emacs: Wrong "From" address when forwarding a mail

emacs: Wrong "From" address when forwarding a mail

[Jinwoo Lee]

I have two accounts set up in my notmuch configuration.  And when I'm
forwarding a mail using notmuch-show-forward-message, it always uses my
primary account as its From address no matter which account that
original mail has been delivered to.

For example:
1. I got a mail delivered to my personal address, personal@somemail.com,
   which is my secondary account.
2. I want to forward the mail to someone else and I press 'f' for
   notmuch-show-forward-message.
3. It always uses my corp address, corp@somecompany.com, which is my
   primary account, as the From address, instead of
   personal@somemail.com.

This is quite annoying and has some privacy issues because my corporate
account may be scanned by my employer.  I'm working around this by doing
'C-u f', which allows me to choose the From address, but it's very easy
to just press 'f' and make a mistake.

Can we make notmuch-show-forward-message behave like
notmuch-show-reply-sender, which chooses the From address correctly?

Thanks,
-jinwoo

Re: emacs: Wrong "From" address when forwarding a mail

[Mark Walters]

Hi

On Sun, 20 Dec 2015, Jinwoo Lee <jinwoo68@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have two accounts set up in my notmuch configuration.  And when I'm
> forwarding a mail using notmuch-show-forward-message, it always uses my
> primary account as its From address no matter which account that
> original mail has been delivered to.
>
> For example:
> 1. I got a mail delivered to my personal address, personal@somemail.com,
>    which is my secondary account.
> 2. I want to forward the mail to someone else and I press 'f' for
>    notmuch-show-forward-message.
> 3. It always uses my corp address, corp@somecompany.com, which is my
>    primary account, as the From address, instead of
>    personal@somemail.com.
>
> This is quite annoying and has some privacy issues because my corporate
> account may be scanned by my employer.  I'm working around this by doing
> 'C-u f', which allows me to choose the From address, but it's very easy
> to just press 'f' and make a mistake.

You can get around some of this by setting
notmuch-always-prompt-for-sender to t (it is a customizable
variable). This means that whenever you create a new message or forward
a message you will be prompted to choose a sender address.

Indeed, I am surprised you don't find it annoying that, when you start a
new personal email (e.g., with "m"), notmuch uses your corp address.

> Can we make notmuch-show-forward-message behave like
> notmuch-show-reply-sender, which chooses the From address correctly?

We could do this, but it's not clear to me that it is better than what
we have. Indeed, under your suggestion, suppose someone with their
personal address as their primary address received an idiotic email from
their boss, which they forward to their wife saying "what an
idiot". Suddenly, it is now being read by work...

Overall, I don't think is is possible for notmuch  to get this right
enough of the time to make anything other than
notmuch-always-prompt-for-sender sensible in this sort of situation.

Best wishes

Mark

Re: emacs: Wrong "From" address when forwarding a mail

[Jinwoo Lee]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 12:54 PM, Mark Walters <markwalters1009@gmail.com> wrote:
> You can get around some of this by setting
> notmuch-always-prompt-for-sender to t (it is a customizable
> variable). This means that whenever you create a new message or forward
> a message you will be prompted to choose a sender address.

I think forwarding should be more symmetric with replying than with
sending a new message.  Forwarding is an act of sending a mail you
received at your account A to another person, and so the default account
that it's sent from must be account A, not one of your other accounts.

Isn't it really weird if a mail was "forwarded" from an account that
never had received that mail?

> Indeed, I am surprised you don't find it annoying that, when you start a
> new personal email (e.g., with "m"), notmuch uses your corp address.

I'm not surprised because it's a new mail and not associated with any of
my accounts yet before I send it.  Forwarding is different because it's
already associated with one of the accounts and that one should be the
default From address when forwarding.  That's my expectation and I think
it's intuitive.

>> Can we make notmuch-show-forward-message behave like
>> notmuch-show-reply-sender, which chooses the From address correctly?
>
> We could do this, but it's not clear to me that it is better than what
> we have. Indeed, under your suggestion, suppose someone with their
> personal address as their primary address received an idiotic email from
> their boss, which they forward to their wife saying "what an
> idiot". Suddenly, it is now being read by work...

Agreed that this issue can happen in this case.  Let's forget about the
privacy issue.

> Overall, I don't think is is possible for notmuch  to get this right
> enough of the time to make anything other than
> notmuch-always-prompt-for-sender sensible in this sort of situation.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Mark