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5.3.4   Open Log

SpamSieve keeps a log of messages that it has filtered, words that it has used to decide whether the messages were spam, messages you have added to the corpus, and any errors that have occurred. This command opens the log file so that you can look at it. Normally, there is no reason (aside from curiosity) to look at the log file. However, if you believe SpamSieve is not working as it should, the log file provides useful information about what SpamSieve has done.

  1. For each incoming message, there should be an entry in SpamSieve’s log that says Predicted: Good or Predicted: Spam. If you see only Trained: entries (or no entries at all) for a message, then the mail program did not ask SpamSieve to analyze that message, and you should check the setup.
  2. If SpamSieve left a spam message in your inbox, there will be a Predicted: Good entry for that message in the log. The Reason can provide clues for why SpamSieve thought the message was good.
    • If it says sender <address> in address book, you might want to remove that address from address book, add it to the Me card, or else uncheck SpamSieve’s option to Use Mac OS X Address Book.
    • If it says sender <address> in Entourage address book, you might want to remove that address from Entourage’s address book (then click Load while holding down the Option key) or uncheck SpamSieve’s option to Use Entourage address book.
    • If spam messages are being predicted as good and you don’t understand why, please send in a report.
  3. If SpamSieve moved a good message to the spam folder, there will be a Predicted: Spam entry for that message in the log. The Reason can provide clues for why SpamSieve thought the message was spam.

If you find that the log file is taking up too much disk space, you can delete it at any time. SpamSieve will then start a new log file as needed.

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