Re: Gnus and offline Email

[Jeffrey DeLeo <JeffreyDeLeo@gmail.com>]

After trying many ways, I now use *offlineimap* to sync messages between
my machine and the google server. *Gnus* then reads messages from the
local machine. *Postfix* is used to send messages to the gmail smtp
server. Virtues of this setup: reading/sending email does not involve
waiting for servers while in gnus (fast), can read/send email while
offline (passed to server when online again). If you preferred to use
RMail, you could instead of gnus. 

This is what I do on ubuntu.

offlineimap, run periodically puts mail into ~/Maildr/Gmail

contents of ~/.offlineimaprc:

#+BEGIN_SRC
  [general]
  # List of accounts to be synced, separated by a comma.
  accounts = Gmail
  maxsyncaccounts = 2
  
  [Account Gmail]
  # Identifier for the local repository; e.g. the maildir to be synced via IMAP.
  localrepository = Gmail-local
  # Identifier for the remote repository; i.e. the actual IMAP, usually non-local.
  remoterepository = Gmail-remote
  # Status cache. Default is plain, which eventually becomes huge and slow.
  status_backend = sqlite
  
  [Repository Gmail-local]
  type = Maildir
  localfolders = ~/Maildir/Gmail
  
  [Repository Gmail-remote]
  type = Gmail
  remoteuser = YourName@gmail.com
  remotepass = YourPass
  folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in ['INBOX', 'Dev']
  # Necessary as of OfflineIMAP 6.5.4
  sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
#+END_SRC

gnus reads mail from ~/Maildir/Gmail

In emacs, the variable /gnus-home-directory/ is set to
"~/Documents/gnus". Contents of "~/Documents/gnus/.gnus": 

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq gnus-select-method
        '(nntp "localhost")) ; I also read news in gnus; it is copied to my local machine via *leafnode*
  
  (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
        '((nnmaildir "GMail" (directory "~/Maildir/Gmail")) ; grab mail from here
      (nnfolder "archive"
        (nnfolder-directory   "~/Documents/gnus/Mail/archive") ; where I archive sent email
        (nnfolder-active-file "~/Documents/gnus/Mail/archive/active")
        (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
        (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))))
#+END_SRC

Sending mail: emacs configuration variables: /mail-user-agent/ is set to
'gnus-user-agent /send-mail-function/ is set to 'sendmail-send-it
/user-mail-address/ is set to "YourName@gmail.com" 

Trickiest thing is setting up Postfix, that is clearly described
[[https://easyengine.io/tutorials/linux/ubuntu-postfix-gmail-smtp/][here]] 

The program *offlineimap* is controlled by the file
/~/.offlineimaprc/. When offineimap runs, it will keep information in
the directory ~/.offlineimap. You can read the docs for explanation of
how that all works. 

Re: sending mail: In fact, I used to send mail directly from emacs. This
involved fiddling with a number of things. It turned out to be much
easier to just let postfix handle it. For example, I use several
different email accounts to send mail from in Gnus; I now let gnus know
about this via posting-styles, and let postfix worry about which address
should go to which server, and how.