1alpine(1)                   General Commands Manual                  alpine(1)
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NAME

6       alpine - an Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email
7

SYNTAX

9       alpine [ options ] [ address , address ]
10
11       alpinef [ options ] [ address , address ]
12

DESCRIPTION

14       Alpine is a screen-oriented message-handling tool.  In its default con‐
15       figuration, Alpine offers an intentionally  limited  set  of  functions
16       geared toward the novice user, but it also has a large list of optional
17       "power-user" and personal-preference features.  alpinef is a variant of
18       Alpine  that uses function keys rather than mnemonic single-letter com‐
19       mands.  Alpine's basic feature set includes:
20
21              View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.
22
23              Compose messages in a simple editor (Pico) with word-wrap and  a
24              spelling  checker.   Messages may be postponed for later comple‐
25              tion.
26
27              Full-screen selection and management of message folders.
28
29              Address  book  to  keep  a  list  of  long  or   frequently-used
30              addresses.    Personal   distribution   lists  may  be  defined.
31              Addresses may be taken into the address book from incoming  mail
32              without retyping them.
33
34              New  mail  checking  and notification occurs automatically every
35              2.5 minutes and  after  certain  commands,  e.g.  refresh-screen
36              (Ctrl-L).
37
38              On-line, context-sensitive help screens.
39
40       Alpine supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), an Inter‐
41       net Standard for representing multipart and multimedia data  in  email.
42       Alpine allows you to save MIME objects to files, and in some cases, can
43       also initiate the correct program for viewing the object.  It uses  the
44       system's  mailcap  configuration  file  to  determine  what program can
45       process a particular MIME object type.  Alpine's message composer  does
46       not  have  integral  multimedia  capability,  but any type of data file
47       --including multimedia-- can be attached to a  text  message  and  sent
48       using MIME's encoding rules.  This allows any group of individuals with
49       MIME-capable mail software (e.g. Alpine, PC-Alpine, or many other  pro‐
50       grams)  to  exchange  formatted  documents, spread-sheets, image files,
51       etc, via Internet email.
52
53       Alpine uses the c-client messaging API to access local and remote  mail
54       folders.  This library provides a variety of low-level message-handling
55       functions, including drivers for a variety of different mail file  for‐
56       mats, as well as routines to access remote mail and news servers, using
57       IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and NNTP (Network  News  Trans‐
58       port  Protocol).   Outgoing  mail  is  usually posted directly via SMTP
59       (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
60

