SA Bayes Questoin

[Julian Field]

At 21:03 24/04/2003, you wrote:
>I set up a test box with SpamAssassin 2.53 and the latest MailScanner
>build. (I wanted to make sure I get all of the potential wrinkles worked
>out before going live).
>
>I fired some spam messages through the test system. They do get scored
>as spam by Spam Assassin, but the bayes databases have not been created
>yet (bayes_msgcount, bayes_seen, and bayes_toks).

You won't see the databases created until the first message is
auto-learned. The auto-learning thresholds are (I think) -2 and +25. A
message has to score outside that range in order to be auto-learned. Send
it a message that is extremely spammy (scoring > 25) and all the files
should spring into existence. It can take a while before your mail system
gets one that spammy.

>  At this point, I'm
>just sticking with the default location of /root/.spamassassin/.

That's fine. Keep an occasional eye on the free space in your root filesystem.

>  Am I
>falsely assuming that these databases should be created immediately with
>the auto-learning functionality, after only processing a few spam
>messages? Or does it take a much larger mass of email before these
>databases are created and subsequently populated with information? I
>assumed that the first processed spam message would be enough to at
>least trigger the creation of the db files.

The other fact to know is that the bayes databases won't actually be used
to help score a message until 200 messages have been auto-learned.

Basically, set it up, leave it chewing mail for a few days and come back to
it, when you should find all the files have been created and it is merrily
scoring messages.
--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
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