Greg Laden's Blog

The way this works in alpine seems a little obscure at first, but actually makes a lot of sense. Alpine checks for a file in which passwords should be stored, and if it is there, it behaves differently.

If the file exists, and alpine is asked for a password, then it checks that file for the password. If it is not there it asks you for the password, and then, after you've entered it, alpine asks you if you want to save that password in the file. If you say yes, then you are in business.

This has two important implications for you. One: If you want alpine to remember passwords, just create the file and it will happen. Two: If you have trouble at some later time with some kind of operation and you think that the part about asking for the password is screwing you up, delete the file and restart the program (you'll have to know the password, of course, for when you are prompted for it later).

How do you create the file? Using the bash command 'touch' should do. But what file do you need to create? Well, that depends. The file alpine uses is determined at compile time. At present, it seems that the current version of alpine is using a file called '.pine-passfile' (note the dot at the beginning of the file ... this is a hidden file) and this file should be in your home directory.

So, to make this work:

1) Quit alpine

2) In a termnial, type:

touch .pine-passfile

3) Restart alpine, check for email and send email, and when asked for a password, enter it and respond "yes" to the prompt asking you if you want to save the password.

4) Give your mouse a little piece of cheese so it does not feel lonely.

For more information about alpine click here.