[Spambayes] training via email forwarding

[Meyer, Tony]

> I've done a bit of looking around for a Bayesian email 
> filter, and I'm going to try spambayes because it has the 
> simplest procmail integration, and (seemingly) the simplest 
> overall setup.

Don't forget because it's also the most well-tested, and just plain
simply the best ;)

> It's just missing one thing...

Well, *almost* missing.

> I'd like to train the filter by forwarding email messages to 
> it. I can do that easily by using the subject line or the "+" 
> convention, has in "rsalz+train-spam" as a mailbox.

If you were using pop3proxy, you could already do this (via the SMTP
proxy).  It would be simple to modify the smtpproxy to allow operation
in a 'forward whole message' mode rather than what it currently does*.

However, I would have thought that you could use the hammiefilter
options to do this (you can use it to train with various command-line
options).  I could be wrong - I don't know anything about procmail.

> I think this would be a useful thing overall, making it easy 
> for spambayes to run in the common "shell account" mail 
> environment many techies have.

Let me know if you want to use smtpproxy in this fashion.  It would be
very quick to add.  If you don't like the SMTP proxy option, and
hammiefilter isn't of any use, then you should be able to get any code
that you need from smtpproxy or hammiefilter.  (Don't forget to submit a
patch if you go this route).

=Tony Meyer

* Currently, it extracts an id from a spambayes header; it uses this id
to identify the message in the pop3proxy cache, and uses that message to
train.  It has to go through this roundabout method to avoid mailers
munging up the message.