Setting up offline email for Microsoft O365 with notmuch and emacs

2026-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Having to deal with Microsoft's outlook has been a growing pain with my computing needs. Of course, this is pertinent only for work email. For personal email, I use Migadu</a> which has good standards for email unlike Microsoft's.

At work, I can only use either the official Outlook webmail or Thunderbird since those are the only clients that are whitelisted by the IT department at my university. Thunderbird is slightly better (it has a few problems of its own but I digress) but I would like to have an offline copy of all my emails, fully searchable with an indexed database provided by notmuch</a>, which uses the excellent Xapian</a> library for indexing. Notmuch is shipped as an emacs package in the form of notmuch.el</code>, which is exactly what I like given that I'm moving most of my computing needs into emacs1</a>.

I've taken inspiration from Fergus' excellent blogpost</a> which implements the same in neomutt</a>. The initial setup process is identical to Fergus' blogpost.

It should be noted that notmuch is only a mail indexer. It does not fetch mail, nor does it send mail. Those are handled by isync</a> and msmtp</a>, which are commandline programs.

Access authentication with O365</h2>
Since Thunderbird is still allowed to access O365's authentication, we
will use the client ID provided from it (this is publicly
available from Thunderbird's source code)2</a></sup>. For authentication for
IMAP and SMTP, we will use
XOAUTH</a>,
which is a simple authentication and security layer</em> (SASL) more
suited for email clients.</p>
Tools like isync rely on SASL for authentication, for which we'll
require an XOAUTH SASL plugin:
https://github.com/moriyoshi/cyrus-sasl-xoauth2</code></a>.</p>
If you're on Arch, then this plugin is installable from the AUR:</p>
paru</span> -</span>S</span> cyrus-sasl-xoauth2-git</span></span></code></pre>
If not, then we can build it from source:</p>
git</span> clone</span> https://github.com/moriyoshi/cyrus-sasl-xoauth2</span></span>
cd</span> cyrus-sasl-xoauth2/</span></span>
./autogen.sh</span>   #</span> checks for requirements</span></span>
./configure</span>    #</span> configure (here we use the defaults)</span></span>
make</span>           #</span> compile</span></span>
sudo</span> make</span> install</span>     #</span> install for root user</span></span></code></pre>Token generation for OAuth</h3>
Microsoft has conditionally allowed API access to clients and the only
way to get access for any client is to register the application in
the Microsot Application portal, which is something only my org's IT
department can do3</a></sup>. Fortunately, we can use Thunderbird's
credentials to generate an access token for our purposes.</p>
Another issue that comes up is the finite lifetime of these access
tokens (typically an hour or two), which is cumbersome to generate
each time one needs to download email. Fortunately,
mutt</a> comes with
mutt_oauth2.py</code></a>,
a script to help in the automatic renewal of this token. This script
helps in decrypting the token file and renewing it everytime it is
invoked.</p>
Fetching the initial token is fairly simple but before we do it, there
are certain changes that we need to do to mutt_oauth2.py</code>.</p>
Look into the ENCRYPTION_PIPE</code> variable (line 48) and make sure to specify your
gpg key. If you don't have one, then generate one:</p>
gpg</span> -</span>-full-generate-key</span></span></code></pre>
Select the default options (ed25519 cypher if it allows) and make sure
that the expiration of the key is set to 0 (no expiration). This makes
your life easier but of course for security reasons, this is not a
good practice</strong>.</p>
Bring up your public key:</p>
gpg</span> -</span>-list-keys</span></span></code></pre>
Copy the second line (after the pub</code> line) and paste it into
mutt_oauth2.py</code></p>
ENCRYPTION_PIPE</span> =</span> [</span>'</span>gpg</span>'</span>,</span> '</span>--encrypt</span>'</span>,</span> '</span>--recipient</span>'</span>,</span> '</span>YOUR-GPG-KEY</span>'</span>]</span></span></code></pre>
After this, look at line 79. This includes a client_id</code> for
microsoft</code>. For Thunderbird, the client id is
9e5f94bc-e8a4-4e73-b8be-63364c29d753</code>. Leave the client_secret</code>
value as is. It should look like so:</p>
'</span>client_id</span>'</span>:</span> '</span>9e5f94bc-e8a4-4e73-b8be-63364c29d753</span>'</span>,</span></span>
'</span>client_secret</span>'</span>:</span> '</span>'</span>,</span></span></code></pre>
