MFT documentation

MFT documentation

[Karra]

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.

Re: MFT documentation

[Kai Großjohann]

Karra <karra@cs.utah.edu> writes:

> I could not find much docs in the manual for the MFT support in Gnus.
> I wrote the following as a first iteration.

Since Gnus is part of Emacs, I'm afraid the Gnus maintainers will
need a copyright assignment to the FSF from you.  Could you make such
an assignment?

I can send you a template for an email to send to the FSF; they will
send you something back which you print out, fill out, and sign.
Mail me if Lars hasn't done this, yet.

kai
-- 
Simplification good!  Oversimplification bad!  (Larry Wall)

Re: MFT documentation

[Simon Josefsson]

Karra <karra@cs.utah.edu> writes:

> I could not find much docs in the manual for the MFT support in Gnus.
> I wrote the following as a first iteration.  

Great!  I guess the size of it means you have to sign papers...  I
could mail them (unless Lars has already taken care of that).

Re: MFT documentation

[Karra]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Karra <karra@cs.utah.edu> writes:
>
>> I could not find much docs in the manual for the MFT support in Gnus.
>> I wrote the following as a first iteration.
>
> Since Gnus is part of Emacs, I'm afraid the Gnus maintainers will
> need a copyright assignment to the FSF from you.  Could you make
> such an assignment?

I will do the assignment.  Send me the template.

-karra

-- 
"Have you ever fought an IDEA, Picard?"
      -- Gowron, Star Trek TNG.

Re: MFT documentation

[ShengHuo ZHU]

Karra <karra@cs.utah.edu> writes:

> 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.

I've added it into message.texi.

ShengHuo