Pine® is an electronic messaging program created and maintained by the Computing & Communications group at the University of Washington. This handout is based on the document "Getting Started With E-Mail Using Pine" created by C&C.

"Pine" stands for "Program for Internet News and E-mail." It is a text-only mail reader, suitable for use over a telnet connection. It is available on both Eden (the New Brunswick student system) and RCI (the New Brunswick faculty/staff system). If you have previously used other mail programs on RCI or Eden (such as MM or Zmlite), it can be told to work with your existing mail files.

Pine offers:

• On-screen menus that free you from memorizing commands - available options are displayed across the bottom of each screen

• On-screen messages that appear when you need a warning or information

• Online help within Pine

About This Document

It's best to read this document at your computer while you use Pine. The text that follows does not document every Pine feature; it summarizes main options and basic guidelines. The best way to learn more about Pine is to explore it on your own. On-screen information and online help show you what to do. Try the different options and - most of all - have fun experimenting!

Pine uses various keys and key combinations for its commands. Here are some tips to help you use this document.

• A command like refers to the key with that name. means you should press the key labelled or . You should not press the "<" and ">" characters or type out the word.

• Some commands are single letters, usually written in uppercase. "E" means you should press the "e" key on your keyboard. Pine doesn't care if it's a capital E or a lowercase e. There may also be a short descriptive term, in parentheses, following the letter, such as E (Exit).

• Some commands require you to hold down the key while pressing a single letter. These commands may be written as x (in this document) or as ^X (on the Pine screens). You should not press the caret (^) character (usually Shift 6 on a keyboard).

Getting Started

You need an account on Eden or RCI to use Pine. After logging in to your account, type

at the system prompt to start it. (Menu users will have to go to the Mail Menu to do this.)

The first time you start Pine, it will try to create a subdirectory on your account in which it will store all its files. This subdirectory will be called mail. If you already have a regular file by that name, Pine cannot create the directory. The easiest solution in this case is to rename the file. Use the Unix mv command to do this. For example

(Menu users will have to go to the File Menu to do this.) Then start Pine again, and let it create the subdirectory.

If you have your mail forwarded to another account, you'll need to turn off forwarding before you can receive any messages to read with Pine. Use the Unix command rm to remove the file that does the forwarding.

rm .qmail (for RCI)
rm .forward (for Eden)

(Menu users will have to go to the File Menu to do this.)

When Pine first starts, it shows a brief welcome message. See Figure 1.

You can press the key to send the message, or you can press the letter E to exit the message without sending a response.

After starting Pine, the Main Menu screen appears. Each Pine screen has a similar layout: the top line tells you the screen name and additional useful information, below that is the work area (on the Main Menu screen, the work area is a menu of options), then the message/prompt line, and finally the menu of commands.

1. At almost any place in Pine, press Q (Quit). You are asked:
   Really quit pine?

2. Press y (yes) or press to quit.

It is a good idea to log off your computer whenever you are through with it or when you must leave it unattended.

The Main Menu

The Main Menu lists Pine's main options. (See Figure 2.) The key or keys you must type to enter your choice are to the left of each option or command name. You can usually type either uppercase or lowercase letters, and you do not need to press .

From the Main Menu you can choose to read online help, write (compose) and send a message, look at an index of your mail messages, open or maintain your mail folders, update your address book, configure Pine, and quit Pine. There are additional options listed at the bottom of the screen as well.

Figure 2. A Pine Main Menu Screen

Note that you cannot use a mouse to move the cursor in Pine. You must use the arrow keys. (There is a version of Pine called PC Pine, which runs directly on your desktop computer. You can use the mouse with PC Pine, and it uses the POP or IMAP mail delivery protocols, like most desktop mail programs. As its name suggests, PC Pine is currently available only for Windows systems and not Macintoshes. If you're interested, contact a Computing Services consultant for information on obtaining PC Pine.)

Now that you know how to start Pine, you can explore on your own, or you can browse the rest of this document for a summary of Pine's main features.

Getting Help in Pine

To read the online help, use the Help command at the bottom of each screen. For example, at the Main Menu screen, press ? (Help). The help text is context- sensitive, meaning that you see only the help that relates to the Pine feature you are using. To exit the online help, press E (Exit Help).

Writing a Message in Pine

To write a message, press C (Compose). You see the Compose Message screen.

Figure 3. A Pine Compose Message Screen

In the command menu above, the ^ character is used to indicate the Control key. This character means you must hold down the Control key (written in this document as <Control>) while you press the letter for each command.

Different commands are available to you when your cursor is in different fields on this screen. To see additional commands available when your cursor is in the Message Text field, type G (Get Help). For example, to move around, use the arrow keys or N (Next line) and P (Previous line); to correct typing errors, use <Backspace> or <Delete>.

