[PATCH] cli: add a tool for starting new message in the emacs ui

[Tomi Ollila]

On Wed, Mar 19 2014, Jani Nikula <jani at nikula.org> wrote:

> Add a tool to start composing an email in the Notmuch Emacs UI with
> the specified subject, recipients, and message body.
>
> ---
>
> I need something like this to script some mails, particularly with the
> mutt compatible options, but I also think notmuch must have long
> options. I then got a little carried away with figuring out how to
> support both. I think it turned out pretty neat, except due to some
> subtlety it only works with bash.
>
> I didn't integrate this in the man build or install or anything,
> because I wanted to get feedback first on whether we want to have this
> at all. Or if it should live in contrib or something.
>
> BR,
> Jani.
> ---

Quick glance to the code and some thoughts.

>  doc/man1/notmuch-emacs-mua.rst |  50 ++++++++++++++++++
>  notmuch-emacs-mua              | 113 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 163 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 doc/man1/notmuch-emacs-mua.rst
>  create mode 100755 notmuch-emacs-mua
>
> diff --git a/doc/man1/notmuch-emacs-mua.rst b/doc/man1/notmuch-emacs-mua.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..6e63818492fb
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/doc/man1/notmuch-emacs-mua.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
> +=================
> +notmuch-emacs-mua
> +=================
> +
> +SYNOPSIS
> +========
> +
> +**notmuch-emacs-mua** [options ...] [<to-address> ...]
> +
> +DESCRIPTION
> +===========
> +
> +Start composing an email in the Notmuch Emacs UI with the specified
> +subject, recipients, and message body.
> +
> +For **notmuch-emacs-mua** to work, you need **emacsclient** and an
> +already running Emacs with a server.
> +
> +Supported options for **notmuch-emacs-mua** include
> +
> +    ``-h, --help``
> +        Display help.
> +
> +    ``-s, --subject=``\ <subject>
> +        Specify the subject of the message.
> +
> +    ``--to=``\ <to-address>
> +        Specify a recipient (To).
> +
> +    ``-c, --cc=``\ <cc-address>
> +        Specify a carbon-copy (Cc) recipient.
> +
> +    ``-b, --bcc=``\ <bcc-address>
> +        Specify a blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipient.
> +
> +    ``-i, --body=``\ <file>
> +        Specify a file to include into the body of the message.
> +
> +    ``--print``
> +        Output the resulting elisp to stdout instead of evaluating it.
> +
> +The supported positional parameters and short options are a compatible
> +subset of the **mutt** MUA command-line options.
> +
> +Options may be specified multiple times.
> +
> +SEE ALSO
> +========
> +
> +**notmuch(1)**, **emacsclient(1)**, **mutt(1)**

It would be convenient to the user to have the manual embedded in
the script in case no args are given or so (or that is convenient
to me ;) and no namual page at all...

> diff --git a/notmuch-emacs-mua b/notmuch-emacs-mua
> new file mode 100755
> index 000000000000..a482fe1a8eca
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/notmuch-emacs-mua
> @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
> +#!/bin/bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash

> +#
> +# notmuch-emacs-mua - start composing a mail on the command line
> +#
> +# Copyright © 2014 Jani Nikula
> +#
> +# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
> +# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
> +# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
> +# (at your option) any later version.
> +#
> +# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> +# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> +# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
> +# GNU General Public License for more details.
> +#
> +# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> +# along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
> +#
> +# Authors: Jani Nikula <jani at nikula.org>
> +#
> +
> +set -e

set -eu would be nice IMO...

... then initialize all vars to empty strings, like PRINT_ONLY=
... and in cases not possible syntax ${1-} can be used.

> +
> +# The crux of it all: construct an elisp progn and eval it.
> +ELISP="(progn (notmuch-mua-new-mail)"

ELISP="(progn (require 'notmuch) (notmuch-mua-new-mail)"

> +
> +while getopts :s:c:b:i:h opt; do
> +    # Handle errors and long options.
> +    case "${opt}" in
> +	:)
> +	    echo "$0: short option -${OPTARG} requires an argument." >&2
> +	    exit 1
> +	    ;;
> +	\?)
> +	    opt=$1
> +	    if [ "${OPTARG}" != "-" ]; then
> +		echo "$0: unknown short option -${OPTARG}." >&2
> +		exit 1
> +	    fi
> +
> +	    case "${opt}" in
> +		# Long options with arguments.
> +		--subject=*|--to=*|--cc=*|--bcc=*|--body=*)
> +		    OPTARG=${opt#--*=}
> +		    opt=${opt%%=*}
> +		    ;;
> +		# Long options without arguments.
> +		--help|--print)
> +		    ;;
> +		*)
> +		    echo "$0: unknown long option ${opt}, or argument mismatch." >&2
> +		    exit 1
> +		    ;;
> +	    esac
> +	    # getopts does not do this for what it considers errors.
> +	    OPTIND=$((OPTIND + 1))
> +	    ;;
> +    esac
> +
> +    case "${opt}" in
> +	--help|h)
> +	    exec man notmuch-search
> +	    ;;
> +	--subject|s)
> +	    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-subject) (insert \"${OPTARG}\")"
> +	    ;;
> +	--to)
> +	    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-to) (insert \"${OPTARG}, \")"
> +	    ;;
> +	--cc|c)
> +	    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-cc) (insert \"${OPTARG}, \")"
> +	    ;;
> +	--bcc|b)
> +	    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-bcc) (insert \"${OPTARG}, \")"
> +	    ;;
> +	--body|i)
> +	    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-body) (cd \"${PWD}\") (insert-file \"${OPTARG}\")"
> +	    ;;
> +	--print)
> +	    PRINT_ONLY=1
> +	    ;;
> +	*)
> +	    # We should never end up here.
> +	    echo "$0: internal error (option ${opt})." >&2
> +	    exit 1
> +	    ;;
> +    esac
> +
> +    shift $((OPTIND - 1))
> +    OPTIND=1
> +done
> +
> +# Positional parameters.
> +while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
> +    ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-to) (insert \"${1}, \")"
> +    shift
> +done

for arg; do
   ELISP="${ELISP} (message-goto-to) (insert \"${arg}, \")"
done

I tried to address Austin's comment on IRC with 
printf -v qarg %q "$arg"  -- that has problem if there is whitespace
in arg. maybe  printf -v qarg '%q ' "$arg" -- then there is always one
trailing ws (and spaces are always prefixed w/ \ -- (insert "foo\ bar")
just makes the ' ' disappear (which is not good...).

maybe arg=${arg//\\/\\\\}; arg=${arg//"/\\"}; 

${parameter/pattern/string} -- Pattern substition in bash manual.


> +# End progn.
> +ELISP="${ELISP})"
> +
> +if [ -n "$PRINT_ONLY" ]; then
> +    echo ${ELISP}
> +    exit 0
> +fi
> +
> +# Evaluate the progn.
> +emacsclient --eval "${ELISP}" &>/dev/null

emacsclient --eval "${ELISP}" >/dev/null 2>&1

(why do you want to redirect stdout & stderr to devnull ?)

> +if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
> +    echo "$0: emacsclient failed" >&2
> +    exit 1
> +fi
> -- 
> 1.9.0