Himalaya

CLIEmail client

Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.

Himalaya is a stateless command-line email client: each action, such as listing envelopes or sending a message, is a separate shell command, so it fits scripts, editor plugins and other tools. It talks to IMAP, SMTP, JMAP, the Gmail API and Microsoft Graph, and reads Maildir and m2dir folders. Version 2 moved composing, PGP and OAuth token handling into separate Pimalaya tools (mml and ortie); a full-screen interface, himalaya-tui, is developed separately and is still pre-release.

Type: Email client
Interface: Command-line tools and prompts
Systems: Runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, builds from source on BSD. Not available for Android.
Language: Rust
License: MIT or Apache 2.0
Latest version: 2.1.0
Maintained: Yes
Website: pimalaya.org
Source: github.com/pimalaya/himalaya
Documentation: github.com

Install

System	Support	Install
Linux	Native	pacman`sudo pacman -S himalaya` Nix`nix profile install github:pimalaya/himalaya` cargo`cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/pimalaya/himalaya.git` Install script`curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimalaya/himalaya/master/install.sh \| PREFIX=~/.local sh`
macOS	Native	Homebrew`brew install himalaya` cargo`cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/pimalaya/himalaya.git`
Windows	Native	Scoop`scoop install himalaya` Prebuilt x86_64 Windows binary on GitHub releases.
BSD	Build from source	cargo`cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/pimalaya/himalaya.git` No BSD package or prebuilt binary.
Android	Not supported	-

Protocols and features

Protocols
Protocol	Himalaya
IMAP	Yes
POP3	No
SMTP	Yes
JMAP	Yes
Maildir	Yes
mbox	No
notmuch	No

Features
Feature	Himalaya
OpenPGP	No
S/MIME	No
OAuth2 sign-in	via script
Threads	through the IMAP, JMAP and Gmail subcommands
Search	built-in query syntax across backends; server-side for IMAP and JMAP
HTML mail	No
Mouse	No
Multiple accounts	Yes
Offline use	with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync
Calendar	No
Contacts	No
Vim-style keys	No
Configuration	TOML file; interactive setup wizard

Pros and cons

Pros

Every action is a shell command with optional JSON output, suited to scripts
Native Windows binary through Scoop and GitHub releases
Also supports JMAP, the Gmail API and Microsoft Graph

Cons

No interactive interface; himalaya-tui is still pre-release
Composing rich MIME or PGP messages needs the separate mml tool
Version 2 dropped the notmuch and sendmail backends

Use Himalaya 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.

~/.config/himalaya/config.toml

# Forward Email: IMAP over SSL/TLS (993), SMTP over SSL/TLS (465)
[accounts.forwardemail]
default = true
email = "you@example.com"
display-name = "Your Name"

imap.server = "imaps://imap.forwardemail.net:993"
imap.sasl.plain.username = "you@example.com"
imap.sasl.plain.password.command = "pass show email/forwardemail"

smtp.server = "smtps://smtp.forwardemail.net:465"
smtp.sasl.plain.username = "you@example.com"
smtp.sasl.plain.password.command = "pass show email/forwardemail"

# IMAP reports only the inbox role, so map the other folders by name
mailbox.alias.sent = "Sent Mail"
mailbox.alias.drafts = "Drafts"
mailbox.alias.trash = "Trash"

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 Himalaya

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Questions

Does Himalaya work on Windows?

Yes, it runs natively on Windows. Prebuilt x86_64 Windows binary on GitHub releases.

Does Himalaya support IMAP?

Yes, Himalaya connects to IMAP servers directly.

Is Himalaya open source?

Yes, under the MIT or Apache 2.0.

How do I use Himalaya with Forward Email?

Use the config in the Forward Email section on this page, saved as ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml, and replace the address and password with your own.

Sources

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