346 lines
13 KiB
Org Mode
346 lines
13 KiB
Org Mode
#+TITLE:mu
|
|
[[https://github.com/djcb/mu/blob/master/COPYING][https://img.shields.io/github/license/djcb/mu?logo=gnu&.svg]]
|
|
[[https://en.cppreference.com][https://img.shields.io/badge/Made%20with-C/CPP-1f425f?logo=c&.svg]]
|
|
[[https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/djcb/mu][https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/djcb/mu.svg]]
|
|
[[https://github.com/djcb/mu/graphs/contributors][https://img.shields.io/github/contributors/djcb/mu.svg]]
|
|
[[https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues][https://img.shields.io/github/issues/djcb/mu.svg]]
|
|
[[https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Arfe][https://img.shields.io/github/issues/djcb/mu/rfe?color=008b8b.svg]]
|
|
[[https://github.com/djcb/mu/pull/new][https://img.shields.io/badge/PRs-welcome-brightgreen.svg]]\\
|
|
[[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][https://img.shields.io/badge/Emacs-28.1-922793?logo=gnu-emacs&logoColor=b39ddb&.svg]]
|
|
[[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e/Installation.html#Dependencies-for-Debian_002fUbuntu][https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-Linux-2e8b57?logo=linux&.svg]]
|
|
[[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e/Installation.html#Building-from-a-release-tarball-1][https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-FreeBSD-8b3a3a?logo=freebsd&logoColor=c32136&.svg]]
|
|
[[https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/mu#default][https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-macOS-101010?logo=apple&logoColor=ffffff&.svg]]
|
|
|
|
Welcome to ~mu~!
|
|
|
|
With the enormous amounts of e-mail many people gather and the importance of
|
|
e-mail message in our work-flows, it's essential to quickly deal with all that
|
|
mail - in particular, to instantly find that one important e-mail you need right
|
|
now, and quickly file away message for later use.
|
|
|
|
~mu~ is a set of command-line tools for dealing with e-mail messages stored in the
|
|
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir][Maildir]]-format. ~mu~'s goal is to help you to quickly find the messages you need,
|
|
view them, extract attachments, and so on.
|
|
|
|
On top of ~mu~, some related tools are built:
|
|
|
|
- ~mu4e~: a full-featured e-mail client that runs inside [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU/Emacs]] (more below)
|
|
|
|
- ~mu-scm~: bindings for the [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html][Guile/Scheme]] programming language (version 3.0 and
|
|
later)
|
|
|
|
#+begin_html
|
|
<img src="assets/mu-structure.png" alt="mu structure diagram"/>
|
|
#+end_html
|
|
|
|
After indexing your messages into a [[http://www.xapian.org][Xapian]]-database, you can search them through
|
|
a query language. You can use various message fields or words in the body text
|
|
to find the right messages.
|
|
|
|
~mu~ is written in C++; ~mu4e~ is written in ~elisp~ and ~mu-scm~ is written in a mix of
|
|
C++ and Scheme.
|
|
|
|
~mu~ is available in many Linux distributions (e.g. Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora)
|
|
under the name ~maildir-utils~; apparently because they don't like short names.
|
|
All of the code is distributed under the terms of the [[https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html][GNU General Public License
|
|
version 3]] (or higher).
|
|
|
|
The ~mu~ project welcomes contributions; see the Github issue list and [[IDEAS.org]].
|
|
|
|
Users and developers are encouraged to join the [[https://groups.google.com/g/mu-discuss/][mu-discuss]] mailing-list.
|
|
|
|
* Versions
|
|
|
|
*mu* attempts to balance development speed and stability.
|
|
|
|
Active development takes place on ~master~ (the 1.14 series), and we maintain the
|
|
~release/1.12~ branch as well, for any critical fixes.
|
|
|
|
Every few months, we release a stable version (e.g. ~1.14.0~); development then
|
|
continues in ~master~, with ~-pre<n>~ (e.g. ~1.14.1-pre1~): ~-pre~-suffixed versions
|
|
refer to the current _development_ code, until it is released (and then looses its
|
|
~-pre~ suffix, i.e., becomes the ~1.14.1~ release).
