mh-e: Identities
11 Identities
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MH-E supports the concept of multiple personalities or identities. This
means that you can easily have a different header and signature at home
and at work.
A couple of commands are used to insert identities in MH-Letter mode
which are also found in the ‘Identity’ menu.
‘C-c C-d’
Insert fields specified by given identity (‘mh-insert-identity’).
‘C-c M-d’
Insert custom fields if recipient found in ‘mh-auto-fields-list’
(‘mh-insert-auto-fields’).
The ‘mh-identity’ customization group contains the following options.
‘mh-auto-fields-list’
List of recipients for which header lines are automatically
inserted (default: ‘nil’).
‘mh-auto-fields-prompt-flag’
On means to prompt before sending if fields inserted (default:
‘on’)
‘mh-identity-default’
Default identity to use when ‘mh-letter-mode’ is called (default:
‘None’).
‘mh-identity-handlers’
Handler functions for fields in ‘mh-identity-list’.
‘mh-identity-list’
List of identities (default: ‘nil’).
Some of the common header fields that people change depending on the
context are the ‘From:’ and ‘Organization:’ fields, as well as the
signature.
This is done by customizing the option ‘mh-identity-list’. In the
customization buffer for this option, click on the ‘INS’ button and
enter a label such as ‘Home’ or ‘Work’. Then click on the ‘INS’ button
with the label ‘Add at least one item below’. The ‘Value Menu’ has the
following menu items:
‘From Field’
Specify an alternate ‘From:’ header field. You must include a
valid email address. A standard format is ‘First Last
<login@host.domain>’. If you use an initial with a period, then
you must quote your name as in ‘"First I. Last"
<login@host.domain>’.
‘Organization Field’
People usually list the name of the company where they work here.
‘Other Field’
Set any arbitrary header field and value here. Unless the header
field is a standard one, precede the name of your field’s label
with ‘X-’, as in ‘X-Fruit-of-the-Day:’.
‘Attribution Verb’
This value overrides the setting of
‘mh-extract-from-attribution-verb’. 
Inserting Letter.
‘Signature’
Set your signature with this item. You can specify the contents of
‘mh-signature-file-name’, a file, or a function.
Signature.
‘GPG Key ID’
Specify a different key to sign or encrypt messages.
You can select the identities you have added via the menu called
‘Identity’ in the MH-Letter buffer. You can also use ‘C-c C-d’
(‘mh-insert-identity’). To clear the fields and signature added by the
identity, select the ‘None’ identity.
The ‘Identity’ menu contains two other items to save you from having
to set the identity on every message. The menu item ‘Set Default for
Session’ can be used to set the default identity to the current identity
until you exit Emacs. The menu item ‘Save as Default’ sets the option
‘mh-identity-default’ to the current identity setting. You can also
customize the option ‘mh-identity-default’ in the usual fashion. If you
find that you need to add another identity, the menu item ‘Customize
Identities’ is available for your convenience.
The option ‘mh-auto-fields-list’ can also be used to set the identity
depending on the recipient to provide even more control. To customize
‘mh-auto-fields-list’, click on the ‘INS’ button and enter a regular
expression for the recipient’s address (Syntax of Regular
Expressions (emacs)Regexps.). Click on the ‘INS’ button with the ‘Add
at least one item below’ label. The ‘Value Menu’ contains the following
menu items:
‘Identity’
Select an identity from those configured in ‘mh-identity-list’.
All of the information for that identity will be added if the
recipient matches.
‘Fcc Field’
Insert an ‘Fcc:’ header field with the folder you provide. When
you send the message, MH will put a copy of your message in this
folder.
‘Mail-Followup-To Field’
Insert an ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ header field with the recipients you
provide. If the recipient’s mail user agent supports this header
field(1), then their replies will go to the addresses listed. This
is useful if their replies go both to the list and to you and you
don’t have a mechanism to suppress duplicates. If you reply to
someone not on the list, you must either remove the
‘Mail-Followup-To:’ field, or ensure the recipient is also listed
there so that he receives replies to your reply.
‘Other Field’
Other header fields may be added using this menu item.
These fields can only be added after the recipient is known. Because
you can continue to add recipients as you edit the draft, MH-E waits
until the message is sent to perform the auto-insertions. This seems
strange at first, but you’ll get used to it. There are two ways to help
you feel that the desired fields are added. The first is the action
when the message is sent: if any fields are added automatically, you are
given a chance to see and to confirm these fields before the message is
actually sent. You can do away with this confirmation by turning off
the option ‘mh-auto-fields-prompt-flag’. The second method is manual:
once the header contains one or more recipients, you may run the command
‘C-c M-d’ (‘mh-insert-auto-fields’) or choose the ‘Identity -> Insert
Auto Fields’ menu item to insert these fields manually. However, if you
use this command, the automatic insertion when the message is sent is
disabled.
You should avoid using the same header field in ‘mh-auto-fields-list’
and ‘mh-identity-list’ definitions that may apply to the same message as
the result is undefined.
The option ‘mh-identity-handlers’ is used to change the way that
fields, signatures, and attributions in ‘mh-identity-list’ are added.
To customize ‘mh-identity-handlers’, replace the name of an existing
handler function associated with the field you want to change with the
name of a function you have written. You can also click on an ‘INS’
button and insert a field of your choice and the name of the function
you have written to handle it.
The ‘Field’ field can be any field that you’ve used in your
‘mh-identity-list’. The special fields ‘:attribution-verb’,
‘:signature’, or ‘:pgg-default-user-id’ are used for the
‘mh-identity-list’ choices ‘Attribution Verb’, ‘Signature’, and ‘GPG Key
ID’ respectively.
The handler associated with the ‘:default’ field is used when no
other field matches.
The handler functions are passed two or three arguments: the field
itself (for example, ‘From’), or one of the special fields (for example,
‘:signature’), and the action ‘'remove’ or ‘'add’. If the action is
‘'add’, an additional argument containing the value for the field is
given.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ is supported by nmh.
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