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(emacs)Mail Aliases

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Mail Aliases
============

   You can define "mail aliases" in a file named `~/.mailrc'.  These
are short mnemonic names which stand for mail addresses or groups of
mail addresses.  Like many other mail programs, Emacs expands aliases
when they occur in the `To', `From', `CC', `BCC', and `Reply-to'
fields, plus their `Resent-' variants.

   To define an alias in `~/.mailrc', write a line in the following
format:

     alias SHORTADDRESS FULLADDRESSES

Here FULLADDRESSES stands for one or more mail addresses for
SHORTADDRESS to expand into.  Separate multiple addresses with spaces;
if an address contains a space, quote the whole address with a pair of
double-quotes.

   For instance, to make `maingnu' stand for `gnu@gnu.org' plus a local
address of your own, put in this line:

     alias maingnu gnu@gnu.org local-gnu

   Emacs also recognizes include commands in `.mailrc' files.  They
look like this:

     source FILENAME

The file `~/.mailrc' is used primarily by other mail-reading programs;
it can contain various other commands.  Emacs ignores everything in it
except for alias definitions and include commands.

   Another way to define a mail alias, within Emacs alone, is with the
`define-mail-alias' command.  It prompts for the alias and then the
full address.  You can use it to define aliases in your `.emacs' file,
like this:

     (define-mail-alias "maingnu" "gnu@gnu.org")

   `define-mail-alias' records aliases by adding them to a variable
named `mail-aliases'.  If you are comfortable with manipulating Lisp
lists, you can set `mail-aliases' directly.  The initial value of
`mail-aliases' is `t', which means that Emacs should read `.mailrc' to
get the proper value.

   You can specify a different file name to use instead of `~/.mailrc'
by setting the variable `mail-personal-alias-file'.

   Normally, Emacs expands aliases when you send the message.  You do
not need to expand mail aliases before sending the message, but you can
expand them if you want to see where the mail will actually go.  To do
this, use the command `M-x expand-mail-aliases'; it expands all mail
aliases currently present in the mail headers that hold addresses.

   If you like, you can have mail aliases expand as abbrevs, as soon as
you type them in (Note: Abbrevs).  To enable this feature, execute the
following:

     (add-hook 'mail-mode-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup)

This can go in your `.emacs' file.  Note: Hooks.  If you use this
feature, you must use `define-mail-abbrev' instead of
`define-mail-alias'; the latter does not work with this package.  Note
that the mail abbreviation package uses the variable `mail-abbrevs'
instead of `mail-aliases', and that all alias names are converted to
lower case.

   The mail abbreviation package also provides the `C-c C-a'
(`mail-interactive-insert-alias') command, which reads an alias name
(with completion) and inserts its definition at point.  This is useful
when editing the message text itself or a header field such as
`Subject' in which Emacs does not normally expand aliases.

   Note that abbrevs expand only if you insert a word-separator
character afterward.  However, you can rebind `C-n' and `M->' to cause
expansion as well.  Here's how to do that:

     (add-hook 'mail-mode-hook
               (lambda ()
                 (substitute-key-definition
                   'next-line 'mail-abbrev-next-line
                   mail-mode-map global-map)
                 (substitute-key-definition
                   'end-of-buffer 'mail-abbrev-end-of-buffer
                   mail-mode-map global-map)))