|
|
|
|
Hence, generally we recommend the latest 1.14 release; if you want to avoid any
|
|
changes except critical bug-fixes, use the latest 1.12 [[https://github.com/djcb/mu/releases/][release]]; and finally, if
|
|
you want to track active development, use ~master~.
|
|
|
|
Overall, we try to avoid incompatible changes, but sometimes this is necessary,
|
|
for example to update the versions of required libraries.
|
|
|
|
* Installation
|
|
|
|
Note: building from source is an /advanced/ subject, especially if something goes
|
|
wrong. The below simple examples are a start, but all tools involved have many
|
|
options; there are differences between systems, versions etc. So if this is all
|
|
a bit daunting we recommend to wait for someone else to build it for you, such
|
|
as a Linux distribution. Many have packages available.
|
|
|
|
** Requirements
|
|
|
|
To be able to build ~mu~, ensure you have:
|
|
|
|
- a C++20 compiler (~gcc~ and ~clang~ are known to work)
|
|
- development packages for /Xapian/ and /GMime/ and /GLib/ (see ~meson.build~ for the
|
|
versions)
|
|
- basic tools such as ~make~, ~sed~, ~grep~
|
|
- ~meson~
|
|
|
|
For ~mu4e~, you also need ~emacs~, version 28 or later.
|
|
|
|
Note, support for Windows is very much _experimental_, that is, it works for some
|
|
people, but we can't really support it due to lack of the specific expertise.
|
|
Help is welcome!
|
|
|
|
** Building
|
|
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ git clone https://github.com/djcb/mu.git
|
|
$ cd mu
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
|
|
~mu~ uses ~meson~ for building, so you can use that directly, and all the usual
|
|
commands apply. You can also use it _indirectly_ through the provided ~Makefile~,
|
|
which provides a number of useful targets.
|
|
|
|
For instance, using the ~Makefile~, you could install ~mu~ using:
|
|
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ ./autogen.sh && make
|
|
$ sudo make install
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
|
|
You can of course also run ~meson~ directly (see the ~meson~ documentation for more
|
|
details):
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ meson setup build
|
|
$ meson compile -C build
|
|
$ meson install -C build
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
|
|
* Initial setup
|
|
|
|
Most ~mu~ commands and ~mu4e~ require setting up the database, which is needed only
|
|
once. For this, there is the ~mu init~ command. See its manpage for all the
|
|
details, but could look something like:
|
|
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ mu init --maildir=~/Maildir \
|
|
--personal-address=jim@example.com \
|
|
--personal-address=bob@example.com \
|
|
--ignored-address='.*reply*.'
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
|
|
This creates your database, specifies some of your personal addresses, and some
|
|
addresses (a regular expression) that should be ignored from the contacts-cache
|
|
used for address-autocompletion in ~mu4e~.
|
|
|
|
After this step, we can index our maildir:
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ mu index
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
The first time you do this, it can take a few minutes, depending on how many
|
|
messages you have. Afterwards, you can run ~mu index~ e.g., after retrieving
|
|
messages from a remote server.
|
|
|
|
After that has completed you can try to find some messages with some simple
|
|
queries:
|
|
#+begin_example
|
|
$ mu find hello
|
|
#+end_example
|
|
|
|
* Mu4e
|
|
|
|
Mu4e is an e-mail client for [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU/Emacs]] that works on top of ~mu~.
|
|
|
|
#+begin_html
|
|
<img src="assets/mu4e-1.14-screenshot.jpeg" alt="drowning in email"/>
|
|
#+end_html
|
|
|
|
~mu4e~ is shipped as part of the ~mu~ package, and the versions must match.
|
|
|
|
Since there are so many different ways people use e-mail, there are a lot of
|
|
ways to customize it to your needs; see the [[https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e/][Mu4e Reference Manual]] for all the
|
|
details, here we include quick-start instructions, in the form of ~use-package~
|
|
declaration.