You might start experimenting in Pine by sending yourself a message. The following section shows you how.

To write and send a test message to yourself:

1. Press C (Compose). You see the Compose Message screen.

2. In the To field, type your email address and press .

3. In the Cc field, press .

4. In the Attachment field, press .

5. In the Subject field, type Test and press .

6. Below the Message Text line, type

   This is a test.

   If Jean Hughes, whose userid is jhughes at site art.somewhere.edu, were to compose such a test message, the completed screen would look like the following example:

   

   Figure 4. Sample Text in a Pine Compose Message Screen

7. To send your message, type X (Send). You are asked:
   Send message?

8. Press y (yes) or press .
   The message is sent and a copy is saved to your sent-mail folder. (If you press n (no) the message is not sent, and you can continue to work on it.)

You have just sent a basic message. There are, of course, other options you can use as you compose a message. A few are summarized in the next section, and complete information about options for the Compose Message screen is available in Pine's online help. As you compose a message, you can type G (Get Help) at any time to see details about your current task.

To: In this field, type the email addresses of your recipients. Separate the addresses with commas. When you are finished, press <Return>. Always check the addresses in both the To and the Cc fields for accuracy and completeness before you send a message.

Finding and Formatting Addresses. The best way to get a person's email address is to ask him or her for it. For more information on finding and formatting email addresses on local and remote computers, type <Control>G (Get Help) while your cursor is in the To field.

Using the Pine Address Book. In both the To and the Cc fields, you can enter a person's email address as shown above, or you can use an entry from your Pine address book.

Cc: In this field, type the email addresses of the persons to whom you want to send copies. Separate their addresses with commas. When you are finished, or if you do not want to send any copies, press <Return>.

Attchmnt: This is an advanced Pine feature that allows you to attach files, including word processing documents, spreadsheets, or images that exist on the same computer where you are running Pine. If you do not want to attach a file to your message, press . (See "Pine and Attachments" below.) For more information, place your cursor in the Attchmnt field, then type G (Get Help).

Subject: In this field, enter a one-line description of your message. Recipients appreciate a short, pertinent description, since this is what they see when they scan their index of messages. When finished, press .

Message Text: Type your message. To move around, use the arrow keys. To delete a character, press <Backspace> or <Delete>. To delete a line, type <Control>K. To justify text, type <Control>J. (To immediately undelete a line or to unjustify text, type <Control>U). To check the spelling, type <Control>T. To see other editing commands, type <Control>G (Get Help).

Sending a Message. After your message is composed, type <Control>X, and then press y or press <Return>. Your message is sent and a copy is saved to the sent-mail folder. If a message cannot be delivered, it eventually is returned to you. If you want to re-send a message, you can use the F (Forward) command.

Changing Your Mind. If you change your mind after typing <Control>X to send a message, press n instead of y to continue to work on your message. While you are writing your message, you can type <Control>O (Postpone) to hold your message so you can work on it later, or you can type <Control>C (Cancel) to delete your message entirely. You are asked to confirm whether or not you want to cancel a message.

Adding a Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc:) Address

When you are composing your message, put the cursor in one of the address fields (such as To: or Cc:) and press <Control>r . This starts "Rich Header mode", which will show some addressing headers you don't normally see. One of these is "Bcc", which stands for "blind carbon copy" and is a copy that the other recipients don't know about. Put the "secret" address in here, and compose the message as usual.

Listing, Viewing, Replying to, and Forwarding Messages

Pine stores messages that are sent to you in your INBOX folder. Messages remain in your INBOX until you delete them or save them in other folders. (You will learn more about the INBOX and other folders in "Pine Folders".)

Listing Messages

To see a list of the messages you have received in your INBOX folder:

At the Pine Main Menu, press I (Message Index). The selected message is highlighted, as shown in the following example:

If you have any messages, they are listed as shown in the following example for the user named "jhughes."

If you want to list the messages in a folder other than your INBOX, see "Moving Between Folders".

Figure 5. A Pine Message Index Screen

Viewing a Message

To view a message:

1. At the Message Index screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the message you want to view.

2. Press V (ViewMsg) or press <Return> to read a selected message.
   To see the next message, press N (NextMsg).
   To see the previous message, press P (PrevMsg)
   To return from your message to the Message Index, press I (Index).

Replying to a Message

To reply to a message that you have selected at the Message Index screen or that you are viewing:

Press R (Reply).

You are asked whether you want to include the original message in your reply. Also, if the original message was sent to more than one person, you are asked if you want to reply to all recipients. Think carefully before you answer - it may be that you want your reply to be sent only to the author of the message. Warning: It is always a good idea to check the list of addresses in the To and Cc fields before you send a message to see who will receive it.

