mirror of https://github.com/djcb/mu.git
255 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
255 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
\input texinfo.tex @c -*-texinfo-*-
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@c %**start of header
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@setfilename mu4e.info
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@settitle mu4e user manual
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@documentencoding utf-8
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@c %**end of header
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@dircategory Emacs
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@direntry
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* mu4e mail client: (mu4e). An email client for emacs based on mu.
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@end direntry
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@copying
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Copyright @copyright{} 2011 Dirk-Jan C. Binnema
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@quotation
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
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any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
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Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
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Texts.
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@end quotation
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@end copying
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@node Top
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@top mu4e User Manual
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@emph{Mu-For-Emacs} (or for short, @code{mu4e}), is an @code{emacs} based
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e-mail client, based on the @code{mu} e-mail search engine. @code{mu4e}
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supports GNU Emacs 23 and later, and may work with other versions as well.
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@menu
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* Introduction::
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* Overview::
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* Installation::
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* Getting mail::
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* Searching mail::
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* Reading mail::
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* Processing mail::
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* Sending mail::
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* Example configuration::
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@end menu
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@node Introduction
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@chapter Introduction
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@code{mu4e} is an e-mail program for GNU Emacs; it uses the @code{mu} e-mail
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search engine as its backend, making @code{mu} fully search-based.
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@code{mu4e} (and @code{mu}) does @emph{not} deal with getting your e-mail
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messages from some e-mail server; instead, this task is delegated to other
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tools, such as @code{fetchmail} and @code{offlineimap}. As long as the messages
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end up in a Maildir, @code{mu4e}/@code{mu} are happy to deal with them.
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@code{mu4e} does @emph{not} implement sending messages either; instead, it
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depends on the true-and-tested @emph{smtpmail} which is part of emacs. In
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fact, @code{mu4e} piggybacks on @ref{Top, Gnus} for its message editor.
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Thus, many of the traditional things an e-mail client needs to do, are
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subcontracted to other tools. This leaves @code{mu4e} to concentrate on what it
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does best: quick message searching, reading mails, replying them, moving
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messages around and so on.
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@subsection Acknowledgments
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@code{mu} has been helped tremendously by users who helped to isolate and fix
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bugs, and (maybe even more so) by providing suggestions. Thanks to all!
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@code{mu4e} has taken inspiration from many places. First, there are @code{sup}
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and @code{notmuch} which showed that one can write a search-based e-mail
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client. Aspects of the Wanderlust e-mail client can be seen in the UI, as well
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as the @code{dired} interaction model.
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@node Installation
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@chapter Installation
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@code{mu4e} is part of @code{mu} - by installing the latter, the former will
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be installed as well.
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At the time of writing, there are no distribution packages for @code{mu4e}
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yet, so we are assuming installation from source packages.
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Installation follows the normal sequence of:
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@example
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$ tar xvfz mu-<version>.tar.gz # use the specific version
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$ cd mu-<version>
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$./configure && make
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$ sudo make install
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@end example
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After this, but @code{mu} and @code{mu4e} should be installed.
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Note, there's a hard dependency between versions of @code{mu4e} and @code{mu}
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- you cannot combine different versions.
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There is experimental support for the @code{emacs} customization system in
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@code{mu4e}, but for now we recommend setting the values by - please
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@xref{Example configuration} for an example of this.
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@node Overview
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@chapter Overview
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@section Elements
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Without going into too much technical detail, here we describe the elements in
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a @code{mu4e}-setup, and how they work together. Using some ascii-art:
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@example
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+---------+
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| emacs |
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| +------+
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+----| mu4e | --> send mail (smtpmail)
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+------+
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| A
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V |
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+---------+
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| mu |
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+---------+
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| A
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V |
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+---------+
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| Maildir | <--- receive mail (fetchmail,
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+---------+ offlineimap, ...)
