RFC: User-Agent header

RFC: User-Agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

notmuch is (mostly) not responsible for sending email. However, people
using the emacs frontend use notmuch to create the reply.

Am I the only one who is sometimes curious as to what mail agents others
use? Would it be useful to insert a header to notmuch reply analog to:

User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)

We could reuse the same version string that we use for the release (or
the git string that was used to build notmuch). I can use this to create
nice stats :).

No patch yet, just asking if this is a good idea or not.

Sebastian

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:26:01 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> notmuch is (mostly) not responsible for sending email. However, people
> using the emacs frontend use notmuch to create the reply.
> 
> Am I the only one who is sometimes curious as to what mail agents others
> use? Would it be useful to insert a header to notmuch reply analog to:
> 
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
> 
> We could reuse the same version string that we use for the release (or
> the git string that was used to build notmuch). I can use this to create
> nice stats :).
> 
> No patch yet, just asking if this is a good idea or not.

I think it's a very good idea. But it should be something that includes
the other components of how you send email...

Like

User-Aget: Emacs 23 Message-mode / notmuch-0.1.1

/D

-- 
Dirk Hohndel
Intel Open Source Technology Center

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Carl Worth]

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On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:12:47 -0700, Dirk Hohndel <hohndel@infradead.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:26:01 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
>
> > No patch yet, just asking if this is a good idea or not.

Yes. A fine idea.

> I think it's a very good idea. But it should be something that includes
> the other components of how you send email...
> 
> Like
> 
> User-Aget: Emacs 23 Message-mode / notmuch-0.1.1

A quick grep through some of my recent mails does show precedent for
this kind of thing:

  User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.1.90 (gnu/linux)

Unsurprisingly, these suer-agent strings can become arbitrarily
unwieldy:

  User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Lightning/1.0pre Thunderbird/3.0.4

Or extremely simple:

  User-Agent: Sup/0.11

I don't see the advantage of duplicating the name and version in the
parenthesized comment, but here's an idea that looks useful:

  User-Agent: Loom/3.14 (http://gmane.org/)

So I propose something like:

  User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.1.1 (gnu/linux)

If anybody wants to start assembling a patch to generate that, that
would be great.

-Carl



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Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:55:17 -0700, Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> wrote:
> So I propose something like:
> 
>   User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.1.1 (gnu/linux)

+1
 
/D

-- 
Dirk Hohndel
Intel Open Source Technology Center

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Jameson Rollins]

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On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:55:17 -0700, Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> wrote:
> So I propose something like:
> 
>   User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.1.1 (gnu/linux)

The problem I see is that if we go with this proposal, our mail will
have inconsistent User-Agent: header, depending on if the message was
new or if it's a reply.  Maybe that's not too big of an issue, though,
since the in the reply case notmuch is generating some of the headers,
whereas they're all generated by emacs in the new message case.

jamie.

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Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

On 2010-04-10, Carl Worth wrote:
> So I propose something like:
> 
>   User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.1.1 (gnu/linux)

That looks good to me. So I assume the correct strategy here would be
to:

1) have notmuch reply insert a header:

User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org)

2) have notmuch-reply.el (or whatever) add a setup mail hook that
searches for an existing User-Agent header and appends " Emacs/23.1.1
(gnu/linux)"  

One issue is again, such a hook would be message mode
specific, so gnus users might not appreciate that. Also when composing a
message via c-x m this would not work. So perhaps an all lisp solution?
Again, can we hijack message mode to add our own promotion header?
Or has the time come for a notmuch-message-mode that somehow inherits
from message mode? bremner said something about dynamic bindings that
would allow that.

Sebastian

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Xavier Maillard]

On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:12:47 -0700, Dirk Hohndel <hohndel@infradead.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:26:01 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> > notmuch is (mostly) not responsible for sending email. However, people
> > using the emacs frontend use notmuch to create the reply.
> > 
> > Am I the only one who is sometimes curious as to what mail agents others
> > use? Would it be useful to insert a header to notmuch reply analog to:
> > 
> > User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
> > 
> > We could reuse the same version string that we use for the release (or
> > the git string that was used to build notmuch). I can use this to create
> > nice stats :).
> > 
> > No patch yet, just asking if this is a good idea or not.
> 
> I think it's a very good idea. But it should be something that includes
> the other components of how you send email...

I totally agree with this and Carl's proposition is really what I
would want to see.

The only problem is: how do you implement a generic solution for
all possible backends ? I know a possibility for mail-mode but I
do not know how to do this for message-mode. And even If I'd know
that's only targeted to GNU Emacs' users.

