SpamBayes Configuration
Most SpamBayes configuration options are managed via the SpamBayes
Manager, available from the SpamBayes toolbar. While this dialog allows
you to configure standard options, there are a number of other
(typically advanced or experimental) options that can be set manually.
WARNING: Please read the following before going any further:
- To change these options, you will need to use a text editor to edit
configuration files. If something goes wrong, you may lose your existing
SpamBayes configuration (this will not effect your training data). Making
a copy of any files you edit is recommended.
- SpamBayes stores all configuration options, including the list of
folders, in this file. Do not change anything you don't
understand. Some of these lines are extremely long - please ensure they
remain as a single line.
- Before manually changing any configuration files, please ensure you
have shut down Outlook - otherwise the configuration changes you have made
will be lost if SpamBayes itself automatically saves its configuration.
If you have any further questions, please post them to the
SpamBayes
mailing list.
The Outlook plug-in uses two sets of configurations - one contains
option values specific to the Outlook plug-in, and the other contains
option values that are also used by other SpamBayes applications. It is
important that you edit the correct file - if you place option values in
the wrong file, they will have no effect.
All options from all configuration files are "merged". This
means that any file can set any option. If multiple configuration files
specify the same option, the value from the file last loaded is used. When
SpamBayes writes its configuration during normal processing, the entire
merged set of options is written. The end result of this means that next
time SpamBayes is run, the earlier configuration files will have no effect,
as the last one loaded (the main config file written by SpamBayes) will
have all values already.
Outlook configuration files
The Outlook plug-in looks for configuration files as follows:
- A file named default_configuration.ini in the bin
directory in the directory you installed SpamBayes into (by default
C:\Program Files\SpamBayes). By default, no such configuration
file will exist.
- A file named default_configuration.ini in a SpamBayes
directory in the Windows Application Data directory (e.g. with
Windows XP this is
\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\SpamBayes).
By default, no such configuration file will exist. This is the
default SpamBayes data
directory.
- A file named {outlook-profile-name}.ini in the
data directory.
Using the name of the Outlook profile means that SpamBayes will work in a
multi-profile environment.
General SpamBayes configuration files
The Outlook plug-in looks for configuration files as follows:
- A file named default_bayes_customize.ini in the bin
directory in the directory you installed SpamBayes into (by default
C:\Program Files\SpamBayes).
- A file named default_bayes_customize.ini in a
SpamBayes directory in the Windows Application Data
directory (e.g. with Windows XP this is
\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\SpamBayes).
By default, no such configuration file will exist.
- A file named {outlook-profile-name}_bayes_customize.ini in the
data directory.
Using the name of the Outlook profile means that SpamBayes will work in a
multi-profile environment. By default, no such configuration file will
exist.
The configuration files are plain text files, and can be edited in any
text editor (such as Notepad). The format for both the
Outlook-specific configuration files and the general SpamBayes
configuration files is the same; only the available options differ.
A configuration file has a number of sections, and each section
contains a number of named values. For example:
[Filter]
enabled:True
save_spam_info:False
Note that section, option, and (usually) values are all
case-sensitive. In other words, General is not
the same as general.
This assigns the value True to an option named
enabled, and the value False to an option named
save_spam_info, both in a section named Filter.
If you want to set an option in a section that doesn't exist in your
file, just add a line with the section header above the option name.
Likewise, if you want to set an option in a file that doesn't exist
(e.g. default_configuration.ini), you will have to create the
file. Notepad, or any other text editor, can be used to create and
edit .ini files.
A configuration file pre-filled with all default values (for
Outlook-specific or
general SpamBayes) can be used
as a starting point if you would find that easier.
You can see a list of Outlook-specific
options, or a list of general
SpamBayes options that can be manually set in this release.
A simple example to move your
>data directory to
a new location: C:\New Folder.
- Close Outlook, so that any changes made will be effective.
- Look in the table above and see that
the applicable option is called data_directory, it is in the
General section.
- This option needs to be set before the configuration file in the
data directory is
loaded (otherwise it is obviously too late), so it can be put in
C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\bin\default_configuration.ini
or in the default data directory location. This example will use the
former.
- By default this file will not exist, so use Notepad to
create it.
- The file only has two lines, like this:
[General]
data_directory: C:\New Folder
(If more options were being set, the file would be longer.)
- Name the file default_configuration.ini and save it in
C:\Program Files\SpamBayes\bin.
- Open Outlook.
- To check that the new data directory is being used, click the Show
Data Folder button on the Advanced tab of the main SpamBayes
Manager dialog. This should open the new data directory
(C:\New Folder, here).
A simple example to enable the "Use Bigrams" option.
- Close Outlook, so that any changes made will be effective.
- Look in the table above and see
that the applicable option is called use_bigrams, it is in the
Classifier section.
- This option can be in any configuration file. This example will use
the default_bayes_customize.ini file in the
data directory.
- By default this file will not exist, so use Notepad to
create it.
- The file only has two lines, like this:
[Classifier]
use_bigrams: True
(If more options were being set, the file would be longer.)
- Name the file default_bayes_customize.ini and save it in
the SpamBayes data
directory.
- Open Outlook.
- This option recommends retraining after enabling it, so do so via
the Training tab of the SpamBayes Manager.