OPTIONS

62       The command line options/arguments are:
63
64       address             Send mail to address.  This will cause Alpine to go
65                           directly into the message composer.
66
67       -attach file        Send mail with the listed file as an attachment.
68
69       -attachlist file-list
70                           Send  mail  with the listed file-list as an attach‐
71                           ments.
72
73       -attach_and_delete file
74                           Send mail with the listed file  as  an  attachment,
75                           and remove the file after the message is sent.
76
77       -aux local_directory
78                           PC-Alpine  only.  When using a remote configuration
79                           (-p <remote_config>) this tells PC-Alpine the local
80                           directory  to use for storing auxiliary files, like
81                           debug files, address books, and signature files.
82
83       -bail               Exit if the pinerc file does not exist. This  might
84                           be useful if the config file is accessed using some
85                           remote filesystem protocol. If the remote mount  is
86                           missing  this  will cause Alpine to quit instead of
87                           creating a new pinerc.
88
89       -c context-number   context-number is the number corresponding  to  the
90                           folder-collection  to  which  the  -f  command line
91                           argument should be  applied.   By  default  the  -f
92                           argument  is  applied  to the first defined folder-
93                           collection.
94
95       -conf               Produce a sample/fresh copy of the system-wide con‐
96                           figuration file, pine.conf, on the standard output.
97                           This is distinct from the per-user .pinerc file.
98
99       -convert_sigs -p pinerc
100                           Convert signature files into literal signatures.
101
102       -copy_abook <local_abook> <remote_abook>
103                           Copy the  local  address  book  file  to  a  remote
104                           address book folder.
105
106       -copy_pinerc <local_pinerc> <remote_pinerc>
107                           Copy  the  local  pinerc  file  to  a remote pinerc
108                           folder.
109
110       -d debug-level      Output diagnostic info at debug-level (0-9) to  the
111                           current  .pine-debug[1-4] file.  A value of 0 turns
112                           debugging off and suppresses the .pine-debug file.
113
114       -d key[=val]        Fine tuned  output  of  diagnostic  messages  where
115                           "flush"  causes  debug file writing without buffer‐
116                           ing, "timestamp" appends each message with a  time‐
117                           stamp,  "imap=n"  where n is between 0 and 4 repre‐
118                           senting none to verbose IMAP  telemetry  reporting,
119                           "numfiles=n"  where  n  is  between 0 and 31 corre‐
120                           sponding to the number of debug files to  maintain,
121                           and "verbose=n" where n is between 0 and 9 indicat‐
122                           ing an inverse threshold for message output.
123
124       -f folder           Open folder (in first  defined  folder  collection,
125                           use  -c n to specify another collection) instead of
126                           INBOX.
127
128       -F file             Open  named  text  file  and  view  with   Alpine's
129                           browser.
130
131       -h                  Help: list valid command-line options.
132
133       -i                  Start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen.
134
135       -I keystrokes       Initial  (comma separated list of) keystrokes which
136                           Alpine should execute on startup.
137
138       -install            For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
139                           prompt  for  some  basic  setup  information,  then
140                           exits.
141
142       -k                  Use function keys for commands. This is the same as
143                           running the command alpinef.
144
145       -n number           Start up with current message-number set to number.
146
147       -noutf8             Warns  Alpine  that  piped  input is not encoded in
148                           UTF-8.
149
150       -nowrite_password_cache
151                           Read from a password cache if  there  is  one,  but
152                           never offer to write a password to the cache
153
154       -o                  Open first folder read-only.
155
156       -p config-file      Use  config-file as the personal configuration file
157                           instead of the default .pinerc.
158
159       -P config-file      Use config-file as the configuration  file  instead
160                           of    default    system-wide   configuration   file
161                           pine.conf.
162
163       -passfile <fully-qualified-path>
164                           When password file support is compiled in, use  the
165                           file specified in <fully-qualified-path> instead of
166                           the default.
167
168       -pinerc file        Output fresh pinerc configuration to file, preserv‐
169                           ing  the  settings  of  variables that the user has
170                           made.  Use file set to ``-'' to make output  go  to
171                           standard out.
172
173       -pwdcertdir <fully-qualified-path>
174                           When  SMIME  and password file support are compiled
175                           in, this variable sets the directory to store  your
176                           personal key and certificate to encrypt and decrypt
177                           your password file.
178
179       -r                  Use restricted/demo mode.  Alpine  will  only  send
180                           mail  to  itself and functions like save and export
181                           are restricted.
182
183       -registry cmd       For PC-Alpine only, this option affects the  values
184                           of  Alpine's registry entries.  Possible values for
185                           cmd are set, clear,  and  dump.   Set  will  always
186                           reset  Alpine's  registry  entries according to its
187                           current settings.  Clear will  clear  the  registry
188                           values.   Clearsilent  will silently clear the reg‐
189                           istry values.  Dump will display the values of cur‐
190                           rent registry settings.  Note that the dump command
191                           is  currently  disabled.   Without  the   -registry
192                           option,  PC-Alpine  will write values into the reg‐
193                           istry only if there  currently  aren't  any  values
194                           set.
195
196       -smimedir <fully-qualified-path>
197                           If  SMIME  is  compiled  in, this argument sets the
198                           directory where the public, private,  and  certifi‐
199                           cate  authorities certificates and keys are stored.
200                           If not set by  the  command  line  the  default  is
201                           ~/.alpine-smime
202
203       -sort order         Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the follow‐
204                           ing orders: arrival,  date,  subject,  orderedsubj,
205                           thread,  from,  size,  score,  to,  cc, or reverse.
206                           Arrival order  is  the  default.   The  OrderedSubj
207                           choice  simulates a threaded sort.  Any sort may be
208                           reversed by adding  /reverse  to  it.   Reverse  by
209                           itself is the same as arrival/reverse.
210
211       -supported          Some  options may or may not be supported depending
212                           on how Alpine was  compiled.   This  is  a  way  to
213                           determine  which  options are supported in the par‐
214                           ticular copy of Alpine you are using.
215
216       -uninstall          For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
217                           remove references to Alpine in Windows settings.
218
219       -url url            Open  the  given url.  Cannot be used with -f or -F
220                           options.
221
222       -v                  Version: Print version information.
223
224       -version            Version: Print version information.
225
226       -x config           Use configuration exceptions in config.  Exceptions
227                           are  used  to override your default pinerc settings
228                           for a particular platform, can be a local file or a
229                           remote folder.
230
231       -z                  Enable ^Z and SIGTSTP so alpine may be suspended.
232
233       -option=value       Assign value to the config option option e.g. -sig‐
234                           nature-file=sig1 or -feature-list=signature-at-bot‐
235                           tom (Note: feature-list values are additive)
236

