Sending Mail
[previous]
[next]
[table of contents]
[index]
You may wish to add the following useful key bindings
to your
.emacs
file:
(global-set-key "\C-xm" 'mh-smail)
(global-set-key "\C-x4m" 'mh-smail-other-window)
In addition, several variables are useful when sending mail or
replying to mail.
They are summarized in the following table.
Variable | Default | Description
____________________________|__________________|_________________
mh-comp-formfile | "components" | Format file for
| | drafts
mh-repl-formfile | "replcomps" | Format file for
| | replies
mh-letter-mode-hook | nil | Functions to
| | run in MH-
| | Letter mode
mh-compose-letter-function | nil | Functions to
| | run when start-
| | ing a new draft
mh-reply-default-reply-to | nil | Whom reply goes
| | to
mh-forward-subject-format | "%s: %s" | Format string
| | for forwarded
| | message subject
mh-redist-full-contents | nil | send requires
| | entire message
mh-new-draft-cleaned-headers| "^Date:\\| | Remove these
| ^Received:\\| | header fields
| ^Message-Id:\\| | from re-edited
| ^From:\\| | draft
| ^Sender:\\| |
| ^Delivery- |
| Date:\\| |
| ^Return-Path:" |
____________________________|__________________|_________________
Since mh-e does not use
comp
to create the initial draft, you need to set
mh-comp-formfile
to the name of your components file if it isn't
components.
This is the name of the file that contains the form for composing messages.
If it does not contain an absolute pathname, mh-e searches
for the file first in your MH directory and then in the system MH
library directory (such as
/usr/local/lib/mh).
Replies, on the other hand, are built using
repl.
You can change the location of the field file from the default of
replcomps
by modifying
mh-repl-formfile.
Two hooks are provided to run commands on your freshly created draft.
The first hook,
mh-letter-mode-hook,
allows you to do some processing before editing a letter.
For example, you may wish to modify the header after
repl
has done its work, or you may have a complicated
components
file and need to tell mh-e where the cursor should go.
Here's an example of how you would use this hook -- all of the other hooks
are set in this fashion as well.
Example: Prepare draft for editing via mh-letter-mode-hook
(defvar letter-mode-init-done nil
"Non-nil when one-time mh-e settings have made.")
(defun my-mh-letter-mode-hook ()
"Hook to prepare letter for editing."
(if (not letter-mode-init-done) ; only need to bind the keys once
(progn
;; add-enriched-text defined in the Example Emacs macros for entering enriched text
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-tb" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-ti" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-tf" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-ts" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-tB" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-tu" 'add-enriched-text)
(local-set-key "\C-c\C-tc" 'add-enriched-text)
(setq letter-mode-init-done t)))
(setq fill-prefix " ") ; I find indented text easier to read
(goto-char (point-max)) ; go to end of message to
(mh-insert-signature) ; insert signature
(beginning-of-buffer) ; go to beginning of message
;;; Emacs 19
(search-forward-regexp "^$")) ; and then past header
;;; Emacs 18
;;; (re-search-forward "^$"))
(add-hook 'mh-letter-mode-hook 'my-mh-letter-mode-hook)
If you're using Emacs 18, remove the triple semicolons (;;;) from
that line and add them to the start of the line for Emacs 19.
The second hook, actually a function, is
mh-compose-letter-function.
Like
mh-letter-mode-hook,
it is called just before editing a new message; however, it is the last
function called before you edit your message.
The consequence of this is that you can write a function to write and
send the message for you.
This function is passed three arguments: the contents of the
To:,
Subject:,
and
cc:
header fields.
If you find that most of the time that you specify
cc
when you reply to a message, set
mh-reply-default-reply-to
to
cc .
This variable is normally set to
nil
so that you are prompted for the recipient of a reply.
It can be set to one of
from ,
to ,
or
cc ;
you are then no longer prompted for the recipient(s) of your reply.
When forwarding a message, the format of the
Subject:
header field can be modified by the variable
mh-forward-subject-format.
This variable is a string which includes two escapes
(%s).
The first
%s
is replaced with the sender of the original message, and the second
one
is
replaced with the original
Subject:.
The default value of
"%s: %s"
takes a message with the header:
To: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
Subject: Re: 49er football
From: Greg DesBrisay <gd@cellnet.com>
and creates a subject header field of:
Subject: Greg DesBrisay: Re: 49er football
The variable
mh-redist-full-contents
is set to non-nil if
dist
requires the whole letter for redistribution, which is the case if
send
is compiled with the BERK option (which many people abhor).
(To see which options your copy of MH was compiled with, use
M-x mh-version
(the Section Miscellaneous Commands).)
If you find that MH will not allow you to redistribute a message that has
been redistributed before, this variable should be set to
nil.
The header fields specified by
mh-new-draft-cleaned-headers
are removed from an old draft that has been recreated with
M-e (mh-extract-rejected-mail)
or
M-a (mh-edit-again).
If when you edit an old draft with these commands you find that there
are header fields that you don't want included, you can append
them to this variable.
For example,
(setq mh-new-draft-cleaned-headers
(concat mh-new-draft-cleaned-headers "\\|^Some-Field:"))
This appends the regular expression
\\|^Some-Field:
to the variable.
The
\\|
means
or,
and the
^
(caret) matches the beginning of the line.
This is done to be very specific about which fields match.
The literal
":"
is appended for the same reason.
(To find out more about Emacs' regular expressions, use Info from
within Emacs.
Type
C-h i m emacs RET m regexps RET
to get to the right page.)
|
