Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Malcolm Purvis]

All this discussion about spam filtering has made me try spam.el, in my case
with bogofilter and POP.

However, if I add (: spam-split) to the start of nnmail-split-fancy, errors
are produced during the split and all my mail gets sent to the bogus group.

I am using a fresh version of gnus and the latest version of bogofilter from
SourceForce (0.9.1.2).  I see that spam.el's documentation refers to version
0.4 so perhaps there is come incompatibility?  In particular, the output of
bogosort -v is:

         X-Bogosity: No, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=0.355906, version=0.9.1.2

while spam-check-bogofilter is searching for 

	    (re-search-forward "Spamicity: \\(0\\.9\\|1\\.0\\)" nil t)

This is all running under XEmacs 21.4.11 on PPC Linux.

Malcolm

-- 
	       Malcolm Purvis <malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au>

The hidden, terrible cost of nuclear warfare is Really Bad Public Art.
			        - Angus McIntyre, alt.peeves, 13/3/02.

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au wrote:
> All this discussion about spam filtering has made me try spam.el, in
> my case with bogofilter and POP.
> 
> However, if I add (: spam-split) to the start of nnmail-split-fancy,
> errors are produced during the split and all my mail gets sent to
> the bogus group.
> 
> I am using a fresh version of gnus and the latest version of
> bogofilter from SourceForce (0.9.1.2).  I see that spam.el's
> documentation refers to version 0.4 so perhaps there is come
> incompatibility?  In particular, the output of bogosort -v is:
> 
>          X-Bogosity: No, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=0.355906,
>          version=0.9.1.2
> 
> while spam-check-bogofilter is searching for 
> 
> 	    (re-search-forward "Spamicity: \\(0\\.9\\|1\\.0\\)" nil t)
> 
> This is all running under XEmacs 21.4.11 on PPC Linux.

Yes, you need 0.4 currently.  The bogofilter functionality is older
than the more modular implementation I did for ifile and spam-stat, so
it's a little more outdated.  The question is, should I expend the
effort to keep up with bogofilter?  Can you check to see if 0.9.1.2
has the same flags as 0.4?  If so, and all I need to fix is the regex,
no big deal, but if the interface has changed then maybe I need to
rewrite the bogofilter section of spam.el anyway.

This will have to wait until Monday so I hope you don't have urgent
spam meanwhile :)

Ted

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Raja R Harinath]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
[snip]
> Yes, you need 0.4 currently.  The bogofilter functionality is older
> than the more modular implementation I did for ifile and spam-stat, so
> it's a little more outdated.  The question is, should I expend the
> effort to keep up with bogofilter?  Can you check to see if 0.9.1.2
> has the same flags as 0.4?  If so, and all I need to fix is the regex,
> no big deal, but if the interface has changed then maybe I need to
> rewrite the bogofilter section of spam.el anyway.
>
> This will have to wait until Monday so I hope you don't have urgent
> spam meanwhile :)

The recommended procmail script for bogofilter 0.9.1.2 that seems to be

       The following recipe (a) spam-bins anything that  bogofil-
       ter rates as spam, (b) adds the words in messages rated as
       spam to the spam wordlist, and (c) adds the words in  mes-
       sages  rated  as  non-spam  to the non-spam wordlist. With
       this in place, it will normally only be necessary for  the
       user to intervene (with -N or -S) when bogofilter miscate-
       gorizes something.

