[Spambayes] Cannot open bayes database

[Tim Peters]

[Steve Holden]
> Spam filtering has suiddenly stopped on my MS Outlook system, because
> it can no longer open the database.

A traceback showing the cause of the failure to open is vital if we're ever
to know *why* this happened.

> Is this likley to be because of too many spam trained messages?

No (unless perhaps your database has exceeded 2 gigabytes and we're hitting
a 32-bit signed integer bug ...).  BTW, the way you phrased that makes me
suspect you trained on much more spam than ham, which is a Bad Idea.  The
mathematical modeling assumes approximately equal numbers of ham and spam
have been trained on, and deviations from that pile up more dubious
assumptions.

> If so, is there some way I can beef up the database, or should I just
> delete it and start all over again.

Please save a copy of the database off to the side, and at least get a
traceback first.  If the traceback is interesting, perhaps it will suggest a
way to recover.  Retraining from scratch is the only sure way to recover.

Note:  I save my training ham and spam in two folders in a separate .pst
file dedicated to holding training data.  Retraining from scratch is then
trivial, and, more importantly for me, my main .pst file stays smaller (this
is important to me because I need to transfer it between desktop and laptop
boxes, over a relatively slow link).