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Compose and Send Email with Emacs

What will we cover?

  • Configuring Emacs to send email
  • Composing email
  • Attaching files and images to emails
  • Signing emails with GPG

Configuring SMTP

SMTP is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, an old standard for connecting to a server to send email.

Traditionally, SMTP servers run on port 25 without any kind of encryption. These days, most will either use SSL or TLS, either of which may use different ports.

  • smtpmail-smtp-server - The host where we connect to send mail
  • smtpmail-smtp-service - The port number of the SMTP service (defaults to 25)
  • smtpmail-stream-type - Determines whether SSL or TLS should be used when connecting

If you only send mail from one account, set the variables the way you would normally do:

(setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.fastmail.com"
      smtpmail-smtp-service 465
      smtpmail-stream-type  'ssl)

When using multiple accounts (contexts), you can set the SMTP variables for each context:

(setq mu4e-contexts
      (list
       ;; Work account
       (make-mu4e-context
        :name "Work"
        :match-func
          (lambda (msg)
            (when msg
              (string-prefix-p "/Gmail" (mu4e-message-field msg :maildir))))
        :vars '((user-mail-address . "[email protected]")
                (user-full-name    . "System Crafters Gmail")
                (smtpmail-smtp-server  . "smtp.gmail.com")
                (smtpmail-smtp-service . 465)
                (smtpmail-stream-type  . ssl)
                (mu4e-drafts-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Drafts")
                (mu4e-sent-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Sent Mail")
                (mu4e-refile-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/All Mail")
                (mu4e-trash-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Trash")))

       ;; Personal account
       (make-mu4e-context
        :name "Personal"
        :match-func
          (lambda (msg)
            (when msg
              (string-prefix-p "/Fastmail" (mu4e-message-field msg :maildir))))
        :vars '((user-mail-address . "[email protected]")
                (user-full-name    . "System Crafters Fastmail")
                (smtpmail-smtp-server  . "smtp.fastmail.com")
                (smtpmail-smtp-service . 465)
                (smtpmail-stream-type  . ssl)
                (mu4e-drafts-folder  . "/Fastmail/Drafts")
                (mu4e-sent-folder  . "/Fastmail/Sent")
                (mu4e-refile-folder  . "/Fastmail/Archive")
                (mu4e-trash-folder  . "/Fastmail/Trash")))))

Configure the mail-sending function

So that we don’t get prompted about how mail should be sent, we will configure the message-send-mail-function variable to automatically call smtpmail-send-it:

;; Configure the function to use for sending mail
(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)

Composing Email

Let’s try to compose an e-mail!

Run M-x mu4e to get to the mail dashboard and then press C (capital C)

If you have configured multiple contexts (which we have), it will ask you which context to use.

Now we have some fields to fill in:

  • From - This should be automatically populated from your user-full-name and user-full-address
  • To - Enter recipients separated by comma or semicolon. You can press TAB to complete recipient names!
  • Subject - The subject of the message (may be pre-populated in replies or forwards)

Now we can move our cursor below the line “text follows this line” to write the message!

There are three things you can do from here:

  • C-c C-c - Send the message
  • C-c C-k - Discard the message
  • C-c C-d - Save the message in your Drafts folder

Since we want to send this e-mail, let’s press C-c C-c!

We can check our Sent Mail folder to verify that the mail was placed there.

https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e/Writing-messages.html

Handling passwords for sending mail

When you attempt to send an e-mail, Emacs will ask you for the password. Once you enter it, it will ask you if you’d like to save it in your ~/.authinfo file. I do not recommend doing this because this file is not encrypted!

Check out my video Encrypt Your Passwords with Emacs to learn more about the auth-source library and how you can use it to store your passwords in an encrypted file so that you don’t have to enter them every time you send e-mail!

You will need to add an entry to your ~/.authinfo.gpg file for your SMTP server:

machine smtp.fastmail.com login [email protected] password b4dp4ssw0rd port 465

Other ways to get to the compose screen

You can follow a few other paths to compose e-mail:

  • Press C while in the mail list
  • Press R while selecting a mail in the mail list or while viewing an e-mail to compose a reply
  • Press F while selecting a mail in the mail list or while viewing an e-mail to compose a forwarded mail
  • Run M-x mu4e-compose-new or bind that command to a key!

Picking a context for sending mail

When using multiple contexts, you might want to define which context gets picked automatically for sending email (similar to mu4e-context-policy):

;; Only ask if a context hasn't been previously picked
(setq mu4e-compose-context-policy 'ask-if-none)

Improving the look of plain text emails

By default all e-mails are sent as plain text. This can lead to strange wrapping in other email clients when reading your messages. You can improve this by setting the following variable:

;; Make sure plain text mails flow correctly for recipients
(setq mu4e-compose-format-flowed t)

NOTE: I made a mistake in mentioning that Gmail and other modern mail clients support format=flowed! Check out this website to see a list of clients that support it. Thanks to boticelli in the System Crafters Discord for pointing it out!

