mykb/docs/neomutt.md
Till Dieminger 92c2d15a3e Update
2022-10-07 21:03:37 +01:00

162 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
Executable File

# Neomutt
## Markdown to HTML rendering
To write more normie-friendly emails, non-plain-text emails are probably better.
For this, a conversion from Markdown to HTML with Mathjax support seems best.
It supports all the bells and whistles of markdown (images, links, code, italics, bold) as well as mathemtical formulas in LaTex notation using Mathjax.
### Configuration
The conversion is done via pandoc using templates.
Ensure `pandoc` is installed. (`which pandoc || sudo pacman -S pandoc`)
Add to your muttrc (either in `~/.mutt/muttrc` or `~/.config/mutt/muttrc`. From now on assuming `~/.config/mutt` as config folder)
```
macro compose m \
"<enter-command>set pipe_decode<enter>\
<pipe-message>pandoc -f gfm -t plain -o /tmp/msg.txt<enter>\
<pipe-message>pandoc -s --self-contained -o /tmp/msg.html --resource-path ~/.config/mutt/templates/ --template email<enter>\
<enter-command>unset pipe_decode<enter>\
<attach-file>/tmp/msg.txt<enter>\
<attach-file>/tmp/msg.html<enter>\
<tag-entry><previous-entry><tag-entry><group-alternatives>" \
"Convert markdown to HTML5 and plaintext alternative content types"
```
Create a folder called `templates`: `mkdir -p ~/.config/mutt/templates`
and create a file called `email.html` in this folder with the following content:
```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="$lang$" xml:lang="$lang$"$if(dir)$ dir="$dir$"$endif$>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" />
<script src="https://polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js?features=es6"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" id="MathJax-script" async
src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-chtml.js">
</script>
<style>
$styles.html()$
</style>
$for(css)$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="$css$" />
$endfor$
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/html5shiv/3.7.3/html5shiv-printshiv.min.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$
</head>
<body>
$body$
$for(include-after)$
$include-after$
$endfor$
</body>
</html>
```
### Usage
To use this, write your email as usual and afterwards, press `m` on the created file in neomutt.
This will generate a combined file for plaintext fallback in case of unsupported HTML rendering.
For now, also delete the still present plaintext file with `D`.
Your email should now be ready to be sent.
For writing formulas, just use latex syntax in the normal `$` delimiters.
Be careful on inline formulas, here a whitespace between the leading `$` and the formula breaks the rendering!
## File Size
Since Mathjax is creating a binary for the rendering of the math syntax which is embedded in the html, the file sizes are usually around 1 MB.
This is not necessary when no LaTeX syntax is used.
Create a second macro for which you use a different template, that excludes the mathjax script.
This way you can create smaller emails with pure markdown syntax and when necessary can send mathematical formulas, resulting in larger mails.
For this add the following to the muttrc:
```
macro compose l \
"<enter-command>set pipe_decode<enter>\
<pipe-message>pandoc -f gfm -t plain -o /tmp/msg.txt<enter>\
<pipe-message>pandoc -s --self-contained -o /tmp/msg.html --resource-path ~/.config/mutt/templates/ --template email_pure<enter>\
<enter-command>unset pipe_decode<enter>\
<attach-file>/tmp/msg.txt<enter>\
<attach-file>/tmp/msg.html<enter>\
<tag-entry><previous-entry><tag-entry><group-alternatives>" \
"Convert markdown to HTML5 and plaintext alternative content types"
```
Further create a new file called `email_pure.html` in `mutt/templates` with the following content:
```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="$lang$" xml:lang="$lang$"$if(dir)$ dir="$dir$"$endif$>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" />
<style>
$styles.html()$
</style>
$for(css)$
<link rel="stylesheet" href="$css$" />
$endfor$
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/html5shiv/3.7.3/html5shiv-printshiv.min.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$
</head>
<body>
$body$
$for(include-after)$
$include-after$
$endfor$
</body>
</html>
```
### Usage with abook
Add the following to the muttrc. The first line set the default query to use abook, while the second line allows us to quickly add the sender of a mail that we currently read to the adress book using `A`.
```sh
set query_command= "abook --mutt-query '%s'"
macro index,pager A "<pipe-message>abook --add-email-quiet<return>" "Add this sender to Abook"
bind editor <Tab> complete-query
```
To use abook for composing messages, we can just start a new mail, using `m`.
Now press `Ctrl + t`. This pulls up a list of abook, which we now can navigate using the arrow keys.
If you have found the recipient of choice, press enter.
Sending a mail to more recipients, you can tag them using `t` in that list.
Having selected all, press `;m` to save them and press enter.
You can also search the query from abook. Having pressed `Ctrl+t`, press `/` to search.
## Signature and GPG
To sign and/or encrypt your mails via GPG, set the following in the muttrc:
```sh
set crypt_use_gpgme=yes
set postpone_encrypt = yes
set pgp_self_encrypt = yes
set crypt_use_pka = no
set crypt_autosign = no
set crypt_autoencrypt = no
set crypt_autopgp = yes
set pgp_sign_as=0x12345678
```
The last line is the key id of the key you want to use for signing - which can be extracted from `gpg --keyid-format 0xlong -K --fingerprint`.
To send an encrypted message, import the public key of the recipient using `gpg --import <keyfile>` or `gpg --auto-key-locate keyserver --locate-keys user@example.net`
To bring up the `pgp` menu in mutt, press `p` before sending the mail.
Then select encryption, and select the recipient from the list.
TODO: delete plaintext attachment after HTML creation
TODO: remove `tmp` files after sending