3.2. Accounts

In order to be able to send mails, you have to define at least one account subsection in your config: There needs to be a section “accounts”, and each subsection, indicated by double square brackets defines an account.

Here is an example configuration

[accounts]
    [[work]]
        realname = Bruce Wayne
        address = b.wayne@wayneenterprises.com
        alias_regexp = b.wayne\+.+@wayneenterprises.com
        gpg_key = D7D6C5AA
        sendmail_command = msmtp --account=wayne -t
        sent_box = maildir:///home/bruce/mail/work/Sent
        # ~, $VAR and ${VAR} expansion also work
        draft_box = maildir://~/mail/work/Drafts

    [[secret]]
        realname = Batman
        address = batman@batcave.org
        aliases = batman@batmobile.org,
        sendmail_command = msmtp --account=batman -t
        signature = ~/.batman.vcf
        signature_as_attachment = True

Warning

Sending mails is only supported via a sendmail shell command for now. If you want to use a sendmail command different from sendmail -t, specify it as sendmail_command.

The following entries are interpreted at the moment:

address

your main email address

Type:

string

alias_regexp

a regex for catching further aliases (like + extensions).

Type:

string

Default:

None

aliases

used to clear your addresses/ match account when formatting replies

Type:

string list

Default:

,

case_sensitive_username

Whether the server treats the address as case-senstive or case-insensitve (True for the former, False for the latter)

Note

The vast majority (if not all) SMTP servers in modern use treat usernames as case insenstive, you should only set this if you know that you need it.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

draft_box

where to store draft mails, e.g. maildir:///home/you/mail/Drafts, maildir://$MAILDIR/Drafts or maildir://~/mail/Drafts. You can use mbox, maildir, mh, babyl and mmdf in the protocol part of the URL.

Note

You will most likely want drafts indexed by notmuch to be able to later access them within alot. This currently only works for maildir containers in a path below your notmuch database path.

Type:

mail_container

Default:

None

draft_tags

list of tags to automatically add to draft messages

Type:

string list

Default:

draft

encrypt_by_default

Alot will try to GPG encrypt outgoing messages by default when this is set to all or trusted. If set to all the message will be encrypted for all recipients for who a key is available in the key ring. If set to trusted it will be encrypted to all recipients if a trusted key is available for all recipients (one where the user id for the key is signed with a trusted signature).

Note

If the message will not be encrypted by default you can still use the toggleencrypt, encrypt and unencrypt commands to encrypt it.

Deprecated since version 0.4: The values True and False are interpreted as all and none respectively. 0, 1, true, True, false, False, yes, Yes, no, No, will be removed before 1.0, please move to all, none, or trusted.

Type:

option, one of [‘all’, ‘none’, ‘trusted’, ‘True’, ‘False’, ‘true’, ‘false’, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘1’, ‘0’]

Default:

none

encrypt_to_self

If this is true when encrypting a message it will also be encrypted with the key defined for this account.

Warning

Before 0.6 this was controlled via gpg.conf.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

gpg_key

The GPG key ID you want to use with this account.

Type:

string

Default:

None

message_id_domain

Domain to use in automatically generated Message-ID headers. The default is the local hostname.

Type:

string

Default:

None

passed_tags

list of tags to automatically add to passed messages

Type:

string list

Default:

passed

realname

used to format the (proposed) From-header in outgoing mails

Type:

string

replied_tags

list of tags to automatically add to replied messages

Type:

string list

Default:

replied

sendmail_command

sendmail command. This is the shell command used to send out mails via the sendmail protocol

Type:

string

Default:

“sendmail -t”

sent_box

where to store outgoing mails, e.g. maildir:///home/you/mail/Sent, maildir://$MAILDIR/Sent or maildir://~/mail/Sent. You can use mbox, maildir, mh, babyl and mmdf in the protocol part of the URL.

Note

If you want to add outgoing mails automatically to the notmuch index you must use maildir in a path within your notmuch database path.

Type:

mail_container

Default:

None

sent_tags

list of tags to automatically add to outgoing messages

Type:

string list

Default:

sent

sign_by_default

Outgoing messages will be GPG signed by default if this is set to True.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

signature

path to signature file that gets attached to all outgoing mails from this account, optionally renamed to signature_filename.

Type:

string

Default:

None

signature_as_attachment

attach signature file if set to True, append its content (mimetype text) to the body text if set to False.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

signature_filename

signature file’s name as it appears in outgoing mails if signature_as_attachment is set to True

Type:

string

Default:

None