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2 Alpine Technical Notes
4 Version 2.24, October 2020
6 Table of Contents
8 Introduction
10 * Design Goals
11 * Alpine Components
13 Background Details
15 * Domain Names
16 * RFC 2822 Compliance
17 * SMTP and Sendmail
18 * Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
19 * Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
20 * Folder Collections
22 Building and Installation
24 * Compile-time Options
25 * Including LDAP Functionality
26 * Including Kerberos 5 Functionality
27 * Other Alpine Compile-time Options
28 * IMAPd Compile-time Options
29 * Building the Alpine Programs
30 * Installing Alpine and Pico on UNIX Platforms
31 * Installing PC-Alpine
32 * Installing IMAPd
33 * Support Files and Environment Variables: UNIX Alpine
34 * Support Files, Environment Variables, and Registry Values:
35 PC-Alpine
37 Command Line Arguments
39 * Alpine
40 * Pico
41 * Pilot
43 Configuration and Preferences
45 * Alpine Configuration
46 * General Configuration Variables
47 * Configuration Features
48 * Hidden Config Variables and Features
49 * Retired Variables
50 * Tokens for Index and Replying
51 * Conditional Inclusion of Text for Reply-Leadin, Signatures, and
52 Templates
53 * Per Server Directory Configuration
54 * Color Configuration
55 * Index Line Color Configuration
56 * Role Configuration
57 * Filtering Configuration
58 * Scoring Configuration
59 * Other Rules Configuration
60 * Search Rules Configuration
61 * Patterns
62 * Configuring News
63 Configuration Notes
64 + Alpine in Function Key Mode
65 + Domain Settings
66 + Syntax for Collections
67 + Syntax for Folder Names
68 + Server Name Syntax
69 + Folder Namespaces
70 + What is a Mail Drop?
71 + Sorting a Folder
72 + Alternate Editor
73 + Signatures and Signature Placement
74 + Feature List Variable
75 + Configuration Inheritance
76 + Using Environment Variables
77 + SMTP Servers
78 + MIME.Types file
79 + Color Details
80 + S/MIME Overview
81 + Additional Notes on PC-Alpine
83 Behind the Scenes
85 * Address Books
86 * Remote Configuration
87 * Checkpointing
88 * Debug Files
89 * INBOX and Special Folders
90 * Internal Help Files
91 * International Character Sets
92 * Interrupted and Postponed Messages
93 * Message Status
94 * MIME: Reading a Message
95 * MIME: Sending a Message
96 * New Mail Notification
97 * NFS
98 * Printers and Printing
99 * Save and Export
100 * Sent Mail
101 * Spell Checker
102 * Terminal Emulation and Key Mapping
104 Introduction
106 Design Goals
108 Throughout _Alpine_ development, we have had to strike a balance
109 between the need to include features which advanced users require and
110 the need to keep things simple for beginning users. To strike this
111 balance, we have tried to adhere to these design principles:
113 - The model presented to the user has to be simple and clear.
114 Underlying system operation is hidden as much as possible.
115 - It's better to have a few easily understood commands that can
116 be repeated than to have some more sophisticated command that
117 will do the job all at once.
118 - Whenever the user has to select a command, file name, address,
119 etc., the user should be given (or can get) a menu from which to
120 make the selection. Menus need to be complete, small, organized
121 and well thought out.
122 - _Alpine_ must provide immediate feedback for the user with
123 each operation.
124 - _Alpine_ must be very tolerant of user errors. Any time a user
125 is about to perform an irreversible act (send a message, expunge
126 messages from a folder), _Alpine_ should ask for confirmation.
127 - Users should be able to learn by exploration without fear of
128 doing anything wrong. This is an important feature so the user
129 can get started quickly without reading any manuals and so fewer
130 manuals are required.
131 - The core set of _Alpine_ functions should be kept to a minimum
132 so new users don't feel "lost" in seemingly extraneous commands
133 and concepts.
135 Just as there were goals relating to the look and feel of _Alpine_,
136 there were equally important goals having to do with _Alpine_'s
137 structure-the things that users never see but still rely on every time
138 they use _Alpine_. While _Alpine_ can be used as a stand-alone mail
139 user agent, one of its strongest assets is its use of the Internet
140 Message Access Protocol (IMAP) for accessing remote email folders. In
141 addition, _Pine_ (the predecessor of _Alpine_) was one of the first
142 programs to support the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
143 specification. With MIME, _Alpine_ users can reliably send any binary
144 file to any other person on the Internet who uses a MIME compliant
145 email program.
147 The decision to use IMAP and MIME reflects the importance of
148 interoperability, standardization and robustness in _Alpine_. As you
149 work with _Alpine_ more, you will see other features which reflect the
150 same values. For example, _Alpine_ enforces strict compliance with RFC
151 2822, implements a strong mail folder locking mechanism and verifies a
152 process before overwriting any files (e.g. addressbook, expunging
153 messages).
155 Alpine Components
157 If you have picked up the _Alpine_ distribution, then you already know
158 that _Alpine_ comes in a few different pieces. They are:
160 _Alpine_
161 The main code from which the _Alpine_ program is compiled.
162 _Pico_
163 _Pico_ is the name for the _Alpine_ composer. The _Pico_ code is
164 used in two ways: (1) it is compiled on its own to be a
165 stand-alone editor and, (2) it is compiled as a library for
166 _Alpine_ to support composition of messages within _Alpine_.
167 _Pico_ is _Alpine_'s internal editor invoked when users need to
168 fill in header lines or type the text of an email message.
169 _Imap_
170 An API for IMAP. Includes the C-Client library, which is
171 compiled into _Alpine_, and the IMAP server _IMAPd_. C-Client
172 implements the IMAP protocol and also negotiates all access
173 between _Alpine_ and the mail folders it operates on, even if
174 the folders are local. The C-Client routines are used for email
175 folder parsing and interpreting MIME messages. _IMAPd_ is a
176 separate server that handles IMAP connections from any
177 IMAP-compliant email program. When _Alpine_ accesses a remote
178 mailbox, the _Alpine_ program is the IMAP client and the _IMAPd_
179 program is the IMAP server. Of course, _Alpine_ can use any
180 IMAP-compliant IMAP server, not just _IMAPd_.
182 Background Details
184 Domain Names
186 Domain names are used to uniquely name each host on the Internet. A
187 domain name has a number of parts separated by periods. Each label
188 represents a level in the hierarchy. An example of a name is:
190 olive.cac.washington.edu
192 In this domain name the top-level label is _edu_, indicating it is at
193 an educational institution, the second-level label is _washington_,
194 indicating the University of Washington. _cac_ is a specific department
195 within the University of Washington, and _olive_ is the host name. The
196 top-level names are assigned by Internet organizations, and other names
197 are assigned at the appropriate level. The Domain Name Service, DNS, is
198 the distributed database used to look up these names.
200 _Alpine_ relies on domain names in multiple places. A domain name is
201 embedded into the message-id line generated for each piece of email. A
202 domain name is needed to contact an IMAP server to get access to remote
203 INBOXes and folders. Most importantly, domain names are needed to
204 construct the From: line of your outgoing messages so that people on
205 the Internet will be able to get email back to you.
207 On UNIX systems, you can set the domain via the user-domain variable in
208 the _Alpine_ configuration file, or rely on the file /etc/hosts which
209 usually sets the name of the local host. While _Alpine_ can often
210 deliver email without the domain name being properly configured, it is
211 best to have this set correctly. Problems can usually be solved by
212 adjusting the system's entry in the /etc/hosts file. The
213 fully-qualified name should be listed before any abbreviations. For
214 example,
216 128.95.112.99 olive.cac.washington.edu olive
218 is preferred over
220 128.95.112.99 olive olive.cac.washington.edu
222 On PCs, the task of configuring the domain name is a bit different.
223 Often times PCs do not have domain names-they have _IP addresses_. IP
224 addresses are the numbers which uniquely identify a computer on the
225 network. The way you configure your IP address depends on the
226 networking software which you use on the PC. You can refer to the
227 documentation which came with your networking software or see the PC
228 specific installation notes for help configuring the IP address with
229 your network software.
231 With PCs, it is vital that users set the variable user-domain in the
232 _Alpine_ configuration file (PINERC).
234 Details on configuring _Alpine_ with correct domain names can be found
235 in the Domain Settings section of this document.
236 __________________________________________________________________
238 RFC 2822 Compliance
240 _Alpine_ tries to adhere to RFC 2822 fairly strictly.
242 As far as outgoing email is concerned, _Alpine_ fully-qualifies
243 addresses whenever possible. They are even displayed in fully-qualified
244 form on the terminal as the user composes a message. This makes
245 addresses more clear and gives a hint to the user that the network
246 extends beyond the local organization. _Alpine_ implements
247 fully-qualified domain names by tacking on the local domain to all
248 unqualified addresses which a user types in. Any address which does not
249 contain an "@" is considered unqualified.
251 The format for addresses allows for spaces and special characters in
252 the full name of an address. For this reason, commas are required to
253 separate addresses. If any special characters as defined in RFC 2822
254 appear in the full name, quotes are required around the address.
255 _Alpine_ will insert the quotes automatically if needed. The common
256 cases where this happens are with periods after initials and
257 parentheses.
259 _Alpine_ expects dates to be in the standard RFC 822 format which is
260 something like:
261 [www, ] dd mmm yy hh:mm[:ss] [timezone]
263 It will attempt to parse dates that are not in this format. When an
264 unparsable date is encountered it is shown as question marks in the
265 FOLDER INDEX screen.
266 __________________________________________________________________
268 SMTP and Sendmail
270 _Alpine_ is a _user agent_ not a _message transfer agent_ (MTA). In
271 plain English, that means _Alpine_ does not know how to interact with
272 other computers on the Internet to deliver or receive email. What
273 _Alpine_ does know how to do is help users read, organize and create
274 email. The "dirty work" of delivering and accepting email is handled by
275 other programs.
277 All outgoing email is delivered to an SMTP server or to a mail transfer
278 agent. A common mail transfer agent is sendmail. The usual method of
279 delivery used by _Alpine_ is to use either a local or a remote SMTP
280 server.
282 The selection of which MTA to use depends on the settings of
283 smtp-server, sendmail-path, and compile-time options. The first MTA
284 specified in the following list is used:
285 1. _sendmail-path_ in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed
286 2. _smtp-server_ in /usr/local/pine.conf.fixed
287 3. _sendmail-path_ specified on the command line.
288 4. _smtp-server_ specified on the command line.
289 5. _sendmail-path_ in the user's .pinerc file.
290 6. _smtp-server_ in the user's .pinerc file.
291 7. _sendmail-path_ in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
292 8. _smtp-server_ in /usr/local/pine.conf
293 9. DF_SENDMAIL_PATH defined at compile time.
294 10. SENDMAIL and SENDMAILFLAGS defined at compile time.
296 If the _sendmail-path_ form is used, a child process is forked, and the
297 specified command is executed with the message passed on standard
298 input. Standard output is then passed back and displayed for the user.
299 _NOTE: The program MUST read the message to be posted on standard input,
300 AND operate in the style of sendmail's "-t" option. This method is not
301 recommended unless there are special reasons you want to do this._
303 If an _smtp-server_ is specified, _Alpine_ operates as an SMTP client.
304 SMTP stands for _Simple Mail Transfer Protocol_; it specifies the rules
305 by which computers on the Internet pass email to one another. In this
306 case, _Alpine_ passes outgoing email messages to a designated SMTP
307 server instead of to a mail transfer program on the local machine. A
308 program on the server then takes care of delivering the message. To
309 make _Alpine_ operate as an SMTP client, the smtp-server variable must
310 be set to the IP address or host name of the SMTP server within your
311 organization. This variable accepts a comma separated list of servers,
312 so you can specify multiple alternate SMTP servers. _PC-Alpine_ only
313 runs as an SMTP client so the _smtp-server_ option is mandatory.
315 For UNIX _Alpine_, if neither _smtp-server_ or _sendmail-path_ is set,
316 the default sendmail program is invoked with the "-bs -odb -oem" flags,
317 and the message is sent using the SMTP protocol.
318 __________________________________________________________________
320 Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
322 IMAP is a remote access protocol for message stores. _Alpine_ uses IMAP
323 to get at messages and folders which reside on remote machines. With
324 IMAP, messages are kept on the server. An IMAP client (such as
325 _Alpine_) can request specific messages, headers, message structures,
326 message parts, etc. The client can also issue commands which delete
327 messages from folders on the server. IMAP's closest kin is POP, the
328 Post Office Protocol, which works by transferring an entire mailbox to
329 the client where all the mail is kept. For a comparison of IMAP and
330 POP, see the paper "Comparing Two Approaches to Remote Mailbox Access:
331 IMAP vs. POP" by Terry Gray. A more detailed exploration of message
332 access may be found in the paper " Message Access Paradigms and
333 Protocols."
335 IMAP Features:
336 * Allows access to mail folders from more than one client computer.
337 * Works well over low-bandwidth lines because information is sent in
338 small pieces as needed by the user. For example, only header
339 information is sent to build index lists, and if someone sends a
340 large audio file via MIME, you can choose when (or if) you want to
341 get that part of the message.
342 * Email can be delivered and stored on a well-maintained and reliable
343 server which is "always-up".
344 * Folders can be accessed and manipulated from anywhere on the
345 Internet.
346 * Users can get to messages stored in different folders within the
347 same _Alpine_ session.
348 * Allows use of IMAP server for searching and parsing.
349 * The latest revision of IMAP (IMAP4) also provides for disconnected
350 operation, including resynchronization of message state between
351 mail servers and message caches on clients. _Alpine_ does not
352 support this capability, however.
354 IMAP4rev1 is described in RFC 3501. Further information about IMAP may
355 be obtained from the University of Washington's IMAP Information
356 Center.
358 _Alpine_ is an IMAP4rev1 client.
359 __________________________________________________________________
361 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
363 MIME is a way of encoding a multipart message structure into a standard
364 Internet email message. The parts may be nested and may be of seven
365 different types: Text, Audio, Image, Video, Message, Application and
366 Multipart (nested). The MIME specification allows email programs such
367 as _Alpine_ to reliably and simply exchange binary data (images,
368 spreadsheets, etc.). MIME includes support for international character
369 sets, tagging each part of a message with the character set it is
370 written in, and providing 7-bit encoding of 8-bit character sets.
372 The MIME standard was officially published in June of 1992 as RFC 1341
373 and subsequently revised in RFC 2045 when it became a full Internet
374 Standard. _Pine_ 3.0 was one of the first email programs to Implement
375 MIME. Now, there are dozens of commercial and freely available
376 MIME-capable email programs. In addition, MIME is being added to
377 newsreaders so MIME messages can be posted and read in USENET
378 newsgroups.
380 The MIME standard also includes support for non-ASCII text in message
381 headers through the extensions described in RFC 1342 and subsequently
382 revised in RFC 2047.
384 An actual MIME message looks something like this:
385 Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 15:39:35 -0800 (PST)
386 From: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
387 To: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
388 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Test_MIME_message_with_RFC-1522_headers_=28=E1?= =?is
389 o-8859-1?Q?=E2=E3=29?=
390 Message-Id: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312150851.21583I-101000@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
391 Mime-Version: 1.0
392 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="0-1737669234-826673975=:21583"
393 Content-Id: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153928.21583O@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
395 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
396 while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.
397 Send mail to mime@docserver.cac.washington.edu for more info.
399 --0-1737669234-826673975=:21583
400 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
401 Content-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153104.21583L@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
403 The text of the message would go here. It is readable if
404 one doesn't mind wading around a little bit of the MIME
405 formatting. After this is a binary file in base 64
406 encoding.
