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aerc-with-mbsync-postfix.md (3790B)

    

  1. ---
  2. title: aerc, mbsync, and postfix for maximum comfy offline email
  3. date: 2021-05-17
  4. ---
  6. I am the original author of the [aerc mail client][0], though my official
  7. relationship with it today is marginal at best. I think that, with hindsight,
  8. I've come to understand that the "always online" approach of aerc's IMAP
  9. implementation is less than ideal. The next email client (which will exist at
  10. some point!) will improve on this design, but, since it's still my favorite
  11. email client despite these flaws, they will have to be worked around.
  13. [0]: https://aerc-mail.org
  15. To this end, I have updated my personal aerc setup to take advantage of its
  16. [Maildir][1] support instead of having it use IMAP directly, then delegate IMAP
  17. to [mbsync][2]. This brings a much-needed level of robustness to the setup, as
  18. my Maildirs are available offline or on a flaky connection, and postfix will
  19. handle queueing and redelivery of outgoing emails in similar conditions.[^1]
  20. This allows me to read and reply to email entirely offline, and have things sync
  21. up automatically when a connection becomes available.
  23. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir
  24. [2]: https://isync.sourceforge.io
  26. [^1]: Postfix is probably overkill for this, but hey, it's what I know.
  28. The mbsync configuration format is kind of weird, but it is pretty flexible. My
  29. config file ended up looking like this:
  31. ```
  32. IMAPAccount migadu
  33. Host imap.migadu.com
  34. User sir@cmpwn.com
  35. Pass [...]
  36. SSLType IMAPS
  38. MaildirStore local
  39. Path ~/mail/
  40. INBOX ~/mail/INBOX
  41. SubFolders Verbatim
  43. IMAPStore migadu
  44. Account migadu
  46. Channel primary
  47. Far :migadu:
  48. Near :local:
  49. Patterns INBOX Archive Sent Junk
  50. Expunge Both
  51. ```
  53. The password can be configured to run an external command if you prefer to
  54. integrate this with your keyring or password manager. I updated my aerc
  55. `accounts.conf` as well, which was straightforward:
  57. ```
  58. [Drew]
  59. source = maildir://~/mail
  60. outgoing = /usr/sbin/sendmail
  61. from = Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>
  62. copy-to = Sent
  63. ```
  65. Running `mbsync primary` at this point is enough to fetch these mailboxes from
  66. IMAP and populate the local Maildirs, which can then be read with aerc. I set up
  67. a simple cronjob to run this every minute to keep it up to date:
  69. ```
  70. * * * * * chronic mbsync primary
  71. ```
  73. chronic is a small utility from [moreutils][3] which converts reasonably behaved
  74. programs that return a nonzero exit status into the back-asswards behavior cron
  75. expects, which is that printing text to stdout means an error occurred and any
  76. status code, successful or not, is disregarded. You might want to tweak this
  77. further, perhaps by just directing all output into /dev/null instead, if you
  78. don't want failed syncs to fill up your Unix mail spool.
  80. [3]: https://joeyh.name/code/moreutils/
  82. mbsync is bidirectional (it is recommended to leave `Expunge both` out of your
  83. config until you've tested the setup), so deleting or archiving emails in aerc
  84. will mirror the changes in IMAP as well.
  86. Postfix is a lot more annoying to configure. You should assume that what I did
  87. here isn't going to work for you without additional changes and troubleshooting.
  88. I started with an `/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd` file like this:
  90. ```
  91. [smtp.migadu.com]:465   sir@cmpwn.com:password
  92. ```
  94. The usual `postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd` applies here to create or update
  95. the database file. Then I moved on to `main.cf`:
  97. ```
  98. # Allows localhost to relay mail
  99. mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
  101. # SMTP server to relay mail through
  102. relayhost = [smtp.migadu.com]:465
  104. # Auth options for SMTP relay
  105. smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
  106. smtp_sasl_password_maps = lmdb:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
  108. # ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  109. smtp_tls_security_level = encrypt
  110. smtp_tls_wrappermode = yes
  111. smtp_use_tls = yes
  112. smtp_sasl_security_options = 
  113. ```
  115. Good luck!
  117. **Updated 2021-05-25**: isync is not a fork of mbsync.