[neomutt-users] How to best configure NeoMutt with multiple Proton email addresses?

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 01:22:22AM +0000, technical_fora at proton.me wrote:
>
>1) SIDEBAR:  I would like it to show, at a minimum, the following:
>	PERSONAL
>		?Subfolders?
>	TECHNICAL
>		?Subfolders?
>	COMMERCIAL
>		?Subfolders?
>	MEDICAL
>		?Subfolders?
>	WORK
>		?Subfolders?
>	GMAIL
>		?Subfolders?
>	Others??  Like Sent, Trash, Spam, Drafts, etc.??

If I understand this correctly, for proton these personal@, technical@ and so on are aliases (to one principal account).  If I'm correct about that, I think what you are aiming to do actually ought to be done server-side, with sieve or something equivalent.  I don't think the MUA is a good place to be categorizing mail after it's gone to a final delivery mailbox unless you intend to read it and dispose of it somehow.  I don't know what kind of server-side filtering proton offers, so I can't say more about that.

>2) Desired functionality:
>    a) When I have one of the sidebar options selected I only want the
>    index to show a list of emails relevant to that selection, i.e., if
>    TECHNICAL is selected, the index should only list emails sent to
>    technical at proton.me.

The sidebar shows you things in mailboxes, so as long as the mailbox has the right things in it this is automatic.

>    b) When I reply to an email in the selected list, I want it to show
>    my correct email, i.e., technical at proton.me in the current example.

You need to use send-hook and send2-hook.  It looks like this in your dotfile (I generally put these into a separate file and then include them in the main dotfile):

send-hook '~f first-address at example.tld$' 'set command-1; set command-2; set command-3'
send2-hook '~f first-address at example.tld$' 'set command-1; set command-2; set command-3'

It is not always the case that the send-hook and send2-hook need to be redundant, but an awful lot of it seems to need that.  Check the manual, but my recollection is that send-hook is processed once when you get into a sending situation whereas send2-hook is processed _after_ you have composed mail and therefore can catch things that send-hook won't.  I have never managed to sort out precisely what is redundant without hours of testing, and I am too lazy.  I think the only penalty is performance.

>    c) When I compose a new email in the selected list view, I want it to
>    default to technical at proton.me in this example, and, likewise, the
>    correct ones for the other possible options.

This works for me with an account-hook, because I have more than one IMAP account in the same session, but I expect that a folder-hook would work the same way.

>    d) I want when either replying to or composing new email, to have a
>    custom signature relevant to the sidebar selection.

This is accomplished through the send[2]-hook mentioned above.

>3) Once I have puzzled out all of the above on this laptop, my intent is
>to replicate this setup on my Arch Linux desktop at home (I'm currently
>on an extended-away-from-home trip.).  On the Arch Linux desktop I intend
>to locally store copies of my emails for posterity and easy searching.

I never do this so can't comment.  I leave everything on the imap server.


-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com