doomemacs/modules/email/mu4e/README.org

#+TITLE:   email/mu4e
#+DATE:    April 8, 2017
#+SINCE:   v2.0
#+STARTUP: inlineimages

* Table of Contents :TOC:noexport:
- [[#description][Description]]
  - [[#maintainers][Maintainers]]
  - [[#module-flags][Module Flags]]
  - [[#plugins][Plugins]]
- [[#prerequisites][Prerequisites]]
  - [[#nixos][NixOS]]
- [[#features][Features]]
- [[#configuration][Configuration]]
  - [[#offlineimap][offlineimap]]
  - [[#mbsync][mbsync]]
  - [[#fetching-your-mail-in-other-ways][Fetching your mail in other ways]]
  - [[#mu-and-mu4e][mu and mu4e]]
  - [[#orgmsg][OrgMsg]]
  - [[#mu4e-alert][mu4e-alert]]
- [[#troubleshooting][Troubleshooting]]
  - [[#no-such-file-or-directory-mu4e][=No such file or directory, mu4e=]]
  - [[#void-function-org-time-add-error-on-gentoo][~(void-function org-time-add)~ error on Gentoo]]

* Description
This module makes Emacs an email client, using [[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e.html][mu4e]].

#+begin_quote
I want to live in Emacs, but as we all know, living is incomplete without email.
So I prayed to the text editor gods and they (I) answered. Emacs+evil's editing
combined with org-mode for writing emails? /Yes please./

It uses ~mu4e~ to read my email, but depends on ~offlineimap~ (to sync my email
via IMAP) and ~mu~ (to index my mail into a format ~mu4e~ can understand).
#+end_quote

** Maintainers
+ [[https://github.com/tecosaur][@tecosaur]]

** Module Flags
+ =+gmail= Enables gmail-specific configuration for mail ~To~ or ~From~ a gmail
  address, or a maildir with ~gmail~ in the name.
+ =+org= Use =org-msg= for composing email in Org, then sending a multipart text
  (ASCII export) and HTML message.

** Plugins
+ [[https://github.com/iqbalansari/mu4e-alert][mu4e-alert]]
+ =+org=
  + [[https://github.com/jeremy-compostella/org-msg][org-msg]]

* Prerequisites
This module requires:

+ [[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/][mu]], to index your downloaded messages and to provide the [[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e.html][mu4e]] package.
+ A program to sync your mail. This module comes with builtin support for
  [[https://isync.sourceforge.io/][mbsync]] (recommended, default) or [[http://www.offlineimap.org/][offlineimap]] but you can sync mail in
  other ways too.

#+name: Install Matrix
| Platform      | Install command          | Base packages           |
|---------------+--------------------------+-------------------------|
| MacOS         | ~brew install <pkgs>~    | =mu=                    |
| Arch          | ~pacman -S <pkgs>~       | (AUR, ~yay -S~) =mu=    |
| openSUSE      | ~zypper install <pkgs>~  | =maildir-utils=, =mu4e= |
| Fedora        | ~dnf install <pkgs>~     | =maildir-utils=         |
| Debian/Ubuntu | ~apt-get install <pkgs>~ | =maildir-utils=, =mu4e= |

Then install either the =isync= (=mbsync=) or =offlineimap= package.

To send mail, mu4e uses [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/smtpmail.html][smtpmail]] (an Emacs library) by default.
You can also run a local SMTP server like =sendmail= or =postfix=, or use an SMTP
forwarder such as =msmtp= (recommended).

If you use =msmtp=, you'll likely want to add the following to your
=config.el=:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq sendmail-program "/usr/bin/msmtp"
        send-mail-function #'smtpmail-send-it
        message-sendmail-f-is-evil t
        message-sendmail-extra-arguments '("--read-envelope-from")
        message-send-mail-function #'message-send-mail-with-sendmail)
#+end_src

** NixOS
#+BEGIN_SRC nix
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    mu
    # And one of the following
    isync
    offlineimap
];
#+END_SRC

[[https://github.com/Emiller88/dotfiles/blob/5eaabedf1b141c80a8d32e1b496055231476f65e/modules/shell/mail.nix][An example of setting up mbsync and mu with home-manager]]