       # filter mail through bogofilter, tagging it as spam and
       # updating the word lists

       :0fw
       | bogofilter -u -e -p

       # if bogofilter failed, return the mail to the queue, the MTA will
       # retry to deliver it later
       # 75 is the value for EX_TEMPFAIL in /usr/include/sysexits.h
       :0e
       { EXITCODE=75 HOST }

       # file the mail to spam-bogofilter if it's spam.
       :0:
       * ^X-Bogosity: Yes, tests=bogofilter
       spam-bogofilter

The '-u' however means that bogofilter has already integrated the
counts for the mail.  So, the trick would be to do the following in
spam-process-bogofilter:

  * ham marked and X-Bogosity: No        => do nothing
  * ham marked and X-Bogosity: Yes       => | bogofilter -N
  * ham marked and no X-Bogosity header  => | bogofilter -n

  * spam marked and X-Bogosity: No       => | bogofilter -S
  * spam marked and X-Bogosity: Yes      => do nothing
  * spam marked and no X-Bogosity header => | bogofilter -s

This should also handle the older version of bogofilter and the recipe
mentioned in 'spam.el'.  (Also, the name of the X-Bogosity header
should be configurable, as it is configurable on the bogofilter side).

- Hari
-- 
Raja R Harinath ------------------------------ harinath@cs.umn.edu

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Malcolm Purvis]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

Ted> Can you check to see if 0.9.1.2 has the same flags as 0.4?

Alas, I think that version 0.4 is no longer available (it's not kept in the
SourceForge project archives as far as I can see).  However all the flags you
pass to bogofilter are still there so it should work (and indeed, the group
exit processing works fine).

One question:  Within spam-check-bogofilter, the message being looked at is
refered to via gnus-summary-article-number.  Is this valid within the context
of a fancy split?  The description of what environment is available to
functions within a fancy split is, ahh, skimpy at best but since I get split
errors on startup, and there is no summary buffer then, perhaps this is the
cause?


Malcolm

-- 
	       Malcolm Purvis <malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au>

The hidden, terrible cost of nuclear warfare is Really Bad Public Art.
			        - Angus McIntyre, alt.peeves, 13/3/02.

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au wrote:
>>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
> Ted> Can you check to see if 0.9.1.2 has the same flags as 0.4?
> 
> Alas, I think that version 0.4 is no longer available (it's not kept
> in the SourceForge project archives as far as I can see).  However
> all the flags you pass to bogofilter are still there so it should
> work (and indeed, the group exit processing works fine).

I'm thinking of a rewrite of the bogofilter functionality into
something that looks more like the ifile functionality - cleaner,
takes articles as strings, etc.

> One question: Within spam-check-bogofilter, the message being looked
> at is refered to via gnus-summary-article-number.  Is this valid
> within the context of a fancy split?  The description of what
> environment is available to functions within a fancy split is, ahh,
> skimpy at best but since I get split errors on startup, and there is
> no summary buffer then, perhaps this is the cause?

I didn't write the bogofilter functionality, so I'm not familiar with
all the assumptions it makes.  I think the rewrite will be better in
that it will only work with the current article buffer, like all split
functions are supposed to.  It may have *other* bugs but this one will
be gone.  Hurrah for progress :)

I'll probably get around to it today or tomorrow...

Ted

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, harinath@cs.umn.edu wrote:
>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: No        => do nothing
>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: Yes       => | bogofilter -N
>   * ham marked and no X-Bogosity header  => | bogofilter -n
> 
>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: No       => | bogofilter -S
>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: Yes      => do nothing
>   * spam marked and no X-Bogosity header => | bogofilter -s

Thanks for the summary, it was very helpful.

Ted

requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

What's the fastest safe way to request an article from a nnxyz
backend?  Special cases are OK - for instance, optimizing for
nnml/nnmaildir.

I'd like to optimize spam/ham processing, which currently takes an
article as a string out of the article buffer.  This is slow, so I'd
like to map an article number to a file when possible.

This would also allow fast training of the spam/ham backends.

I don't need the article to be treated, washed, or prepared in any
way.  That's why just the file name for file-based backends like
nnml/nnmaildir would be fine.

Thanks
Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Kai Großjohann]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> I'd like to optimize spam/ham processing, which currently takes an
> article as a string out of the article buffer.  This is slow, so I'd
> like to map an article number to a file when possible.

I wonder if it is faster to fetch the article into a buffer and to
pipe it to the command?  Would that work with the commands used by
spam.el?

