group and alias

[Cameron Simpson]

On 28Feb2021 19:00, Jon LaBadie <mutter at jgcomp.com> wrote:
>Trying to use the "group" facility.  Expected I could
>do something like:
>  group -group ABC -addr <addr1> -addr <addr2> -addr <addr3>
>
>And then email 3 people with
>
>  $ mutt ABC
>
>I am able to accomplish this with an alias:
>
>  alias ABC <addr1>, <addr2>, <addr3>
>
>Is this not an application for which "group" was intended?

Aliases probably predate groups, I'd expect. They can contain only 
addresses (including other aliases).

Groups can include regexps for matching, so they're arguably more a 
PATTERN thing than an alias is.

And I presume that recognising that often aliases and groups server the 
same purpose, alias has a -group options which also adds the addresses 
to a named group. I maintain my alias using a small otuside db, and 
autogenerate them. They all have the form:

    alias -group group_name alias_name \
        address, \
        ... etc ...

where in fact group_name and alias_name are the same name.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>