with -Ns and -Sn

[Peter Gutbrod]

am 21.03.2007 12:12 Uhr schrieb David Relson unter relson at osagesoftware.com:

> On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:44:17 +0100
> Peter Gutbrod wrote:
> 
>> I have 2 mailboxes where I sort in the mails rated as unsure or
>> classified wrongly  by bogofilter. I feed the mails in this mailboxes
>> periodically to bogofilter with -Ns for spam and -Sn for non-spam
>> emails.
>> 
>> I'm wondering, whether it might lead to a bad database, if I
>> reregister unsure mails, that have never been registered before.
>> 
>> So should I use instead just -s and -n, without unregistering the mail
>> first.
>> 
>> The reason I used -Ns and -Sn is, that I use bogofilter with the -u
>> option so far. So any wrongly classified mail needs unregistering. To
>> keep things easy, I didn't want to process unsure mails differently
>> than wrongly classified spam and no-spam emails.
>> 
>> Peter
> 
> Hi Peter,
> 
> Using just "-s" or "-n" would be better.
> 
> If you're using the "-p" option, each message has an "X-Bogosity:
> Ham/Spam/Unsure" line.  Thinking of your folders as "should_be_ham" and
> "should_be_spam",  you have four types of messages:
> 
>   classified as ham,    should be spam:  use switch "-Ns"
>   classified as spam,   should be ham:   use switch "-Sn"
>   classified as unsure, should be ham:   use switch "-n"
>   classified as unsure, should be spam:  use switch "-s"
> 
> A script can be written to register each message properly (taking
> into account which folder it's in and its X-Bogosity line).
> 
> HTH,
> 
> David

Hi David,

yes you are right, I could adjust my script, so it uses different switches
according to the X-Bogosity header. I'll investigate into this.

Is the procedure you suggest only valid as long as I use bogofilter with the
-u switch?  Without -u none of the actual messages are already registered.
Should I use just "-s" or "-n" as well for the wrongly classified spam and
ham messages, in case I do not use the -u switch? On the other hand, if
bogofilter classifies the message as ham or spam, then a similar message
must have been already registered. So probably your workflow is independent
of the usage of the -u switch. Can you comment on this?

And what if a spam message has been registered as ham by accident, and now
shows up as ham. I think then it has to be registered "-Ns", whether
bogofilter is used with the -u switch or not.

Greetings

Peter