> I've configured two PCs (a notebook and a desktop) with Outlook and > SpamBayes to use the same database folder, which is on the desktop > PC which > is always present and switched on. > - Should this configuration work properly?
If only one copy of Outlook is open at a time, then yes. Otherwise no. > - Can I open Outlook on either PC, and use the same database? Yes, if you only open one copy of Outlook at a time. > - Can I do Delete As Spam or Recover From Spam with incremental > training, > and update the database from either PC? Yes, if you only open one copy of Outlook at a time. > - Can I run both copies of Outlook at the same time? No. > What happens when both > copies try to read from or write to the database at the same time? > Are there > file or record locking problems? You will almost certainly end up with a corrupted database. However, all of this applies to using the default 1.0.x database format (bsddb). There are alternatives: * There are experimental MySQL and PostgreSQL database backends, which should have no problem with concurrent access. However, (a) you would require an SQL server, and (b) I don't think these have been tested with the Outlook plug-in. * You could switch to "pickle". Basically, this keeps the entire database in memory, and writes it to disk as necessary. While the memory cost is higher than bsddb, you should also get faster (assuming there is enough memory) read access to the database. Since the entire database is dumped to disk at once, there shouldn't be the concurrent issues. However, this won't work perfectly: the only changes that will be persisted will be from whichever system stores the database last - whatever changes are made on the other system will be lost once it is restarted. * If the messages are also in a shared location (Exchange or IMAP server), then if you didn't use the Spam/Not Spam buttons but just moved the messages, then one computer could do all the classification and training. * You can use ZEO with 1.1a2 (or 1.1a3 if you run from source). Like the SQL options, this requires setting up a (ZEO) server, but unlike the SQL options, this has been tested (although not extensively). Alternatively, you could keep the databases separate, and consolidate them periodically (e.g. daily). =Tony.Meyer -- Please always include the list (spambayes at python.org) in your replies (reply-all), and please don't send me personal mail about SpamBayes. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~tameyer/writing/reply_all.html explains this. _______________________________________________ [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html
