mh-e: Aliases
10 Aliases
**********
MH aliases are used in the same way in MH-E as they are in MH. Any
alias listed as a recipient will be expanded when the message is sent.
This chapter discusses other things you can do with aliases in MH-E.
The following commands are available in MH-Letter mode with the
exception of ‘mh-alias-reload’ which can be called from anywhere.
‘<SPC>’
Perform completion or insert space (‘mh-letter-complete-or-space’).
‘M-<TAB>’
Perform completion on header field or word preceding point
(‘mh-letter-complete’).
‘mh-alias-apropos’
Show all aliases or addresses that match a regular expression.
‘mh-alias-grab-from-field’
Add alias for the sender of the current message
‘mh-alias-reload’
Reload MH aliases.
The ‘mh-alias’ customization group contains options associated with
aliases.
‘mh-alias-completion-ignore-case-flag’
On means don’t consider case significant in MH alias completion
(default: ‘on’).
‘mh-alias-expand-aliases-flag’
On means to expand aliases entered in the minibuffer (default:
‘off’).
‘mh-alias-flash-on-comma’
Specify whether to flash address or warn on translation (default:
‘Flash but Don't Warn If No Alias’).
‘mh-alias-insert-file’
Filename used to store a new MH-E alias (default: ‘Use Aliasfile
Profile Component’).
‘mh-alias-insertion-location’
Specifies where new aliases are entered in alias files (default:
‘Alphabetical’).
‘mh-alias-local-users’
If ‘on’, local users are added to alias completion (default: ‘on’).
‘mh-alias-local-users-prefix’
String prefixed to the real names of users from the password file
(default: ‘"local."’.
‘mh-alias-passwd-gecos-comma-separator-flag’
On means the GECOS field in the password file uses a comma
separator (default: ‘on’).
The following hook is available.
‘mh-alias-reloaded-hook’
Hook run by ‘mh-alias-reload’ after loading aliases (default:
‘nil’).
Adding Addresses to Draft
-------------------------
You can use aliases when you are adding recipients to a message.
In order to use minibuffer prompting for recipients and the subject
line in the minibuffer, turn on the option ‘mh-compose-prompt-flag’
(
Composing), and use the <TAB> (‘minibuffer-complete’) command
to complete aliases (and optionally local logins) when prompted for the
recipients. Turn on the option ‘mh-alias-expand-aliases-flag’ if you
want these aliases to be expanded to their respective addresses in the
draft.
Otherwise, you can complete aliases in the header of the draft with
‘M-<TAB>’ (‘mh-letter-complete’) or <SPC>
(‘mh-letter-complete-or-space’).
As MH ignores case in the aliases, so too does MH-E. However, you
may turn off the option ‘mh-alias-completion-ignore-case-flag’ to make
case significant which can be used to segregate completion of your
aliases. You might use uppercase for mailing lists and lowercase for
people. For example, you might have:
mark.baushke: Mark Baushke <mdb@stop.mail-abuse.org>
MH-E: MH-E Mailing List <mh-e-devel@stop.mail-abuse.org>
When this option is turned off, if you were to type ‘M’ in the ‘To:’
field and then ‘M-<TAB>’, then you’d get the list; if you started with
‘m’ and then entered ‘M-<TAB>’, then you’d get Mark’s address. Note
that this option affects completion only. If you were to enter
‘Mark.Baushke’, it would still be identified with your ‘mark.baushke’
alias.
To verify that the alias you’ve entered is valid, the alias will be
displayed in the minibuffer when you type a comma
(‘mh-letter-confirm-address’ or ‘mh-alias-minibuffer-confirm-address’ if
the option ‘mh-compose-prompt-flag’ is turned on). Composing.
This behavior can be controlled with the option
‘mh-alias-flash-on-comma’ which provides three choices: ‘Flash but Don't
Warn If No Alias’, ‘Flash and Warn If No Alias’, and ‘Don't Flash Nor
Warn If No Alias’.
For another way to verify the alias expansion, see Checking
Recipients.
Loading Aliases
---------------
MH-E loads aliases for completion and folder name hints from various
places. It uses the MH command ‘ali’(1) to read aliases from the files
listed in the profile component ‘Aliasfile:’ as well as system-wide
aliases (for example, ‘/etc/nmh/MailAliases’).