408 |\ | |\/| David L. Miller dlm@cac.washington.edu (206) 685-6240
409 |/ |_ | | Software Engineer, Pine Development Team (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
410 University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, JE-20
411 4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA
413 --0-1737669234-826673975=:21583
414 Content-Type: APPLICATION/ZIP; NAME="test.zip"
415 Content-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64
416 Content-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153638.21583N@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
417 Content-Description: Test Attachment
419 UEsDBBQAAAAIAGh8bCBbZKT4ygIAAHgFAAAEAAAAdGVzdIVUX2vbMBB/16c4
420 9rSBNyjsYX1UHSUROLInycv2qNhKI5ZYxlLa5dvvpDRLw6CFgJF09/t3Rxo3
421 WDBDD43rPJjJQpxMbw9m+h3AbyHuLLSDe7JTcPGUbtYm7NzwGP3wBYQnnT8c
422 7NQ5s4djsC8t4QbmYE6wsfjpLTy7uPPHCOPk/ATPk4vRDmS008GF4PzwPich
423 zY3m4LfxOQlPNy4GcEO3P/a2h2j/xGyp9ONpco+7CHf33+4/393ff4XNibzL
424 c1UVfXJXQIdIBRx877b4TYy9C3Fym2NEyzsX/pNDet8dD3aIJiagLbo2wwnG
425 4zT6cK66ZLK1NhH9J4tcZQEy7OxkNyd4nMwQbV9glP7JZb87E3O32fgnm7We
426 XQ8+us4SM47WTCkgMPt9enc2ZAW5c+Pj7o32l0IXXk/r8pSRE3A4jqOfIqqF
427 G+PFlSdRDOaQduXNESTwtDcYfJ8191gWXUjYmOJ43Oxdh11JTzRuSPcY37+B
428 vNqmf0O5RB1G27mt64rLCp4X8pW1L6BvxunCeYHNk3F7s9lb+GAwyvAhOyNE
429 Lxm0gv9gUnH9C+o5rKlacrHQtYAZV2VF+UoBrSp8kJIKzZkqgP1sJFMKagl8
430 1VSczQqy5noJki2onIGuQS+5AlXPNfaxArgoq3aGwJDq6lZDxVdcU82RKMG/
431 4JArTVKzYrJc4pE+8CoJpGIGc65FIp8jO4WGSs3LtqISmlY2tUKyVMUFETWw
432 H0xoUMvE8KbXB4aC6EPFzrDiF6iGlZxWBeFixiUrdXJb1kKx7y2C4hPM6Iou
433 WI4hdVyO6yXVqkZqiXmottLJ9lzWK1LVKttqk8oZ1TS1NrJGS5jqeslQI0aK
434 ieCvzNlgNZJqiccCc5WafLxmKdii4gsmSvYpISkteamzkRwXJiG5SoUpcERK
435 8xIE8QQ7o+eh5WAUy1qYRP8rioip/maI+OfyF1BLAQIUAxQAAAAIAGh8bCBb
436 ZKT4ygIAAHgFAAAEAAAAAAAAAAEAAACkgQAAAAB0ZXN0UEsFBgAAAAABAAEA
437 MgAAAOwCAAAAAA==
438 --0-1737669234-826673975=:21583--
441 For details about _Alpine_'s implementation of MIME, see the two MIME
442 sections "MIME: Reading a Message" and "MIME: Sending a Message" later
443 in this document.
444 __________________________________________________________________
446 Folder Collections
448 Folder Collections are _Alpine_'s way of dealing with more than a
449 single group of folders.
451 For a more complete description of Folder Collections, see the section
452 on "Syntax for Collections."
454 The _Alpine_ distribution is designed to require as little
455 configuration and effort at compile time as possible. Still, there are
456 some _Alpine_ behaviors which are set at the time you compile _Alpine_.
457 For each of these, there is a reasonable (our opinion) default built
458 into the code, so most systems administrators will have no need for
459 these steps.
461 Building and Installation
463 Compile-time Options
465 _Alpine_'s UNIX build environment is based on Autotools (the GNU Build
466 System). Once you've unpacked the source distribution find the file
467 configure in the top-level directory. You may look at the many options
468 available by typing
470 ./configure --help
472 or you could just try building with the command
474 ./configure
476 followed by
478 make
480 Note, while the UW IMAP Toolkit (whose c-client library _Alpine_ uses
481 for mailbox access) build is not based on Autotools, _Alpine_'s
482 configure script should set an appropriate make target and compilation
483 options for most systems.
485 Some of the following can only be set when you build. Others, however,
486 can be overridden by command-line flags to _Alpine_ or settings in
487 _Alpine_'s user or system configuration files. Some of the options which
488 can be set when building:
490 Including LDAP Functionality
492 By default, the configure script will attempt to find the LDAP library
493 support for you. If you are having trouble with LDAP take a look at the
494 configure options
495 --with-ldap-dir=DIR
496 Specify the root of the LDAP lib/include path.
497 --with-ldap-include-dir=DIR
498 Specify the LDAP include path.
499 --with-ldap-lib-dir=DIR
500 Specify the LDAP library path.
501 --without-ldap
502 Disable LDAP support.
504 _Alpine_ uses LDAPv3 protocol. When using the LDAPv3 protocol, the
505 results are assumed to be in the UTF-8 character set, which _Alpine_
506 handles well. If the LDAP server returns non-ascii data which is not
507 encoded as UTF-8 you will probably run into problems.
509 Including Kerberos 5 Functionality
511 This works analogously to the LDAP build. By default, the configure
512 script will attempt to find the Kerberos library support for you. If
513 you are having trouble with Kerberos take a look at the configure
514 options
515 --with-krb5-dir=DIR
516 Specify the root of the Kerberos lib/include path.
517 --with-krb5-include-dir=DIR
518 Specify the Kerberos include path.
519 --with-krb5-lib-dir=DIR
520 Specify the Kerberos library path.
521 --without-krb5
522 Disable Kerberos support.
524 Other Alpine Compile-time Options
526 --disable-nls
527 Do not use Native Language Support. NLS refers to the use of GNU
528 gettext utilities to localize a program, in the sense that
529 English is translated to some other language. At the time this
530 was written the low-level support for NSL is included in _Alpine_
531 but no translations have been done. If there is no translation
532 available, that means that disabling NLS will make no
533 difference. If you have trouble building which is due to gettext
534 or libintl you could try this option, or one of the following.
535 --with-libintl-prefix[=DIR]
536 --without-libintl-prefix
537 --with-ssl-dir=DIR
538 Specify the root of the SSL lib/include path (OpenSSL).
539 --with-ssl-include-dir=DIR
540 Specify the SSL include path.
541 --with-ssl-lib-dir=DIR
542 Specify the SSL library path.
543 --with-ssl-certs-dir=DIR
544 Specify the path to the SSL certificates directory.
545 --without-ssl
546 Disable SSL support.
547 --without-pthread
548 Do not test for nor build with POSIX thread support, which is
549 used only for the Busy-Cue in the status line at this time.
550 --without-smime
551 Disable S/MIME support.
552 --disable-debug
553 Never create debug files.
554 --with-smtp-msa=PATH
555 Local Mail Submission Agent (sendmail, by default).
556 --with-smtp-msa-flags=FLAGS
557 MSA flags for SMTP on stdin/stdout (-bs -odb -oem).
559 There are many more options which you can see using the
561 ./configure --help
563 command.
565 IMAPd Compile-time Options
567 There are no options or settings required for the version of _IMAPd_
568 distributed with _Alpine_. If you need to be doing more complex
569 modifications to IMAP, then you should pick up the IMAP development
570 package and work with that code. The developer's version of IMAP is
571 available for anonymous ftp from ftp.cac.washington.edu in the
572 directory mail. The file is called imap.tar.Z. Unless it has changed
573 since _Alpine_ was released, the directory imap in the _Alpine_
574 distribution is the IMAP development package.
576 The c-client library has not been converted to use the GNU Build
577 System's autotools. The _Alpine_ configure script will try to correctly
578 guess the arguments needed for the c-client make command and will build
579 the library, but if you need to change anything you should take a look
580 at imap/docs/BUILD for more detailed instructions.
581 __________________________________________________________________
583 Building the Alpine Programs
585 You may have already compiled _Alpine_ and tried it out. If so, great!
586 If not, you should be able to do it without too much trouble by
587 following these step-by-step instructions:
589 1. Make sure you're in the root of the _Alpine_ source. When you type
590 ls you should see the following files and directories (or something
591 close to it):
592 aclocal.m4 config.sub imap Makefile.am packages web
593 alpine configure include Makefile.in pico
594 build.bat configure.ac install-sh mapi pith
595 build.cmd contrib LICENSE missing po
596 config.guess depcomp ltmain.sh mkinstalldirs README
597 config.rpath doc m4 NOTICE VERSION
599 2. Give the command ./configure Configure should grind away for a few
600 minutes.
601 3. When configure is complete, give the command make. If make stops
602 and asks
604 Do you want to build with IPv6 anyway? Type y or n please:
605 you should answer with a 'y'. The compiler should grind away for a
606 few minutes. The _Alpine_ binary will end up in .../alpine/alpine
607 and the Pico and Pilot binaries in .../pico/pico and
608 .../pico/pilot. Other binaries you may be interested in are
609 .../alpine/rpdump and .../alpine/rpload and c-client binaries in
610 the directories .../imap/imapd, .../imap/ipopd, .../imap/mailutil,
611 and so on.
612 4. If you need to try again, make sure you're getting a clean start by
613 giving the command make clean.
614 __________________________________________________________________
616 Installing Alpine and Pico on UNIX Platforms
618 Installing _Alpine_ and _Pico_ is simple. You take the program files
619 which you have just transferred or built and you move them to the
620 correct directory on your system. Most often the binaries go in
621 /usr/local/bin though sometimes they are placed in /usr/bin. All the
622 help text is compiled into _Alpine_ so there are no _required_
623 auxiliary files. Instead of copying the binaries manually, you may use
624 make install to install them.
626 There are three optional auxiliary files: /usr/local/lib/pine.info,
627 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf, and /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed. The file
628 pine.info contains text on how to get further help on the local system.
629 It is part of the help text for the main menu and should probably refer
630 to the local help desk or the system administrator. If this file
631 doesn't exist a generic version which suggests ``talking to the
632 computer support staff at your site'' is shown. The file pine.conf is
633 used to set system-wide default configurations for _Alpine_. The file
634 pine.conf.fixed is also used to set system-wide default configurations
635 for _Alpine_. The difference between these two files is that
636 configuration variables set in the pine.conf.fixed file may not
637 normally be over-ridden by a user. See the section on Alpine
638 Configuration later in this document for details about the pine.conf
639 and pine.conf.fixed files.
640 __________________________________________________________________
642 Installing PC-Alpine
644 The PC-Alpine distribution comes as a .zip file. To install, unzip the
645 files to a directory where you would like the program to reside. Modern
646 Windows versions come with the capability of unzipping .zip files.
647 Failing that, you can use one of the many .zip file extractors out
648 there. Following current Windows conventions, a common directory into
649 which the files could be extracted would be C:\Program
650 Files\PC-Alpine\.
652 Having extracted PC-Alpine's .zip file to the directory of choice, you
653 can now run that directory's alpine.exe, which is the actual PC-Alpine
654 program. For convenience, you could place shortcuts to it on the task
655 bar, start menu, etc.
657 Upon first running PC-Alpine, you may be asked where you would like to
658 access your Configuration file (called the _pinerc_). This is useful in
659 accessing already existing configuration files, and it does not matter
660 where this file gets created. If you are connecting to an IMAP server
661 to access your email, it is also possible to store this Configuration
662 data on that server, which facilitates accessing the same configuration
663 from multiple machines (in fact, your configuration may have already
664 been set up this way for use with other _Alpine_ programs).
666 After having established the location of the configuration file, it may
667 be necessary to specify a few configuration settings before reading or
668 sending mail. You may be prompted for the following (which may also be
669 edited from the (S)etup (C)onfig screen from the Main Menu):
671 Folder to open as inbox (or _inbox-path_) - This can be an inbox
672 residing on an IMAP or POP3 server, or one residing locally. An example
673 of an INBOX for an IMAP server is: {server.example.com}INBOX.
675 User-id, Personal name, and host/domain, which are to be used as your
676 email address.
678 SMTP server to forward message - You must enter your SMTP server
679 before you can send any messages.
681 At this point, you will be able to read and send email messages. There
682 are, however, many more preferences that you can set in the
683 Configuration screen.
684 __________________________________________________________________
686 Installing IMAPd
688 When the _Alpine_ distribution is built on a UNIX system, the IMAP
689 server binary, imapd, is compiled. Installing imapd requires placing
690 the binary in the appropriate directory, usually /usr/etc, and adding
691 entries to /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf or their counterparts.
693 Instead of including installation instructions here we'll just include
694 a pointer to detailed instructions in the c-client distribution. Please
695 take a look at the file imap/docs/BUILD in the source tree.
696 __________________________________________________________________
698 Support Files and Environment Variables: UNIX Alpine
700 This section lists the various files which _Alpine_ uses which are not
701 email folders. All of these are the default names of files, they may
702 vary based on _Alpine_'s configuration.
703 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
704 Pine's global configuration file.
705 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed
706 Non-overridable global configuration file.
707 /usr/local/lib/pine.info
708 Local pointer to system administrator.
709 ~/.pinerc
710 Personal configuration file for each user.
711 ~/.pinercex
712 Personal exceptions configuration file for each user.
713 ~/.addressbook
714 Personal addressbook
715 ~/.newsrc
716 Personal USENET subscription list. This is shared with other
717 newsreading programs.
718 ~/.pine-debugX
719 The files created for debugging _Alpine_ problems. By default,
720 there are 4 .pine-debug files kept at any time.
721 ~/.signature
722 A signature file which will be included in all outgoing email
723 messages.
724 ~/.pine-interrupted-mail
725 The text of a message which was interrupted by some unexpected
726 error which _Alpine_ detected.
727 ~/mail/postponed-msgs
728 A folder of messages which the user chose to postpone.
729 /etc/mailcap
730 System-wide mail capabilities file. Only used if $MAILCAPS not
731 set.
732 ~/.mailcap
733 Personal mail capabilities file. Combines with system-wide
734 mailcap. Only used if $MAILCAPS not set.
736 The location of the following support files may be controlled by
737 variables in the personal or global _Alpine_ configuration file:
738 signature, addressbook and its index file, postponed messages, and
739 newsrc.
741 Unix _Alpine_ uses the following environment variables:
742 TERM
743 Tells _Alpine_ what kind of terminal is being used.
744 DISPLAY
745 Determines if _Alpine_ will try to display IMAGE attachments.
746 TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP
747 Specifies location of temporary storage area, first one set wins
748 SHELL
749 If not set, default is /bin/sh
750 MAILCAPS
751 A semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files.
752 __________________________________________________________________
754 Support Files, Environment Variables, and Registry Settings: PC-Alpine
756 This section lists the various files which _PC-Alpine_ uses which are
757 not normal mail folders. All of these are the default names of files,
758 they may vary based on _Alpine_'s configuration.
760 $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or $HOME\PINE\PINERC or <PINE.EXE
761 dir>\PINERC
762 Path to (required) personal configuration file.
763 $PINERCEX or $HOME\PINE\PINERCEX or <PINE.EXE dir>\PINERCEX
764 Path to personal exceptions configuration file.
765 $PINECONF
766 Path of optional global configuration file.
767 <PINERC directory>\ADDRBOOK
768 Personal addressbook
769 <PINERC directory>\PINEDEBG.TXT
770 Location of _Alpine_ debug file.
771 <PINERC directory>\MAILCAP and/or <PINE.EXE dir>\MAILCAP
772 These paths are only used if $MAILCAPS not set.
773 $HOME\NEWSRC or <PINERC directory>\NEWSRC
774 Personal USENET subscription list. This may be shared with other
775 newsreading programs.
776 $HOME\MAIL\INTRUPTD
777 The text of a message which was interrupted by some unexpected
778 error which _Alpine_ detected.
779 $HOME\MAIL\POSTPOND
780 A folder of messages which the user chose to postpone.
782 Registry Values:
783 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\University of Washington\Alpine\1.0
784 _Pinedir_: The directory that contains the _Alpine_ executable.
785 _PineEXE_: The name of the _Alpine_ executable (most commonly
786 "alpine.exe").
787 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\University of Washington\Alpine\1.0
788 _PineRC_: The path that points to the default pinerc to use.
789 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine
790 _DLLPath_: The path that points to _Alpine_'s pmapi32.dll.
791 HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\shell\open\command
792 _(Default)_: When set as the default mailer, this is the command
793 that is run by external programs.
794 HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\Protocols\Mailto\DefaultIcon
795 _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
796 _Alpine_'s mailto URL rendering.
797 HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\Protocols\Mailto\shell\open\command
798 _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
799 programs when a mailto URL is run with _PC-Alpine_ set as the
800 default mailer.
