AERC-ACCOUNTS(5)

💖 NAME 💖

bestie, this is aerc-accounts (yep, the aerc-accounts(5) manual) — the account configuration file format for aerc(1). That's the whole assignment, and we're gonna make it make sense. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay so the accounts.conf file is used for configuring each mail account used for aerc. It is expected to be in your XDG config home plus aerc, which defaults to ~/.config/aerc/accounts.conf. This file must be kept secret, as it may include your account credentials. fr fr, guard it. 🔒 An alternate file can be specified via the --accounts-conf command line argument, see aerc(1).

If accounts.conf does not exist, the :new-account configuration wizard will be executed automatically on first startup. iconic. 🪄

This file is written in the ini format where each [section] is the name of an account you want to configure, and the keys & values in that section specify details of that account's configuration. Global options may be configured by placing them at the top of the file, before any account-specific sections. These can be overridden for an account by specifying them again in the account section. In addition to the options documented here, specific transports for incoming and outgoing emails may have additional configuration parameters, documented on their respective man pages. no gatekeeping. 🌈

🌸 CONFIGURATION 🌸

Note that many of these configuration options are written for you, such as source and outgoing, when you run the account configuration wizard (:new-account). slay. 💅

• archive = <folder> — Specifies a folder to use as the destination of the :archive command.

Default: Archive

• check-mail = <duration> — Specifies an interval to check for new mail. Mail will be checked at startup, and every interval. IMAP accounts will check for mail in all unselected folders, and the selected folder will continue to receive PUSH mail notifications. Maildir/Notmuch folders must use check-mail-cmd in conjunction with this option. See aerc-maildir(5) and aerc-notmuch(5) for more information.

Setting this option to 0 will disable check-mail.

Example:

check-mail = 5m

Default: 0

• reconnect-maxwait = <duration> — Specifies the maximum delay between reconnection attempts when the connection is lost. Reconnection uses exponential backoff starting from immediate retry, then increasing delays (approximately 1.8^n seconds) until this maximum is reached.

Default: 30s

• copy-to = <folder1,folder2,folder3...> — Specifies a comma separated list of folders to copy sent mails to, usually Sent.

By default, the mail is copied to no folders;

• copy-to-replied = true|false — In addition to copy-to, also copy replies to the folder in which the replied message is.

Default: false

• strip-bcc = true|false — Strip Bcc headers before sending emails. This also affects local copies of the sent messages (copy-to and copy-to-replied).

Some email providers/backends automatically strip Bcc headers before dispatching the messages to recipients. Double check before setting this to false to avoid leaking any private information.

Default: true

• default = <folder> — Specifies the default folder to open in the message list when aerc configures this account.

Default: INBOX

• folders = <folder1,folder2,folder3...> — Specifies the comma separated list of folders to display in the sidebar. Names prefixed with ~ are interpreted as regular expressions.

By default, all folders are displayed.

• folders-exclude = <folder1,folder2,folder3...> — Specifies the comma separated list of folders to exclude from the sidebar. Names prefixed with ~ are interpreted as regular expressions. Note that this overrides anything from folders.

By default, no folders are excluded.

• enable-folders-sort = true|false — If true, folders are sorted, first by specified folders (see folders-sort), then alphabetically.

Default: true

• folders-sort = <folder1,folder2,folder3...> — Specifies a comma separated list of folders to be shown at the top of the list in the provided order. Remaining folders will be sorted alphabetically.
• folder-map = <file> — The folder map contains a one-to-one mapping of server folders to displayed folder names. The folder-map file expects a <display-folder-name>=<server-folder-name>[*] mapping per line (similar key=value syntax as for the query-map in notmuch). The mappings are applied as they appear in the folder-map. Supported backends: imap, maildir, notmuch.

For the notmuch backend, the folder-map applies to physical maildir directories. Query-map and dynamic query folders are not affected. If a folder-map display name collides with a query-map or dynamic query folder name, only one entry appears in the folder list: the directory store maps names to entries and the last Directory message for a given name overwrites earlier ones.

Note that other account options such as archive, default, copy-to, postpone, folders, folders-exclude, folders-sort need to be adjusted if one of those folders is affected by a folder mapping.

To apply the mapping to subfolders or folders with a similar prefix, append '*' to the server folder name.

Examples:

Remap a single folder:

Spam = [Gmail]/Spam

Remap the folder and all of its subfolders:

G = [Gmail]*

Remove a prefix for all subfolders:

* = [Gmail]/*

Remap all subfolders and avoid a folder collision:

Archive/existing = Archive*
Archive = OldArchive*

• from = <address> — The default value to use for the From header in new emails. This should be an RFC 5322-compatible string, such as Your Name <you@example.org>.
• aliases = <address1,address2,address3...> — All aliases of the current account. These will be used to fill in the From: field. Make sure that your email server accepts this value, or for example use aerc-sendmail(5) in combination with msmtp(1) and --read-envelope-from.

An alias can also use fnmatch-style wildcards in the address portion. These wildcards can be useful for catch-all addresses. For example, the alias "Your Name" <*@you.com> would ensure that when replying to emails addressed to hi@you.com and contact@you.com, the From: field is set to hi@you.com and contact@you.com, respectively. The name from the alias, not from the matching address, is used.

