Pine Tutorial
To access email via pine, use any telnet application such as Windows telnet or MacTelnet and telnet to phobos.ramapo.edu . After logging in type pine to login to your email account.
How to save a message to a
file
How to save a message to a
folder
Basic features
Pine's basic features include:
- Online help specific to each screen and context.
- Message index showing a message summary which includes the status, sender, size, date and subject of messages.
- Commands to view and process messages: Forward, Reply, Save, Export, Print, Delete, capture address, and search.
- Message composer with easy-to-use editor and spelling checker. The message composer also assists entering and formatting addresses and provides direct access to the address book.
- Address book for saving long complex addresses and personal distribution lists under a nickname.
- Message attachments via the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) specification. MIME allows sending/receiving non-text objects, such as binary files, spreadsheets, graphics, and sound.
- Folder management commands for creating, deleting, listing, or
renaming message folders.
Folders may be local or on remote hosts. - Access to remote message folders and archives via the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).
- Internet news support via either NNTP or IMAP. Pine can be used to read and post Usenet News but this topic is not discussed in this document.
- Aggregate operations, e.g. saving a selected set of messages at once.
- Builtin signature editor.
- Set configuration options from the Main Menu.
How to start Pine
Login to your Unix account. At the prompt -
type:
pine (press
Return)
(Please note that Unix is case sensitive so
pine is not equivalent to PINE or Pine.)
The first screen is the Main Menu, which tells you what
functions are available
Hit Enter and Enter Password if you mistyped
password wait for couple of seconds the screen will prompt password again
Pine screens
Commands are listed at the bottom of the screen.
In some menus (screens) you make a choice by holding down the
Ctrl key and pressing a letter key. When the Ctrl key
is necessary, the menu item label will use the ^ character.
For example, the command to send a message, Ctrl X, will be
labeled ^X on the bottom of the screen. Several of the
screens have too many command options to list at the bottom of the
screen. Use the command O (OTHER CMDS) to discover other
options that are available, but not shown. Some screens have one of
the labels at the bottom enclosed in square brackets to indicate
which command action will be preformed if you press
Return.
Pine's editor: pico
The default editor for composing messages is
called pico (stands for PIne's COmposer).
Pico is also a stand-alone editor so it can be used outside
of pine to edit text files by typing the command pico
(remember to use lower case). It is a simple editor with
word-wrap, paragraph justification and a simple
spelling-checker.
What addresses look like
Messages can be sent to electronic mail addresses
throughout the world. Electronic mail addresses cannot contain
spaces and they are not case-sensitive. Regardless of the mail
package being used, mail is addressed with the following
format:
user@ramapo.edu
The user portion of the address is usually the
name of the person's account on their system. The name of the
computer is ramapo.edu An example of an address is:
Jsmith@ramapo.edu
What is my address
Your address is constructed from your account
name (the username you used to log in to your Unix account) and the
mailname of your email system. For example, all ITS email accounts
are
You telnet to a computer (phobos.ramapo.edu which has your Unix account. Your account is more than just email, it contains your personnal web page space and also configuration files for using other systems like the library .
The % option in the Folder Index and
Message Text screens will print the current message using the
default printer setting.
username@ramapo.edu
You telnet to a computer (phobos.ramapo.edu which has your Unix account. Your account is more than just email, it contains your personnal web page space and also configuration files for using other systems like the library .
How to send a message
At the Main Menu press C (Compose)
to enter the Compose Message screen. Fill in the To:, Cc:
and Subject: fields. When sending to more than one person use a
comma between the addresses. Press Return, Tab or use
the cursor keys to move from one field to the another. Then enter
the text of your message, using the message editor pico. A
menu row of options will appear at the bottom of your screen. To
send the message press Ctrl X. You will be asked to confirm
that this is what you wish to do. Press Return to send the
message or n to go back to change things.
How to read a message
At the Main Menu type I (Index) to go to
the Folder Index screen. Move your cursor to the message you wish
to read and then type V (View Msg) or press Return to
read the message. Again, a menu row of options will appear at the
bottom of your screen. New unread messages will be marked with a
N in the Folder Index. Messages directly addressed to
you will also be marked with a +. Messages that you have
answered will be marked with a A.
How to delete a
message
Move your cursor to the message you wish to delete
and then type D (Delete). It will be marked with a D
but will not be deleted until you quit the pine program. If you
wish to delete the message immediately, type X
(eXpunge).
How to quit pine
You can quit the pine program from the Main
Menu by typing Q (Quit). You can also quit pine from the
Folder Index screen or the Compose Message screen by
typing Q. In all cases you will be asked if you really want
to quit.
More on pine
The previous sections should be enough to get you
started with pine. The following sections point out some more
advanced features. Please feel free to explore them further via the
on-line help.
How to create a
signature
Pine has a builtin signature editor. At the
Main Menu select S (Setup) and then choose S
(Signature) to enter the builtin signature editor. Type the
information that you want added to each message you send. Typically
your signature should include your postal address and telephone
number. Then type Ctrl X (Exit) and you will be asked it you
wish to exit the editor and apply changes.
