USER DEFINABLE ACTIONS
----------------------
The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed.
For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm popular
in some newsgroups. Currently it does not fully support ASCII-armored
encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As all
these features can be handled by external programs, the actions provide a
convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
a. Usage
--------
To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed
stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
following syntax for the command:
* %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
the appropriate file name
* %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
then the command will be launched for each selected message with
the name of this message and with the list of all selected
messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
* %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
message, it denotes the message body.
* Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
* Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
entering passwords).
* Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command
to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error messages.
* Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
* Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
compose window.
When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
from the outputs of the others.
b. Examples
-----------
Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very
simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the
command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
Purpose: rot13 cyphering
Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
(selected) text in the message/compose view.
Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
Purpose: Display uuencoded image
Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
Purpose: Alter messages
Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
unneeded message parts, etc.
Purpose: Pretty format
Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
text. Used when composing a message
Purpose: Browse
Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
Purpose: Clear Sign
Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
actions output dialog.
Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
into the opened action's input dialog.
[1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
instead of standard input.
[2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
distribution package.