If this is fast enough, it would avoid special-casing for
file-per-msg backends.
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
>> I'd like to optimize spam/ham processing, which currently takes an
>> article as a string out of the article buffer.  This is slow, so
>> I'd like to map an article number to a file when possible.
> 
> I wonder if it is faster to fetch the article into a buffer and to
> pipe it to the command?  Would that work with the commands used by
> spam.el?

That's exactly how spam.el operates now, except for bogofilter - the
whole article is passed to the spam/ham processor as a string.

> If this is fast enough, it would avoid special-casing for
> file-per-msg backends.

I am sure it's faster to invoke ifile (for instance) once on a
directory full of files, than it is to invoke ifile repeatedly on each
file in that directory, fetching that file as an article through Gnus.
That's why I asked if there was an "approved" way to map articles to
files for backends that support it.

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> What's the fastest safe way to request an article from a nnxyz
> backend?  Special cases are OK - for instance, optimizing for
> nnml/nnmaildir.

In general, you have to call `nnxyx-request-article', but if you have
complete control over which (virtual) server is active and stuff like
that, you can use

   (nnml-possibly-change-directory group)

to set the current group, and

   
   (expand-file-name "number" nnml-current-directory)

to get the path name of article NUMBER.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Kai Großjohann]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> That's exactly how spam.el operates now, except for bogofilter - the
> whole article is passed to the spam/ham processor as a string.

Your wording "as a string" sounds as if buffer-string or
buffer-substring is involved.

What I meant is call-process-region...

(I suspect that string processing in Emacs is slower than doing it
with text in buffers.)
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Kai Großjohann]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>
>> What's the fastest safe way to request an article from a nnxyz
>> backend?  Special cases are OK - for instance, optimizing for
>> nnml/nnmaildir.
>
> In general, you have to call `nnxyx-request-article',

nnxyz, nnxyx, what will we have next?

Sheesh.  Watch your language!  It's nnchoke!
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
>> That's exactly how spam.el operates now, except for bogofilter -
>> the whole article is passed to the spam/ham processor as a string.
> 
> Your wording "as a string" sounds as if buffer-string or
> buffer-substring is involved.
> 
> What I meant is call-process-region...

The article is transferred between functions as a string currently,
but passed through call-process-region to the child process.  I'm
working on making the parameter-passing less string-bound and more
oriented towards buffer reuse.  This is my first mid-size Emacs Lisp
project, so bear with me as I learn to use buffers better.

> (I suspect that string processing in Emacs is slower than doing it
> with text in buffers.)

Probably, by a small margin (we're working with one article at a time
anyway).  The only extra penalty is that an article buffer is copied
into a string, and that string is copied into a temporary buffer.
Could this be a problem with large messages in general?  Should I set
a size limit on a message and only process up to that point with
ifile/bogofilter/etc.?

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, larsi@gnus.org wrote:
> In general, you have to call `nnxyx-request-article', but if you
> have complete control over which (virtual) server is active and
> stuff like that, you can use
> 
>    (nnml-possibly-change-directory group)
> 
> to set the current group, and
> 
>    (expand-file-name "number" nnml-current-directory)
> 
> to get the path name of article NUMBER.

Assuming I have to enter the group I want to process, would this work
to get the filename of an article once I've entered the group?

(defun spam-get-article-as-filename (article)
  (let ((article-filename))
    (when (numberp article)
      (nnml-possibly-change-directory (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
      (setq article-filename (expand-file-name (int-to-string article) nnml-current-directory)))
    (if (file-exists-p article-filename)
	article-filename
      nil)))

nnml-possibly-change-directory doesn't seem to transform something
like "ding.info" into "ding/info" so I'm definitely missing
something.