Now we are ready to generate the access token. Simply run:</p>
./mutt_oauth2.py</span> OUTPUT_TOKEN_FILE</span> -</span>-verbose</span> -</span>-authorize</span></span></code></pre>
A prompt should appear. Select localhostauthcode</code>, after which you
should automatically be redirected to a browser for adding your
credentials for authentication. Doing so, should reveal the access
token in your terminal. No need to copy it, it is present in your
OUTPUT_TOKEN_FILE</code> which is encrypted. To obtain the decrypted token,
we run the script again with just the file name as an argument</p>
./mutt_oauth2.py</span> OUTPUT_TOKEN_FILE</span></span></code></pre>
A nice thing is that running this script with the token file also
checks for expiry and renews it if necessary. This can be done
multiple times without worry.</p>
Offline email setup</h2>
Now that we are done with the difficult part, we move onto setting up
isync (the binary is called mbsync</code>) which is available in most
distributions. This program basically downloads your emails offline
and synchronizes it with your email's remote IMAP servers. It supports
multiple accounts too. The program is configurable with a
~/.mbsyncrc</code> file4</a></sup>. I highly recommend reading the manual for it
via man mbsync</code>. Here's a starting template:</p>
# -- Global defaults</span></span>
# These will be applied to all accounts</span></span>
</span>
# Create new mail in either location, so if the remote or local has mail</span></span>
# and the other does not, then create it</span></span>
Create Both</span></span>
# never remote mail from either side</span></span>
Remove None</span></span>
# Remove messages marked for deletion from the local side on the</span></span>
# remote. Do not ever delete local if marked for deletion in the</span></span>
# remote. Prevents admins from deleting one's local mail</span></span>
Expunge Far</span></span>
Sync All</span></span>
SyncState *</span></span>
CopyArrivalDate yes</span></span>
# No maximum number of messages</span></span>
MaxMessages 0</span></span>
</span>
# -- First email account</span></span>
IMAPAccount university</span></span>
Host outlook.office365.com</span></span>
Port 993</span></span>
User my-username@university.edu</span></span>
AuthMechs XOAUTH2</span></span>
PassCmd "~/.local/bin/mutt_oauth2.py ~/.local/bin/TOKEN"</span></span>
# Use TLS</span></span>
TLSType IMAPS</span></span>
SystemCertificates yes</span></span>
Timeout 10</span></span>
</span>
# A store defines a collection of mailboxes, so we associate the</span></span>
# remote IMAP mailbox with the account we just configured</span></span>
IMAPStore university-remote</span></span>
# Associate the store with our account</span></span>
Account university</span></span>
</span>
# Where are we going to keep the mail associated with this account</span></span>
MaildirStore university-local</span></span>
SubFolders Verbatim</span></span>
Path ~/.local/share/mail/university/</span></span>
Inbox ~/.local/share/mail/university/INBOX</span></span>
</span>
# Channel to synchronize everything except "Sent" email</span></span>
Channel uni-main</span></span>
Far :university-remote:</span></span>
Near :university-local:</span></span>
# Which directories to synchronize</span></span>
Patterns INBOX "Deleted Items" "Drafts"</span></span>
</span>
# Channel to synchronize "Sent" email</span></span>
Channel uni-sent</span></span>
Far :university-remote:"Sent Items"</span></span>
Near :university-local:Sent</span></span>
</span>
# Group the two channels and sync everything with `mbsync NAME`</span></span>
Group university</span></span>
Channel uni-main</span></span>
Channel uni-sent</span></span>
</span>
# -- Second email account</span></span>
IMAPAccount personal</span></span>
...</span></span></code></pre>
Once you have everything configured, we can start downloading all our
email by running:</p>
mbsync</span> university</span></span></code></pre>
The first time mbsync</code> is run, it will take a fair amount of time,
since you'll be downloading a lot of email (assuming you've been using
your account for a long time). The subsequent runs would be just
incremental downloads, so it's much faster.</p>
After navigating to your local Maildir directory
(~/.local/share/mail/university</code> in my case), you should see all your
emails downloaded and categorized into inbox, drafts, sent, and
deleted-items folders.</p>
A way to automate this to run a script periodically. I use
systemd-timers</a>
where I have a script which is periodically run every 15 mins and
notifies me if there's new email (I'll cover this later in the blogpost).</p>
Sending mail via SMTP</h2>
