PC-Pine

This is an unofficial FAQ on the use of PC (Windows) Pine by the University of Baltimore (UB) community. Pine is an IMAP mail agent, graphical user interface (GUI) to a Mail system. The basic Mail system at UB is VMS Mail, and a basic familiarity with it is assumed in this FAQ.

Basic References

• Pine introduction
• Obtaining and installing Pine (free).
• Pine User's Guide
• Pine (official) FAQ

PC-Pine FAQ at UB

1. Does PC-Pine for Windows have a toolbar, and windows-like dialogs?
   Yes, it has a contextual toolbar (changes with the window you are using, e.g. compose, main menu, etc.) and has some windows-like dialog boxes. You have to select these features. For all of them, select Config drop-down menu at the top, and select Toolbar, Toolbar on top, and Use Dialog Boxes. It will look like:
   

2. How can I enter or change my personal_name in Pine?
   Use SETUP Config and add (or change):
   personal-name = First-name Last-name ...... you can use upper and lower case

3. How can I make PC-Pine read my INBOX (newmail) at UB?
   Use SETUP Config and add (or change):
   inbox-path = {ubmail.ubalt.edu}INBOX

4. How can I make PC-Pine read all my folders at UB?
   Use SETUP Config and add (or change):
   folder-collections = {ubmail.ubalt.edu}[]

5. How can I make the messages I read move automatically to the MAIL folder?
   This requires two changes in setup, configuration:
   Start by using SETUP Config and add (or change):
   read-message-folder = {ubmail.ubalt.edu}MAIL
   Move down in the config file to features and select auto-move-read-msgs as shown below:

   feature-list             =
               Set        Feature Name
               ---   ----------------------
               [ ]  assume-slow-link
               [X]  auto-move-read-msgs
               [ ]  auto-open-next-unread
   

6. How to create copy_self in Pine?
   Use SETUP Config and add:
   default-fcc = {ubmail.ubalt.edu}SENTMAIL
   all mail you send will be filed on SENTMAIL

7. How can I include a signature in my messages?
   You can make your signature automatic, or include it only in certain messages. If you subscribe to mailing lists, or would like to use different signature files, do not use the automatic procedure, but rather include the signature file as needed.
   To include a signature file (e.g. sig.txt) automatically in your messages modify your configuration as follows:
   Use SETUP Config and add (or change):
   signature-file = sig.txt
   To include your signature file (e.g. sig.txt) manually just use the read file command in the location you want your signature to be. Click or press ^R (Read File) and select using ^T (open Windows files dialog box) the signature file you want to use.
   Note: Please remember that the signature file is a local file. Therefore you should have a copy of your signature file on-campus and another off-campus.

8. How to set forward in Pine at UB?
   To forward one message select F (forward). To make all your mail to be forwarded to another address use VMS Mail and at the MAIL> prompt enter: set forward MX%"internet-address". Pine is only a mail agent, it does not allow you to set forward automatically.

9. Can Pine do automatic login? ( do it at your own risk):
   Yes. Create a file pine.pwd in the same directory (e.g. C:\pine) of Pinerc. Start Pine, enter your password, wait for Pine to complete the login and Quit. Pine will ask if you want to preserve the password, answer yes. From next time on login is automatic. CAUTION: password protection is mild ....

10. How can I select a folder to save a message?
    If you know the name, just type it (use capital letters for compatibility with VMS Mail). If you don't know press ^T (Control T) and a list of folders will appear. Select the folder to save and press enter (double-click in Windows).

11. Can I save a message to a new folder using PC-Pine?
    Yes, with PC-Pine 3.95 and above (32 and 16-bit). Select Save and type the new folder name. To be compatible with UBMAIL use capital letters for folder's names. You will be prompted if you want to create a new folder, answer yes.

12. Is it possible to select multiple messages and save ALL of them into a folder (specifying the save operation and folder name just once)?
    Versions of Pine 3.91 and above allows multiple saves. You need to enable it in the Configuration screen by setting the "enable-aggregate-commands" option. This option adds: a Select command (;) to select messages by various criteria (From, Subject, Date, etc); a Select Cur (:) to select the current message; an Apply command (A) to apply commands such as Save, to save all Selected messages; and Zoom (Z) to restrict the messages shown in the Folder Index to just the selected ones.

13. How can I delete messages, folders? (be very careful ...)
    You delete messages by selecting or reading them and pressing D (Delete). For multiple messages, see question 10 for selecting, and apply delete. For folders, select the folder and press D (Delete). Pine gives you the chance to change your mind -- it will ask later: "Expunge x messages from folder y?". If you say yes, it is gone. But not so with folders, to my knowledge.

14. How can I create a distribution list?
    It is easy to do (as I will explain below for UBMail/Maestro), but it is not working using IMAP in the present PC version . If you create a list on the PC, it becomes local to the PC and you cannot access it at UB, or when you are traveling.
    I suggest that you create distribution lists in the UBMail version of Pine, and then copy the file PINE.ADDRESSBOOK (created by Pine in UBMail) to the PC directory you installed Pine (of course you can also copy the same file to your Unix, SGI account. I renamed this file to abook for the PC and Unix). This will make your address book always available as local wherever you are.
    Addressbook in UBMail/Maestro: press A (for addressbook), and S (create list). You will be asked to enter a list long name (description) and nickname (name you will use). Then you will be asked to enter the e-mail addresses (one at a time) of the people to be included in the list. To end entering addresses, just press return without an address and the list will be saved.