|
|
|
|
Much of it is commented-out, pick the parts that best fit your particular needs;
|
|
see the manual for a deeper dive.
|
|
|
|
#+begin_src elisp
|
|
(use-package mu4e
|
|
:ensure nil
|
|
;; :load-path "path/to/mu4e"
|
|
:config
|
|
;;;; Basics
|
|
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-mu-binary "/path/to/mu") ; only needed if mu is not in PATH
|
|
(setq mail-user-agent 'mu4e) ;; mu4e as the default emacs mail program
|
|
|
|
;; Identify yourself. Not strictly necessary.
|
|
;; (setq
|
|
;; user-mail-address "mickey@example.com"
|
|
;; user-full-name "Mickey Mouse")
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
;;;; Retrieving mail
|
|
;;
|
|
;; Here, put the command you use for getting mail from some
|
|
;; remote server to your local Maildir. You can leave it at its
|
|
;; default when you have local delivery (rare these days)
|
|
;;
|
|
;; The command depends on your local setup, e.g.:
|
|
;; "offlineimap", "mbsync", "fetchmail", ... or some shell script
|
|
(setq mu4e-get-mail-command "/bin/true" ;;
|
|
mu4e-index-lazy-check t ;; quick check
|
|
mu4e-update-interval 180) ;; check every 3 minutes
|
|
;;
|
|
;;;; Reading mail
|
|
;;
|
|
;; You need to tell mu4e where it can find certain mail folders
|
|
;; in your Maildir; these are the paths relative to your maildir-root.
|
|
;; (setq
|
|
;; mu4e-inbox-folder "/inbox"
|
|
;; mu4e-sent-folder "/sent"
|
|
;; mu4e-drafts-folder "/drafts"
|
|
;; mu4e-trash-folder "/trash")
|
|
;;
|
|
;; For Gmail, these could look something like:
|
|
;; (setq
|
|
;; mu4e-inbox-folder "/INBOX"
|
|
;; mu4e-sent-folder "/[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
|
|
;; mu4e-drafts-folder "/drafts"
|
|
;; mu4e-trash-folder "/trash")
|
|
;; ;; (here we keep /drafts & /trash local)
|
|
|
|
;; define some shortcuts to maildirs you use often
|
|
;; the :key defines the shortcut key, the other parameters
|
|
;; determine what is (not) shown in the main-view. See the
|
|
;; `mu4e-maildir-shortcuts' docstring.
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
|
|
;; '((:maildir "/inbox" :key ?i :hide-if-no-unread t :favorite t)
|
|
;; (:maildir "/lists" :key ?l :hide-if-no-unread t)
|
|
;; (:maildir "/sent" :key ?s :hide-unread t))))
|
|
|
|
;; Defaults to homedir. Can also be a function, for file-specific
|
|
;; dirs; see docstring.
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-attachment-dir "~/Downloads")
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
;;;; Sending mail
|
|
;;
|
|
;; Mail sending goes through the Emacs smtpmail package
|
|
;; the exact settings depend on your SMTP provider
|
|
(setq
|
|
send-mail-function smtpmail-send-it
|
|
message-send-mail-function smtpmail-send-it
|
|
;; smtpmail-smtp-user "user@example.com"
|
|
;; smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.example.com"
|
|
;; smtpmail-smtp-service 465
|
|
;; smtpmail-stream-type 'tls
|
|
)
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
;;;; Extras
|
|
;;
|
|
;; There are *many* more settings to customize mu4e. Here are a few common
|
|
;; ones; just some examples, tweak to your preferences.
|
|
|
|
;; prefer text when mails have both text and html
|
|
;; (with-eval-after-load "mm-decode"
|
|
;; (add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/html")
|
|
;; (add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/richtext")
|
|
;; (add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "multipart/related"))
|
|
|
|
;; Some visual tweaks
|
|
(setq mu4e-use-fancy-chars t) ;; allow for unicode emojis
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
;;;; Custom bookmarks / queries
|
|
;; e.g.:
|
|
;; (add-to-list 'mu4e-bookmarks
|
|
;; '( :name "Inbox messages in the last 7 days"
|
|
;; :query (lambda ()
|
|
;; (format "maildir:/inbox AND date:%s"
|
|
;; (format-time-string
|
|
;; "%Y%m%d.."
