Using Two IMAP Accounts in Mutt

Mutt can be really great with multiple accounts, but it’s not exactly intuitive to setup. Here I’ll document how I access my GMail and GMX email accounts together in one mutt instance. Three tools are in use in a setup like this:

1. One to sync your IMAP accounts with local Maildir folders
2. One to send mail via the appropriate smtp server
3. Finally, one to interact with the synced folders, compose messages, and call the send application as needed

All of my live config files can always be found in my mutt config repo; there are many changes, additions, and better ways of doing things compared to what’s printed below.

Offlineimap

Offlineimap handles multiple accounts very well. Here’s my ~/.offlineimaprc set up to sync my GMail and GMX accounts into two local Maildir folders:

[general]
ui = ttyui
accounts = GMail,GMX

[Account GMail]
localrepository = Gmail-Local
remoterepository = Gmail-Remote

[Account GMX]
localrepository = GMX-Local
remoterepository = GMX-Remote

[Repository Gmail-Local]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/Mail/GMail

[Repository GMX-Local]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/Mail/GMX

[Repository Gmail-Remote]
type = Gmail 
remoteuser = username@gmail.com
remotepass = gmailpassword
realdelete = no

# "[Gmail]/Some Folder" --> some_folder
nametrans = lambda folder: re.sub('^inbox$', 'INBOX',
                           re.sub(' +', '_',
                           re.sub(r'.*/(.*)$', r'\1', folder).lower()))

[Repository GMX-Remote]
type = IMAP
remotehost = imap.gmx.com
remoteport = 143 
remoteuser = username@gmx.com
remotepass = gmxpassword

Take note of the nametrans for gmail. My line there will change folder names during the sync so IMAP://[Gmail].All Mail becomes ~/Mail/GMail/archive and similar for all other folders. You can choose not to use this line if you don’t mind the default folder names, but you’ll have to be careful to use the right folder names in your ~/.mutt/muttrc.

Offlineimap is written in python, and any valid python can actually be used in that nametrans. In fact, my live config has a more compact version that uses a couple of other function calls to accomplish essentially the same translation.

The ui setting is also useful in that when you test or sync with offlineimap from a command prompt, you can view the output, but in our cronjob we can call -u quiet explicitly to suppress it; best of both worlds.

You can test your setup by running offlineimap -o to sync things once. It could take a while, but once done, you should have a nice folder structure like this:

Mail/
|-- GMX
|   |-- Archive
|   |-- Drafts
|   |-- INBOX
|   |-- Sent
|   |-- Spam
|   `-- Trash
`-- GMail
    |-- INBOX
    |-- archive
    |-- drafts
    |-- flagged
    |-- sent
    |-- spam
    `-- trash

Offlineimap is kind of buggy for me, if I use its built-in refresh mechanism I find it’ll often hang or quit and I’ll be left with an unsynced mailbox. Therefore, I cronned a [re]start script to take care of it.

Once you’re sure things are syncing fine, create a script with these contents:

#!/bin/bash

PID=$(pgrep offlineimap)

[[ -n "$PID" ]] && kill "$PID"

offlineimap -o -u quiet &>/dev/null &

exit 

Make it executable via chmod +x /path/to/mailrun.sh and set up a cron job to run it every 3 minutes:

crontab -e

# add this:
*/3 * * * * /path/to/mailrun.sh

You’ll likely have to restart cron for the changes to take effect.

Msmtp

Msmtp also handles multiple accounts very elegantly. Here’s my ~/.msmtprc set up to handle my gmail and gmx accounts:

# msmtp config file

account gmail 
host smtp.gmail.com
port 587
protocol smtp
auth on
from username@gmail.com
user username@gmail.com
password gmailpassword
tls on
tls_nocertcheck

account gmx
host mail.gmx.com
port 587
protocol smtp
auth on
from username@gmx.com
user username@gmx.com
password gmxpassword
tls on
tls_nocertcheck

account default : gmail

Now we can simply call msmtp -a gmail or msmtp -a gmx to use whichever account we want (default is gmail for me).

You should do a quick sanity check here that you can send some mail:

echo "Your howto is awesome, thanks" | msmtp -a gmail praise@pbrisbin.com
echo "Your howto sucks balls, doucher..." | msmtp -a gmx spam@pbrisbin.com

Just make sure you get no errors with either account.

