How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Phillip Lord]

I'd like to have gnus send a single email to multiple addresses; I am
sending an annoucement to several email addresses, most of which will
not accept multiple "To:" lines. Currently, I just do this with a mass
cut-and-paste and send the email several times.

Is there a way to automate this -- I'd like to store the email addresses
in BBDB, and send them in one go.

Phil

Re: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Alberto Luaces]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

> I'd like to have gnus send a single email to multiple addresses; I am
> sending an annoucement to several email addresses, most of which will
> not accept multiple "To:" lines. Currently, I just do this with a mass
> cut-and-paste and send the email several times.
>
> Is there a way to automate this -- I'd like to store the email addresses
> in BBDB, and send them in one go.

1. Select all the addresses you want in BBDB.  Remove unwanted ones with
"o".

2. Press "* m".  A message will be composed with all the addresses in
just one To: field.

-- 
Alberto

Re: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Tassilo Horn]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

> I'd like to have gnus send a single email to multiple addresses; I am
> sending an annoucement to several email addresses, most of which will
> not accept multiple "To:" lines.

What do you mean with multiple To-lines?

  To: a@y.example
  To: b@y.example
  To: c@y.example

will probably not work, but

  To: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example

will do the trick.  And if you don't want the receipients to see each
other's address, then use

  Bcc: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example

instead.

> Is there a way to automate this -- I'd like to store the email
> addresses in BBDB, and send them in one go.

Does that help?

  (info "(message)Mail Aliases")

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Phillip Lord]

Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> writes:

> phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:
>
>> I'd like to have gnus send a single email to multiple addresses; I am
>> sending an annoucement to several email addresses, most of which will
>> not accept multiple "To:" lines.
>
> What do you mean with multiple To-lines?
>
>   To: a@y.example
>   To: b@y.example
>   To: c@y.example
>
> will probably not work, but
>
>   To: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example

My experience is that a lot of mailing lists will bounce these, to try
and stop spam. Basically, To: has to be singular and only contain the
mailing list.

> will do the trick.  And if you don't want the receipients to see each
> other's address, then use
>
>   Bcc: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example
>
> instead.

And this also, because the To: field isn't correct.

I think that the email has to be sent independently several times with
different To: fields.



Phil

Re: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Tassilo Horn]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

>> will probably not work, but
>>
>>   To: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example
>
> My experience is that a lot of mailing lists will bounce these, to try
> and stop spam. Basically, To: has to be singular and only contain the
> mailing list.

Ok.

>> will do the trick.  And if you don't want the receipients to see each
>> other's address, then use
>>
>>   Bcc: a@y.example, b@y.example, c@y.example
>>
>> instead.
>
> And this also, because the To: field isn't correct.

The To: field isn't required.  I've just sent a test mail with no To:
field and only

  Bcc: my@addr1.invalid, my@addr2.invalid

and the mail was delivered correctly to both addresses.  But of course,
there might be mailing lists that are configured to bounce messages
without To:.

> I think that the email has to be sent independently several times with
> different To: fields.

Ok, then this should do the trick:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun th/message-send-and-exit-multiple (addresses)
  (interactive (list (split-string (read-string "Adresses: ")
				   "," t "[[:space:]]")))
  (while addresses
    (let ((address (car addresses)))
      (setq addresses (cdr addresses))
      (message-remove-header "To")
      (message-add-header (format "To: %s" address))
      (if addresses
	  (message-send)
	(message-send-and-exit)))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Just write your mail without inserting anything in To:, then do `M-x
th/message-send-and-exit-multiple' instead of `C-c C-c'.  You'll be
prompted for a list of email addresses in the format

  a@x.y, b@x.y, c@x.y, d@x.y

After providing that, it'll send 4 separate mails, one to each address.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails

[Phillip Lord]

Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> writes:
> The To: field isn't required.  I've just sent a test mail with no To:
> field and only
>
>   Bcc: my@addr1.invalid, my@addr2.invalid
>
> and the mail was delivered correctly to both addresses.  But of course,
> there might be mailing lists that are configured to bounce messages
> without To:.

Yes, this is the case. 


>> I think that the email has to be sent independently several times with
>> different To: fields.
>
> Ok, then this should do the trick:
>
>
> (defun th/message-send-and-exit-multiple (addresses)
>   (interactive (list (split-string (read-string "Adresses: ")
> 				   "," t "[[:space:]]")))
>   (while addresses
>     (let ((address (car addresses)))
>       (setq addresses (cdr addresses))
>       (message-remove-header "To")
>       (message-add-header (format "To: %s" address))
>       (if addresses
> 	  (message-send)
> 	(message-send-and-exit)))))
>


Thank you, this is really helpful. I changed it in the end to this:


(defun message-send-and-exit-multiple ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((addresses 
         (split-string 
          (message-fetch-field "All")
          "," t)))
    (while addresses
      (let ((address (car addresses)))
        (setq addresses (cdr addresses))
        (message-remove-header "To")
        (message-add-header (format "To: %s" address))
        (if addresses
            (progn (message-send))
          (message-send-and-exit))))))



It makes it a bit easier to interact with BBDB as the addresses are in
the header. It asks about resending, which I was going to switch-off,
but then I realised that this is probably a bad idea; quite easy to
shoot myself in the foot with this function.

