[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: lists vs. subscribe (was Re: mutt to follow discussions.)



On 2003-05-25 13:23:32 -0400, Gregory Seidman wrote:

> I'm trying to figure this out myself. In particular, it looks
> like there might be a bug in either the documentation or (I hope)
> mutt 1.4. The documentation says that the ~l pattern matches
> messages to known lists (anything matched in a subscribe or lists
> config command), but it actually only matches subscribed lists
> (ignoring anything in a lists config command).

It's, in fact, a bug in the documentation: ~l is supposed to match
messages which have been received through a mailing list.  It does
not match messages which have been sent to you directly, and which
may have been CCed to some mailing list you happen to know about.

> Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the
> distinction between "known" (lists command) and subscribed
> (subscribe command) has to do with what the Mail-Followup-To
> header contains when followup_to is true. If you are subscribed,
> it contains the list address; if not, it contains your address.
> Is this correct, or is there more to it?

For what follows, it's important to note that the set of known lists
is always a superset of the set of subscribed lists.

The notion of a "known" list is mainly important for the list-reply
command; that command will send a reply to all *known* lists to
which a message is directed (unless there's a mail-followup-to
header).

The logic for the mail-followup-to header is a little more
complicated, and involves both subscribed and known lists.  

First of all, mutt will only generate a mail-followup-to header if
(1) the $followup_to option is set, and (2) the message goes to a
*known* list.  The header will then point to *all* recipients of the
message (i.e., all the lists and anyone who may be CCed).  

Your own address will be added to the mail-followup-to header if you
are not subscribed to any of the lists to which you direct
responses.

In pseudo-code:

    if ((message goes to known list) && (we haven't obtained \
        mail_followup_to from user or from message we reply to))) {

    	copy all recipients to mail-followup-to;

	remove self from mail-followup-to;
	
 	if (!(mail-followup-to points to subscribed list)) {
	    	add self to mail-followup-to;
        }
    }

Hope that helps,
-- 
Thomas Roessler				<roessler@does-not-exist.org>



Reply to: