Information Technology Services University of Arkansas
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Pine

Pine is a text-based email program that is available on comp.uark.edu, cavern.uark.edu and other UA Unix servers. The University of Arkansas' mail server is mail.uark.edu so when you use Pine on comp.uark.edu to retrieve and send mail, Pine is functioning as an IMAP client. Your mail is pulled into Pine (and comp.uark.edu or cavern.uark.edu) from mail.uark.edu. This requires you to log in a second time. If you access UARK email using Pine on comp.uark.edu, saved messages will be saved to your comp.uark.edu account.

Logging into Pine

  1. Use SSH to log into your comp.uark.edu account. You can download SSH Secure Shell for Windows or set up Macintosh OS X SSH.

  2. To run Pine, at the comp% (or cavern%) prompt, type pine. Remember that Unix is case-sensitive; use lowercase.

    When Pine is run, you will be prompted near the bottom of the screen for your UARK username which should be in the field. It will look like this:
    HOST: mail.uark.edu ENTER LOGIN NAME: username
    Press Enter to accept your username. You will then be prompted for your UARK password which you must enter again. It will look like this:
    HOST: mail.uark.edu USER: userID ENTER PASSWORD:
    Your password will not show as you type it just as when you are logging into comp.

  • The first screen is the Main Menu. Here you will see available functions in Pine.

  • Commands are listed at the bottom of the screens. The ^ character indicates to use the Ctrl key with the letter keystroke.

Reading and Deleting Mail

At the Main Menu, press i for your inbox index.  Use the arrow keys to move up and down through the messages.  Press Enter to read a message. Press i again to return to the index.  Press p (previous) or n (next) to move through the messages without returning to the index.  To delete a message, press d while message is highlighted in the index or while viewing the message.  These will be deleted when you quit Pine.

Saving Mail

To save a message, press s while message is highlighted in the index or while viewing the message.  Type a folder name to save to; if the folder does not exist, it will be created.  These folders will exist only on your comp.uark.edu account.  To read saved mail, from the Main Menu, press L (folder List) and use the arrow keys to highlight the folder you wish to open.  Press enter to view the index of that folder.

Sending Mail

To send a message, press c (compose).  Type an email address or a nickname from your address book.  Tab or Enter between fields.  The Cc: and attachment: fields are optional.  Type your message in the Message Text: area. Press Ctrl-x to send the message.  Press Ctrl-c to cancel a message. Mail sent from Pine is saved into your sent-mail folder.  To view your sent-mail folder contents, see above section on Saving Mail.  To forward mail, go to the folder where the message is (your inbox, sent-mail, or other folder that you have created), highlight or view the message, press f (forward), address the message, add any comments, and send using Ctrl-x.
To prevent the addresses from showing up when sending mail to multiple people, when composing a message, press Ctrl-r (Rich Headers) while in the headers area of the message. Type an address in the To: field. There must be an address in the To: field to send the message (this can be your own address). Type the addresses or list names from the address book (or type in the full email addresses) in the Bcc: (blind carbon copy) header field. You will see the names as you compose the message, but they are not displayed to recipients.

Address Book

If you receive mail from someone and would like to store their address in your address book, press t to take the address while viewing the message.  You will be asked to supply a nickname.  You can also add addresses by typing a (address book) at the Main Menu.  Press Enter to expand the address book.  Press @ to add a new address.  Type a nickname, the full name, and the email address (other fields are optional).  Press Ctrl-x to save and Enter to confirm. When composing a message, you can type a nickname from your address book into the To: field and press Enter to have the full name and address appear.

You can also set up distribution lists in your Pine address book.  To do so, after typing @ to add a new address, type a nickname and a full name for the list.  Type all the addresses for the list in the Addresses: field, separating them by commas.  Do not type a comma at the end of the list.

To edit addresses, type a from the Main Menu and Enter to expand the address book.  Using the arrow keys, highlight the person or list to edit and press Enter.  Type u (update).  You can now use your arrow keys and backspace keys to edit the name, nickname, and/or address(es).

