Not much mail

Today, we will see how to read and send mails locally for fast search. Using the powerful notmuch, a local database will be created. By default, notmuch do not move or remove mails but just operate on tags. 5 steps are needed:

1. synchronize mail locally (mbsync)
2. index and tag mail (notmuch)
3. use an email client (emacs interface to notmuch), with msmtp for sending mail
4. move mails according to the tags (afew)

Once everything is setup, you will only need to run notmuch new.

Updated on: 2025-02-20

Synchronize mail locally (mbsync)

Mbsync setup with an Infomaniak email account with the following ~/.mbsyncrc. The list of folders is hardcoded in Patterns:

IMAPAccount infomaniak
Host mail.infomaniak.com
Port 993
User $USER
Pass  $PASS
SSLType IMAPS

IMAPStore info-remote
Account infomaniak

 MaildirStore info-local
Path ~/mail/
Inbox ~/mail/INBOX/
Subfoldersim

Channel info
Far :info-remote:
Near :info-local:
Patterns INBOX Archives Drafts Sent Spam Trash
Create Both
Expunge Both
SyncState *

Try it with mbsync -a.

Index and tag mail (notmuch)

For faster search, we create a local database for mails. This adds another layer on our stack as we will need to synchronize the database with local files. notmuch does not delete files ! Configuration is simple:

notmuch init

Use an email client (notmuch-emacs)

with doom-emacs, enable the notmuch interface in ~/.config/doom.d/init.el

:email
notmuch

Some setup is required for inbox: I want mails tagged as "new" only. Then archiving and deleting should remove the appropriate tags (note: afew should) Deleting is done either with d (adds +deleted) or SPC m d (call +notmuch-delete-tags defined below).

;; Mail settings
(after! notmuch
  (setq +notmuch-sync-backend "notmuch new"
        +notmuch-delete-tags '("+deleted" "-inbox" "-new" "-unread")
        +notmuch-home-function (lambda () (notmuch-search "tag:new"))
        notmuch-archive-tags '("+archive" "-inbox" "-new" "-unread")))

(setq sendmail-program "/usr/bin/msmtp" )

msmtp for sending mail

A simple version with password stored in plain text: ~/.msmtprc

defaults
auth           on
tls            on
tls_trust_file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
logfile        ~/.msmtp.log

account        infomaniak
host           mail.infomaniak.com
port           465
tls_starttls   off
from           $EMAIL
user           $EMAIL
password       $PASS

account default: infomaniak

Change permissions

$ chmod 600 ~/.msmtprc

Test it with :

echo "this is some content2" | msmtp -a infomaniak -- $EMAIL

Move mails according to the tags (afew)

notmuch will not rename or move files around. afew offers an easy way to do that. I use the default filters and I move files accordingly.

## This is the default filter chain
[SpamFilter]
[KillThreadsFilter]
[ListMailsFilter]
[ArchiveSentMailsFilter]

## Disable default behavior (all message not spam and not 'killed' have the inbox tag)
## [InboxFilter]

## Assume afew is run with --new
[Filter.1]
message = 'Remove new tag for archived and trashed mail'
query = folder:Archives OR tag:archive OR folder:Trash or tag:deleted
tags = -new;+archive

[MailMover]
folders = INBOX Archives
rename = True

## rules
## Assume afew is run with --new
INBOX = 'tag:deleted':Trash 'tag:archive':Archives
Archives = 'tag:deleted':Trash

Putting everything together

Create ~/mail/.notmuch/hooks/pre-new with

#!/bin/sh
mbsync -a

Create ~/mail/.notmuch/hooks/post-new with

#!/bin/sh
afew --new --tag
afew --new --move

Make both files executables with chmod +x. Then notmuch new will sync first, add tags and use afew for cleanup !