Reading Encrypted Emails with aerc

Examples and paths refer to macOS. The aerc commands are identical on Linux; only installation (apt/dnf/pacman instead of brew) and config paths (~/.config/aerc/ instead of ~/Library/Preferences/aerc/) differ.

Requirements

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• aerc is installed (brew install aerc)
• GnuPG is installed (brew install gnupg)
• Your own private GPG key is set up (gpg --list-secret-keys)
• aerc is configured and fetches your emails (account config: ~/Library/Preferences/aerc/accounts.conf)

Reading an Encrypted Email

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1. Start aerc:

   aerc

   aerc works similarly to vim: commands are introduced with :. For example, :new-account adds another account and :help shows the help.

2. Navigate to the encrypted message (using j/k or the cursor keys). With multiple accounts configured, switch to the relevant account with :ct + TAB, navigate the mailbox folders with c or :cf + TAB.

3. Open the email with ENTER. Encrypted messages show the marker [e] Encrypted To ....

4. aerc decrypts automatically using gpg. If gpg-agent is active, it asks for your private key password.

5. With everything set up correctly, the message is shown in plaintext.

Tips & Notes

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• If gpg-agent isn’t running:

  gpgconf --launch gpg-agent

• Make sure ~/.config/aerc/aerc.conf contains:

  pgp-provider=gpg

• Optional: graphical password prompt with pinentry-mac

  brew install pinentry-mac
  echo "pinentry-program /usr/local/bin/pinentry-mac" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
  killall gpg-agent

aerc shows encrypted messages in plaintext automatically, as long as your key is available and the password has been entered correctly.

Acknowledgments

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• aerc - terminal-based email client
• GnuPG - GNU Privacy Guard, free OpenPGP implementation
• Homebrew - macOS package manager
• pinentry-mac - graphical password entry for GPG on macOS