Question 1

How to send an email with attachments using the Mail gem?

Accepted Answer

Use the `add_file` method in a Mail block or assign attachments directly, e.g., `mail.attachments['file.pdf'] = File.read('path.pdf')`. Mail automatically encodes attachments in Base64 and guesses MIME types, handling the details for you.

Question 2

Mail gem vs Action Mailer in Rails: what's the difference?

Accepted Answer

Action Mailer is built on top of Mail and is integrated into Rails for convenience with helpers and templates. Use Mail directly for non-Rails projects or when you need lower-level control over email parsing and generation without Rails dependencies.

Question 3

Does Mail support UTF-8 in email subjects and bodies?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Mail supports RFC6532 for UTF-8 headers and bodies, leveraging Ruby's modern text encoding support. It handles international characters properly in both parsing and generation of emails.

Question 4

How to test emails sent with Mail in RSpec?

Accepted Answer

Set the delivery method to :test using `Mail.defaults { delivery_method :test }`, then inspect `Mail::TestMailer.deliveries`. Mail provides RSpec matchers for assertions on email properties like subject, body, and attachments.

Question 5

Can Mail retrieve emails from Gmail using IMAP?

Accepted Answer

Yes, configure the retriever_method with IMAP settings: use `Mail.defaults { retriever_method :imap, address: 'imap.gmail.com', port: 993, enable_ssl: true }`. Then, methods like `Mail.all` or `Mail.first` fetch emails for processing.

Question 6

How to parse a .eml file with Mail?

Accepted Answer

Use `Mail.read('/path/to/file.eml')` to load and parse the email. You can then access headers, body, attachments, and multipart sections through the Mail object's methods, such as `mail.subject` or `mail.attachments`.

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