message-links.el

Emacs library to add reference links in message-mode without html.

Table of Contents

• What it does
• How to use
• Customization
• FAQ

What it does

Consider the following textual message with a long link:

Hello,

blablabla ...
... and the report is available in the following link: https://my-file-server.org/Y5yu9Z1+3K83NFyPRy0siDw583mc+4iEljFmkUdgIIJuE5OAZTyhV00rXSMu/LP6z/o8HoD8hnXVIg2bwkddXw==
Blablabla ...

Cheers

This could be transformed into:

Hello,

blablabla ...
... and the report is available in the link [1]
Blablabla ...

Cheers

--- links ---
[1]: https://my-file-server.org/Y5yu9Z1+3K83NFyPRy0siDw583mc+4iEljFmkUdgIIJuE5OAZTyhV00rXSMu/LP6z/o8HoD8hnXVIg2bwkddXw==

This mode allow the generation of the references in the text as follow:

How to use

Download this repository into ~/.emacs.d:

(load "~/.emacs.d/message-links.el/message-links.el")
(define-key message-mode-map (kbd "C-c l") 'message-links-add)

Then press C-c l when composing a message to add a link.

Commands

message-links-add-link

Enter a new link.

message-links-convert-link-at-point

Match a link at the cursor location, and convert it to a referenced link. (this uses message-links-match-link-at-point-fn to identify links).

message-links-convert-links-all

Convert all links to references in the buffer or active region (using message-links-match-link-forward-fn to scan for links).

message-links-renumber-all

Re-number all links starting from message-links-index-start, putting the footnotes in order if necessary. This can be useful when editing paragraphs that contain links which may become un-ordered.

Customization

message-links-link-header: Default --- links ---

Header use to separate links and the original text. If set to nil, disable the header.

message-links-index-start: Default 1

Start index of links. So by default the first link will be [1].

message-links-sep-footnotes-link: Default ("[" . "]: ")

The text to use for links in the bottom of the buffer. Default, links look like [1]: link text.

Customize with (setq message-links-sep-footnotes-link '("{^" . "}: ")) and links in footnote will look like {^1}: link text

message-links-sep-text-link: Default ("[" . "]")

The text to use for links in the text. Default, links look like blablabla [1] blablabla.

Customize with (setq message-links-sep-text-link '("{^" . "}")) and links in text will look like blablabla {^1} blablabla.

message-links-match-link-at-point-fn: Defaults to using thing-at-pt (url)

Return the bounds of the link at the point as a cons cell or nil.

message-links-match-link-forward-fn: Default message-links-match-link-at-point-default

Takes a single limit argument (representing a buffer position not to seek past), returns the bounds of the next link or nil when none are found.

The default callback steps over white-space for the next message-links-match-link-at-point-fn.

message-links-limit-range-fn: Defaults to returning ((point-min) . (point-max))

Use this to limit the range used for scanning and link insertion.

Useful when writing commit messages which often show commented status text at the buffer end. Often it’s preferable to add the links before these comments. For example, see (FAQ).

FAQ

I don’t want to put the links at the bottom of the buffer

If you work in a GIT/SVN message commit or a message with a lot of reply, you want your links at the bottom of your message and not the bottom of the buffer. Use message-links-limit-range-fn for this purpose: By default:

Hello,

Blabla [1], babla [2].

> On Thu, 1 Sep 2022, Toto wrote:
> blablabla
> bla

--- links ---
[1]: foo.org
[2]: bar.org

In fact, you want to add links just before the reply by tweaking message-links-limit-range-fn:

(setq message-links-limit-range-fn
      (lambda ()
        (let ((min (point-min))
              (max (point-max)))
          (save-excursion
            (goto-char min)
            (forward-line 1)
            (setq min (point))
            (when (re-search-forward
                   (concat "^>")
                   nil t)
              (setq max (line-beginning-position))))
          (cons min max))))

Hello,

Blabla [1], babla [2].

--- links ---
[1]: foo.org
[2]: bar.org

> On Thu, 1 Sep 2022, Toto wrote:
> blablabla
> bla