dotfiles/modules/email.org

#+TITLE: Email
#+AUTHOR: Christopher James Hayward
#+EMAIL: chris@chrishayward.xyz

#+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :tangle email.el :comments org
#+PROPERTY: header-args:shell      :tangle no
#+PROPERTY: header-args            :results silent :eval no-export :comments org

#+OPTIONS: num:nil toc:nil todo:nil tasks:nil tags:nil
#+OPTIONS: skip:nil author:nil email:nil creator:nil timestamp:nil

#+ATTR_ORG: :width 420px
#+ATTR_HTML: :width 420px
#+ATTR_LATEX: :width 420px
[[../docs/images/2021-02-13-example-mu4e.gif]]

Plain text email delivered via *mu*[fn:1], *mu4e*[fn:2] and *mbsync*[fn:3]. I run my *own email server*[fn:4], so your configuration may differ from mine. 

* Sync
:PROPERTIES:
:header-args: :tangle ../config/mbsyncrc :comments org
:END:

This is the *mbsyncrc*[fn:3] file I use to synchronize my local mail with my server.

#+begin_src conf
IMAPStore xyz-remote
Host mail.chrishayward.xyz
User chris@chrishayward.xyz
PassCmd "pass chrishayward.xyz/chris"
SSLType IMAPS

MaildirStore xyz-local
Path ~/.cache/mail/
Inbox ~/.cache/mail/inbox
SubFolders Verbatim

Channel xyz
Master :xyz-remote:
Slave :xyz-local:
Patterns * !Archives
Create Both
Expunge Both
SyncState *
#+end_src

** Create symbolic link

The system typically expects to find this file at ~$HOME/.mbsyncrc~, but you may also specify a custom path if launching the command using arguments. I chose to symlink the default location to my repository.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(dotfiles/symlink "~/.emacs.d/config/mbsyncrc"
                  "~/.mbsyncrc")
#+end_src

This repository also contains my personal encrypted auth info.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(dotfiles/symlink "~/.emacs.d/config/authinfo.gpg"
                  "~/.authinfo.gpg")
#+end_src

** Installing the software

Download *mbsync*[fn:3] as part of the ~isync~ package on Ubuntu/Debian.

#+begin_src shell
sudo apt install -y isync
#+end_src

*Mu4e*[fn:2] is packaged for Ubuntu/Debian, but has a few dependencies to build for Emacs. I've had a lot of problems on multiple distributions trying to use the packaged versions. I would recommend installing it from source, which I detail here: https://chrishayward.xyz/posts/ https://chrishayward.xyz/posts/installing-mu-mu4e-from-source/

#+begin_src shell
sudo apt install -y mu4e libgmime-3.0-dev libxapian-dev
#+end_src

* Indexing
:PROPERTIES:
:header-args: :tangle no
:END:

Once mail has been synchronized you need to init, and index it using *mu*[fn:1].

#+begin_src shell
mbsync -a
mu init --maildir="~/.cache/mail" --my-address="chris@chrishayward.xyz"
mu index
#+end_src

* Integration

After syncing and indexing the mail is ready for Emacs. Download and install *mu4e*[fn:2] and configure the *mail account*[fn:3].

+ Update every 5 minutes
+ Scale text for all devices
+ Sign outbound mail with GPG key
+ Configure mail account(s)

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package mu4e
  :load-path "~/.local/source/mu/mu4e/"
  :custom (mu4e-maildir "~/.cache/mail")
          (mu4e-update-interval (* 5 60))
          (mu4e-get-mail-command "mbsync -a")
          (mu4e-compose-format-flowed t)
          (mu4e-change-filenames-when-moving t)
          (message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)  
          (mml-secure-openpgp-signers '("37AB1CB72B741E478CA026D43025DCBD46F81C0F"))
          (mu4e-compose-signature (concat "Chris Hayward\n"
                                          "https://chrishayward.xyz\n"))
  :config
  (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime)
  (setq mu4e-contexts
    (list
      ;; Main
      ;; chris@chrishayward.xyz
      (make-mu4e-context
        :name "Main"
        :match-func
          (lambda (msg)
            (when msg 
              (string-prefix-p "/Main" (mu4e-message-field msg :maildir))))
        :vars
          '((user-full-name . "Christopher James Hayward")
            (user-mail-address . "chris@chrishayward.xyz")
            (smtpmail-smtp-server . "mail.chrishayward.xyz")
            (smtpmail-smtp-service . 587)
            (smtpmail-stream-type . starttls))))))
#+end_src

** Keybinding

Create a keybinding to open the mail dashboard with =SPC m=.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(dotfiles/leader
 "m" '(mu4e :which-key "Mail"))
#+end_src

** Desktop notifications

Receive notifications for incoming mail via the *mu4e-alert*[fn:5] package.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package mu4e-alert
 :after mu4e
 :custom (mu4e-alert-set-default-style 'libnotify)
 :config (mu4e-alert-enable-notifications)
         (mu4e-alert-enable-mode-line-display))
#+end_src

* Footnotes

[fn:1] https://codewith.mu/en/download

[fn:2] https://emacswiki.org/emacs/mu4e

[fn:3] https://isync.sourceforge.io

[fn:4] mailto:chris@chrishayward.xyz

[fn:5] https://github.com/iqbalansari/mu4e-alert