Importing the Pine Address Book into UA Mail

To import your Pine address book into UA Mail, you must first export the address book from Pine onto your computer's hard drive (or onto a flash drive, etc.), or you can use a mapped drive (including a GACL My Documents directory), but you must first set your computer to view hidden files. You can use My Docs in UA Mail or SFTP to export the address book file. You must also change settings in SFTP and My Docs to be able to view the file for export (or rename the file from within your account.) Following are instructions for exporting the file using UA Mail's My Docs and importing the file into UA Mail.

  1. In UA Mail, click My Docs in the left column; this will display the contents of your comp.uark.edu account.

  2. Click the Options button, and then click File Display.

  3. Check the Show dotfiles check box, click Save Options, and click Home.

  4. Locate in the file listing, the Pine address book file called:
    .addressbook
    Note that the filename begins with a period (dot).
    Clicking the filename will display the file contents (the addresses in the address book).

  5. Click the download link to the left of the modified date for the file (to the right of the filename), and save the file to a local drive.

  6. Click the Address Book link in the left column.

  7. Click the Import/Export button at the top.

  8. Under "Select the format of the source file: ", select Pine Address Book. You can select "Replace the existing address book with the imported one?" if needed.

  9. Under "Select the file to import:", click the Browse button. Find the location where you saved your .addressbook file, select the file, and click Open.

  10. Click the Next button to import the address book into UA Mail.

Printing

To print an email message from Pine, either view the message or highlight it in the index and press the percent (%) key. Press y to confirm that you want to print. Pine is set up to send print to lpt1: on networked PC Compatibles or to the selected printer in the chooser for networked MacIntosh Computers.
Note for Mac users: Pine requires MacTCP version 2.0.4 or later to print to a local printer. If you have an earlier version, contact the Universiy IT Services Help Desk at 575-2905.

If you are unable to print from Pine, first make sure that you are using SSH Secure Shell to connect to the server to run Pine. Then, make sure that the printer to which you are trying to print is set as the Windows default printer.

If you are using SSH Secure Shell and your printer is set as the Windows default, the problem is probably with the SSH settings. The first time you print from SSH after it is installed, you should receive the message, "The remote host is sending data to the local printer. Do you want to print it?" and a checkbox to remember the answer of either OK or Cancel. If the checkbox was not checked to remember the response, you will need to adjust some settings.

  1. Click Edit from the SSH menu bar and select Settings.

  2. In the left pane, under the Global Settings group, there is a category called Appearance. Select the subcategory of Appearance called Messages.

  3. On the right side of the dialog box, scroll to the bottom to the group called Common. Under this group is the item, "Print data from server?". Change the answer from Ask or No (whichever it is) to Yes.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Click File from the menu bar and then select Save Settings.

Creating a Signature File

A signature file adds information to outgoing messages automatically. Signature files often include information such as return email address, fax numbers, job titles, etc. You can use any text editor to create a file named .signature to contain the text you want appended to each message. For simplicity, the following steps use Pico (the text editor included with Pine) to create the file.  At the comp% prompt, type:
pico .signature
and press Enter.
Type text just as you want it to appear in outgoing messages.
Press CONTROL-O (Writeout) and Enter (to accept the filename) to save the file.
Press CONTROL-X to exit Pico.
Unless you have previously altered your Pine configuration, Pine will read the contents of the .signature file automatically into each outgoing message.

Attaching a File

  1. Copy the file to your comp.uark.edu account.

  2. Compose Message in Pine.

  3. Move to the Attachment line using the arrow keys and press Ctrl+J to start the attachment.

  4. Choose To Files by pressing Ctrl+T.

  5. Use the arrow keys and Enter to choose the file.

  6. You can enter a comment, or press Enter for no comment.

  7. Press Enter to advance the cursor from the Attachment line.

  8. Pressing Ctrl+X will send the message and attachment to the email address in the To: field.

Email Filtering

Release 4.33 of Pine supports message filtering. Filtering is a way to automatically move certain messages from one folder to another or to delete messages. Filtering can be done based on the contents of any field(s), such as From:, Subject:, or even the message body. When a folder is opened or when new mail arrives in an open folder, each message is compared with the patterns of your filtering rules.