* Features
+ Tidied mu4e headers view, with flags from =all-the-icons=
+ Consistent coloring of reply depths (across compose and gnus modes)
+ Prettified =mu4e:main= view
+ Cooperative locking of the =mu= process. Another Emacs instance may request
  access, or grab the lock when it's available.
+ =org-msg= integration with =+org=, which can be toggled per-message, with revamped style and
  an accent color
+ Gmail integrations with the =+gmail= flag
+ Email notifications with =mu4e-alert=, and (on Linux) a customised notification style

* Configuration
** offlineimap
This module uses =mbsync= by default. To use =offlineimap=, change ~+mu4e-backend~:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(setq +mu4e-backend 'offlineimap)
#+END_SRC

Next, you need to write a configuration file for =offlineimap=. Mine can be found
[[https://github.com/hlissner/dotfiles/blob/be0dce5dae8f3cbafaac0cc44269d84b4a742c46/shell/mu/][in my dotfiles repository]]. It is configured to download mail to ~\~/.mail~. I
use [[https://www.passwordstore.org/][unix pass]] to securely store my login credentials. You can find a *very*
detailed configuration [[https://github.com/OfflineIMAP/offlineimap/blob/master/offlineimap.conf][here]].

Next you can download your email with ~offlineimap -o~. This may take a while,
especially if you have thousands of mails.

You can now proceed with the [[#mu-and-mu4e][mu and mu4e]] section.

** mbsync
The steps needed to set up =mu4e= with =mbsync= are very similar to the ones for
[[#offlineimap][offlineimap]].

Start with writing a ~~/.mbsyncrc~. An example for Gmail can be found on
[[http://pragmaticemacs.com/emacs/migrating-from-offlineimap-to-mbsync-for-mu4e/][pragmaticemacs.com]]. A non-Gmail example is available as a gist [[https://gist.github.com/agraul/60977cc497c3aec44e10591f94f49ef0][here]]. The [[http://isync.sourceforge.net/mbsync.html][manual
page]] contains all needed information to set up your own.

Next you can download your email with ~mbsync --all~. This may take a while, but
should be quicker than =offlineimap= ;).

You can now proceed with the [[#mu-and-mu4e][mu and mu4e]] section.

*** Faster syncing
It's possible to use IMAP IDLE to be quickly notified of updates, then use a
tailored =mbsync= command to just fetch the new changes.

If this is of interest, this approach can be seen [[https://tecosaur.github.io/emacs-config/config.html#fetching][in @tecosaur's config]] where
[[https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify][goimapnotify]] is used for this.
** Fetching your mail in other ways
You also have the possiblity to invoke an arbitary shell command to fetch your
mail by disabling this module's backend selection and setting the value of the
~mu4e-get-mail-command~ to the command you want to execute.
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(setq +mu4e-backend nil)
(after! mu4e
  (setq mu4e-get-mail-command "your_command"))
#+END_SRC

If your command prompts you for a passphrase, you might want to change the value
of the ~mu4e~get-mail-password-regexp~ such that =mu4e= will recognize the
prompt and let you provide the passphrase from within Emacs.

** mu and mu4e
You should have your email downloaded already. If you have not, you need to set
=offlineimap= or =mbsync= up before you proceed.

Before you can use =mu4e= or the CLI program =mu=, you need to index your email
initially. How to do that differs a little depending on the version of =mu= you
use. You can check your version with ~mu --version~.

For =mu= *>=1.4* you need to run two commands:
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
mu init --maildir ~/.mail --my-address email@example.com
mu index
#+END_SRC

=mu= *<1.4* only requires one command:
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
mu index --maildir ~/.mail
#+END_SRC

Be sure to replace ~~/.mail~ with the directory containing your mail.