Forwarding a Message

To forward a message that you have selected at the Message Index screen or that you are viewing:

1. Press F (Forward). A copy of the message opens and the To field is highlighted.

2. Enter the address of your recipient and send the message as usual. Note that you can modify the original message if you wish, for example, to forward only a portion of it or to add a message or notes of your own.

The selected message is highlighted. The first column on the left is blank, or shows a "+" if the message was sent directly to you (i.e., it is not a copy or from a list). The second column may be blank, or it may contain:

• "N" if the message is new (unread),
  
• "A" if you have answered the message (using the Reply command),
  
• "D" if you have marked the message for deletion. [Note: If you answer a message as well as mark it deleted (in either order), you only see the "D".]

The rest of the columns in the message line show you the message number, date sent, sender, size, and subject. For details, press ? (Help).

Most of the commands you need to handle your messages are visible at the bottom of the screen, and you can press O (OTHER CMDS) to see additional commands that are available. You do not need to see these "other commands" on the screen to use them. That is, you never need to press O as a prefix for any other command.

Pine and Attachments

What Are Attachments?

Electronic mail was designed to handle plain text. Anything else (sounds, pictures, executable programs) can get corrupted in the sending. So the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) standards were created to permit these kinds of files to be sent safely.

MIME-compliant mailers like Pine permit these non-text files to be "attached" to the text portion of the message, after being encoded into something that uses only plain-text symbols. Here's a line from an encoded file:

M@$ZCY`WL#^Z;'TPWF9MB099C3XDV*X02@NI0$N>RM6G\2/7"0SI3A(#+T>:P

When another MIME-compliant mail program receives such a message, it sees special headers that tell it to call a program to decode the attachment, turning it back into the sound, graphic, etc. Base64 is the encoding method used by many MIME-compliant mailers; some also understand the Unix uuencode/uudecode format.

To Detach an Attachment in Pine

Pine is a text-only mail reader. It can't display anything other than text. It can let you detach the attachment and save it to your UNIX account, where it assumes you have the appropriate program for viewing it, but that's the best it can do. When it detaches the file, it'll show the MIME-type of the file, so you'll know if it's a PostScript document or a sound file or a GIF picture, but you'll then have to find the appropriate program to display it. If you're using a telnet connection, since telnet is a text-only communications method, you'll have to download the detached file, as a binary, to your desktop machine, where you (hopefully) have something appropriate to display it.
To detach an attachment in Pine,

1. Read the message.
   
2. Press V to View the attachment.
   
3. Use the arrow keys to move to the attachment, if it hasn't been selected automatically.
   
4. Press S to Save it.
   
5. You'll be prompted with a filename. Do one of the following:
   
   
   • <Return> if you accept that name,
     
   • <Delete> a number of times (to erase the existing name), enter a new name, and press <Return>,
     
   • <Control>t to see what files already exist, to be sure you don't overwrite an existing file.
   
   
6. You'll get a message with the full path name where the file has been written. Note this path name.
   
7. Press E to Exit the Attachment Index.
   
8. You'll be back at the message.

When you quit Pine, you can transfer the detached file to your desktop machine. The FTP program is usually the best method. If your desktop computer doesn't have an FTP program, you can get one through your local computer consultant. You should consult the program's documentation for specifics on how to use it.

When FTP'ing the file, make sure you tell FTP that the file is a binary file. In a command-driven FTP client, such as on the Unix systems, you usually issue the command

binary

before issuing the command to transfer the file

put file.jpg

With a point-and-click FTP client, like WS_FTP or Fetch, there should be a button or similar option to turn binary transfer on and off.

Once the file's been transferred to your desktop computer, you can use a local program to display it.

It may be that the attachment will be in the BinHex format. A BinHex file is a Macintosh file that has been encoded. We have nothing on RCI or Eden that can decode BinHex. You should save the encoded file to your account, strip off any e-mail headers or signatures, transfer it a Macintosh (it's a text file while encoded) and run BinHex (a public-domain utility available from the Internet) on it to decode it.

To Add an Attachment in Pine

When you compose the message in Pine, just add the file name to the Attchmnt: header. For example,

Attchmnt: subdir/file.jpg

Pine will automatically encode it and send it off with the message.

If the file isn't on your RCI account, transfer it there (as a binary, if necessary; see above) before composing the message.

If you'll regularly be sending attachments that originate on your desktop machine, you should look into using a desktop-based mail program, such as Netscape Mail/Communicator.

More Efficient Use of Attachments

In general, when people send attachments, they should check with the intended recipient to see what formats their mailers (and desktop machines) can handle. If the recipient can't handle the encoding format the sender's mailer uses, or display the decoded file, the sender should send it as plain text (if possible).

If you have something to display the file on your desktop machine and are going to be working with attachments on a regular basis, you should switch to a desktop-based mail program, such as Netscape Mail, which can automatically detach and display the files.