Mutt

Now we bring it all together in mutt. I’m gonna show you pretty much my full muttrc, not all of it is needed (but I like it) so feel free to experiment on your own version.

I prefer to separate my config out into some logical pieces. So we need to setup some support files, a few of which I’m not going to go into because they’re totally dependant on you, just ensure that these exist if you plan on blindly copy/pasting large portions of my config:

# files
~/.mutt/certificates    # touch an empty file
~/.mutt/colors.muttrc   # define colors in muttrc syntax
~/.mutt/mailcap         # touch an empty file (go google if you want to utilize this)
~/.mutt/alias           # touch an empty file
~/.mutt/sig             # type a signature that'll be added to emails

# mkdir all these
~/.mutt/temp
~/.mutt/cache/bodies
~/.mutt/cache/headers

There is also a file I keep at ~/.mutt/sidebar.muttrc, with all of the sidebar-specific options in it, I do this so I can quickly comment the source line in ~/.mutt/muttrc if I take that config to a machine running vanilla mutt.

Now, the two supporting config files we need to pay attention to: These will be setup per account, with overriding settings. That way, we can define a folder-hook so that when we’re viewing mail in ~/Mail/GMail/* we have all of our gmail specific account settings loaded, and if we’re in ~/Mail/GMX/* we have all of our gmx settings loaded. These are things like our from address, where to store sent messages, where to put deleted messages, etc. Pretty cool, huh? I also put a quick color setting in each of these files so when we’re in gmail the statusbar is green, but when we’re in gmx, it’s cyan. I find this visual cue really useful.

So, setup two files, one at ~/.mutt/gmail.muttrc:

###
# gmail specific options
###
color status green default

set from      = "username@gmail.com"
set sendmail  = "/usr/bin/msmtp -a gmail"
set mbox      = "+GMail/archive"
unset record
set postponed = "+GMail/drafts"

macro index E \
    "<change-folder>+GMail/archive<enter><limit>~B " \
    "search everything"

macro index D \
    "<save-message>+GMail/trash<enter>" \
    "move message to the trash"

macro index S \
    "<save-message>+GMail/spam<enter>"  \
        "mark message as spam"

And one at ~/.mutt/gmx.muttrc:

###
# gmx specific options
###

color status cyan default

set from      = "username@gmx.com"
set sendmail  = "/usr/bin/msmtp -a gmx"
set mbox      = "+GMX/Archive"
set record    = "+GMX/Sent"
set postponed = "+GMX/Drafts"

macro index E \
    "<change-folder>+GMX/Archive<enter><limit>~B " \
    "search everything"

macro index D \
    "<save-message>+GMX/Trash<enter>" \
    "move message to the trash"

macro index S \
    "<save-message>+GMX/Spam<enter>"  \
        "mark message as spam"

Now the most important file of all: ~/.mutt/muttrc. Here is my complete muttrc, commented so you can tell what things do; I’m not explaining anything beyond the folder-hook. This means when we enter a folder, we load the settings specific to that account as defined above. This means there’s no need to change accounts per say, just navigate to a folder and any account specific settings will automatically be in place while you’re in that folder.

Go man muttrc if you’d like more info on all the other settings.

###
# ~/.mutt/muttrc
###

# directories and commands
set alias_file       = ~/.mutt/alias         # alias file
set header_cache     = ~/.mutt/cache/headers # where to store headers        
set message_cachedir = ~/.mutt/cache/bodies  # where to store bodies
set certificate_file = ~/.mutt/certificates  # where to store certs
set mailcap_path     = ~/.mutt/mailcap       # entrys for filetypes
set signature        = ~/.mutt/sig           # my signature file
set tmpdir           = ~/.mutt/temp          # where to keep temp files
set editor           = "/usr/bin/vim +/^$"   # use vim and skip to first blank line

# main options
set mbox_type       = Maildir         # mailbox type
set folder          = ~/Mail          # mailbox location
set spoolfile       = "+GMail/INBOX"  # GMail is default inbox
set timeout         = 3               # idle time before scanning
set mail_check      = 0               # minimum time between scans
set sort_alias      = alias           # sort alias file by alias
set reverse_alias                     # show names from alias file in index
unset move                            # gmail does that
set delete                            # don't ask, just do
unset confirmappend                   # don't ask, just do!
set quit                              # don't ask, just do!!
unset mark_old                        # read/new is good enough for me
set beep_new                          # bell on new mails
set pipe_decode                       # strip headers and eval mimes when piping
set thorough_search                   # strip headers and eval mimes before searching