Sending email is done via msmtp</code></a>. It
is configured by editing ~/.msmtprc</code>5</a></sup>.</p>
defaults</span></span>
auth on</span></span>
tls on</span></span>
tls_trust_file system</span></span>
logfile ~/.cache/msmtp.log</span></span>
timeout 10</span></span>
</span>
# -- First account</span></span>
account university</span></span>
tls_starttls on</span></span>
host smtp.office365.com</span></span>
port 587</span></span>
auth xoauth2</span></span>
user my-username@university.edu</span></span>
passwordeval "~/.local/bin/mutt_oauth2.py ~/.local/bin/TOKEN"</span></span>
from my-username@university.edu</span></span>
</span>
# -- Second account</span></span>
account personal</span></span></code></pre>
This is fairly self-explanatory. One thing to note is that
tls_starttls</code> should be on for this to work. I'm not very familiar
with email security protocols like TLS and STARTTLS but from my
understanding, STARTTLS is an automatic upgrade (if supported) from
the more insecure TLS protocol. TLS however needs to be enabled for
any email service, otherwise it won't work.</p>
Now, we can test our configuration by sending email directly from the
commandline. Save the contents of a file called example-mail</code> as follows:</p>
From: my-username@university.edu</span></span>
To: user@example.com</span></span>
Subject: Hello World</span></span>
</span>
This is a test for msmtp.</span></span></code></pre>
And send the email by running:</p>
cat</span> example-mail</span> |</span> msmtp</span> -</span>t</span> -</span>a</span> university</span></span></code></pre>Indexing email offline with notmuch</h2>
We have receiving and sending email configured. How about reading and
"using" email via an email client. In more technical terms, an email
client is called a mail user agent</em> (MUA), which is typically seen in
email headers. This includes clients like Thunderbird, Apple mail,
neomutt, etc. We will configure notmuch</code> which indexes email and
provides an interface for emacs natively with notmuch.el.</p>
Notmuch is entirely tag based. Basic tags exist like unread</em>,
inbox</em>, draft</em>, sent</em> but you can customize it with more tags to
filter out emails from a particular email address, from a
particular range of date, etc. Tags are heavily used and it's a
different paradigm of handling email compared to your typical webmail
interface. I won't go over the details of tagging in notmuch here for
the sake of brevity (to be covered in another blogpost).</p>
When first setting up notmuch, simply run:</p>
notmuch</span> setup</span></span></code></pre>
This will prompt you for basic information like your name, email address,
Maildir directory, etc. Once this is done, notmuch needs to index your
Maildir. Run the following:</p>
notmuch</span> new</span></span></code></pre>
This should be fairly fast, even if your Maildir is big. Notmuch is
quick like that.</p>
Now you can search an email entry via notmuch search</code>. For example, I
can search emails from a particular sender like so:</p>
notmuch</span> search</span> '</span>from:friend@university.edu</span>'</span></span></code></pre>
I would again advise you to go through the man pages (man notmuch-search</code>) for more details.</p>
Emacs setup for notmuch</h3>
Simply running M-x notmuch</code> should give you a hello screen, where you
can then select tags like inbox</em>, unread</em> to view their respective
email. I have a fairly customized config for notmuch.el but below I
provide a fairly good starting point for a more minimal notmuch
interface^{6</a></sup>:</p>}
;</span>; Notmuch for email</span></span>
(</span>use-package</span> notmuch</span></span>
  :</span>load-path</span> "</span>/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/</span>"</span></span>
  :</span>ensure</span> nil</span></span>
  :</span>defer</span> t</span></span>
  :</span>commands</span> (</span>notmuch notmuch-mua-new-mail</span>)</span></span>
  :</span>init</span></span>
  ;</span>; Search</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-search-oldest-first </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  :</span>config</span></span>
  ;</span> General UI</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-logo </span>nil</span></span>
	notmuch-column-control </span>1.0</span></span>
	notmuch-hello-auto-refresh </span>t</span></span>
	notmuch-hello-recent-searches-max </span>20</span></span>
	notmuch-hello-thousands-separator </span>"</span>"</span></span>
	notmuch-hello-sections </span>'</span>(</span>notmuch-hello-insert-saved-searches</span>)</span></span>
	notmuch-show-all-tags-list </span>t</span>)</span></span>