Pine Folders

Messages can quickly accumulate in your INBOX folder. If you use email often, you soon could have hundreds. You need to delete messages you do not want, and you can use folders to organize messages you wish to save. A folder is a collection of one or more messages that are stored (just like the messages in your INBOX) so you can access and manage them.

Organizing Messages With Folders

You can organize your email messages into different folders by topic, correspondent, date, or any other category that is meaningful to you. You can create your own folders, and Pine automatically provides three:

• The INBOX folder - messages sent to you are listed in this folder. When you first start Pine and go to the Message Index screen, you are looking at the list of messages in your INBOX folder. Every incoming message remains in your INBOX until you delete it or save it in another folder.

• The saved-messages folder - copies of messages you save are stored in this folder unless you save them to other folders you create yourself. See "Saving a Message".

• The sent-mail folder - copies of messages you send are stored in this folder. This is convenient if you cannot remember whether you actually sent a message and want to check, or if you want to send a message again.

Keeping Folders Clean

Messages - whether they are in your INBOX or your other Pine folders - occupy storage space, and your storage space is limited.

• Check your email frequently to see if you have new messages.

• Do not keep too many messages in your INBOX folder. A large INBOX reduces performance: it takes longer to display large lists of messages when you start Pine, and it requires more time to move between messages.

• If you create a file called mail.txt on your account, Pine will use it as your INBOX, copying any new messages to it before showing them to you. If you plan to use another mail program along with Pine, one that understands the IMAP mail delivery system, this is highly recommended. To create such a file, give the Unix command

  touch mail.txt
  and then start Pine.

• Delete your incoming messages right away if you do not want them, or save them to other folders if you do. See "Saving a Message".

• Routinely delete obsolete messages from all of your Pine folders.

• You will get a message via Pine at the end of each month asking you about your sent-mail folders. First it asks you if you want to rename (and thus save) your current sent-mail folder. Then it asks if you want to delete any sent-mail folders (and all the messages they contain) from previous months and the current month. To conserve space, it is a good idea to delete any sent-mail folders you do not want.

Moving Between Folders

From almost anywhere in Pine, you can press L to see a collection list of your folders. Of course, the folder you are most often interested in is your INBOX folder, the folder that contains your new email messages. When you start Pine and press I (Index) at the Main Menu, you see a list of messages in your INBOX folder. If you want to see the messages in another folder, you need to go to that folder. The following text shows you two ways to go to another folder from nearly anywhere in Pine. To access your folders and the messages that are stored in them:

1. Press L (ListFldrs). You see the Collection List screen with collections of folders. Typically each collection is shown in a way similar to the example below.

   

   Figure 6. A Pine Collection List Screen

2. If it is not already highlighted, use the arrow keys to highlight the Mail line and press <Return>. You see an expanded list of folders, similar to the following, in which your current folder is highlighted.

   

   Figure 7. A Pine Folder List Screen

3. Use the arrow keys or P and N to highlight another folder.

4. To see an index of the messages in that folder, press > (you do not need to use your shift key - lower case works fine) or press <Return>.

[Note: This method of accessing folders uses the Folder List screen, which has a menu of commands that enable you to add, delete, rename folders, etc. If you simply want to move to and list the messages in another folder, try the method below.]

To move most quickly to the index of another folder:

1. From almost anywhere in Pine, press G (GotoFldr). You are prompted for the name of a folder.
   [Note: If you have more than one folder collection defined, observe the prompt to make sure it is set for the desired collection (shown in brackets in the prompt). If the prompt is not set for the desired collection, type <Control>N (Next Collection) or <Control>P (Prev Collection) to select the desired collection.]

2. Type the folder name and press <Return>, or simply press <Return> to choose the default folder shown in brackets in the prompt. If you are a beginner with Pine, you probably have not created additional folders yet. You will learn how in "Saving a Message to a Folder You Specify."

3. You see the list of messages in that folder.

Adding a Folder

1. Press L. You see the Collection List screen. Highlight the collection you want and press <Return>. You see a list of folders.

2. To add a folder, press A. You are prompted for the name of a folder.

3. Type the folder name and press <Return>. Your folder name appears. You might want to add a couple of test folders so you can practice deleting folders.

Deleting a Folder

To delete a folder and all of the messages it contains:

1. Press L (ListFldrs). You see the Collection List screen.

2. Highlight the collection you want and press <Return>. You see an expanded list of your folders in which your current folder is highlighted. (When you start Pine, the current folder is your INBOX. You cannot delete your INBOX.)

3. Use the arrow keys or P and N to highlight the folder you wish to delete.

4. To delete the entire folder of messages, press D (Delete). You are asked:
   Delete "folder"?

5. Press y (yes) if you want to delete the folder and all of its messages. The folder disappears.

[Warning: There is no way in Pine to undelete a deleted folder.]

