Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[oury.dustin]

Greetings, help-emacs! Currently, I´m writing this from a webmail 
interface for posteo.de which is not ideal. I wanted to see if it was 
possible to configure Emacs to use my posteo email and one other alias 
together to sort my emails. Looking around I cannot find good 
documentation for configuring Emacs with posteo. I´m barely beginning 
Emacs and can barely remember a few shortcuts on the keyboard.

Below is pasted from the posteo.de help page for help with email 
clients-

Server name: posteo.de
Username: yourusername@posteo.net
Password: Your personal password

Important: The connection to Posteo is always encrypted (STARTTLS, TLS 
or SSL).

The outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires authentication.

In case your email client asks: The password will be checked “normal” or 
“plain”. The password can also be transmitted unencrypted, because it is 
requested over a connection that is already encrypted.

The port settings depend upon the type of encryption:

Outgoing mail server (SMTP):
With STARTTLS using port 587, or
with SSL/TLS encryption using port 465

Incoming mail server (IMAP):
With STARTTLS using port 143, or
with SSL/TLS encryption using port 993

Incoming mail server (POP3):
With STARTTLS using port 110, or
with SSL/TLS encryption using port 995

The standard IMAP folders we have set up:
For sent emails: Sent
For deleted emails: Trash
For drafts: Drafts

Could anyone help me with configuring my ~/.gnus to get it up and 
running? I would use icedove if possible, but GuixSD doesn´t seem to 
have it available in their repository yet.  Any help is much 
appreciated. Thanks!

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Eric Abrahamsen]

oury.dustin@posteo.net writes:

> Greetings, help-emacs! Currently, I´m writing this from a webmail
> interface for posteo.de which is not ideal. I wanted to see if it was
> possible to configure Emacs to use my posteo email and one other alias
> together to sort my emails. Looking around I cannot find good
> documentation for configuring Emacs with posteo. I´m barely beginning
> Emacs and can barely remember a few shortcuts on the keyboard.
>
> Below is pasted from the posteo.de help page for help with email
> clients-

Hi! And welcome to Emacs/Gnus :)

The first thing to do is probably check the Gnus manual for the section
on IMAP. Hit "C-h i" to bring up the manual, "m" and type "Gnus" to
select the Gnus manual, then "g" and "Using IMAP" to get to the section
on IMAP. Use space to scroll down.

The simplest config that will possibly work is to put, in your gnus.el
startup file:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"))

That should prompt you for a username and password, and I _think_ offer
to save them in an ~/.authinfo file (depending on what system you're on)
so you don't have to keep doing that. You may have to create that file
yourself, I can't remember. You can also add the user into the config:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"
                           (nnimap-user "youruser@posteo.de")))

I would start with that, and see if Gnus and the server will figure out
your tls situation automatically. If that doesn't work, you'll have to
add something like (nnimap-stream starttls) to the config above (no
double quotes), see the manual for possibilities.

Try that, and see how it goes.

Eric

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Nick Dokos]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> oury.dustin@posteo.net writes:
>
>> Greetings, help-emacs! Currently, I´m writing this from a webmail
>> interface for posteo.de which is not ideal. I wanted to see if it was
>> possible to configure Emacs to use my posteo email and one other alias
>> together to sort my emails. Looking around I cannot find good
>> documentation for configuring Emacs with posteo. I´m barely beginning
>> Emacs and can barely remember a few shortcuts on the keyboard.
>>
>> Below is pasted from the posteo.de help page for help with email
>> clients-
>
> Hi! And welcome to Emacs/Gnus :)
>
> The first thing to do is probably check the Gnus manual for the section
> on IMAP. Hit "C-h i" to bring up the manual, "m" and type "Gnus" to
> select the Gnus manual, then "g" and "Using IMAP" to get to the section
> on IMAP. Use space to scroll down.
>
> The simplest config that will possibly work is to put, in your gnus.el
> startup file:
>
> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"))
>
> That should prompt you for a username and password, and I _think_ offer
> to save them in an ~/.authinfo file (depending on what system you're on)
> so you don't have to keep doing that. You may have to create that file
> yourself, I can't remember. You can also add the user into the config:
>
> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"
>                            (nnimap-user "youruser@posteo.de")))
>
> I would start with that, and see if Gnus and the server will figure out
> your tls situation automatically. If that doesn't work, you'll have to
> add something like (nnimap-stream starttls) to the config above (no
> double quotes), see the manual for possibilities.
>
> Try that, and see how it goes.
>

That's good advice for receiving mail. Sending mail will also require some
work, but it depends on how you have configured your machine for mail.

I run postfix on my machines and use smtpmail.el:

    (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "localhost")

That sends it to the local postfix which forwards the mail using
the smtp relay specified in /etc/postfix/main.cf:

    relayhost = [smtp.posteo.de]

or whatever the appropriate outgoing smtp server should be in your
case. You need extra setup in postfix to use an authenticated
connection, but that is beyond the scope of this mailing list: for a
tutorial, check

   https://www.linode.com/docs/email/postfix/postfix-smtp-debian7/

and

   http://www.postfix.org/BASIC_CONFIGURATION_README.html

-- 
Nick

"There are only two hard problems in computer science: cache
invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors." -Martin Fowler

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> oury.dustin@posteo.net writes:
>>
>>> Greetings, help-emacs! Currently, I´m writing this from a webmail
>>> interface for posteo.de which is not ideal. I wanted to see if it was
>>> possible to configure Emacs to use my posteo email and one other alias
>>> together to sort my emails. Looking around I cannot find good
>>> documentation for configuring Emacs with posteo. I´m barely beginning
>>> Emacs and can barely remember a few shortcuts on the keyboard.
>>>
>>> Below is pasted from the posteo.de help page for help with email
>>> clients-

[...]

