Hello, I'm trying to write a macro that allows me to edit a new message in the background using mutt's background_edit feature. My intent is that new messages are edited in the foreground by default when I use the regular "m" binding in the index and pager menus, but new messages are edited in the background when I use a new "M" binding to a macro that changes $background_edit and $editor. Something like this (assuming $editor is something like vi by default):
macro index,pager M "\ <enter-command>set my_background_edit=\$background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>set background_edit = yes<enter>\ <enter-command>set my_editor=\$editor<enter>\ <enter-command>set editor = \"xterm -e \$editor\"<enter>\ <mail>\ <enter-command>set background_edit=\$my_background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>unset my_background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>set editor=\$my_editor<enter>\ <enter-command>unset my_editor<enter>\ " "background edit new mail message" Unfortunately this doesn't work because the <mail> function seems to use the text of the rest of the macro as destination and subject for the new message. So I tried this: macro index,pager M "\ <enter-command>set my_background_edit=\$background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>set background_edit = yes<enter>\ <enter-command>set my_editor=\$editor<enter>\ <enter-command>set editor = \"xterm -e \$editor\"<enter>\ <mail>\ \"someone@somewhere\"<enter>\ \"some title\"<enter>\ <enter-command>set background_edit=\$my_background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>unset my_background_edit<enter>\ <enter-command>set editor=\$my_editor<enter>\ <enter-command>unset my_editor<enter>\ " "background edit new mail message" Which works somewhat better but: 1) Obviously I don't want someone@somewhere and "some title" to be hard coded in the macro. Is there some kind of <ask-for-user-input-here> function that can be used there in the macro? 2) After the <mail> function has finished running and the message is sent, the rest of the macro doesn't seem to be executed so $background_edit and $editor are not set back to their original values as I had expected. I'm not sure why that is. 3) If I use this macro twice in succession to start two background edits that are then running at the same time, the second one then uses "xterm -e xterm -e $editor" as the editor. I guess that's because $editor is essentially a global variable. Is there some way to make the changes to $background_edit and $editor local to the macro? Mutt's manual (section 6.5) talks about taking "a snapshot of certain configuration variables and stores them with each editing session" that sounds a lot like local variables... So how can I use the <mail> function inside such a macro? Is it possible at all? Ideas are welcome... Thanks a lot, Philippe