|
|
;; (subtract-time (current-time)
|
|
;; (days-to-time 7)))))
|
|
;; :key ?w))
|
|
|
|
;; Tweak headers display; i.e. what headers to show, sizes etc.
|
|
;; Eg:
|
|
;; (setq
|
|
;; mu4e-headers-date-format "%Y-%m-%d"
|
|
;; mu4e-headers-time-format "%H:%M"
|
|
;; mu4e-headers-fields
|
|
;; '((:human-date . 10)
|
|
;; (:flags . 4)
|
|
;; (:from-or-to . 20)
|
|
;; (:mailing-list . 8)
|
|
;; (:maildir . 8)
|
|
;; (:labels . 8)
|
|
;; (:thread-subject . nil)))
|
|
|
|
;; Refiling a messages ('r'), i.e., move messages to some other folder,
|
|
;; based on their properties. mu4e-refile-folder can be a folder-name
|
|
;; or a function taking a message and returning a folder-name
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-refile-folder
|
|
;; (lambda (msg)
|
|
;; (cond
|
|
;; ;; all messages sent by me go to the sent folder
|
|
;; ((mu4e-message-sent-by-me msg) (mu4e-get-sent-folder msg))
|
|
;; ;; all mu-related messages go to the mu folder
|
|
;; ((mu4e-message-contact-field-matches msg :to
|
|
;; "mu-discuss@googlegroups.com")
|
|
;; "/mu")
|
|
;; ;; some work-related senders
|
|
;; ((seq-some
|
|
;; (lambda (addr) (mu4e-message-contact-field-matches msg :from addr))
|
|
;; `(,(rx "boss@company.com" eos)
|
|
;; ,(rx "lucy@bookkeeper.com" eos)
|
|
;; ,(rx "jim@taxes.gov" eos)))
|
|
;; "/work")
|
|
;; ;; everything else goes to /archive
|
|
;; (t
|
|
;; "/archive"))))
|
|
|
|
;; Tweak the message-view
|
|
;; (setq
|
|
;; mu4e-view-date-format "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"
|
|
;; mu4e-view-fields
|
|
;; '(:from :to :cc :bcc :subject :flags :date :maildir :mailing-list))
|
|
|
|
;; with nerd-icons or all-the-icons installed, you can get some icons when
|
|
;; view messaages, e.g.
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-file-name-to-icon-function #'nerd-icons-icon-for-file)
|
|
;; or
|
|
;; (setq mu4e-file-name-to-icon-function #'all-the-icons-icon-for-file)
|
|
|
|
;; Set a message signature:
|
|
;; (setq message-signature
|
|
;; (concat
|
|
;; "User McUserFace\n"
|
|
;; "http://www.example.com\n"))
|
|
|
|
(setq mu4e-attachment-dir "~/Desktop")
|
|
;; this can also be function that takes a filename and mime-type
|
|
;; and returns a string (path)
|
|
|
|
;; add an 'action' (press 'a', then 'V' when in the message-view, to show
|
|
;; current message in an external web-browsser
|
|
(add-to-list 'mu4e-view-actions '("ViewBrowser" . mu4e-action-view-in-browser) t)
|
|
|
|
:hook
|
|
;; tweak the composer
|
|
((mu4e-compose-mode . (lambda ()
|
|
(set-fill-column 72)
|
|
(flyspell-mode)))
|
|
;; allow for inserting attachments with dired,
|
|
;; with `M-x gnus-dired-attach'
|
|
(dired-mode . turn-on-gnus-dired-mode))
|
|
|
|
:bind ;; the Mu4e transient menu
|
|
(("C-c m" . mu4e-transient-menu)))
|
|
#+end_src
|