# index options
set sort              = threads                     # like gmail 
set sort_aux          = reverse-last-date-received  # like gmail
set uncollapse_jump                                 # don't collapse on an unread message 
set sort_re                                         # thread based on regex
set reply_regexp      = "^(([Rr][Ee]?(\[[0-9]+\])?: *)?(\[[^]]+\] *)?)*"

# pager options
set pager_index_lines = 10  # number of index lines to show 
set pager_context     = 5   # number of context lines to show
set pager_stop              # don't go to next message automatically
set menu_scroll             # scroll in menus 
set smart_wrap              # don't split words
set tilde                   # show tildes like in vim
unset markers               # no ugly plus signs
auto_view text/html         # view html automatically
alternative_order text/plain text/enriched text/html
set quote_regexp = "^( {0,4}[>|:#%]| {0,4}[a-z0-9]+[>|]+)+"

# formats
set date_format     = "%m/%d/%y at %I:%M%P"
set index_format    = "%3C [%Z] %D %-15.15F %s"
set alias_format    = "%4n %t %-20a  %r"

# composing mail
set realname        = "Patrick Brisbin"  # who am i?
set envelope_from                        # which from?
set sig_dashes                           # dashes before my sig... sweet
set edit_headers                         # show headers when composing
set fast_reply                           # skip to compose when replying
set sendmail_wait   = -1                 # don't wait for sending... to complete
set askcc                                # ask for CC:
set fcc_attach                           # save attachments with the body
unset mime_forward                       # forward attachments as part of body
set forward_format  = "Fwd: %s"          # format for subject when forwarding
set forward_decode                       # decode when forwarding
set attribution     = "On %d, %n wrote:" # set the attribution
set reply_to                             # reply to Reply to: field
set reverse_name                         # reply as whomever it was to
set include                              # include message in replies
set forward_quote                        # include message in forwards

# headers to show
ignore *                                 # ignore all headers
unignore from: to: cc: date: subject:    # show only these
hdr_order from: to: cc: date: subject:   # and in this order

# boxes
mailboxes +GMail/INBOX +GMail/archive +GMail/sent
mailboxes +GMX/INBOX +GMX/Archive +GMX/Sent

# always sourced
source $alias_file             # required for functionality
source ~/.mutt/colors.muttrc   # source colors file
source ~/.mutt/sidebar.muttrc  # any muttng options are here
source ~/.mutt/gmail.muttrc    # source gmail as default

# account specific sources
folder-hook GMail/* source ~/.mutt/gmail.muttrc
folder-hook GMX/*   source ~/.mutt/gmx.muttrc

# these just give me headaches
bind index,pager \#    noop
bind index i           noop

# bindings
bind pager i           exit
bind pager /           search
bind pager <up>        previous-line
bind pager <down>      next-line
bind pager k           previous-line
bind pager j           next-line
bind pager gg          top
bind pager G           bottom
bind index gg          first-entry
bind index G           last-entry
bind pager K           previous-undeleted
bind pager J           next-undeleted
bind index K           previous-unread
bind index J           next-unread
bind index,pager R     group-reply

# macros
macro index \Cr "<tag-prefix><clear-flag>N" "mark tagged messages as read"
macro index B   "<limit>~b "                "search message bodies"
macro index I   "<change-folder>!<enter>"   "go to Inbox"

# save a decoded copy in ~
macro index P   "<pipe-message>cat > ~/"    "save message as"

# quick-sync ~/Mail immediately with offlineimap
macro index Z   "<shell-escape>/usr/bin/offlineimap -q -o<enter>" "sync IMAP"

Now just send some mails back and forth between the two accounts to verify that the folder-hooks are setting the from address and such correctly.

Vim Tweaks

I also have the following tweaks in ~/.vimrc to help with my composing:

" Some tricks for mutt
" F1 through F3 re-wraps paragraphs in useful ways
augroup MUTT
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* set spell " <-- vim 7 required
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* nmap  <F1>  gqap
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* nmap  <F2>  gqqj
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* nmap  <F3>  kgqj
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* map!  <F1>  <ESC>gqapi
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* map!  <F2>  <ESC>gqqji
  au BufRead ~/.mutt/temp/mutt* map!  <F3>  <ESC>kgqji
augroup END

Well that’s it. Two IMAP accounts accessed easily, intuitively, and efficiently in your favorite email program.