Aerc – a pretty good (terminal) email client

Aerc – a pretty good (terminal) email client(aerc-mail.org)

205 points by davegauer 3 years ago | 50 comments

It brings joy to my heart to still see these simple web 1.0 pages.

And the front page has almost all the information I care about as a terminal luddite: vim bindings, etc.

One point of criticism: it says extensible, but it's not very clear how exactly it's extensible. What language is used for extensions? Go? Scripts + conf files with hooks? The front page makes no mention, nor does the source page, and I've yet to find it by clicking around the wiki.

ddevault 3 years ago | |

aerc is plugged into your surrounding Unix environment more deeply than most mail clients. It has a keybindings system which is like a more generalized version of Vim, plus an embedded terminal emulator and support for piping things through shell commands, and a templating system.

Example: to apply git patches, I have this in ~/.config/aerc/binds.conf:

    ga = :flag<Enter>:pipe -mb git am -3<Enter>

To reply to thank the contributor, I have this:

    rt = :unflag<Enter>:reply -a -Tthanks<Enter>

The "thanks" template invoked by this shells out to git to include a summary of the git push and set a special mail header to update the mailing list on the status of the patch:

    X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update: APPLIED
    
    Thanks!
    
    {{exec "{ git remote get-url --push origin; git reflog -2 origin/master --pretty=format:%h | xargs printf '%s\n' | tac; } | xargs printf 'To %s\n   %s..%s  master -> master'" ""}}

Hope that helps.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 3 years ago | | |

That does help, thank you.

I like this because I could do the script parts in whatever language I like.

I've been trying to cobble together a linux dev system that's almost entirely configured in lisp.

Getting pretty close now, in theory, with Guix for a distro(Guile initscripts and system def), Stumpwm(Common Lisp), Nyxt-browser(also CL), and of course Emacs with evil-mode for editing/org-mode.

I realise I could Emacs all the things, but I have too much of a love-hate relationship with Emacs for that to be bearable...

dogline 3 years ago |

So, given that with email, the important part is the data, and not the client, I was able to give this client a spin. Not bad. I was able to go though my recent email, view some HTML email I keep getting, and mash through things without a lot of problems. Maybe I'll stick with this client? ::shrug::

This is one of the few domains where you can play with different client still. And there can be innovations here with CLI versions, which I like.

Reading other comments in the thread, it sounds like ddevault has ideas for the next version. If so, that's cool, and it should be easy to try out.

rickstanley 3 years ago |

I tried to sign-in into my work Outlook account with aerc a while ago, from WSL2, unfortunately it didn't work with an app password[0], and OAuth2 won't cut it, because I'll have to ask the company's services administrator to grant me access.

Nevertheless, a great piece of software. Using it for personal e-mail.

[0]: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/manage-a...

kanisae 3 years ago | |

I use aerc with o365 via davmail and mbsync. Using imap directly was to slow, but pulling mail to a maildir works well. Davmail handles all the o365 interaction and supports mfa directly.

tpoacher 3 years ago | | |

Thanks for mentioning this. I had the same problem as the person you replied to for using alpine, which does support mfa, but then the 'request' for alpine to be authorised as supported software had to be supported by my organisation. The ticket has been open for about 3 months now and apparently they're still discussing.

I don't know what davmail or mbsync are, but I'll look them up and have a go at this when I find time.

If you had any nice links to help me on my travels, I'd be very appreciative :)

nominusllc 3 years ago |

I like it. It's somewhat reminiscent of this one we used to use called Pine :) I think sourcehut guy made this, right?

edit: yep sourcehut guy. they also made this cool guide here: https://git-send-email.io/

AdamGibbins 3 years ago | |

Drew (sourcehut guy) wrote the original from the look of it, but that's now unmaintained and this is a fork: https://git.sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc

ddevault 3 years ago | | |

rjarry is doing a good job of maintaining it now. I will eventually write a new mail client with the benefit of hindsight.

mburee 3 years ago | |

Also sway, but hacker news doesn't always hold him in that high of an opinion, probably mostly of his Rust criticisms...

But I use many of his tools, all top notch!

sam_lowry_ 3 years ago | | |

HN is not one voice. Lots of people here admire his work.

mrzool 3 years ago | | |

For what it's worth, I'm an HN user and hold Drew and his work in very high regard.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 3 years ago | | |

He has over 25k karma on here. The data doesn't fit your assertion.

mrcus 3 years ago | | |

Why do you feel the need to bring this up?

aidenn0 3 years ago |

I use an email client called bower, which is fairly light on features, but has one killer feature: it works with remote notmuch databases.