More generally, can we add to Gnus the functionality of transforming a
group name + an article number into a filename, when it's possible?
Maybe in gnus-int.el?  I'd like to do something like this:

1. get list of articles

2. optionally filter list for spam/ham articles

3. if the group doesn't have 1 file per article, retrieve each article
   into a temporary file (nnimap, nntp, etc. without the agent)

3. get file names for the articles

4. send file names to bogofilter/ifile/etc. to be studied

This would be significantly faster than requesting the article and
then invoking process-region on the buffer, I think.  The function
should use the agent when possible (for nnimap groups, for instance).

I would do it myself, but I think it would be easier for someone who
understands the internals of the nn*.el code.  I looked at nnml.el and
others, but it would take me a while to write this code.  If no one is
interested I can try it, but it will take a while.

Ted

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, harinath@cs.umn.edu wrote:
>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: No        => do nothing
>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: Yes       => | bogofilter -N
>   * ham marked and no X-Bogosity header  => | bogofilter -n
> 
>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: No       => | bogofilter -S
>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: Yes      => do nothing
>   * spam marked and no X-Bogosity header => | bogofilter -s

Hmm, I think I like the exit codes of bogofilter (1 for ham, 0 for
spam).  I'd rather use that than the procmail filtering, since IMAP
users often don't have procmail available.  

We can add a new check (spam-check-bogofilter-headers) if anyone is
interested in filtering on the Bogofilter X-Bogosity header and it
gets inserted elsewhere in the mail delivery chain, but
spam-check-bogofilter should not rely on that.  So speak up if you
want spam-check-bogofilter-headers added.

So the invocations will be:

ham-marked: bogofilter -n
spam-marked: bogofilter -s

Any last-minute protests? :)

I'll also add customization of the directory (-d DIRNAME).  Most of
the current bogofilter complexity in spam.el will go away, and IMO
that is a good thing.  The only thing missing will be training of
spam/ham backends, and I'll work on that next.

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> (defun spam-get-article-as-filename (article)
>   (let ((article-filename))
>     (when (numberp article)
>       (nnml-possibly-change-directory (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
>       (setq article-filename (expand-file-name (int-to-string article) nnml-current-directory)))
>     (if (file-exists-p article-filename)
> 	article-filename
>       nil)))
>
> nnml-possibly-change-directory doesn't seem to transform something
> like "ding.info" into "ding/info" so I'm definitely missing
> something.

`nnml-current-directory' should really be the actual directory after
selecting the group.

> More generally, can we add to Gnus the functionality of transforming a
> group name + an article number into a filename, when it's possible?

That's only possible for a very limited number of back ends.  nnml
and nnmh, basically, so I'm not sure how useful that would be.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.

[Raja R Harinath]

Hi,

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, harinath@cs.umn.edu wrote:
>>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: No        => do nothing
>>   * ham marked and X-Bogosity: Yes       => | bogofilter -N
>>   * ham marked and no X-Bogosity header  => | bogofilter -n
>> 
>>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: No       => | bogofilter -S
>>   * spam marked and X-Bogosity: Yes      => do nothing
>>   * spam marked and no X-Bogosity header => | bogofilter -s
>
> Hmm, I think I like the exit codes of bogofilter (1 for ham, 0 for
> spam).  I'd rather use that than the procmail filtering, since IMAP
> users often don't have procmail available.  

That's fine.  But, it would be nice to integrate with procmail for
people who can and do use procmail.

> We can add a new check (spam-check-bogofilter-headers) if anyone is
> interested in filtering on the Bogofilter X-Bogosity header and it
> gets inserted elsewhere in the mail delivery chain, 

That can be achieved with the regular gnus splitting machinery.  No
need for 'spam.el' to worry in this case, IMHO.

> but spam-check-bogofilter should not rely on that.  So speak up if
> you want spam-check-bogofilter-headers added.
>
> So the invocations will be:
>
> ham-marked: bogofilter -n
> spam-marked: bogofilter -s

This should be automatically covered in the "no X-Bogosity header"
case above.  You really want to check if 'bogofilter' already has
incorporated the counts for this message -- and the X-Bogosity header
is a good indicator.

