1alpine(1) General Commands Manual alpine(1)
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6 alpine - an Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email
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9 alpine [ options ] [ address , address ]
10 alpinef [ options ] [ address , address ]
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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 View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.
22 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 Full-screen selection and management of message folders.
28 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 New mail checking and notification occurs automatically every
35 2.5 minutes and after certain commands, e.g. refresh-screen
36 (Ctrl-L).
37 On-line, context-sensitive help screens.
39 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 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
62 The command line options/arguments are:
63 address Send mail to address. This will cause Alpine to go
65 directly into the message composer.
66 -attach file Send mail with the listed file as an attachment.
68 -attachlist file-list
70 Send mail with the listed file-list as an attach‐
71 ments.
72 -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 -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 -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 -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 -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 -convert_sigs -p pinerc
100 Convert signature files into literal signatures.
101 -copy_abook <local_abook> <remote_abook>
103 Copy the local address book file to a remote
104 address book folder.
105 -copy_pinerc <local_pinerc> <remote_pinerc>
107 Copy the local pinerc file to a remote pinerc
108 folder.
109 -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 -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 -f folder Open folder (in first defined folder collection,
125 use -c n to specify another collection) instead of
126 INBOX.
127 -F file Open named text file and view with Alpine's
129 browser.
130 -h Help: list valid command-line options.
132 -i Start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen.
134 -I keystrokes Initial (comma separated list of) keystrokes which
136 Alpine should execute on startup.
137 -install For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
139 prompt for some basic setup information, then
140 exits.
141 -k Use function keys for commands. This is the same as
143 running the command alpinef.
144 -n number Start up with current message-number set to number.
146 -o Open first folder read-only.
148 -p config-file Use config-file as the personal configuration file
150 instead of the default .pinerc.
151 -P config-file Use config-file as the configuration file instead
153 of default system-wide configuration file
154 pine.conf.
155 -pinerc file Output fresh pinerc configuration to file, preserv‐
157 ing the settings of variables that the user has
158 made. Use file set to ``-'' to make output go to
159 standard out. <IP> -registry cmd 20 For PC-Alpine
160 only, this option affects the values of Alpine's
161 registry entries. Possible values for cmd are set,
162 clear, and dump. Set will always reset Alpine's
163 registry entries according to its current settings.
164 Clear will clear the registry values. Clearsilent
165 will silently clear the registry values. Dump will
166 display the values of current registry settings.
167 Note that the dump command is currently disabled.
168 Without the -registry option, PC-Alpine will write
169 values into the registry only if there currently
170 aren't any values set.
171 -r Use restricted/demo mode. Alpine will only send
173 mail to itself and functions like save and export
174 are restricted.
175 -sort order Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the follow‐
177 ing orders: arrival, date, subject, orderedsubj,
178 thread, from, size, score, to, cc, or reverse.
179 Arrival order is the default. The OrderedSubj
180 choice simulates a threaded sort. Any sort may be
181 reversed by adding /reverse to it. Reverse by
182 itself is the same as arrival/reverse.
183 -supported Some options may or may not be supported depending
185 on how Alpine was compiled. This is a way to
186 determine which options are supported in the par‐
187 ticular copy of Alpine you are using.
188 -uninstall For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
190 remove references to Alpine in Windows settings.
191 -url url Open the given url. Cannot be used with -f or -F
193 options.
194 -v Version: Print version information.
196 -version Version: Print version information.
198 -x config Use configuration exceptions in config. Exceptions
200 are used to override your default pinerc settings
201 for a particular platform, can be a local file or a
202 remote folder.
203 -z Enable ^Z and SIGTSTP so alpine may be suspended.
205 -option=value Assign value to the config option option e.g. -sig‐
207 nature-file=sig1 or -feature-list=signature-at-bot‐
208 tom (Note: feature-list values are additive)
209
211 There are several levels of Alpine configuration. Configuration values
212 at a given level over-ride corresponding values at lower levels. In
213 order of increasing precedence:
214 o built-in defaults.
216 o system-wide pine.conf file.
217 o personal .pinerc file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)
218 o command-line options.
219 o system-wide pine.conf.fixed file.
220 There is one exception to the rule that configuration values are
222 replaced by the value of the same option in a higher-precedence file:
223 the feature-list variable has values that are additive, but can be
224 negated by prepending "no-" in front of an individual feature name.
225 Unix Alpine also uses the following environment variables:
226 TERM
228 DISPLAY (determines if Alpine can display IMAGE attachments.)
229 SHELL (if not set, default is /bin/sh )
230 MAILCAPS (semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files)
231
233 /usr/spool/mail/xxxx Default folder for incoming mail.
234 ~/mail Default directory for mail folders.
235 ~/.addressbook Default address book file.
236 ~/.pine-debug[1-4] Diagnostic log for debugging.
237 ~/.pinerc Personal alpine config file.
238 ~/.newsrc News subscription/state file.
239 ~/.mailcap Personal mail capabilities file.
240 ~/.mime.types Personal file extension to MIME type map‐
241 ping
242 /etc/mailcap System-wide mail capabilities file.
243 /etc/mime.types System-wide file ext. to MIME type mapping
244 /usr/local/lib/pine.info Local pointer to system administrator.
245 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf System-wide configuration file.
246 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed Non-overridable configuration file.
247 /tmp/.\usr\spool\mail\xxxx Per-folder mailbox lock files.
248 ~/.pine-interrupted-mail Message which was interrupted.
249 ~/mail/postponed-msgs For postponed messages.
250 ~/mail/sent-mail Outgoing message archive (FCC).
251 ~/mail/saved-messages Default destination for Saving messages.
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254 pico(1), binmail(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8), spell(1),
255 imapd(8)
256 Newsgroup: comp.mail.pine
258 Alpine Information Center: http://www.washington.edu/alpine
259 Source distribution: ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/alpine/alpine.tar.gz
260 Alpine Technical Notes, included in the source distribution.
261 C-Client messaging API library, included in the source distribution.
262
264 The University of Washington Alpine development team (part of the UW Office
265 of Computing & Communications) includes:
266 Project Leader: Mike Seibel
268 Principal authors: Mike Seibel, Steve Hubert, Jeff Franklin
269 C-Client library & IMAPd: Mark Crispin
270 Documentation: Many people!
271 Project oversight: Terry Gray, Lori Stevens
272 Principal Patrons: Ron Johnson, Mike Bryant
273 Initial Alpine code base: Pine - by the University of Washington,
274 Elm - by Dave Taylor & USENET Community Trust
275 Initial Pico code base: MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy
276 User Interface design: Inspired by UCLA's "Ben" mailer for MVS
277 Suggestions/fixes/ports: Folks from all over!
278 $Date: 2008-03-14 16:53:39 -0700 (Fri, 14 Mar 2008) $
280 Version 1.10 alpine(1)