Pine Introduction

Introduction

Pine is an easy-to-learn electronic mail system. It is menu driven, which means that you will be presented with command choices at the bottom of each screen, as well as on-line Help.

Conventions

In this document, prompts and other on-screen information will be presented in typewriter style type. Information you must enter will be presented in bold typewriter style type. The character ^, which accompanies many commands, represents the control key.

Entering Pine

When you log on to the fog server, pine at the Unix prompt ('>' or '%'), and press <return>. You will be presented with Pine's Main Menu.

      PINE 3.96        MAIN MENU        Folder:INBOX  7 Messages

        ?       HELP            - Get help using Pine

        C       COMPOSE MESSAGE - Compose and send a message

        I       FOLDER INDEX    - View messages in current folder

        L       FOLDER LIST     - Select a folder to view

        A       ADDRESS BOOK    - Update address book

        S       SETUP           - Configure or update Pine

        Q       QUIT            - Exit the Pine program

        Copyright 1989-1997.  PINE is a trademark of the Univ. of Washington.
                   FOLDER "INBOX" opened with 7 Messages

     ? Help                     P PrevCmd                 R RelNotes 

     O OTHER CMDS > [ListFldrs] N NextCmd                 K KBLock 

Reading Your Mail

To view new messages, from the Main Menu simply press I (Folder Index). You will be shown an index of the messages in your "INBOX," the folder that contains new messages and messages you have not deleted or moved to another folder. The index screen provides the following information, from left to right:

To read a message, select it using your arrow keys and then press <return>. If the message is more than one screen long, press the space bar (NextPage) or the down arrow until you reach the end of the message. To view another message, press N (NextMsg) for next message or I (Folder Index) to return to the index. You can also delete the message when you are finished reading it (see "Deleting a Message" below). Again, as with all Pine screens, your options are shown on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. The options within Folder Index are extensive and continue on a second and third menu, shown by pressing O (Other Cmds). These options can be accessed directly by pressing the letter without going to the additional menus.

Sending a Message

REMINDER: The ^ means hold down the Control key while pressing the accompanying letter.

Sending a message from Pine is a simple matter; the text editor, Pico, is easy to learn and use. To write a message, enter C (Compose). Your cursor will appear at the To: prompt in the Compose Menu. Enter the email address of the person to whom you are sending the message, then press <return>, or the down arrow. If you want to send carbon copies, enter the email addresses after the Cc: prompt and press <return>. Press <return> again and give a brief description of what your message is about after the Subject: prompt. The next <return> will transfer you to the Message Text portion of the screen. (The menu commands shown below will appear when you move into the message text portion of the screen.)

PINE 3.96     COMPOSE MESSAGE     Folder:"folder name" 0 Messages

To      : user@e-mail.address
Cc      :
Attchmnt:
Subject : test
----- Message Text -----
This is a test message.  To enter your message, simply type in 
what you want to say.

^G Get Help ^X Send    ^R Rich Hdr ^YPrvPg/Top^K Cut Line  ^O Postpone
^C Cancel   ^D Del Chr ^J Attach  ^V NxtPg/End^U UnDel Line^T To AddrBk

Press ^G at any time for help with any section.

Replying to a Message

If you would like to reply to the message you have just read, press R (Reply). Using the Reply function has the advantage that you do not need to type in the person's address. You will be asked if you want the original message included in your reply, and if you do, press <return> or type y. (Note: Including the entire text of a large message clogs up user space and may prove expensive to those who download their mail at a cost. However, you may want to include the original message to remind the person what you're talking about. You can also edit the original message in your Reply so that it only contains the relevant parts.) You will also be asked whether you want to reply to all the recipients, such as people who were CC:'d or on the mailing list. The default for both questions is no. After this, you will be presented with a screen that already has the original sender's address filled in; simply type in your message and press ^X (Send) to send the message.

Forwarding a Message

If you would like to forward the message you have just read in the Folder Index to someone else, press F (Forward). You will be asked to enter the email address of the person to whom you want to forward the message. After you have entered the address, enter an introductory message above the forwarded message if you feel it needs some explanation. Press ^X (Send) to send it.

Deleting a Message

When you have finished reading a message, you can delete it or save it. All messages remain in the INBOX folder until you either eXpunge them or save them to another folder. To delete a message, simply highlight it from the index using your arrow keys, then press D (Delete). The letter D will appear next to the message, which means that when you exit Pine or press X (eXpunge), the message will be deleted. If you make a mistake, press U to undelete the message. You can also delete messages while you are reading them by simply pressing D (Delete). You will then move to the next message in the current folder.


Last Modified 8-16-04, based on a document created by Joe Jah