information technology central services at the university of michigan
Using Pine E-Mail at U-M

T7037 • October 2004

Pine is an e-mail program that you use by typing commands rather than by pointing and clicking. You can access Pine from a Macintosh, Windows, or Unix computer by connecting to the ITCS Login Service. Pine is an IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) client that runs on the Login Service. This document describes how to create and use folders in your IFS home directory, to store mail messages with Pine, how to send and view attachments, and more.

Earlier versions of this document covered the basics of using Pine in detail. That information is now available elsewhere:

NOTE: This document is also available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

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IFS Folders and Pine

One way to keep your messages and avoid exceeding your e-mail quota is to archive your messages in your IFS (Institutional File System) Home Directory. Here's how you can do that using the Pine e-mail program on the ITCS Login Service.

  1. From the Pine Main Menu, type L to access the Folder List.

  2. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight the name of the folder you want to archive mail from and press the Return or Enter key.

  3. Type a semicolon (;) to access the SELECT criteria menu.

  4. Type A to select all messages.

  5. Type A again to access the Apply command menu.

  6. Type S. At the bottom of the Pine window. You will see the "SAVE to folder in [saved messages]" prompt.

  7. Type Ctrl-N to get to your IFS home directory folder collection.

    • If your archive folder already exists in your IFS Home Directory, you can type Control-T to display a screen listing all folders. Select the destination folder (make sure it is in your IFS Home Directory) by using the arrow keys, and press Return/Enter. Your mail is copied to the destination folder and marked for deletion in its current folder.

    • If you need to create a new folder to hold the archived messages, type Control-N until the SAVE message destination folder reads. Then, type the name of the new folder you would like to create and press Return/Enter. At the Folder '[new folder name]' in doesn't exist. Create? prompt, type Y. The folder is created, and your mail is copied to it and marked for deletion in its current folder.

Storing Postponed Messages on the Mail Server

Pine's default setting is to store your postponed messages in your IFS home directory. If you would prefer to have them stored on the ITCS mail server along with your other e-mail, follow these instructions.

  1. From the Pine Main Menu, type S for Setup.

  2. Type C for Config.

  3. Use the Down Arrow key to move down to postponed-folder, and highlight it.

  4. With postponed-folder highlighted, type C for Change Value.

  5. Delete the old value (which likely tells Pine to store your postponed messages in your IFS home directory) and replace it with this value:

    {mail.umich.edu:143}postponed-msgs

  6. Press the Enter or Return key.

  7. Type E to exit Setup.

  8. Type Y for Yes to commit the changes and save your new setting.

Sending and Viewing E-Mail Attachments

Sending Attachments
You can use Pine to send someone a file. To attach a file to a message, the file must be located in your IFS Home Directory. See IFS Overview (R1070) for links to information about uploading files to IFS from Windows and Macintosh computers.

Note that when you attach a file that has been created and formatted using a specific software program (such as Microsoft Word or Excel), the recipient of your message will need that application to open the file attachment in its original format.

To attach the file, follow these steps:

  1. At the Compose Message screen, fill in the To and Subject fields.

  2. In the Attachment field, enter the name of the file you copied into your IFS home directory. Press Return/Enter. (The full Unix path name of the file in your IFS home directory will be displayed in the Attachment field.)

  3. Type the e-mail message to accompany the attachment. (Include the name of the application that was used to create the attached document so your recipient will know what to use to open it.)

  4. Send the e-mail message.

NOTE: When you send an attachment with a Pine e-mail message, by default the attachment is saved with the e-mail message in your Sent-mail folder. Attachment files may be large, and the contents of Sent-mail count against your ITCS mailbox quota. Those who send attachments regularly might want to delete the attachments from Sent-mail as soon as possible.

Viewing Attachments

  1. View the message that contains the attachment.

  2. Type V to see a list of the parts of the message, including the attachment.

  3. Type S to save the file to your IFS Home Directory.

  4. At the bottom of your Pine window, you'll see the SAVE: Copy attachment to file in home directory prompt followed by the name of the attachment file.

    NOTE: If the file name has spaces, you may run into problems. Use the backspace key to erase the file name and write a new one without spaces in it.

  5. Press the Return/Enter key. You'll see a message at the bottom of your Pine window telling you that Pine has written the file.

  6. Use secure software to download the file from your IFS home directory to your computer. See IFS Overview (R1070) to learn the appropriate secure software for your computer and operating system.

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Additional Resources

Visit ITCS's Information System to obtain ITCS computer documentation and other resources. A list of relevant documents follows:

We welcome your comments; please send e-mail.

ITCS's Online Help Desk provides a variety of computing help resources.

For further help with Pine, send e-mail or phone (734) 764-HELP.

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