Thanks again!

Phil

.mailrc (was: How to get Gnus to send multiple emails)

[Emanuel Berg]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

>> The To: field isn't required.  I've just sent a test
>> mail with no To: field and only Bcc:
>> my@addr1.invalid, my@addr2.invalid and the mail was
>> delivered correctly to both addresses.  But of
>> course, there might be mailing lists that are
>> configured to bounce messages without To:.
>
> Yes, this is the case.

That is somewhat understandable (yeah, what's so
secretive about it?), but why bounce on several
addresses in the To: header?

I still think that method makes the most sense because
that's what it is. It is the most logical method. (If
that's it, so be it, of course.)

If you send mails from Emacs' message mode, you can
setup fast aliases to several recipients in the
~/.mailrc file, like this:

alias crew "name1 <m1@h1.d1>, name2 <m2@h2.d2>" # cool

Then just type crew in the To: header.

Only drawback is you probably want aliases for the
individual names as well, so if you ever need to change
an address, search and replace is recommended. I don't
know if anyone knows a quick way to get around that,
i.e., to not have to have the same data
"hard-specified" at several places?

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: .mailrc

[Phillip Lord]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
>>> The To: field isn't required.  I've just sent a test
>>> mail with no To: field and only Bcc:
>>> my@addr1.invalid, my@addr2.invalid and the mail was
>>> delivered correctly to both addresses.  But of
>>> course, there might be mailing lists that are
>>> configured to bounce messages without To:.
>>
>> Yes, this is the case.
>
> That is somewhat understandable (yeah, what's so
> secretive about it?), but why bounce on several
> addresses in the To: header?

To stop people sending mass emails out to lots of mailing lists. Which
is, of course, exactly what I am trying to do, although in my case it's
10 rather than 1000s of mailing lists.

> alias crew "name1 <m1@h1.d1>, name2 <m2@h2.d2>" # cool
>
> Then just type crew in the To: header.
>
> Only drawback is you probably want aliases for the
> individual names as well, so if you ever need to change
> an address, search and replace is recommended. I don't
> know if anyone knows a quick way to get around that,
> i.e., to not have to have the same data
> "hard-specified" at several places?

I use bbdb mail aliases. The association works the other way around (the
name has an alias, rather than alias has a name).

Phil

Re: .mailrc

[Emanuel Berg]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

> To stop people sending mass emails out to lots of
> mailing lists. Which is, of course, exactly what I am
> trying to do, although in my case it's 10 rather than
> 1000s of mailing lists.

Yeah, you could have an upper limit perhaps. Still,
more refined methods to determine what is spam should
be available, don't you think? But if that is so, it is
so.

> I use bbdb mail aliases. The association works the
> other way around (the name has an alias, rather than
> alias has a name).

I want both, I want names and addresses to have aliases
that, in turn, can be used in aliases to setup groups.

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: .mailrc

[Phillip Lord]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:
>> I use bbdb mail aliases. The association works the
>> other way around (the name has an alias, rather than
>> alias has a name).
>
> I want both, I want names and addresses to have aliases
> that, in turn, can be used in aliases to setup groups.


You have misunderstood how aliases work. You can use one alias for many
people. If you type "group" and that matches to five email addresses,
you get five emails. If a person changes their email, then you have to
change it only in one place.

Of course, if you change the name of an alias, or want to delete an
alias, you have to do that in five places. Horses for courses.

Phil

Re: .mailrc

[Emanuel Berg]

phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord) writes:

>>> I use bbdb mail aliases. The association works the
>>> other way around (the name has an alias, rather
>>> than alias has a name).
>>
>> I want both, I want names and addresses to have
>> aliases that, in turn, can be used in aliases to
>> setup groups.
>
> You have misunderstood how aliases work.

No I have not.

I want aliases for individuals (name, mail) and aliases
for groups (defined as aliases for individuals).

People change e-mail, but I never change aliases. If
anyone changes e-mail, that should be data that occurs
once so it can be changed at one place.

Now, in the ~/.mailrc, if I put aliases in an alias to
form such a group, when it is expanded, it is expanded
*into the aliases* - those can of course be expanded in
turn, by hand, but that's not optimal.

So the question is: how can I expand the ~/.mailrc
aliases recursively in the message-mode headers?

PS. One more uncalled-for insult from you and I'll put
you in my KILL file and be done with it. DS.

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573