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Pine and Pico 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. This document also describes Pico, Pine's default text editor, which you automatically use when you compose a message.

NOTE: After Monday, July 6, 2009, only the Alpine package will be available and the Pine namespace will point to the Alpine packages.

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 ITS email server, enter 2 at the Isis Menu, or pine at the Unix prompt ('>' or '%'), and press <return>. You will be presented with Pine's Main Menu.

PINE 4.63+UNC MAIN MENU Folder:INBOX 7 Messages

? HELP - Get help using Pine

C COMPOSE MESSAGE - Compose and send/post a message

I MESSAGE INDEX - View messages in current folder

L FOLDER LIST - Select a folder OR news group to view

A ADDRESS BOOK - Update address book

S SETUP - Configure Pine Options

Q QUIT - Leave the Pine program

? Help P PrevCmd R RelNotes

O OTHER CMDS > [ListFldrs] N NextCmd K KBLock

Useful Tips

Information on opening an email account can be found in the ITS document Creating an Onyen . Only UNC-CH faculty, staff, and students are eligible for email accounts.

Communications Software

Certain configurations of the terminal package you are using make it easier to work with Pine. Make sure that the terminal type you specify is vt100.

Changing Your Password

To change the password to your email account, which we recommend doing immediately, press S for Setup, then choose N for Newpassword. Enter your old password and press <return>. You will be asked to enter your new password twice for verification. Select a password that is at least 8 characters, easy to remember, not in a dictionary, and cannot be easily figured out. Do not leave the password taped to your computer or lying around. ( Note: your password can be up to 31 characters in length and can contain spaces). You can also change your password by pointing your browser to the Onyen home page and clicking on the Change Your Password button. If you have forgotten your password, this page will explain where to go to get a new password and provide tips on choosing a new password. If you want to change your password, you will be prompted to enter your ITS UserID and your current password. Then you will be asked to enter your new password twice for verification. After you have entered your new password, click on the Continue button to finalize the change.

Reading Your Mail

To view new messages 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:

"+" means the message was sent directly to your account (i.e. - not as part of a cc: or mailing list)
the message status (N - new, D - deleted, A - answered)
the number of the message
the date the message was received
the email address or name of the person who sent it
the length of the message (in bytes)
the subject of the message (if the sender has given one)

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.

Navigational Tip

The new version of Pine allows you to use the < and > keys as navigational tools to go up or down a level; for example, if you are in the Message Index screen, the < will take you up a level to the Folder List screen, and the > will take you down a level to the selected message (the same as pressing Return). Note that you do not have to press the Shift key--that is, you actually are just pressing the , and . keys. Kinda weird, kinda cool.

URL Recognition and Viewer Dispatch

With Pine now capable of recognizing URLs and dispatching lynx to view them, you can easily access additional web-based information about Pine. First, however, you will have to configure Pine to recognize URLs. From the Main Menu press S for Setup and then C for Configure. Scroll down using the space bar until you see the enable-msg-view-urls option, select it, and press X. Press E to exit the configuration screen. Then type "y" if you want to "Commit changes" or "n" if you do not. Now when you read a message with one or more URLs, the first link in your message will automatically be highlighted. Hitting Return will allow you to see the linked information. To highlight another link in your message, type in ^F. ^B will take you to the previous link.

Easy List Unsubscribing

With this URL recognition feature comes an easy way to unsubscribe from email lists. At the end of messages that are from lists, you will usually see an option about list information. Press Return to see the list information, and you will be given an option to unsubscribe from the list.

Sending a Message

REMINDER: The character ^ 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) in the Main Menu. 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>. If you want to attach a file, enter the Unix file name after the Attachment: prompt (for more information on Attachments, see Pine/Pico Advanced. 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 4.63+UNC 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 Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^O Postpone

^C Cancel ^J Justify ^W Where is ^V Next ^U UnCut Text ^T To Spell

The Campus Directory

Pine is able to access the UNC Campus Directory to look up email addresses you don't know. With the cursor on the To: or CC: line, press ^T to go to the addressbook. At this point you have two options: you can use your personal address book (see below about The Address Book) or press the down arrow key to select the UNC Directory. Once you've selected the UNC Directory, press Return to search it. Type in a string to search for (such as a last name), and you will be presented with a list of people whose names match that string. Scroll through the list with the arrow key, and when you have found the person you want, press Return. You will go back to the compose message and the email address will be filled in for you.

