From Linux Man Pages
pine - a Program for Internet News and Email
SYNTAX
pine [ options ] [ address , address ]
pinef [ options ] [ address , address ]
DESCRIPTION
Pine is a screen-oriented message-handling tool. In its default configuration, Pine offers an intentionally lim-
ited set of functions geared toward the novice user, but it also has a growing list of optional "power-user" and
personal-preference features. pinef is a variant of Pine that uses function keys rather than mnemonic single-
letter commands. Pine's basic feature set includes:
View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.
Compose messages in a simple editor (Pico) with word-wrap and a spelling checker. Messages may be post-
poned for later completion.
Full-screen selection and management of message folders.
Address book to keep a list of long or frequently-used addresses. Personal distribution lists may be
defined. Addresses may be taken into the address book from incoming mail without retyping them.
New mail checking and notification occurs automatically every 2.5 minutes and after certain commands, e.g.
refresh-screen (Ctrl-L).
On-line, context-sensitive help screens.
Pine supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), an Internet Standard for representing multipart and
multimedia data in email. Pine allows you to save MIME objects to files, and in some cases, can also initiate
the correct program for viewing the object. It uses the system's mailcap configuration file to determine what
program can process a particular MIME object type. Pine's message composer does not have integral multimedia
capability, but any type of data file --including multimedia-- can be attached to a text message and sent using
MIME's encoding rules. This allows any group of individuals with MIME-capable mail software (e.g. Pine, PC-Pine,
or many other programs) to exchange formatted documents, spread-sheets, image files, etc, via Internet email.
Pine uses the c-client messaging API to access local and remote mail folders. This library provides a variety of
low-level message-handling functions, including drivers for a variety of different mail file formats, as well as
routines to access remote mail and news servers, using IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and NNTP (Network
News Transport Protocol). Outgoing mail is usually handed-off to the Unix sendmail, program but it can option-
ally be posted directly via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
OPTIONS
The command line options/arguments are:
address Send mail to address. This will cause Pine to go directly into the message composer.
-attach file Send mail with the listed file as an attachment.
-attachlist file-list
Send mail with the listed file-list as an attachments.
-attach_and_delete file
Send mail with the listed file as an attachment, and remove the file after the message is
sent.
-aux local_directory
PC-Pine only. When using a remote configuration (-p <remote_config>) this tells PC-Pine the
local directory to use for storing auxiliary files, like debug files, address books, and sig-
nature files.
-bail Exit if the pinerc file does not exist. This might be useful if the config file is accessed
using some remote filesystem protocol. If the remote mount is missing this will cause Pine to
quit instead of creating a new pinerc.
-c context-number context-number is the number corresponding to the folder-collection to which the -f command
line argument should be applied. By default the -f argument is applied to the first defined
folder-collection.
-conf Produce a sample/fresh copy of the system-wide configuration file, pine.conf, on the standard
output. This is distinct from the per-user .pinerc file.
-convert_sigs -p pinerc
Convert signature files into literal signatures.
-copy_abook <local_abook> <remote_abook>
Copy the local address book file to a remote address book folder.
-copy_pinerc <local_pinerc> <remote_pinerc>
Copy the local pinerc file to a remote pinerc folder.
-create_lu addrbook sort-order
Creates auxiliary index (look-up) file for addrbook and sorts addrbook in sort-order, which
may be dont-sort, nickname, fullname, nickname-with-lists-last, or fullname-with-lists-last.
Useful when creating global or shared address books. After creating the index file in this
way, the file should be moved or copied in a way which preserves the mtime of the address
book file. The mtime of the address book file at the time the index file was built is stored
inside the index file and a comparison between that stored value and the current mtime of the
address book file is done when somebody runs pine. If the mtime has changed since the index
file was made, then pine will want to rebuild the index file. In other words, don't build
the index file with this option and then copy the address book to its final destination in a
way which changes the file's mtime.
-d debug-level Output diagnostic info at debug-level (0-9) to the current .pine-debug[1-4] file. A value of
0 turns debugging off and suppresses the .pine-debug file.
-d key[=val] Fine tuned output of diagnostic messages where "flush" causes debug file writing without
buffering, "timestamp" appends each message with a timestamp, "imap=n" where n is between 0
and 4 representing none to verbose IMAP telemetry reporting, "numfiles=n" where n is between
0 and 31 corresponding to the number of debug files to maintain, and "verbose=n" where n is
between 0 and 9 indicating an inverse threshold for message output.
-f folder Open folder (in first defined folder collection, use -c n to specify another collection)
instead of INBOX.
-F file Open named text file and view with Pine's browser.
-h Help: list valid command-line options.
-i Start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen.
-I keystrokes Initial (comma separated list of) keystrokes which Pine should execute on startup.
-install For PC-Pine only, this option causes PC-Pine to prompt for some basic setup information, then
exits.
-k Use function keys for commands. This is the same as running the command pinef.
