emacs: Wrong "From" address when forwarding a mail

[Mark Walters]

Hi

On Sun, 20 Dec 2015, Jinwoo Lee <jinwoo68 at 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 at 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 at somecompany.com, which is my
>    primary account, as the From address, instead of
>    personal at 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