2 kmail questions

[Duncan]

Daniel Barna posted on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:18:13 +0100 as excerpted:

> Hi,
> I have a question and a feature request concerning kmail:
> 
> - I want to send a temprary file attached to an email, from a script,
> and then remove the temprary file:
> kmail --composer --attach tmpfile rm -f tmpfile The problem with this is
> that kmail returns immediately, so the tmpfile is removed immediately,
> before the actual composer window could attach the file and send it. Is
> there a solution for this?

Hmm... This isn't a direct solution, more a workaround, but I do enough 
scripting so that immediately got me thinking how I'd approach the problem.

Sleep.  As in sleep 30 or the like, if all you're going to do is attach 
and send, and something like sleep 600 or sleep 1200 or some such, if 
you're going to manually type something in the window, depending on how 
long you think it might take you to do that (with a generous margin).

The tmpfile will stay around for a bit, but put the rm at the end of the 
timeout, and you don't have to worry about rm-ing it manually, at least.

kmail --composer --attach tmpfile
sleep 30
rm -f tmpfile

(Or use semicolons or && logic and stick it all on a single line...)

> - It would be nice, if kmail could expand recipient groups, so that the
> actual list of recipients is shown. For example if I want to arrange a
> surprise birthday party for Joe, who is in the contact group
> 'myfriends', then I want to send an email to everybody from this group
> but Joe. I.e. specify 'myfriends' as the recipient, expand the group,
> and remove Joe from the recipient list.
> 
> Qt: 4.7.0 KDE Development Platform: 4.5.1 (KDE 4.5.1)
> KMail: 1.13.5

FYI, kmail is currently in the middle of a switch to using the akonadi 
backend.  This involved a rewrite, so it's unlikely that current stable 
kmail (or for that matter, much of any of the packages in current stable 
kdepim, of which kmail and kontact are a part) will get any new features, 
since that code is just about to be abandoned, when the new version is 
considered stable enough.

Apparently, the kdepim folks decided NOT to pull another early kde4, which 
the kde folks insisted was stable and ready for ordinary use when huge 
bits of functionality remained flat missing, let alone worrying about 
stability.  As such, while the original plan was to do the kmail switch 
with kde 4.5, they decided the new kmail wasn't yet stable enough for real-
world use and instead shipped kdepim 4.4.7, basically the 4.4 stable kdepim 
with a few tweaks necessary to keep it working with the newer kdelibs 4.5 
series.

With the release of kde 4.6.0, the kmail rewrite was said to be considered 
stable, *BUT* they were still having corner-case bugs with the kmail 
storage conversion tools, especially on large archives.  Given that people 
often have years of mail saved (I personally have over a decade's worth, a 
decade on kmail late this year, plus the import from MS Outlook Express 
when I upgraded to Linux and KDE from MS Windows 98, as MS had crossed a 
line I wasn't going to cross with them with eXPrivacy, with that import 
going back probably 4-5 more years, so nearing 15 years mail archive, 
total), and understandably will be rather grumpy if kmail can't convert it 
properly, the call was again made to wait and update the stable kdepim 4.4 
series, which is now at 4.4.10.

However, almost certainly for kde 4.7 if not for one of the monthly 4.6 
updates, they should have the final kinks worked out, and the new kdepim 
including akonadi based kmail should drop.

At that point, the akonadi backend will be handling all the storage 
duties, much as akonadi has been handling the address book since 4.4, and 
kmail itself will be a much smaller and less complex app, much easier to 
add new features too. =:^)

As I've seen the request to break-out groups into individual addresses 
before, my guess (as a regular here but just a user) is that said feature 
shouldn't be long in coming, after the akonadi-based rewrite drops, of 
course.

In fact, as I said, the new kmail itself is supposed to be stable already, 
it's just the last few corner-cases they're dealing with on the converters 
that's the hold-up.  If you don't have a big archive to convert, or if you 
do but can back it up well and want to test the new version, the 4.5 and 
4.6 kdepim betas should be available.  Of course, I'd recommend upgrading 
to the latest kde 4.6.1, if you're going to do that, as 4.5.1 is after all 
six months old now, and a lot of bugs will have been fixed in that time as 
well as new features added for the kde 4.6 series.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.