-n number Start up with current message-number set to number.
-o Open first folder read-only.
-p config-file Use config-file as the personal configuration file instead of the default .pinerc.
-P config-file Use config-file as the configuration file instead of default system-wide configuration file
pine.conf.
-pinerc file Output fresh pinerc configuration to file, preserving the settings of variables that the user
has made. Use file set to ``- to make output go to standard out. <IP> -registry cmd 20
For PC-Pine only, this option affects the values of Pine's registry entries. Possible values
for cmd are set, clear, and dump. Set will always reset Pine's registry entries according to
its current settings. Clear will clear the registry values. Clearsilent will silently clear
the registry values. Dump will display the values of current registry settings. Note that
the dump command is currently disabled. Without the -registry option, PC-Pine will write
values into the registry only if there currently aren't any values set.
-r Use restricted/demo mode. Pine will only send mail to itself and functions like save and
export are restricted.
-sort order Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the following orders: arrival, date, subject,
orderedsubj, thread, from, size, score, to, cc, or reverse. Arrival order is the default.
The OrderedSubj choice simulates a threaded sort. Any sort may be reversed by adding
/reverse to it. Reverse by itself is the same as arrival/reverse.
-supported Some options may or may not be supported depending on how Pine was compiled. This is a way
to determine which options are supported in the particular copy of Pine you are using.
-url url Open the given url. Cannot be used with -f or -F options.
-v Version: Print version information.
-version Version: Print version information.
-x config Use configuration exceptions in config. Exceptions are used to override your default pinerc
settings for a particular platform, can be a local file or a remote folder.
-z Enable ^Z and SIGTSTP so pine may be suspended.
-option=value Assign value to the config option option e.g. -signature-file=sig1 or -feature-list=signa-
ture-at-bottom (Note: feature-list values are additive)
CONFIGURATION
There are several levels of Pine configuration. Configuration values at a given level over-ride corresponding
values at lower levels. In order of increasing precedence:
o built-in defaults.
o system-wide pine.conf file.
o personal .pinerc file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)
o command-line options.
o system-wide pine.conf.fixed file.
There is one exception to the rule that configuration values are replaced by the value of the same option in a
higher-precedence file: the feature-list variable has values that are additive, but can be negated by prepending
"no-" in front of an individual feature name. Unix Pine also uses the following environment variables:
TERM
DISPLAY (determines if Pine can display IMAGE attachments.)
SHELL (if not set, default is /bin/sh )
MAILCAPS (semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files)
FILES
/var/mail/xxxx Default folder for incoming mail.
~/Mail Default directory for mail folders.
~/.addressbook Default address book file.
~/.addressbook.lu Default address book index file.
~/.pine-debug[1-4] Diagnostic log for debugging.
~/.pinerc Personal pine config file.
~/.newsrc News subscription/state file.
~/.signature Default signature file.
~/.mailcap Personal mail capabilities file.
~/.mime.types Personal file extension to MIME type mapping
/etc/mailcap System-wide mail capabilities file.
/etc/mime.types System-wide file ext. to MIME type mapping
/usr/lib/pine.info Local pointer to system administrator.
/etc/pine.conf System-wide configuration file.
/etc/pine.conf.fixed Non-overridable configuration file.
/tmp/.\var\mail\xxxx Per-folder mailbox lock files.
~/.pine-interrupted-mail Message which was interrupted.
~/Mail/postponed-msgs For postponed messages.
~/Mail/sent-mail Outgoing message archive (FCC).
~/Mail/saved-messages Default destination for Saving messages.
RELATED
pico(1), binmail(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8), spell(1), imapd(8)
Newsgroup: comp.mail.pine
Pine Information Center: http://www.washington.edu/pine
Source distribution: ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine/pine.tar.Z
Pine Technical Notes, included in the source distribution.
C-Client messaging API library, included in the source distribution.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The University of Washington Pine development team (part of the UW Office
of Computing & Communications) includes:
Project Leader: Mike Seibel
Principal authors: Mike Seibel, Steve Hubert, Laurence Lundblade*
C-Client library & IMAPd: Mark Crispin
Pico, the PIne COmposer: Mike Seibel
Documentation: Many people!
PC-Pine for Windows: Tom Unger, Mike Seibel
Project oversight: Terry Gray, Lori Stevens
Principal Patrons: Ron Johnson, Mike Bryant
Additional support: NorthWestNet
Initial Pine code base: Elm, by Dave Taylor & USENET Community Trust
Initial Pico code base: MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy
User Interface design: Inspired by UCLA's "Ben" mailer for MVS
Suggestions/fixes/ports: Folks from all over!
*Emeritus
Copyright 1989-2005 by the University of Washington.
Pine and Pico are trademarks of the University of Washington.
$Date: 2005-09-15 14:01:32 -0700 (Thu, 15 Sep 2005) $
CATEGORY