Luciano Laratelli

Setting up mu4e with iCloud custom domains with Doom Emacs on Arch Linux

Table of Contents
  1. Configuration files
  2. Install and enable packages
  3. Moving away from systemd
  4. Resources

Here's how I set up mu4e with Doom Emacs on Arch Linux for my custom domain hosted on iCloud. I'm using mbsync, mu, and msmpt. I originally went with a systemd timer as detailed in the first two sections as recommended in the Arch wiki, but mu4e actually has a built-in functionality to deal with this for us. Note that what I've written here is the minimum I needed to do to actually sync, send, and read emails from emacs. There's a lot more you can do.

Configuration files #

In init.el, under :email

(mu4e +org)

config.el:

(set-email-account! "icloud"
  '((mu4e-sent-folder       . "/icloud/Sent")
    (mu4e-drafts-folder     . "/icloud/Drafts")
    (mu4e-trash-folder      . "/icloud/Trash")
    (mu4e-refile-folder     . "/icloud/Archive")
    (smtpmail-smtp-user     . "lucianolaratelli")
    (mu4e-compose-signature . "\n\nLuciano"))
  t)

(after! mu4e
  (setq sendmail-program (executable-find "msmtp")
        send-mail-function #'smtpmail-send-it
        smtpmail-stream-type 'starttls
        message-sendmail-f-is-evil t
        message-sendmail-extra-arguments '("--read-envelope-from")
        message-send-mail-function #'message-send-mail-with-sendmail))

In $HOME/.config/system/user/mbsync.timer:

[Unit]
Description=Mailbox synchronization timer

[Timer]
OnBootSec=1m
OnUnitActiveSec=5m
Unit=mbsync.service

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

$HOME/.config/system/user/mbsync.service:

[Unit]
Description=Mailbox synchronization service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mbsync --verbose --all

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

$HOME/.mbsyncrc:

# imap account information
IMAPAccount icloud
Host imap.mail.me.com
User lucianolaratelli@icloud.com
PassCmd "secret-tool lookup email luciano@laratel.li"
SSLType IMAPS
Port 993

# remote storage (use the imap account specified above)
IMAPStore icloud-remote
Account icloud

# local storage
MaildirStore icloud-local
Path ~/Dropbox/mailbox/icloud/
Inbox ~/Dropbox/mailbox/icloud*Inbox
Subfolders Verbatim

# channel to remote storage
Channel icloud
Far :icloud-remote:
Near :icloud-local:
Patterns *
Create Near
Sync All
Expunge Both
SyncState *

The crucial part when you're using a custom domain hosted on iCloud is to use your iCloud email address instead of the custom one. I thought this was a bug with custom domains (I've run into another one) but I called Apple's support and they told me I needed to use the iCloud email address. You can find this on an iPhone or iPad by going to Settings, tapping on your name up top, and tapping on Name, Phone Numbers, Email. I had @me.com and @icloud.com emails there. I went with the @icloud.com one. Apple's docs on third-party iCloud clients say you can use just the part before the domain, but I included the whole thing just in case. Without further ado, $HOME/.msmptrc:

defaults
tls_trust_file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
logfile ~/.maildir/msmtp.log
protocol smtp

account icloud
auth on
host smtp.mail.me.com
port 587
protocol smtp
from luciano@laratel.li
user ${ICLOUD_EMAIL_ADDRESS}
passwordeval "secret-tool lookup email luciano@laratel.li"
tls on
tls_starttls on

account default : icloud

I have tls and tls_starttls both on. I think I only need one of these, but I don't want to muck with testing my mail configuration to get a blog post out. You might need one, the other, or both. Exercise for the reader!

I was originally using gpg as described by Erich Grunewald in his very helpful post, but unlocking my yubikey every five minutes became a pain and I figured my login keychain was secure enough for my (unsophisticated) threat model.

Install and enable packages #

yay mbsync
sudo pacman -S msmtp
yay mu mu4e # impossible to find mu otherwise

mkdir -p ~/home/Dropbox/mailbox/icloud
mbsync -Va
mu init -m ~/Dropbox/mailbox --my-address luciano@laratel.li
mu index

systemctl enable --user --now mbsync
systemctl enable --user --now mbsync.timer

doom sync

At this point you can run emacs, <SPC> o m, and get to emailin'!

Moving away from systemd #

This was working fine but I wasn't getting in-emacs notifications when new emails came in, even though mbsync was running on schedule! So I got rid of the mbsync.timer service with systemctl disable --now --user mbsync.timer. I kept mbsync.service so that my email syncs when I log in for the day. Then, in my config.el:

(after! mu4e (setq mu4e-get-mail-command "mbsync --verbose --all"
                   mu4e-update-interval 300))

I restarted emacs and I was good to go.

Resources #

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