> That's good advice for receiving mail. Sending mail will also require some
> work, but it depends on how you have configured your machine for mail.

Ha, I forgot the other half! Thanks. FWIW, I use msmtp.

> I run postfix on my machines and use smtpmail.el:

Possibly dumb question, but doesn't this mean outgoing mail leaves your
machine on port 25? I thought most ISPs blocked that port.

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Tomas Nordin]

oury.dustin@posteo.net writes:

> Greetings, help-emacs! Currently, I´m writing this from a webmail 
> interface for posteo.de which is not ideal. I wanted to see if it was 

Not ideal, but they do say their javascript is free software! :)

> Could anyone help me with configuring my ~/.gnus to get it up and 
> running? I would use icedove if possible, but GuixSD doesn´t seem to 
> have it available in their repository yet.  Any help is much 
> appreciated. Thanks!

If it has to be Gnus I cannot help, I could never wrap my head around
it. If it would be interesting for you with a setup using Maildir (local
duplication of your mails), offlineimap to get them mails, (m)smtp to
send and last but not least -- notmuch indexing (with a super cool emacs
client of course), I can try to give some guidance.

Best regards
--
Tomas

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Nick Dokos]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> Ha, I forgot the other half! Thanks. FWIW, I use msmtp.
>
>> I run postfix on my machines and use smtpmail.el:
>
> Possibly dumb question, but doesn't this mean outgoing mail leaves your
> machine on port 25? I thought most ISPs blocked that port.
>

No, postfix on my localhost listens on port 25, but it forwards the mail
according to the spec in /etc/postfix/main.cf. That can specify whatever
port the relay server is listening on.

-- 
Nick

"There are only two hard problems in computer science: cache
invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors." -Martin Fowler

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> Ha, I forgot the other half! Thanks. FWIW, I use msmtp.
>>
>>> I run postfix on my machines and use smtpmail.el:
>>
>> Possibly dumb question, but doesn't this mean outgoing mail leaves your
>> machine on port 25? I thought most ISPs blocked that port.
>>
>
> No, postfix on my localhost listens on port 25, but it forwards the mail
> according to the spec in /etc/postfix/main.cf. That can specify whatever
> port the relay server is listening on.

Right, of course -- there are a million ways to configure postfix...

Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup

[Tomas Nordin]

oury.dustin@posteo.net writes:

> I got it figured out a few days ago. But for now I may have to go slow 
> and learn how to configure gnus while using the webmail interface as I 
> go.
>
> Doing (setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de")) was the answer I 
> needed! Everything else can probably be learned by RTFM

Alright! Good luck with the Gnus stuff, it seems to be THE thing for
some people.

"Gnus" in other editors/IDEs (was: Re: Newbie with Gnus and posteo email setup)

[Emanuel Berg via help-gnu-emacs]

Tomas Nordin wrote:

>> I got it figured out a few days ago. But for
>> now I may have to go slow and learn how to
>> configure gnus while using the webmail
>> interface as I go. Doing (setq
>> gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"))
>> was the answer I needed! Everything else can
>> probably be learned by RTFM
>
> Alright! Good luck with the Gnus stuff, it
> seems to be THE thing for some people.

You better believe it!

With all the bad rep Emacs has got lately -
I mean, it can't even handle cpp projects with
a few million lines OOTB - let me ask, can them
other editors and IDEs, that are better, and
have a less steep learning curve than Emacs,
can _they_ do their "Gnuses" and are they
really better than ours as well? Allow me
to be - doubtful!

Like the saying goes, Gnus is to Emacs users
what Emacs is to other users :)

Gnus is actually so good, it is
counter-productive to many people.
Myself included! Instead of doing something
sensible, I do Gnus. But I gave up the
productivity hunt a long time ago. No I just
want to enjoy myself, and I do enjoy Gnus.

Maybe in a year or two, when my brain has
healed God willing, I be looking for
productivity again - who knows!

But I did so much of it to last for several
lifetimes already, at least it feels that way -
and what did it give me? Don't know. Don't want
to know!

But Gnus I know! Well, a fraction of it :)

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: "Gnus" in other editors/IDEs

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Emanuel Berg via help-gnu-emacs <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> writes:

> Tomas Nordin wrote:
>
>>> I got it figured out a few days ago. But for
>>> now I may have to go slow and learn how to
>>> configure gnus while using the webmail
>>> interface as I go. Doing (setq
>>> gnus-select-method '(nnimap "posteo.de"))
>>> was the answer I needed! Everything else can
>>> probably be learned by RTFM
>>
>> Alright! Good luck with the Gnus stuff, it
>> seems to be THE thing for some people.
>
> You better believe it!
>
> With all the bad rep Emacs has got lately -
> I mean, it can't even handle cpp projects with
> a few million lines OOTB - let me ask, can them
> other editors and IDEs, that are better, and
> have a less steep learning curve than Emacs,
> can _they_ do their "Gnuses" and are they
> really better than ours as well? Allow me
> to be - doubtful!
>
> Like the saying goes, Gnus is to Emacs users
> what Emacs is to other users :)
>
> Gnus is actually so good, it is
> counter-productive to many people.

Amen.