In Pine, how do I save a file attached to an email message to my hard drive?

Username:
Password:

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.

There are three steps to transferring an attachment from an email message in Pine to the hard drive on your local computer:

Export the attachment to a file.
Transfer the file to your local computer.
Decode the file (if necessary).

To export the attachment to a file

Select the message that has the attached file, and open it as usual.
Press v to invoke the View Attach command.
You will see a list of the attachments for that message. With the arrow keys, select the attachment you want, and press s for Save.
You should see a prompt that says: Copy attachment to file:
Type the name you want to give the file and press Enter. Pine will save the file to your home directory.
When you're finished, press e for Exit Viewer.

To transfer the file to your local computer

The following is a general method for using an FTP or SFTP program to download your attachment:

Start your FTP or SFTP program.
Connect to your email account host, using the same username and password you use to log in.
The FTP or SFTP program will normally place you in your home directory automatically. It may also automatically list the files in your directory.
Select the filename you used when you exported the message from Pine, and use the get command to download the file.

The file downloads on your computer to the location you specify (e.g., hard drive or floppy disk). If you are transferring a file that contains binary data, such as a graphics file or a word processing document, make sure to set your FTP or SFTP program to transfer in binary mode.

For more information on common FTP and SFTP programs, see the references below:

Transmit:

In Mac OS or Mac OS X, how do I use Transmit 2.x and earlier to transfer files between computers?

SSH Secure Shell:

In SSH Secure Shell for Windows, how do I transfer files?

MacSFTP:

In Mac OS X, how do I use Cyberduck to transfer files?

Netscape Navigator (Netscape Navigator can upload and download files):

In Windows, how do I use FTP in my web browser to upload and download files to a server that requires a password?

FTP (in general) and Unix FTP programs:

What is FTP, and how do I use it to transfer files?

SFTP (in general) and Unix SFTP programs:

What is SFTP, and how do I use it to transfer files?

To decode the file

Note: In most situations, you do not have to decode the file, though you may need to decompress it. The following information may be helpful if you must decode the file.

Attachments are often encoded and/or compressed and may need to be unencoded before you can use them. You may do this either before or after you've downloaded the attachment, though the latter is usually easier. Below is a list of common encoding methods (with filename extensions that commonly identify them) and references for instructions to decode them. The programs StuffIt Expander (Mac OS and Mac OS X) and WinZip can decode most of these formats:

uuencode ( .uu and .uue ):