</span>
  ;</span> Search</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-search-result-format</span></span>
        '</span>(</span>(</span>"</span>date</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%12s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>count</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%-7s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>authors</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%-20s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>subject</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%-80s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>tags</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>(%s)</span>"</span>)</span>)</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-tree-result-format</span></span>
        '</span>(</span>(</span>"</span>date</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%12s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>authors</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%-20s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>(</span>(</span>"</span>tree</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%s</span>"</span>)</span></span>
            (</span>"</span>subject</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>%s</span>"</span>)</span>)</span></span>
           .</span> "</span> %-80s  </span>"</span>)</span></span>
          (</span>"</span>tags</span>"</span> .</span> "</span>(%s)</span>"</span>)</span>)</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-empty-saved-searches </span>t</span>)</span></span>
</span>
  ;</span> Tags</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-archive-tags </span>nil</span> ;</span> I don't archive email</span></span>
	notmuch-message-replied-tags </span>'</span>(</span>"</span>+replied</span>"</span>)</span></span>
	notmuch-message-forwarded-tags </span>'</span>(</span>"</span>+forwarded</span>"</span>)</span></span>
	notmuch-show-mark-read-tags </span>'</span>(</span>"</span>-unread</span>"</span>)</span></span>
	notmuch-draft-tags </span>'</span>(</span>"</span>+draft</span>"</span>)</span></span>
	notmuch-draft-folder </span>"</span>university/Drafts</span>"</span></span>
	notmuch-draft-save-plaintext </span>'</span>ask</span>)</span></span>
</span>
  ;</span> Email composition</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-mua-compose-in </span>'</span>new-window</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-mua-hidden-headers </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-address-command </span>'</span>internal</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-address-use-company </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-always-prompt-for-sender </span>t</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-mua-cite-function</span></span>
	'</span>message-cite-original-without-signature</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-mua-user-agent-function </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
</span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-relative-dates </span>t</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-all-multipart/alternative-parts </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-indent-messages-width </span>0</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-indent-multipart </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-show-part-button-default-action </span>'</span>notmuch-show-view-part</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-wash-wrap-lines-length </span>120</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-unthreaded-show-out </span>nil</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-message-headers </span>'</span>(</span>"</span>To</span>"</span> "</span>Cc</span>"</span> "</span>Subject</span>"</span> "</span>Date</span>"</span>)</span>)</span></span>
  (</span>setq</span> notmuch-message-headers-visible </span>t</span>)</span></span>
</span>
  :</span>bind</span></span>
  (</span> :</span>map</span> global-map</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>C-c m m</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch</span>)</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>C-x m</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-mua-new-mail</span>)</span> ;</span> override </span>`</span>compose-mail</span>'</span></span>
