Using Mutt with Gmail
When I first created this page back in 2008 using the Gmail servers to collect your email with tools such as Mutt or Alpine was considered pretty cool and this page was quite popular. Times have changed somewhat and the rise of the gui email clients, the arrival of IMAP access to Gmail and the lack of interest by many Linux users in digging too deep, have all contributed to a drop in interest in a page which still proposes this 'old school' approach!
However I am not in this business to achieve high page rankings, the aim of this page is to show that an old school approach to accessing the Gmail servers with a collection of high quality Linux utilities still has a place. Certainly I have been using variations of the techniques described on this page to collect my email for over a decade and a half now. And so, if you are interested Gentle Reader, I will show you how you can do it too!
All the steps...
In sequence there are four applications that need to be installed and appropriately configured to download the mail, sort it, read it and then send a reply via Gmail. But first some settings will have to be made via the Gmail Account and Google Account pages:
- POP Forwarding: You will have to tell Gmail that you want to use POP3 access rather than IMAP. This setting can be found in your Gmail settings under See All Settings --> Forwarding and POP/IMAP --> POP Download.
- Delete Email: Just underneath the option above is another that gives you a few options with what to do with the email on the remote server after it has been accessed via POP3. I select 'delete GMail's copy' but there are a few other options that may suit your own workflow better.
- Set an App Password: In modern times you will probably have been forced by Google to use 2 Factor Authorisation. For getmail and msmtp to work with this you will have to go to your Google account's Security settings and create an App Password to allow both getmail and msmtp to access the Gmail servers.
Now the gui can be shut down and the more satisfying work with configuration files can commence.
Receiving the mail...
For a very long period of time I used Fetchmail to collect my mail from Gmail but now in late 2019 I can see that there has not been a new release of Fetchmail in 6 years, April 23rd 2013. When I looked for alternatives I realised that Charles Cazabon's getmail not only has a fairly amazing vintage with the first release in 1998 but a recent release in early 2019. So I took it for a whirl and I have been very happy with it and as a bonus getmail is installed as part of a full Slackware installation. The configuration file for Gmail is simple, and below is a slightly redacted version of my configuration file $HOME/.getmail/getmailrc:
#----------------------------------# # Some simple GMail Settings: # #----------------------------------# [retriever] type = SimplePOP3SSLRetriever ca_certs = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt server = pop.gmail.com username = xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com port = 995 # Note: the following should be your Gmail generated App Password. password = xxxxxxxxxx [destination] type = MDA_external path = /usr/bin/maildrop unixfrom = True [options] verbose = 2 message_log_verbose = true message_log = ~/.getmail.log # Add some headers to all messages, specifically: # 1. Delivered-To: header field (disabled as it does not work here) # 2. Received: header field (enabled) delivered_to = false received = true # Delete from remote server after download: delete = true
Only other note of importance is that getmail hands off to my 'Mail Delivery Agent' (MDA) rather than delivering directly to the mail spool. Note as well that although I have specified the location of the Slackware ca-certs installation I believe that no checking of the remote certificate takes place. But now to sort out the MDA.
Sorting the mail...
For more than a decade I used procmail as an MDA and procmail is indeed one of the oldest GNU utilities with the first release in 1990. Predating Linux itself! However in 2021 there will be 2 decades with no work on procmail and even an email from the developer himself warning users away so again I have looked for a replacement. I did not have to look hard as the obvious substitute is maildrop and the latest version (released on January 2022) was easily compiled and installed from SBo. As a solid user of maildrop I also took over maintainance of the SlackBuild on SBo as well. I cobbled together a relatively straightforward /home/andrew/.mailfilter file:
#-------------------------------------------#
# Andrew's very basic mailfilters... #
#-------------------------------------------#
DEFAULT=/var/spool/mail/andrew
MAILBOX="$HOME/mail/mailboxes"
SENDMAIL="/usr/bin/msmtp"
logfile "$HOME/.mailfilter.log"
#-- Sort out the mailing lists... --#
if (/^List-Id:.*ffmpeg-user.ffmpeg.org>/)
to $MAILBOX/ffmpeg
if (/^List-Id:.*slackbuilds-users.slackbuilds.org>/)
to $MAILBOX/slackbuilds
if (/^List-Id:.*mutt.org>/)
to $MAILBOX/mutt
#-- Some frequent Forums... --#
if (/^From:.*forum@linuxquestions.org>/)
to $MAILBOX/linuxquestions
#-- cc syntax ... --#
if (/^From:.*@iinet.net.au>/)
{
cc"!xxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com"
}
The cognoscenti may notice that my mail setup is a little idiosyncratic in that I initially deliver all mail to my spool at /var/spool/mail/andrew (using getmail) and then sort and distribute much of it to mailboxes in $HOME/mail/mailboxes. Many variations of this are possible but this one works well for me. I have included a sample of the ability of maildrop to automagically email to another address when correctly filtered, this works beautifully with msmtp. But now to lay hands on mutt itself!
Reading the mail...
