command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

[Alan]

Years ago, when I was first using Emacs 19.34, I learned to rebuild my
mail aliases/abbreviations using the command "rebuild-mail-
abbrevs" (it was probably "rebuild-mail-aliases" back then, but I
typically use tab expansion after typing "rebuild" anyway).  After a
long sojourn in XEmacs I have now returned to

GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2011-03-10 on 3249CTO

and I don't find that command mentioned in

Info Node (emacs) Mail Aliases

nor in the rest of the Emacs Info files nor in the Elisp Info files.
This is somewhat surprising.

It is mentioned, inside "mailabbrev.el", in the following introductory
comment:

;; To read in the contents of another .mailrc-type file from emacs,
use the
;; command Meta-X merge-mail-abbrevs.  The rebuild-mail-abbrevs
command is
;; similar, but will delete existing aliases first.

Re: command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Alan <wehmann@fnal.gov>
> Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:06:59 -0700 (PDT)
> 
> Years ago, when I was first using Emacs 19.34, I learned to rebuild my
> mail aliases/abbreviations using the command "rebuild-mail-
> abbrevs" (it was probably "rebuild-mail-aliases" back then, but I
> typically use tab expansion after typing "rebuild" anyway).  After a
> long sojourn in XEmacs I have now returned to
> 
> GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2011-03-10 on 3249CTO
> 
> and I don't find that command mentioned in
> 
> Info Node (emacs) Mail Aliases
> 
> nor in the rest of the Emacs Info files nor in the Elisp Info files.
> This is somewhat surprising.
> 
> It is mentioned, inside "mailabbrev.el", in the following introductory
> comment:
> 
> ;; To read in the contents of another .mailrc-type file from emacs,
> use the
> ;; command Meta-X merge-mail-abbrevs.  The rebuild-mail-abbrevs
> command is
> ;; similar, but will delete existing aliases first.

It isn't only mentioned in the comment, it is defined on that file,
mailabbrev.el.

Is the problem that the command is not documented in the manual, or is
the problem that you cannot invoke the command?  If the latter, try
"M-x load-library RET mailabbrev RET" before invoking the command.

Re: command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

[Alan]

On Mar 29, 3:06 pm, Eli Zaretskii <e...@gnu.org> wrote:
> > From: Alan <wehm...@fnal.gov>
> > Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:06:59 -0700 (PDT)
>
> > Years ago, when I was first using Emacs 19.34, I learned to rebuild my
> > mail aliases/abbreviations using the command "rebuild-mail-
> > abbrevs" (it was probably "rebuild-mail-aliases" back then, but I
> > typically use tab expansion after typing "rebuild" anyway).  After a
> > long sojourn in XEmacs I have now returned to
>
> > GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2011-03-10 on 3249CTO
>
> > and I don't find that command mentioned in
>
> > Info Node (emacs) Mail Aliases
>
> > nor in the rest of the Emacs Info files nor in the Elisp Info files.
> > This is somewhat surprising.
>
> > It is mentioned, inside "mailabbrev.el", in the following introductory
> > comment:
>
> > ;; To read in the contents of another .mailrc-type file from emacs,
> > use the
> > ;; command Meta-X merge-mail-abbrevs.  The rebuild-mail-abbrevs
> > command is
> > ;; similar, but will delete existing aliases first.
>
> It isn't only mentioned in the comment, it is defined on that file,
> mailabbrev.el.
>
> Is the problem that the command is not documented in the manual, or is
> the problem that you cannot invoke the command?  If the latter, try
> "M-x load-library RET mailabbrev RET" before invoking the command.

The "problem" is that the command is not documented in the manual.  I
have no trouble using the command.

Re: command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Alan <wehmann@fnal.gov>
> Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:26:27 -0700 (PDT)
> 
> The "problem" is that the command is not documented in the manual.

Please "M-x report-emacs-bug RET", then.

I cannot promise that it will get this function into the manual -- we
don't document every single function -- but that's the right way to
request that it is included.

TIA

Re: command rebuild-mail-abbrevs

[Alan]

On Mar 30, 1:09 pm, Eli Zaretskii <e...@gnu.org> wrote:
> > From: Alan <wehm...@fnal.gov>
> > Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:26:27 -0700 (PDT)
>
> > The "problem" is that the command is not documented in the manual.
>
> Please "M-x report-emacs-bug RET", then.
>
> I cannot promise that it will get this function into the manual -- we
> don't document every single function -- but that's the right way to
> request that it is included.
>
> TIA

Emacs FAQ has the following, so I suppose that this serves as
documentation for how to force rereading of the `.mailrc file (or its
equivalent).

12.3 Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?

   * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session,
     when you start to compose your first mail message.  If you edit
     `.mailrc', you can type `M-: (build-mail-aliases) <RET>' to make
     Emacs reread `~/.mailrc'.