In Pine, how do I access Unix commands?

Note: Pine is not available on any central UITS systems. UITS does not support the use of Pine at Indiana University.

Note: The software discussed here is no longer in common use at Indiana University, and UITS may no longer be able to verify the document's accuracy. The UITS Support Center may no longer have the manuals and other materials required to support this software adequately.

You can access Unix commands from Pine either by exiting to the Unix shell or by piping to Unix commands from within Pine.

When you exit to the Unix shell, you leave the Pine environment altogether and enter commands at the Unix command line prompt. When you use Pine's Pipe to Unix command, you send commands and receive output from the Unix shell while still in Pine.

Exiting to the Unix shell

When you want to enter Unix commands that require some interaction (e.g., invoking editors or FTP), or if you need to issue a series of Unix commands, it is usually easiest to exit to the Unix shell. To do this, from the Main Menu in Pine, type Ctrl-z .

Note: If Ctrl-z does not suspend Pine, you may need to turn on the "enable-suspend" feature. See How can I configure Pine so that Ctrl-z will suspend my session?

Pine will spawn a Unix shell and you will be able to enter commands.

To return to Pine, at the Unix prompt, enter exit .

Piping to Unix within Pine

Note: The Pipe to Unix command is available only in Pine version 3.90 and higher.

Pine has a built-in Pipe to Unix command that you can access from the Folder Index, Message Text, Attachment Text, and Attached Message screens, and from the Apply command. With the Pipe to Unix command, you can redirect the contents of an email message or an attachment as the input of a Unix command. You can also use Pipe to Unix to execute other commands, such as decoding a message, listing the files in your directory, displaying your quota, and changing the permissions of files or directories. You cannot use the Pipe to Unix command with text editors, FTP, or commands that require confirmation before they will execute.

To use the Pipe to Unix commands, press  |  (Shift-backslash), enter a Unix command, and then press Enter. Pine will execute the command and display its output, if there is any. This command is generally available only in menus where you are looking at a message or attachment. If the pipe command doesn't work, you may have to enable it. See In Pine, how do I enable or disable the Pipe to Unix command?

Also see:

• Introduction to Unix commands