CONFIGURATION

238       There are several levels of Alpine configuration.  Configuration values
239       at a given level over-ride corresponding values at  lower  levels.   In
240       order of increasing precedence:
241
242        o built-in defaults.
243        o system-wide pine.conf file.
244        o personal .pinerc file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)
245        o command-line options.
246        o system-wide pine.conf.fixed file.
247
248       There  is  one  exception  to  the  rule  that configuration values are
249       replaced by the value of the same option in a  higher-precedence  file:
250       the  feature-list  variable  has  values  that are additive, but can be
251       negated by prepending "no-" in front of  an  individual  feature  name.
252       Unix Alpine also uses the following environment variables:
253
254         TERM
255         DISPLAY     (determines if Alpine can display IMAGE attachments.)
256         SHELL       (if not set, default is /bin/sh )
257         MAILCAPS    (semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files)
258

FILES

260       /usr/spool/mail/xxxx        Default folder for incoming mail.
261       ~/mail                      Default directory for mail folders.
262       ~/.addressbook              Default address book file.
263       ~/.signature                File  used for signature, appended to every
264       message.
265       ~/.pine-debug[1-4]          Diagnostic log for debugging.
266       ~/.pinerc                   Personal alpine config file.
267       ~/.pine-crash               Debug information useful to debug a crash.
268       ~/.newsrc                   News subscription/state file.
269       ~/.mailcap                  Personal mail capabilities file.
270       ~/.mime.types               Personal file extension to MIME  type  map‐
271       ping
272       /etc/mailcap                System-wide mail capabilities file.
273       /etc/mime.types             System-wide file ext. to MIME type mapping
274       /usr/local/lib/pine.info    Local pointer to system administrator.
275       /usr/local/lib/pine.conf    System-wide configuration file.
276       /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed Non-overridable configuration file.
277       ~/.alpine-smime/ca          Directory that contains Certificate Author‐
278       ity files.
279       ~/.alpine-smime/private     Directory that contains private key(s).
280       ~/.alpine-smime/public      Directory that contains public key(s).
281       /tmp/.\usr\spool\mail\xxxx  Per-folder mailbox lock files.
282       ~/.pine-interrupted-mail    Message which was interrupted.
283       ~/mail/postponed-msgs       For postponed messages (drafts)
284       ~/mail/sent-mail            Outgoing message archive (FCC).
285       ~/mail/saved-messages       Default destination for Saving messages.
286

SEE ALSO

288       pico(1), binmail(1), aliases(5),  mailaddr(7),  sendmail(8),  spell(1),
289       imapd(8)
290
291       Newsgroup:  comp.mail.pine
292
293       Mailing List:
294       Alpine-info, at https://www.washington.edu/alpine/alpine-info/
295
296       Main Alpine distribution site:
297       http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/release/
298
299       Alpine Technical Notes, included in the source distribution.
300
301       C-Client messaging API library, included in the source distribution.
302

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

304       This software is the result of the contribution of many individuals
305       who have dedicated their time to support, improve and suggest ways
306       to improve Alpine through the years. This software would not be
307       possible without the support of the University of Washington in
308       Seattle, Washington. The Alpine community extends its most sincere
309       thanks to all contributors and invites everyone to join in and
310       contribute to this project.
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314                                 Version 2.21                        alpine(1)
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