From 87507ce4ae2b8e3a83684e0680031e316ce88f23 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Don Harper Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2025 21:17:11 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] 2025-06-09 | TUI Challange, Day 2 --- content/post/2025/06/tui-challenge:-day-2.md | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 62 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/post/2025/06/tui-challenge:-day-2.md diff --git a/content/post/2025/06/tui-challenge:-day-2.md b/content/post/2025/06/tui-challenge:-day-2.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9d2b43db --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/2025/06/tui-challenge:-day-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +date: "2025-06-09T04:00:00-07:00" +title: "TUI Challenge: Day 2" +tags: ["cli","tui"] +categories: ["personal","sa"] +#image: "" +series: ["tuichallenge"] +summary: "" +Victor_Hugo: "true" +Focus_Keyword: "" +--- + +Hey, look! Another day, another post. Today's challenge is *Email Management*. Since I already live in +[neomutt](https://neomutt.org), I should probably describe my setup. + +## Receiving Email and filtering + +Much to my shame, I am still receiving my email with Gmail. But, it is on my list to migrate somewhere else this year. +I think I have narrowed it down to two providers, but that is not what I am doing today. + +I do have IMAP enabled on my account so I can read my email without going to gmail.com. For filtering, I use a tool +called [gmailctl](https://github.com/mbrt/gmailctl) which allows me to control gmail's filters from my computer. It +works by connecting to gmail and pulling down the filter definition file, and then firing up my default editor. Once I +am happy with the changes, it will upload it back to gmail. + +To actually retrieve my emails, I use mbsync which is part of the [isync](https://isync.sourceforge.io/mbsync.html) +suite. You follow the directions, and it will sync your email down. This tool will work with any IMAP server, so when I +finally leave gmail, it will still work. One of the nice things is that since it is written in python, you can re-map +folder (labels in gmail-speak) to something different locally. For example, I map *All Mail* on google's side to +*All-Mail* on my side. + +I use a [systemd timer](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd/Timers) to schedule the sync runs. + +I also run [notmuch](https://notmuchemail.org) to index my mail so I can search it in my MUA (Mail User Agent) of +choice. + +## Reading Email + +I have been using mainly a TUI to read my email since I started on the internet. Back in the beginning, it was because +there where no GUI email applications, and it was before the WWW (yes, I am that old). Over the years, I have used elm +(fun fact, for a while, I was the Debian package maintainer for elm!), pine, and an Emacs email client (do not remember the +name anymore). But the client I have been using since I started using back when it was new is [mutt](https://mutt.org), +although I have switched to [neomutt](https://neomutt.org) a while back. Neomutt is mutt with a bunch of patches +included, but it is a great MUA on its own. + +One of the killer features (for me, anyway) is that I can configure neomutt to use notmuch and it makes searching for a +specific email a breeze. + +For my address book, I use a program called [khard](https://github.com/lucc/khard) which I sync with my google address +book using [vdirsyncer](https://github.com/pimutils/vdirsyncer) which I will talk more about on Day 6. + +## Sending Email +I used to use gmail's SMTP service, but sometime this year, the have changed their sending limits to an aggressively low +number which would cause me to not to be able to send an email for hours, sometimes days. I typically do not send a lot +of emails (mainly less than 10 automated reports to myself a day), so this was annoying. I switched to using the free +tier at [smtp2go](https://smtp2go.com) and I have had zero issues sending email since then. My needs to not really +require any of their paid plans, but I am thinking about getting the smallest paid plan to help support the service. + +## Daily totals +I come into today with 20 points. How did I do today? Well, the basic for setting up an email tui is 20 points, 5 +points for filtering, and 10 points for using a TUI address book for a daily total of 35, bring my total to 55 points! +