When you save a message to another folder, you are given a choice: you can store it in the saved-messages folder, or you can specify another folder. Once you save a message, the copy in your INBOX folder automatically is marked for deletion so that you only will have one copy. When you quit Pine, you are asked to confirm whether or not you want to expunge the copy from the INBOX folder. To conserve space, it is a good idea to do this.

Saving a Message to the Saved-Messages Folder

To save a message to your saved-messages folder:

1. At the Message Index screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the message you want to save, or, at the Message Text screen as you view a message, press S (Save). You are asked if you want to save the message to the saved-messages folder or to another folder:
   SAVE to folder in <Mail...> [saved-messages]:

2. Press <Return> to choose the default folder: [saved-messages]. Pine saves your message, and you see the following:
   [Message # copied to "saved-messages" in <Mail...> and deleted]

Saving a Message to a Folder You Specify

You will find it useful to create additional folders for storing messages on particular subjects. To save a message to a folder you specify:

1. At the Message Index screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the message you want to save, or, at the Message Text screen as you view a message, press S (Save) to save a message. You are asked if you want to save it to the saved-messages folder or to another folder:
   SAVE to folder in <Mail...> [saved-messages]:

2. Type a foldername and press <Return>. For example, to save a message to a folder named "papers" type papers and press <Return>. If this is the first time you have named this folder, you see the message:
   Folder "papers" in <Mail...> doesn't exist. Create?

3. Press y or press <Return> to create the folder. Once you have created the folder, or whenever you type the name of a folder that already exists, you see a message like this one:
   [Message # copied to "papers" in <Mail...> and deleted]

People switching to Pine from another Unix-based mail program, such as MM or Zmlite, may have mail files or folders (which are two terms for the same thing) created by those programs that they want to access in Pine. Pine can understand most mail-file formats, so the easiest way to access these files on a regular basis is to move them to the mail subdirectory on your account.

The first thing you should do is to check your mail subdirectory to see if it has any folders with the same name as the other folders. If so, use the Unix mv command to rename one or the other. For example,

Then, use mv to move the folders into the mail subdirectory. For example, if you have a Mail subdirectory for Zmlite folders,

Now, when you start Pine and ask for the folder list, it should find the Zmlite folders, and you can move messages between them and the Pine folders, or simply use the old Zmlite folders with Pine.

You may find an e-mail message with the subject "Index" in the Zmlite folders. These are special messages Zmlite puts into the folders for its own, efficient housekeeping. It normally hides their existence from the Zmlite user, but if you open the folder using another mailer (such as Pine), they're shown to you. They're not important and may be deleted; in fact, Pine will create its own versions of these for its use, but it doesn't understand the Zmlite versions.

Deleting a Message

You keep your Pine folders clean by routinely deleting messages you do not want. There are two steps to deleting a message: marking it for deletion and then expunging it. To mark a message you do not want for deletion:

1. Select and open the folder that contains the message you wish to mark for deletion. If you are a Pine beginner, this message is probably in your INBOX folder. If the message you want to mark for deletion is in a folder other than your INBOX, see "Moving Between Folders".

2. At the Message Index screen, select the message you want to mark for deletion, or simply view the message.

3. Press D (Delete).

If you are looking at the Message Index screen when you mark a message for deletion, a "D" appears in the left column of the message line, and the next message, if there is one, is selected. If you are looking at the Message Text screen when you mark a message for deletion, a "DEL" briefly appears in the upper right corner of your screen, you get an on-screen message that the message has been deleted, and the next message, if there is one, appears. Repeat this process to mark additional messages for deletion.

If you change your mind about a message you have marked for deletion, use the U (Undelete) command to remove the deletion mark any time before you expunge a message. Remember: After you expunge a message, Pine cannot get it back.

A message that is marked for deletion remains in Pine until you expunge it. You can expunge a message that is marked for deletion at any time, or you can wait until you quit Pine. Once you have a few messages marked for deletion, you may want to expunge them before you continue to work, because it is easier to look through an index that contains fewer messages.

To expunge a message:

[Warning: Once you expunge a message, it is gone. Pine cannot get it back.]

1. At the Message Index screen, press X (eXpunge). You are asked:
   Expunge # message(s) from "foldername"?

2. Press y (yes) or press <Return>. Messages marked for deletion disappear.

[Note: You will be asked whether you want to expunge messages that are marked for deletion whenever you leave a folder (other than the INBOX) that contains messages marked for deletion, or when you quit your Pine session]

Using the Address Book

As you use email, you can build a list of your regular email correspondents in your Pine address book. At the Pine Main Menu, press A. You see the Address Book List screen. Your personal address book, .addressbook, will be highlighted. Press <Return>. You can use the address book to store email addresses for individuals or groups, to create easily remembered "nicknames" for these addresses, and to quickly retrieve an email address when you are composing a message. Here is a sample page from an address book:

Figure 7. A Pine Address Book Screen

There are two ways to add addresses to your address book: you can add them manually or take them from messages. With either method, you specify nicknames for your correspondents. A single address book entry (or nickname) can point to just one email address, or, it can point to more than one. When it points to more than one, it is called a distribution list. Each distribution list has a nickname, a full name, and a list of addresses. These addresses may be actual addresses, other nicknames in your address book, or other distribution lists.