Information Technology Services' server level filters evaluate all UARK email for suspected spam or viruses, and messages are tagged with {SPAM?} in the Subject line if the email is suspected to be spam. A message containing a suspect virus is tagged with {VIRUS?} in the Subject line. You can use {SPAM?} or {VIRUS?} to create a filter and transfer that mail to a spam and/or virus folder. It is possible to create a filter to delete the spam and virus messages, but it is recommended that you move them to a folder so that you do not inadvertently delete mail you want to keep.

  1. From the Main Menu (press M if not there), press S (Setup).

  2. Press R (Rules).

  3. Press F (Filters).
    Here you will see a listing of the filters you have created.

  4. Press A (Add) to add a new filter.

  5. Press Enter while in the Nickname field and name the filter anything you want. This is the name that will be listed at the initial filter screen.

  6. Using the arrow keys, choose which field of the email should be looked at to determine the message's filtering status such as a name in the To: field or particular text that would be in the Subject: field of messages you want to filter to a folder. To create a filter to catch server marked emails, select Subject.

  7. Press Enter and type in the specific text for that filter. For server marked emails, use:
    {SPAM?}
    or
    {VIRUS?}
    You will probably want to create a filter for each of these.

  8. Choose options such as whether or not to filter a message if it is marked as New, Deleted, Answered, etc.

  9. Set the filter action in the Filter Action section. Choose to Delete or Move the filtered messages.

  10. If Move is chosen, arrow to to Folder = and press Enter. Type in a folder name; the folder does not have to already exist.

  11. Press E (Exit) to exit filtering and save changes.

Note: Messages that are deleted using a filter will be removed from the folder and are unrecoverable from within Pine after the next Expunge command or once the folder has been closed.

To remove a filter in Pine

  1. From the Main Menu, press S for Setup, R for Rules, and F for Filters.Use the up and down arrow keys (or P for Previous and N for Next) to highlight the filter you want to remove.Press D to Delete the filter.

  2. Press E to Exit the filter screen.

Press ? (Help) in Pine for more information on setting up filters.

Saving Messages to IMAP

If you created file folders in Pine previously, those folders will NOT be readable in XpressMail. You can, however, save mail from Pine into the IMAP mail.uark.edu folders which are the same folders that you can access through XpressMail.

To access your IMAP folders:

  1. Press l for Folder List

  2. Select Mail on mail.uark.edu.

Note: If you cannot see your IMAP mail.uark.edu folders, you might need to delete your .pinerc file so that Pine will create a new one with that capability. If you do this, you will lose any Pine configuration settings that you have set previously.

To save a message to your IMAP mail.uark.edu folders from Pine:

  1. Press s to save

  2. Press Ctrl/n to go to Next Collection (mail.uark.edu folders)

  3. Type the name of the folder or press Ctrl/t to choose from your listing of folders.

From within the XpressMail Inbox, select the folder from the Select Folder dropdown box.

Creating a Read-Mail Folder

You can automatically filter messages that have been read but not deleted or saved to a specified folder into another folder using Pine's Procmail feature. You can create a folder, for example, called read-mail. Here's how to configure Pine for the read-mail folder:

  1. Go to the Main Menu.

  2. Select Setup.

  3. Select Configuration.

  4. Select read-message-folder.

  5. Press A to add value.

  6. Type in the name that you would like your read-messages-folder to be called. Example: read-mail

After restarting Pine, all read messages in your INBOX will be saved to the "read-mail" folder upon exiting and removed from the INBOX (if they are not deleted or stored in another folder by you).

