Mutt2

So Mutt 2.0 got released, so I figured it was time to take it for another spin. The gmail web client has gotten much slower and less pleasant over the years, and hopefully the rough edges on Mutt + imap have been sanded down. There are a ton of instructions floating around, and I got a little scared about “well what if this wasn’t 2.0 compatible”, so I figured I’d write down the steps again with ‘Mutt 2.0’ at the top for SEO purposes and maybe help the next poor soul.

Anway, first, go get a mutt-specific password here- https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords

Then go plug it into

set realname = "$USERNAME"
set from = "$EMAIL"
set use_from = yes
set envelope_from = yes

set smtp_url = "smtps://${EMAIL}@smtp.gmail.com:465/"
set smtp_pass = "${APP_PASSWORD}"
set imap_user = "${EMAIL}"
set imap_pass = "${APP_PASSWORD}"
set folder = "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993"
set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set ssl_force_tls = yes

From here, you should be able to type mutt, and see your inbox.

Luckily, Mutt is not breaking-change happy, so all of the 2 year old instructions in the wiki still work-

set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set postponed = "+[Gmail]/Drafts"
set record = "+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
set trash = "+[Gmail]/Trash"
# You need the "noop" bind so that the line editor accepts IMAP
# folders with spaces in their names. The gi, ga, gs and gd shortcuts help
# get around the "navigation quirks" mentioned above too.
bind editor <space> noop
# a steps over the default alias management 'a', but I am too lazy to use aliases,
# so I don't mind
macro index,pager a "<save-message>=[Gmail]/All Mail<enter><enter>" "Archive"
macro index gi "<change-folder>=INBOX<enter>" "Go to inbox"
macro index ga "<change-folder>=[Gmail]/All Mail<enter>" "Go to all mail"

Anyway… it still has the problems it used to. If you open up a large folder, like ‘all mail’, it blocks until it downloads headers for everything. Over 90k emails in my case, at ‘maybe go get a cup of coffee and come back’ speeds. Now, maybe I should have a smaller inbox, and get rid of mailing list archives from 2004, but I’m not sure I want to do a bunch of maybe-scary data deletion & organization just for a mail client that doesn’t do windowing. I also don’t want to sign up for syncing emails to a maildir again, it really hasn’t worked out in the past. So it’s not going to be a mutt year for me, still :/