Typing your Message with Pico

Once you are in the Message Text area, you can type in the text of your message using the Pico text editor. Move the cursor by using the arrow keys. Pico automatically word-wraps the text of your message. You can insert blank lines for neater formatting by pressing <return>. If you delete words or lines, you can press ^J to re-justify the text so that unusual line breaks will not occur in your letter. If you want to delete a line, press ^K. Pine has a word find command ( ^W) and also a spell-checker ( ^T). When you have finished writing your message, press ^X to send it.

Spell-checking

To invoke the spell-checker press ^T. The Message Text area will disappear and the following will appear:

In the upper left is the misspelled word; below it is the message, with the misspelled word highlighted, and below that are numbered options for replacing the word. If the correct word appears, you can simply press the word number. The last line gives you other editing options: R allows you to type in a substitution; A allows you to accept the word as it is for the rest of the session; I inserts the word in your private dictionary. Q quits the spell checker without saving; X exits and saves. For more information, type ? for help.

Moving Blocks of Text

The simplest method of moving a large block of text is with the Mark Set command. To set the mark, simultaneously depress the control key, the shift key and the ^. You should see the Mark Set prompt appear. Next, use the arrow key and scroll to the end of the block of text you wish to move. The entire block of text should be highlighted. Press ^K to cut this section to the clipboard. To paste the selection into your letter, relocate your cursor to the place where you wish the block of text to appear and press ^U. ( Note: some terminal emulations do not allow you to use this command. Instead, use repeated ^K commands to delete the block of text. Then move your cursor and press ^U to paste the entire set of deletions into your letter).

The Sent-Mail Folder

A copy of every message you send is saved in the sent-mail folder. This is useful in that you automatically have a copy of everything, but it also involves some responsibility--you need to remember to delete sent messages every now and then so they don't pile up.

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. 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.

Bounce

The Bounce command is similar to the Forward command, but it does not allow you to edit or add to the original message. An exact copy of the message is sent to the address you enter.

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. 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. When you exit Pine, you will be asked if you want to expunge all of the deleted messages (those marked with a "D"). If you do, type "y" to expunge them. Doing so will take them out of your Inbox. If you don't want to expunge them, type "n." Typing "x" while in the Messages Index will give you the same prompt.

Saving a Message and Using Folders

If you want to save some of your messages, you should think about a system of folder organization. You may, for example, want to create one folder to contain all messages from John Smith, another to contain messages concerning SAS, a third to contain messages about meetings and conferences, and a fourth to contain miscellaneous messages. To save a message to a folder, highlight the message, then choose S (Save). You will be asked to give the name of the folder in which you wish to save it. If you have never used this folder before, Pine will ask you if you want the folder created; if it already exists, the message will be saved in the existing folder. Example: SAVE to folder in <mail/[]> [saved-messages]: sas. If the folder does not exist, you will be given a message that looks like this:

Folder "sas" in <mail/[]> doesn't exist. Create?

When the message is saved, you will be notified like this:

[Message 2 copied to folder "sas" in <mail/[]> and deleted]

The message is now in the designated folder and will be marked for deletion from the INBOX. To look at all of your folders, press < or L (Folder List) and then > [view Cltn].

Moving Around Folders

When you choose the Message Index ( I)in the Pine Main Menu, the INBOX folder is automatically opened. If you want to view a message you have saved in another folder, go to the Main Menu and choose L for the Folder List. First you will see the Collection List screen. Use the arrow keys to highlight the folder collection you wish to visit and press Enter, then use your arrow keys again to find the folder you want to open and press Enter. If you are already in the Folder Index, you can press G (GotoFldr) and enter the name of the folder you wish to move to.

