[MlMt] Account addresses and address [atterns

[Randall Gellens]

--Randall

On 11 Feb 2018, at 13:19, Bill Cole wrote:

> On 10 Feb 2018, at 21:48 (-0500), Randall Gellens wrote:
>
>> On 10 Feb 2018, at 12:22, Bill Cole wrote:
>>
>>> On 10 Feb 2018, at 4:15 (-0500), Randall Gellens wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have both a list of frequently-used addresses and an address 
>>>> patter in the form “*@foo\.examle\.org | *@bar\.example\.org” 
>>>> set for several accounts.  Yet most replies have the wrong default 
>>>> address.  As a test, I tried deleting the list of explicit 
>>>> addresses, and deleted the spaces around the pipe in the address 
>>>> pattern, but to no avail
>>>
>>> Those are both flawed. The pattern must be a regular expression, in 
>>> which a leading '*' isn't meaningful, since it means 'zero or more 
>>> of the prior character.' Also, spaces ARE meaningful in regular 
>>> expressions, so you shouldn't have any in a pattern for an email 
>>> address.
>>
>> Thanks.  In the help pages, it _looks_ (at least to me) like there 
>> are spaces around the pipes.  Thanks for reminding me that :*: needs 
>> something in front.
>
> I am very sorry for using Didactic Tech Support Voice with you. I just 
> realized why your name seemed so familiar: all those email-related 
> RFCs with "Gellens" at the top of every page. Thank you for all of 
> your excellent work in improving how email works.

Thanks for saying so.

>
> [...]
>>>> 4: Is the default reply address determined on message reception or 
>>>> reply generation?
>>>
>>> Yes. :)
>>>
>>> Benny has explained the heuristics involved in picking a sender here 
>>> before, but I'm almost certain to get it wrong if I try to explain 
>>> it myself.
>>
>> OK.
>>
>> Is there a way to associate a default reply address with an address 
>> pattern or set of domains?
>
> Not that I'm aware of. I believe the default in a reply to an existing 
> message is to use the address the original message was sent to, if 
> that can be determined. I'm pretty sure MM looks for more than just 
> the To: header, i.e. X-Originally-To, the 'for' clause in a Received 
> header, etc. For completely new messages my understanding is that MM 
> will use the contents of the currently selected mailbox to guess the 
> best address. For example, I an unique address for each list I'm on 
> and I have an IMAP mailbox for each list I'm on, so when I've got the 
> MailMate Users list mailbox open and start a new message, it uses the 
> address I use for this list.

Interesting.  I have a similar setup, with unique email addresses being 
used for more than just mailing lists.  MM sometimes chooses the right 
from address when I compose a new message with a mailbox selected, but 
other times just picks my default.  I don’t know how much other MM 
users use a plethora of unique email addresses, but if more than a few, 
it might be helpful to have a way to configure a reply address as 
associated with a “to” address pattern.

—Randall