Also I meant the above rules to be used in the post-processing routine
(spam-bogofilter-register-routine), not in the filtering part.  My
suggestion above will work if the mail was processed by any of:

  * procmail script with 'bogofilter -u -e -p'
  * spam-split with spam-check-bogofilter
  * any other splitting tool which may not even invoke bogofilter

- Hari
-- 
Raja R Harinath ------------------------------ harinath@cs.umn.edu

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, larsi@gnus.org wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
>> nnml-possibly-change-directory doesn't seem to transform something
>> like "ding.info" into "ding/info" so I'm definitely missing
>> something.
> 
> `nnml-current-directory' should really be the actual directory after
> selecting the group.

OK, I *was* missing something :)

>> More generally, can we add to Gnus the functionality of
>> transforming a group name + an article number into a filename, when
>> it's possible?
> 
> That's only possible for a very limited number of back ends.  nnml
> and nnmh, basically, so I'm not sure how useful that would be.

Considering almost everyone using Gnus for mail has some sort of nnml
set up, I think it makes a lot of sense.  nnmaildir also has the
article <-> filename correspondence, now that I think about it.

It's fine if the function is in nnml.el/nnmaildir.el instead of
gnus-int.el, that's not important.  I am just trying to avoid writing
8 spam-article-to-filename special cases, when it might be something
better handled through the usual internal Gnus system of (1. is the
function supported by the backend?, 2. invoke the function).

Ted

new Bogofilter functionality (was: Problems with spam filtering and bogofilter.)

[Ted Zlatanov]

OK, I've added the revamped Bogofilter functionality.

In gnus.el, I added the gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter ham
processor; it's customizable as usual for each group.  So now
bogofilter can be used to process spam and ham on summary exit.

In spam.el, I added the spam-use-bogofilter-headers boolean for users
who just want to check for "X-Bogosity: Yes" in the headers when
invoking spam-split.  It invokes the spam-check-bogofilter-headers
function.  That function is also used by spam-check-bogofilter.

I also rewrote the spam-check-bogofilter and spam/ham bogofilter
registration.  It's much simpler now, which I think is a good thing.

The spam-bogofilter-score functionality is working, using the
"spamicity=%f" header parameter.

I couldn't find a clean way in spam-check-bogofilter to use
call-process-region and get the return value of the process, so I use
the "-v" output of bogofilter.  This works out OK, since it's the same
format as the one used in spam-check-bogofilter-headers, so we reuse
that function nicely.

Ted

Re: new Bogofilter functionality

[Malcolm Purvis]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

Ted> OK, I've added the revamped Bogofilter functionality.

Thanks!  I know have spam.el working bogofilter.  Hooray!

However, I had two minor problems:

1) You might like to consider re-wording the texinfo entry on the variable
gnus-ham-process-destinations.  It implies that the variable can take a
string, while everywhere else says it needs a list.

2) The patch below enables blacklist exit processing when blacklist is
enabled, not bogofilter.

Malcolm

[malcolmp@c18072 gnus]$ cvs diff -c lisp/spam.el 
Index: lisp/spam.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/gnus/lisp/spam.el,v
retrieving revision 6.53
diff -c -r6.53 spam.el
*** lisp/spam.el	2003/01/16 00:41:08	6.53
--- lisp/spam.el	2003/01/16 10:56:10
***************
*** 309,315 ****
    (when (spam-group-spam-processor-stat-p gnus-newsgroup-name)
      (spam-stat-register-spam-routine))
  
!   (when (spam-group-spam-processor-bogofilter-p gnus-newsgroup-name)
      (spam-blacklist-register-routine))
  
    (if spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only      
--- 309,315 ----
    (when (spam-group-spam-processor-stat-p gnus-newsgroup-name)
      (spam-stat-register-spam-routine))
  
!   (when (spam-group-spam-processor-blacklist-p gnus-newsgroup-name)
      (spam-blacklist-register-routine))
  
    (if spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only      

-- 
	       Malcolm Purvis <malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au>

The hidden, terrible cost of nuclear warfare is Really Bad Public Art.
			        - Angus McIntyre, alt.peeves, 13/3/02.

