# Email Spam Filtering **URL:** \ **Category:** Improvements\ **Created:** [March 20, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383 "2015-03-20T23:01:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1

**Author:** ![benmaynard](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@benmaynard](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/benmaynard)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/1 "2015-03-20T23:01:28Z")

Hi Josh, Before I write anything else, I just wanted to say a huge thanks for the work you have put into the project, and also for all the responses on the threads on this forum. Mail in a Box is absolutely brilliant. I just have a question regarding the inbuilt spam filtering. Some of my users are receiving a lot of spam since I performed a migration over from Google Apps. This spam has always been received, but was filtered out by Google’s Spam Filter when on GA. I understand that it is hard to get spam filtering as good as Google’s, but I have been looking at this file: [https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/blob/master/setup/spamassassin.sh](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/blob/master/setup/spamassassin.sh). In this file it details how Spamassassin should learn spam, if the user manually moves it to the spam folder. I have been experimenting with this and I am pretty certain that it is not learning when reported. I have tested this by sending a variety of emails from a perticular email address, and then reporting these all as spam. When I then send further emails from this address - they still pass the spam test. I can see when running: **sudo tail -f /var/log/mail.log** that the email is scanned, and reported as good. Is there any way to verify that the mentioned sa-learn is being run when a user moves a message into the spam folder manually? That way I could verify that this is happening, because at the moment I am not 100% sure it is. Thanks in advance, and thanks for the great project, Ben. ---

**Author:** ![JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/joshdata/32/2153_2.png) [@JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/JoshData)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/2 "2015-03-21T14:38:24Z")

Yeah I don’t think it’s learning. Might be a permissions problem. See [https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/issues/357](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/issues/357) for current discussion. Thanks! ---

**Author:** ![radek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@radek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/radek)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/3 "2015-03-21T16:07:26Z")

Hi i had problems with spam learning too. Log message: > spampd[8583]: bayes: cannot open bayes databases /home/user-data/mail/spamassassin/bayes\_\* R/O: tie failed: Permission denied Solution: > chown spampd:spampd /home/user-data/mail/spamassassin/bayes\_toks And after last update i see wrong owner and group again.Not sure when wrong owner was set: maybe after update, maybe after clearing samassasin rules, … ---

**Author:** ![JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/joshdata/32/2153_2.png) [@JoshData](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/JoshData)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/4 "2015-03-21T16:26:18Z")

Recent versions of Mail-in-a-Box should have those permissions set. They are on my machine. What were the permissions before you changed them, do you know? See [https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/blob/master/setup/spamassassin.sh#L47](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/blob/master/setup/spamassassin.sh#L47) for what we’re aiming for. ---

**Author:** ![radek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@radek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/radek)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/5 "2015-03-21T18:23:00Z")

If i remember right, it was “mail” owner/group. ---

**Author:** ![benmaynard](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@benmaynard](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/benmaynard)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/6 "2015-03-21T20:21:00Z")

Thanks for getting back to me guys. Glad it is known. FYI, checked my permissions as default without changing them. login as: benmaynard benmaynard@productionmail.london.uk.vpn’s password: Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-43-generic x86\_64) - Documentation: [https://help.ubuntu.com/](https://help.ubuntu.com/) System information as of Sat Mar 21 16:16:42 EDT 2015 System load: 0.0 Users logged in: 0 Usage of /: 37.2% of 29.40GB IP address for eth0: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Memory usage: 40% IP address for eth1: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Swap usage: 0% IP address for vpn0: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Processes: 145 Graph this data and manage this system at: [https://landscape.canonical.com/](https://landscape.canonical.com/) 0 packages can be updated. 0 updates are security updates. Last login: Sat Mar 21 16:16:42 2015 from 25.148.205.168 benmaynard@pms01:~$ su Password: root@pms01:/home/benmaynard# cd /home/user-data/mail/spamassassin/ root@pms01:/home/user-data/mail/spamassassin# ls -l total 552 -rw-rw---- 1 spampd spampd 24576 Mar 21 10:48 bayes\_seen -rw-rw---- 1 spampd spampd 659456 Mar 21 10:48 bayes\_toks root@pms01:/home/user-data/mail/spamassassin# ---

**Author:** ![pimpedoutgeek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pimpedoutgeek](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/pimpedoutgeek)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/7 "2015-11-25T20:10:47Z")

Thanks for this. I had the same issue. ---

**Author:** ![wuxmedia](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/wuxmedia/32/557_2.png) [@wuxmedia](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/wuxmedia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/8 "2017-10-17T17:43:14Z")

this is still the case. bayes\_toks owned by mail:mail ---

**Author:** ![mveplus](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/mveplus/32/708_2.png) [@mveplus](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/mveplus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 7:20am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/9 "2018-01-30T07:20:00Z")

> [@benmaynard](#): > > /home/user-data/mail/spamassassin# I have started using MIAB just now v.26b -and checked it has right user: group privileges. Does it learn only when you use Web - RoundCube? Or it also works when you use a mail client app and move e-mail to junk? It seems that benmaynard is in binary format and only index info can be displayed. The only way I have found skimming the spamassassin manual is: `$ sudo sa-learn --dump magic 0.000 0 3 0 non-token data: bayes db version 0.000 0 0 0 non-token data: nspam 0.000 0 148 0 non-token data: nham 0.000 0 33345 0 non-token data: ntokens 0.000 0 1516481926 0 non-token data: oldest atime 0.000 0 1517294794 0 non-token data: newest atime 0.000 0 0 0 non-token data: last journal sync atime 0.000 0 0 0 non-token data: last expiry atime 0.000 0 0 0 non-token data: last expire atime delta 0.000 0 0 0 non-token data: last expire reduction count` Is there a way to see what is inside a ebinary file in human readable format? The only other way would be just to grep all logs for spam and analyze that? Regards, ---

**Author:** ![hzink](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@hzink](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/hzink)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 9:45am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/10 "2018-03-30T09:45:13Z")

Has this been addressed in 0.26, ie does SA now actually learn? ---

**Author:** ![murgero](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/murgero/32/750_2.png) [@murgero](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/murgero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/11 "2018-03-30T13:46:08Z")

If memory serves correctly SpamAssassin learns when you put spam in your spam/junk folder. ---

**Author:** ![hzink](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@hzink](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/hzink)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/12 "2018-03-31T07:54:29Z")

Yes, that’s the official “should work like that” explanation, but having read prior threads about spam filtering, there have been several statements that this didn’t work, in mailinabox. So, my question is if this had been fixed and is now working? ---

**Author:** ![openletter](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/f1d935/32.png) [@openletter](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/openletter)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/email-spam-filtering/383/13 "2022-05-17T13:52:00Z")

A post was split to a new topic: [How to train Spamassassin?](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/how-to-train-spamassassin/9121) ---