Using Pine

• What is Pine?
• The Pine Main Menu
• The INBOX
• Pine Folders
• Creating a Folder in Pine
• Moving and Deleting E-mail Items
• Viewing the E-mail Items in a Folder
• Reading an E-mail Item
• Replying to an E-mail
• Sending E-mail using Pine
• Composing E-mail
• Quitting Pine

Note to Pine Users:

• Once your email account has been moved to the new Queen’s email system you will still be able to access your email the way you always have. You will continue to use TeraTerm Pro (or a similar program) to connect to the post server and log on using your NetID and password. Once logged on to Post you will be able to work with your files as you always have. When you want to work with your email you will use Pine as you always have. The only difference will be when Pine access the new Queen’s email system, where your email is now stored, you will be asked to enter your NetID and password to authenticate. The Post server does not support SSL so you will also get a security warning, which you can ignore.

What is Pine?

Pine is a text based e-mail client available for use on Unix based servers. These servers are where your e-mail account exists. At the bottom of each "screen" there is a menu from which you can pick commands. Being text based your mouse will not work. Instead you will need to use your cursor keys to move around the screen, or enter a Letter sequence to issue a command.

When you use Pine to access your e-mail on the server everything you do will be done while you are logged on to the server.

You can access your email:

• by logging on to the unix server and using Pine
• using an e-mail client like Eudora or Outlook
• using a web-based email client

E-mail clients like Eudora and Outlook use a graphical interface to make it easy to receive, read, send, and manage your e-mail. These clients download your e-mail off the server to your personal computer where you can save it in folders, delete it, reply to it, etc. The only limitations that apply are the size of your hard drive, and that your e-mail, once downloaded, is only available on the computer it was downloaded to.

For more information on using Eudora visit the Qualcomm web page at: http://www.eudora.com/

For more information on using Microsoft Outlook visit the Outlook Home Page at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857931033.aspx

Web-based e-mail clients also uses a graphical interface to make it easy to receive, read, send, and manage your e-mail and have the added feature of being available wherever you have an internet connection and a browser. Also everything you do through the web-based e-mail is reflected on the server. When you create folders and save your e-mail to a folder, or delete e-mail through Web-based e-mail it happens on the server as well.

For more information on Web-based e-mail at the go to: http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/UserManual

To start Pine on QLINK or Post from the menu prompt (=====>) type the command email and press the enter key.

 

Screen Shot of Qlink Main Menu

 The Pine Main Menu

In the Pine Main Menu you have the choice of either using the cursor keys to move the highlighted bar and pressing the Enter key to select an option, or you can enter the corresponding letter for the command you wish to use. When working in Pine's other menu screens, with their available features, you press the letter that corresponds to a specific option. Pressing M in another Pine menu screen will bring you back to the Pine Main Menu. The only exception to single letter commands is while you are composing e-mail. Then you must use the key combination commands instead (ctrl + letter).

• The line at the top of the screen tells you the version of Pine, which menu screen you are currently viewing, which folder you have open for viewing, and how many messages are present in that folder.
• The bottom two lines of the screen are always reserved for the list of commands.
• The third line up from the bottom is a status line on which Pine displays for you what action it is currently involved in.
• The line below where the copyright notice is located is reserved as the main user input area, where Pine will prompt you to type in any information that you might need to enter.

Screen Shot of Pine's Main Menu

The INBOX

There is a misconception that the inbox is part of the users account and can be used to store e-mail. This is incorrect. When e-mail is received on a server it is stored in a common area called the INBOX. Everyone's e-mail is stored in this same common area and sorted by userid. Everyone has access to this area but can only see their own INBOX. All incoming e-mail is kept in the INBOX until it is saved to another folder or deleted. By default, e-mail you save will be saved in the "saved-messages" folder in your personal storage space on the server. You can also create folders within your own personal storage space on the server and use these folders to store your e-mail. When you read your e-mail save it to the folder of your choice, or delete it.

If you do not move your e-mail from the INBOX, the INBOX will grow until it reaches its storage quota. This is shown as "disk quota" on the Qlink and Post Main Menu. On Qlink several times a week there is an automated process that looks at everyones inbox. If you have reached your quota the Mail Spool Cleaner will move your oldest mail to a temporary storage area and send you an e-mail telling you where it has been moved and how to retrieve it. If you do not retrieve your e-mail within 4 days it will be permanently deleted.

Pine Folders

In Pine, folders are used to store e-mail that you have received from others and want to keep. You can create the folders that you want, and save your e-mail to these folders. As a default a saved-messages folder and a sent-mail folder are created for each account. When you save e-mail if you do not specifiy a folder it will be copied to the "saved messages" folder. When you send e-mail copies of your e-mail are stored in the sent-mail folder. Unlike the inbox, the saved-messages and sent-mail folder are in your personal storage area, along with any folders you create.

