Getting started with the Pine electronic mail program
Note: Information Services encourages personal computer users to use electronic mail programs such as Mailstrom or PC-Pine rather than logging onto bulldog or ub and running Pine there. These programs will provide you with additional features and increased performance.
Pine is an electronic mail program available on the bulldog and ub central system computers at UMD. Pine is particularly easy for new electronic mail users. For the most part, Pine can be learned by exploration rather than reading manuals.
To start Pine, you must log in to your computer account, and then choose EMAIL from the main umenu screen or type pine at any % prompt.
The Pine Main Menu screen will look like this:
From the Pine Main Menu you can compose a new message, work with your saved mail folders and addressbook or view your incoming mail folder (called your INBOX). To view your incoming mail folder, press I. If you run Pine from within umenu you will immediately see the Folder Index screen (below) instead of the Main Menu screen. Note: if you do not use umenu you can have Pine go immediately to the Folder Index by using the command pine -i .
The folder index displays the summary information of each message in the current folder. The current message is always highlighted, and the status line displays the message number, an N if the message is new (unread), and a D if the message is marked for deletion. At the bottom of the screen is a list of available commands (Note that the O command will display a second menu of available commands).
Pine sorts your mail with the most recently received mail at the bottom of the index list. When you display the mail index Pine will select (highlight) the oldest of your new messages.
Reading a Message
To read a message, use the arrow keys to select the message and press the <return> key. If the message is longer than one screenfull, you can press the <spacebar> to read the next screenfull. Press I to return to the Mail Index screen.
Sending a Message
To compose and send a message to someone, press c. You will then see the following screen;
Begin your message by filling in the header fields at the top of the screen. Press <return> to move to the next field or use the up and down arrow keys to move back and forth between fields.
To: Type in the electronic addresses you want to send mail to.
Cc: The Cc: (Carbon Copy) field is just like the To: field, except it is used for addressees that you wish to send additional copies to.
Attchmnt: This field shows the attachments or other parts of the message you are composing. The most common use for this field will be to attach a file to your mail message. You can just type the file name here and if the file is found and accessible it will be attached.
Subject: This is simply a few words summarizing the message. This will be what is displayed in the folder index when the recipient gets the message.
After you have completed the header part of your message, press <return> to move to the message text area. You can use your arrow keys to move around in the message for editing.
Control Characters. The composer is the only part of Pine where control characters need to be used. Control characters are formed by holding the <
CONTROL> key down while another key is pressed. They are used to move about the text, perform editing functions, or to invoke commands. Control characters are denoted by a ^ preceding the character. For example, <CONTROL>-U would be shown as ^U. Case of alphabetic characters does not matter; for example, ^a is identical to ^A.When you are done editing your message, press <cntrl>-X to send it.
For more information, on using Pine check with a lab consultant or contact the UMD Information Services Help Desk, 726-8847. You may also be interested in IS Document E4 - Using the Pine electronic mail program which contains more detailed information on using Pine. Most of the information in these Pine documents was taken from Pine's on-line help screens. Information Services also supports a Windows version of Pine, PC-Pine, and a Macintosh email client, Mailstrom, that you may want to consider for your computer.