801 HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\shell\open\command
802 _(Default)_: When set as the default newsreader, this is the
803 command that is run by external programs.
804 HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\news\DefaultIcon
805 _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
806 _Alpine_'s news URL rendering.
807 HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\news\shell\open\command
808 _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
809 programs when a news URL is run with _Alpine_ set as the default
810 newsreader.
811 HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\nntp\DefaultIcon
812 _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
813 _Alpine_'s nntp URL rendering.
814 HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\nntp\shell\open\command
815 _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
816 programs when a nntp URL is run with _Alpine_ set as the default
817 newsreader.
819 _Alpine_'s personal configuration file may be in the same directory as
820 the executable, or if that is inconvenient because the executable is on
821 a shared or read-only drive, then it can be in a file named by the
822 $PINERC environment variable, or in $HOME\ALPINE\PINERC, where if not
823 set, $HOME defaults to the root of the current working drive.
825 Most of the other support files key off of the location of the PINERC
826 file. However, in the case of the NEWSRC file, the path $HOME\NEWSRC is
827 checked first. Also, the postponed messages and interrupted message
828 folders are placed in the default folder collection, normally in the
829 directory $HOME\MAIL.
831 The location of the following support files may be controlled by
832 variables in the personal or global _Alpine_ configuration file:
833 signature, addressbook (and its index file), postponed messages, and
834 newsrc.
836 _PC-Alpine_ uses the following environment variables:
837 PINERC
838 Overrides default path to pinerc file.
839 PINERCEX
840 Overrides default path to personal exceptions configuration
841 file.
842 PINECONF
843 Optional path to global _Alpine_ config file.
844 HOME
845 If not set, _Alpine_ uses the root of the current drive, e.g. C:
846 TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP
847 Specifies location of temporary storage area, first one set wins
848 COMSPEC
849 Specifies shell for external commands.
850 MAILCAPS
851 A semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files.
853 Command Line Arguments
855 Alpine
857 _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ can accept quite a few command-line arguments.
858 Many of these arguments overlap with variables in the _Alpine_
859 configuration file. If there is a difference, then a flag set in the
860 command line takes precedence. Both _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ expect
861 command line arguments (other than addresses) to be preceded by the "-"
862 (dash) as normally used by UNIX programs.
864 _[addresses]_
865 Send-to: If you give _Alpine_ an argument or arguments which do
866 not begin with a dash, _Alpine_ treats them as email addresses.
867 _Alpine_ will startup in the composer with a message started to
868 the addresses specified. Once the message is sent, the _Alpine_
869 session closes. Standard input redirection is allowed. Separate
870 multiple addresses with a space between them. Addresses are
871 placed in the "To" field only.
872 < _file_
873 _Alpine_ will startup in the composer with _file_ read into the
874 body of the message. Once the message is sent, the _Alpine_
875 session closes.
876 -attach _file_
877 Go directly into composer with given file attached.
878 -attachlist _file-list_
879 Go directly into composer with given files attached. This must
880 be the last option on the command line.
881 -attach_and_delete _file_
882 Go directly into composer with given file attached, delete when
883 finished.
884 -aux _local_directory_
885 _PC-Alpine_ only. This tells _PC-Alpine_ the local directory to
886 use for storing auxiliary files, like debug files, address
887 books, and signature files. The pinerc may be local or remote.
888 -nosplash
889 _PC-Alpine_ only. This tells _PC-Alpine_ to not display the
890 splash screen upon startup. This may be helpful for certain
891 troubleshooting or terminal server scenarios.
892 -bail
893 If the personal configuration file doesn't already exist, exit.
894 This might be useful if the configuration file is accessed using
895 some remote filesystem protocol. If the remote mount is missing
896 this will cause _Alpine_ to quit instead of creating a new
897 pinerc.
898 -c _n_
899 When used with the -f option, apply the _n_th context. This is
900 used when there are multiple folder collections (contexts) and
901 you want to open a folder not in the primary collection.
902 -conf
903 Configuration: Prints a sample system configuration file to the
904 screen or standard output. To generate an initial system
905 configuration file, execute
906 alpine -conf > /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
908 To generate a system configuration file using settings from an
909 old system configuration file, execute
910 alpine -P old-pine.conf -conf > /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
912 A system configuration file is not required.
913 -convert_sigs _-p pinerc_
914 Convert signatures contained in signature files into literal
915 signatures.
916 -copy_abook _<local_abook_file> <remote_abook_folder>_
917 Copy an address book file to a remote address book folder. If
918 the remote folder doesn't exist, it will be created. If it
919 exists but the first message in the folder isn't a remote
920 address book header message, the copy will be aborted. This flag
921 will not usually be used by a user. Instead, the user will
922 create a remote address book from within _Alpine_ and copy
923 entries from the local address book by using aggregate Save in
924 the address book screen.
925 -copy_pinerc _<local_pinerc_file> <remote_pinerc_folder>_
926 Copy a pinerc configuration file to a remote pinerc folder. If
927 the remote folder doesn't exist, it will be created. If it
928 exists but the first message in the folder isn't a remote pinerc
929 header message, the copy will be aborted. This flag may be
930 useful to users who already have a local pinerc file and would
931 like to convert it to a remote pinerc folder and use that
932 instead. This gives a way to bootstrap that conversion without
933 having to manually reset all of the variables in the remote
934 pinerc folder.
935 -d _debug-level_
936 Debug Level: Sets the level of debugging information written by
937 _Alpine_. _Debug-level_ can be set to any integer 0-9. A debug
938 level of 0 turns off debugging for the session. (Actually there
939 are some levels higher than 9, but you probably don't want to
940 see them. Sensitive authentication information is hidden at
941 levels less than 10.)
942 -d _keywords_
943 You may use a more detailed version of the debugging flag to set
944 the debug level in separate parts of _Alpine_. The possibilities
945 are flush, timestamp, imap=0..4, tcp, numfiles=0..31, and
946 verbose=0..9. _Flush_ causes debugging information to be flushed
947 immediately to the debug file as it is written. _Verbose_ is the
948 general debugging verbosity level. _Timestamp_ causes timestamps
949 to be added to the debug file, which is useful when you are
950 trying to figure out what is responsible for delays. _Numfiles_
951 sets the number of debug files saved. _Imap_ sets the debug
952 level for the debugging statements related to the conversation
953 with the IMAP server, and more generally, for the debugging
954 related to _Alpine_'s interaction with the C-Client library. If
955 _imap_ is set higher than 4, sensitive authentication information
956 will be included in the debug file. _Tcp_ adds more TCP/IP
957 debugging information.
958 -f _folder_
959 Startup folder: _Alpine_ will open this folder in place of the
960 standard INBOX.
961 -F _file_
962 Open named text file for viewing and forwarding.
963 -h
964 Help: Prints the list of available command-line arguments to the
965 screen.
966 -i
967 _Alpine_ will start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen instead of the
968 MAIN MENU.
969 Configuration equivalent: _initial-keystroke-list=i_.
970 -I _a,b,c,..._
971 Initial Keystrokes: _Alpine_ will execute this comma-separated
972 sequence of commands upon startup. This allows users to get
973 _Alpine_ to start in any of its menus/screens. You cannot include
974 any input to the composer in the initial keystrokes. The key
975 <Return> is represented by a ``CR'' in the keystroke list; the
976 spacebar is designated by the letters ``SPACE''. Control keys
977 are two character sequences beginning with ``^'', such as
978 ``^I''. A tab character is ``TAB''. Function keys are ``F1'' -
979 ``F12'' and the arrow keys are ``UP'', ``DOWN'', ``LEFT'', and
980 ``RIGHT''. A restriction is that you can't mix function keys and
981 character keys in this list even though you can, in some cases,
982 mix them when running _Alpine_. A user can always use only
983 _character_ keys in the startup list even if he or she is using
984 _function_ keys normally, or vice versa. If an element in this
985 list is a string of characters surrounded by double quotes (")
986 then it will be expanded into the individual characters in the
987 string, excluding the double quotes.
988 Configuration equivalent: _initial-keystroke-list_
989 -install
990 For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option prompts for some basic setup
991 information, then exits.
992 -k
993 Function-Key Mode: When invoked in this way, _Alpine_ expects
994 the input of commands to be function-keys. Otherwise, commands
995 are linked to the regular character keys.
996 Configuration equivalent: _use-function-keys_ included in
997 _feature-list_.
998 -n _n_
999 Message-Number: When specified, _Alpine_ starts up in the FOLDER
1000 INDEX screen with the current message being the specified
1001 message number.
1002 -nowrite_password_cache
1003 This tells _Alpine_ to use the local password cache if there is
1004 one, but to never offer writing new passwords to the cache.
1005 -o _folder_
1006 Opens the INBOX (or a folder specified via the -f argument)
1007 ReadOnly.
1008 -p _pinerc_
1009 Uses the named file as the personal configuration file instead
1010 of _~/.pinerc_ or the default PINERC search sequence _PC-Alpine_
1011 uses. Pinerc may be either a local file or a remote
1012 configuration folder.
1013 -P _pinerc_
1014 Uses the named file as the system wide configuration file
1015 instead of _/usr/local/lib/pine.conf_ on UNIX, or nothing on
1016 _PC-Alpine_. Pinerc may be either a local file or a remote
1017 configuration folder.
1018 -passfile _passfile_
1019 This tells _Alpine_ what file should be used as the password
1020 file. This should be a fully-qualified filename.
1021 -pinerc _file_
1022 Output fresh pinerc configuration to _file_, preserving the
1023 settings of variables that the user has made. Use _file_ set to
1024 ``-'' to make output go to standard out.
1025 -r
1026 Restricted Mode: For UNIX _Alpine_ only. _Alpine_ in restricted
1027 mode can only send email to itself. Save and export are limited.
1028 -registry _cmd_
1029 For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option affects the values of
1030 _Alpine_'s registry entries. Possible values for _cmd_ are set,
1031 noset, clear, clearsilent, and dump. _Set_ will always reset
1032 _Alpine_'s registry entries according to its current settings.
1033 _NoSet_ will never set any values in the registry, but it will
1034 still use the values already set in the registry. _Clear_ will
1035 clear the registry values. _Clearsilent_ will silently clear the
1036 registry values. _Dump_ will display the values of current
1037 registry settings. Note that the dump command is currently
1038 disabled. Without the -registry option, _PC-Alpine_ will write
1039 values into the registry only if there currently aren't any
1040 values set.
1041 -sort _key_
1042 Sort-Key: Specifies the order messages will be displayed in for
1043 the FOLDER INDEX screen. _Key_ can have the following values:
1044 arrival, date, subject, orderedsubj, thread, from, size, score,
1045 to, cc, arrival/reverse, date/reverse, subject/reverse,
1046 orderedsubj/reverse, thread/reverse, from/reverse, size/reverse,
1047 score/reverse, to/reverse, and cc/reverse. The default value is
1048 "arrival". The _key_ value reverse is equivalent to
1049 arrival/reverse.
1050 Configuration equivalent: _sort-key_.
1051 -supported
1052 Some options may or may not be supported depending on how
1053 _Alpine_ was compiled. This is a way to determine which options
1054 are supported in the particular copy of _Alpine_ you are using.
1055 -install
1056 For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option removes references to Alpine
1057 in Windows settings. The registry settings are removed and the
1058 password cache is cleared.
1059 -url _url_
1060 Open the given URL.
1061 -v
1062 Version: Print version information to the screen.
1063 -version
1064 Version: Print version information to the screen.
1065 -x _exceptions_config_
1066 Configuration settings in the exceptions config override your
1067 normal default settings. _Exceptions_config_ may be either a
1068 local file or a remote pinerc folder.
1069 -z
1070 Enable Suspend: When run with this flag, the key sequence ctrl-z
1071 will suspend the _Alpine_ session.
1072 Configuration equivalent: _enable-suspend_ included in
1073 _feature-list_.
1074 -_option_=_value_
1075 Assign _value_ to the config option _option_. For example,
1076 _-signature-file=sig1_ or _-feature-list=signature-at-bottom_.
1077 (Note: feature-list values are additive and features may be
1078 preceded with no- to turn them off).
1080 Pico
1082 The following command line options are supported in _Pico_:
1084 +_n_
1085 Causes _Pico_ to be started with the cursor located _n_ lines
1086 into the file. (Note: no space between "+" sign and number)
1088 -a
1089 Display all files and directories, including those beginning
1090 with a period (.).
1092 -b
1093 Enable the option to Replace text matches found using the "Where
1094 is" command. This now does nothing. Instead, the option is
1095 always turned on (as if the -b flag had been specified).
1097 -d
1098 Rebind the "delete" key so the character the cursor is on is
1099 rubbed out rather than the character to its left.
1101 -e
1102 Enable file name completion.
1104 -f
1105 Use function keys for commands. _This option supported only in
1106 conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet._
1108 -g
1109 Enable "Show Cursor" mode in file browser. Cause cursor to be
1110 positioned before the current selection rather than placed at
1111 the lower left of the display.
1113 -k
1114 Causes "Cut Text" command to remove characters from the cursor
1115 position to the end of the line rather than remove the entire
1116 line.
1118 -m
1119 Enable mouse functionality. This only works when _Pico_ is run
1120 from within an X Window System "xterm" window.
1122 -n_n_
1123 The -n_n_ option enables new mail notification. The _n_ argument
1124 is optional, and specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox
1125 is checked for new mail. For example, -n60 causes _Pico_ to
1126 check for new mail once every minute. The default interval is
1127 180 seconds, while the minimum allowed is 30. (Note: no space
1128 between "n" and the number)
1130 -o _dir_
1131 Sets operating directory. Only files within this directory are
1132 accessible. Likewise, the file browser is limited to the
1133 specified directory subtree.
1135 -p
1136 Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically Ctrl-Q and
1137 Ctrl-S, which are sometimes used in communications paths to
1138 control data flow between devices that operate at different
1139 speeds.
1141 -q
1142 TermdefWins. Termcap or terminfo escape sequences are used in
1143 preference to default escape sequences.
1145 -Q _quotestr_
1146 Set the quote string. Especially useful when composing email,
1147 setting this allows the quote string to be checked for when
1148 Justifying paragraphs. A common quote string is "> ".
1150 -r_n_
1151 Sets column used to limit the "Justify" command's right margin.
1153 -t
1154 Enable "tool" mode. Intended for when _Pico_ is used as the
1155 editor within other tools (e.g., Elm, Pnews). _Pico_ will not
1156 prompt for save on exit, and will not rename the buffer during
1157 the "Write Out" command.
1159 -v
1160 View the file only, disallowing any editing.
1162 -version
1163 Print version information.
1165 -w
1166 Disable word wrap (thus allow editing of long lines).
1168 _Note: Pico will break any lines over 255 characters when
1169 reading a file, regardless of word wrapping._
1171 -x
1172 Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
1174 -z
1175 Enable ^Z suspension of _Pico_.
1177 Pilot
1179 The following command line options are supported in _Pilot_:
1181 -a
1182 Display all files including those beginning with a period (.).
1184 -f
1185 Use function keys for commands. _This option supported only in
1186 conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet._
1188 -g
1189 Enable "Show Cursor" mode. Cause cursor to be positioned before
1190 the current selection rather than placed at the lower left of
1191 the display.
1193 -m
1194 Enable mouse functionality. This only works when _Pilot_ is run
1195 from within an X Window System "xterm" window.
1197 -n_n_
1198 The -n_n_ option enables new mail notification. The _n_ argument
1199 is optional, and specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox
1200 is checked for new mail. For example, -n60 causes _Pilot_ to
1201 check for new mail once every minute. The default interval is
1202 180 seconds, while the minimum allowed is 30. (Note: no space
1203 between "n" and the number)
1205 -o _dir_
1206 Sets operating directory. Only files within the specified
1207 directory are accessible and browsing is limited to the
1208 specified directory subtree.
