mblaze

CLIEmail client

Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.

mblaze is a collection of commands such as mlist, mscan, mshow, mthread, mpick and mcom that are combined in shell pipes. It works directly on Maildir folders with no database or cache, and can import and export mbox files; its design is inspired by MH but written from scratch. It has no networking of its own: a sync tool such as mbsync fetches mail and a sendmail-compatible program such as msmtp sends it. It suits users who want to script mail handling with standard Unix tools.

Type: Email client
Interface: Command-line tools and prompts
Systems: Runs on Linux, macOS and BSD, on Windows through WSL. Not available for Android.
Language: C
License: CC0 1.0 and MIT
Latest version: 1.4
Background: Inspired by MH; written from scratch
Maintained: Yes
Website: github.com
Source: github.com/leahneukirchen/mblaze
Documentation: github.com

Install

System	Support	Install
Linux	Native	apt`sudo apt install mblaze` xbps`sudo xbps-install mblaze` AUR`yay -S mblaze`
macOS	Native	Nix`nix profile install nixpkgs#mblaze` No Homebrew formula; available through Nix or by building from source with GNU make.
Windows	Through WSL	WSL`sudo apt install mblaze` No native build; upstream lists Cygwin as tested, and the Debian package works in WSL.
BSD	Native	FreeBSD pkg`pkg install mblaze` OpenBSD`pkg_add mblaze`
Android	Not supported	No Termux package.

Protocols and features

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

Features
Feature	mblaze
OpenPGP	via contrib scripts
S/MIME	No
OAuth2 sign-in	No
Threads	Yes
Search	mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content
HTML mail	via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow
Mouse	No
Multiple accounts	via separate Maildirs and profile settings
Offline use	full; works only on local Maildir
Calendar	No
Contacts	No
Vim-style keys	No
Configuration	~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines)

Pros and cons

Pros

Each command does one job, so mail handling is easy to combine in pipes and scripts.
Works directly on Maildir with no index or database to maintain.
Small C programs with no external library dependencies.

Cons

No built-in IMAP, POP3 or SMTP; needs mbsync and msmtp or similar tools.
Command-line only, with no full-screen interface.
OpenPGP and S/MIME handling relies on unsupported contrib scripts.

Use mblaze 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.

~/.mbsyncrc, ~/.config/msmtp/config and ~/.mblaze/profile

# 1) ~/.mbsyncrc: sync to ~/Mail/forwardemail (isync 1.5+ syntax)
IMAPAccount forwardemail
Host imap.forwardemail.net
Port 993
User you@example.com
PassCmd "pass show email/forwardemail"
TLSType IMAPS

IMAPStore forwardemail-remote
Account forwardemail

MaildirStore forwardemail-local
SubFolders Verbatim
Path ~/Mail/forwardemail/
Inbox ~/Mail/forwardemail/INBOX

Channel forwardemail
Far :forwardemail-remote:
Near :forwardemail-local:
Patterns *
Create Both
SyncState *

# 2) ~/.config/msmtp/config (chmod 600)
account forwardemail
host smtp.forwardemail.net
port 465
tls on
tls_starttls off
auth on
user you@example.com
passwordeval "pass show email/forwardemail"
from you@example.com
account default : forwardemail

# 3) ~/.mblaze/profile
Local-Mailbox: Your Name <you@example.com>
Maildir: ~/Mail/forwardemail
Outbox: ~/Mail/forwardemail/Sent Mail
Sendmail: msmtp

# Usage: mbsync forwardemail; mlist ~/Mail/forwardemail/INBOX | mthread | mscan

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 mblaze

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Questions

Does mblaze work on Windows?

Not natively. It runs in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). No native build; upstream lists Cygwin as tested, and the Debian package works in WSL.

Does mblaze support IMAP?

Through a separate tool. mblaze reads local mail, so a sync program such as isync copies it from the IMAP server.

Is mblaze open source?

Yes, under the CC0 1.0 and MIT.

How do I use mblaze with Forward Email?

Use the config in the Forward Email section on this page, saved as ~/.mbsyncrc, ~/.config/msmtp/config and ~/.mblaze/profile, and replace the address and password with your own.

Sources

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