How can I attach a PDF in gnus, when I have the PDF attached with org-attach and I view it with PDFView?

Question

The PDF is attached like so:

***** Model                                                          :ATTACH:
:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       f1e5fc57-b85d-4a2c-b064-32523dd11901
:ORG_ATTACH_FILES: patience.RWaR.2023-12-17.p1.r1-1.pdf
:END:

As, suggested by NickD (thanks), I can eval:

(org-attach-expand "patience.RWaR.2023-12-17.p1.r1-1.pdf")

..and get this:

"/home/b0ef/data/f1/e5fc57-b85d-4a2c-b064-32523dd11901/patience.RWaR.2023-12-17.p1.r1-1.pdf"

This is something I can use in gnus if I use a template

<#part type="application/octet-stream" filename="patience.RWaR.2023-12-17.p1.r1-1.pdf" disposition=attachment description=Foo>
<#/part>

, but that's quite a tedious process;) Any pointers as to how I can bind this to a key?;)

The best solution would be something like org-attach-dired-to-subtree. For org-mode, I open a Dired buffer next to my org-mode file, then I run that command and the file is attached to the org-mode heading.

Something like that for gnus;)

That would work like so:

1. Open the buffer containing the org-attach file and another buffer with gnus
2. Put point on :ORG_ATTACH_FILES: and issue the command org-attach-to-gnus

The org-attach file would then become an attachment to the gnus mail.

I find it hard to believe there is no simple way to do this. Let alone a simple method, to be able to do this, there are like 25 steps, currently.

Answer 1

I presume you have an attachment: link in your Org mode file, like this:

[[attachment:foo.pdf]]

You can run (org-attach-expand "foo.pdf") in the Org mode buffer to get the complete path name. That's all you need to create a MIME attachment in GNUS.

Adding a src block to your Org mode file like this:

#+begin_src elisp :results drawer
(org-attach-expand "foo.pdf")
#+end_src

will allow you to run the src block to produce the file path which you can then cut-and-paste into GNUS.