Creating a Folder in Pine

Note: Unix is case-sensitive. If you enter the name of the folder in upper case letters, you will need to enter it the exact same way when you save e-mail into the folder.

• At the Pine Main Menu, press L for Folder List. You can also use the cursor keys to highlight Folder List and then press enter.
• You will see a list of all your folders including the INBOX. Use the cursor keys to move to the folder you wish to view and press enter. You will see the contents of the folder.
• To create a new folder enter A (for Add).
• You will be asked for the Folder name to add: enter the name you wish to call the new folder and press enter.
• The new folder will be created and will appear in the list of folders.

Screen Shot of Folder List

Screen Shot of Creating a New Folder in Pine

Moving and Deleting E-mail Items

You can move an e-mail item from one folder to another folder by pressing S (for Save). This can be done either from

• the Message Index by selecting the e-mail or
• while you are reading the e-mail

Whichever method you use, the procedure is the same:

• Press S to save the e-mail
• Pine will then ask you to enter the name of the folder that is to be the destination for that particular e-mail item
  • the default folder name is saved-messages or
  • you can enter the exact folder name or
  • you can use Ctrl T to select a folder from your list of folders.
• Upon your entering the folder's name, the e-mail item will be copied to that folder immediately by Pine. You will receive a confirmation message.
• The e-mail item will then be flagged for deletion from the Inbox.
• The e-mail is not immediately deleted. It still appears in the Message Index but there is a D in the column to the extreme left. When you quit Pine you will be asked if you want to expunge your deleted e-mail. Reply yes, and your unwanted e-mail is deleted.

Screen Shot of Saving a File

• Note the top line now says Message Index
• The D at the extreme left indicates that an e-mail item is flagged to be deleted.
• The N at the extreme left indicates a new e-mail message

Viewing the E-mail Items in a Folder

At the Main Menu, press I for Message Index. This command will show you a list of the sender and topic for each of the e-mail items in your INBOX, with the oldest message at the top of the screen. To see the e-mail in other folders, at the Main Menu press L for Folder List. You will be shown all of your folders. Move to the folder you wish to view the contents of and press enter. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the e-mail item you wish to read, and press either the Enter or the V (View Mail) key, to view it.

Reading an E-mail Item

Upon pressing either the V (ViewMsg) or the Enter key from the Message Index menu you will then be presented with the View Message screen.

Replying to E-mail

When you want to reply to an e-mail item, press the letter R (Reply) in either the Folder Index menu screen or the View Message screen. Pine will then ask you if you want the original e-mail item which you are replying to included in the reply, to which you respond Y for yes or N for no. You will then be presented with the Compose Message screen and proceed as you would for sending an e-mail.

Sending E-mail using Pine

At the Pine Main Menu select Compose Message

• enter the e-mail address of the person you are sending the e-mail to
• move to the next line using the tab key or the cursor key
• beneath the line that reads ----- Message Text ----- start writing your e-mail
• When you are satisfied with the text of your message, simply press Ctrl-X on the keyboard and Pine will send your e-mail item.

Composing E-mail

Pico is a full-screen editor with text insertion at the cursor, backspacing to correct errors, and automatic word-wrap.

The bottom two lines of the Compose Message screen contain the available commands. None of the Pine commands will work inside Pico. Only the editor commands shown below are available.

Each editor command can be chosen by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the appropriate letter key. You are also able to use the four arrow keys and the tab key for movement around the editing screen.

 

Ctrl Character	Command	Description
ˆG	Get Help	starts up Pine's help system for the Compose Message screen
ˆX	Send	sends the e-mail item being edited
ˆR	Rich Hdr	displays the full message header of the e-mail item
ˆY	PrvPg/Top	Scrolls back one page toward the top of the e-mail item
ˆK	Cut Line	deletes the line indicated by the cursor
ˆ O	Postpone	temporarily suspends and stores the e-mail item being edited
ˆC	Cancel	cancels the e-mail item you are currently working on
ˆ D	Del Char	deletes the character indicated by the cursor or characters to the right
ˆ J	Attach	attaches a MIME-supported file to the e-mail item
ˆ V	NxtPg/Top	Scrolls down one page toward the bottom of the e-mail item
ˆU	UnDel Line	restores the last line that was deleted with ^K
ˆ T	To AddrBk	brings up the address book to find an e-mail address

Quitting Pine

When you have finished working with your e-mail you will need to Quit Pine. When you quit you will be asked if you want to expunge any e-mail you have marked for deletion. Reply Y for yes or N for no. If you do not quit Pine or you do not reply Y when asked if you want to delete your e-mail it will remain in your e-mail. Next time you access your e-mail you will see the D beside the e-mail indicating that it is waiting for you to confirm that it should be deleted.

Screen Shot showing Pine asking to confirm deleting e-mail