To add single addresses or distribution lists manually:

1. Have ready the address or addresses you want to add.

2. At the Pine Main Menu, press A (AddrBook). You see the Address Book List screen, with .addressbook highlighted.

3. Press <Return>.
   [Note: If you need general information about using the Pine address book, this is the best place to get it. Press ? (Help).]

4. Press @ (AddNew) and follow the instructions. (Type <Control>G if you need help adding a new address.)

To take a single address from a message you are viewing or have selected in the index:

1. At the Message Text or the Message Index screen, press T (TakeAddr).
   [Note: The T command is not visible on your screen unless you press O (OTHER CMDS), but you need not see this command to use it.]

2. You see the Take Address screen. If there is more than one address to take, you see this message:
   [Single mode: Use "P" or "N" to select desired address]
   Use P (Prev), N (Next), or the up and down arrow keys to select the address you want, and press T (Take). At this point, or, if there is only one address to take, you see this message:
   Enter new or existing nickname (one word and easy to remember):

3. Enter a nickname for your correspondent and press <Return>.

4. Follow the instructions. (Type <Control>G if you need help.)

To take multiple addresses from a message you are viewing or have selected in the index:

1. Press T (TakeAddr).
   [Note: The T command is not visible on your screen unless you press O (OTHER CMDS), but you need not see this command to use it.]
   You see the Take Address screen and the following message:
   [Single mode: Use "P" or "N" to select desired address]

2. Press L (ListMode).

3. For each address you want to take, use P (Prev), N (Next), or the up and down arrow keys to select it, and then press X (Set/Unset) in the box to its left.

4. Press T (Take). You see the following message:
   Enter new or existing nickname (one word and easy to remember):

5. Enter a nickname for your list of correspondents and press <Return>.

6. Follow the instructions. (Type <Control>G if you need help.)

To change a single address or a distribution list:

1. At the Pine Main Menu, press A (Address Book) and then press <Return>. You see your personal Address Book screen.

2. Use the arrow keys to select the single address or distribution list you want to change.

3. Press > (View/Update).

4. Press U (Update), then use arrow keys to get to the field where you want to make a change. Follow the instructions. (Type <Control>G if you need help.)

When composing a message, at the To or the Cc (Carbon Copy) fields you can enter an email address in any of the following ways:

• Type the entire email address.

• Type a nickname you have set up in the address book.
  For example, if your address book looked like the one in Figure 7, you could type the following nickname in the To field:
  mu
  After you pressed <Return>, Pine would provide the full address for Mu from the address book as follows:
  To: Mu Li <muli@university.edu>

• Select a name (or names) from the address book as you compose a message.

To send a message to one person:

1. Place your cursor in the To or Cc field and then type <Control>T (To AddrBk).

2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the name you want.

3. Press S (Select) or press <Return>.

To send a message to several people:

1. Place your cursor in the To or Cc field and then type <Control> T (To AddrBk).

2. Type L (List Mode).

3. Using the arrow keys, place an x before each name you want.

4. Press S (Select) or press <Return>.

Printing Messages

Pine provides three options for printing (the one you use depends on the computer and printer you are using), which are explained later in this section. First, see if you can print a message using the following method. If your message prints, you may not need to read about Pine's other printing options.

Printing an Email Message

To print a message:

1. From either the Message Index screen or the Message Text screen, press % (Print). You are asked to confirm your choice.

2. Follow the instructions. Type <Control>G if you still need help.

If your message does not print, you need to learn about Pine's three options for printing. The following text and Pine's online help may be all you need to print your messages. If you have any questions or need help setting the Pine printing option, contact your local computer consultant.

Pine's Printing Options

Pine has three printing options, which are available under S (Setup), P (Printer) on Pine's Main Menu screen. Here is a brief description of each.

1. Printing Using a Printer Attached to PC or Macintosh
   By default, Pine assumes you have a desktop computer attached to a printer. If you do, you should be able to print messages using this method. See your local computer consultant if you need help.
   [Note: This method is known not to work with the Telnet program that comes with Windows. If you wish to print, you should get another Telnet program, such as EWAN or Teraterm. See your computer consultant to learn how to get these.]