Xavier

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:00:49 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> On 2010-04-10, Carl Worth wrote:
> > So I propose something like:
> > 
> >   User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.1.1 (gnu/linux)
> 
> That looks good to me. So I assume the correct strategy here would be
> to:
> 
> 1) have notmuch reply insert a header:
> 
> User-Agent: Notmuch/0.2 (http://notmuchmail.org)
> 
> 2) have notmuch-reply.el (or whatever) add a setup mail hook that
> searches for an existing User-Agent header and appends " Emacs/23.1.1
> (gnu/linux)"  
> 
> One issue is again, such a hook would be message mode
> specific, so gnus users might not appreciate that. Also when composing a
> message via c-x m this would not work. So perhaps an all lisp solution?
> Again, can we hijack message mode to add our own promotion header?
> Or has the time come for a notmuch-message-mode that somehow inherits
> from message mode? bremner said something about dynamic bindings that
> would allow that.

I really think we need to investigate having a notmuch-message-mode as
there are now a number of reasons to be able to customize things when
the user is running notmuch.

BTW: I don't think these are "promotion headers" - I relatively
frequently want to check which email client someone else is using when
I'm trying to figure out why things go wrong (incorrect mail headers,
mangled spacing (in patches, for example), incorrect HTML messages, etc)

/D

-- 
Dirk Hohndel
Intel Open Source Technology Center

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

After some research, this is what I found/propose:

With some simple elisp am I using this User-Agent header now:

  User-Agent: notmuch version 0.1 (Emacs 23.1.1/i486-pc-linux-gnu)

This needs to be done:

1) Add "User-Agent" to the variable "message-required-headers" (it is
(optional . User-Agent) by default in message-mode.

2) Message mode will then insert a User-Agent header and fill it with
the (local) variable "message-newsreader". This is how I set my
message-newsreader now (leading to above string): 

(setq message-newsreader (concat (substring (shell-command-to-string (concat notmuch-command " --version")) 0 -1) " (Emacs " emacs-version "/" system-configuration ")"))

This works fine for composing mails with both "m" (from within notmuch)
and "c-x m" from outside notmuch. It won't work with "r" as message mode
does not seem to be involved in setting up the headers at all then. (So
notmuch-reply.c might just want to also set up the User-Agent header by
default).

sebastian

Re: RFC: User-Agent header

[David Edmondson]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:12:15 +0200, Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> After some research, this is what I found/propose:
> ...

Please make the insertion of User-Agent optional. Some might not want
it.

dme.
-- 
David Edmondson, http://dme.org

Re: [PATCH] RFC: User-Agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

OK, final post from me on this issue. This is what I am using in my
.emacs now. It does not clutter up the message compose window with a
User-Agent header as it is hidden by message mode. It is also not shown
by default in the notmuch-show modes but viewing the full headers
confirms that it is indeed being send. It works for "c-x m" and "m" in
notmuch-show mode, AND it also work for "r"eplies in notmuch-show mode.

I put this in the message mode hook because we will then not call the
notmuch binary each time we start up emacs, but it will be dynamically
be created when message mode is invoked. Not sure if others have a
cleverer solution here.

;; set the User-Agent string whenever we invoke message mode
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook '(lambda()
    ;; check if User-Agent is a required header and set it if not
    (if (not (memq 'User-Agent message-required-mail-headers))
        (setq message-required-mail-headers 
              (append message-required-mail-headers '(User-Agent))))
    ;; hide the User-Agent header if not already hidden
    (if (not (memq '"^User-Agent:" message-hidden-headers))
        (setq message-hidden-headers 
              (append message-hidden-headers '("^User-Agent:"))))
    ;; create user agent string
    (let ((notmuch-user-agent (concat 
                               (substring (shell-command-to-string (concat notmuch-command " --version")) 0 -1)
                               " (Emacs " emacs-version "/"
                                system-configuration ")")))
      (setq message-newsreader notmuch-user-agent))
))

Sebastian

Re: [PATCH] RFC: User-Agent header

[Carl Worth]

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On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:30:54 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> 
> OK, final post from me on this issue.

No, wait! I want more from you. :-)

Would you care to put together a solution that does this from within
notmuch*.el ? I really want things usable by default without people
having to hack up their .emacs files.

Of course, we could also easily add a variable to make this not happen,
(but that can be added in a follow-on patch by anyone).

Thanks,

-Carl

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Re: [PATCH] RFC: User-Agent header

[Xavier Maillard]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:44:03 -0700, Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:30:54 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> > 
> > OK, final post from me on this issue.
> 
> No, wait! I want more from you. :-)
> 
> Would you care to put together a solution that does this from within
> notmuch*.el ? I really want things usable by default without people
> having to hack up their .emacs files.

+1
 
> Of course, we could also easily add a variable to make this not happen,
> (but that can be added in a follow-on patch by anyone).

+1

Xavier

[PATCH 13/13] notmuch.el: Add a function to insert a notmuch user-agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

This adds a function (and a hook) to have notmuch insert a User-Agent header
into composed mails (even if invoked from not-notmuch ways, such as with
ctrl-x m. This is invariably added for now without the possibility to
turn it off, a task left as a homework for others.