15. I have a list which I use to mail to multiple recipients. The only problem is that the Cc: can get so long that people simply just skim or just ignore the messages completely. Is there any way to suppress the Cc: list in Pine so that it doesn't show up in any of the recipients' mail?
    Yes, and it is quite easy. When you open a message to either compose or forward, address the message to yourself. Then, while the cursor is still there in the heading, hit ^R. You will now have an expanded heading. Under the cc line will be a new line bcc which means blind carbon copy. On this line type the name of your mailing list, or the list of individuals, whichever. Then each person will receive a copy that only has your name and their own.
    The only copy that will have all the names is the one that goes to your SENTMAIL file. Even when you get your own copy (recall, you are the top line recipient) yours will not have the bcc list.

16. If I can, and some times a have to, use Pine by dial-in or telnet, why use PC-Pine?
    The only real reason, besides a better (mouse supported) GUI, is that it makes easy to send/save attachments from/to your PC. Most attachments will be word processing, spreadsheets, etc, that run in the PC. It saves you uploading/downloading the attachments. Moreover, you can use your word processor and copy and paste to/from PC-Pine, of course, if you copy and paste, your text is automatically converted to ASCII, ignoring bold, font size, etc. Only attaching can preserve word processing formats.

17. How can I send attachments in PC-Pine?
    Open a Compose Message process. Write your regular message (or just a note saying you are sending the attachments). Select or type ^J and Pine will ask you for the name of a file. You do not need to know the file name. Just select or type ^T and you will be placed in a regular Windows file dialog for you to select the file! You can attach more than one file to a message. You can attach for example a word processor, an image and a spreadsheet file to the same message.
    Be aware, however, that the recipient should be using a mail agent like Pine or Simeon to handle your message. VMS Mail will not recognize it and place what will look line garbage on the recipient screen.

18. What should I do when somebody send me attachments?
    Let me start with an example. I received a request for a copy of the UB logo gif file. See my reply below (with names omitted):

    Subject: Re: University of Baltimore logo image
    Parts/attachments:
       1 Shown    39 lines  Text
       2          19 KB     Image, "large ub logo"
       3         5.7 KB     Image, "small ub logo"
    ----------------------------------------
    
    ......, glad to hear from an alumnus!  I am attaching both images using Pine.
    .........   
    
    

    As you can see, Pine identified that I had one part shown as text, and two attachments, different sizes of the logo gif file. To read the attachments click or press V (ViewAttch) and a list of the attachments will appear, as follows:

      PINE 3.95   ATTACHMENT INDEX                     Folder: SENTMAIL  Message 7 of 7
    
       1     39 lines   Text/PLAIN
       2     19 KB      Image/GIF, "large ub logo"
       3    5.7 KB      Image/GIF, "small ub logo"
    

    
    The last step is to select each attachment and press or click S (Save). You can select in what directory to save the file in your PC by pressing or selecting ^T, like we saw in question 10.

19. What standard does Pine use for attachments?
    Pine uses the Internet MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) standard for all attachments. MIME uses "Base64" encoding rather than uuencode (a common encoding mechanism in Unix and other systems).

20. How do I set up PC-Pine to view attachments instead of saving them?

    You need to create two files MAILCAP and MIMETYPE. When you installed Pine, samples of these files were include as: mailcap.sam and mimetype.sam. The MIMETYPE (do not use the extension) file defines the types of attachment formats you want to use. The MAILCAP (do not use the extension) file indicates the path for the viewer application of a certain type.

    Please note: viewing an attachment means opening the attached file in a corresponding application program, what is done automatically by Pine, after you set up MAILCAP and MIMETYPE..

    See below my MIMETYPE and MAILCAP files. Please note that I have included mime types for Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 in the MIMETYPE file, and have included a path for the viewers (Word, WP and Quattro) in the MAILCAP file.

    MIMETYPE

    application/postscript         ai eps ps
    application/rtf                rtf
    application/winword            doc
    application/wordperfect        wp
    application/lotus              wk3 wk4
    audio/basic                    au snd
    audio/x-aiff                   aif aiff aifc
    audio/x-wav                    wav
    image/gif                      gif
    image/ief                      ief
    image/jpeg                     jpeg jpg jpe
    image/tiff                     tiff tif
    image/bmp                      bmp
    text/html                      html
    text/plain                     txt c cc h
    video/mpeg                     mpeg mpg mpe
    video/quicktime                qt mov
    video/x-msvideo                avi
    video/x-sgi-movie              movie
    
    

    MAILCAP

    #For image attachments of all types, invoke lview:
    
    image/*;e:\lview32\lviewpro.exe %s
    #
    #For typical business applications use:
    
    application/winword;c:\msoffice\winword\winword.exe %s
    application/wordperfect;f:\corel\office7\wpwin7\wpwin.exe %s
    application/rtf;c:\windows\write.exe %s
    application/lotus;f:\corel\office7\quattro7\qpw.exe %s