2. Printing Using a Standard Unix Print Command
   If you are using a Unix workstation, select this option as your printing method for Pine. Using this option requires setting your "PRINTER" environment variable before starting Pine. At the system prompt, type
   setenv PRINTER printername
   replacing printername with the name of a printer known to the system. You can get a list of such printers with the Unix command
   printers | more

3. Printing Using a Personally Selected Print Command
   This is an advanced feature, suitable for people who have to give a print command special options when printing. If you think you need this, write to help@rci or help@eden.

Changing Pine

Pine has many advanced features which are not automatically made available, to avoid confusing the first-time user. This section will cover some of those features that we recommend be turned on. Feel free to use the help commands in Pine to learn what other features may do.

Pine can, at the end of each session, move the messages you've read that session (and not saved anywhere else) into another folder for long-term storage.

To set up Pine to store read messages automatically:

1. At the Main menu, press S for Setup.

2. Press C for Config.

3. Use the arrow keys to move down to the line that begins
   read-message-folder

4. Press C for Change Value.

5. At the prompt, type the name of the file where you want the messages to be saved. This should be a file in your mail subdirectory. It need not exist; Pine will create it if it does not. For example,
   mbox

6. Press <Return> after the file name.

7. Press E to Exit Config.

8. Press Y for Yes to have the change saved.

Pine can resend a message you received to someone else, as if it came to them directly from the original sender. It calls this "bouncing" the message, to distinguish it from "forwarding", where the message comes from you. To do this in Pine, you have to activate the "bounce" command.

1. Start at the Main Menu.

2. Press S for Setup.

3. Press C for Config.

4. Use the arrow keys to move down to the area called "feature-list".

5. In "feature-list", arrow down to
   [ ] enable-bounce-cmd

6. Press X to active it. It will now look like
   [X] enable-bounce-cmd

7. Press E to Exit setup.

8. Press Y at the "Commit changes" prompt.

You've now activated the "bounce" command. Now go to the message you want to send on to someone else. Read or select that message. Press B to "bounce" the message. Give the e-mail address you want to send it to and press <Return>.

Since the message will arrive at this new address appearing as if it came from the original sender, in some cases it might be wise to first send that new address a short message saying that you're sending this message on and what the subject of this message would be.

Pine normally shows you only the most important headers of a message, such as From:, Date:, and Subject:. Sometimes, you need to see the complete set of headers associated with a message. To do this in Pine, you have to activate the "full-headers" command.

1. Start at the Main Menu.

2. Press S for Setup.

3. Press C for Config.

4. Use the arrow keys to move down to the area called "feature-list".

5. In "feature-list", arrow down to
   [ ] enable-full-headers-cmd

6. Press X to active it. It will now look like
   [X] enable-full-headers-cmd

7. Press E to Exit setup.

8. Press Y at the "Commit changes" prompt.

You've now activated the "full-headers" command. Now go to the message you want to send on to someone else. Read that message. Press H to turn on "full-header mode". Press H again to turn "full-header mode" off.

If you want to forward a message to a consultant who asks to see the full headers of a message (for example, to determine if the message really came from the address shown), you must use H to turn "full-header mode" on before forwarding (or bouncing) the message. Otherwise, only the most important headers will be sent.

As discussed in the "About Your Message Index Screen" section, Pine marks messages with "flags: such as N for New or A for Answered. Normally, it automatically changes these flags as you read or reply to a message.

You can turn on a command to let you mark as "New" a message you've actually read this session.

1. Start at the Main Menu.

2. Press S for Setup.

3. Press C for Config.

4. Use the arrow keys to move down to the area called "feature-list".

5. In "feature-list", arrow down to
   [ ] enable-flag-cmd

6. Press X to active it. It will now look like
   [X] enable-flag-cmd

7. Press E to Exit setup.

8. Press Y at the "Commit changes" prompt.

Now you've turned on the Flag command for Pine. Read your messages as usual. When you have a message you want to mark as "New", press the asterisk, *. You have a menu of choices of how to flag the message; select N for New. Then go on to the next message. (If you reread that message in Pine, you'll have to set the New flag again.)

There are other flags that Pine can use, as well. Use the help feature to find out about these.

Sometimes, you may want to perform the same operation on more than one message. For example, you may want to save all messages from one address into a separate folder, or delete all messages with a particular subject. You can tell Pine to turn on this multiple-message feature.

1. Start at the Main Menu.

2. Press S for Setup.

3. Press C for Config.

4. Use the arrow keys to move down to the area called "feature-list".

5. In "feature-list", arrow down to
   [ ] enable-aggregate-command-set

6. Press X to active it. It will now look like
   [X] enable-aggregate-command-set

7. Press E to Exit setup.

8. Press Y at the "Commit changes" prompt.

Now Pine can select multiple messages. As an example, here's how to save them into a file.

