Using Pine Email

Pine is an application for sending and receiving email. To start using Pine, simply type pine at the UNIX system prompt. After starting Pine, the Main Menu screen appears as shown below. To quit Pine, hit the Q key while in the Main Menu. Pine has extensive online help; type ? (or Ctrl-G while composing a message) to get help.

   PINE 4.10   MAIN MENU                            Folder: INBOX  13 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 or update Pine

       Q     QUIT               -  Exit the Pine program


   Copyright 1989-1997.  PINE is a trademark of the University of Washington.
                    [Folder "INBOX" opened with 13 messages]
? Help                     P PrevCmd                  R RelNotes
O OTHER CMDS L [ListFldrs] N NextCmd                  K KBLock

Figure 1: Pine Main Menu Screen

The Main Menu

The Main Menu lists Pine's main options (see Figure 1). You can either select your choice with the arrow keys on the keyboard, or enter the letter which is displayed to the left of each choice. You can choose to read the online help, write (compose) and send a message, look at the index of your mail messages, open or maintain your mail folders, update your address book, configure or update Pine, and quit Pine.

For example, on the Main Menu, press a to create nicknames for your correspondents, or c to compose and send an outgoing email message, or ? to read online Pine help files.

Create and Send Outgoing Mail

To write and send a message, press c (Compose). You will see the Compose Message screen.

In the To: field, enter the email address to which you want to send mail, then press Enter. You can enter your own email address here and send a note to yourself if you just want to test it.
In the Subject: field, enter the subject of your message and press Enter.
Below the Message Text line, type your message. While you are typing your message, you will be using the Pico editor. See the Pico page of these handouts for more information.
Next, note the commands at the bottom of your screen. They are a set of characters preceded by the ^ symbol as shown below:

   PINE 4.10   COMPOSE MESSAGE                      Folder: INBOX  13 Messages

To      : _
Cc      :
Attchmnt:
Subject :
----- Message Text -----





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

Figure 2. The Pine Compose Message Screen

The ^ symbol is used to indicate the Control key. It means that you must hold down the Control key while you press the corresponding character to accomplish that function (on Macs, press the Escape key twice in place of the Control key).

To send your message, press Ctrl-x (Send).
You are then asked if you want to send the message. Press y (yes) or Enter to send the message. (If you say no, then you are returned to the message to continue working on it.) The message is sent and a copy is saved to your sent-mail folder.

Viewing Incoming Mail

All email sent to you is stored in your INBOX folder. You can easily view the contents of your INBOX folder by choosing "FOLDER INDEX" from the Pine Main Menu. You will then see the list of messages you have stored in your INBOX. Access each one by using the arrow keys to move the cursor to that message and pressing Enter.

Once you have the message displayed, options will appear at the bottom of the screen that allow you to manipulate the message as you like. For example, you can REPLY to the note by pressing the r key, or forward the note by pressing the f key, or obtain help by pressing the ? key. Forwarding or replying to a message will throw you into the Composing Mail screen, just as when you composed a message earlier.

The Pine Address Book

You can also create nicknames so that you need not remember email addresses of those people to whom you often send email. From the Main Menu, choose a for "Addressbook". It will show you an "Empty" address book if you have not yet added any people.

To add a new person, press a (AddNew). You can then enter the information for the person. The "Nickname" is what you will type later to access the rest of this person's information, so make it something simple. In the "Addresses" field, you should enter the addresses to which you want the email to be sent. When you are done, press Ctrl-x to save the entry.

Now, when you compose a message, you may simply type the nickname into the To: field and then press Enter. The rest of the name and address will then appear.

For more detailed information, see the ACCC pine documentation at:
http://www.accc.uic.edu/software/pine