    :</span>map</span> notmuch-search-mode-map</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>/</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-search-filter</span>)</span> ;</span> alias for l</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>r</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-search-reply-to-thread</span>)</span> ;</span> easier to reply to all by default</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>R</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-search-reply-to-thread-sender</span>)</span></span>
    :</span>map</span> notmuch-show-mode-map</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>r</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-show-reply</span>)</span> ;</span> easier to reply to all by default</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>R</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-show-reply-sender</span>)</span></span>
    :</span>map</span> notmuch-hello-mode-map</span></span>
    (</span>"</span>J</span>"</span> .</span> notmuch-jump-search</span>)</span>)</span>)</span></span></code></pre>
You're free to look at my
init.el</code></a>
for my own customization for notmuch.el.</p>
Automating email synchronization with systemd timers</h2>
Let's automate the email sync to happen every 15 mins (or whatever
frequency you prefer). First we create a shell-script to download
email via mbsync</code> and also index the email with notmuch</code>. Let's name it
it syncmail.sh</code> and place it in $HOME/.local/bin/</code>.</p>
#!</span>/bin/sh</span></span>
set</span> -</span>eu</span></span>
</span>
#</span> Set environment variable for notmuch config file</span></span>
export</span> NOTMUCH_CONFIG</span>=</span>"</span>$</span>HOME</span>/.config/notmuch/notmuch-config</span>"</span></span>
</span>
mbsync</span> university</span></span>
</span>
before</span>=</span>$(</span>notmuch</span> count</span> -</span>-lastmod</span> '</span>*</span>'</span> |</span> cut</span> -</span>f3</span>)</span></span>
notmuch</span> new</span> ></span> /dev/null</span></span>
</span>
query</span>=</span>"</span>lastmod:</span>$(</span>(</span>before</span> +</span> 1</span>)</span>)</span>.. and path:university/**</span>"</span></span>
count</span>=</span>$(</span>notmuch</span> count</span> "</span>$</span>query</span>"</span>)</span></span>
</span>
if</span> [</span> "</span>$</span>count</span>"</span> -gt</span> 0</span> ]</span>;</span> then</span></span>
    body</span>=</span>$(</span>notmuch</span> search</span> -</span>-format=json</span> -</span>-limit=5</span> "</span>$</span>query</span>"</span> \</span></span>
	       |</span> jq</span> -</span>r</span> '</span>.[] | "\(.authors): \(.subject)"</span>'</span>)</span></span>
    notify-send</span> "</span>New mail: </span>$</span>count</span>"</span> "</span>$</span>body</span>"</span></span>
fi</span></span></code></pre>
In addition to downloading email and indexing, the script also
notifies through notify-send</code> if there's new email along with a
sender and subject in the notification. Make sure to make the script
executable with</p>
chmod</span> +x</span> ./syncmail.sh</span></span></code></pre>
Then we write the systemd script to run this script periodically.
First we create a syncmail.service</code> file in $HOME/.config/systemd/user/</code>:</p>
[Unit]</span></span>
Description</span>=</span>Sync mail with mbsync and index with notmuch</span></span>
</span>
[Service]</span></span>
Type</span>=</span>oneshot</span></span>
ExecStart</span>=</span>%h</span>/.local/bin/syncmail.sh</span></span></code></pre>
Then we create a timer file (make sure it is named syncmail.timer</code>) for actually running the script every n</code> minutes.</p>
[Unit]</span></span>
Description</span>=</span>Run syncmail every </span>15</span> minutes</span></span>
</span>
[Timer]</span></span>
OnBootSec</span>=</span>2m</span></span>
OnUnitActiveSec</span>=</span>15m</span></span>
Persistent</span>=</span>true</span></span>
</span>
[Install]</span></span>
WantedBy</span>=</span>timers.target</span></span></code></pre>
The advantage over cronjobs is that if your system is asleep or
shutdown, then booting up accomodates accordingly and runs the script
after m</code> minutes (2 minutes in my case).</p>
Finally we enable the script with systemctl</code>:</p>
systemctl</span> -</span>-user</span> daemon-reload</span></span>
systemctl</span> -</span>-user</span> enable</span> -</span>-now</span> syncmail.timer</span></span></code></pre>Concluding remarks</h2>
Now you should have a working setup for using offline email for
Microsoft's O365. This is fairly minimal but if you'd like to have
encrypted emails, addressbooks, etc., please take a look at the
original blogpost from
Fergus</a>.</p>
A basic emailing etiquette I like to follow is to use plaintext as
opposed to html. Read more</a> on why this is better.</p>