1. Type I for the Folder Index.

2. Type ; to start the multiple selection feature.

3. Choose the selection criteria from the displayed menu (for example, A for All).

4. All selected messages will be marked with an X in the first column.

5. Type A to Apply a command to the selected messages.

6. Choose the command from the displayed menu (in this case, S for Save).

7. Give it the name of the file into which the messages should be saved, as you would when saving a single message.

You've now saved the messages. They will automatically be marked for deletion by the Save command, so if you want to keep them in that folder, you'll have to Undelete them. (You can do this with the ; command, as well.)

Reading Netnews

Netnews is a group of programs that manages the processing, storage, and forwarding of a UNIX-based bulletin board network called Usenet. Usenet offers discussion groups, called newsgroups, on a wide range of topics of both professional (e.g., desktop publishing, astronomy) and personal (e.g., sewing, movies) interest. Usenet articles can potentially be read at thousands of sites throughout the globe, facilitating a timely and truly international exchange of news, ideas, advice, and information.

User access to the huge collection of articles is provided by programs called "news readers". Pine can also be used as a news reader.

The Netnews groups resemble special-interest mailing lists. The major advantage of the Netnews approach is that only a single copy of any given article is kept on the system. The news reader maintains a database of which articles have been seen, or not, by each user. Most newsgroups are public, available to anyone on the system on demand. On reading a newsgroup for the first time, you are usually presented with messages, called "articles", from the past few days.

Most Unix-based news readers use a file on your account called .newsrc to keep track of which newsgroups you're interested in and which articles in those groups you've read.

If you've used another news reader on RCI or Eden, you may already have a .newsrc file. In that case, you can start reading news right away.

If you've never used a news reader, or have deleted your old .newsrc file, you'll need to subscribe to a newsgroup or two before you can start reading.

Netnews currently carries over 25,000 different newsgroups, and each newsgroup has up to several hundred articles. Selecting a newsgroup can be a daunting task. But Pine provides some tools to make this easier.

To subscribe to a newsgroup:

1. Start at the Main Menu.

2. Press L for Folder List.

3. Use the arrow keys to move to
   News
   News groups on news-nb.rutgers.edu/nntp

4. Press <Return> to open the News collection.

5. Press A to Add a newsgroup to your subscription list. You'll see the prompt
   Enter newsgroup name (or partial name to get a list):
   We recommend you subscribe to one or both of the following groups, to keep informed about system changes.

   ru.ici.nb.announce (for Eden users)
   ru.rci.announce (for RCI users)

6. If you don't know the name of a newsgroup, type a topic you're interested in. For example
   politics

7. You'll see a list of newsgroups with that topic in their names. If you don't see any groups, or many groups, try another word for that topic, or a shorter version of it. For example, sci instead of science.

   PINE 4.10 SUBSCRIBE: SELECT FOLDER Folder: INBOX 1 Message

   News groups on news-nb.rutgers.edu/nntp

   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   ab.politics

   alabama.politics

   alt.arabic.politics

   alt.culture.arabic.non-politics

   alt.culture.turkish.politics

   alt.fan.furry.politics

   alt.hemp.politics

   alt.men.politics

   alt.politics.british

   alt.politics.bush

   alt.politics.carlos-may

   alt.politics.clinton

   alt.politics.communism

   alt.politics.correct

   alt.politics.datahighway

   alt.politics.democrats.d

   ? Help E ExitSubscb P PrevFldr - PrevPage L List Mode

   S [Subscribe] N NextFldr Spc NextPage W WhereIs

8. Use the arrow keys to select the name of the group you're interested in.

9. If you want to subscribe to more than one group shown, press L to start List Mode.

   PINE 4.10 SUBSCRIBE: SELECT FOLDER Folder: INBOX 1 Message

   News groups on news-nb.rutgers.edu/nntp

   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   [ ] ab.politics

   [ ] alabama.politics

   [ ] alt.arabic.politics

   [ ] alt.culture.arabic.non-politics

   [ ] alt.culture.turkish.politics

   [ ] alt.fan.furry.politics

   [ ] alt.hemp.politics

   [ ] alt.men.politics

   [ ] alt.politics.british

   [ ] alt.politics.bush

   [ ] alt.politics.carlos-may

   [ ] alt.politics.clinton

   [ ] alt.politics.communism

   [ ] alt.politics.correct

   [ ] alt.politics.datahighway

   [ ] alt.politics.democrats.d

   [Use "X" to mark selections in list mode]

   ? Help E ExitSubscb P PrevFldr - PrevPage

   S Subscribe X [Set/Unset] N NextFldr Spc NextPage W WhereIs

   
   In List Mode, arrow to a group, press X to select it, and then move to another group.

10. Press S to subscribe to the selected group(s).

11. You'll return to the News folder list.

Copyright © 2008 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NBCS Help Desk. All rights reserved.

webmaster@nbcs.rutgers.edu
06/22/05