hamacs/README-MacOS.org

Installing Emacs on MacOS

These instructions originally came from this essay, as it runs Emacs as dæmon with LaunchAgent. Also fetch mails periodically with mbsync via LaunchAgent.

Install

Best success comes from using the emacs-plus installation from Homebrew. To begin, add the cask:

  brew tap d12frosted/emacs-plus

I find that I need to … at least, on my work computer, install two different versions of Emacs that I use to distinguish one for “work” and the other for other activities, like IRC and elfeed. To that end, I run the following commands to install Emacs:

  brew install emacs-plus@28 --with-native-comp --with-mailutils --with-imagemagick

And the following for “work”:

  brew install emacs-plus@29 --with-native-comp

Supporting Packages

Now install all the extras:

  brew install mu
  brew install isync
  brew install gpg

Mu4a

See ha-email for better instructions.

  mkdir -p ~/.mail/work ~/.mail/gmail
  mu init --maildir=~/.mail --my-address=howard.abrams@gmail.com --my-address=howard@howardabrams.com
  mu index
  mbsync -Va
  mu index

Mbsync config

See ha-email for better instructions.

  cat ~/.mbsyncrc

Basic configuration, that I actually supersede.

  # ========== Gmail ==========
  IMAPAccount gmail
  Host imap.gmail.com
  User username@gmail.com
  PassCmd "/opt/homebrew/bin/gpg --quiet --for-your-eyes-only --no-tty --decrypt ~/.password-store/mbsync/gmail.gpg"
  AuthMechs LOGIN
  SSLType IMAPS

  IMAPStore gmail-remote
  Account gmail

  MaildirStore gmail-local
  Subfolders Verbatim
  Path ~/.mail/gmail/
  Inbox ~/.mail/gmail/Inbox

  Channel gmail
  Far :gmail-remote:
  Near :gmail-local:
  Patterns * ![Gmail]* "[Gmail]/Sent Mail" "[Gmail]/Starred" "[Gmail]/All Mail"
  Expunge None
  CopyArrivalDate yes
  Sync All
  Create Near
  SyncState *
  # ========== Gmail ==========

Dæmon Processes

On the Mac, cron has been removed and replaced with LaunchAgent. I find my ICanHazShortcut process pretty simple to start Emacs, so I’m not sure about this dæmon, but …

Emacs dæmon via LaunchAgent

Notice that UserName section should be your $USER value.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
      <key>KeepAlive</key>
      <true/>
      <key>Label</key>
      <string>gnu.emacs</string>
      <key>ProgramArguments</key>
      <array>
        <string>/opt/homebrew/bin/emacs</string>
        <string>--fg-dæmon</string>
      </array>
      <key>RunAtLoad</key>
      <true/>
      <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
      <string>/tmp/gnu-emacs-dæmon.log</string>
      <key>StandardOutPath</key>
      <string>/tmp/gnu-emacs-dæmon.log</string>
      <key>UserName</key>
      <string>howard</string>
    </dict>
  </plist>

Verify that the plist file is correct.

  plutil -lint ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.plist

Start, stop and list service.

  launchctl load -w /Users/USERNAME/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.plist
  launchctl unload /Users/USERNAME/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.plist
  launchctl list

Fetch mails periodically

Let’s make another dæmon for fetching mail. Again, replace UserName with your user account name.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
      <key>KeepAlive</key>
      <true/>
      <key>Label</key>
      <string>periodic.mbsync</string>
      <key>ProgramArguments</key>
      <array>
        <string>/Users/USERNAME/.bin/mbsync-task</string>
      </array>

      <key>StandardOutPath</key>
      <string>/tmp/mbsync-task.log</string>

      <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
      <string>/tmp/mbsync-task.log</string>

      <key>ThrottleInterval</key>
      <integer>180</integer>

      <key>RunAtLoad</key>
      <true/>

      <key>UserName</key>
      <string>howard</string>
    </dict>
  </plist>

Verify that the plist file is correct.

  plutil -lint ~/Library/LaunchAgents/periodic.mbsync.plist

Start, stop and list service.

  launchctl load -w /Users/USERNAME/Library/LaunchAgents/periodic.mbsync.plist
  launchctl unload /Users/USERNAME/Library/LaunchAgents/periodic.mbsync.plist
  launchctl list

Script that fetches mails and updates the mail index.

  echo ""
  echo "Running $(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")"
  /opt/homebrew/bin/mbsync -Va
  echo "Exit code:"
  echo $?
  /opt/homebrew/bin/emacsclient -e '(mu4e-update-index)'
  echo "Exit code:"
  echo $?

Emacsclient

Simple Automator script that's wrapped into an application and placed in the Applications folder. Select New Document, then select Application. Open the Library, and drag the Run Shell Script to the workflow. In the box, add this:

  /usr/local/bin/emacsclient -nc --socket-name work $*

Change the Pass Input to as arguments.

Select to Save as Emacsclient into the Applications folder.

Utils

Convert a plist XML file into a JSON file. Not sure why this is important to know…

  plutil -convert json -r ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.plist

Which should look a bit like:

  {
      "KeepAlive" : true,
      "Label" : "gnu.emacs",
      "ProgramArguments" : [
          "\/opt\/homebrew\/bin\/emacs",
          "--fg-dæmon"
      ],
      "RunAtLoad" : true,
      "StandardErrorPath" : "\/tmp\/gnu-emacs-dæmon.log",
      "StandardOutPath" : "\/tmp\/gnu-emacs-dæmon.log",
      "UserName" : "USERNAME"
  }

Convert it back to XML

  plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.plist

Resources

  man launchd
  man launchctl
  man launchd.plist
  man plutil
  man plist