muttfilter.py

-- coding: utf-8;mode: org; --

Time-stamp: <2016-08-29 18:13:55 karl.voit>

This file is best viewed with GNU Emacs Org-mode: http://orgmode.org/

• Modifying FROM-email address in mutt emails

This script is using [[http://orgmode.org][Emacs Org-mode]] [[https://julien.danjou.info/projects/emacs-packages#org-contacts][Org-contacts]] together with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_client][MUA]] [[http://www.mutt.org/][mutt]].

Let's take a look at an example Org-contacts entry which looks like that:

: ** Bob Simpson :research:chi09:BobSimpson: : :PROPERTIES: : :TYPE: : :TITLE: Dr. : :EMAIL: [email protected] : :oldEMAIL: [email protected] : :URL: http://example.com/bob : :MOBILE: : :HOMEPHONE: : :WORKPHONE: : :PHONE: : :COMPANY: This cool research company : :STREET: 42 Weirdstreet : :POSTALCODE: 12345 : :CITY: Denver : :COUNTRY: USA : :PHOTOGRAPH: [[photo:BobSimpson.jpg]] : :BORN: 1970-12-31 : :ITOLDTHEM_EMAIL: [email protected] : :ITOLDTHEM_ADDRESS: : :ITOLDTHEM_PHONE: : :ADDRESS_CHANGE_METHOD: email : :CREATED: [2015-01-30 Fri 17:51] : :END: : : - first contact: CHI conference 2009 : - we had a nice lunch time together

Whenever I write an email to Bob (property :EMAIL:), I would like to use [email protected] (property :ITOLDTHEM_EMAIL:) instead of my standard email address.

This way, I can give away contact-specific email addresses. That's quite handy when you've got a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-all][catch-all email domain]] or you are using [[http://gmailblog.blogspot.co.at/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-more-from-your.html][some more or less hidden features of cloud-based email services]].

** How does it work? How do I install it?

Using mutt as email client, you can define your own editor. For me, I like to compose emails using [[http://www.vim.org/][gVim]]. Therefore, my .mutt config file usually contains the line:

: set editor=vim

If you replace this line by ...

: set editor="/usr/bin/python3 /home/USER/bin/muttfilter.py"

... you can use this script as a wrapper function. It parses your Org-mode file for contacts, extracts their email addresses, and your corresponding from-addresses. It compares the first from-address from your current email and does a look-up. If it finds a corresponding pair of entries in your Org-contacts file, the FROM:-address gets replaced by the address of your choice.

After this, the gVim editor is opened to let you compose your email as usual.

For debugging purposes, a log-file gets written to LOGFILENAME (see code!) which is removed when no error occured. Please modify its path if you got security concerns about that.

You might also take a look at following variables and adapt them to your requirements:

• TMPFILENAME: path to temporary file
• ORGCONTACTSFILE: path to your Org-mode file containing the org-contacts-entries
• DEFAULT_EMAIL_ADDRESS: your default email address
• EDITOR: your default editor

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