
A Unix-style mail setup (2012) - HerrMonnezza
http://dev.gentoo.org/~tomka/mail.html
======
spindritf
I used to have a "homely mutt"[1] kind of setup but eventually got tired of
offline imap, msmtp, and all that.

Now I use mutt only directly on the server running exim. Painless support for
multiple domains, completely arbitrary from addresses with no configuration
necessary, no imap, no magic directories showing up for no reason, no weird
certificates, just pure ssh... It's the way to do it.

Otherwise, I stick to generic clients (Google webmail and Android app).

[1] [http://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/10/the-homely-
mutt/](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/10/the-homely-mutt/)

~~~
bigbugbag
how exactly does your setup works when offline ?

what if you do understand the internet and stay away from centralized third
party solutions and rather self-host your email because it is too sensitive to
give away to giant corporations ?

~~~
spindritf
I don't really understand this comment. You can host exim+mutt anywhere. With
a megacorp, in the cloud, even under your bed... The only problem you face is
getting the giants to accept your mail so you will probably want another
server acting as a smarthost if you host at home.

I also don't remember being involuntarily offline in the last four years so I
don't optimize for it any more. Plus, it's email. It will be there when I get
to it. You can incur hours of downtime and other servers will just dutifully
keep trying to deliver messages. It's a pretty laid back service.

~~~
mnw21cam
_Well-configured_ other servers will just dutifully keep trying to deliver
messages. There are plenty of less well configured servers out there.

For instance, I have greylisting configured on my primary SMTP server, but no
greylisting on my secondary (because it's run by a friend, not me). Some
servers will contact mine, offer a message, get told "try again", and just not
bother, even though they could try the secondary and get through straight
away. Other servers will give up after failing to deliver for 30 minutes.

------
danieldk
Also worth mentioning is Karel Zak's mutt fork:

[https://github.com/karelzak/mutt-kz](https://github.com/karelzak/mutt-kz)

It uses notmuch for mail indexing/tagging/searching and allows you to use
notmuch searches as virtual folders.

~~~
gooseyard
seconded- especially now that notmuch-inject exists. When I first started
playing with mutt-kz, I had some difficulty getting the flow through procmail
into notmuch, but it's pretty painless now. I've been using it daily for 2-3
years and can't imagine working without it now.

~~~
deong
notmuch-inject? I hadn't heard of this, and google is turning up nothing. Care
to elaborate for a line or two?

~~~
e12e
Maybe gp means: [http://notmuchmail.org/manpages/notmuch-
insert-1/](http://notmuchmail.org/manpages/notmuch-insert-1/) ?

Sounds like it should work nicely with server side filtering/delivery?

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warcode
Are there any projects trying to reduce the email-server complexity on linux?

Mailpile seem to be going in the right direction on the client side, but I
have yet to find any self-contained MTA/IMAP solution. With self-contained I
mean its configured in one location, doesn't use linux users and has easily
extendable storage options.

~~~
nemoniac
Soverign provides a good basis for an email server setup. It describes itself
as a "set of Ansible playbooks to build and maintain your own private cloud:
email, calendar, contacts, file sync, IRC bouncer, VPN, and more."

[https://github.com/al3x/sovereign](https://github.com/al3x/sovereign)

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peatmoss
Is anyone here using GNUS as their daily email client? I used to use mutt back
in the day, and I was kind of surprised that the author was using emacs with
mutt rather than just using emacs.

That said, I got as far as getting emacs / gnus to sync a gmail account before
realizing that I'd need to spend some serious time reading manuals and
tweaking configuration before I'd be able to use it day to day.

~~~
namarkiv
I used to run GNUS, I switched to mu4e over a year ago, and haven't looked
back.

~~~
peatmoss
I'm looking at the webpage now. Sounds like it tries to resolve some of the
thread locking issues. Not sure I'd use the orgmode -> rich text email
feature, but that is pretty awesome. Anything in particular you find superior
to GNUS or otherwise useful?

~~~
namarkiv
Well, the idea behind mu is to use searches to filter your email instead of
using imap folders. Indexing does feel a little slow sometimes, but it is far
better than writing procmail rules to filter email.

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k2enemy
I use a setup very similar to this on OS X.

\- After using offlineimap for years, I recently switched to mbsync/isync. It
is way faster and has been much more stable.

\- After a stint with sup ([http://supmua.org](http://supmua.org)), I'm now
back to mutt. I really love sup's interface, but it was a little too flaky.

\- I use a script called "mail" that starts a tmux session then launches mutt
in it:

    
    
        #!/bin/sh
        tmux -2 new-session -d -s mail -n 'mutt' "export TERM=screen-256color; mutt"
        tmux select-window -t 1
        tmux attach-session -d -t mail
    

Then, in mutt I have the double-quote mapped to a macro that executes a shell
command to split the tmux window and launch a read-only instance of mutt:

    
    
        macro index,pager \" "<enter-command> \
            unset wait_key<enter><shell-escape> \
            tmux split-window -h \"mutt -R\"<enter>" "open new mutt"
    

This is my way of having an "async compose" pane for writing emails. I had
tried replacing the mutt EDITOR variable with a command that splits the window
and launches vim, but there are a lot of annoyances with that approach.
Launching another mutt is way easier, and it also allows for easily viewing
two emails at once.

That said, there are a lot of nice tips in here that I'll incorporate into my
setup. Thanks for posting!

------
dllthomas
Very nice. My biggest objection is to Mutt (which I agree sucks _less_ than
many options). It is not clear to me that "mail client" is one job - I find
myself happiest with nmh.

------
mike-cardwell
Re address books and mutt. I recently integrated my Owncloud contacts into
Mutt by following these instructions:

[http://got-tty.org/archives/mutt-kontakte-aus-owncloud-nutze...](http://got-
tty.org/archives/mutt-kontakte-aus-owncloud-nutzen.html)

They're in German, but they're easy enough to follow even if you don't speak
it (I don't). It works really well.

~~~
unhammer
See also [http://karra-asynk.appspot.com/](http://karra-asynk.appspot.com/)
which syncs CardDAV (e.g. OwnCloud) with MS Outlook with Emacs BBDB with
Google Contacts with MS Exchange

------
bravura
I've been considering switching to an IMAP/mutt email setting on the desktop.

But what is the best mobile / iOS client to use?

Which mobile client meets the desiderata he lists (fast, works offline, etc.)?

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peterwwillis
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/](http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-
INDEX/)

------
nextos
I really like mutt + isync (for painless imap syncing) + mu (for indexing and
address completion)