So I get great search, but can easily open attachments locally, or even compose in a GUI editor.

pabs3 3 years ago | |

Is this the right repo for bower?

https://github.com/wangp/bower

aidenn0 3 years ago | | |

Yes

irjustin 3 years ago |

Ah this is awesome, brings back so many memories when i was a UW student on Pine[0] then Alpine[1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_(email_client)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_(email_client)

danobi 3 years ago |

Was threading support ever added? I recall there being a few attempts. I tried aerc out for quite a bit but ultimately had to give it up for neomutt b/c mailing list discussions were impossible to follow without threading support.

ddevault 3 years ago | |

Yes.

https://l.sr.ht/Gj9l.png

dang 3 years ago |

Aerc – An email client that runs in the terminal - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20090950 - June 2019 (264 comments)

globular-toast 3 years ago |

I'd love to use a lightweight email client. I've tried several in the past. When conversing with others who know how to use email, like free software mailing lists, for example, they are a joy to use. But as soon as you have to interact with the Microsoft shite it just doesn't work. Things just start breaking in random ways and you're never really sure if you're getting the message you're supposed to be getting. Since I mostly use email for work, I've found Thunderbird to be the only good option.

petemir 3 years ago |

I have been using it for the last weeks. It’s nice, although I didn’t have good luck with the documentation. I think some of the examples and capabilities are lacking, and the procedure for reporting/asking something seemed really convoluted with respect to something more plain like GitHub. Furthermore, another problem that I have is that sometimes I lose connection to the mail servers, and it’s imposible to recover it without closing and reopening the app. I am missing something like reconnect/refresh.

capableweb 3 years ago | |

> Asynchronous IMAP support ensures the UI never gets locked up by a flaky network, as mutt often does

Seems to have been made with flaky connections in mind, would be weird if there wasn't a way to recover.

But on that note, isn't it local/offline-first? The first feature that comes in mind for a email client is "download all mail to store locally so I can browse/search them anytime", is that not how this client works?

ddevault 3 years ago | | |

No, it does not store emails offline by default (though you can configure it to use maildir and use isync to pull emails down, this is what I do in my configuration). In my opinion this is the major design mis-step of aerc which will be corrected by a future mail client.

tjoff 3 years ago | | |

It has improved lately but no, it does not handle flaky connections well. And it is online by default.

emptysongglass 3 years ago |

Love Aerc but if I'm going to jump ship from Betterbird/Thunderbird I really need a lightweight calendar app to pair Aerc with as that's a vital part of my day to day. Any recommendations?

jarbus 3 years ago |

I really am in need of a terminal email client that can handle multiple inboxes with vi keybinds out the box. This looks promising

mpalczewski 3 years ago |

I love it, answers the question. “What would vim be like as a web client” I use it regularly.

anthk 3 years ago | |

That's Mutt.

blacklight 3 years ago |

What's the added value when compared to more mature solutions like mutt or neomutt?

williamvds 3 years ago | |

I initially tried neomutt before moving to aerc and haven't looked back since. My memory of neomutt is pretty hazy, but I feel aerc has a much simpler setup process (it has built-in SMTP support) and a less steep learning curve. aerc's defaults feel more sane, particularly as a Vim user.

For reference, my setup is having offlineimap sync mail to/from my local maildir. aerc fills the rest of gaps with viewing, composing, and sending mail.

jpe90 3 years ago |

I swapped over to aerc from mu4e, it’s very pleasant to use. I would easily recommend it.

imachine1980_ 3 years ago | |

Why this over regular client ?

aussiesnack 3 years ago | | |

I use mutt but will give this a try.

But another perspective on why use a cli over a regular client. Though there's a bit of a vogue for terminal apps in dev circles, I don't favour them in general. I like GUIs. I want my computer to use 21st century tech for UIs.

But unfortunately (on Linux at least) all the GUI IMAP clients I've tried are terrible. Not because they are GUIs but because they're all either buggy or have awful 1990s corporate interface design or lack even essential keyboard shortcuts, or are just infeasably slow.

So mutt it is, which at least seems to be well-crafted, is quick, and can be configured to be pretty usable. I'd replace it with an excellent GUI app if there were such a thing.

jpe90 3 years ago | | |

For me, checking and replying to emails is quicker with a CLI client than with a traditional mail client. It’s easier to jump around and pick apart email threads from my text editor than a GUI app. And Aerc’s piping is nice, it makes it easy to apply patches from mailing lists to local repositories.

zaik 3 years ago |

I want to make aerc my email client. Hopefully it gets S/MIME support soon.

mro_name 3 years ago |

how would I use aerc and not maintain a go toolchain?

ddevault 3 years ago | |

Install it from your local package manager:

https://repology.org/project/aerc/versions

zhxshen 3 years ago | |

It's like three steps--four if you count the verification.

https://go.dev/doc/install

mro_name 3 years ago | | |

OT. I just don't want it.

X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update: APPLIED Thanks! {{exec "{ git remote get-url --push origin; git reflog -2 origin/master --pretty=format:%h | xargs printf '%s\n' | tac; } | xargs printf 'To %s\n %s..%s master -> master'" ""}}