Reply by email
GitLab can be set up to allow users to comment on issues and merge requests by replying to notification emails.
Get a mailbox
Reply by email requires an IMAP-enabled email account, with a provider or server that supports email sub-addressing. Sub-addressing is a feature where any email to user+some_arbitrary_tag@example.com
will end up in the mailbox for user@example.com
, and is supported by providers such as Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com and iCloud, as well as the Postfix mail server which you can run on-premises.
If you want to use Gmail / Google Apps with Reply by email, make sure you have IMAP access enabled and allow less secure apps to access the account.
To set up a basic Postfix mail server with IMAP access on Ubuntu, follow these instructions.
Set it up
Omnibus package installations
-
Find the
incoming_email
section in/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
, enable the feature and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:# Configuration for Postfix mail server, assumes mailbox incoming@gitlab.example.com gitlab_rails['incoming_email_enabled'] = true # The email address including a placeholder for the key that references the item being replied to. # The `%{key}` placeholder is added after the user part, before the `@`. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_address'] = "incoming+%{key}@gitlab.example.com" # Email account username # With third party providers, this is usually the full email address. # With self-hosted email servers, this is usually the user part of the email address. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_email'] = "incoming" # Email account password gitlab_rails['incoming_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]" # IMAP server host gitlab_rails['incoming_email_host'] = "gitlab.example.com" # IMAP server port gitlab_rails['incoming_email_port'] = 143 # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL gitlab_rails['incoming_email_ssl'] = false # Whether the IMAP server uses StartTLS gitlab_rails['incoming_email_start_tls'] = false # The mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". gitlab_rails['incoming_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox"
# Configuration for Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com gitlab_rails['incoming_email_enabled'] = true # The email address including the `%{key}` placeholder that will be replaced to reference the item being replied to. # The `%{key}` placeholder is added after the user part, after a `+` character, before the `@`. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_address'] = "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com" # Email account username # With third party providers, this is usually the full email address. # With self-hosted email servers, this is usually the user part of the email address. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_email'] = "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account password gitlab_rails['incoming_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]" # IMAP server host gitlab_rails['incoming_email_host'] = "imap.gmail.com" # IMAP server port gitlab_rails['incoming_email_port'] = 993 # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL gitlab_rails['incoming_email_ssl'] = true # Whether the IMAP server uses StartTLS gitlab_rails['incoming_email_start_tls'] = false # The mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". gitlab_rails['incoming_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox"
As mentioned, the part after
+
in the address is ignored, and any email sent here will end up in the mailbox forincoming@gitlab.example.com
/gitlab-incoming@gmail.com
. -
Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
-
Verify that everything is configured correctly:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:incoming_email:check
Reply by email should now be working.
Installations from source
-
Go to the GitLab installation directory:
cd /home/git/gitlab
-
Find the
incoming_email
section inconfig/gitlab.yml
, enable the feature and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:sudo editor config/gitlab.yml
# Configuration for Postfix mail server, assumes mailbox incoming@gitlab.example.com incoming_email: enabled: true # The email address including the `%{key}` placeholder that will be replaced to reference the item being replied to. # The `%{key}` placeholder is added after the user part, after a `+` character, before the `@`. address: "incoming+%{key}@gitlab.example.com" # Email account username # With third party providers, this is usually the full email address. # With self-hosted email servers, this is usually the user part of the email address. user: "incoming" # Email account password password: "[REDACTED]" # IMAP server host host: "gitlab.example.com" # IMAP server port port: 143 # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL ssl: false # Whether the IMAP server uses StartTLS start_tls: false # The mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". mailbox: "inbox"
# Configuration for Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com incoming_email: enabled: true # The email address including the `%{key}` placeholder that will be replaced to reference the item being replied to. # The `%{key}` placeholder is added after the user part, after a `+` character, before the `@`. address: "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com" # Email account username # With third party providers, this is usually the full email address. # With self-hosted email servers, this is usually the user part of the email address. user: "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account password password: "[REDACTED]" # IMAP server host host: "imap.gmail.com" # IMAP server port port: 993 # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL ssl: true # Whether the IMAP server uses StartTLS start_tls: false # The mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". mailbox: "inbox"
As mentioned, the part after
+
in the address is ignored, and any email sent here will end up in the mailbox forincoming@gitlab.example.com
/gitlab-incoming@gmail.com
. -
Enable
mail_room
in the init script at/etc/default/gitlab
:sudo mkdir -p /etc/default echo 'mail_room_enabled=true' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/gitlab
-
Restart GitLab:
sudo service gitlab restart
-
Verify that everything is configured correctly:
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:incoming_email:check RAILS_ENV=production
Reply by email should now be working.
Development
Go to the GitLab installation directory.
-
Find the
incoming_email
section inconfig/gitlab.yml
, enable the feature and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:# Configuration for Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com incoming_email: enabled: true # The email address including a placeholder for the key that references the item being replied to. # The `%{key}` placeholder is added after the user part, before the `@`. address: "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com" # Email account username # With third party providers, this is usually the full email address. # With self-hosted email servers, this is usually the user part of the email address. user: "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account password password: "[REDACTED]" # IMAP server host host: "imap.gmail.com" # IMAP server port port: 993 # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL ssl: true # Whether the IMAP server uses StartTLS start_tls: false # The mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". mailbox: "inbox"
As mentioned, the part after
+
is ignored, and this will end up in the mailbox forgitlab-incoming@gmail.com
. -
Uncomment the
mail_room
line in yourProcfile
:mail_room: bundle exec mail_room -q -c config/mail_room.yml
-
Restart GitLab:
bundle exec foreman start
-
Verify that everything is configured correctly:
bundle exec rake gitlab:incoming_email:check RAILS_ENV=development
Reply by email should now be working.