using unix type mail alias file with gnus?

using unix type mail alias file with gnus?

[John Velman]

I've been using Vim and Mutt all these years (although I had a brief
fling with emacs about 20 years ago).  Having moved from Linux to Mac OS
X a year ago, I couldn't find a decent newsreader and decided to try
gnus (I'm running Aquamacs on my Mac).  Am trying to use emacs for my
text editing in place of Vim, although I feel guilty.  Everything is
going well (mostly) except for having a lot of key-combos to
internalize.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.  I'm now doing my email with gnus
as well.  Basic setup using procmail and nnfolder, so I can still look
at things with Mutt (as a security blanket), but generally am quite
happy.

One answer I haven't been able to find yet is how to use my .mail_alias
file with gnus.  It seems it wouldn't be too hard to write some elisp to
do that, but perhaps someone has done it?

Most mail addressing advice I find for gnus seems to use the BBDB, which
seems to have mixed results on Aquamacs (based on my googling).  It also
seems like a real overkill for me.  I'm something of a dinosaur and keep
mailing addresses with pen and ink, keep business cards I need with a
big paperclip.  All I want from a mail-address-keeping program is my
alias for the person, the real name, and the email address.

Thanks,

John Velman

Re: using unix type mail alias file with gnus?

[Teemu Likonen]

On 2009-02-17 14:57 (-0800), John Velman wrote:

> One answer I haven't been able to find yet is how to use my
> .mail_alias file with gnus. It seems it wouldn't be too hard to write
> some elisp to do that, but perhaps someone has done it?

This may not answer exactly your question but ~/.mailrc file work too.
The format is nearly the same as Mutt's alias file:

    alias shortname "First Lastname <email@address>"

Aliases will be expanded in message-writing buffer when editing
recipient headers.

[solved] Re: using unix type mail alias file with gnus?

[John Velman]

Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:

> On 2009-02-17 14:57 (-0800), John Velman wrote:
>
>> One answer I haven't been able to find yet is how to use my
>> .mail_alias file with gnus. It seems it wouldn't be too hard to write
>> some elisp to do that, but perhaps someone has done it?
>
> This may not answer exactly your question but ~/.mailrc file work too.
> The format is nearly the same as Mutt's alias file:
>
>     alias shortname "First Lastname <email@address>"
>
> Aliases will be expanded in message-writing buffer when editing
> recipient headers.

Thanks, Teemu. 

 I should have known (or found this) but never thought to
look for mailrc.  I haven't used vanilla mail since about 1986 (with
at&t pc, small local network, and uucp for anything outside the
building).  I'd completely forgotten about .mailrc.  I had to do some
editing on my .mail_alias file (still have some to do), but it was a
small file and needed to be pruned anyway.

Thanks again,

John V.