Then configure Emacs to use your email address:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :tangle no
;; Each path is relative to the path of the maildir you passed to mu
(set-email-account! "Lissner.net"
  '((mu4e-sent-folder       . "/Lissner.net/Sent Mail")
    (mu4e-drafts-folder     . "/Lissner.net/Drafts")
    (mu4e-trash-folder      . "/Lissner.net/Trash")
    (mu4e-refile-folder     . "/Lissner.net/All Mail")
    (smtpmail-smtp-user     . "henrik@lissner.net")
    (user-mail-address      . "henrik@lissner.net")    ;; only needed for mu < 1.4
    (mu4e-compose-signature . "---\nHenrik Lissner"))
  t)
#+END_SRC

If you use multiple email accounts, defining them with ~set-email-account!~ will
automatically set the appropriate account context when replying to emails in
that account's maildir. ~mu4e-context-policy~ and ~mu4e-compose-context-policy~
can be modified to change context behavior when opening mu4e and composing
email:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq mu4e-context-policy 'ask-if-none
      mu4e-compose-context-policy 'always-ask)
#+end_src

If you send mail from various email aliases for different services,
~+mu4e-personal-addresses~ can be set per-context with ~set-email-account!~. If
you are not replying to an email to or from one of the specified aliases, you
will be prompted for an alias to send from.

*** Gmail
With the =+gmail= flag, integrations are applied which account for the different
behaviour of Gmail.

The integrations are applied to addresses with /both/ "@gmail.com" in the
account address and "gmail" in the account maildir, as well as accounts listed
in ~+mu4e-gmail-accounts~. Any domain can be specified, so G Suite accounts can
benefit from the integrations:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
;; if "gmail" is missing from the address or maildir, the account must be listed here
(setq +mu4e-gmail-accounts '(("hlissner@gmail.com" . "/hlissner")
                             ("example@example.com" . "/example")))
#+end_src

If you only use Gmail, you can improve performance due to the way Gmail
presents messages over IMAP:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
;; don't need to run cleanup after indexing for gmail
(setq mu4e-index-cleanup nil
      ;; because gmail uses labels as folders we can use lazy check since
      ;; messages don't really "move"
      mu4e-index-lazy-check t)
#+end_src

Also, note that Gmail's IMAP settings must have "When I mark a message in IMAP
as deleted: Auto-Expunge off - Wait for the client to update the server." and
"When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP
folder: Move the message to the trash" for the integrations to work as expected.

** OrgMsg
With the =+org= flag, =org-msg= is installed, and ~org-msg-mode~ is enabled before
composing the first message. To disable ~org-msg-mode~ by default, simply
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :tangle no
(setq mu4e-compose--org-msg-toggle-next nil)
#+END_SRC

To toggle org-msg for a single message, just apply the universal argument to the
compose or reply command (=SPC u= with ~evil~, =C-u= otherwise).

The accent color that Doom uses can be customised by setting
~+org-msg-accent-color~ to a CSS color string.

** mu4e-alert
This provides notifications through the [[https://github.com/jwiegley/alert][alert]] library.

If you don't like this, simply add
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(package! mu4e-alert :disable t)
#+end_src
to your [[elisp:(find-file (expand-file-name "packages.el" doom-private-dir))][packages.el]] and it will not be used.

* Troubleshooting
** =No such file or directory, mu4e=
You will get =No such file or directory, mu4e= errors if you don't run ~doom
sync~ after installing =mu= through your package manager.

Some times the the ~mu~ package does not include ~mu4e~ (*cough Ubuntu*).
if that's the case you will need to [[https://github.com/djcb/mu][install]] it and add it to your ~load-path~
you can do that by...
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :tangle no
(add-to-list 'load-path "your/path/to/mu4e")
;; if you installed it using your package manager
(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/mu4e")
;; if you built from source
(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/mu4e")
#+END_SRC

If you have completely lost your install then you can use this handy command!

#+BEGIN_SRC  shell
find / -type d -iname '*mu4e*'
# I recommend rerouting all of the errors to /dev/null
find / -type d -iname '*mu4e*' 2> /dev/null
#+END_SRC

** ~(void-function org-time-add)~ error on Gentoo
Gentoo users will see this error because [[https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/net-mail/mu/files/70mu-gentoo.el#n2][the =net-mail/mu= package eagerly loads
=mu4e= (which pulls in =org=) much too early]]; before Emacs reads =~/.emacs.d=.
So early, that it loads the built-in version of org-mode, rather than the newer
version that Doom installs.

Later versions of the =net-mail/mu= package have [[https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/net-mail/mu?id=770e1fccb119fbce8ba6d16021a3598123f212ff][fixed this issue]], but you may
need to switch to the unstable build of =net-mail/mu= to see it.