Using alpine in addition to another mail reader

By default, alpine uses the ~/mail directory for all its mail files. This is fine if you only use alpine, but can be difficult if you sometimes use a graphical mail reader as well.

If you want to see your IMAP folders in alpine, one way to do it is to set up a "collection list" in alpine. Start up alpine, then type "S", "L", "A"; under nickname type "imap" (or any other name you want); under path type /a/mail/folders/$user. Hit Ctrl-X, then "E". Now when you type "L" to see your messages, you'll also see a listing for your folders on the mail servers.

A different trick is to fake out alpine using links. Login to your account and type:

ln -sf /a/mail/folders/$user ~/mail

You may have to move the contents of your ~/mail directory first, especially if you've tried to use alpine before.

After you've created this link, alpine will look in its default mail/ directory, but actually refer to the files on the mail server.