1210 -v
1211 Enable single vertical column display.
1213 -x
1214 Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
1216 -z
1217 Enable ^Z suspension of _Pilot_.
1219 Configuration and Preferences
1221 Alpine Configuration
1223 There is very little in _Alpine_ which _requires_ compile-time
1224 configuration. In most cases, the compiled-in preferences will suit
1225 users and administrators just fine. When running _Alpine_ on a UNIX
1226 system, the default built-in configuration can be changed by setting
1227 variables in the system configuration files, /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
1228 or /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed. (Actually, these files can be
1229 changed using the configure arguments --with-system-pinerc=VALUE or
1230 --with-system-fixed-pinerc=VALUE.) The location of the pine.conf file
1231 can be changed with the -P command line argument. Both _Alpine_ and
1232 _PC-Alpine_ also use personal (user-based) configuration files. On UNIX
1233 machines, the personal configuration file is the file ~/.pinerc. For
1234 _PC-Alpine_ systems, the personal configuration file is in $PINERC or
1235 <PineRC registry value> or ${HOME}\ALPINE\PINERC or <ALPINE.EXE
1236 dir>\PINERC. Or the personal configuration file can be specified with
1237 the -p command line argument.
1239 All of these configuration files, other than the fixed system config
1240 pine.conf.fixed on UNIX systems, may optionally be remote configuration
1241 files instead of local files. This is discussed further in the
1242 following section and in Remote Configuration.
1244 After the personal configuration, _Alpine_ may optionally use a
1245 personal exceptions configuration file which is specified with the
1246 command line option "-x exceptions_config". "Exceptions_config" may
1247 also be either a local file or a remote configuration folder. For Unix
1248 _Alpine_, if you don't have a "-x" command line option, _Alpine_ will
1249 look for the file ".pinercex" in the same local directory that the
1250 regular config file is located in. If the regular config file is remote
1251 then Unix _Alpine_ looks in the home directory for ".pinercex".
1253 For _PC-Alpine_, if you don't have a "-x" command line option,
1254 _PC-Alpine_ will use the value of the environment variable $PINERCEX. If
1255 that is not set, _PC-Alpine_ will look for the local file "PINERCEX" in
1256 the same local directory that the regular config file is located in. If
1257 the regular config file is remote then _PC-Alpine_ looks in the local
1258 directory specified by the "-aux local_directory" command line
1259 argument, or the directory ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE
1260 directory>.
1262 The syntax of a non-list configuration variable is this:
1264 <variable> = <value>
1266 If the value is absent then the variable is unset. To set a variable to
1267 the empty value two double quotes (""). This is equivalent to an absent
1268 value except that it overrides any system-wide default value that may
1269 be set. Quotes may be used around any value. All values are strings and
1270 end at the end of the line or the closing quote. Leading and trailing
1271 space is ignored unless it is included in the quotes. There is one
1272 variable, _use-only-domain-name_, for which the only appropriate values
1273 are _yes_ and _no_. That's because it is a variable from the early days
1274 of _Alpine_ before features existed.
1276 There is also a second type of variable, lists. A list is a
1277 comma-separated list of values. The syntax for a list is:
1279 <variable> = <value> [, <value> , ... ]
1281 A list can be continued on subsequent lines by beginning the line with
1282 white-space. Both the per-user and global configuration files may
1283 contain comments which are lines beginning with a #.
1285 For UNIX _Alpine_, there are five ways in which each variable can be
1286 set. In decreasing order of precedence they are:
1287 1. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file
1288 2. a command line argument
1289 3. the personal exceptions file
1290 4. the personal configuration file
1291 5. the system-wide configuration file.
1293 If the variable is not set in any of those places, there is a default
1294 setting in the source code.
1296 So, system-wide fixed settings always take precedence over command line
1297 flags, which take precedence over per-user exception settings, which
1298 take precedence over per-user settings, which take precedence over
1299 system-wide configuration settings. _PC-Alpine_ has the same list,
1300 except that it does not use a system-wide _fixed_ configuration file.
1301 This can be modified slightly by using inheritance, which is covered
1302 below.
1304 You may get a sample/fresh copy of the system configuration file by
1305 running _alpine -conf_. The result will be printed on the standard
1306 output with very short comments describing each variable. (The online
1307 help in the Setup screens provides much longer comments.) If you need
1308 to fix some of the configuration variables, you would use the same
1309 template for the fixed configuration file as for the regular
1310 system-wide configuration file. (If it isn't clear, the purpose of the
1311 fixed configuration file is to allow system administrators to restrict
1312 the configurability of _Alpine_. It is by no means a bullet-proof
1313 method.) _Alpine_ will automatically create the personal configuration
1314 file the first time it is run, so there is no need to generate a
1315 sample. _Alpine_ reads and writes the personal configuration file
1316 occasionally during normal operation. Users will not normally look at
1317 their personal configuration file, but will use the Setup screens from
1318 within _Alpine_ to set the values in this file. If a user does add
1319 additional comments to the personal configuration file they will be
1320 retained.
1322 References to environment variables may be included in the _Alpine_
1323 configuration files. The format is $variable or ${variable}. The
1324 character ~ will be expanded to the $HOME environment variable. For a
1325 more complete explanation of how environment variables work, see the
1326 section Using Environment Variables.
1328 When environment variables are used for _Alpine_ settings which take
1329 lists, you must have an environment variable set for each member of the
1330 list. That is, _Alpine_ won't properly recognize an environment
1331 variable which is set equal to a comma-delimited list. It is OK to
1332 reference unset environment variables in the _Alpine_ configuration
1333 file, which will expand to nothing.
1335 Remote and Local Configuration
1337 There are two types of storage for configuration information. _Local_
1338 configuration files are used by default. These are just regular files
1339 on the UNIX system or on the PC. _Remote_ configuration folders are
1340 stored on an IMAP server. The advantage of using a remote configuration
1341 is that the same information may be accessed from multiple platforms.
1342 For example, if you use one computer at work and another at home, the
1343 same configuration could be used from both places. A configuration
1344 change from one place would be seen in both places. Technical
1345 information about remote configuration is in Remote Configuration.
1347 Generic and Exceptional Configuration
1349 If you use _Alpine_ from more than one platform it may be convenient to
1350 split your configuration information into two pieces, a generic piece
1351 and exceptions which apply to a particular platform. For example,
1352 suppose you use _Alpine_ from home and from work. Most of your
1353 configuration settings are probably the same in both locations, so
1354 those settings belong in the generic settings configuration. However,
1355 you may use a different SMTP server and INBOX from home than you do
1356 from work. The "smtp-server" and "inbox-path" variables could be part
1357 of your exceptional configuration so that they could be different in
1358 the two places.
1360 You can use the command line option "-x config" to split your
1361 configuration into generic and exceptional pieces. Config may be either
1362 local or remote.
1364 For most people, splitting the configuration information into two
1365 pieces is only going to be useful if the generic information is
1366 accessed remotely. If you already have a local pinerc file with
1367 settings you like you may find that the command Setup/RemoteConfigSetup
1368 will be useful in helping you convert to a remote configuration. The
1369 command line flag copy_pinerc may also be useful.
1371 Configuration Inheritance
1373 Configuration inheritance is a power user feature. It is confusing and
1374 not completely supported by the configuration user interface.
1376 For configuration variables which are lists, like "smtp-server" or
1377 "incoming-folders", the inheritance mechanism makes it possible to
1378 _combine_ the values of options from different configuration locations
1379 instead of _replacing_ the value. Configuration Inheritance has more
1380 information about how inheritance is used.
1381 __________________________________________________________________
1383 General Configuration Variables
1385 The following is a list of all _Alpine_ configuration variables, in
1386 alphabetical order. Note that not all variables apply to all versions
1387 of _Alpine_ and that some variables are only applicable in a system
1388 configuration file and some are only applicable in a personal
1389 configuration file. These are configuration _variables_. Configuration
1390 Features are in a separate section.
1392 _addrbook-sort-rule_
1393 This variable sets up the default address book sorting.
1394 Currently, _Alpine_ will accept the values _dont-sort_,
1395 _fullname-with-lists-last_, _fullname_,
1396 _nickname-with-lists-last_, and _nickname_. The default is to sort
1397 by fullname with lists last. If you use an address book from
1398 more than one computer and those computers sort the address book
1399 differently then the sort order will be the order where the last
1400 change to the address book was made. There are two reasons the
1401 sorting might be different on different systems. First, the
1402 addrbook-sort-rule may be set differently in the two places.
1403 Second, the collation rules on the two computers may be
1404 different. For example, one system might ignore special
1405 characters while the other doesn't or one may sort upper and
1406 lower case letters together while the other doesn't. In any
1407 case, the order you see is the order on the system where the
1408 last change was made, for example by an address book edit or a
1409 Take Address command.
1410 This option is displayed as "Addressbook Sort Rule".
1411 _address-book_
1412 A list of personal address books. Each entry in the list is an
1413 optional nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative
1414 to the home directory. The nickname is separated from the rest
1415 of the line with whitespace. Instead of a local pathname or file
1416 name, a remote folder name can be given. This causes the address
1417 book to be a Remote address book. Remote folder syntax is
1418 discussed in Syntax for Remote Folders. This list of address
1419 books will be combined with the global-address-book list to
1420 arrive at the complete set of address books.
1421 _addressbook-formats_
1422 This option specifies the format that address books are
1423 displayed in. By default, address books are displayed with the
1424 nicknames in the first column, the fullnames in the second
1425 column, and addresses in the third column. The system figures
1426 out reasonable defaults for the widths of the columns. An
1427 address book may be given a different format by listing special
1428 tokens in the order you want them to display. The possible
1429 tokens are NICKNAME, FULLNAME, ADDRESS, FCC, and COMMENT. More
1430 details are included in the online help for this variable.
1431 _alt-addresses_
1432 This option provides a place for you to list alternate email
1433 addresses you may have. Each address in the list should be the
1434 actual email address part of an address, without the full name
1435 field or the angle brackets. For example:
1437 user@example.com
1438 The matching is case-insensitive, so this would match any of
1439 User@example.com, user@Example.Com, or USER@EXAMPLE.COM as well.
1440 If set, the option affects the behavior of the Reply command and
1441 the "+" symbol in the MESSAGE INDEX, which denotes that a
1442 message has been addressed specifically to you.
1443 In the default INDEX display the personal name (or email
1444 address) of the person listed in the message's "From:" header
1445 field is usually displayed except when that address is yours or
1446 one of your alternate addresses. In that case you will usually
1447 see the name of the first person specified in the message's
1448 "To:" header field with the prefix "To: " prepended.
1449 With respect to Reply, the reply-to-all option will exclude
1450 addresses listed here.
1451 The feature copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us is somewhat
1452 related to this option.
1453 In addition to a list of actual addresses, you may use regular
1454 expressions (as used with egrep with the ignore case flag) to
1455 describe the addresses you want to match. _Alpine_ will somewhat
1456 arbitrarily interpret your entry as a regular expression if it
1457 contains any of the characters *, |, +, ?, {, [, ^, $, or \.
1458 Otherwise, it will be treated literally. The feature
1459 disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses may
1460 be used to turn off regular expression processing regardless of
1461 whether or not special characters appear in the entry.
1462 A description of how regular expressions work is beyond the
1463 scope of this help text, but some examples follow.
1464 The entry
1466 .*@example.com
1467 in the alt-addresses list would mean that any address with a
1468 domain name of example.com (such as fred@example.com or
1469 wilma@example.com) will be considered one of your alternate
1470 addresses. Strictly speaking, the dot in example.com ought to be
1471 escaped with a backslash, as in example\.com, and a dollar sign
1472 anchor ought to come at the end of the expression to prevent a
1473 match of example.com.org. Complicating things further, the
1474 dollar sign is special in the _Alpine_ configuration (it
1475 signifies environment variable expansion) so the dollar sign
1476 should be doubled or backslash escaped for _Alpine_'s sake.
1477 Quotes around the whole expression will not escape the dollar
1478 sign successfully. So this example should look like
1480 .*@example\.com$$
1481 The entry
1483 ^fred[0-9]*@example.com$$
1484 would match fred3@example.com or fred17@example.com as well as
1485 fred@example.com.
1486 You could match all addresses that look like
1487 fred+stuff@example.com for any value of stuff with the entry
1489 ^fred\+.*@example.com$$
1490 Notice that you have to escape the plus sign with a backslash
1491 because plus is a special character in regular expressions. If
1492 you wanted to match plain fred as well as fred+stuff the
1493 expression
1495 ^fred(()|\+.*)@example.com$$
1496 would do it, but it would be easier to just add fred@example.com
1497 as a separate entry.
1498 One more example, a match of all first-level subdomains, is
1499 given by
1501 ^fred@[[:alnum:]_-]*\.example\.com$$
1502 Because the regular expression matching is based on an old
1503 library (hs_regex) the regular expressions might not work
1504 exactly as you expect, but they should be close.
1505 This option is displayed as "Alternate Addresses".
1506 _bugs-additional-data_
1507 System-wide configuration files only. Program/Script used by
1508 _Report Bug_ command. Output from the program/script is captured
1509 and attached to the bug report.
1510 _bugs-fullname_, _bugs-address_, _local-fullname_, _local-address_,
1511 _suggest-fullname_, and _suggest-address_
1512 System-wide configuration files only. These are used by the bug
1513 report commands which can be accessed from some of the Help
1514 screens.
1515 _busy-cue-rate_
1516 When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
1517 something is happening with a small animated display in the
1518 status message line near the bottom of the screen. This option
1519 sets how frequently the characters (for example, a spinning bar)
1520 in the active status message lines are updated. At most, it can
1521 be set to be updated 20 times per second.
1522 Setting this value to zero will prevent display of the
1523 animations altogether.
1524 The option busy-cue-spinner-only can be used to remove the
1525 randomness from this animated display.
1526 _character-set_
1527 This is now obsolete, replaced by three separate variables:
1528 _display-character-set_, _keyboard-character-set_, and
1529 _posting-character-set_. See the section on International
1530 Character Sets for more details.
1531 _color-style_
1532 UNIX _Alpine_ only (color is automatically on with _PC-Alpine_).
1533 If the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of
1534 displaying colors, this variable controls whether or not color
1535 will be used in _Alpine_. If you turn color on and things are
1536 set up correctly, you should see color appear on the screen
1537 immediately. Modern terminal emulators are usually capable of
1538 displaying colors.
1539 This variable may be set to any of the following values:
1541 no-color
1542 Don't use color.
1544 use-termdef
1545 In order to decide if your terminal is capable of color,
1546 _Alpine_ looks in the terminal capabilities database,
1547 TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on how _Alpine_ was
1548 compiled. This is a good option to choose if you switch
1549 between a color and a non-color terminal with the same
1550 _Alpine_ configuration. _Alpine_ will know to use color on
1551 the color terminal because it is described in the termcap
1552 entry, and _Alpine_ will know to use black and white on
1553 the non-color terminal. Color Details has more information
1554 about configuring a termcap entry for color. This is
1555 usually something a system administrator does.
1557 force-ansi-8color
1558 Because setting up a termcap entry is confusing and
1559 because the terminal capabilities database is often not
1560 correctly configured for color, this choice and the next
1561 may be easier for you to use. If your terminal emulator
1562 responds to ANSI color escape sequences, which many do,
1563 this option will cause _Alpine_ to believe your terminal
1564 will respond to the escape sequences which produce eight
1565 different foreground and background colors. The escape
1566 sequences used to set the foreground colors are
1568 ESC [ 3 <color_number> m
1570 where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and 7.
1571 The numbers 0 through 7 should correspond to the colors
1572 black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
1573 Some terminal emulators use a pre-ANSI scheme which swaps
1574 the colors blue and red and the colors yellow and cyan.
1575 This will cause the default colors to be different, but
1576 other than that things should work fine. There is also a
1577 9th color available, the last one shown, which is the
1578 default color from the terminal emulator. When used as a
1579 background color some people refer to this color as
1580 "transparent", which is why the letters "TRAN" are shown
1581 in the color swatch of the SETUP COLOR screen. The
1582 foreground transparent color is shown as the color of the
1583 "TRAN" text. (The transparent color will not work
1584 correctly in a PC-Alpine configuration.) The escape
1585 sequences used to set the background colors are the same
1586 as for the foreground colors except a "4" replaces the
1587 "3".
1589 Note: With the Tera Term terminal emulator this setting
1590 works well. You should also have the Tera Term "Full
1591 color" option turned OFF. You may find the "Full color"
1592 option in Tera Term's "Setup" menu, in the "Window"
1593 submenu.