We will discuss how to send formatted e-mails using Org Mode in a future episode!

Adding a signature to your emails

You can set the mu4e-compose-signature variable to a string for the signature to include in your e-mails!

(setq mu4e-compose-signature "David")

This can also be set per-context.

;; ... clipped from full context config ...

 :vars '((user-mail-address . "[email protected]")
         (user-full-name    . "System Crafters Fastmail")
         (mu4e-compose-signature . "- David")
         (smtpmail-smtp-server  . "smtp.fastmail.com"))

If you want the signature to be multi-line, use the \n character to denote the line breaks:

"David Wilson\nSystem Crafters on YouTube"

;; or if you want it to be more readable in your config:

(concat
  "David Wilson\n"
  "System Crafters on YouTube")

File Attachments

To add an attachment to your e-mail, press C-c C-a in the message buffer and then select the file to be attached.

It will ask you a few things about the file you’re attaching, most importantly the type of the attachment. It will usually pick the right one for you based on the file extension!

Drag and drop also works!

Message Drafts

If you save a message as a draft while editing it (C-c C-d), you can find it in the Drafts folder you configured for that context.

Select the message in the headers list or open the email and press E (or c e with evil-mode bindings). You will now be placed back into the message editor!

Signing Emails

If you followed my video Encrypt Your Passwords with Emacs then you’ve already set up a GPG key for signing emails.

You can use the mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime function while composing a mail to mark it to be signed once you send it. When you press C-c C-c to send the mail, you will be prompted for your passphrase and then the mail will be signed!

;; Use a specific key for signing by referencing its thumbprint
(setq mml-secure-openpgp-signers '("53C41E6E41AAFE55335ACA5E446A2ED4D940BF14"))

Automatically Sign Every Email

You can automatically sign every e-mail using the message-send-hook:

(add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime)

Encrypting Emails

Similarly to signing emails, you can also encrypt them with mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmine! Anyone with your public key will be able to decrypt the message.

Complete configuration

Here’s the complete configuration we made for this episode:

(use-package mu4e
  :ensure nil
  :config

  ;; This is set to 't' to avoid mail syncing issues when using mbsync
  (setq mu4e-change-filenames-when-moving t)

  ;; Refresh mail using isync every 10 minutes
  (setq mu4e-update-interval (* 10 60))
  (setq mu4e-get-mail-command "mbsync -a")
  (setq mu4e-maildir "~/Mail")

  ;; Make sure plain text mails flow correctly for recipients
  (setq mu4e-compose-format-flowed t)

  ;; Configure the function to use for sending mail
  (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)

  ;; NOTE: Only use this if you have set up a GPG key!
  ;; Automatically sign all outgoing mails
  ;; (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime)

  (setq mu4e-contexts
          (list
          ;; Work account
          (make-mu4e-context
          :name "Work"
          :match-func
              (lambda (msg)
              (when msg
                  (string-prefix-p "/Gmail" (mu4e-message-field msg :maildir))))
          :vars '((user-mail-address . "[email protected]")
                  (user-full-name    . "System Crafters Gmail")
                  (smtpmail-smtp-server  . "smtp.gmail.com")
                  (smtpmail-smtp-service . 465)
                  (smtpmail-stream-type  . ssl)
                  (mu4e-compose-signature . "David via Gmail")
                  (mu4e-drafts-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Drafts")
                  (mu4e-sent-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Sent Mail")
                  (mu4e-refile-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/All Mail")
                  (mu4e-trash-folder  . "/Gmail/[Gmail]/Trash")))

          ;; Personal account
          (make-mu4e-context
          :name "Personal"
          :match-func
              (lambda (msg)
              (when msg
                  (string-prefix-p "/Fastmail" (mu4e-message-field msg :maildir))))
          :vars '((user-mail-address . "[email protected]")
                  (user-full-name    . "System Crafters Fastmail")
                  (smtpmail-smtp-server  . "smtp.fastmail.com")
                  (smtpmail-smtp-service . 465)
                  (smtpmail-stream-type  . ssl)
                  (mu4e-compose-signature . "David via Fastmail")
                  (mu4e-drafts-folder  . "/Fastmail/Drafts")
                  (mu4e-sent-folder  . "/Fastmail/Sent")
                  (mu4e-refile-folder  . "/Fastmail/Archive")
                  (mu4e-trash-folder  . "/Fastmail/Trash")))))

  (setq mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
      '(("/Inbox"             . ?i)
        ("/[Gmail]/Sent Mail" . ?s)
        ("/[Gmail]/Trash"     . ?t)
        ("/[Gmail]/Drafts"    . ?d)
        ("/[Gmail]/All Mail"  . ?a))))