Slackware is well served with mutt packages and a full installation of Slackware will always hold the very latest version. In early 2022 this means version 2.2.1 which comes complete with the sidebar, which I confess that I tried to like for some time and then stopped using it. I give a very brief sample $HOME/.muttrc file below but you would be better to 'roll your own' as there are so many choices to make! Have a look, Gentle Reader, in the docs section of your mutt installation and you will see the file sample.muttrc and a scattering of other sample configuration files that will get you well started. But as well here is a simplified and slightly redacted version of my own .muttrc file:
######################################################
# #
# Andrew's .muttrc #
# #
######################################################
### The basics ###
set realname = "andrew"
set from = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com"
set use_from = yes
set envelope_from ="yes"
set signature="~/.signature"
set sendmail="/usr/bin/msmtp" # Use msmtp rather than sendmail
set spoolfile=/var/spool/mail/andrew # Conventional spool setting
### Mailboxes ###
set mbox_type=mbox # Choice of mbox or maildir
set folder="~/mail/mailboxes" # Contains all the mailboxes
set record="+sent" # Where to store sent messages
set postponed="+postponed" # Where to store draft messages
set move=no # Don't move mail from the spool when closing mutt
set sort_browser=alpha # Sort mailboxes by alpha(bet)
# Watch these mailboxes which will get mail delivered automatically by
# the maildrop filters, otherwise their mail may be missed!
mailboxes ! +linuxquestions +ffmpeg +slackbuilds +mutt
### Show which headers? ###
ignore *
unignore Date: From: User-Agent: X-Mailer X-Operating-System X-User-Agent: To: \
Cc: Reply-To: Subject: Mail-Followup-To:
hdr_order Date: From: User-Agent: X-Mailer X-Operating-System X-User-Agent: To: \
Cc: Reply-To: Subject: Mail-Followup-To:
# Use vim with 70 character width and put cursor in first blank line
set editor="vim -c 'set tw=70 et' '+/^$' "
set edit_headers=yes # See the headers when editing
set hostname=`hostname --fqdn` # Set right hand side of MID
### Taming HTML Messages ###
set mailcap_path="~/mail/mutt/mutt_mailcap"
auto_view text/html # Automatically parse html messages through w3m
auto_view text/x-vcard # vcard attachments viewed through mutt.vcard.filter
set implicit_autoview=yes # Load in pager if setting in .mailcap says 'copiousoutput'.
### Aliases ###
set sort_alias=alias # Sort aliases in alpha order by alias name
set alias_file=~/mail/.mail_aliases # where I keep my aliases
### Colours ###
# (default, white, black, green, magenta, blue, cyan, yellow, red)
# (bright...)
# (color1,color2,...,colorN-1)
#
#---- --Mutt Colors for Black Background -------
# Object Foreground Background
color hdrdefault yellow black
color quoted blue black
color signature blue black
color attachment red black
color message brightred black
color error brightred black
color indicator black yellow
color status white blue
color tree white black
color normal white black
color markers red black
color search white black
color tilde brightmagenta black
color index blue black ~F
color index white black "~N|~O"
### Lists ###
lists slackbuilds-users abcde-users ffmpeg-user mutt-user
subscribe slackbuilds-users abcde-users ffmpeg-user mutt-user
set followup_to=yes # Sets the Mail-Followup-To header for lists
set honor_followup_to=yes # Honours the Mail-Followup-To header in replies
### View my own posts in list's folder using fcc ###
fcc-hook slackbuilds-users +slackbuilds
fcc-hook abcde-user +abcde
fcc-hook mplayer-users +mplayer
fcc-hook ffmpeg-user +ffmpeg
# Macros
macro index,pager I '<shell-escape> getmail <enter>' # Checks the mail
macro attach s "<save-entry><bol>$HOME/downloads/<eol>" # Alters 'save' path for attachments
### Odds and ends ###
set markers=no # mark wrapped lines of text in the pager with a +
set smart_wrap # Don't wrap mid-word
set pager_context=5 # Retain last line of previous page when scrolling.
set status_on_top # Status bar on top
push <show-version> # Shows mutt version at startup
set check_new=yes # Check for new mail
set sort=threads
source ~/mail/mutt/crypto # Crazy PGP stuff
I have retreated more than a little from a much more ornate configuration file and this one is even a little more simplified for presentation here. But it is a usable configuration file and specifically created to match in with the configuration of the other 3 utilities being used in this sequence. And now to the final piece in this jigsaw: msmtp.
Sending the mail...
Although I am somewhat tempted by postfix, in particular as Slackware has removed sendmail as default and placed postfix instead, msmtp is a better choice for the simple task of sending mail via Gmail. A single configuration file is required for msmtp $HOME/.msmtprc and the following slightly redacted section gives the required details to access Gmail and reference the required certificate:
#----------------------------------------------------# # # # Andrews's msmtprc setup with a nod to the Arch # # wiki, Debian pages, the msmtp man pages etc etc. # # # #----------------------------------------------------# # Set default values for all accounts: defaults auth on tls on tls_starttls on tls_trust_file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt logfile ~/.msmtp.log #Gmail Account: account gmail host smtp.gmail.com port 587 from xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com user xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com # Note: the following should be your Gmail generated App Password. password xxxxxxxxxx # Set a default account: account default : gmail # Check it all out: # echo "Hello there" | msmtp --debug xxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
There are no great mysteries in this file which can be found pretty much anywhere on the Internet these days. It has worked robustly for me with both mutt and maildrop but if there are any trouble I have included a little debugging line at the base of the configuration file.
Reward Time!
Finally it is reward time as you open Mutt, type ! to open a shell prompt, type in getmail -v and start reading your mail! My parting gift to you, Gentle Reader, is a little macro that was written for me by a generous person on the mutt-user mailing list that will actually do this for you when you simply press "I". I have already placed this macro in my sample .muttrc file above but here it is again:
macro index,pager I '<shell-escape> getmail <enter>'
I wish you all the best with this, remembering that I have used small variations of this technique for more than a decade now and it has served me very, very well. I hope that you also have a great experience with these marvelous Linux command line tools!
And in conclusion...
This page represents my own exploration of using Mutt with Gmail and I use Mutt in this way every day, even after 12 long years have passed since I started doing so. Please feel free to contact me with any errors of fact that you have found on this page, any errors of opinion will probably remain uncorrected. And have a great day!