1595 force-ansi-16color
1596 Many terminal emulators know about the same eight colors
1597 above plus eight more. This option attempts to use all 16
1598 colors. The same escape sequences as for the eight-color
1599 terminal are used for the first eight colors. The escape
1600 sequences used to set foreground colors 8-15 are the same
1601 as for 0-7 except the "3" is replaced with a "9". The
1602 background color sequences for colors 8-15 are the same as
1603 for 0-7 except the "4" is replaced with "10". You can tell
1604 if the 16 colors are working by turning on this option and
1605 then going into one of the color configuration screens,
1606 for example, the configuration screen for Normal Color. If
1607 you see 16 different colors to select from (plus a 17th
1608 for the transparent color), it's working.
1610 force-xterm-256color
1611 Some versions of xterm (and some other terminal emulators)
1612 have support for 256 colors. The escape sequences used to
1613 set the foreground colors are
1615 ESC [ 38 ; 5 ; <color_number> m
1617 where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and
1618 255. Background colors are the same with the 38 replaced
1619 with a 48. The numbers 0 through 15 are probably similar
1620 to the 16 color version above, then comes a 6x6x6 color
1621 cube, followed by 24 colors of gray. The terminal default
1622 (transparent) color is the 257th color at the bottom. Some
1623 terminal emulators will misinterpret these escape
1624 sequences causing the terminal to blink or overstrike
1625 characters or to do something else undesirable.
1627 The PuTTY terminal emulator has an option called "Allow
1628 terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode" which allows PuTTY
1629 to work well with this 256-color setting.
1631 There are two other possible color values which may be useful in
1632 some situations. In the color configuration screens there will
1633 sometimes be a color which has the label "NORM" inside its color
1634 swatch. If this is selected the corresponding foreground or
1635 background Normal Color will be used. Another similar color is
1636 the one that has the label "NONE" inside its color swatch. The
1637 meaning of this setting is that no color changing will be done.
1638 This NONE color is only useful in contexts where _Alpine_ is
1639 already coloring the text some color other than the Normal
1640 Color. For example, if the Reverse Color is set then the current
1641 line in the MESSAGE INDEX will be colored. If one of the index
1642 symbols (for example, the Index-to-me Symbol) has the NONE color
1643 as its background then the symbol's foreground color will be
1644 used to draw the actual text but the background color will be
1645 the same as whatever the background color already was. The color
1646 values which end up in the configuration file for these special
1647 values are the 11-character words "norm-padded", "none-padded",
1648 and "transparent".
1649 The normal default is "no-color".
1650 Once you've turned on color you may set the colors of many
1651 objects on the screen individually. The Color Configuration
1652 section has more information, or you may just try it by running
1653 the "Setup" command and typing "K" for Kolor to enter the color
1654 configuration screen (Kolor instead of Color because C means
1655 Config). Most categories of color which _Alpine_ supports are
1656 configurable there. Index line color is configured separately.
1657 _composer-word-separators_
1658 This option affects how a "word" is defined in the composer. The
1659 definition of a word is used when using the Forward Word and
1660 Backward Word commands in the composer, as well as when using
1661 the spell checker. Whitespace is always considered a word
1662 separator. Punctuation (like question marks, periods, commas,
1663 and so on) is always a word separator if it comes at the end of
1664 a word. By default, a punctuation character which is in the
1665 middle of a word does not break up that word as long as the
1666 character before and the character after it are both
1667 alphanumeric. If you add a character to this option it will be
1668 considered a word separator even when it occurs in the middle of
1669 an alphanumeric word. For example, if you want to skip through
1670 each part of an address instead of skipping the whole address at
1671 once you might want to include"@" and "." in this list. If you
1672 want the word-skipper to stop on each part of a UNIX filename
1673 you could add "/" to the list. The equal sign and dash are other
1674 possibilities you might find helpful.
1675 _composer-wrap-column_
1676 This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer. This
1677 gives the maximum width that auto-wrapped lines will have. It's
1678 also the maximum width of lines justified using the ^J Justify
1679 command. The normal default is _74_. The largest allowed setting
1680 is normally _80_ in order to prevent very long lines from being
1681 sent in outgoing mail. When the mail is actually sent, trailing
1682 spaces will be stripped off of each line.
1683 _current-indexline-style_
1684 current-indexline-style.
1685 _customized-hdrs_
1686 You may add your own custom headers to outgoing messages. Each
1687 header you specify here must include the header tag (Reply-To:,
1688 Approved:, etc.) and may optionally include a value for that
1689 header. If you want to see these custom headers each time you
1690 compose a message, you must add them to your
1691 default-composer-hdrs list, otherwise they become part of the
1692 rich header set which you only see when you press the rich
1693 header command. (If you are looking for a way to change which
1694 headers are _displayed_ when you view a message, take a look at
1695 the viewer-hdrs option instead.) Here's an example which shows
1696 how you might set your From address
1698 From: Full Name <user@example.com>
1699 and another showing how you might set a Reply-To address
1701 Reply-To: user@example.com
1702 You may also set non-standard header values here. For example,
1703 you could add
1705 Organization: My Organization Name
1706 or even
1708 X-Favorite-Colors: Purple and Gold
1709 If you include a value after the colon then that header will be
1710 included in your outgoing messages unless you delete it before
1711 sending. If a header in the Customized-Headers list has only a
1712 tag but no value, then it will not be included in outgoing
1713 messages unless you edit a value in manually. For example, if
1715 Reply-To:
1716 is in the list, then the Reply-To header will be available for
1717 editing but won't be included unless a value is added while in
1718 the composer.
1719 It's actually a little more complicated than that. The values of
1720 headers that you set with the Customized-Headers option are
1721 defaults. If the message you are about to compose already has a
1722 value for a header, that value is used instead of a value from
1723 your Customized-Headers. For example, if you are Replying to a
1724 message the Subject field will already be filled in. In that
1725 case, if the Customized-Headers list contains a Subject line,
1726 the custom subject will _NOT_ be used. The subject derived from
1727 the subject of the message you are Replying to will be used
1728 instead.
1729 It is also possible to make header setting even more complicated
1730 and more automatic by using Roles, but if all you want to do is
1731 set a default value for a header, you don't need to think about
1732 Roles.
1733 If you change your From address you may also find it useful to
1734 add the changed From address to the alt-addresses configuration
1735 option.
1736 Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of
1737 Customized-Headers, it is not possible to have the value of a
1738 header contain a comma. Nor is there currently an "escape"
1739 mechanism provided to make this work.
1740 This option is displayed as "Customized Headers".
1741 _dead-letter-files_
1742 This option affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a
1743 message being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write
1744 the canceled message to a file named "dead.letter" in your home
1745 directory, or "DEADLETR" when using _PC-Alpine_, overwriting any
1746 previous message.
1747 If you set this option to a value higher than one, then that
1748 many copies of dead letter files will be saved. For example, if
1749 you set this option to "3" then you may have files named
1750 "DEADLETR", "DEADLETR2", and "DEADLETR3"; or "dead.letter",
1751 "dead.letter2", and "dead.letter3". In this example, the most
1752 recently cancelled message will be in "dead.letter", and the
1753 third most recently cancelled message will be in "dead.letter3".
1754 The fourth most recently cancelled message will no longer be
1755 saved.
1756 If you set this option to zero, then NO record of canceled
1757 messages is maintained.
1758 If the feature Quell-Dead-Letter-On-Cancel is set, that
1759 overrides whatever you set for this option. If this option had
1760 existed at the time, then the Quell feature would not have been
1761 added, but it is still there for backwards compatibility. So, in
1762 order for this option to have the desired effect, make sure the
1763 Quell feature is turned off.
1764 _default-composer-hdrs_
1765 You can control which headers you want visible when composing
1766 outgoing email using this option. You can specify any of the
1767 regular set, any Rich Header, or any Customized-Hdrs which you
1768 have already defined. If you use this setting at all, you must
1769 specify all the headers you want to see, you can't just add to
1770 the regular header set. The default set is To:, Cc:, Attchmnt:,
1771 and Subject:.
1772 Note that the "Newsgroups:" header will be abbreviated in the
1773 Composer display, but should be spelled out in full here.
1774 This option is displayed as "Default Composer Headers".
1775 _default-fcc_
1776 The name of the folder to which all outgoing mail goes is set
1777 here. The compiled-in default is _sent-mail_ (UNIX) or _sentmail_
1778 (PC). It can be set to "" (two double quotes with nothing
1779 between them) to turn off saving copies of outgoing mail. If
1780 _default-fcc_ is a relative file name, then it is relative to
1781 your default collection for saves (see folder-collections).
1782 This option is displayed as "Default Fcc (File carbon copy)".
1783 _default-saved-msg-folder_
1784 This option determines the default folder name for _Saves_... If
1785 this is not a path name, it will be in the default collection
1786 for saves. Any valid folder specification, local or IMAP, is
1787 allowed. This default folder only applies when the
1788 saved-msg-name-rule doesn't override it. Unix _Alpine_ default
1789 is normally _saved-messages_ in the default folder collection.
1790 _PC-Alpine_ default is _SAVEMAIL_ (normally stored as
1791 _SAVEMAIL.MTX_).
1792 This option is displayed as "Default Saved Message Folder".
1793 _disable-these-authenticators_
1794 This variable is a list of SASL (Simple Authentication and
1795 Security Layer) authenticators which will be disabled. SASL is a
1796 mechanism for authenticating to IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and other
1797 network servers.
1798 _Alpine_ matches its list of supported authenticators with the
1799 server to determine the most secure authenticator that is
1800 supported by both. If no matching authenticators are found,
1801 _Alpine_ will revert to plaintext login (or, in the case of SMTP,
1802 will be unable to authenticate at all).
1803 The candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more
1804 if you compile _Alpine_ with additional authenticators and/or a
1805 newer version of the c-client library.
1806 + GSSAPI
1807 + CRAM-MD5
1808 + PLAIN
1809 + LOGIN
1810 Normally, you will not disable any authenticators. There are two
1811 exceptions:
1812 1. You use a broken server that advertises an authenticator, but
1813 does not actually implement it.
1814 2. You have a Kerberos-capable version of _Alpine_ and the server
1815 is also Kerberos-capable, but you can not obtain Kerberos
1816 credentials on the server machine, thus you desire to disable
1817 GSSAPI (which in turn disables _Alpine_'s Kerberos support).
1818 It is never necessary to disable authenticators, since _Alpine_
1819 will try other authenticators before giving up. However,
1820 disabling the relevant authenticator avoids annoying error
1821 messages.
1822 _disable-these-drivers_
1823 This variable is a list of mail drivers which will be disabled.
1824 The candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more
1825 in the future if you compile _Alpine_ with a newer version of
1826 the c-client library.
1827 + mbox
1828 + mbx
1829 + mh
1830 + mix
1831 + mmdf
1832 + mtx
1833 + mx
1834 + news
1835 + phile
1836 + tenex
1837 + unix
1838 The _mbox_ driver enables the following behavior: if there is a
1839 file called mbox in your home directory, and if that file is
1840 either empty or in Unix mailbox format, then every time you open
1841 _INBOX_ the _mbox_ driver will automatically transfer mail from
1842 the system mail spool directory into the mbox file and delete it
1843 from the spool directory. If you disable the _mbox_ driver, this
1844 will not happen.
1845 It is not recommended to disable the driver which supports the
1846 system default mailbox format. On most non-SCO systems, that
1847 driver is the _unix_ driver. On most SCO systems, it is the
1848 _mmdf_ driver. The system default driver may be configured to
1849 something else on your system; check with your system manager
1850 for additional information.
1851 It is most likely not very useful for you to disable any of the
1852 drivers other than possibly _mbox_. You could disable some of
1853 the others if you know for certain that you don't need them but
1854 the performance gain in doing so is very modest.
1855 _display-character-set_
1856 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
1857 _display-filters_
1858 This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs
1859 or scripts) that may be used to filter text portions of received
1860 messages prior to their use (e.g., presentation in the "Message
1861 Text" display screen). For security reasons, the full path name
1862 of the filter command must be specified.
1863 Display filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_.
1864 The command is executed and the message is piped into its
1865 standard input. The standard output of the command is read back
1866 by _Alpine_. The __TMPFILE__ token (see below) overrides this
1867 default behavior.
1868 The filter's use is based on the configured _trigger_ string.
1869 The format of a filter definition is:
1871 <trigger> <command> <arguments>
1872 You can specify as many filters as you wish, separating them
1873 with a comma. Each filter can have only one trigger and command.
1874 Thus, two trigger strings which invoke the same command require
1875 separate filter specifications.
1876 The _trigger_ is simply text that, if found in the message, will
1877 invoke the associated command. If the trigger contains any space
1878 characters, it must be placed within quotes. Likewise, should
1879 you wish a filter to be invoked unconditionally, define the
1880 trigger as the null string, "" (two consecutive double-quote
1881 characters). If the trigger string is found anywhere in the text
1882 of the message the filter is invoked. Placing the trigger text
1883 within the tokens defined below changes where within the text
1884 the trigger must be before considering it a match.
1885 Trigger Modifying Tokens:
1887 __CHARSET(string)__
1888 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1889 if the text is in a character set matching string (e.g.,
1890 ISO-8859-2 or ISO-2022-JP).
1892 __LEADING(string)__
1893 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1894 if the enclosed string is found to be the first
1895 non-whitespace text.
1896 NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
1897 character.
1899 __BEGINNING(string)__
1900 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1901 if the enclosed string is found at the beginning of any
1902 line in the text.
1903 NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
1904 character.
1906 The "command" and "arguments" portion is simply the command line
1907 to be invoked if the trigger string is found. Below are tokens
1908 that _Alpine_ will recognize and replace with special values
1909 when the command is actually invoked.
1910 Command Modifying Tokens:
1912 __TMPFILE__
1913 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1914 the path and name of the temporary file containing the
1915 text to be filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to
1916 replace this data with the filter's result. NOTE: Use of
1917 this token implies that the text to be filtered is not
1918 piped into standard input of the executed command and its
1919 standard output is ignored. _Alpine_ restores the tty
1920 modes before invoking the filter in case the filter
1921 interacts with the user via its own standard input and
1922 output.
1924 __RESULTFILE__
1925 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1926 the path and name of a temporary file intended to contain
1927 a status message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this
1928 in the message status field.
1930 __DATAFILE__
1931 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1932 the path and name of a temporary file that _Alpine_
1933 creates once per session and deletes upon exit. The file
1934 is intended to be used by the filter to store state
1935 information between instances of the filter.
1937 __PREPENDKEY__
1938 When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
1939 random number will be passed down the input stream before
1940 the message text. This number could be used as a session
1941 key. It does not appear as a command-line argument. It is
1942 sent in this way to improve security. The number is unique
1943 to the current _Alpine_ session and is only generated once
1944 per session.
1946 The feature disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters is
1947 related.
1948 Performance caveat/considerations:
1949 Testing for the trigger and invoking the filter doesn't come for
1950 free. There is overhead associated with searching for the
1951 trigger string, testing for the filter's existence and actually
1952 piping the text through the filter. The impact can be reduced if
1953 the Trigger Modifying Tokens above are employed.
1954 Limitation:
1955 If Header Colors are being used, the sequences of bytes which
1956 indicate color changes will be contained in the text which is
1957 passed to the display-filter. If this causes problems you'll
1958 need to turn off Header Colors. The thirteen bytes which
1959 indicate a color change are the character \377 followed by \010
1960 for a foreground color or \011 for a background color. Then
1961 comes eleven characters of RGB data which looks something like
1962 255, 0,255, depending on the particular color, of course.
1963 _download-command_
1964 This option affects the behavior of the _Export_ command. It
1965 specifies a Unix program name, and any necessary command line
1966 arguments, that _Alpine_ can use to transfer the exported
1967 message to your personal computer's disk.
1968 _download-command-prefix_
1969 This option is used in conjunction with the _download-command_
1970 option. It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator
1971 (via standard output) immediately prior to starting the download
1972 command. This is useful for integrated serial line file transfer
1973 agents that permit command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
1974 _editor_
1975 UNIX _Alpine_ only. Sets the name of the alternate editor for
1976 composing mail (message text only, not headers). It will be
1977 invoked with the "^_" command or it will be invoked
1978 automatically if the enable-alternate-editor-implicitly feature
1979 is set.
1980 _empty-header-message_
1981 When sending, if both the To and Cc fields are empty and you are
1982 sending the message to a Bcc, _Alpine_ will put a special
1983 address in the To line. The default value is
1984 "undisclosed-recipients: ;". The reason for this is to avoid
1985 embarrassment caused by some Internet mail transfer software
1986 that interprets a "missing" To: header as an error and replaces
1987 it with an Apparently-to: header that may contain the addresses
1988 you entered on the Bcc: line, defeating the purpose of the Bcc.
