Breathe

Follow Up on emails with mu4e and org-capture

2025-02-03T12:00:00Z

When I send an email, I often want my agenda to remind me to follow up a few days later. Thanks to Dirk-Jan C. Binnema's help, I was able to set this up with mu4e and org-capture.

`mu4e` + `org-capture`

Here's the code:

  (add-to-list
   'org-capture-templates
   ("efu" "Follow Up" entry (file+olp "todo/todo.org" "Email" "Follow Up")
    "* TODO Follow up with %(eval sent-message-to) on [[mu4e:msgid:%(eval sent-message-id)][%(eval sent-subject)]]
SCHEDULED: %(org-insert-time-stamp (org-read-date nil t \"+3d\"))
%i"))

  (add-hook 'message-sent-hook #'my/org-capture-sent-mail)

  (defun my/org-capture-sent-mail ()
    "Prepare to capture sent mail after window configuration is reset."
    (let* ((sent-message-id
          (replace-regexp-in-string
           "[<>]" "" (message-fetch-field "Message-Id")))
           (sent-message-to
            (replace-regexp-in-string " <.*>" "" (message-fetch-field "To")))
         (sent-subject (or (message-fetch-field "Subject") "No subject")))
      (org-capture nil "efu")
      (add-hook 'mu4e-compose-post-hook #'my/pop-to-buffer-org-capture-mail 99)))

  (defun my/pop-to-buffer-org-capture-mail ()
    (pop-to-buffer
     (car (match-buffers
           (lambda (buffer)
             (equal "efu"
                    (plist-get
                     (buffer-local-value
                      'org-capture-current-plist buffer)
                     :key))))))
    (remove-hook 'mu4e-compose-post-hook #'my/pop-to-buffer-org-capture-mail))

After I send an email, I see the org-capture pop-up window pre-filled from the template:

*** TODO Follow up with John Doe on [[mu4e:msgid:1234576890][Beautiful Snowy Morning]]
SCHEDULED: <2025-02-06 Wed>

If I run org-capture-finalize (C-c C-c), then I'll be reminded in three days to follow up on the email. Before capturing the reminder, I can add more information or edit the date if I want to have more or less time before it shows up on my agenda. Alternatively, I can run org-capture-kill (C-c C-k) if I don't want to be reminded at all.

Technical Details

After closing a composition buffer, mu4e restores your window configuration in mu4e-compose-post-hook, a feature which I want to keep. However, this means that the org-capture buffer gets hidden when the windows are restored.1 The solution above is to add a self-removing hook function my/pop-to-buffer-org-capture-mail to mu4e-compose-post-hook which pops back to the org-capture buffer after the window configuration is restored.

Footnotes

1

I want to interact with the org capture buffer each time I send an email, so I can edit or cancel the reminder while capturing it. If I didn't want to interact with the org capture buffer, I could put :immediate-finish in the org-capture template and get rid of my/pop-to-buffer-org-capture-mail.

Query Regexp Replace Lisp Replacement

2024-12-19T12:00:00Z

I rarely use query-replace-regexp's lisp expression replacement feature, but I came upon a good use for it today!

Recently, I've been testing out org-srs for practicing Mandarin vocab. So far, it works very well! When I asked to truncate the serialized data which gets written to the Org files to reduce diff noise and to make the state column fit on my small laptop screen, the package author kindly offered a workaround1, which causes this:

# Without workaround:

#+NAME: srsitem:2d51efcd-8523-4432-b074-50d1ba4c45b3
| ! | timestamp            | rating |          stability |        difficulty | state     |
|---+----------------------+--------+--------------------+-------------------+-----------|
|   | 2024-12-11T18:37:19Z |        |                0.0 |               0.0 | :new      |
|   | 2024-12-11T18:38:23Z | :again |             0.4072 |            7.2102 | :learning |
|   | 2024-12-11T18:39:05Z | :easy  | 0.9375660842587888 | 6.078123501986166 | :review   |
|   | 2024-12-14T07:07:08Z | :easy  | 16.133939701409084 | 4.972537594025855 | :review   |
| * | 2024-12-30T07:07:08Z |        |                    |                   |           |

to become this:

# With workaround:

#+NAME: srsitem:2d51efcd-8523-4432-b074-50d1ba4c45b3
| ! | timestamp            | rating | stability | difficulty | state     |
|---+----------------------+--------+-----------+------------+-----------|
|   | 2024-12-11T18:37:19Z |        |       0.0 |        0.0 | :new      |
|   | 2024-12-11T18:38:23Z | :again |      0.41 |       7.21 | :learning |
|   | 2024-12-11T18:39:05Z | :easy  |      0.94 |       6.08 | :review   |
|   | 2024-12-14T07:07:08Z | :easy  |     16.13 |       4.97 | :review   |
| * | 2024-12-30T07:07:08Z |        |           |            |           |

However, I already had some existing data in my chinese.org file. To truncate that data, I used this lisp expression replacement with query-replace-regexp:

[0-9]+\.\([0-9]+\) → \,(if (length> \1 2) (format "%0.02f" \#0) \0)

The regexp matches the numbers in the stability and difficulty columns. My chinese.org file conveniently contains no other numbers in decimal-point notation. The lisp expression checks if the part after the decimal point contains more than two numbers, since I don't want 0.0 to become 0.00. If it does, then the format expression rounds it to two decimal places. Otherwise, the match is left as-is. Note that \#0 in the replacement text converts the match string to a number, which is required by the %f format type specifier.

