Pine used to ask if you wanted to store the IMAP password
in a file so that you didn't need to specify it everytime
you ran Pine to connect to IMAP servers....

Alpine has the same functionality, but it sets a "Master
Password" to access the stored email server passwords.

So... you don't need to tell Alpine the IMAP server password
BUT.... you still need to tell it the "Master Password"

what have you gained?

I found a way to remove the Master Password

https://www.ccdw.org/2022www/node/14.html

	cd ~/.alpine-smime/.pwd
	mv MasterPassword.key MasterPassword.key.orig
	openssl rsa -in MasterPassword.key.orig -out MasterPassword.key

you have to give the Master Password to decrypt it, but then it saves 
the MasterPassword.key with no password.

Starting Alpine now simply gets the saved IMAP password from the encrypted 
~/.pine-passfile using the MasterPassword key file without needing a 
password to do the decryption.

I suppose it's risky, but if someone steals my laptop they'll find more stuff
to occupy their tiny minds than reading my emails!?