1989 You may change the part of this message that comes before the ":
1990 ;" by setting the _empty-header-message_ variable to something
1991 else.
1992 _fcc-name-rule_
1993 Determines default folder name for fcc when composing.
1994 Currently, _Alpine_ will accept the values _default-fcc_,
1995 _by-recipient_, or _last-fcc-used_. If set to _default-fcc_, then
1996 _Alpine_ will use the value defined in the default-fcc variable
1997 (which itself has a default) for the Fcc header field. If set to
1998 _by-recipient_, then _Alpine_ will use the name of the recipient
1999 as a folder name for the fcc. The relevant recipient is the
2000 first address in the To field. If set to "last-fcc-used", then
2001 _Alpine_ will offer to Fcc to whatever folder you used
2002 previously. In all cases, the field can still be edited after it
2003 is initially assigned. If the fcc field in the address book is
2004 set for the first To address, that value over-rides any value
2005 derived from this rule.
2006 _feature-list_
2007 This is a list of the many features (options) which may be
2008 turned on or off. There is a separate section titled
2009 Configuration Features which explains each of the features.
2010 There is some additional explanation about the _feature-list_
2011 variable itself in Feature List Variable.
2012 _file-directory_
2013 _PC-Alpine_ only. This value affects the Composer's "^J Attach"
2014 command, the Attachment Index Screen's "S Save" command, and the
2015 Message Index's "E Export" command.
2016 Normally, when a filename is supplied that lacks a leading
2017 "path" component, _Alpine_ assumes the file exists in the user's
2018 home directory. Under Windows operating systems, this definition
2019 isn't always clear. This feature allows you to explicitly set
2020 where _Alpine_ should look for files without a leading path.
2021 NOTE: this feature's value is ignored if either use-current-dir
2022 feature is set or the PINERC has a value for the operating-dir
2023 variable.
2024 _folder-collections_
2025 This is a list of one or more collections where saved mail is
2026 stored. See the sections describing folder collections and
2027 collection syntax for more information. The first collection in
2028 this list is the default collection for _Save_s, including
2029 default-fcc's.
2030 _folder-extension_
2031 _PC-Alpine_ only. File extension used for local folder names.
2032 This is .MTX by default.
2033 _folder-reopen-rule_
2034 _Alpine_ normally checks for new mail in the currently open
2035 folder and in the INBOX every few minutes.
2036 There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does
2037 not work. For example, if a mail folder is opened using the POP
2038 protocol or a newsgroup is being read using the NNTP protocol,
2039 then new-mail checking is disabled.
2040 It may be possible to check for new mail in these cases by
2041 reopening the folder. _Alpine_ does not do this for you
2042 automatically, but you may do the commands manually to cause
2043 this to happen. You reopen by going back to the folder list
2044 screen from the message index screen with the "<" command, and
2045 then going back into the message index screen with the ">"
2046 command. (Actually, any method you would normally use to open a
2047 folder will work the same as the "<" followed by ">" method. For
2048 example, the GoTo Folder command will work, or you may use L to
2049 go to the Folder List screen and Carriage Return to reopen the
2050 folder.)
2051 There are some cases where _Alpine_ knows that reopening the
2052 folder should be useful as a way to discover new mail. At the
2053 time of this writing, connections made using the POP protocol,
2054 news reading using the NNTP protocol, local news reading, and
2055 local ReadOnly folders which are in the traditional UNIX or the
2056 MMDF format all fall into this category. There are other cases
2057 where it _may_ be a way to discover new mail, but _Alpine_ has
2058 no way of knowing, so it might also just be an exercise in
2059 futility. All remote, ReadOnly folders other than those listed
2060 just above fall into this category. The setting of this option
2061 together with the type of folder controls how _Alpine_ will
2062 react to the apparent attempt to reopen a folder.
2063 If you don't reopen, then you will just be back in the message
2064 index with no change. You left the index and came back, but the
2065 folder remained "open" the whole time. However, if you do reopen
2066 the folder, the folder is closed and then reopened. In this
2067 case, the current state of the open folder is lost. The New
2068 status, Important and Answered flags, selected state, Zoom
2069 state, collapsed or expanded state of threads, current message
2070 number, and any other temporary state is all lost when the
2071 reopen happens. For POP folders (but not NNTP newsgroups) the
2072 Deleted flags are also lost.
2073 In the possibilities listed below, the text says "POP/NNTP" in
2074 several places. That really implies the case where _Alpine_
2075 knows it is a good way to discover new mail, which is more than
2076 just POP and NNTP, but POP and NNTP are the cases of most
2077 interest. This option probably has more possible values than it
2078 deserves. They are:
2080 Always reopen
2081 _Alpine_ will not ask whether you want to reopen but will
2082 just do the reopen whenever you type a command that
2083 implies a reopen, regardless of the access method. In
2084 other words, it is assumed you would always answer Yes if
2085 asked about reopening.
2087 Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [Yes]
2088 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2089 POP or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other
2090 remote folders, with a default answer of Yes.
2092 Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [No]
2093 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2094 POP or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other
2095 remote folders, with a default answer of No.
2097 Yes for POP/NNTP, No for other remote
2098 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2099 POP or NNTP, and will assume a No answer for all other
2100 remote folders.
2102 Always ask [Yes]
2103 _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It
2104 will always ask for all remote folders, with a default
2105 answer of Yes.
2107 Always ask [No]
2108 _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It
2109 will always ask for all remote folders, with a default
2110 answer of No.
2112 Ask about POP/NNTP [Yes], No for other remote
2113 _Alpine_ will ask if the access method is POP or NNTP,
2114 with a default answer of Yes. It will never attempt to
2115 reopen other remote folders.
2117 Ask about POP/NNTP [No], No for other remote
2118 This is the default. _Alpine_ will ask if the access
2119 method is POP or NNTP, with a default answer of No. It
2120 will never attempt to reopen other remote folders.
2122 Never reopen
2123 _Alpine_ will never attempt to reopen already open
2124 folders.
2126 Remember, wherever it says POP or NNTP above it really means POP
2127 or NNTP or any of the other situations where it is likely that
2128 reopening is a good way to discover new mail.
2129 There is an alternative that may be of useful in some
2130 situations. Instead of manually checking for new mail you can
2131 set up a Mail Drop and automatically check for new mail.
2132 _folder-sort-rule_
2133 This option controls the order in which folder list entries will
2134 be presented in the FOLDER LIST screen. Choose one of the
2135 following:
2137 _Alphabetical_
2138 sort by alphabetical name independent of type
2140 _Alpha-with-dirs-last_
2141 sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to
2142 the end of the list
2144 _Alpha-with-dirs-first_
2145 sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to
2146 the start of the list
2148 The normal default is _Alphabetical_.
2149 _font-name_
2150 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2151 _font-size_
2152 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2153 _font-style_
2154 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2155 _forced-abook-entry_
2156 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Force these
2157 address book entries into all writable personal address books.
2158 This is a list variable. Each item in the list has the form:
2160 Nickname | Fullname | Address
2161 with optional whitespace in all the obvious places.
2162 _form-letter-folder_
2163 A Form Letter Folder is a mail folder that is intended to
2164 contain messages that you have composed and that are intended to
2165 be sent in their original form repeatedly.
2166 Setting this variable will alter _Alpine_'s usual behavior when
2167 you execute the Compose command. Normally, _Alpine_ offers a
2168 chance to continue a postponed or interrupted message should one
2169 or the other exist. When this variable is set to a folder name
2170 that exists, _Alpine_ will also offer the chance to select a
2171 message from the folder to insert into the composer, much like
2172 when continuing a postponed message. The difference, however, is
2173 that _Alpine_ will not automatically delete the selected message
2174 from the Form Letter Folder.
2175 Setting this variable will also affect _Alpine_'s behavior when
2176 you Postpone a message from the composer. Normally, _Alpine_
2177 simply stashes the message away in your Postponed-Folder.
2178 Regardless of the specified folder's existence, _Alpine_ will
2179 ask which folder you intend the message to be stored in. Choose
2180 the "F" option to store the message in your Form Letter Folder.
2181 This is the most common way to add a message to the folder.
2182 Another method of adding messages to the folder is via the
2183 _Alpine_ composer's Fcc: field. If you are sending a message that
2184 you expect to send in the same form again, you can enter the
2185 Form Letter Folder's name in this field. _Alpine_, as usual,
2186 will copy the message as it's sent. Note, when you later select
2187 this message from your Form Letter Folder, it will have the same
2188 recipients as the original message.
2189 To delete a message from the Form Letter Folder, you can either
2190 select the folder from a suitable FOLDER LIST screen, or use the
2191 Delete command in the MESSAGE INDEX offered when selecting from
2192 the folder as part of the Compose command. You can delete a Form
2193 Letter Folder just as any other folder from a suitable FOLDER
2194 LIST screen.
2195 You may find that the Roles facility can be used to replace the
2196 Form Letter Folder.
2197 _global-address-book_
2198 A list of shared address books. Each entry in the list is an
2199 optional nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative
2200 to the home directory. A SPACE character separates the nickname
2201 from the rest of the line. Instead of a local pathname or file
2202 name, a remote folder name can be given. This causes the address
2203 book to be a Remote address book. Remote folder syntax is
2204 discussed in Syntax for Remote Folders. This list will be added
2205 to the address-book list to arrive at the complete set of
2206 address books. Global address books are defined to be ReadOnly.
2207 _goto-default-rule_
2208 This value affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _Goto_
2209 command. There are five possible values for this option:
2211 _folder-in-first-collection_
2212 _Alpine_ will offer the most recently visited folder in
2213 the default collection found in the "Collection List"
2214 screen as the default.
2216 _inbox-or-folder-in-first-collection_
2217 If the current folder is _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the
2218 most recently visited folder in the default collection
2219 found in the "Collection List" screen. If the current
2220 folder is other than _INBOX_, _INBOX_ is offered as the
2221 default.
2223 _inbox-or-folder-in-recent-collection_
2224 This is _Alpine_'s default behavior. If the current folder
2225 is _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the last open folder as
2226 the default. If the current folder is other than _INBOX_,
2227 _INBOX_ is offered as the default.
2229 _first-collection-with-inbox-default_
2230 Instead of offering the most recently visited folder in
2231 the default collection, the default collection is offered
2232 but with _INBOX_ as the default folder. If you type in a
2233 folder name it will be in the default collection. If you
2234 simply accept the default, however, your _INBOX_ will be
2235 opened.
2237 _most-recent-folder_
2238 The last accepted value simply causes the most recently
2239 opened folder to be offered as the default regardless of
2240 the currently opened folder.
2242 NOTE: The default while a newsgroup is open remains the same;
2243 the last open newsgroup.
2244 _header-general-background-color_
2245 _header-general-foreground-color_
2246 Header Colors.
2247 _image-viewer_
2248 This variable names the program to call for displaying parts of
2249 a MIME message that are of type IMAGE. If your system supports
2250 the _mailcap_ system, you don't need to set this variable.
2251 _inbox-path_
2252 This specifies the name of the folder to use for the _INBOX_. By
2253 default this is unset and the system's default is used. The most
2254 common reason for setting this is to open an IMAP mailbox for
2255 the _INBOX_. For example, _{imap5.u.example.edu}inbox_ will open
2256 the user's standard _INBOX_ on the mail server, _imap5_.
2257 _incoming-archive-folders_
2258 This is like read-message-folder, only more general. This is a
2259 list of folder pairs, with the first separated from the second
2260 in the pair by a space. The first folder in a pair is the folder
2261 you want to archive, and the second folder is the folder that
2262 read messages from the first should be moved to. Depending on
2263 how you define the auto-move-read-msgs feature, you may or may
2264 not be asked when you leave the first folder if you want read
2265 messages to be moved to the second folder. In either case,
2266 moving the messages means they will be deleted from the first
2267 folder.
2268 If these are not path names, they will be in the default
2269 collection for _Save_s. Any valid folder specification, local or
2270 remote (via IMAP), is allowed. There is no default.
2271 _incoming-check-interval_
2272 This option has no effect unless the feature
2273 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2274 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2275 This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check
2276 for new mail and state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming
2277 Folders Checking is turned on. The default is 3 minutes (180).
2278 This value applies only to folders that are local to the system
2279 that _Alpine_ is running on or that are accessed using the IMAP
2280 protocol. The similar option incoming-check-interval-secondary
2281 applies to all other monitored folders.
2282 _incoming-check-interval-secondary_
2283 This option has no effect unless the feature
2284 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2285 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2286 This option together with the option incoming-check-interval
2287 specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check for new
2288 mail and state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming Folders
2289 Checking is turned on. The default for this option is 3 minutes
2290 (180). For folders that are local to this system or that are
2291 accessed using the IMAP protocol the value of the option
2292 incoming-check-interval is used. For all other monitored
2293 folders, the value of this option is used.
2294 The reason there are two separate options is because it is
2295 usually less expensive to check local and IMAP folders than it
2296 is to check other types, like POP or NNTP folders. You may want
2297 to set this secondary value to a higher number than the primary
2298 check interval.
2299 _incoming-check-list_
2300 This option has no effect unless the feature
2301 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2302 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2303 When monitoring the Incoming Message Folders for Unseen messages
2304 Alpine will normally monitor all Incoming Folders. You may use
2305 this option to restrict the list of monitored folders to a
2306 subset of all Incoming Folders.
2307 _incoming-check-timeout_
2308 This option has no effect unless the feature
2309 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2310 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2311 Sets the time in seconds that Alpine will attempt to open a
2312 network connection used for monitoring for Unseen messages in
2313 Incoming Folders. The default is 5. If a connection has not
2314 completed within this many seconds Alpine will give up and
2315 consider it a failed connection.
2316 _incoming-folders_
2317 This is a list of one or more folders other than _INBOX_ that
2318 may receive new messages. This list is slightly special in that
2319 it is always expanded in the folder lister. In the future, it
2320 may become more special. For example, it would be nice if
2321 _Alpine_ would monitor the folders in this list for new mail.
2322 _incoming-startup-rule_
2323 This rule affects _Alpine_'s behavior when opening the _INBOX_
2324 or another folder from the "INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS". This rule
2325 tells _Alpine_ which message to make the current message when an
2326 incoming folder is opened. There are seven possible values for
2327 this option:
2329 _first-unseen_
2330 The current message will be the first unseen message which
2331 has not been marked deleted, or the last message if all of
2332 the messages have been seen. This is the default setting.
2334 _first-recent_
2335 This is similar to _first-unseen_. Instead of first unseen
2336 it is the first recent message. A message is considered to
2337 be recent if it arrived since the last time the folder was
2338 open (by any mail client, not just the current one). So
2339 this option causes the current message to be set to the
2340 first undeleted-recent message, or the last message if
2341 none is both undeleted and recent.
2343 _first-important_
2344 This will result in the current message being set to the
2345 first message marked Important (but not Deleted). If no
2346 messages are marked Important, then it will be the last
2347 message.
2349 _first-important-or-unseen_
2350 This selects the minimum of the first unseen and the first
2351 important messages.
2353 _first-important-or-recent_
2354 This selects the first of the first recent and the first
2355 important messages.
2357 _first_
2358 Set the current message to the first undeleted message
2359 unless all are deleted. In that case set it to the last
2360 message.
2362 _last_
2363 Set the current message to the last undeleted message
2364 unless all are deleted. In that case set it to the last
2365 message.
2367 _incoming-unseen-background-color_
2368 _incoming-unseen-foreground-color_
2369 Incoming Unseen Color.
2370 _index-answered-background-color_
2371 _index-answered-foreground-color_
2372 _index-arrow-background-color_
2373 _index-arrow-foreground-color_
2374 _index-deleted-background-color_
2375 _index-deleted-foreground-color_
2376 _index-from-background-color_
2377 _index-from-foreground-color_
2378 _index-highpriority-background-color_
2379 _index-highpriority-foreground-color_
2380 _index-important-background-color_
2381 _index-important-foreground-color_
2382 _index-lowpriority-background-color_
2383 _index-lowpriority-foreground-color_
2384 _index-new-background-color_
2385 _index-new-foreground-color_
2386 _index-opening-background-color_
2387 _index-opening-foreground-color_
2388 _index-recent-background-color_
2389 _index-recent-foreground-color_
2390 _index-subject-background-color_
2391 _index-subject-foreground-color_
2392 _index-to-me-background-color_
2393 _index-to-me-foreground-color_
2394 _index-unseen-background-color_
2395 _index-unseen-foreground-color_
2396 Index Colors.
2397 _index-format_
2398 This option is used to customize the content of lines in the
2399 MESSAGE INDEX screen. Each line is intended to convey some
2400 amount of immediately relevant information about each message in
2401 the current folder.
