Gnus

EmacsEmail client

Mail and news reader built into GNU Emacs, with back ends for IMAP, POP3, local mail folders and NNTP.

Gnus ships with GNU Emacs, so it needs no separate install once Emacs is present. It treats mail folders, IMAP mailboxes and Usenet newsgroups alike as groups, and can talk to IMAP directly or work on local Maildir, MH and mbox stores. Sending goes through Emacs message mode and smtpmail. It suits Emacs users who want one program for mail, newsgroups and feeds and are willing to learn its group and summary model.

Type: Email client
Interface: Runs inside Emacs
Systems: Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows and BSD, on Android through Termux.
Language: Emacs Lisp
License: GPL 3.0 or later
Latest version: 5.13 (bundled with Emacs 31.1)
Background: Rewrite of GNUS, the earlier Emacs newsreader; part of GNU Emacs
Maintained: Yes
Website: gnus.org
Source: git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/gnus
Documentation: gnu.org

Install

System	Support	Install
Linux	Native	apt`sudo apt install emacs` dnf`sudo dnf install emacs` pacman`sudo pacman -S emacs`
macOS	Native	Homebrew`brew install emacs` Homebrew Cask`brew install --cask emacs-app`
Windows	Native	winget`winget install GNU.Emacs` Scoop`scoop bucket add extras && scoop install extras/emacs` Gnus runs in native Windows builds of GNU Emacs.
BSD	Native	FreeBSD pkg`pkg install emacs` OpenBSD`pkg_add emacs`
Android	Through Termux	Termux`pkg install emacs`

Protocols and features

Protocols
Protocol	Gnus
IMAP	Yes
POP3	Yes
SMTP	Yes
JMAP	No
Maildir	Yes
mbox	Yes
notmuch	Through a separate tool

Features
Feature	Gnus
OpenPGP	Yes
S/MIME	Yes
OAuth2 sign-in	via plugin
Threads	Yes
Search	gnus-search: IMAP SEARCH, or notmuch, mu, mairix and other local indexers
HTML mail	built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library
Mouse	Yes
Multiple accounts	Yes
Offline use	via the Gnus agent or local Maildir back ends
Calendar	replies to invitations with gnus-icalendar
Contacts	via BBDB or EUDC
Vim-style keys	No
Configuration	Emacs Lisp in init.el or ~/.gnus.el

Pros and cons

Pros

Included with every GNU Emacs install, including native Windows builds.
Reads IMAP directly, plus local Maildir, MH and mbox stores and NNTP newsgroups.
Scoring, splitting and the Gnus agent allow detailed filtering and offline reading.

Cons

The group, summary and article model takes time to learn.
IMAP access runs inside Emacs, so large mailboxes can make Emacs wait.
Configuration is Emacs Lisp spread across many variables.

Use Gnus with Forward Email

A working setup for a Forward Email mailbox. Replace you@example.com with your alias and the password command with your own. The same settings work with any provider once the server names change.

~/.emacs.d/init.el

;; ~/.emacs.d/init.el (or ~/.gnus.el)
(setq user-mail-address "you@example.com"
      user-full-name "Your Name"
      gnus-select-method
      '(nnimap "forwardemail"
               (nnimap-address "imap.forwardemail.net")
               (nnimap-server-port 993)
               (nnimap-stream tls)
               (nnimap-user "you@example.com"))
      gnus-message-archive-group "nnimap+forwardemail:Sent Mail"
      message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
      smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.forwardemail.net"
      smtpmail-smtp-service 465
      smtpmail-stream-type 'ssl
      smtpmail-smtp-user "you@example.com")

;; Passwords in ~/.authinfo.gpg (read by Emacs auth-source):
;; machine imap.forwardemail.net login you@example.com port 993 password YOUR-GENERATED-PASSWORD
;; machine smtp.forwardemail.net login you@example.com port 465 password YOUR-GENERATED-PASSWORD
;; Start with M-x gnus

Protocol	Server	Port	Security
IMAP	`imap.forwardemail.net`	993	SSL/TLS
POP3	`pop3.forwardemail.net`	995	SSL/TLS
SMTP	`smtp.forwardemail.net`	465	SSL/TLS
SMTP	`smtp.forwardemail.net`	587	STARTTLS

Username: your full alias address, such as you@example.com. Password: the one shown by Generate Password next to the alias in your Forward Email account. Folders: INBOX, Drafts, Sent Mail, Trash, Spam and Archive.

Prefer no config at all? Forward Email's terminal app signs in with your account and has mail, calendar and contacts in one program.

Compare Gnus

All Gnus alternatives

Questions

Does Gnus work on Windows?

Yes, it runs natively on Windows. Gnus runs in native Windows builds of GNU Emacs.

Does Gnus support IMAP?

Yes, Gnus connects to IMAP servers directly.

Is Gnus open source?

Yes, under the GPL 3.0 or later.

How do I use Gnus with Forward Email?

Use the config in the Forward Email section on this page, saved as ~/.emacs.d/init.el, and replace the address and password with your own.

Sources

Edit this page on GitHub Report a mistake