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