• use-envelope-from = true|false — Use the email envelope From header address instead of the from configuration option when submitting messages.

Default: false

• original-to-header = <header> — Use the email address alias specified in this header when replying.
• headers = <header1,header2,header3...> — Specifies the comma separated list of headers to fetch with the message.

By default, all headers are fetched. If any headers are specified in this list, aerc will append it to the following list of required headers:

• date
• subject
• from
• sender
• reply-to
• to
• cc
• bcc
• in-reply-to
• message-id
• references

• headers-exclude = <header1,header2,header3...> — Specifies the comma separated list of headers to exclude from fetching. Note that this overrides anything from headers.

By default, no headers are excluded.

• outgoing = <uri> — Specifies the transport for sending outgoing emails on this account. It should be a connection string, and the specific meaning of each component varies depending on the protocol in use. See each protocol's man page for more details:
  • aerc-sendmail(5)
  • aerc-smtp(5)
• outgoing-cred-cmd = <command> — Specifies an optional command that is run to get the outgoing account's password. See each protocol's man page for more details.
• outgoing-cred-cmd-cache = true|false — If set to true, the credentials returned by the command will be cached until aerc is shut down. Otherwise, outgoing-cred-cmd will be executed every time an email is to be sent.

Default: false

• pama-auto-switch = true|false — If true, the patch manager will automatically switch to an existing project for the :patch command if the subject contains a '[PATCH <project>]' segment.

Default: false

• pgp-auto-sign = true|false — If true, all outgoing emails from this account will be signed (if a signing key is available).

Default: false

• pgp-attach-key = true|false — If true, attach the public signing key to signed outgoing emails.

Default: false

• pgp-self-encrypt = true|false — If true, any outgoing encrypted email will be also encrypted for the sender or the key specified in pgp-key-id.

Default: false

• pgp-error-level = none|warn|error — The level of error to display when opportunistic encryption cannot be performed. See pgp-opportunistic-encryption.

Default: warn

• pgp-key-id = <key-id> — Specify the key id to use when signing a message. Can be either short or long key id. If unset, aerc will look up the key by email.
• pgp-opportunistic-encrypt = true|false — If true, any outgoing email from this account will be encrypted when all recipients (including Cc and Bcc field) have a public key available in the keyring. The level of error to display when a message can't be encrypted can be configured with pgp-error-level.

Default: false

• postpone = <folder> — Specifies the folder to save postponed messages to.

Default: Drafts

• send-as-utc = true|false — Converts the timestamp of the Date header to UTC.

Default: false

• send-with-hostname = true|false — Uses the local hostname in outgoing Message-Id headers instead of your email address domain name.

Default: false

• source = <uri> — Specifies the source for reading incoming emails on this account. This key is required for all accounts. It should be a connection string, and the specific meaning of each component varies depending on the protocol in use. See each protocol's man page for more details:
  • aerc-imap(5)
  • aerc-jmap(5)
  • aerc-maildir(5)
  • aerc-notmuch(5)
• source-cred-cmd = <command> — Specifies an optional command that is run to get the source account's password. See each protocol's man page for more details.
• signature-file = <path> — okay so this one's literally just "where's my signature at" 💅 it tells aerc which file to read to grab the signature it's gonna slap onto every email you send from this account.

heads up bestie: by convention, the Usenet signature style of two dashes followed by a space (-- ) goes at the top of the signature, so it separates your actual content from your signature. aerc will add that delimiter for you if it's not already there 🫶

• signature-cmd = <command> — this one runs a command with sh -c to get the signature instead of reading a file. so like, dynamic sig energy ✨ and if the command fails? no worries, it just falls back to signature-file like a backup bestie.
• trusted-authres = <host1,host2,host3...> — comma-separated list of hostnames you trust enough to display the Authentication Results header from 🕵️ entries can be regular expressions, so go wild. and if you literally want to trust any host (e.g. for debugging), use the wildcard * — but like, that's the "I trust everyone" option, be aware 💀
• subject-re-pattern = <regexp> — when you reply to a message, this is the regex that matches the prefix of the original subject that needs to get yeeted, so the new message's subject line can be built properly. typically this is used so you don't end up with Re: Re: Re: Re: (iykyk 😭). the default matches the known translations of the common Re:.

Default: (?i)^((AW|RE|SV|VS|ODP|R): ?)+

• restrict-delete = true|false — controls whether you're allowed to immediately delete emails (as opposed to moving them to Trash) from any folder. when it's true, deletions are only allowed from the Trash or Junk folders. so, like, a little safety rail 🎀

Default: false

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

aerc(1) aerc-config(5) aerc-imap(5) aerc-jmap(5) aerc-maildir(5) aerc-notmuch(5) aerc-sendmail(5) aerc-smtp(5)

go read those too, they're all part of the same little family 🦋

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is assisted by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/ 💖

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and that's a wrap on this page, bestie!! you just read AERC-ACCOUNTS(5) from 2026-09-07 — go forth and configure your accounts with main character energy 🌸💅✨