Signed-off-by: Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de>
---
 emacs/notmuch.el |   24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/emacs/notmuch.el b/emacs/notmuch.el
index 517c53a..8a7df15 100644
--- a/emacs/notmuch.el
+++ b/emacs/notmuch.el
@@ -54,6 +54,30 @@
 (require 'notmuch-lib)
 (require 'notmuch-show)
 
+(defun notmuch-set-user-agent-header ()
+  "Sets variables so that  message mode inserts a notmuch User-Agent 
+   header into send mails"
+  ;; check if User-Agent is a 'required' mail header and set it if not
+  (if (not (memq 'User-Agent message-required-mail-headers))
+      (setq message-required-mail-headers 
+            (append message-required-mail-headers '(User-Agent))))
+  ;; hide the User-Agent header when composing a mail
+  (if (not (memq '"^User-Agent:" message-hidden-headers))
+      (setq message-hidden-headers 
+            (append message-hidden-headers '("^User-Agent:"))))
+  ;; create the notmuch user agent string
+  (let ((notmuch-user-agent (concat 
+                             (substring (shell-command-to-string 
+                                         (concat notmuch-command 
+                                                 " --version")) 0 -1)
+                             " (Emacs " emacs-version "/"
+                             system-configuration ")")))
+    (setq message-newsreader notmuch-user-agent)))
+
+;; set the User-Agent string whenever we invoke message mode
+;; TODO: use a variable that allows disabling.
+(add-hook 'message-mode-hook 'notmuch-set-user-agent-header)
+
 (defun notmuch-select-tag-with-completion (prompt &rest search-terms)
   (let ((tag-list
 	 (with-output-to-string
-- 
1.6.3.3

Re: [PATCH] RFC: User-Agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

On 2010-04-13, Carl Worth wrote:
> > OK, final post from me on this issue.
> No, wait! I want more from you. :-)

Sigh, they always want more :-)
 
> Would you care to put together a solution that does this from within
> notmuch*.el ? I really want things usable by default without people
> having to hack up their .emacs files.

See the "sister mail" to this thread, in which I simply added the whole
shebang to notmuch.el (not using a lambda function). Is that what you
had in mind. Mind you, my elisp knowledge borders close to 0, so I would
be surprised if I did not botch up things. However, I have tested the
patch, and the User-Agent header got inserted.
 
> Of course, we could also easily add a variable to make this not happen,
> (but that can be added in a follow-on patch by anyone).

Some don't want it, but it cannot be disabled in this patch, so that
would indeed need to be a followup patch.

This gets now inserted (message mode automatically wrapped the header
like this):
User-Agent: notmuch version 0.1-107-g553feae (Emacs
	23.1.1/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

Is that an acceptable format? I would have preferred to not include the
"version" string, but notmuch --version spits that out, and it was just
easier to leave it in. 

Is that "version" really needed, BTW? Why can't notmuch --version not just say:
notmuch 0.1-107-g553feae

Sebastian

Re: [PATCH 13/13] notmuch.el: Add a function to insert a notmuch user-agent header

[David Edmondson]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:38:05 +0200, Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> This adds a function (and a hook) to have notmuch insert a User-Agent header
> into composed mails (even if invoked from not-notmuch ways, such as with
> ctrl-x m. This is invariably added for now without the possibility to
> turn it off, a task left as a homework for others.

This really should be done with `define-mail-user-agent' and associated
paraphernalia.

dme.
-- 
David Edmondson, http://dme.org

Re: [PATCH 13/13] notmuch.el: Add a function to insert a notmuch user-agent header

[Sebastian Spaeth]

On 2010-04-14, David Edmondson wrote:
> This really should be done with `define-mail-user-agent' and associated
> paraphernalia.

Which might be correct but beyond what I can provide :). 

So, either we take this and get a followup patch, or someone improves
it, or we drop it.

Sebastian

Re: [PATCH] RFC: User-Agent header

[Carl Worth]

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On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:44:16 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> On 2010-04-13, Carl Worth wrote:
> > No, wait! I want more from you. :-)
> 
> Sigh, they always want more :-)

Sorry about that. :-)

> See the "sister mail" to this thread, in which I simply added the whole
> shebang to notmuch.el (not using a lambda function). Is that what you
> had in mind.

Yes, that looks pretty good. But David has some improvements in mind,
this feature was implemented after the 0.2 merge window closed, *and*
I've committed to David to not keep messing with the emacs code before
merging in his outstanding changes.

So I'm going to wait on this for now at least.

> Is that "version" really needed, BTW? Why can't notmuch --version not just say:
> notmuch 0.1-107-g553feae

Good point. I think I was imitating the "git --version" output or
something. I can't give any reason for this though. I'll fix this.

-Carl

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