ARCHIVED: The basics of using Pine on the IU Shakespeare and Jewel systems

Pine is a simple program that allows you quick access to your email from any computer that has a telnet program. Below you will find a brief overview of the basics of using Pine on the Shakespeare and Jewel systems at Indiana University. For more detailed information, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: What is Pine?

The Pine Main Menu

The Shakespeare and Jewel systems use Pine for email and Pico for text editing. A list of single-letter commands, their names, and what they do appears on the Main Menu. Each menu item connects to a different aspect of the Pine email program.

The command bar

All screens in Pine offer a command bar along the bottom that acts as a reminder of all available commands for that particular screen. Pressing ? from most screens will bring up context-sensitive help to explain your options. If you are composing a message or editing an address book entry, press Ctrl-g to access help.

The commands on some screens begin with the ^ character. When this precedes a key, you must hold down the Ctrl (Control) key while pressing the indicated letter in order to perform the function.

Composing a message

To compose a message, from the Main Menu, press c. In the screen that appears, in the "To:" field, enter the email address of your correspondent. Email addresses take the format of username@host.domain. Some examples of this are:

  foobar@indiana.edu
  gandalf@iupui.edu
  dvader@death.star.org
  jdoe@prodigy.com
  jsmith@purdue.edu

Fill in each field of the "Compose Message" screen as needed. For more information about these fields, see the Knowledge Base documents ARCHIVED: In Pine, how can I select different message headers? and ARCHIVED: In Pine, how do I attach a file to an email message?

Compose your message in the space below "Message Text". When you are finished, press Ctrl-x to send the message.

A copy of each message you send is kept in a folder named sent-mail for future reference.

Reading a message

From the Pine Main Menu, press i to go to your Inbox. Your messages are listed here.

Use the arrow keys to highlight the message that you want to read and press Enter. For long messages, use the Spacebar to move down through the message and - (hyphen) to move back up through the message. To return to the message list, press i once more.

Having read your message, you may forward it, reply to it, delete it, or save it into a folder.

To read messages you have saved in a folder, press g for GotoFldr, and enter the name of the folder. You can also press l (the letter l) for a list of folders and use the arrow keys to select the one you wish to view.

Saving messages to a folder

Saving messages to a folder is a simple way to organize your email account using Pine. While reading the message, or when the message is highlighted in the index of messages, press s for Save. The default folder is displayed in brackets. If you wish to save to this folder, press Enter. If you wish to save to a different folder, enter the name of that folder. If the folder does not yet exist, Pine will ask you if you wish to create this folder.

Deleting messages

While reading the message, or when the message is highlighted, press d for Delete. This marks the message for deletion, but the message is not yet deleted. If the message is in a previously saved folder, it will be deleted when you leave this folder. If the message is in your Inbox, it will be deleted when you quit Pine. Pine will ask before deleting these messages. If you decide you don't want to delete a message, simply open the message or highlight it as before, then press u (for Undelete); the message will no longer be marked for deletion. If you wish to get rid of all the messages in a folder that are marked for deletion without leaving the folder or quitting Pine, simply press x (for Expunge) while in the folder.

Creating an address book

If you repeatedly send mail to groups of people or to complicated addresses, you may wish to establish an address book of frequently used email addresses. The address book allows you to establish nicknames or aliases to refer to a group of usernames, or to replace a complex address with a simple one. To do so, press a at the Pine Main Menu. Press a to create a new address book entry or distribution list. When you are finished, type Ctrl-x to save your changes.

Checking your quota

To check your Shakespeare or Jewel systems account quota, follow these steps:

1. In Pine, from the Main Menu, press ! (the exclamation point) to exit to the Unix shell.

2. At the Unix prompt, enter quota.

After a few seconds, your quota information will appear in this format:

  Disk quotas for username (uid 123456):
  Filesystem     usage  quota  limit    timeleft  files  quota  limit    timeleft
  /home/u2         430   6144   6400                 19      0      0

  IMAP quota:

    Quota  % Used    Used User
    12048      33    3933 username

Essentially, you have two quotas to keep track of: your local quota, which is listed in the example above under "Filesystem", and your IMAP quota. For an explanation of local and IMAP quotas, please see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: On the Shakespeare and Jewel systems, what are IMAP and local quotas?

If the "usage" or "% Used" columns are large, you will need to delete mail from your account to reduce your overall quota usage. For instructions on how to delete files from your local and IMAP quotas, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: About your Cyrus mail storage space

Quitting Pine

To leave Pine and log out of your Shakespeare or Jewel systems account, first make sure you have completed all your tasks, such as composing messages or making configuration changes. Then press q to quit.