Shared Mailboxes

Shared mailboxes allow you to store email in a folder that other people have access to. You can give different people different access levels, so that they can just read mail, read and reply to mail, etc. For more information see the ITS document Setting Up Shared Mail Folders .

The Address Book

If you send messages frequently to a particular person or group, you can create a shortcut so you do not need to enter complete email addresses each time.

Nicknames

A nickname is a shortcut for a particular person. To create a nickname, select A (Address Book) from Pine's main menu. Then select .addressbook from the Address Book List window (it should already be highlighted at the top of the page when you reach this window). Hit Enter or > [ViewAbook>. (If you do not have any names in your address book, you will see the [Empty] in the window.) To add an address, enter @ and then fill out the necessary fields: at the very minimum, you will enter a nickname, that person's full name, and that person's address. The next time you are composing a message to that person, you need only enter the nickname (e.g. Harry) at the To: prompt; Pine will supply the person's full name and his or her email address.

Take Address Command

A simpler method of adding nicknames is using the "Take Address" command. In the "Messages Index" window, place your cursor on a message and enter T. This will take you to the "Take Address Screen," where you will see the address of the person who sent you the email, along with any other addresses that were included. Highlight the desired address by using your Arrow Keys and enter T again. You will be prompted to enter the nickname you want to associate with this address: type in the nickname and hit Enter. Finally, to save the address and nickname to your Address Folder, select ^X.

Address Lists

You may also have a certain group of people to whom you regularly send the same message. To avoid having to enter the email address for every person on that list, you can create an address list. Once you do this, you simply send the message to the group name you designate, and Pine will mail the message to each member's email address.

To create an address list, select A (Addresses) from Pine's main menu. Select your personal address book and press <return> to open it. Press @ to Add New. Give a Nickname for the list (this is the name you will actually enter when sending messages to the list), just as you would for an individual. Skip the next few fields (unless you want to fill them in), and enter the email addresses (or addressbook nickname) separated only by a comma (no spaces). Press ^X when you're done. When you are composing a message, you need only enter the list nickname at the To: prompt. Pine will supply the email addresses for each member of the group. You can edit and add to the list as needed. You can also create a list using the Take Address command. Say you receive an email message that is directed at a group of people that you want to have a list for. When you're reading the message, press T for TakeAdress and then L for ListMode. Put an X (or press <return>) for each person you want included on the list. Press T for Take, and you will be prompted to enter a nickname. You'll then be put in the Address Book entry screen, and you can make changes or press ^X if you're done.

Sending Files

Inserting Files into Messages

Pine users may have files in their Unix directories that they want to send by email. To place a text-only file from your directory into the body of your email message, simply enter ^R (Read File) at the point in your text where you want the file to be. You will be asked to supply the file name. After you have done so, Pine will insert the file wherever your cursor is located.

Copy / Paste Options for Microcomputers

Another useful tool that is present on many microcomputer systems is the copy and paste option. If you have a document written in a word processing program on your microcomputer (i.e., it has not been uploaded to the server), you can often use the copy command to copy the text and then the paste command to place the text into the body of your email message. (Note: this does not work with all word processing programs or microcomputer operating systems.)

Attaching Files with Special Formatting

Consult Windows: Telnet and FTP for more information on uploading files with special formatting. See Pine/Pico Advanced for how to attach the files to messages.

Saving and Reading Attached Files Sent to You

When you receive a message with an attached file, a message will appear under the Subject line that says Parts/Attachments. Use the down a level > or View Attachments command ( V) to see the attachment list. After typing > or V, enter the attachment number that you would like to save (usually 2, in most cases, 1 will be an attachment comment). Choose Save ( S) or press <return>. You can change the name of the attachment at this point. A message will appear saying the file has been written to your home directory with the name you selected. If you wish to look at this file, and it is in text format, quit Pine ( Q) and, if you use the Isis Menu, select option#6. At the Unix prompt ('%'or'>'), type the command more and the filename. For example: % more textfile. Use the space bar to scroll downward, one screen at a time.

