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This document is a WORK IN PROGRESS.
This is just a quick personal cheat sheet: treat its contents with caution!

Neomutt

Neomutt is a text based CLI MUA. Here I will detail how to configure it with ProtonMail (with the protonmail-bridge).

TODO

Prerequisite(s)

Reference(s)

Table of contents

Install

Add the sasl use flag to neomutt and install neomutt: (sasl: support for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer) 

# vi /etc/portage/package.use/neomutt
    > mail-client/neomutt sasl

# emerge -a neomutt


# pacman -S neomutt

# apt install neomutt

TODO

TODO

TODO also install sendmail (at least on Ubuntu).

Config

Find your IMAP and SMTP credentials, e.g. with ProtonMail bridge: 

$ protonmail-bridge --cli
    > login # login to your protonmail-bridge account
    >   ...
    >
    > info # print your protonmail-bridge account info
    >   ...
    >   Address: 127.0.0.1
    >   IMAP port: 1143
    >   Username: <user.name@protonmail.com>
    >   Password: <protonmail-bridge-password>
    >
    >   SMTP Settings
    >   Address: 127.0.0.1
    >   SMTP port: 1025
    >   Username: <user.name@protonmail.com>
    >   Password: <protonmail-bridge-password>

Create a dedicated file to store your email and bridge password: 

$ mkdir ~/.config/neomutt
$ vi ~/.config/neomutt/keys
    > set my_user=<user.name@protonmail.com>
    > set my_pass="<protonmail-bridge-password>"

Minimal working neomuttrc configuration: 

$ vi ~/.config/neomutt/neomuttrc

    > source ~/.config/neomutt/keys # sources $my_user and $my_pass variables
    >
    >
    > # Char encoding #
    > # ------------- #
    >
    > # Character set on sent messages:
    > set send_charset="utf-8"
    > # If there is no char set given on incoming messages, it is probably windows:
    > set assumed_charset="iso-8859-1"
    >
    >
    > # IMAP settings #
    > # ------------- #
    >
    > # ("+" substitutes for `folder`)
    > set mbox_type     = Maildir
    > set folder        = imap://127.0.0.1:1143/
    > set record        = +Sent
    > set postponed     = +Drafts
    > set trash         = +Trash
    > set spoolfile     = +INBOX
    > mailboxes         = +INBOX
    > set mail_check    = 5 # seconds
    >
    > # Local protonmail-bridge host server: 127.0.0.1
    > # Protonmail-bridge imap port: 1143
    > set imap_user = $my_user
    > set imap_pass = $my_pass
    >
    > # Store message headers locally to speed things up.
    > # If hcache is a folder, Mutt will create sub cache folders for each account
    > # which may speeds things up even more:
    > set header_cache = ~/.cache/mutt
    >
    > # Store messages locally to speed things up, like searching message bodies.
    > # Can be the same folder as header_cache.
    > # This will cost important disk usage according to your e-mail amount.
    > set message_cachedir = "~/.cache/mutt"
    >
    > # Specify where to save and/or look for postponed messages.
    > set postponed = +[Protonmail]/Drafts
    >
    > # Allow Mutt to open a new IMAP connection automatically.
    > unset imap_passive
    >
    > # Keep the IMAP connection alive by polling intermittently (time in seconds).
    > set imap_keepalive = 300
    >
    > # How often to check for new mail (time in seconds).
    > set mail_check = 120
    >
    >
    > # SMTP settings #
    > # ------------- #
    >
    > set smtp_pass = $my_pass
    > set realname  ='Stéphane Tzvetkov'
    > set from      = $my_user
    > set use_from  = yes
    >
    > # Local protonmail-bridge host server: 127.0.0.1
    > # Protonmail-bridge smtp port: 1025
    > set smtp_url = smtp://$my_user:$smtp_pass@127.0.0.1:1025
    > set ssl_force_tls = yes
    > set ssl_starttls = yes
For my full neomuttrc config file: https://gitlab.com/stephane.tzvetkov/config/blob/master/home/user/config/neomutt/neomuttrc

Neomutt with outlook

Reference(s)

Warning

Don't forget to set the certificate_file option!

Root and system wild

Note that if you want to use Neomutt as root, you will have to copy your neomuttrc file and key file into /root/.config/neomutt.


Also note that if you want to use Neomutt system wild (e.g. for some other users) you will have to copy your neomuttrc file and key file into /etc/neomutt.

Neomutt as default MTA ?

Is there a proper way the select Neomutt as a proper MTA ?

Use

To enter the Neomutt CLI, Simply run: 

$ neomutt

The first time you have to accept ("a"ccept always) the SSL Certificate, quit and re open it in order for all the mailbox to load.


One can also easily send an email this way: 

$ echo "This is a test." | neomutt -s "Test subject" recipient.name@eg.com

Troubleshooting

If you get the following error when testing Neomutt: 

$ echo "This is a test." | neomutt -s "Test subject" recipient.name@eg.com
    > Could not connect to 127.0.0.1 (Connection refused).
    > Could not send the message.
It probably means that ProtonMail bridge is not running.


If you get the following error when testing Neomutt: 

$ echo "This is a test." | neomutt -s "Test subject" recipient.name@eg.com
    > SASL authentication failed
    > Could not send the message.
It probably means that you are not logged-in/connected in ProtonMail bridge.

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