2402 _Alpine_ provides a pre-defined set of informational fields with
2403 reasonable column widths automatically computed. You can,
2404 however, replace this default set by listing special tokens in
2405 the order you want them displayed.
2406 The list of available tokens is here.
2407 Spaces are used to separate listed tokens. Additionally, you can
2408 specify how much of the screen's width the taken's associated
2409 data should occupy on the index line by appending the token with
2410 a pair of parentheses enclosing either a number or percentage.
2411 For example, "SUBJECT(13)" means to allocate 13 characters of
2412 space to the subject column, and "SUBJECT(20%)" means to
2413 allocate 20% of the available space to the subjects column,
2414 while plain "SUBJECT" means the system will attempt to figure
2415 out a reasonable amount of space.
2416 There is always one space between every pair of columns, so if
2417 you use fixed column widths (like 13) you should remember to
2418 take that into account. Several of the fields are virtually
2419 fixed-width, so it doesn't make much sense to specify the width
2420 for them. The fields STATUS, FULLSTATUS, IMAPSTATUS, MSGNO, the
2421 DATE fields, SIZE, and DESCRIPSIZE all fall into that category.
2422 You _may_ specify widths for those if you wish, but you're
2423 probably better off letting the system pick those widths.
2424 The default is equivalent to:
2426 index-format=STATUS MSGNO SMARTDATETIME24 FROMORTO(33%) SIZENARROW SUBJ
2427 KEY(67%)
2428 This means that the four fields without percentages will be
2429 allocated first, and then 33% and 67% of the _remaining_ space
2430 will go to the from and subject fields. If one of those two
2431 fields is specified as a percentage and the other is left for
2432 the system to choose, then the percentage is taken as an
2433 absolute percentage of the screen, not of the space remaining
2434 after allocating the first four columns. It doesn't usually make
2435 sense to do it that way. If you leave off all the widths, then
2436 the subject and from fields (if both are present) are allocated
2437 space in a 2 to 1 ratio, which is almost exactly the same as the
2438 default.
2439 What you are most likely to do with this configuration option is
2440 to specify which fields appear at all, which order they appear
2441 in, and the percentage of screen that is used for the from and
2442 subject fields if you don't like the 2 to 1 default.
2443 If you want to retain the default format that _Pine_ 4.64 had,
2444 use
2446 Index-Format=STATUS MSGNO DATE FROMORTO(33%) SIZE SUBJKEY(67%)
2447 _and_ set the feature Disable-Index-Locale-Dates.
2448 _initial-keystroke-list_
2449 This is a comma-separated list of keystrokes which _Alpine_
2450 executes on startup. Items in the list are usually just
2451 characters, but there are some special values. _SPACE,_ _TAB,_
2452 and _CR_ mean a space character, tab character, and a carriage
2453 return, respectively. _F1_ through _F12_ stand for the twelve
2454 function keys. _UP, DOWN, LEFT, _and_ RIGHT _stand for the arrow
2455 keys. Control characters are represented with _^<char>_. A
2456 restriction is that you can't mix function keys and character
2457 keys in this list even though you can, in some cases, mix them
2458 when running _Alpine_. A user can always use only _character_
2459 keys in the startup list even if he or she is using _function_
2460 keys normally, or vice versa. If an element in this list is a
2461 string surrounded by double quotes (") then it will be expanded
2462 into the individual characters in the string, excluding the
2463 double quotes.
2464 _kblock-passwd-count_
2465 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Number of times a
2466 user will have to enter a password when they run the keyboard
2467 lock command in the main menu.
2468 _keyboard-character-set_
2469 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
2470 _keylabel-background-color_
2471 _keylabel-foreground-color_
2472 KeyLabel Color.
2473 _keyname-background-color_
2474 _keyname-foreground-color_
2475 KeyName Color.
2476 _keywords_
2477 You may define your own set of keywords and optionally set them
2478 on a message by message basis. These are similar to the
2479 "Important" flag which the user may set using the Flag command.
2480 The difference is that the Important flag is always present for
2481 each folder. User-defined keywords are chosen by the user. You
2482 may set up the list of possible keywords here, or you may add
2483 keywords from the Flag Details screen that you can get to after
2484 typing the Flag (*) command. After the keywords have been
2485 defined, then you use the Flag command to set or clear the
2486 keywords in each message. The behavior of the flag command may
2487 be modified by using the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option or
2488 the Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option.
2489 Keywords may be used when Selecting messages (Select Keyword).
2490 Keywords may also be used in the Patterns of Rules (Filters,
2491 Indexcolors, etc). Filter rules may be used to set keywords
2492 automatically. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject
2493 of a message by using the SUBJKEY or SUBJKEYINIT tokens in the
2494 Index-Format option. The Keyword-Surrounding-Chars option may be
2495 used to modify the display of keywords using SUBJKEY and
2496 SUBJKEYINIT slightly. Keywords may also be displayed in a column
2497 of their own in the MESSAGE INDEX screen by using the KEY or
2498 KEYINIT tokens. It is also possible to color keywords in the
2499 index using the Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors). Keywords
2500 are not supported by all mail servers.
2501 You may give keywords nicknames if you wish. If the keyword
2502 definition you type in contains a SPACE character, then the
2503 actual value of the keyword is everything after the last SPACE
2504 and the nickname for that keyword is everything before the last
2505 SPACE. For example, suppose you are trying to interoperate with
2506 another email program which uses a particular keyword with an
2507 unpleasant name. Maybe it uses a keyword called
2509 VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2510 but for you that keyword means that the message is work-related.
2511 You could define a keyword to have the value
2513 Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2514 and then you would use the name "Work" when dealing with that
2515 keyword in _Alpine_. If you defined it as
2517 My Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2518 the nickname would be everything before the last SPACE, that is
2519 the nickname would be "My Work".
2520 Some commonly used keywords begin with dollar signs. This
2521 presents a slight complication, because the dollar sign is
2522 normally used to signify environment variable expansion in the
2523 _Alpine_ configuration. In order to specify a keyword which
2524 begins with a dollar sign you must precede the dollar sign with
2525 a second dollar sign to escape its special meaning. For example,
2526 if you want to include the keyword
2528 $Label1
2529 as one of your possible keywords, you must enter the text
2531 $$Label1
2532 instead.
2533 _keyword-surrounding-chars_
2534 This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX
2535 and MESSAGE TEXT screens. If you have modified the Index-Format
2536 option so that either the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens are
2537 used to display keywords or their initials along with the
2538 Subject; then this option may be used to modify the resulting
2539 display slightly. By default, the keywords or initials displayed
2540 for these tokens will be surrounded with curly braces ({ and })
2541 and a trailing space. For example, if keywords "Work" and "Now"
2542 are set for a message, the "SUBJKEY" token will normally look
2543 like
2545 {Work Now} actual subject
2546 and the SUBJKEYINIT token would look like
2548 {WN} actual subject
2549 The default character before the keywords is the left brace ({)
2550 and the default after the keywords is the right brace followed
2551 by a space (} ).
2552 This option allows you to change that. You should set it to two
2553 values separated by a space. The values may be quoted if they
2554 include space characters. So, for example, the default value
2555 could be specified explicitly by setting this option to
2557 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="{" "} "
2558 The first part wouldn't need to be quoted (but it doesn't hurt).
2559 The second part does need the quotes because it includes a space
2560 character. If you wanted to change the braces to brackets you
2561 could use
2563 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="[" "] "
2564 Inside the quotes you can use backslash quote to mean quote, so
2566 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="\"" "\" "
2567 would produce
2569 "Work Now" actual subject
2570 It is also possible to color keywords in the index using the
2571 Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors).
2572 It is not possible to change the fact that a space character is
2573 used to separate the keywords if more than one keyword is set
2574 for a message. It is also not possible to change the fact that
2575 there are no separators between the keyword initials if more
2576 than one keyword is set.
2577 This option is displayed as "Keyword Surrounding Characters".
2578 _last-time-prune-questioned_
2579 Personal configuration file only. This variable records the
2580 month the user was last asked if his or her _sent-mail_ folders
2581 should be pruned. The format is _yy.mm_. This is automatically
2582 updated by _Alpine_ when the the pruning is done or declined. If
2583 a user wanted to make _Alpine_ stop asking this question he or
2584 she could set this time to something far in the future. This may
2585 not be set in the system-wide configuration files. Note: The _yy_
2586 year is actually the number of years since 1900, so it will be
2587 equal to 101 in the year 2001.
2588 _last-version-used_
2589 Personal configuration file only. This is set automatically by
2590 _Alpine_. It is used to keep track of the last version of _Alpine_
2591 that was run by the user. Whenever the version number increases,
2592 a new version message is printed out. This may not be set in the
2593 system-wide configuration files.
2594 _ldap-servers_
2595 This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP
2596 library when it was compiled. This variable is normally managed
2597 by _Alpine_ though it can be set in the system-wide
2598 configuration files as well as the personal configuration. It is
2599 a list variable. Each item in the list contains quite a bit of
2600 extra information besides just the server name. To put this into
2601 a system-wide config file the easiest thing to do is to
2602 configure a personal _Alpine_ for the LDAP server then copy the
2603 configuration line into the system-wide config file. Each item
2604 in the list looks like:
2606 server_name[:port] "quoted stuff"
2607 The server_name is just a hostname and it is followed by an
2608 optional colon and port number. The default port is 389.
2609 Following the server name is a single SPACE character followed
2610 by a bunch of characters inside double quotes. The part inside
2611 the quotes is a set of _tag_ = _value_ pairs. Each tag is
2612 preceded by a slash (/) and followed by an equal sign. The value
2613 for that tag is the text up to the next slash. An example of
2614 some quoted stuff is:
2616 "/base=o=University of Washington, c=US/impl=0/.../nick=My Server"
2617 This would set the search base for this server to o=University
2618 of Washington, c=US, set the implicit bit to zero, and set the
2619 nickname for the server to My Server. All of the tags correspond
2620 directly to items in the Setup/Directory screen so experiment
2621 with that if you want to see what the possible tags and values
2622 are.
2623 _literal-signature_
2624 With this option your actual signature, as opposed to the name
2625 of a file containing your signature, is stored in the _Alpine_
2626 configuration file. If this is defined it takes precedence over
2627 the _signature-file_ option.
2628 This is simply a different way to store the signature data. The
2629 signature is stored inside your _Alpine_ configuration file
2630 instead of in a separate signature file. Tokens contained in the
2631 signature work the same way they do with the regular
2632 signature-file.
2633 The Setup/Signature command in _Alpine_'s Main Menu will edit
2634 the _literal-signature_ by default. However, if no
2635 _literal-signature_ is defined and the file named in the
2636 _signature-file_ option exists, then the latter will be used
2637 instead. Compose (Reply, Forward, ...) will default to using the
2638 _literal-signature_ if defined, otherwise it will use the
2639 contents of the file named in _signature-file_.
2640 The _Alpine_ composer is used to edit the literal-signature. The
2641 result of that edit is first converted to a C-style string
2642 before it is stored in the configuration file. In particular,
2643 the two character sequence \n (backslash followed by the
2644 character "n") will be used to signify a line-break in the
2645 signature. You don't have to enter the \n, but it will be
2646 visible in the SETUP CONFIGURATION window after you are done
2647 editing the signature.
2648 _mail-check-interval_
2649 This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check
2650 for new mail. If set to zero, new-mail checking is disabled.
2651 (You can always manually force a new-mail check by typing ^L
2652 (Ctrl-L), which is also the command to refresh the screen, or by
2653 typing the Next command when the current message is the last
2654 message of the folder.) There is a minimum value for this
2655 option, normally 15 seconds. The default value is normally 150
2656 seconds. The higher you set this option, the easier it is on the
2657 server.
2658 There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does
2659 not work. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
2660 folder-reopen-rule.
2661 The new-mail checking will not happen exactly at the frequency
2662 that you specify. For example, _Alpine_ may elect to defer a
2663 non-INBOX mail check if you are busy typing. Or, it may check
2664 more frequently than you have specified if that is thought to be
2665 necessary to keep the server from closing the connection to the
2666 folder due to inactivity. If _Alpine_ checks for new mail as a
2667 side effect of another command, it will reset the timer, so that
2668 new-mail checking may seem to happen irregularly instead of
2669 every X seconds like clockwork.
2670 If you are anxious to know about new mail as soon as possible,
2671 set the check interval low, and you'll know about the new mail
2672 by approximately that amount of time after it arrives. If you
2673 aren't so worried about knowing right away, set this option to a
2674 higher value. That will save the server some processing time and
2675 may save you some of the time you spend waiting for new-mail
2676 checks to happen if you are dealing with a slow server or slow
2677 network connection.
2678 If you suspect that new-mail checking is causing slow downs for
2679 you, you may want to look into the options
2680 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox,
2681 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox and
2682 Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent, which refine when mail checking
2683 is done.
2684 If the mailbox being check uses a Mail Drop then there is a
2685 minimum time (maildrop-check-minimum) between new-mail checks.
2686 Because of this minimum you may notice that new mail does not
2687 appear promptly when you expect it. The reason for this is to
2688 protect the server from over-zealous opening and closing of the
2689 Mail Drop folder, since that is a costly operation.
2690 A side effect of disabling mail checking is that there will be
2691 situations in which the user's IMAP connection will be broken
2692 due to inactivity timers on the server. Another side effect is
2693 that the user-input-timeout option won't work.
2694 _mail-check-interval-noncurrent_
2695 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
2696 option, as well as the Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox
2697 and Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox options. If the
2698 "Mail-Check-Interval" option is set to zero, then automatic
2699 new-mail checking is disabled and this option will have no
2700 effect.
2701 Normally this option is set to zero, which means that the value
2702 used will be the same as the value for the
2703 "Mail-Check-Interval". If you set this option to a value
2704 different from zero (usually larger than the value for
2705 "Mail-Check-Interval") then that is the check interval that will
2706 be used for folders which are not the currently open folder or
2707 the INBOX. You may not even have any folders that are noncurrent
2708 and not the INBOX. If you do, it is likely that they are due to
2709 Stay-Open-Folders you have configured. This option also affects
2710 the rate of mail checking done on cached connections to folders
2711 you previously had open but are no longer actively using. You
2712 aren't expected to understand that last sentence, but if you are
2713 interested take a look at Max-Remote-Connections, and the
2714 related options.
2715 _mail-directory_
2716 This variable was more important in previous versions of
2717 _Alpine_. Now it is used only as the default for storing personal
2718 folders (and only if there are no folder-collections defined).
2719 The default value is _~/mail_ on UNIX and _${HOME}\MAIL_ on a
2720 PC.
2721 _mailcap-search-path_
2722 This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mailcap file
2723 search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be
2724 specified) in which to look for mail capability data.
2725 _maildrop-check-minimum_
2726 New-mail checking for a Mail Drop is a little different from new
2727 mail checking for a regular folder. One of the differences is
2728 that the connection to the Mail Drop is not kept open and so the
2729 cost of checking (delay for you and additional load for the
2730 server) may be significant. Because of this additional cost we
2731 set a minimum time that must pass between checks. This minimum
2732 only applies to the automatic checking done by _Alpine_. If you
2733 force a check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or by typing the Next
2734 command when you are at the end of a folder index, then the
2735 check is done right away.
2736 This option specifies, in seconds, the _minimum_ time between
2737 Mail Drop new-mail checks. You may want to set this minimum high
2738 in order to avoid experiencing some of the delays associated
2739 with the checks. Note that the time between checks is still
2740 controlled by the regular Mail-Check-Interval option. When
2741 _Alpine_ is about to do an automatic check for new mail (because
2742 the Mail-Check-Interval has expired) then if the time since the
2743 last new-mail check of any open Mail Drops has been greater than
2744 the MailDrop-Check-Minimum, the Mail Drop is checked for new
2745 mail as well. Therefore, it is only useful to set this option to
2746 a value that is higher than the Mail-Check-Interval.