Special thanks to Marci</a> for
pointing out grammatical errors and typos.
</div>



It's like the old adage from Vi advocates, "Emacs is a great
operating system, lacking only a decent text editor". Although the latter part I would disagree with. ↩</a></p>
</li>

I just found out that Mozilla has made it very convoluted to
find the source code and build Thunderbird locally. It uses
mercurial instead of Git (in this day and age?). Relevant docs are here</a>. ↩</a></p>
</li>

Even after asking countless times, they've rejected my request
to include notmuch/emacs into the allowed clients list. Ah well, here
we are. ↩</a></p>
</li>

Personally, I dislike that my $HOME</code> directory gets cluttered
with config files that don't respect the XDG
specifications</a>.
I set it to $HOME/.config/mbsync/mbsyncrc</code> by exporting the variable MBSYNCRC</code>. ↩</a></p>
</li>

Same issue with this. I fix it to be at $HOME/.config/msmtp/config</code>. ↩</a></p>
</li>

The default interface is too noisy for me, so I disable a lot of the bells and whistles. ↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</section>

Hope (my poem)

2025-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

A shining light in the tunnel of darkness.
That's how I see hope, with a longingness.
Sometimes good and sometimes bad,
But somehow makes me glad.

Is it hope that I'm looking for?
Like a drop of water, in a large desert outdoor.
Is it just something made up?
A lie told even after I slipup.

Hope is a dangerous thing.
The results can feel like a swing.
But is it enough to justify my life?
The way I'm living, with so much strife.

I keep clinging to this hope.
Even with my life being a downward slope.
Sometimes I fear it won't be there.
At that point, would I still care?

I find myself in an abyss.
At times, devoid of any bliss.
Hope is the only thing in my mind.
Alas it is hard to see, perhaps I left it too far behind. </blockquote>

Bypassing the storage limit on Zotero with Syncthing

2025-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Recently, I found out about this neat little trick to bypass the storage limit on Zotero</a> for PDFs. Currently on the "free" tier there is a limit of 300 MB which fills up pretty quickly when you're doing serious research. This guide helps bypass this limit (subject to your computer's storage).

The current pricing model. Not bad but you don't need it if it's just for personal use.</figcaption> </center>

The prices are there for if you'd like to store associated PDFs on the cloud and makes sense if two or more people would like to share the same bibliography data. What this blogpost helps with is storing the files locally and syncing them peer-to-peer</a>.

Best part is it's free!

Prior situation</h3>
Usually if you're employed at a university/research institution, the institute has a subscription to various journals. I would use this with Zotero, strictly only storing the metadata and journal links and opening them on the browser. The PDF can then be downloaded if you're on the institute's intranet.
Storage location for PDFs</h3>
On Linux 1</a>, by default I believe Zotero creates a directory `~/Zotero/</code> for storage of files, notes and metadata. I usually create my own custom location for the directory, ~/.zotero/</code> in this case as I don't like having my home directory cluttered2</a>.`
`To change this, go to Edit -> Settings -> Advanced and under "Data Directory Location" you can specify a custom path.`
Dialog box for specifying custom location for Zotero directory.</figcaption> </center> Now assuming you already have a sizeable zotero database, we go to this location and are interested in the ~/.zotero/storage</code> folder. This is where the PDFs are stored. Changing a few settings</h4> Now, by default Zotero syncs all your files to the cloud. We don't want that. To disable it, go to Edit -> Settings -> Sync and under File Syncing uncheck both "Sync attachment files in My Library" and "Sync attachment files in group libraries using Zotero storage". Uncheck both the boxes.</figcaption> </center> Now that we have unchecked the boxes, one can simply save the PDFs as we like and use it on their computer. But what if we need to access files on a different computer? That's where peer-to-peer syncing comes in. Syncing with Syncthing</h3> Syncthing</a> is an excellent piece of software. As described on their website: Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. </blockquote> Basically it helps sync files between different computers in a peer-to-peer fashion. Quickstart guide</h3> I would highly recommend the official user-guide</a> for using syncthing. However, the following covers a quick and brief guide to getting syncing setup with Zotero. Launching syncthing</code> in a terminal opens up localhost:8384</code> on your web browser and you're greeted with the GUI. Syncthing GUI</figcaption> </center> The GUI shows three components, two of which we are concerned with. On the left are the folders that are synced. The right bottom section consists of the devices to which certain folders are being synced. In my case, I have the zotero storage folder synced with my office PC and some other folders synced with my Android phone. The "Add Folder" button is a good starting point. Clicking it leads us to a dialog box asking for a folder label and a folder path. The latter is important. For now, just ignore the folder ID variable. It is auto-generated by syncthing and is meant to let syncthing know which folders to sync across different computers based on this ID. Adding folder for syncing.</figcaption> </center> Now, just set the folder path to ~/.zotero/storage</code> (or whatever is the custom folder path you've set in Zotero) and click save. Adding remote device</h4> On the secondary device that you'd like to access your PDFs on (laptop or perhaps a desktop at your office like me), then you need to launch syncthing on the remote device and add it on your main computer by clicking "Add Remote Device" at the bottom right corner in the GUI. The device can be added either via a device ID or via a QR-code, which is accessible under the "Actions" tab and clicking "Show ID". Accessing QR code for current device.</figcaption> </center> Follow similar instructions on the remote device for setting up a sync folder (should be empty as for the first sync, we're really transferring PDFs from the main device to the remote one). Make sure to have the same path in your Zotero settings on the remote device! After adding the remote device, we need to share the folder we had set with the remote device. To do this, simply go to the zotero-storage folder under the "Folders" section and click edit. This will bring up a dialog box that we had previously edited. Under the "Sharing" tab, check the box for the added remote device3</a>. And just hit save. Sharing the folder with remote device.</figcaption> </center> If you have everything setup properly, the folder should get synced across both the devices and you should be able to access the PDFs in both these device! Of course, you can add more devices if you'd like. I've been extremely happy with this setup and I hope it's useful to you as it has been for me, thanks to my friend Marci</a> who introduced me to the idea. This guide assumes you're using Linux but I see no reason why it cannot be adapter for Windows and macOS. ↩</a> </li> To actually keep your ~/</code> uncluttered, the best approach would be something along the lines of ~/.local/share/zotero</code> which is XDG_DATA_HOME</code> according to XDG standards. ↩</a> </li> Don't worry about the "enter encryption password". You only need it if you're concerned with security and would like to have encrypted folders. I don't really care about that for zotero so I leave it unchecked. ↩</a> </li> </ol> </section>

