Mutt dotfiles

Robust Mutt configs with examples for the following account types:

• Generic IMAP/SMTP
• Google (Gmail/Gsuite etc) via IMAP/SMTP
• Microsoft Office365 via IMAP/SMTP
• Microsoft Office365 using DavMail (useful if app passwords or direct IMAP/SMTP access is disabled)

I've spent a long time endlessly tuning these configs to try and create a command-line-based, email setup that doesn't feel like a gimmick or a trade-off when compared to modern web/GUI-based email clients.

I use this every day personally and for my work. I'm currently contracting for a super corporate public sector organisation who use Office365, Outlook, Teams etc and I find this setup easier and more productive than using the standard Microsoft tooling.

Some Features

• Query and save contacts via abook, goobook or ldapsearch (e.g. for Office365 accounts, query only)
• Good calendar invite handling: render calendar invites inline and respond to them with A when viewing the calendar invite attachment
• Threads also contain emails sent by you like you see in modern email clients (this is achieved via notmuch)
• Nice handling of inline text/html rendering (use C-l to open up all links the email - great for quickly finding unsubscribe links)
• Secure configs (no hardcoded passwords etc)
• Fast global search of all mail in every account or all mail in a single account via NotMuch
• Everything looks really nice :)
• Includes all peripheral configs for isync, msmtp, notmuch etc

Setup

• Install any dependencies you need based on your use cases from the below list
• Move the stuff in .config into your existing .config directoy inside your home folder
• Move the stuff you need from the bin folder into /usr/local/bin (don't forget to chmod +x them)
• Go through each config file and customize it - there are comments/instructions in each file
• Enable any systemd services you need (or use something like cron)
• You probably want to set the ESCDELAY env var to 0 in your bashrc, zshrc etc

Dependencies

• NeoMutt (latest version, all compile options enabled)
• html2text (nicer HTML email rendering)
• glow (nicer HTML email rendering)
• Lynx (render HTML emails, W3m works well too)
• Notmuch (for email search)
• Isync (for syncing emails via IMAP)
• MSMTP (for sending emails via SMTP)
• python-vobject (for interacting with calendar invites)
• python-icalendar (for interacting with calendar invites)
• python-pytz (for interacting with calendar invites)
• python-tzlocal (for interacting with calendar invites)
• DavMail (if you want to use Office365/Outlook mail and the company locks down IMAP access)
• openldap (for using ldapsearch if you want to look up contacts on office365 etc - required DavMail)
• abook (basic contact management)
• goobook (if you want to use google contacts instead)
• gcalcli (if you want to import events into a google calendar)
• urlscan (to quickly show/open links within an email)
• pandoc (if you want to compose HTML emails in markdown)

Contents

• ./neomutt.desktop - a desktop file for opening mutt via the GUI inside the Kitty terminal. Stick it in /usr/share/applications
• bin/import_calendar_invite - imports a calendar invite into google calendar with gcalcli and then calls mutt-ical to respond to the invite
• bin/ldap_owa_query - allows contact searching via LDAP (used for coroprate office365/outlook accounts)
• bin/mailsync - a great script that syncs your mail, originally written by Luke Smith
• bin/mutt-ical - used to respond to email calendar invites
• bin/mutt-trim - clean up emails when quoting reply
• bin/mutt-nm-search-cached - search emails with notmuch
• bin/render-calendar-attachment.py - used to render email calendar invites in Mutt
• bin/mutt-viewical - used to render ical attachments in Mutt
• bin/beautiful_html_render - best approach I've found so far
• .config/isync/mbsyncrc - configuration file for isync (used to sync your emails). There are examples of many different account types to use as a starting point
• .config/glow/* - various settings and themes related to Glow
• .config/msmtp/config - configuration file for msmtp (used to send emails). There are examples of many different account types to use as a starting point
• .config/mutt/accounts/* - individual config files for each email account you wish to use in Mutt. There are examples of many different account types to use as a starting point
• .config/mutt/muttrc - the main Mutt config - use this to customize various settings/macros/bindings etc
• .config/mutt/styles.muttrc - my custom styling for Mutt - you shouldn't need to tweak this much/at all
• .config/mutt/mailcap - mailcap file for detrening how to render different types of emails/attachments - customize as needed (there's already quite a lot of handy stuff in there)
• .config/notmuch/notmuchrc - config file for notmuch (used for searching emails) - you will need to change some values in here such as your name/email
• .config/systemd/user/calendar-remind* - systemd timer/service files for repeatedly calling gcalcli remind (to generate notifications 15 mins before an event starts). Enable with systemctl --user enable calendar-remind.timer or delete if you don't need.
• .config/systemd/user/gcalcli* - systemd timer/service files for repeatedly calling gcalsync (to sync gcalcli with google calendar). Enable with systemctl --user enable gcalcli.timer or delete if you don't need.
• .config/systemd/user/mailsync* - systemd timer/service files for repeatedly calling mailsync (to sync your emails). Enable with systemctl --user enable mailsync.timer
• .config/systemd/user/vdirsyncer* - systemd timer/service files for repeatedly calling vdirsyncer sync (to sync your calendars). Enable with systemctl --user enable vdirsyncer.timer
• .config/vdirsyncer/config - example configs for vdirsyncer (used to sync calendars, I recommend using with Khal)

