Technosorcery

Ramblings of Jacob Helwig.

Offline Email With Gmail, Mutt, Postfix and Offlineimap

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One of my co-workers recently asked me to send him my setup for being able to read & write email while fully disconnected from the internet using mutt.

The portion of my setup for “sending” email while offline comes almost verbatim from a post on The Grand Fallacy and the follow-up update.

Sending offline

Install Postfix (Be sure to select “internet site” on Debian based systems).

Add the following to /etc/postfix/main.cf:

/etc/postfix/main.cf
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smtp_sender_dependent_authentication = yes
sender_dependent_relayhost_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sender_relay
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes
smtp_tls_CApath = /etc/pki/tls/certs

Create /etc/postfix/sender_relay mapping sender addresses to SMTP servers:

/etc/postfix/sender_relay
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# per-sender provider; see also /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
your_gmail_address@gmail.com [smtp.gmail.com]:587
another@address.example.com  [smtp.gmail.com]:587

Create /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd to store the authentication information for each server that requires it:

/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
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your_gmail_address@gmail.com username:password
another@address.example.com  username2:password2

Create /etc/postfix/tls_policy to let Postfix know how to pass the authentication information to each server:

/etc/postfix/tls_policy
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smtp.gmail.com:587 encrypt

Create the lookup tables that Postfix uses:

Generate hashes of config files
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sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sender_relay
sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
sudo postmap /etc/postfix/tls_policy

Create /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/99offline-postfix to handle automatically defer attempts to deliver mail when there isn’t an available network connection, and resume delivery attempts when an internet connection becomes available again:

/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/99offline-postfix (Ubuntu)
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#!/bin/sh

if [ "$2" == "down" ]; then
    ( [ -z "`ip route show 0.0.0.0/0`" ] && \
    /usr/sbin/postconf -e 'defer_transports = smtp' && \
    /sbin/service postfix reload ) || :
elif [ "$2" == "up" ]; then
    ( /usr/sbin/postconf -e 'defer_transports =' && \
    /sbin/service postfix reload && \
    /sbin/service postfix flush ) || :
fi

One thing that The Grand Fallacy didn’t mention was that there is some setup required in Mutt to get this to work. You’ll need to make sure that you have Mutt setup to pass along the from address used in the composed email.

Put the following in your .muttrc:

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set envelope_from=yes

Reading offline

Now that you can send email while offline, it’d probably be handy to be able to be able to read email while offline, too. I use offlineimap for this, and setup Mutt to read the local maildirs that it sets up.

The ~/.offlineimaprc file:

~/.offlineimaprc
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[general]
ui = Noninteractive.Basic
accounts = GMail, OtherGMail
maxsyncaccounts = 5
maxconnections = 3

[mbnames]
enabled = yes
filename = ~/.mutt/muttrc.mailboxes
header = "mailboxes "
peritem = ="%(foldername)s"
sep = " "
footer = "\n"

[Account GMail]
localrepository = GMailLocal
remoterepository = GMailRemote
autorefresh = 2

[Repository GMailLocal]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/IMAP/GMail

[Repository GMailRemote]
type = Gmail
realdelete = no
remoteuser = name@gmail.com
remotepass = password1
holdconnectionopen = true
keepalive = 60
timeout = 120

[Account OtherGMail]
localrepository = OtherGmailLocal
remoterepository = OtherGmailRemote
autorefresh = 2

[Repository OtherGmailLocal]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/IMAP/OtherGmail

[Repository OtherGmailRemote]
type = Gmail
realdelete = no
remoteuser = other@gmail.com
remotepass = password2
holdconnectionopen = true
keepalive = 60
timeout = 120

I like having a (relatively) clear separation between my work, and personal email, so I have my .muttrc split out into three files: .muttrc_common, .muttrc, and .muppetrc. The .muppetrc makes a bit more sense knowing that I currently work at Puppet Labs (Mutt + Puppet = Muppet). I call mutt from the command line normally, when I want my personal email, and I use a muppet alias (mutt -F ~/.muppetrc) to use my work email.

In the .muttrc_common I have a bunch of things that are common to both my work, and personal email:

~/.muttrc_common (muttrc_common) download
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set xterm_set_titles

lists git@vger.kernel.org
set followup_to=no

set alias_file=~/.mutt/aliases

set editor="vim"
set edit_headers # See the headers when editing
set autoedit     # Go straight to editing; don't prompt for recipients
set forward_format="Fwd: %s"    # traditional Fwd: subject
set attribution="On %{%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z}, %n wrote:"
set signature="signify|"

set mbox_type=Maildir
set spoolfile=+/INBOX
set mail_check=3

set record=+/"[Gmail].Sent Mail"
set postponed=+/"[Gmail].Drafts"

set realname = "Jacob Helwig"

source ~/.mutt/muttrc.mailboxes

# Setup goobook Google Contacts tab completion
set query_command = "goobook query '%s'"
macro index,pager a "<pipe-message>goobook add<return>" "add the sender address to Google contacts"
bind editor <Tab> complete-query
bind editor ^T complete

macro index       E "<change-folder>+/[Gmail].All Mail<enter><limit>~B " "search everything"
macro index,pager D "<save-message>+/[Gmail].Trash<enter>"               "move message to the trash"
macro index,pager S "<save-message>+/[Gmail].Spam<enter>"                "mark message as spam"

set envelope_from=yes
set reverse_name

set header_cache=~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir=~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates

set move = no

set pager_context=1
set pager_index_lines=6                 #show a mini-index in pager
set menu_scroll
set status_on_top                       #put status line at top
set sort=threads                        #sort by message threads in index
set sort_aux = 'last-date-sent'
set duplicate_threads

