[mu4e] multiple account setup doesn't work as documented

[andreas-h]

@TheBB @darkfeline @nwolfe

For me, the multiple account setup doesn't work as advertised. In my init.el, I have the following:

(setq mu4e-account-alist
  '(("UniHB"
     (user-mail-address "me@uni-bremen.de")
     (smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.uni-bremen.de")
     (smtpmail-local-domain "uni-bremen.de")
     (smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.uni-bremen.de")
     (smtpmail-stream-type 'ssl)
     (smtpmail-smtp-service 465))

    ("Private"
     (user-mail-address "me@posteo.de")
     (smtpmail-default-smtp-server "posteo.de")
     (smtpmail-local-domain "posteo.de")
     (smtpmail-smtp-server "posteo.de")
     (smtpmail-stream-type "ssl")
     (smtpmail-smtp-service 465))))
(mu4e/mail-account-reset)

Apparently, mu4e-account-alist is not defined yet at the end of the mu4e layer's package.el. At least, when I modify the last lines of package.el to read

(message "WILL NOW SET HOOK")
(when mu4e-account-alist
  (message "YEAY SETTING HOOK")
  (add-hook 'mu4e-compose-pre-hook 'mu4e/set-account)
  (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'mu4e/mail-account-reset)))))

I only get the first message in my *messages* buffer, and not the second one. However, when I eval those lines in the *scratch* buffer afterwards, I get both messages.

Any help in resolving this is greatly appreciated =)

[darkfeline]

I ran into this "bug" recently too.

The mu4e layer expects mu4e-account-alist to be defined before the layer is loaded. I believe this gives you a few options (someone correct this as needed):

1. Set mu4e-account-alist in dotspacemacs/layers: (mu4e :variables mu4e-account-alist t) (Note I used a dummy setting here and actually set mu4e-account-alist in dotspacemacs/user-config).
2. Set mu4e-account-alist in dotspacemacs/user-init (again, you can use a dummy setting to t or actually set it here, your choice).
3. Set mu4e-account-alist in <my-layer>/pre-init-mu4e (<my-layer> being your personal configuration layer).

[andreas-h]

thanks, that fixed it =)

[nwolfe]

@andreas-h @darkfeline FYI I tweaked this behavior in the past here: ea9ce5e

I only used a single email account, and I didn't want to be bothered to define this special mu4e-account-alist when my existing config worked fine, so I made that change above to not enforce this variable definition.

Seems like there's still some room for improvement here where we wouldn't have to pre-define this value in the layer declaration, but this is a step in the right direction.

[kostajh]

Not sure if ya'll want a new issue created, but the docs should be updated in any case to use the new Contexts feature in the latest stable mu4e release.

[darkfeline]

I think we can rip out the multiple account support entirely with the new mu4e-contexts feature. I'll create a PR for it.

Here: #4836

[d12frosted]

Fixed with released of Spacemacs v0.200. Let us know if you still have any problems with this issue.