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@end example
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So:
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@itemize
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@item Your e-mail messages are stored in a Maildir-directory (typically,
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@code{~/Maildir}), and new mail comes in using tools like @code{fetchmail},
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@code{offlineimap} etc., or through a local mail servers (such as
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@code{qmail} or @code{Postfix}).
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@item @code{mu} indexes these messages periodically, so you can quickly
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search for them. @code{mu} can run in a special @code{server}-mode, where it
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provides services to client software.
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@item @code{mu4e}, which runs inside @code{emacs} is such a client; it
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communicates with @code{mu} to search for messages, and manipulate them.
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@item @code{mu4e} uses the facilities offered by @code{emacs} (the
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@code{Gnus} message editor and @code{smtpmail}) to send messages.
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@end itemize
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@section User interface
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@example
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+-----------+ +--------------+ +--------------+
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| main view | <---> | headers view | <---> | message view |
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+-----------+ +--------------+ +--------------+
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+----------+
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| raw view |
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+----------+
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@end example
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@node Getting mail
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@chapter Getting mail
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@code{mu} works with whatever it finds in your Maildir, without caring much
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how the mail got there. Typical ways to do so are using @code{fetchmail} or
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@code{offlineimap}, but mail servers like @code{qmail} or @code{Postfix} can
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deliver mail in a Maildir as well. Please refer to the documentation for these
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tools.
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@code{mu4e} checks the setting of the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable to
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locate the Maildir; if that is not set, if falls back to @code{~/Maildir}. If
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you want to use some other directory, you can customize @code{mu4e-mu-home}.
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To invoke some mail-getting command from the @code{mu4e} main screen, you can
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call @code{mu4e-retrieve-mail-update-db} (by default @kbd{u}); to use it, you
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should set @code{mu4e-get-mail-command} to some shell command.
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@node Searching mail
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@chapter Searching mail
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@section Everything is search
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@code{mu4e} is full search-based; this means that all the lists of messages
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you see, are the result of some query. Even if you 'jump to a folder', in fact
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you are executing a search query for messages that have the property of being
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in a certain folder.
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@node Reading mail
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@chapter Reading mail
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@node Processing mail
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@chapter Processing mail
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Processing mail is the act of moving mails around (in folders), viewing them
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@node Sending mail
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@chapter Sending mail
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@node Example configuration
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@chapter Example configuration
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@example
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@verbatim
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;; example configuration for mu-for-emacs (mu4e)
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(require 'mu4e)
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(load-library "smtpmail")
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(setq
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;; a regular expression that matches all email address uses by the user;
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;; this allows us to correctly determine if user is the sender of some message
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mu4e-user-mail-address-regexp
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"foo@bar\.com\\|cuux@example\.com"
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mu4e-maildir "/home/user/Maildir"
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;; the next are relative to `mu4e-maildir'
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mu4e-outbox-folder "/outbox"
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mu4e-sent-folder "/sent"
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mu4e-drafts-folder "/drafts"
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mu4e-trash-folder "/trash"
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;; the maildirs you use frequently; access them with 'j' ('jump')
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mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
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'( ("/archive" . ?a)
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("/inbox" . ?i)
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("/work" . ?w)
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("/sent" . ?s))
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;; program to get mail
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mu4e-get-mail-command "fetchmail"
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;; general emacs mail settings
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mail-reply-to "foo@bar.com"
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user-mail-address "foo@bar.com"
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user-full-name "Foo. X Bar"
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;; include in message with C-c C-w
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message-signature
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(concat
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"Foo X. Bar\n"
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"http://www.example.com\n")
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;; smtp mail setting
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message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
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smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtpa.example.com"
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smtpmail-smtp-server ""smtpa.example.com"
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smtpmail-local-domain "example.com"
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;; for offline mode
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smtpmail-queue-mail nil
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smtpmail-queue-dir "/home/user/Maildir/queue/cur")
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@end verbatim
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@end example
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@bye
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