NAME
mailplate - reformat mail drafts according to templates
SYNOPSIS
mailplate [[--new | -n] | [--editor | -e]] [--keep-unknown | -k]
[--verbose | -v] [--debug | -d] template-name message-file
mailplate [--keep-unknown | -k] [--verbose | -v] [--debug | -d]
template-name < message-data
mailplate [[--auto | -a] | [--menu | -m]] [[--new | -n] |
[--editor | -e]] [--keep-unknown | -k] [--verbose | -v]
[--debug | -d] message-file
mailplate [[--auto | -a] | [--menu | -m]] [--keep-unknown | -k]
[--verbose | -v] [--debug | -d] < message data
mailplate [--help | -h]
mailplate [--version | -V]
DESCRIPTION
mailplate is a programme that reformats mail drafts according to a
given template. The template may be specified on the command line, but
mailplate can also use control information from the template files to
automatically select an appropriate template (--auto). A selection menu
feature is planned (--menu).
Applying a template means obtainined select data from an existing mail
message (unless --new is specified) and to fill it into appropriate
slots in the template. Messages are processed in three parts: headers,
body, and signature.
When --new is given, an empty instantiation of the template is written
to stdout. At the moment, --new cannot be combined with --editor.
The template can define two types of headers: mandatory and
preservatory. Mandatory headers take precedence over headers in the
existing message and thus overwrite them. Preservatory headers instruct
mailplate to port their data from the existing mail message. Headers in
the existing message but not defined in the template are dropped,
unless --keep-unknown is given.
Body and signature are separated by ´-- ´. If this sentinel is not
found, no signature is extracted. Templates can be interpolated and
data filled into slots. Helper slots are filled with the output of
helper commands (which must be defined in the configuration),
environment variable slots are just that, and mail variable slots can
be filled with data obtained by running regexps or commands over the
message.
This script can be run in multiple ways:
· As a filter, it applies a template to data from stdin and writes
the result to stdout.
· When --editor is passed, the script spawns sensible-editor on the
result. It may thus be used as the editor for your mail user agent.
· Given a file, it modifies the file, unless it cannot write to the
file, in which case it writes to stdout.
OPTIONS
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (‘--´):
--auto, -a
Turn on template auto-discovery.
--menu, -m
Choose from a list of templates (not yet implemented)
--new, -n
Create a new message.
--editor, -e
Spawn editor once template is applied.
--keep-unknown, -k
Preserve mail headers not specified in template.
--verbose, -v
Write informational messages to stderr.
--debug, -d
Start a debugger after initialisation.
--help, -h
Show summary of options.
--version, -V
Show version of program.
MUTT INTEGRATION
I use mailplate as my $editor for mutt, with the following setting in
my ~/.mutt/muttrc:
set editor="~/.bin/mail/mailplate --edit --auto --keep-unknown"
mailplate currently has a bit of a limitation, or at least I have not
figured out a way how to work around it sensibly yet. If you re-edit a
message from mutt’s compose menu, it causes mailplate to reprocess the
message, which you may not want.
Similarly, if you find yourself editing messages from the index or
pager, you probably also don’t want mailplate to get in the way. For
these cases, I currently use the following two keybindings:
macro compose e ´:set my_editor="$editor"<enter>:set editor=sensible-editor<enter><edit-headers>:set editor="$my_editor"<enter>´ "invoke normal editor to edit message"
macro index,pager e ´:set my_editor="$editor"<enter>:set editor=sensible-editor<enter><edit>:set editor="$my_editor"<enter>´ "invoke normal editor to edit message"
VIM INTEGRATION
I am often editing a message with vim and find that I need to use a
different identity. For this purpose, I have the following keybindings
in my ~/.vim/ftplugin/mail.vim:
nmap <buffer> <F1> :w<CR>:%!mailplate --keep-unknown --auto<CR>
nmap <buffer> <C-P><F1> :w<CR>:%!mailplate --keep-unknown private<CR>
nmap <buffer> <C-P><F2> :w<CR>:%!mailplate --keep-unknown debian<CR>
Now when I reply to a message, mailplate automatically choses the right
template, and if I later change my mind, I can press C-p, to override
the choice and select the private template, or just hit to have it
re-run the auto-detection.
SEE ALSO
http://madduck.net/code/mailplate/
/usr/share/doc/mailplate/README
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by martin f. krafft <madduck@madduck.net>
with help from Carl Fürstenberg.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2007 martin f. krafft
September 30, 2007