From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/41560 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Karra Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: MFT documentation Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 11:58:35 +0530 Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: <873d1mmxyk.fsf@cs.utah.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035176936 6799 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 05:08:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 05:08:56 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: (qmail 18864 invoked from network); 4 Jan 2002 10:51:31 -0000 Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu (mail@129.7.128.13) by mastaler.com with SMTP; 4 Jan 2002 10:51:31 -0000 Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu ([129.7.128.10] ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 16MRv8-0000Cp-00; Fri, 04 Jan 2002 04:49:54 -0600 Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Fri, 04 Jan 2002 04:49:45 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (qmailr@sclp3.sclp.com [209.196.61.66]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id EAA06540 for ; Fri, 4 Jan 2002 04:49:31 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: (qmail 18848 invoked by alias); 4 Jan 2002 10:49:35 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 18843 invoked from network); 4 Jan 2002 10:49:33 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO Gowron) (mail@210.214.131.104) by gnus.org with SMTP; 4 Jan 2002 10:49:33 -0000 Original-Received: from karra by Gowron with local (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 16MO00-00065e-00 for ; Fri, 04 Jan 2002 12:08:40 +0530 Original-To: ding@gnus.org Mail-Followup-To: ding@gnus.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.090004 (Oort Gnus v0.04) Emacs/21.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Original-Lines: 128 Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:41560 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:41560 I could not find much docs in the manual for the MFT support in Gnus. I wrote the following as a first iteration. You should (a) find a suitable spot in the manual for it (b) make the menu/subnode thingy work: some things are commented out because I did not have the patiene to figure out how they work in texinfo :-) (c) make some modifications. -- cut here -- @node Mailing Lists @section Mailing Lists Sometimes while posting to mailing lists, the poster needs to direct followups to the post to specific places. The Mail-Followup-To (MFT) was created to enable just this. Two example scenarios where this is useful: @itemize @item A mailing list poster can use MFT to express that responses should be sent to just the list, and not the poster as well. This will happen if the poster is already subscribed to the list. @item If a message is posted to several mailing lists, MFT may also be used to direct the following discussion to one list only, because discussions that are spread over several lists tend to be fragmented and very difficult to follow. @end itemize Gnus honors the MFT header in other's messages (i.e. while following up to someone else's post) and also provides support for generating sensible MFT headers for outgoing messages as well. @c @menu @c * Honoring an MFT post:: What to do when one already exists @c * Composing with a MFT header:: Creating one from scratch. @c @end menu @c @node Composing with a MFT header @subsection Composing a correct MFT header automagically The first step in getting Gnus to automagically generate a MFT header in posts you make is to give Gnus a list of the mailing lists addresses you are subscribed to. You can do this in more than one way. The following variables would come in handy. @table @code @item message-subscribed-addresses This should be a list of addresses the user is subscribed to. Its default value is @code{nil}. Example: @lisp (setq message-subscribed-addresses '("ding@@gnus.org" "bing@@noose.org")) @end lisp @item message-subscribed-regexps This should be a list of regexps denoting the addresses of mailing lists subscribed to. Default value is @code{nil}. Example: If you want to achieve the same result as above: @lisp (setq message-subscribed-regexps '("[bd]ing@@\\(gnus\\|noose\\)\\.org")) @end lisp @item message-subscribed-address-functions This can be a list of functions to be called (one at a time!!) to determine the value of MFT headers. It is advisable that these functions not take any arguments. Default value is @code{nil}. @item message-subscribed-address-file You might be one organised human freak and have a list of addresses of all subscribed mailing lists in a separate file! Then you can just set this variable to the name of the file and life would be good. @end table You can use one or more of the above variables. All their values are ``added'' in some way that works :-) Now you are all set. Just start composing a message as you normally do. And just send it; as always. Just before the message is sent out, Gnus' MFT generation thingy kicks in and checks if the message already has a MFT header. If there is one, the header is left alone. If not then the list of recipient addresses (in the To: and Cc: headers) is checked to see if one of them is a list address you are subscribed to. If none of them is a list address, then no MFT is generated; otherwise, a MFT is added to the other headers and set to the value of all addresses in To: and Cc: Hm. ``So'', you ask, ``what if I send an email to a list I am not subscribed to?'' Well, the kind folks at Gnus Towers are working on a database of all known mailing list addresses that can be used for this purpose. Till then, you could, like, insert a MFT header manually, with the help of @kbd{C-c C-f m} !! @c @node Honoring an MFT post @subsection Honoring an MFT post When you followup to a post on a mailing list, and the post has a MFT header, Gnus' action will depend on the value of the variable @code{message-use-mail-followup-to}. This variable can be one of: @table @code @item t Always honor MFTs. The To: and Cc: headers in your followup will be derived from the MFT header of the original post. @item nil Always dishonor MFTs (just ignore the darned thing) @item ask Gnus will prompt you for an action. This is the default. @end table It is considered good nettiquette to honor MFT, as it is assumed the fellow who posted a message knows where the followups need to go better than you do. -- cut here -- -- "Have you ever fought an IDEA, Picard?" -- Gowron, Star Trek TNG.