Moving Your Mail Around
[previous]
[next]
[table of contents]
[index]
Note: HTML conversion may not be
complete.
If you change the name of some of the MH programs or have your own
printing programs, the following variables can help you.
They are described in detail in the subsequent sections.
Variable | Default | Description
__________________________|____________________|______________________
mh-inc-prog | "inc" | Program to incor-
| | porate mail
mh-inc-folder-hook | nil | Functions to run
| | when incorporating
| | mail
mh-delete-msg-hook | nil | Functions to run
| | when deleting mes-
| | sages
mh-print-background | nil | Print in foreground
| | or background
mh-lpr-command-format | "lpr -J '%s'" | Command used to
| | print
mh-default-folder-for- | nil | Command to generate
message-function | | a default folder
mh-auto-folder-collect | t | Collect folder names
| | in background at
| | startup
mh-recursive-folders | nil | Collect nested fold-
| | ers
mh-refile-msg-hook | nil | Functions to run
| | when refiling mes-
| | sage
mh-store-default-directory| nil | Default directory
| | for storing uuencode
| | or shar files
mh-sortm-args | nil | Additional arguments
| | for sortm
mh-scan-prog | "scan" | Program to scan mes-
| | sages
mh-msg-number-regexp | "^ *\\([0-9]+\\)" | Matches message
| | number in scan line
mh-msg-search-regexp | "^[^0-9]*%d[^0-9]"| Matches message
| | number %d
mh-valid-scan-line | "^ *[0-9]" | Matches a valid scan
| | line
mh-cmd-note | 4 | Offset for notation
mh-deleted-msg-regexp | "^....D" | Matches deleted mes-
| | sage
mh-refiled-msg-regexp | "^....\\^" | Matches refiled mes-
| | sage
mh-cur-scan-msg-regexp | "^....\\+" | Matches the current
| | message
mh-good-msg-regexp | "^....[^D^]" | Matches message that
| | can be shown by n,
| | etc.
mh-note-deleted | "D" | Notation for deleted
| | messages
mh-note-refiled | "^" | Notation for refiled
| | messages
mh-note-copied | "C" | Notation for copied
| | messages
mh-note-cur | "+" | Notation for the
| | current message
mh-note-repl | "-" | Notation for replied
| | to messages
mh-note-forw | "F" | Notation for for-
| | warded messages
mh-note-dist | "R" | Notation for redis-
| | tributed messages
mh-note-printed | "P" | Notation for printed
| | messages
mh-note-seq | "%" | Notation for mes-
| | sages in a sequence
mh-quit-hook | nil | Functions to run
| | after quitting
__________________________|____________________|______________________
The name of the program that incorporates new mail is stored in
mh-inc-prog;
it is
"inc"
by default.
This program generates a one-line summary for each of the new messages.
Unless it is an absolute pathname, the file is assumed to be in the
mh-progs
directory.
You may also link a file to
inc,
which uses a different format (see the Section
Making a New Command Version).
You'll then need to modify several variables appropriately; see
mh-scan-prog
below.
You can set the hook
mh-inc-folder-hook,
which is called after new mail is incorporated by the
i (mh-inc-folder)
command.
A good use of this hook is to rescan the whole folder either after running
M-x mh-rmail
the first time or when you've changed the message numbers from
outside of mh-e.
Example: Rescan folder after incorporating new mail via mh-inc-folder-hook
(defun my-mh-inc-folder-hook ()
"Hook to rescan folder after incorporating mail."
(if (buffer-modified-p) ; if outstanding refiles and deletes,
(mh-execute-commands)) ; flush them
(mh-rescan-folder) ; synchronize with +inbox
(mh-show)) ; show the current message
(add-hook 'mh-inc-folder-hook 'my-mh-inc-folder-hook)
The hook
mh-delete-msg-hook
is called after you mark a message for deletion.
The current maintainer of mh-e used this once when he kept statistics
on his mail usage.
By default, operations on folders work only one level at a time.
Set
mh-recursive-folders
to non-nil to operate on all folders.
This mostly means that you'll be able to see all your folders when you
press TAB when prompted for a folder name.
The variable
mh-auto-folder-collect
is normally turned on to generate a list of folder names in the
background as soon as mh-e is loaded.
Otherwise, the list is generated when you need a folder name the first
time (as with
o (mh-refile-msg)).
If you have a lot of folders and you have
mh-recursive-folders
set, this could take a while, which is why it's nice to do the folder
collection in the background.
The function
mh-default-folder-for-message-function
is used by
o (mh-refile-msg)
and
C-c C-f C-f (mh-to-fcc)
to generate a default folder.
The generated folder name should be a string with a "+" before it.
For each of my correspondents, I use the
same name for both an alias and a folder.
So, I wrote a function that takes the address in the
From:
header field, finds it in my alias file, and returns the alias
which is used as a default folder name.
This is the most complicated example given here, and it demonstrates
several features of Emacs Lisp programming.
You should be able to drop this into
~/.emacs,
however.
If you use this to store messages in a subfolder of your Mail
directory, you can modify the line that starts
(format
"+%s"
...
and insert your subfolder after the folder symbol "+".
Example: Default refiling folder via mh-default-folder-for-message-function
(defun my-mh-folder-from-address ()
"Determine folder name from address.
Takes the address in the From: header field, and returns its corresponding
alias from the user's personal aliases file. Returns nil if the address
was not found."