When did I stop being a child? (my poem)

2024-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

When did I stop being a child?
It's been so long, but I used to be quite beguiled.
While I reminisce the days of not caring about the world.
I wonder, when that child stopped being one, as an adult labelled.

Perhaps it was when my interests changed.
Things that I used to like, now feel estranged.
Oh, how I wish I could go back to those simpler times.
That child exists no more, but an adult begrimed.

Carefree is the emotion I took for granted.
Now that I'm older, responsibilities have been handed.
I remember a time when I used to run wild.
Oh, but when did I stop being a child?

As I grow old, my anxiety only becomes stronger.
Is adulthood really supposed to be this way, with nothing more to offer?
Alas, it is too late now to think about a time bygone.
But the only way forward, is to look ahead and march into the unknown. </blockquote>

What is my purpose (my poem)

2024-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

What is my purpose but a tiny speck on this big blue dot?
Is it already decided or do I get myself taught?
I do wonder how the rest of my life shall continue.
Will it be the same things I now pursue?

Family it is for some people.
For others, it is their career to excel.
But does it matter in the end?
Perhaps the greater reason is to make oneself enlighten.

Often I find myself asking such questions.
I keep looking for entities of substance
in this rollercoaster that is life.
What can I do to make it more rife?

For far too long I've been looking far away.
Always fearing that my life might go astray.
Is it deep down something more precious?
Only to find myself asking, "what is my purpose?". </blockquote>

Intro to Public-key Cryptography

2020-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

We have all heard fancy jargon like "encryption", "cryptography" and what not, but what do these terms actually mean? In this article, I attempt to give you a brief introduction to the world of cryptography and how in particular, public-key cryptography, a popular means of encryption works.

The result</h3>

Daniel</figcaption>
</br>
The cooler Daniel</figcaption> </center> </figure>
I was really happy when I came across this fix! and I hope this has helped you as well.</p>

Ashish Panigrahi

Setting up offline email for Microsoft O365 with notmuch and emacs

New update for this website

Hope (my poem)

Bypassing the storage limit on Zotero with Syncthing

When did I stop being a child? (my poem)

What is my purpose (my poem)

Switching to GNU Emacs

Easy fix for F4 mute LED light on ThinkPad laptops on GNU/Linux

Hello, World in Qiskit

Font Rendering in Firefox

Intro to Public-key Cryptography

Ashish Panigrahi

Setting up offline email for Microsoft O365 with notmuch and emacs

New update for this website

Hope (my poem)

Bypassing the storage limit on Zotero with Syncthing

When did I stop being a child? (my poem)

What is my purpose (my poem)

Switching to GNU Emacs

Easy fix for F4 mute LED light on ThinkPad laptops on GNU/Linux

Hello, World in Qiskit

Initializing and measuring the qubit</h3> We then call our function prepare()</code> to initialize the first qubit (the only qubit) of our quantum circuit qc</code>.</p>

Font Rendering in Firefox

The result</h3> Daniel</figcaption> </br> The cooler Daniel</figcaption> </center> </figure> I was really happy when I came across this fix! and I hope this has helped you as well.</p>

Intro to Public-key Cryptography

The result</h3>

Daniel</figcaption>
</br>
The cooler Daniel</figcaption> </center> </figure>
I was really happy when I came across this fix! and I hope this has helped you as well.</p>