Manage your email in emacs with mu4e

emacs-email-setup.md

Manage your gmail account in emacs with mu4e

There're a lot of combinations to manage your email with emacs, but this works for me. I've a backup and I can manage my daily email.

The stack:

• emacs
• offlineimap
• mu
• mu4e

offlineimap

install

$ pacman -S offlineimap

configure

~/.offlineimaprc

[general]
accounts = Gmail
maxsyncaccounts = 1
pythonfile = ~/.offlineimap.py

[Account Gmail]
localrepository = Local
remoterepository = Remote

[Repository Local]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/Maildir

[Repository Remote]
type = Gmail
remoteuser = areina0@gmail.com
remotepasseval = get_password_emacs("imap.gmail.com", "areina0@gmail.com", "993")
realdelete = no

folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername not in ['[Gmail]/Spam', '[Gmail]/All Mail', '[Gmail]/Starred', '[Gmail]/Important']

holdconnectionopen = true
keepalive = 60
sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

~/.offlineimap.py

#!/usr/bin/python
import re, os

def get_password_emacs(machine, login, port):
    s = "machine %s login %s port %s password ([^ ]*)\n" % (machine, login, port)
    p = re.compile(s)
    authinfo = os.popen("gpg -q --no-tty -d ~/.authinfo.gpg").read()
    return p.search(authinfo).group(1)

~/.authinfo

machine imap.gmail.com login areina0@gmail.com port 993 password blabla123bla456
machine smtp.gmail.com login areina0@gmail.com port 587 password blabla123bla456

With emacs, to encrypt this file:

• M-x epa-encrypt-file (generate ~/.authinfo.gpg and remove original).

launch

$ offlineimap (here you can take a beer).

mu

Install

$ yaourt -S mu

Launch

$ mu index --maildir=~/Maildir

mu4e

mu4e is installed by default with mu package. Only that you needs is load it in emacs.

Configure

in your .emacs, ~/emacs.d/init.el or whatever.

Note:

• To send mails with smtpmail.el and use gnutls, we need install the package (pacman -S gnutls)

(require 'mu4e)

;; default
(setq mu4e-maildir (expand-file-name "~/Maildir"))

(setq mu4e-drafts-folder "/[Gmail].Drafts")
(setq mu4e-sent-folder   "/[Gmail].Sent Mail")
(setq mu4e-trash-folder  "/[Gmail].Trash")

;; don't save message to Sent Messages, GMail/IMAP will take care of this
(setq mu4e-sent-messages-behavior 'delete)

;; setup some handy shortcuts
(setq mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
      '(("/INBOX"             . ?i)
        ("/[Gmail].Sent Mail" . ?s)
        ("/[Gmail].Trash"     . ?t)))

;; allow for updating mail using 'U' in the main view:
(setq mu4e-get-mail-command "offlineimap")

;; something about ourselves
;; I don't use a signature...
(setq
 user-mail-address "areina0@gmail.com"
 user-full-name  "Toni Reina"
 ;; message-signature
 ;;  (concat
 ;;    "Foo X. Bar\n"
 ;;    "http://www.example.com\n")
)

;; sending mail -- replace USERNAME with your gmail username
;; also, make sure the gnutls command line utils are installed
;; package 'gnutls-bin' in Debian/Ubuntu, 'gnutls' in Archlinux.

(require 'smtpmail)

(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
      starttls-use-gnutls t
      smtpmail-starttls-credentials
      '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587 nil nil))
      smtpmail-auth-credentials
      (expand-file-name "~/.authinfo.gpg")
      smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com"
      smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com"
      smtpmail-smtp-service 587
      smtpmail-debug-info t)

Hi I have the same problem for the Can't run the pythonfile with the option no-tty though. So I cant enter the passphrase. Any idea how to fix this ?

On Mac OS X, you can use the system keychain to store the passphrase; so the python line becomes:

authinfo = os.popen("gpg -q -d --no-mdc-warning --no-tty --passphrase `security find-generic-password -a authinfo -s offlineimap -w` ~/.authinfo.gpg").read()

@ayman, that solves that mac issue indeed ! Thanks ! Just to make it clear, that involves to create a password in the key chain app with offlineimap as service and authinfo as authorisation, plus the gpg encryption key as a password.

I used this method to configure offlineimap on debian. Keeping --no-tty gives an error "gpg: Sorry, no terminal at all requested - can't get input" so I removed --no-tty and I get paraphrase prompt solving the issue. I thought this will help some one trying to configure in debian.

Hi, do you know how to get the email in html view ?

@cedricpinson I had the same problem. If you change the python script to use gpg2 instead then the system will ask you for the password.

gpg2 -q --no-tty -d ~/.authinfo.gpg

To install it:

sudo apt-get install gnupg2

Following these instructions, I've had to change (on OSX 10.11.6, with gpg installed using brew)

authinfo = os.popen("gpg -q -d --no-mdc-warning --no-tty --passphrase `security find-generic-password -a authinfo -s offlineimap -w` ~/.authinfo.gpg").read()

to

authinfo = os.popen("gpg -q -d --no-mdc-warning --no-tty --batch --passphrase `security find-generic-password -a authinfo -s offlineimap -w` ~/.authinfo.gpg").read()

As per man gpg, the --passphrase flag can only be used if --batch has also been provided.

@peterwvj Thanks for the tip. That worked for me.

Make sure you also check http://cachestocaches.com/2017/3/complete-guide-email-emacs-using-mu-and-/

thanks for the guide! really helpful.
mu index --maildir=~/Maildir does not work as of mu 1.3.8, instead first run:
mu init --maildir=~/Maildir and then mu index