After replacing all of the numbers in the buffer, I ran a quick keyboard macro to align all of the srsitem tables to fit the narrower contents, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader.

I hope this helps you. Feel free to contact me with suggestions, corrections, or questions!

Footnotes

1

Workaround to truncate the data:

(cl-defmethod org-srs-algorithm-repeat :around ((_ fsrs-scheduler) _)
  (let ((output (cl-call-next-method)))
    (setf (alist-get 'stability output) (format "%.02f" (alist-get 'stability output))
          (alist-get 'difficulty output) (format "%.02f" (alist-get 'difficulty output)))
    output))

Mirror Worg to a Hyperdrive

2024-12-16T12:00:00Z

During the Q&A session of the EmacsConf 2024 hyperdrive.el talk, Ihor Radchenko suggested using hyperdrive to distribute worg, the community-driven Org documentation written in Org format.

Thanks, Ihor!

Mirror `worg` to a hyperdrive

You can run these commands on a local or remote machine. I chose to mirror worg to a hyperdrive on a remote Debian 12 VPS so that the content stays available when I turn off my computer.

Install git, dtach and drives cli:

sudo apt install git dtach npm
npm install -g drives

Clone worg, then create a new corestore and hyperdrive:

git clone https://git.sr.ht/~bzg/worg/
cd worg
drives init
drives touch # Copy hyperdrive public key from output

Mirror the worg repository into the newly created hyperdrive:

# drives mirror --dry-run . bpb1bq6sdfajw4bok7k9tdmrq153pbwzcyfkrqrfxw3hhihyddhy # Dry run first
dtach -n /tmp/drives-worg-session drives mirror --live . bpb1bq6sdfajw4bok7k9tdmrq153pbwzcyfkrqrfxw3hhihyddhy # From output of `drives touch`

Note that drives ignores the .git folder out of the box. Running the command inside a dtach session is a quick and dirty way to make the process persist after we've disconnected from the VPS. A better approach would be to write a service file to register the drives process with the init system (Debian 12 uses systemd).

To automatically pull the latest changes from the remote worg repository, add a cronjob with crontab -e:

30 0 * * * git -C ~/worg pull

Voilá! worg is now continuously mirrored to a hyperdrive, which can be explored, linked to, transcluded, and more using hyperdrive.el:

hyper://bpb1bq6sdfajw4bok7k9tdmrq153pbwzcyfkrqrfxw3hhihyddhy/

If you're viewing this file in Emacs with hyperdrive.el installed, follow this link to view the "Introduction to Org-Mode and Worg" in the hyperdrive mirror:

hyper://bpb1bq6sdfajw4bok7k9tdmrq153pbwzcyfkrqrfxw3hhihyddhy/index.org#%3A%3A%2AIntroduction%20to%20Org-Mode%20and%20Worg

I hope this helps you. Feel free to contact me with suggestions, corrections, or questions!

Sourcehut Org Mode README

2024-12-10T12:00:00Z

Out of the box, Sourcehut only renders README, README.md, and README.markdown.1

Workarounds to render `README.org`

One proposed workaround is to export README.org to README.md (in a git hook), and then commit README.md, which will be rendered as HTML on git.sr.ht. Another option is to set a custom README.

Here's how we render the README for hyperdrive.el on git.sr.ht by setting a custom README:

Makefile + build script

The Elisp for exporting README.org to HTML goes in a Makefile, which simplifies the packaging process, since there's no extra .el file for linters and compilers to complain about. Credit for the idea to use a Makefile goes to Jonas Bernoulli.

Add a file called Makefile at the root of your project (hyperdrive.el Makefile):

EMACS := emacs
EMACSQ := $(EMACS) -Q
BATCH := $(EMACSQ) --batch \
          --eval '(setq vc-handled-backends nil)' \
          --eval '(setq org-startup-folded nil)' \
          --eval '(setq org-element-cache-persistent nil)' \
          --eval '(setq gc-cons-threshold (* 50 1000 1000))'

README.html: README.org
        $(BATCH) --find-file $< --eval "(require 'ox-html)" \
          --eval '(org-html-export-to-html nil nil nil t)'

The build script installs hut and emacs, clones your repo, exports README.html, and sets the custom README. Add a file called readme.yml in the .builds/ subdirectory of your project (hyperdrive.el .builds/readme.yml):

image: archlinux
oauth: git.sr.ht/REPOSITORIES:RW git.sr.ht/PROFILE:RO
packages:
  - hut
  - emacs-nox
sources:
  - https://git.sr.ht/~ushin/hyperdrive.el
tasks:
  - update-readme: |
      cd hyperdrive.el
      make README.html
      hut git update --readme README.html

I hope this helps you. Feel free to contact me with suggestions, corrections, or questions!

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Thorben Günther, for this example git repo which shows how to set a custom README.

Footnotes

1

Requests for Org-mode README rendering support on git.sr.ht: Mar 2020 Feb 2021 Oct 2021 Jan 2022 June 2022 May 2024 Dec 2024

Breathe

Follow Up on emails with mu4e and org-capture

mu4e + org-capture

Technical Details

Links

Footnotes

1

Query Regexp Replace Lisp Replacement

Footnotes

1

Mirror Worg to a Hyperdrive

Mirror worg to a hyperdrive

Sourcehut Org Mode README

Workarounds to render README.org

Makefile + build script

Acknowledgements

Footnotes

1

`mu4e` + `org-capture`

Mirror `worg` to a hyperdrive

Workarounds to render `README.org`