NOTE: Be sure to see also the DNS notes that are relevant to setting up email hosting (MX, SPF, etc.).
Search all messages in a folder:
; t a [search string]
; = select
t = text
a = all fields
Command line options:
alpine -p [/path/to/alternate-pinerc] -passfile [/path/to/password-file]
When creating a password file, Alpine no longer behaves the way it did
in the free and easy old days when you could create a passfile with
simply
touch password-file
Now, after creating a new empty file (with "touch" as above), you need
to open the file with an editor and insert a line return. After saving
the passfile with the line return in it, Alpine should then prompt you
to create a master password to encrypt the passfile the next time
Alpine needs to access the passfile.
Common server strings:
{smtp.fastmail.com:465/ssl/user=user@fastmail.com/novalidate-cert}
{imap.fastmail.com:993/ssl/user=user@fastmail.com/novalidate-cert}
{imap.gmail.com:993/ssl/user=user@gmail.com/novalidate-cert}[Gmail]/All Mail
If you wish to start Alpine with a remote pinerc, add the following
argument at the command line:
alpine -p {imap.gmail.com:993/ssl/user=user@gmail.com/novalidate-cert}pinerc-sdf-pine
Some settings you might want to tweak:
deadletter
enable alternate editor command
[allows you to use ^_ to invoke an editor other than alpine's default]
sigdashes
header in reply
text in reply
disable-sender / do not generate sender header
mark fcc seen
blank fcc
blank subject
dot-folders / hidden folders
convert dates to localtime
delete skips deleted (I'm less likely to mistakenly expunge a deleted message if this is unchecked.)
x-x-sender
index-format STATUS MSGNO DATE FROMORTO KSIZE SUBJECT
[The default when this field is undefined is same as above
except that the default uses SIZE instead of KSIZE.]
enable aggregate
enable flag
enable full header command
expose hidden config
sort-key = Date or Reverse Date
Default Composer Headers
From:
To:
Cc:
Fcc:
Subject:
Attchmnt:
customized-hdrs / Customized Headers = From: Full Name
editor = emacs [or vim]
[The editor invoked by the ^_ (alternate editor command)]
DELETE FILTER
When a message is expunged, this filter moves it to a designated
folder (i.e. Trash). The message is only fully removed when it is
expunged from the designated folder. You probably do not want to
use this filter with Gmail. If you use Gmail, then moving a message
to the [Gmail]/Trash folder will remove it from all other locations,
and when expunged from [Gmail]/Trash the message is gone forever.
S(etup) -- R(ules) -- F(ilters)
Nickname: Move Deleted to Trash
Current Folder Type = Email
Message is Deleted? = Yes
Filter Action = Move (then select folder)
For IMAP Collections:
separate-folder-and-directory-entries
quell-empty-directories
You might also need: enable-lame-list-mode / deficient imap servers
Odd characters show up in the body of messages:
This can be caused by a character-encoding mismatch between your terminal
and alpine. Make sure both are set to utf-8.
In mutt, messages are "tagged" rather than "selected". To tag a group of messages, type
T
To select all messages, type
~A
To select messages 1-100, type
~m 1-100
Apply the next given command to all tagged messages
;
The subsequent command to move (i.e. save) messages is
s
You can then select the folder to which the messages will be moved. The original messages will be deleted when you exit mutt.
To save a message from a local folder to an IMAP mailbox:
s - to save backspace to colon enter imaps://username@server/Folder
To save a message from an IMAP mailbox to a local folder:
s - to save backspace to colon enter ~/Mail/Folder
A Sample ~/.muttrc File
set editor="/usr/local/bin/vim" set from="username@domain" set use_from=yes set realname="FirstName LastName" set record="/home/user/Mail/Sent" set postponed="/home/user/Mail/Drafts" ## To add an external IMAP account ## set imap_user=imapusername set imap_pass=imappassword account-hook imaps://imapserver 'set imap_user=imapusername' mailboxes imaps://imapusername@imapserver/INBOX folder-hook imaps://imapusername@imapserver 'set folder=imaps://imapserver' ## To send through an external SMTP server ## set smtp_pass smtppassword set smtp_url=smtps://smtpusername@smtpserver:465 set ssl_force_tls=yes
Use default styles/faces.
Proportional Size: 20 Monospace Size: 18 Minimum font size: 18 Uncheck: Allow messages to use other fonts Use fixed width font for plain text messages
Use a synchronized local file as a pseudo-network calendar:
On the network icalendar file:///home/user/Documents/sync-calendar.ics (Linux) file:///C:/Users/username/Documents/sync-calendar.ics (Windows)
I sent messages to my Purelymail email account using two different SMTP services. Here is how they compared:
| Sendgrid | SMTP2Go | |
|---|---|---|
| SPAM | -0.81 | 0.55 |
| SIZE | 3.1 K | 3.2 K |
| TIME | 1 sec. | 3 sec. |