Re: new Bogofilter functionality

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, malcolmpurvis@optushome.com.au wrote:
> 1) You might like to consider re-wording the texinfo entry on the
> variable gnus-ham-process-destinations.  It implies that the
> variable can take a string, while everywhere else says it needs a
> list.

OK, done.

> 2) The patch below enables blacklist exit processing when blacklist
> is enabled, not bogofilter.

Yes, that was a bug.  Thanks for catching it - fixed.

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Kai Großjohann]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> Probably, by a small margin (we're working with one article at a time
> anyway).  The only extra penalty is that an article buffer is copied
> into a string, and that string is copied into a temporary buffer.
> Could this be a problem with large messages in general?  Should I set
> a size limit on a message and only process up to that point with
> ifile/bogofilter/etc.?

Why can't you call-process-region on the article buffer?
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
>> Probably, by a small margin (we're working with one article at a
>> time anyway).  The only extra penalty is that an article buffer is
>> copied into a string, and that string is copied into a temporary
>> buffer.  Could this be a problem with large messages in general?
>> Should I set a size limit on a message and only process up to that
>> point with ifile/bogofilter/etc.?
> 
> Why can't you call-process-region on the article buffer?

I was trying to make the functionality generic, based on strings and
buffers instead of article numbers.  Also, my knowledge of Emacs Lisp
was not quite sufficient :)

I just added spam-get-article-as-buffer, and
spam-get-article-as-string uses it now.  But
spam-get-article-as-string does a string copy; I will gradually
convert the places where it's called into calls to
spam-get-article-as-buffer.  I'll probably end up doing a generic
shell command interface, actually.  That will also deal with the
annoyance of having two cases for each command, depending on whether
a parameter is passed or not.

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Kai Großjohann]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> That will also deal with the annoyance of having two cases for each
> command, depending on whether a parameter is passed or not.

Was the problem that you need to call call-process (or
call-process-region) with a different number of parameters?

(apply 'call-process-region PARM1 PARM2 LIST-OF-OTHER-PARMS)

The LIST-OF-OTHER-PARMS can be nil if you need only two params.

I hope I'm not annoying you with this simple stuff.  You keep saying
your Lisp knowledge is not good enough -- I somehow doubt it :-)
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> 
>> That will also deal with the annoyance of having two cases for each
>> command, depending on whether a parameter is passed or not.
> 
> Was the problem that you need to call call-process (or
> call-process-region) with a different number of parameters?
> 
> (apply 'call-process-region PARM1 PARM2 LIST-OF-OTHER-PARMS)
> 
> The LIST-OF-OTHER-PARMS can be nil if you need only two params.

The problem is (a simple example):

(call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
   "/bin/cat" nil nil nil "-switch1" "-switch2"  spam-bogofilter-database-directory)

so with apply:

(apply 'call-process-region (point-min) (point-max) "/bin/cat" nil nil nil 
    '("-v" "-d" nil))

I don't think I can use apply on that, when
spam-bogofilter-database-directory is nil.  nil will still get passed
to call-process-region, which requires all command-line arguments to
pass stringp.  I just need a function to filter out nil arguments, and
I will roll that into the generic shell interface.

Ted

Re: requesting articles from a nnxyz backend: what's the fastest

[Paul Jarc]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> wrote:
> More generally, can we add to Gnus the functionality of transforming a
> group name + an article number into a filename, when it's possible?

nnmaildir has:
nnmaildir-article-number-to-file-name
nnmaildir-article-number-to-base-name
nnmaildir-base-name-to-article-number

> 1. get list of articles

You can get the min and max numbers from gnus-active.


paul