Encrypting Pine Email

Release 4.33 of Pine includes support for a secure SSL connection to the mail server. To enable encrypted mail traffic:

  1. From the Main Menu (press M if not there), press S (Setup).

  2. Press C (Config).

  3. Arrow down to the inbox-path field (fifth in setup list).

  4. Press C (Change Value).

  5. Backspace over the current value (showing at bottom of screen) and replace with:
    {mail.uark.edu/user=UARK username/ssl/novalidate-cert}
    entering your actual UARK username; press Enter.

  6. Press E (Exit Setup) and Y (Yes, Commit Changes).
    Line 5 in your Pine configuration should now look like this with the exception of your own UARK username in the line:
    Inbox-path = {mail.uark.edu/user=username/ssl/novalidate-cert}

Exporting a Message to ASCII

  1. View the message.

  2. Press E to export the message.

  3. Type a name for the file and then press Enter.

  4. Press Q to quit Pine and return to the comp% prompt.

  5. If desired, type
    pico filename
    (where "filename" is the name of the file you want) and press Enter to view the file.

  6. You can then download the text file to your personal computer via SFTP or a mapped drive.

Reading a Text File into a Message

  1. Use your word processor to save the file to a text-only format.

  2. Upload the text file to your comp account.

  3. Compose a message in Pine..

  4. With the cursor in the message area, press CTRL-R to read a text file into the message.

  5. Type in the file name and press Enter.
    Note: If you don't remember the filename, you can press CTRL-T (after pressing CTRL-R) and see a list of files on your comp account. Then, using the arrow keys place the pointer on the desired file and press Enter.

  6. The contents of the text file will appear in the message area of the outgoing email message.

Saving a UUENCODEd File

  1. Log in to comp and view the message in Pine. The message text should appear similiar to the one shown below: begin 600 piano.wav
    M!@$@!!@!$#@!$#!#@!@!#$#!$)*(^%^&#&$%@^@^@^@
    M*&^%*&^%$#%$&$$#@^%!@!@#$$%##**%*%*&%^&^
    M!@$#@!$(*&%^(_)**&%%$%$@#!#@!%^$#!%*^&*&%%
    ...
    ...
    end

  2. Press E for Extract.

  3. Supply a filename for the message to be written to. Press Enter.

  4. Press Q to quit Pine and return to the comp% prompt.

  5. Use Pico to open the file and delete anything above the begin line and below the end line.

    1. At the comp%, type:
      pico filename
      where "filename" is the actual filename.

    2. Use Ctrl-K to delete full lines.

    3. Press Ctrl-X to save and exit the file.

  6. Type
    uudecode filename
    and press Enter. Uudecode will write the file named in the begin file line of the uuencoded text. In the example above, the file piano.wav will be written to the Unix account.

  7. The file is now ready for downloading from your account.

Binary Files as MIME Attachments

Viewing a binary file as a MIME attachment using Pine

  1. Log into Pine and view the message with the attachment.

  2. Press V to view the attachment.

  3. Using the pointer, select the desired attachment portion of the message.

  4. Press S to save the attachment to a file.

  5. Press Enterto save the attachment with the suggested filename or backspace over the suggested filename and type a new filename. Press Enter to save the file.

  6. Press E to exit the attachment viewer.

  7. Press Q to quit Pine.

  8. Download the file.

Sending a binary file as a MIME attachment

  1. Upload the file you want to send to your comp.uark.edu account.

  2. Compose a message in Pine.

  3. Press CTRL-J to attach a file.

  4. Type the filename and press Enter.
    or press CTRL-T to select the file from a file listing. Use the arrow keys to move the pointer to the file and press Enter to select it.

  5. Type comment text for the attachment label and press Enter, or press Enter if no comment is needed.

  6. Press CTRL-X to send the message and the attached file.

Exiting Pine

To quit Pine, type:
q
To exit out of your comp.uark.edu account, at the comp%, type:
exit

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