Key Bindings

All default keys are unbound to remove random, unwanted bindings and commands. Therefore all bindings are explicit.

Press ? inside Mutt to see available keybinds for your current context.

General

• q exit/close/back
• <escape> abort command
• ? help
• / search
• j scroll down
• k scroll up
• gg first item/top
• G last item/bottom
• <return> open/select/confirm
• <tab> trigger auto-complete
• n (when searching) search next
• Shift-n or p (when searching) search previous
• Ctrl-u scroll half a page upwards
• Ctrl-d scroll half a page downwards
• Ctrl-n next unread message
• Ctrl-p previous unread message
• zz center screen on current selection (similar to Vim)
• zt center screeen at top of current selection (similar to Vim)
• zb center scren at bottom of current selection (similar to Vim)

Index-specific

• <left> or <right> or h toggle thread open/collapse
• g i go to inbox
• g s go to sent items
• g d go to drafts
• g a go to archive
• g Shift-s go to spam
• f change folder
• Ctrl-b toggle sidebar
• Ctrl-j sidebar next item
• Ctrl-k sidebar previous item
• Ctrl-o open current sidebar item
• <space> flag current email (toggle)
• t tag current email (toggle)
• T tag current thread (toggle)
• Shift-m i move email(s) to inbox (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-m s move email(s) to sent items (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-m d move email(s) to drafts (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-m a move email(s) to archive (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-m Shift-S move email(s) to spam (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-c i copy email(s) to inbox (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-c s copy email(s) to sent items (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-c d copy email(s) to drafts (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-c a copy email(s) to archive (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-c Shift-S copy email(s) to spam (works on tagged emails)
• d mark current email(s) for deletion (works on tagged emails)
• u undelete email(s) (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-d quick delete current email(s) (works on tagged emails)
• Shift-a quick archive current email(s) (works on tagged emails)
• l add/edit label
• \ filter (limit) current mailbox (see filters cheat sheet)
• x clear current filter/limit
• Ctrl-i only show flagged messages (press x to clear)
• Shift-l filter by label
• + link current thread with a tagged thread
• c compose new mail
• Ctrl-r recall draft (postponed) message
• r reply to message
• Shift-r reply all
• Shift-f forward message
• v view email attachments
• | pipe current email to shell command
• Ctrl-a mark all messages as read
• $ sync mailbox to local filesystem
• o remote sync current account (send/receive from IMAP)

Pager-specific (email view)

• Shift-j next email
• Shift-k previous email
• r reply to message
• Shift-r reply all
• Shift-f forward message
• v view email attachments
• | pipe current email to shell command
• Ctrl-l call urlscan to show all links in the current email
• Shift-a (when viewing a calendar invite) respond to invite

Attachment List

• s save current attachemnt to ~/Downloads

Compose-specific (the confirmation screen before you send an email)

• y send
• a attach file
• p postpone message (save to drafts)
• e edit message
• t edit "to" field (recipient)
• f edit "from" field (sender)
• s edit subject
• c edit "CC" field
• b edit "BCC" field