# PGP setup
set header
my_hdr X-PGP-Key: http://technosorcery.net/pubkey.asc
set pgp_good_sign="^gpg: Good signature from"
set pgp_timeout=1800
set pgp_use_gpg_agent
set pgp_verify_sig                  # show pgp in pager
set pgp_autosign
set pgp_replysign
set pgp_replyencrypt
set pgp_replysignencrypted
# END PGP setup

set status_format=" %r %b %f %n      Del %d      Msgs %m %l %%> (%P)"
set pager_format="[%4C/%4m] (%S%Z) %%=%N $i %%> [%lL]"
set date_format="!%H:%M %a %d %b     "
set index_format="%4C %Z %[%b%d] %-15.15F %s"
set folder_format="%2C %t %8s %d %N %f"

set record=''
set copy=no
set include=yes                         #quote msg in reply
set fast_reply=yes                      #no prompting on reply
set beep=no                             #no noise
set markers=no                          #no + on wrapped lines
set to_chars=" +TCF"                    #no L for mail_list

save-hook .* ~/keep                      #default mbox to (s)ave mail is ~/keep

bind pager h      display-toggle-weed   #toggle headers with h key
bind pager <Up>   previous-line
bind pager <Down> next-line

# simulate the old url menu
macro index \cb |urlview\n 'call urlview to extract URLs out of a message'
macro pager \cb |urlview\n 'call urlview to extract URLs out of a message'

# Render HTML email
auto_view text/html
alternative_order text/plain text/enriched text/html text image/*

# Colorize diffs.
set allow_ansi
auto_view text/x-diff
auto_view text/x-patch
color body brightred    black "^-.*"
color body brightgreen  black "^[+].*"
color body brightwhite  black "^diff --git.*"
color body brightwhite  black "^index [a-f0-9].*"
color body brightyellow black "^@@.*"

# default list of header fields to weed out when displaying mail
#ignore them all and then unignore what you want to see
ignore *
unignore  Date To Cc Bcc From Subject X-Mailer Organization User-Agent Message-ID
hdr_order Date From To Cc Bcc X-Mailer User-Agent Organization Message-ID Subject

##your Mutt has to have some colors
color quoted     green         black
color quoted1    magenta       blue
color quoted2    yellow        black
color quoted3    red           black
color signature  cyan          cyan

color hdrdefault brightcyan    black
color header     brightwhite   black "^from:"
color header     brightwhite   black "^subject:"

color quoted     brightgreen   black
color signature  brightwhite   black

color indicator  black         blue

color error      red           black
mono  error      bold
color status     black         cyan
mono  status     bold
color tree       green         black

color tilde      brightmagenta black
color body       brightwhite   black "[-a-z_0-9.]+@[-a-z_0-9.]+"
mono  body       bold                "[-a-z_0-9.]+@[-a-z_0-9.]+"
color body       brightyellow  black "^Good signature"
mono  body       bold                "^Good signature"
color body       brightwhite   red   "^Bad signature from.*"
mono  body       bold                "^Bad signature from.*"
color normal     white         black
color message    green         black
color attachment black         blue

color  body      brightgreen     default "^gpg: Good signature .*"
color  body      white           default "^gpg: "
color  body      brightwhite     red     "^gpg: BAD signature from.*"

color index      brightyellow  black ~N # New
color index      yellow        black ~O # Old
color index      magenta       black ~F # Flagged
color index      blue          black ~T # Tagged
color index      red           black ~D # Deleted
color index      white         black ~R # Read

This sets up some really nice things like colorized diffs in email (really handy for reading the puppet-dev, and git mailing lists), an X-PGP-Key header with a link to my GPG public key, and going straight to the editor when I want to compose an email, instead of prompting me for a subject, and recipients (I can change these headers directly in the editor, anyway). Sourcing ~/.mutt/muttrc.mailboxes gives me new mail notifications for all of the tags I have setup through GMail, since they each show up as their own folder.

In my .muttrc, I have:

~/.muttrc
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source ~/.muttrc_common

# GMail Setup
set folder=$HOME/IMAP/GMail

alternates "^(jacob|jhelwig)@(technosorcery.net|perlninja.com)"
set from = "jacob@technosorcery.net"
# END GMail Setup

In my .muppetrc, I have:

~/.muppetrc
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source ~/.muttrc_common

# Puppet Setup
set folder=$HOME/IMAP/Puppet

alternates "^jacob@(puppetlabs.com|reductivelabs.com)"
set from = "jacob@puppetlabs.com"
save-hook .* ~/work/review # default mbox to (s)ave mail
# END Puppet Setup

There really isn’t much that’s specific to each.

Have an idea for a post you'd like to see? Spot something that needs correcting? Feel free to contact me, or open an issue on the GitHub repository.

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