In addition, aliases are created from ‘/etc/passwd’ entries with a
user ID larger than a magical number, typically 200. This can be a
handy tool on a machine where you and co-workers exchange messages.
These aliases have the form ‘local.FIRST.LAST’ if a real name is present
in the password file. Otherwise, the alias will have the form
‘local.LOGIN’.
The prefix ‘local.’ can be modified via the option
‘mh-alias-local-users-prefix’. This option can also be set to ‘Use
Login’.
For example, consider the following password file entry:
psg:x:1000:1000:Peter S Galbraith,,,:/home/psg:/bin/tcsh
The following settings of option ‘mh-alias-local-users-prefix’ will
produce the associated aliases:
‘"local."’
local.peter.galbraith
‘""’
peter.galbraith
‘Use Login’
psg
In the example above, commas are used to separate different values
within the so-called GECOS field. This is a fairly common usage.
However, in the rare case that the GECOS field in your password file is
not separated by commas and whose contents may contain commas, you can
turn the option ‘mh-alias-passwd-gecos-comma-separator-flag’ off.
If you’re on a system with thousands of users you don’t know, and the
loading of local aliases slows MH-E down noticeably, then the local
alias feature can be disabled by turning off the option
‘mh-alias-local-users’. This option also takes a string which is
executed to generate the password file. For example, use ‘ypcat passwd’
to obtain the NIS password file.
Since aliases are updated frequently, MH-E reloads aliases
automatically whenever an alias lookup occurs if an alias source has
changed. However, you can reload your aliases manually by calling the
command ‘M-x mh-alias-reload’ directly. This command runs
‘mh-alias-reloaded-hook’ after the aliases have been loaded.
Adding Aliases
--------------
In the past, you have manually added aliases to your alias file(s)
listed in your ‘Aliasfile:’ profile component. MH-E provides other
methods for maintaining your alias file(s).
You can use the ‘M-x mh-alias-add-alias’ command which will prompt
you for the alias and address that you would like to add. If the alias
exists already, you will have the choice of inserting the new alias
before or after the old alias. In the former case, this alias will be
used when sending mail to this alias. In the latter case, the alias
serves as an additional folder name hint when filing messages (
Folder Selection).
Earlier, the alias prefix ‘local’ was presented. You can use other
prefixes to organize your aliases or disambiguate entries. You might
use prefixes for locales, jobs, or activities. For example, I have:
; Work
attensity.don.mitchell: Don Mitchell <dmitchell@stop.mail-abuse.com>
isharp.don.mitchell: Don Mitchell <donaldsmitchell@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...
; Sport
diving.ken.mayer: Ken Mayer <kmayer@stop.mail-abuse.com>
sailing.mike.maloney: Mike Maloney <mmaloney@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...
; Personal
ariane.kolkmann: Ariane Kolkmann <ArianeKolkmann@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...
Using prefixes instead of postfixes helps you explore aliases during
completion. If you forget the name of an old dive buddy, you can enter
‘div’ and then <SPC> to get a listing of all your dive buddies.
An alias for the sender of the current message is added automatically
by clicking on the ‘Grab From alias’ tool bar button or by running the
‘M-x mh-alias-grab-from-field’ command. Aliases for other recipients of
the current message are added by placing your cursor over the desired
recipient and giving the ‘M-x mh-alias-add-address-under-point’ command.
The options ‘mh-alias-insert-file’ and ‘mh-alias-insertion-location’
controls how and where these aliases are inserted.
The default setting of option ‘mh-alias-insert-file’ is ‘Use
Aliasfile Profile Component’. This option can also hold the name of a
file or a list a file names. If this option is set to a list of file
names, or the ‘Aliasfile:’ profile component contains more than one file
name, MH-E will prompt for one of them.
The option ‘mh-alias-insertion-location’ is set to ‘Alphabetical’ by
default. If you organize your alias file in other ways, then the
settings ‘Top’ and ‘Bottom’ might be more appropriate.
Querying Aliases
----------------
If you can’t quite remember an alias, you can use ‘M-x mh-alias-apropos’
to show all aliases or addresses that match a regular expression (
Syntax of Regular Expressions (emacs)Regexps.).
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) See the section MH Aliases
(http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/mh.html) in the MH book.
Info Catalog
mh-e: Editing Drafts
mh-e: Top
mh-e: Identities