The Address Book
Pine has a handy and easy to use Address Book. It
allows you to create short, easy-to-remember nicknames or aliases
that replace long or frequently-used e-mail addresses. You can then
use these nicknames instead of the address. The Address Book can
also be used to create mailing lists. You can even go to the
Address Book from the Compose Message screen by using ^T
(To AddrBk). Move your cursor to the nickname you want and then
use S (Select) to use this address in the To: or Cc: fields
of your message.
Conversely, if you receive mail from someone whose
address you do not have already, you can use the T (Take
Addr) command directly from the Message Text screen to take
that address and place it in your Address Book. You will be
prompted for a nick name. The Full name and Addresses will be taken
from the original message header. You will then given an
opportunity to add a comment. Type ^X (exit/Save) to save
the new entry in your Pine Address Book.
How to print a message
The % option in the Folder Index and
Message Text screens will print the current message using the
default printer setting.
How to select a printer
Go into the Main Menu and select S
(Setup) and then choose P (Printer) Use the cursor key
to highlight a new default and then S (Select) it and E
(Exit Config). The Select Printer screen will show three
printer options. Your current default printer setting will be
highlighted. If you wish to change it enter the number from the
list above.
- Printer attached to IBM PC or compatible, Macintosh
- Standard UNIX print command
- Personally selected print command
Item three is used to select your own personal print command if you wish to use something other than item one or item two above. Some options you can enter here are:
lpr -PPostScript
To print on the ITS PostScript printer.
mp | lpr -PPostScript
To use the mp (PostScript pretty printer) program and print output on the PostScript printer. (see man mp for more info on mp)
enscript -2 -r
To use enscript (in this case for 2 column, landscape output) and print output on the ITS PostScript printer. (see man enscript for more info on enscript)
How to mail an existing
file
To include a file in a message, use the ^R
(Read) key. You will be prompted for a file name. Remember
filenames in Unix are case-sensitive. If you cannot remember
the name, use ^T (To Files) to look at all your files. You
can then browse through the list and select the one you wish to
mail.
How to send an attachment
Pine will allow you to to attach any kind of file
including word processing documents, spreadsheets, or images that
exist on the same computer where you are running Pine. Use ^J
(Attach) in the Compose Message screen and you will
asked for the file name and for a short comment to add to the
attachment. You can also just enter the file name in the
Attchmnt: field. Once the file is attached you can still
compose a regular message. The attachment will be MIME
(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) encoded Be sure that your
your recipient also has MIME-capable mail software (which is
readily available for most types of computers, although some
proprietary mail systems do not yet support MIME).
How to receive attachments
When you receive an attached file, it will be
appear something like the following:
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 12:26:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: S Smith ssmith@ramapo.edu
To: J Doe jdoe@ramapo.edu
Parts/attachments:
1 Shown 10 lines Text
2 3.6 KB Application
----------------------------------------
Here is a WordPerfect file. Please let me know if you got it OK.
[Part 2, Application/WORDPERFECT5.1 4.8KB]
[Cannot display this part. Press V then S to save in a file]
Select V (ViewAttch). and you can then select the attachment to be viewed or saved. To get more details about the attachment select A (AboutAttch). In the above example, you would save the attachment, download it to your workstation and then be able to read it in WordPerfect.
Where mail is stored
By default, pine stores all your mail and folders
in the directory called mail in your home directory. Mail
you receive stays in a folder called inbox until you either
save it elsewhere or delete it. Copies of messages that you send go
into the sent-mail folder. If you save messages without
naming a folder, pine puts the messages into a folder called
saved-messages. Pine tries to keep your mail organized: once
a month the program offers to start a new sent-mail folder.
If you accept, the old folder is renamed with the name of the
previous month (eg. sent-mail-jul-2002).
How to save a message to a file
To save one of your mail messages to a file,
select E(Export). You will be asked to supply a filename to
save the message text in. Remember filenames in Unix are
case-sensitive. You can export a message from the Folder Index
screen or the Message Text screen. In the Folder Index screen, the
highlighted message will be the one saved.
How to save a message to a folder
A folder is a collection of one or more messages
stored so that that you can access them and manage them like the
messages in your inbox. Folders provide a good method for
organizing the mail you have received into logical groups.
To save one of your messages to a folder, press
S (Save). You will be asked to supply a folder name to save
the message in. If you press Return, the message will be
saved in the default folder called saved-messages in your
mail directory.
Other handy pine functions
Pine can help you do many other things. Here's a
list of capabilities. Try them out!
- Sort messages within a folder (by subject, arrival, from, date, size or reverse)
- Search for specified words either in the Folder Index screen or in the body of a message
- Check your spelling
- Justify paragraphs
- Postpone a message under composition temporarily while another is composed.
- Search your disk area for the names of files (from inside pine)
