spacemacs/layers/+email/mu4e

Mu4e layer

• Install
• Commands
  • Global bindings
  • Headers mode
  • View mode
• Configuration
  • Maildirs extension
  • Multiple Accounts
  • Example configuration
  • Notifications
    • OS notifications
    • Mode-line notifications
• See also

Install

In order to use this layer you must install mu and mu4e separately. Typically mu4e will be bundled with mu (this is the case on many Linux distributions).

If the installation directory of mu4e is not in Emacs’ load path, you can set the layer variable mu4e-installation-path, for example:

  (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
                '((mu4e :variables
                        mu4e-installation-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp")))

Then add this layer to your ~/.spacemacs. You will need to add mu4e to the existing dotspacemacs-configuration-layers list in this file.

Commands

Global bindings

Keybinding	Command
SPC a M	Start mu4e

Headers mode

Keybinding	Command
J	Go to next unread thread marking other mail read on the way
C-j	Next header
C-k	Previous header

View mode

Keybinding	Command
J	Go to next unread thread marking other mail read on the way
C-j	Next header
C-k	Previous header

Configuration

Configuration varies too much to give precise instructions. What follows is one example configuration. Refer to mu4e's manual for more detailed configuration instructions.

Maildirs extension

The maildirs extension adds a list of all your maildirs to the main mu4e view that by default shows the unread and total mail counts for all your mail under your base mail directory.

This extension is enabled by default, you can deactivate (and uninstall) it by adding the package = to your dotfile variable =dotspacemacs-excluded-packages.

Multiple Accounts

This layer includes support for multiple sending accounts. If you have only one account you do not need to define this variable. If you have multiple accounts, configure the mu4e-account-alist variable:

  (setq mu4e-account-alist
        '(("gmail"
           ;; Under each account, set the account-specific variables you want.
           (mu4e-sent-messages-behavior delete)
           (mu4e-sent-folder "/gmail/[Gmail]/.Sent Mail")
           (mu4e-drafts-folder "/gmail/[Gmail]/.Drafts")
           (user-mail-address "billy@gmail.com")
           (user-full-name "Billy"))
          ("college"
           (mu4e-sent-messages-behavior sent)
           (mu4e-sent-folder "/college/Sent Items")
           (mu4e-drafts-folder "/college/Drafts")
           (user-mail-address "bb15@college.edu")
           (user-full-name "Billy Bob 15"))))
  (mu4e/mail-account-reset)

The first account listed will be the default account, so variables like user-full-name, which is used by other parts of Emacs, will have their value reset for the default account after sending each email.

Note that the mu4e layer expects mu4e-account-alist to be defined before the layer is loaded. For example, you can set mu4e-account-alist to a dummy setting in dotspacemacs/layers:

(mu4e :variables mu4e-account-alist t)

and then actually set mu4e-account-alist later in dotspacemacs/user-config.

Make sure you call mu4e/mail-account-reset afterward, which will initialize the given account variables.

If you have mu 0.9.16 or later, you can use mu4e's built-in contexts feature instead (see mu4e's manual).

Example configuration

  ;;; Set up some common mu4e variables
  (setq mu4e-maildir "~/.mail"
        mu4e-trash-folder "/Trash"
        mu4e-refile-folder "/Archive"
        mu4e-get-mail-command "mbsync -a"
        mu4e-update-interval nil
        mu4e-compose-signature-auto-include nil
        mu4e-view-show-images t
        mu4e-view-show-addresses t)

  ;;; Mail directory shortcuts
  (setq mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
        '(("/gmail/INBOX" . ?g)
          ("/college/INBOX" . ?c)))

  ;;; Bookmarks
  (setq mu4e-bookmarks
        `(("flag:unread AND NOT flag:trashed" "Unread messages" ?u)
          ("date:today..now" "Today's messages" ?t)
          ("date:7d..now" "Last 7 days" ?w)
          ("mime:image/*" "Messages with images" ?p)
          (,(mapconcat 'identity
                       (mapcar
                        (lambda (maildir)
                          (concat "maildir:" (car maildir)))
                        mu4e-maildir-shortcuts) " OR ")
           "All inboxes" ?i)))

Notifications

mu4e-alert is an extension that provides desktop notifications and adds the count of unread messages to the modeline.

For an extended documentation of the available customizations please refer to mu4e-alert's documentation

OS notifications

To enable notifications about new messages, add the following line to your dotspacemacs/user-config:

  (setq mu4e-enable-notifications t)

or use layer variables when you add the layer to dotspacemacs-configuration-layers:

  (mu4e :variables mu4e-enable-notifications t)

By default, notifications will be shown in the *Messages* buffer. To enable desktop notifications about new messages, add the following lines to your dotspacemacs/user-config, according to your operating system and the installed libraries:

  (with-eval-after-load 'mu4e-alert
    ;; Enable Desktop notifications
    (mu4e-alert-set-default-style 'notifications)) ; For linux
    ;; (mu4e-alert-set-default-style 'libnotify))  ; Alternative for linux
    ;; (mu4e-alert-set-default-style 'notifier))   ; For Mac OSX (through the
                                                   ; terminal notifier app)
    ;; (mu4e-alert-set-default-style 'growl))      ; Alternative for Mac OSX

Mode-line notifications

To enable mode-line display about new messages, add the following line to your dotspacemacs/user-config:

  (setq mu4e-enable-mode-line t)

or use layer variables when you add the layer to dotspacemacs-configuration-layers:

  (mu4e :variables mu4e-enable-mode-line t)

See also

Refer to the official mu and mu4e documentation for additional info.

• mu4e Manual