Starting Pine

The Internet Hardlink Co Pine - Answers

Starting Pine

To start Pine, type pine at the prompt from the operating system. You should then see a main menu like this:

PINE 3.95 MAIN MENU Folder:INBOX 2 Messages

`?`	`HELP`	`- Get help using Pine`
`C`	`COMPOSE MESSAGE`	`- Compose and send/post a message`
`I`	`FOLDER 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`

? Help
P PrevCmd
R RelNotes

O OTHER CMDS
L ListFldrs
N NextCmd
K Kblock

? (Help) gives you access to Pine's comprehensive online help system, providing more information about the screen being displayed.

C (Compose) lets you compose and send a message. You can send mail to a single address or to a group of addresses, separating those addresses with commas. You can also set up an address book to store addresses (see "Address Books"), and you can send carbon copies of your messages to others. In version 3.95 and above, you can also post the message to a newsgroup.

I (Folder Index) displays a one-line summary of each message in the current folder, including the sender's name and the subject of the message. From this display, you can view and manage individual messages. When you start Pine, the current folder will be INBOX.

L (Folder List) lets you open, add, delete, and rename mail folders. If you using Pine on UNIX, this command also displays a list of news articles. All messages are kept in folders. The first time you run Pine, it creates two folders:

sent mail
(stores a copy of each message you send)
saved messages
(stores all messages you choose to save)

Additional folders, such as INBOX and postponed-mail, are created automatically as necessary, and you can explicitly create others (explained below).

A (Address) is for maintaining your personal address book. Use it to define convenient nicknames that refer to more complex electronic addresses or groups of addresses. This feature is particularly useful for sending e-mail to a list of people.

S (Setup) displays a one-line prompt at which you can select options to define a printer, change your password, or see update messages from the developers of the Pine software. If you are using Pine on UNIX, you can also set a signature file.

Q (Quit Pine) leaves the Pine program, asking you to confirm that you want to purge all messages marked for deletion.

Notice the list of options at the bottom of the display. As with all screen displays in Pine, it shows the commands you can type at this time. One of the options is O, for Other Commands. Use it to see other commands you can type at this time.

While at the main menu, the status bar at the top of the screen tells you how many messages are in your INBOX folder, where Pine stores all incoming mail. To read, write, print, save, forward, and reply to messages, choose I for Folder Index, and a new screen will appear.

HINT: On UNIX systems, if you want to bypass the Main Menu completely when you start Pine and go directly to the INBOX index, type pine -i at the UNIX prompt.