163 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
163 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: v0.6.0 alpha release
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ogTitle: v0.6.0 alpha release
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ogImage: /images/posts/v0.6.0.png
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author: epilys
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date: 2020-07-29 00:00:00
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date_iso_8601: 2020-07-29T00:00:00+02:00
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bees: What if bees flew the coop?
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left:
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right:
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---
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A new alpha version is up for test/review. It's starting to look like a real client! [Get it here](/download.html#install). Some highlights are:
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- Support for async IO using the `smol` runtime. `IMAP` backend is now async.
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- imap: `add server_password_command`
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- add optional SMTP client. Instead of using an external command (I was using `msmtp` for example) meli can connect to an SMTP server by itself. See documentation for `send_mail` option.
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- Custom themes
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## Online demo
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I managed to compile meli to WebAssembly, and made [an online demo](https://meli.delivery/wasm2.html) so that you can get a feel for it without having to download/build it first. It's not perfect, but it works.
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## Themes
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### what
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meli comes with two themes, dark (the default) and light. Here's how a theme is defined:
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```sh
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[terminal.themes.watermelon]
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"theme_default" = { fg = "#F50431", bg = "#FFD5FD", attrs = "Default" }
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"widgets.list.header" = { fg = "#FFD5FD", bg = "#F50431", attrs = "Bold" }
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"mail.listing.attachment_flag" = { fg = "LightSlateGrey", bg = "theme_default", attrs = "theme_default" }
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"mail.listing.compact.even" = { fg = "White", bg = "#6CA94A", attrs = "Bold" }
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"mail.listing.compact.highlighted" = { fg = "#157241", bg = "#f74b41", attrs = "theme_default" }
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...
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```
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etc.
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You can also define color aliases:
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```sh
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[terminal.themes."hunter2"]
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color_aliases= { "Jebediah" = "#b4da55" }
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"mail.listing.tag_default" = { fg = "$Jebediah" }
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...
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```
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### where
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Custom themes can be defined as lists of key-values in the configuration files:
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- `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml`
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- `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/themes/*.toml`
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The application theme is then defined in the configuration as follows:
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```sh
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[terminal]
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theme = "dark"
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```
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### how
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You can create a theme template with a command line flag:
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```sh
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meli print-default-theme > ~/.config/meli/themes/new_theme.toml
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```
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Sample themes can be found in the `samples/` directory in the source repository. Detailed documentation can be found in `meli-themes(5)` which is also available [online](/documentation.html)
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_sidenote: I couldn't get mandoc to generate large (i.e. longer than a page) tables. There is a GNU mdoc extension for this but it's not supported. Bummer_
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## Other subcommands
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```sh
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SUBCOMMANDS:
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create-config create a sample configuration file with available configuration options. If PATH is not
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specified, meli will try to create it in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml
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test-config test a configuration file for syntax issues or missing options
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man print documentation page and exit (Piping to a pager is recommended.) [aliases: docs]
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help Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
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print-default-theme print default theme in full to stdout and exit
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print-loaded-themes print loaded themes in full to stdout and exit
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view View mail from input file
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```
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## Usability improvements
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- Set **default filter** globally or per-mailbox e.g. show only unseen e-mail (_virtual mailboxes_ coming soon). This is done on the UI and not in the backend, so specifying a filter won't for example make less IMAP requests. This will be supported in the future.
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```sh
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[listing]
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filter = "not flags:seen" # show only unseen messages globally
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# or
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[accounts."personal account".mailboxes]
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"INBOX" = { listing.filter = "not flags:seen" } # override global settings for this mailbox
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```
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- Oh, and **override** any setting that makes sense per mailbox or per account. You can for example use different sending mail options for each account, or different shortcuts for some mailboxes.
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- **Search** in pagers, and the shortcut panel with a simple [KMP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth%E2%80%93Morris%E2%80%93Pratt_algorithm) implementation
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- **Autoload** mailbox option - don't load big mailboxes on startup till you request them
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- **Create/delete** mailbox, {un,}subscribe mailbox
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- Set **default headers**
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- Manual check for **new mail** (default key <kbd class="□">F5</kbd>). IMAP checks server, maildir can be configured to run a command (setting `refresh_command`)
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- Primitive fs autocomplete for commands, till a proper parser with states is written
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- Custom date format strings
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- `$NO_COLOR` **disable colors** application-wide conforming to [https://no-color.org](https://no-color.org)
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- `libnotmuch` is now loaded **dynamically**. It's included in the default build configuration.
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- Display `text/html` attachments if the `text/plain` alternative is empty. (setting: `auto_choose_multipart_alternative`)
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## Distribution and building
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- **Makefile** has been improved:
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```sh
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/path/to/meli % make help
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For a quick start, build and install locally:
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PREFIX=~/.local make install
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Available subcommands:
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- meli (builds meli with optimizations in $CARGO_TARGET_DIR)
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- install (installs binary in $BINDIR and documentation to $MANDIR)
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- uninstall
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Secondary subcommands:
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- clean (cleans build artifacts)
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- check-deps (checks dependencies)
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- install-bin (installs binary to $BINDIR)
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- install-doc (installs manpages to $MANDIR)
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- help (prints this information)
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- dist (creates release tarball named meli-0.5.1.tar.gz in this directory)
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- deb-dist (builds debian package in the parent directory)
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- distclean (cleans distribution build artifacts)
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ENVIRONMENT variables of interest:
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* PREFIX = /usr/local
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* MELI_FEATURES = unset
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* BINDIR = /usr/local/bin
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* MANDIR = /usr/local/share/man
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* MANPATH = unset
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* output of manpath(1) = /home/epilys/.local/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/local/share/man
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* NO_MAN unset
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* NO_COLOR unset
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```
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### binaries and debian package
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- [Debian packaging](https://github.com/meli/meli/releases)
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- [Binary distrib](https://github.com/meli/meli/releases)
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### available in crates.io
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[https://crates.io/crates/meli](https://crates.io/crates/meli)
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## What's next
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- async JMAP
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- [NNTP](https://git.meli.delivery/meli/meli/issues/54), [RSS](https://git.meli.delivery/meli/meli/issues/55) backends
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- mail storage sync/conversion. The pieces are there, and must be assembled into a functionality.
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- Efficient IMAP offline caching. Right now all mail is fetched everytime you launch the client, which obviously is not desirable. There's work being done on `QRESYNC`, `CONDSTORE`, and lazy fetch of messages when viewing a mailbox.
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- More GPG support. Signatures can be verified but that's all that exists now. Encryption will be implemented along with WKD support.
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- Custom action macros, for example pipe attachments to a script which is already possible with commands.
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### Notes
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- there is managesieve REPL binary in the repository. I haven't had the time to put managesieve functionality in the TUI yet.
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- I haven't explored yet how to expose the API to users properly. I am thinking of using something like [rhai](https://github.com/jonathandturner/rhai) along with general MessagePack IPC.
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- There is no API for UI widgets/graphics yet. I'm not sure how to design this right now.
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- There's an old [implementation demo](https://git.meli.delivery/meli/meli/src/branch/master/src/plugins/python3/nntp-backend.py) for a mail backend in python using NNTP. It's probably not working anymore.
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- There's an old [implementation demo](https://git.meli.delivery/meli/meli/src/branch/master/src/plugins/python3/ansii-plugin.py) for viewing images in ANSI in python using [https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer](https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer). It might not work anymore.
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Follow me on [mastodon](https://chaos.social/@epilys) for updates. Join #meli on Freenode or with matrix's IRC bridge. I am interested in how you're using meli and fixing any problems you will probably encounter.
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