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From: tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh
Subject: Re: comp option addition request
Keywords: comp, option, fcc, to, subject
Message-ID: <5209@rossignol.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 10 Dec 90 19:56:52 GMT
References: <1990Dec4.203315.139@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <275C2953.28092@ics.uci.edu>
Sender: news@cs.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Noo Joizy -- The Cultural Mecca
Lines: 123

In article <275C2953.28092@ics.uci.edu> jromine@ics.uci.edu (John
Romine) writes:

$ The answer is because you can do this with a shell script.  We have
$ resisted with medium to poor :-( success adding more switches to MH
$ commands.  Instead, we tried to give the MH commands more general
$ functionality, which shell programmers could exploit.  MH-format(5)
$ is an example.
$ 
$ Comp is designed to be used interactively.  If you're looking for a
$ programmatic way to send mail, look at "mhmail".
$ 
$ Here's a partial shell script which does some of what you asked.  You
$ can easily fill in the other switches you want it to accept.  You could
$ also parse all of comp's arguments if you don't the requirement that
$ "-subject" and "-fcc" come first.  Abbreviations could be added as well.

MH programs do a lot of things, and the beauty of it is that if you
don't need a feature, it doesn't get in the way.  Therefore, I don't
see that it's important to resist adding new features, especially this
particular feature which I suspect has a high demand.  The answer "this
can be done with a script" has two flaws:

1. People trust C programs more than scripts.

2. Just because it can be done doesn't mean it will.  If it isn't
distributed, some people will spin their own and others will do
without.  If a script really makes the most sense, and if this is
really a generally desired feature, include the script with
distribution.

I use very few MH scripts because I don't need to in general, and doing
so complicates my environment a lot.

Mhmail is not a solution either because it does not use formfiles and
is not extensible.  It does not make fcc's, etc.

You could argue that this feature should be a program by itself,
separate from comp.  I could go along with that.

In any case, after all this hollering from me, here is my script.  :-)
If people are willing to beta test it, I would be willing to improve on
it.  I call it "mailh" for lack of ability to think of good names for
programs.  It works interactive *and* in batch!  It reads your
components file for a default form.

#! /bin/sh
# This is a shell archive, meaning:
# 1. Remove everything above the #! /bin/sh line.
# 2. Save the resulting text in a file.
# 3. Execute the file with /bin/sh (not csh) to create the files:
#	mailh
# This archive created: Mon Dec 10 14:55:11 1990
# By:	Tom Reingold (Noo Joizy -- The Cultural Mecca)
export PATH; PATH=/bin:$PATH
if test -f 'mailh'
then
	echo shar: will not over-write existing file "'mailh'"
else
cat << \SHAR_EOF > 'mailh'
#! /bin/sh
if [ ! -f $HOME/.mh_profile ]
then
	echo "Where is your .mh_profile?"
	exit 1
fi
ADDRS=''
SUBJ=''
FORMF=/tmp/form.$$
subjnext=false
for i in "$@"
do
	if [ "$subjnext" = true ]
	then
		SUBJ=$i
		subjnext=false
		continue
	fi
	case $i in
	-s)
		subjnext=true
		;;
	*)
		ADDRS="$ADDRS $i"
		;;
	esac
done
if [ -z "`echo $ADDRS | sed 's/^ *//'" ]
then
	echo "To whom are you sending mail?"
	exit 2
fi
echo -n "To: " > $FORMF
echo $ADDRS | sed 's/ /, /g' | fmt | sed '2,$s/^/ /' >> $FORMF
tty -s
TTY=$?
if [ $TTY -eq 0 -o ! -z "$SUBJ" ]
then
	echo Subject: $SUBJ >> $FORMF
fi
MHHOME=${HOME}/`grep "^Path:" $HOME/.mh_profile | awk '{print $2}'`
egrep -v "^To:|^Subject:" $MHHOME/components >> $FORMF
if [ $TTY -eq 0 ]
then
	comp -form $FORMF
else
	cat >> $FORMF
	send $FORMF
fi
SHAR_EOF
if test 783 -ne "`wc -c < 'mailh'`"
then
	echo shar: error transmitting "'mailh'" '(should have been 783 characters)'
fi
chmod +x 'mailh'
fi # end of overwriting check
#	End of shell archive
exit 0
--
        Tom Reingold
        tr@samadams.princeton.edu  OR  ...!princeton!samadams!tr
        "Warning: Do not drive with Auto-Shade in place.  Remove
        from windshield before starting ignition."