Mew 1.94 provides an address book which integrates aliases and Petname. After this, neither aliases("~/.im/Aliases") nor Petname("~/.im/Petname") will be maintained. So, please migrate to the address book("~/.im/Addrbook"). The address book provides 2 formats. One is to specify expansion rules, the other is to define personal information.
First, let's look at the format to specify expansion rules.
<shortname>: <address1>[, <address2>, <address3>,...]
In this way, you should specify a short name and a full address separating by `:'. If you want to expand the short name to multiple addresses, specify them separating by `,'. (This is exactly same as addresses separated by `,' in the To: field, for instance.) SPC is allowed after `,'. The following is an example:
pooh: winnie-the-pooh@100acre.woodwest.uk piglet: piglet@beech.tree.uk friends: pooh, piglet
Multi-level expansion is possible. For example, let's expand "friends" as follows:
To: friends`TAB'
"friends" is expanded to "pooh" and "piglet" internally, then each word is also expand resulting as follows:
To: winnie-the-pooh@100acre.woodwest.uk, piglet@beech.tree.uk
Next, the format to define personal information is shown below:
<shortname> <address1>[, <address2>, <address3>,...] <nickname> <fullname>
In this way, four elements are separated by SPC. <shortname> is a short name. <nickname> and <fullname> are his/her nickname and his/her full name, respectively. The second element is his/her addresses. If he/she has multiple addresses, enumerate them separating by `,'. SPC is allowed after `,'. So, this SPC is not the separator of the elements. SPC surrounded by `"' is not the separator, neither. Let's see an example:
kazu kazu@mew.org, kazu@iijlab.net Kazu-kun "Kazuhiko Yamamoto"
Unlike the format of expansion rules, the format of personal information means that each address will be replaced one by one. Consider the following example:
To: kazu`TAB'
Typing `TAB' after "kazu" leads to "kazu@mew.org".
To: kazu@mew.org`TAB'
Typing `TAB' after "kazu@mew.org" makes "kazu@iijlab.net" appeared.
To: kazu@iijlab.net`TAB'
Then "kazu@mew.org" will appear again if you type `TAB' after "kazu@iijlab.net". In this way, each address is replaced one by one. After deciding an address, you can add its full name.
To: kazu@mew.org`M-TAB'
Like this, typing `M-TAB' replace the address with the following format.
To: Kazuhiko Yamamoto <kazu@mew.org>
In the format of personal information, you can omit each element. When you want to omit intermediate element, specify `*'. The following is an example to define nicknames for addresses.
* kazu@mew.org, kazu@iijlab.net Kazu-kun
The nickname is used to replace addresses in Summary mode and to replace the citation prefix(See section Citation) in Draft mode.
The comment letters are `;' and `#'. `;' is valid only when it appears in the beginning of lines. The entire line is ignored. `#' is valid everywhere. The strings between `#' and the end of the line is ignored.
As a matter of fact, there are short names to be defined automatically. When you send a message, addresses on the To: and Cc: field are automatically registered with their user names as short names. Consider the following:
To: kazu@mew.org
When this message is sent, a short name "kazu" is automatically registered for the address "kazu@mew.org". If there is already a short name of "kazu", the next action is decided according to `mew-addrbook-override-by-newone'. If `nil', the old entry remains. Otherwise, the new entry overrides the old one. When expanded, the address book is prior to the automatic short name. So, only automatic short names which do not exist in the address book are valid. The limit number of automatic short names is 1000(`mew-lisp-max-length'). If the number is over 1000, the oldest entry is removed. This information is automatically saved to "~/Mail/.mew-alias".
Summary mode provide the feature to resistor the information of the current message into Addrbook. To register a expansion rule, type `C-cC-a'. To register personal information, type `C-uC-cC-a'.
#If you want to register this entry, type C-c C-c. #If you want to NOT register this entry, type C-c C-q. Shortname: kazu Addresses: kazu@mew.org Nickname: Name: Kazuhiko Yamamoto Comments:
Add or modify the information if necessary. To register this information, type `C-cC-c'. To quit the registration, type `C-cC-q'