Re: processing pending emails as part of your GTD system

[Christopher League <league@contrapunctus.net>]

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On Apr 21, 2008, at 2:55 AM, Pete Phillips wrote:
> One thing I have done is design a method so that I can easily put  
> emails
> into a set of 'pending' mail folders, and then get cron to process  
> these
> and dump the emails back into my +inbox at appropriate dates.

Interesting, I have a similar script that also requires cron/shell  
access to mail server, but works with mbox format instead of MH, and  
is compatible with, e.g., dovecot IMAP server.  Mine is slightly less  
fancy, in that I file messages to absolute folders named "days/25" or  
"months/07-July" (rather than "nextweek") to have them dumped back  
into my spool at the indicated time.  See the 'email-tickler-update'  
script attached.


More relevant to org-mode, I have an emacs-lisp/apple-script combo for  
pasting links to Apple Mail messages into org files:

(defun cal-grab-mail-links ()
   (interactive)
   (call-process "/usr/bin/osascript" nil t nil
                 "/home/league/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail/Copy  
Message for OrgMode.scpt")
   (yank))
(define-key org-mode-map "\C-cm" 'cal-grab-mail-links)

;;;;; and the .scpt component:

-- Replace all occurences of one string for another in a text
-- The trick here is to change the internal delimiter,
-- spliting and joining the text
--
on replaceString(theText, oldString, newString)
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldString
	set tempList to every text item of theText
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to newString
	set theText to the tempList as string
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
	return theText
end replaceString

tell application "Mail"
	set _sel to get selection
	set _links to {}
	repeat with _msg in _sel
		set _subj to _msg's subject
		set _subj to my replaceString(_subj, "[", "(")
		set _subj to my replaceString(_subj, "]", ")")
		set _messageURL to "[[message://%3c" & _msg's message id & "%3e][" &  
_subj & "]]"
		set end of _links to _messageURL
	end repeat
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
	set the clipboard to (_links as string)
end tell


[-- Attachment #2: email-tickler-update.txt --]
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#!/usr/bin/env zsh
## email-tickler-update -- manage a set of 43 mailboxes as a 'tickler' file
## Written by and for Christopher League <league@contrapunctus.net>
## but released to the public domain.

## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

                           ### Settings ###

mail_spool=/var/mail
mail_dir=mail

today=$(date +%d)                            # 03, 14, 31, ...
month=$(date +%m-%b)                         # 02-Feb, 11-Nov, ...

day_mbox=${mail_dir}/days/${today}
month_mbox=${mail_dir}/months/${month}

users=($*)

                       ### Helper functions ###

## Maybe run a command; maybe print it instead.  If this script is run
## with DRYRUN set (to anything except empty string), it will avoid
## taking any real actions, and just print the commands.
run() {
    if [[ -z $DRYRUN ]]; then   # do it for real
        $*
    else                        # output only
        print '%' $*
    fi
}

## Run a command, but exit with message on error.
guard() {
    run $*
    if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
        print "FATAL($?): $*"
        exit $?
    fi
}

readable() {
    if [[ ! -r $1 ]]; then
        print unreadable: $1
        exit 1
    fi
}

                       ### Primary actions ###

## Append given file to mail spool, then empty it out.
move_to_spool() {
    cat $1 >>${user_mail_spool}
    print -n >$1
}

## This wraps the above with the proper locking protocol, and does it
## only if given mailbox is non-empty.
protected_move() {
    guard lockfile $1.lock
    if [[ -s $1 ]]; then
        guard lockfile ${user_mail_spool}.lock
        guard move_to_spool $1
        guard rm -f ${user_mail_spool}.lock
    fi
    guard rm -f $1.lock
}

                          ### Main loop ###

for u in $users; do
    user_mail_spool=${mail_spool}/$u
    readable ${user_mail_spool}
    readable ~$u/${day_mbox}
    readable ~$u/${month_mbox}
    protected_move ~$u/${day_mbox}
    if [[ $today == 01 ]]; then
        protected_move ~$u/${month_mbox}
    fi
done

exit 0

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