Downloading Files to Your Microcomputer

If the attachment is not in text format (e.g., an Excel spreadsheet or an MS Word document) you will need to download it to a microcomputer that has the necessary software to read it. If you want to move the file onto your desktop computer, please consult our handout Windows: Telnet and FTP. If you need additional help visit Other ITS Help Options

Printing Email Messages

Printing email messages and files from Pine differs according to what kind of microcomputer, printer, and communications software you are using. When reading an email message within Folder Index, you can select % (Print) (or the old key code, Y) to print it on your local printer. If this does not work, make sure Pine is set to printer option "attached-to-ansi" (the default option) by selecting S from the main menu, then P (Printer). It should be stressed, however, that the print option in Pine is very buggy (there's simply no way for the program running on Unix to know what kind of terminal emulation and/or printer you are using). In many cases, you will have to export the particular letter, download it to your local computer, and print it via a local word processing program. To export a letter, highlight it in the INBOX, then enter E to store a copy of the letter in your home directory. From there, you can follow the downloading instructions detailed in Windows: Telnet and FTP.

Miscellaneous Troubleshooting

^C throws you out of Pine and back in to Unix or prints out [Interrupt Process]:

This means you are probably using NCSA Telnet for the Mac. Once you have connected from a Mac to Pine via Telnet, you should select Setup Keys from the Session menu. Delete ^C from the "Interrupt Process" box. ^C is both a Pine and a Telnet command, but since Telnet is supporting the Pine session, it interprets the command first. You can save this change by selecting Save under the File menu. (Note: Unix also uses the ^C command, to escape from hung or runaway processes. Do not change this field if you are planning to use Isis for non-mail oriented work.)

The "backspace" doesn?t work correctly:

For NCSA Telnet on the Mac, you have the option of using either the Backspace key or the Delete key, but not both. To pick one or the other, select Backspace from the Session menu.

READ ONLY shows up when you start Pine:

This means that you actually have two sessions of Pine running at the same time. To correct this problem so that you can delete mail and manage your files again, do the following:

1) Quit Pine. 2) At the Unix prompt (%), type ps. 3) Note the PID# associated with pine. 4) Type kill -9 and the PID# of that Pine session. An example is shown below.

% ps

PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND

898 q3 S 0:00 -csh[schneide]

913 q3 T 0:00 pine

930 q3 R 0:00 ps

% kill -9 913

[1] Terminated pine

Exceeding Your Disk Quota

To check space usage, go to https://onyen.unc.edu and click on the "Check disk space usage" button.

ITS Help

If you are having trouble sending or receiving mail, submit a help request via Other ITS Help Options.

Summary of Pico Commands

The ^ indicates that the <Ctrl> key should be held down when typing the following letter.

COMMAND	FUNCTION
^G (F1)	Display help text.
^ F	Move forward a character.
^ B	Move backward a character.
^ P	Move to the previous line.
^ N	Move to the next line.
^A	Move to the beginning of the current line.
^ E	Move to the end of the current line.
^V (F8)	Move forward a page of text.
^Y (F7)	Move backward a page of text.
^W (F6)	Search for text, neglecting case.
^ L	Refresh the display.
^ D	Delete the character at the cursor position.
^ ^	Mark cursor position as beginning of selected text. Note: Setting mark when already set unselects text.
^K (F9)	Cut selected text (displayed in inverse characters) or a whole line. The selected text's boundary on the cursor side ends at the left edge of the cursor. So, with selected text to the left of the cursor, the character under the cursor is not selected.
^U (F10)	Uncut (paste) last cut text, inserting it at the current cursor position.
^ I	Insert a tab at the current cursor position.
^J (F4)	Format (justify) the current paragraph. Paragraphs are delimited by blank lines or indentation.
^T (F12)	Invoke the spell checker.
^C (F11)	Report current cursor position.
^R (F5)	Insert an external file at the current cursor position.
^O (F3)	Output the current buffer to a file, saving it. (Postpones mail message.)
^X (F2)	Exit pico, saving buffer. (Sends mail message.)

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