notmuch + emacs + offlineimap configuration procedure

Configure offlineimap to fetch emails from your gmail server.

1. Copy the default config file

   $ cp offlineimap.conf.minimal ~/.offlineimaprc
   

   If you set $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, instead you should

   $ cp offlineimap.conf.minimal $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/offlineimap/config
   

2. Edit the config file

   My config file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/offlineimap/config is

   $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/offlineimap/config

   [general]
   accounts = Accountname
   maxsyncaccounts = 1
   
   [Account Accountname]
   localrepository = Accountname-Local
   remoterepository = Accountname-Remote
   synclabels = yes
   
   postsynchook = ~/.config/offlineimap/postsync.sh
   
   [Repository Accountname-Local]
   type = GmailMaildir
   localfolders = ~/mail/Accountname
   
   [Repository Accountname-Remote]
   type = Gmail
   remoteuser = Accountname@gmail.com
   remotepass = yourpassword
   
   sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
   
   folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in ['[Gmail]/All Mail']
   nametrans = lambda foldername: re.sub('^\[Gmail\]/All Mail$', 'all',foldername)
   

   Note that

   • To use this, we should change Accountname, yourpassword appropriately.
   • We have to change the path of postsysnchook, sslcacertfile to adjust our environment.

   Above details

   • Every time the local mailbox is synchronized, notmuch commands for refreshing and tagging should be executed. So the shell-script postsync.sh, which is described later, are hooked.

     postsynchook = ~/.config/offlineimap/postsync.sh
     

   • To synchronize Gmail account, need the certification file due to SSL connection. Put your local SSL certification file to sslcacertfile.

     sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
     

   • Gmail has many virtual folders linked to its tags and these folders share some e-mails. If all folders are synchronized to the local, the same e-mail is downloaded to multiple folders. Therefore, only "All Mail" on Gmail is synchronized and its local folder name is changed to "all" for simplicity.

     folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in ['[Gmail]/All Mail']
     nametrans = lambda foldername: re.sub('^\[Gmail\]/All Mail$', 'all',foldername)
     

   • Regarding Gmail authentication, since I don't know OAUTH2 well, I use the app password of Google 2-Step-Verification (See Sign in using App Passwords). Subsitute it in yourpassword.

3. To see offlineimap to work well, execute

   $ offlineimap
   

   , and if ~/mail/Accountname/all/ is created and your mails are stored under the folder, it works well.

On above settings offlineimap can fetch e-mails from your gmail server. Next offlineimap is configured to be automatically executed. I decided to use systemd.timer, which execute the target unit file periodically. The target is one-shot service that execute offlineimap.

1. Copy installed offlineimap.timer, offlineimap-oneshot.service and mail.target to ~/.config/systemd/user/.

   $ cp offlineimap.timer offlineimap-oneshot.service mail.target ~/.config/systemd/user/
   

   If you don't have mail.target, you can create the following.

   ~/.config/systemd/user/mail.target
   

   [Unit]
   Description=Mail Target
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=default.target
   

2. (Optional) I edited offlineimap.timer to execute offlineimap-oneshot.service soon (1m) after systemd startup and every 5 minutes.

   ~/.config/systemd/user/offlineimap.timer
   

   [Unit]
   Description=Offlineimap Query Timer
   
   [Timer]
   OnStartupSec=1m
   OnUnitInactiveSec=5m
   Unit=offlineimap-oneshot.service
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=mail.target
   

3. On offlineimap-oneshot.service, comment out [Install] section to make it a static service, otherwise this service is executed on every startup and slows its process.

   ~/.config/systemd/user/offlineimap-oneshot.service
   

   [Unit]
   Description=Offlineimap Service (oneshot)
   
   [Service]
   Type=oneshot
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/offlineimap -o -u syslog
   # Give 12 seconds for offlineimap to gracefully stop before hard killing it.
   TimeoutStopSec=12
   # Restart=on-watchdog
   # WatchdogSec=300
   
   # [Install]
   # WantedBy=mail.target
   

4. Make These files effective.

   $ systemctl --user enable mail.target
   $ systemctl --user enable offlineimap-oneshot.service
   $ systemctl --user enable offlineimap.timer
   

By these settings the 1st goal are satisfied.

Notmuch emacs interface files mostly have already been installed with Notmuch. To load the interface files when the emacs command notmuch is executed, the following is added to your emacs config file (~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el).

~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el

(autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)

If you configure more, you should use Emacs customization interface executing the command M-x customize-group RET notmuch RET.

Using notmuch on emacs, you will use message-mode when you compose emails. The configuration of message-mode is

~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el

;; setup the mail address and use name
(setq mail-user-agent 'message-user-agent)
(setq user-mail-address "Accountname@gmail.com"
      user-full-name "Accountname")
;; smtp config
(setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com"
      message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)

;; report problems with the smtp server
(setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
;; add Cc and Bcc headers to the message buffer
(setq message-default-mail-headers "Cc: \nBcc: \n")
;; postponed message is put in the following draft directory
(setq message-auto-save-directory "~/mail/draft")
(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)
;; change the directory to store the sent mail
(setq message-directory "~/mail/")

On this config the Gmail server is used as smtp server. But above settings don't provide authentication infomation, so Emacs looks into ~/.authinfo or ~/.authinfo.gpg. About these files, see Emacs Wiki: Sending Mail. Sent and draft mails should be put in the directory Notmuch can read.

Using the notmuch emacs interface, I often refresh my local mail box from emacs. Followings are the configuration to execute offlineimap on emacs.

~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el

(defun notmuch-exec-offlineimap ()
    "execute offlineimap"
    (interactive)
    (set-process-sentinel
     (start-process-shell-command "offlineimap"
                                  "*offlineimap*"
                                  "offlineimap -o")
     '(lambda (process event)
        (notmuch-refresh-all-buffers)
        (let ((w (get-buffer-window "*offlineimap*")))
          (when w
            (with-selected-window w (recenter (window-end)))))))
    (popwin:display-buffer "*offlineimap*"))

(add-to-list 'popwin:special-display-config
             '("*offlineimap*" :dedicated t :position bottom :stick t
               :height 0.4 :noselect t))

Configuration details

• Used sentinel to refresh all notmuch-related buffers and show the end of the output of offlineimap on *offlineimap* buffer.
• *offlineimap* buffer is shown with a popup window of emacs popwin package.