Using PINE to send and receive electronic mail

Read a Message Delete a Message Reply to a Message Send a Message Exit Pine Further Information Return to Lab Home Page

Start the program

To start the program, type pine at a % prompt
(If you do not see a % prompt, open a terminal window.)
NOTE: The first time you use PINE you will see an introductory screen. There will be a prompt at the bottom asking if you wish to receive a document with further information about PINE. If you press Y, you will receive this documen t in an electronic mail message sent to your account. If you press N, you will not receive the document.

TROUBLESHOOTING: If you are using Pathworks with the vt320 emulation in the 97/121 lab, and you are trying to run pine on an Intranet account, it won't work. Before running pine, type the following command at the UNIX % prompt:
set term=vt100

Overview of PINE operations

PINE has a menu driven user interface. You may use the arrow keys to move the highlighted selection (and press Return) or press the key corresponding to the letter of your selection.

PINE stores your mail messages in "folders". The first time you use PINE, you will have only one folder, INBOX (which PINE uses for incoming mail) As you use the mail program, PINE will create additional folders. For example, when y ou send a message, a copy is saved in a folder called sent-mail. If you save a message you have read, the default folder is created called saved-messages. You can also create your own folders.

The following information is displayed on the PINE screens:

Name of the menu and name of current mail folder -- Top Line

Menu of commands available on this screen -- Bottom two lines

Status Messages and Prompts (if any) -- Look just above the menu at the bottom

Note the following abbreviations which are used on bottom line menus:

Spc = Space Bar

Ret = Return Key

^ = Ctrl Key (For example: ^X means press both the Ctrl and X keys)

If there are more options than will fit on two lines, you will see a letter O on the bottom line menu. Pressing O will display other commands.

On most screens, pressing the letter M returns you to the Main Menu. This is helpful if you are trying to move to another screen or are ready to quit the PINE program.

Reading Your Mail Messages

When you start PINE, the L (Folder List) menu option should be highlighted on the MAIN MENU. Press Return to select it.

You should see the FOLDER LIST screen next. This screen has two sections. The top section is used to access the mail folders. Press Return on Select Here to see Expanded List. A list of folders will be displayed and INBOX s hould be highlighted. Press Return to see a list of messages in this folder. A List of your messages will be displayed on the FOLDER INDEX screen. Use your arrow keys to highlight the message you wish to read and press Return. This will take you to th e MESSAGE TEXT screen. Follow the directions on the menu to continue reading and processing your mail.

Deleting Messages

You have a limited amount of space to store messages (i.e. your "disk quota") If you fill up your storage allotment, you will not be able to use the mail system. Therefore you should make it a habit to de lete messages you do not need. This can be done by pressing the D (delete) key on either the FOLDER INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screens. Note that you can press U to undelete if you make a mistake. However, you cannot undelete after you have quit the PINE pr ogram.

Replying to a Message

You can send a reply to the person whose message you are reading by pressing R on the MESSAGE TEXT screen. You will get a prompt asking if you want to include the text of the message in your reply

If you press Y the text of the message you just read will be inserted into your reply, marked with > symbols in front of each line. You can delete any portion of the text that you wish. It is often useful to include quotes from the orig inal message when you are replying to questions someone has asked.

If you press N, the message you just read will not be copied into your reply screen.

Sending a message

From the Main Menu, select C to get to the COMPOSE MESSAGE screen. Proceed as follows:

At this prompt:

To get this result:
Do this:

(Remember to hit the Return key at the end of each response)

To:

Send a message to another person with an account on the same computer

Type the recipient’s user name only. For example: jcompton

Send mail off campus

(Note: to get the complete address you will need to contact your recipient by telephone or regular mail.)

Type the complete address

(No spaces!!). For example:

BLFARMER@Sacramento.Edu

Cc:

Send a copy of this message to another person or persons

Type the user name or complete address here. If you do not want a copy sent, just press the Return key.

Attachmnt:

This prompt is used to attach a file to the mail message

Press the Return key to skip this prompt.

Subject:

Display a subject in the recipients directory listing

Type a subject line. (If you just press Return, then the subject will be blank, which is not recommended)

Message Text

Type a message using an editor (This is not a wordprocessor!)

Type the message here. This editor will perform word wrap. However, the editing capabilities are very limited. There is a spell checker, which you can use by pressing Ctrl-T

To send the message

Press Ctrl-X (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key and the letter X keys together)

You will get a Send Message? prompt. Press Y and you will return to the Main Menu. You should see Message Sent just above the bottom line menu.

(If you change your mind and don't want to send the message, press Ctrl-C to cancel it.

Exit the PINE Program

On most screens, you can press Q to quit the program. (If this option is not available on the bottom line menu, then press M to return to the Main Menu and quit from there) You will receive one or more prompts before the program ends. The prompts depend upon the actions you have taken while you were using PINE.

The Prompt:

You Type:

Comments

Really Quit Pine?

Press N if you do not want to quit.

Expunge the deleted messages from "INBOX"?

This permanently removes all messages which were "marked" to be deleted. You must do this to free up your storage space

If you say N, the messages are not removed and continue to take up your disk space.

Further Information

See the Pine Technical Notes for details regarding the version which is installed on the Intranet. More information about pine, including answers to Frequently Asked Questions and the tricks to customize your pine configuration, is available from University of Washington where the program was written.

Page Created by Joy Compton -- jcompton@csupomona.edu
Last Revised: 04/24/98

At this prompt:	To get this result:	Do this: (Remember to hit the Return key at the end of each response)
To:	Send a message to another person with an account on the same computer		Type the recipient’s user name only. For example: jcompton
	Send mail off campus (Note: to get the complete address you will need to contact your recipient by telephone or regular mail.)		Type the complete address (No spaces!!). For example: BLFARMER@Sacramento.Edu
Cc:	Send a copy of this message to another person or persons		Type the user name or complete address here. If you do not want a copy sent, just press the Return key.
Attachmnt:	This prompt is used to attach a file to the mail message		Press the Return key to skip this prompt.
Subject:	Display a subject in the recipients directory listing		Type a subject line. (If you just press Return, then the subject will be blank, which is not recommended)
Message Text	Type a message using an editor (This is not a wordprocessor!)		Type the message here. This editor will perform word wrap. However, the editing capabilities are very limited. There is a spell checker, which you can use by pressing Ctrl-T
	To send the message		Press Ctrl-X (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key and the letter X keys together) You will get a Send Message? prompt. Press Y and you will return to the Main Menu. You should see Message Sent just above the bottom line menu. (If you change your mind and don't want to send the message, press Ctrl-C to cancel it.