Reply by email
GitLab can be set up to allow users to comment on issues and merge requests by replying to notification emails.
Warning: Do not enable Reply by email if you have multiple GitLab application servers. Due to an issue with the way incoming emails are read from the mail server, every incoming reply-by-email email will result in as many comments being created as you have application servers. A fix is being worked on.
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, 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 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, enter the email address including a placeholder for thekey
that references the item being replied to and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:# Postfix mail server, assumes mailbox incoming@gitlab.example.com gitlab_rails['incoming_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['incoming_email_address'] = "incoming+%{key}@gitlab.example.com" gitlab_rails['incoming_email_host'] = "gitlab.example.com" # IMAP server host gitlab_rails['incoming_email_port'] = 143 # IMAP server port gitlab_rails['incoming_email_ssl'] = false # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL gitlab_rails['incoming_email_email'] = "incoming" # Email account username. Usually the full email address. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]" # Email account password gitlab_rails['incoming_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox" # The name of the mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox".
# Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com gitlab_rails['incoming_email_enabled'] = true gitlab_rails['incoming_email_address'] = "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com" gitlab_rails['incoming_email_host'] = "imap.gmail.com" # IMAP server host gitlab_rails['incoming_email_port'] = 993 # IMAP server port gitlab_rails['incoming_email_ssl'] = true # Whether the IMAP server uses SSL gitlab_rails['incoming_email_email'] = "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account username. Usually the full email address. gitlab_rails['incoming_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]" # Email account password gitlab_rails['incoming_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox" # The name of the mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "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 enter the email address including a placeholder for thekey
that references the item being replied to:sudo editor config/gitlab.yml
# Postfix mail server, assumes mailbox incoming@gitlab.example.com incoming_email: enabled: true address: "incoming+%{key}@gitlab.example.com"
# Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com incoming_email: enabled: true address: "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com"
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
. -
Copy
config/mail_room.yml.example
toconfig/mail_room.yml
:sudo cp config/mail_room.yml.example config/mail_room.yml
-
Uncomment the configuration options in
config/mail_room.yml
and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:sudo editor config/mail_room.yml
# Postfix mail server :mailboxes: - # 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 # Email account username. Usually the full email address. :email: "incoming" # Email account password :password: "[REDACTED]" # The name of the mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". :name: "inbox" # Always "sidekiq". :delivery_method: sidekiq # Always true. :delete_after_delivery: true :delivery_options: # The URL to the Redis server used by Sidekiq. Should match the URL in config/resque.yml. :redis_url: redis://localhost:6379 # Always "resque:gitlab". :namespace: resque:gitlab # Always "incoming_email". :queue: incoming_email # Always "EmailReceiverWorker" :worker: EmailReceiverWorker
# Gmail / Google Apps :mailboxes: - # 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 # Email account username. Usually the full email address. :email: "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account password :password: "[REDACTED]" # The name of the mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". :name: "inbox" # Always "sidekiq". :delivery_method: sidekiq # Always true. :delete_after_delivery: true :delivery_options: # The URL to the Redis server used by Sidekiq. Should match the URL in config/resque.yml. :redis_url: redis://localhost:6379 # Always "resque:gitlab". :namespace: resque:gitlab # Always "incoming_email". :queue: incoming_email # Always "EmailReceiverWorker" :worker: EmailReceiverWorker
-
Edit the init script configuration at
/etc/default/gitlab
to enablemail_room
: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 enter the email address including a placeholder for thekey
that references the item being replied to:# Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com incoming_email: enabled: true address: "gitlab-incoming+%{key}@gmail.com"
As mentioned, the part after
+
is ignored, and this will end up in the mailbox forgitlab-incoming@gmail.com
. -
Copy
config/mail_room.yml.example
toconfig/mail_room.yml
:sudo cp config/mail_room.yml.example config/mail_room.yml
-
Uncomment the configuration options in
config/mail_room.yml
and fill in the details for your specific IMAP server and email account:# Gmail / Google Apps, assumes mailbox gitlab-incoming@gmail.com :mailboxes: - # 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 # Email account username. Usually the full email address. :email: "gitlab-incoming@gmail.com" # Email account password :password: "[REDACTED]" # The name of the mailbox where incoming mail will end up. Usually "inbox". :name: "inbox" # Always "sidekiq". :delivery_method: sidekiq # Always true. :delete_after_delivery: true :delivery_options: # The URL to the Redis server used by Sidekiq. Should match the URL in config/resque.yml. :redis_url: redis://localhost:6379 # Always "resque:gitlab". :namespace: resque:gitlab # Always "incoming_email". :queue: incoming_email # Always "EmailReceiverWorker" :worker: EmailReceiverWorker
-
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.