(require 'rfc822) ; for the rfc822 functions
(search-forward-regexp "^From: \\(.*\\)") ; grab contents of header field
(setq addr (car (rfc822-addresses ; get address from header field
(buffer-substring (match-beginning 1)
(match-end 1)))))
(save-excursion ; save state
(let ((buffer (get-buffer-create " *temp*")) ; set local variables
folder)
(set-buffer buffer) ; jump to temporary buffer
(unwind-protect ; run kill-buffer when done or on error
(progn ; function grouping construct
(insert-file-contents (expand-file-name "aliases" mh-user-path))
(goto-char (point-min)) ; grab aliases file and go to beginning
(setq folder
;; Search for the given address, even commented-out addresses are
;; found! The function search-forward-regexp sets values that are
;; later used by match-beginning and match-end.
(if (search-forward-regexp (format "^;*\\(.*\\):.*%s"
addr) nil t)
;; NOTE WELL: this is what the return value looks like. You can
;; modify the format string to match your own Mail hierarchy.
(format "+%s" (buffer-substring (match-beginning 1)
(match-end 1))))))
(kill-buffer buffer)) ; get rid of our temporary buffer
folder))) ; function's return value
(setq mh-default-folder-for-message-function 'my-mh-folder-from-address)
The hook
mh-refile-msg-hook
is called after a message is marked to be filed.
The variable
mh-sortm-args
holds extra arguments to pass on to the
sortm(1)
command (the Section Sorting Messages: sortm).
Note: this variable is only consulted when a prefix argument is given
to
M-x mh-sort-folder.
It is used to override any arguments given in a
sortm:
entry in your MH profile
(~/.mh_profile).
Scan line formatting
The name of the program that generates a listing of one line per
message is held in
mh-scan-prog
(default:
"scan").
Unless this variable contains an absolute pathname, it is assumed to be in the
mh-progs
directory.
You may link another program to
scan
(the Section Making a New Command Version)
to produce a different type of listing.
If you change the format of the scan lines
you'll need to tell mh-e how to parse the new format.
As you see, quite a lot of variables are involved to do that.
The first variable has to do with pruning out garbage.
- mh-valid-scan-line
-
This regular expression describes a valid scan line.
This is used to eliminate error messages that are occasionally produced by
inc
or
scan
(default:
"^ *[0-9]").
Next, two variables control how the message numbers are parsed.
- mh-msg-number-regexp
-
This regular expression is used to extract the message number from a
scan line.
Note that the message number must be placed in quoted
parentheses, (\\(...\\)), as in the default of
"^ *\\([0-9]+\\)".
- mh-msg-search-regexp
-
Given a message number (which is inserted in
%d ),
this regular expression will match the scan line that it represents
(default:
"^[^0-9]*%d[^0-9]").
Finally, there are a slew of variables that control how mh-e marks up
the scan lines.
- mh-cmd-note
-
Number of characters to skip over before inserting notation (default: 4).
Note how it relates to the following regular expressions.
- mh-deleted-msg-regexp
-
This regular expression describes deleted messages (default:
"^....D").
See also
mh-note-deleted.
- mh-refiled-msg-regexp
-
This regular expression describes refiled messages (default:
"^....\\^").
See also
mh-note-refiled.
- mh-cur-scan-msg-regexp
-
This regular expression matches the current message (default:
"^....\\+").
See also
mh-note-cur.
- mh-good-msg-regexp
-
This regular expression describes which messages should be shown when
mh-e goes to the next or previous message.
Normally, deleted or refiled messages are skipped over (default:
"^....[^D^]").
- mh-note-deleted
-
Messages that have been deleted to are marked by this string (default:
"D").
See also
mh-deleted-msg-regexp.
- mh-note-refiled
-
Messages that have been refiled are marked by this string (default:
"^").
See also
mh-refiled-msg-regexp.
- mh-note-copied
-
Messages that have been copied are marked by this string (default:
"C").
- mh-note-cur
-
The current message (in MH, not in mh-e) is marked by this string (default:
"+").
See also
mh-cur-scan-msg-regexp.
- mh-note-repl
-
Messages that have been replied to are marked by this string (default:
"-").
- mh-note-forw
-
Messages that have been forwarded are marked by this string (default:
"F").
- mh-note-dist
-
Messages that have been redistributed are marked by this string (default:
"R").
- mh-note-printed
-
Messages that have been printed are marked by this string (default:
"P").
- mh-note-seq
-
Messages in a sequence are marked by this string (default:
"%").
Normally messages are printed in the foreground.
If this is slow on your system, you may elect to set
mh-print-background
to non-nil to print in the background.
If you do this, do not delete the message until it is printed or else the
output may be truncated.
The variable
mh-lpr-command-format
controls how the printing is actually done.
The string can contain one escape,
%s ,
which is filled with the name of the folder and the message number and is
useful for print job names.
As an example, the default is
"lpr -J '%s'".
The initial directory for the
mh-store-msg
command is held in
mh-store-default-directory.
Since I almost always run
mh-store-msg
on sources, I set it to my personal source directory like this:
(setq mh-store-default-directory (expand-file-name "~/src/"))
Subsequent incarnations of
mh-store-msg
offer the last directory used as the default.
By the way,
mh-store-msg
calls the Emacs Lisp function
mh-store-buffer.
I mention this because you can use it directly if you're editing a
buffer that contains a file that has been run through
uuencode
or
shar.
For example, you can extract the contents of the current buffer in
your home directory by typing
ESC ESC (mh-store-buffer
"~").
The two variables
mh-before-quit-hook
and
mh-quit-hook
are called by
q (mh-quit).
The former one is called before the quit occurs, so you might use it to
perform any mh-e operations; you could perform
some query and abort the quit or call
mh-execute-commands,
for example.
The latter is not run in an mh-e context, so you might use it to
modify the window setup.
|