2747 If this option is set to zero, automatic Mail Drop new-mail
2748 checking is disabled. There is a minimum value, normally 60
2749 seconds. The default value is normally 60 seconds as well. This
2750 applies to the INBOX and to the currently open folder if that is
2751 different from the INBOX.
2752 _max-remote-connections_
2753 This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. The default
2754 value for this option is _2_. If your INBOX is accessed using
2755 the IMAP protocol from an IMAP server, that connection is kept
2756 open throughout the duration of your _Alpine_ session,
2757 independent of the value of this option. The same is true of any
2758 Stay-Open-Folders you have defined. This option controls
2759 _Alpine_'s behavior when connecting to remote IMAP folders other
2760 than your INBOX or your Stay-Open-Folders. It specifies the
2761 maximum number of remote IMAP connections (other than those
2762 mentioned above) that _Alpine_ will use for accessing the rest
2763 of your folders. If you set this option to zero, you will turn
2764 off most remote connection re-use. It's difficult to understand
2765 exactly what this option does, and it is usually fine to leave
2766 it set to its default value. It is probably more likely that you
2767 will be interested in setting the Stay-Open-Folders option
2768 instead of changing the value of this option. A slightly longer
2769 explanation of what is going on with this option is given in the
2770 next paragraphs.
2771 There are some time costs involved in opening and closing remote
2772 IMAP folders, the main costs being the time you have to wait for
2773 the connection to the server and the time for the folder to
2774 open. Opening a folder may involve not only the time the server
2775 takes to do its processing but time that _Alpine_ uses to do
2776 filtering. These times can vary widely. They depend on how
2777 loaded the server is, how large the folder being opened is, and
2778 how you set up filtering, among other things. Once _Alpine_ has
2779 opened a connection to a particular folder, it will attempt to
2780 keep that connection open in case you use it again. In order to
2781 do this, _Alpine_ will attempt to use the Max-Remote-Connections
2782 (the value of this option) IMAP connections you have allotted
2783 for this purpose.
2784 For example, suppose the value of this option is set to "2". If
2785 your INBOX is accessed on a remote server using the IMAP
2786 protocol, that doesn't count as one of the remote connections
2787 but it is always kept open. If you then open another IMAP
2788 folder, that would be your first remote connection counted as
2789 one of the Max-Remote-Connections connections. If you open a
2790 third folder the second will be left open, in case you return to
2791 it. You won't be able to tell it has been left open. It will
2792 appear to be closed when you leave the folder but the connection
2793 will remain in the background. Now suppose you go back to the
2794 second folder (the first folder after the INBOX). A connection
2795 to that folder is still open so you won't have to wait for the
2796 startup time to open it. Meanwhile, the connection to the third
2797 folder will be left behind. Now, if you open a fourth folder,
2798 you will bump into the Max-Remote-Connections limit, because
2799 this will be the third folder other than INBOX and you have the
2800 option set to "2". The connection that is being used for the
2801 third folder will be re-used for this new fourth folder. If you
2802 go back to the third folder after this, it is no longer already
2803 connected when you get there. You'll still save some time since
2804 _Alpine_ will re-use the connection to the fourth folder and you
2805 have already logged in on that connection, but the folder will
2806 have to be re-opened from scratch.
2807 If a folder is large and the startup cost is dominated by the
2808 time it takes to open that folder or to run filters on it, then
2809 it will pay to make the value of this option large enough to
2810 keep it open. On the other hand, if you only revisit a handful
2811 of folders or if the folders are small, then it might make more
2812 sense to keep this number small so that the reconnect time (the
2813 time to start up a new connection and authenticate) is
2814 eliminated instead.
2815 You may also need to consider the impact on the server. On the
2816 surface, a larger number here may cause a larger impact on the
2817 server, since you will have more connections open to the server.
2818 On the other hand, not only will _you_ be avoiding the startup
2819 costs associated with reopening a folder, but the _server_ will
2820 be avoiding those costs as well.
2821 When twenty five minutes pass without any active use of an IMAP
2822 connection being saved for possible re-use, that connection will
2823 be shut down,
2824 This option is displayed as "Maximum Remote Connections".
2825 _meta-message-background-color_
2826 _meta-message-foreground-color_
2827 Meta-message Color.
2828 _mimetype-search-path_
2829 This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mime.types
2830 file search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths
2831 must be specified) in which to look for file-name-extension to
2832 MIME type mapping data. See the Config Notes for details on
2833 _Alpine_'s usage of the MIME.Types File.
2834 _new-version-threshold_
2835 When a new version of _Alpine_ is run for the first time it
2836 offers a special explanatory screen to the user upon startup.
2837 This option helps control when and if that special screen
2838 appears for users that have previously run _Alpine_. It takes as
2839 its value a _Alpine_ version number. _Alpine_ versions less than
2840 the specified value will suppress this special screen while
2841 versions equal to or greater than that specified will behave
2842 normally.
2843 _newmail-fifo-path_
2844 This option is only available in UNIX _Alpine_. However, there
2845 is a very similar feature built in to _PC-Alpine_. In
2846 _PC-Alpine_'s Config menu at the top of the screen is an option
2847 called "New Mail Window".
2848 You may have _Alpine_ create a FIFO special file (also called a
2849 named pipe, see mkfifo(3) and fifo(4)) where it will send a
2850 one-line message each time a new message is received in the
2851 current folder, the INBOX, or any open Stay-Open-Folders. To
2852 protect against two different _Alpine_s both writing to the same
2853 FIFO, _Alpine_ will only create the FIFO and write to it if it
2854 doesn't already exist.
2855 A possible way to use this option would be to have a separate
2856 window on your screen running the command
2858 cat filename
2859 where "filename" is the name of the file given for this option.
2860 Because the file won't exist until after you start _Alpine_, you
2861 must _first_ start _Alpine_ and _then_ run the "cat" command.
2862 You may be tempted to use "tail -f filename" to view the new
2863 mail log. However, the common implementations of the tail
2864 command will not do what you are hoping.
2865 The width of the messages produced for the FIFO may be altered
2866 with the NewMail-Window-Width option.
2867 On some systems, fifos may only be created in a local
2868 filesystem. In other words, they may not be in NFS filesystems.
2869 This requirement is not universal. If the system you are using
2870 supports it, it should work. (It is often the case that your
2871 home directory is in an NFS filesystem. If that is the case, you
2872 might try using a file in the "/tmp" filesystem, which is
2873 usually a local filesystem.) Even when it is possible to use an
2874 NFS-mounted filesystem as a place to name the fifo (for example,
2875 your home directory), it will still be the case that the reader
2876 (probably the "cat" command) and the writer (_Alpine_) of the
2877 fifo must be running on the same system.
2878 _newmail-window-width_
2879 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
2880 This option is only useful if you have turned on the
2881 NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail messages
2882 to be sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80 characters
2883 wide by default. You can change the width of the messages by
2884 changing this option. For example, if you are reading those
2885 messages in another window you might want to set this width to
2886 the width of that other window.
2887 For UNIX _Alpine_, this option is only useful if you have turned
2888 on the NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail
2889 messages to be sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80
2890 characters wide by default. You can change the width of those
2891 messages by changing this option. For example, if you are
2892 reading those messages in another window you might want to set
2893 this width to the width of that other window.
2894 If you are using _PC-Alpine_, it has an option in the Config
2895 menu to turn on the "New Mail Window". The present option also
2896 controls the width of that window.
2897 _news-active-file-path_
2898 This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "active file"
2899 for newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via
2900 NNTP. The default path is usually /usr/lib/news/active.
2901 _news-collections_
2902 This is a list of collections where news folders are located.
2903 See the section describing collections for more information.
2904 _news-spool-directory_
2905 This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "news spool"
2906 for newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via
2907 NNTP. The default path is usually /usr/spool/news.
2908 _newsrc-path_
2909 This option overrides the default name _Alpine_ uses for your
2910 "newsrc" news status and subscription file. If set, _Alpine_
2911 will take this value as the full pathname for the desired newsrc
2912 file.
2913 _nntp-range_
2914 This option applies only to newsgroups accessed using the NNTP
2915 protocol. It does not, for example, apply to newsgroups accessed
2916 using an IMAP-to-NNTP proxy.
2917 When you open a connection to a News server using the NNTP
2918 protocol, you normally have access to all of the articles in
2919 each newsgroup. If a server keeps a large backlog of messages it
2920 may speed performance some to restrict attention to only the
2921 newer messages in a group. This option allows you to set how
2922 many article numbers should be checked when opening a newsgroup.
2923 You can think of "nntp-range" as specifying the maximum number
2924 of messages you ever want to see. For example, if you only ever
2925 wanted to look at the last 500 messages in each newsgroup you
2926 could set this option to 500. In actuality, it isn't quite that.
2927 Instead, for performance reasons, it specifies the range of
2928 article numbers to be checked, beginning with the highest
2929 numbered article and going backwards from there. If there are
2930 messages that have been canceled or deleted their article
2931 numbers are still counted as part of the range.
2932 So, more precisely, setting the "nntp-range" will cause article
2933 numbers
2935 last_article_number - nntp-range + 1 through last_article_number
2936 to be considered when reading a newsgroup. The number of
2937 messages that show up in your index will be less than or equal
2938 to the value of "nntp-range".
2939 The purpose of this option is simply to speed up access when
2940 reading news. The speedup comes because _Alpine_ can ignore all
2941 but the last nntp-range article numbers, and can avoid
2942 downloading any information about the ignored articles. There is
2943 a cost you pay for this speedup. That cost is that there is no
2944 way for you to see those ignored articles. The articles that
2945 come before the range you specify are invisible to you and to
2946 _Alpine_, as if they did not exist at all. There is no way to see
2947 those messages using, for example, an unexclude command or
2948 something similar. The only way to see those articles is to set
2949 this option high enough (or set it to zero) and then to reopen
2950 the newsgroup.
2951 If this option is set to 0 (which is also the default), then the
2952 range is unlimited. This option applies globally to all NNTP
2953 servers and to all newsgroups on those servers. There is no way
2954 to set different values for different newsgroups or servers.
2955 _nntp-server_
2956 One or more NNTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
2957 will use for reading and posting news. If you read and post news
2958 to and from a single NNTP server, you can get away with only
2959 setting the _nntp-server_ variable and leaving the
2960 _news-collections_ variable unset.
2961 When you define an NNTP server, _Alpine_ implicitly defines a
2962 news collection for you, assuming that server as the news server
2963 and assuming that you will use the NNTP protocol and a local
2964 newsrc configuration file for reading news. See also Configuring
2965 News.
2966 Your NNTP server may offer NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO
2967 USER" authentication. It may even require it. If your NNTP
2968 server does offer such authentication you may specify a user
2969 name parameter to cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate. The
2970 same is true for the server name in a folder collection which
2971 uses NNTP. This parameter requires an associated value, the
2972 username identifier with which to establish the server
2973 connection. An example might be:
2975 nntpserver.example.com/user=katie
2976 If authentication is offered by the server, this will cause
2977 _Alpine_ to attempt to use it. If authentication is not offered
2978 by the server, this will cause _Alpine_ to fail with an error
2979 similar to:
2981 Error: NNTP authentication not available
2982 For more details about the server name possibilities see Server
2983 Name Syntax.
2984 _normal-background-color_
2985 _normal-foreground-color_
2986 Normal Color.
2987 _opening-text-separator-chars_
2988 This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX
2989 screen. With some setups the text of the subject is followed by
2990 the opening text of the message if there is any room available
2991 in the index line. If you have configured your Index-Format
2992 option to include one of the Subject tokens which causes this
2993 behavior (SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT), then
2994 this option may be used to modify what is displayed slightly. By
2995 default, the Subject is separated from the opening text of the
2996 message by the three characters space dash space;
2998 " - "
2999 Use this option to set it to something different. The value must
3000 be quoted if it includes any space characters. For example, the
3001 default value could be specified explicitly by setting this
3002 option to
3004 Opening-Text-Separator-Chars=" - "
3005 This option is displayed as "Opening Text Separator Characters".
3006 _operating-dir_
3007 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. This names the
3008 root of the tree to which the user is restricted when reading
3009 and writing folders and files. It is usually used in the _fixed_
3010 configuration file.
3011 _patterns-filters2_
3012 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3013 this variable. These patterns are used with Filtering. This
3014 variable is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Filters
3015 configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the
3016 list is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which
3017 contains zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The only
3018 way to create a filters file is to use the InsertFile command in
3019 the Setup/Rules/Filters screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3020 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing filter
3021 patterns into the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't
3022 thought that many users will need this functionality. The
3023 purpose of filter files is for sharing filters.
3024 This option is displayed as "Patterns Filters".
3025 _patterns-indexcolors_
3026 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3027 this variable. These patterns are used for Index Line Colors.
3028 This variable is normally maintained through the
3029 Setup/Rules/Indexcolor configuration screen. It is a list
3030 variable. Each member of the list is a single pattern/action
3031 pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3032 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a indexcolor file
3033 is to use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor
3034 screen with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the
3035 Shuffle command to move existing patterns into the file. This
3036 isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many users will
3037 need this functionality. The purpose of indexcolor files is for
3038 sharing indexcolors.
3039 _patterns-other_
3040 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3041 this variable. These patterns are used with Miscellaneous Rules
3042 configuration. This variable is normally maintained through the
3043 Setup/Rules/Other configuration screen. It is a list variable.
3044 Each member of the list is a single pattern/action pair, or it
3045 can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3046 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a rules file is to
3047 use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Other screen with
3048 a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command
3049 to move existing rules into the file. This isn't very convenient
3050 but it isn't thought that many users will need this
3051 functionality.
3052 _patterns-roles_
3053 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3054 this variable. These patterns are used with Roles. This variable
3055 is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Roles
3056 configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the
3057 list is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which
3058 contains zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The only
3059 way to create a roles file is to use the InsertFile command in
3060 the Setup/Rules/Roles screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3061 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing roles into
3062 the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that
3063 many users will need this functionality. The purpose of role
3064 files is for sharing roles.
3065 _patterns-scores2_
3066 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3067 this variable. These patterns are used with Scoring. This
3068 variable is normally maintained through the
3069 Setup/Rules/SetScores configuration screen. It is a list
3070 variable. Each member of the list is a single pattern/action
3071 pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3072 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a scores file is to
3073 use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/SetScores screen
3074 with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle
3075 command to move existing scoring patterns into the file. This
3076 isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many users will
3077 need this functionality. The purpose of scoring files is for
3078 sharing scoring rules.
3079 This option is displayed as "Patterns Scores".
3080 _patterns-search_
3081 Matching patterns for use with the Select command are stored in
3082 this variable. These patterns are used with Search Rules
3083 configuration. This variable is normally maintained through the
3084 Setup/Rules/searCh configuration screen. It is a list variable.
3085 Each member of the list is a single pattern, or it can be a file
3086 which contains zero or more lines of patterns. The only way to
3087 create a rules file is to use the InsertFile command in the
3088 Setup/Rules/searCh screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3089 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing rules into
3090 the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that
3091 many users will need this functionality.
3092 _personal-name_
3093 Personal configuration file only. User's full personal name. On
3094 UNIX systems, the default is taken from the accounts data base
3095 (/etc/passwd). The easiest way to change the full From address
3096 is with the customized-hdrs variable.
3097 _personal-print-category_
3098 Personal configuration file only. This is the category that the
3099 default print command belongs to. There are three categories.
3100 Category 1 is an attached printer which uses the ANSI escape
3101 sequence, category 2 is the standard system print command, and
3102 category 3 is the set of custom printer commands defined by the
3103 user. This just helps _Alpine_ figure out where to put the
3104 cursor when the user runs the _Setup/Printer_ command. This is
3105 not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3106 _personal-print-command_
3107 Personal configuration file only. This corresponds to the third
3108 category in the printer menu, the personally selected print
3109 commands. This variable contains the list of custom commands
3110 that the user has entered in the _Setup/Printer_ screen. This is
3111 not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3112 _posting-character-set_
3113 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
3114 _postponed-folder_
3115 The folder where postponed messages are stored. The default is
3116 _postponed-msgs_ (Unix) or _POSTPOND_ (PC).
3117 _print-font-name_
3118 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3119 _print-font-size_
3120 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3121 _print-font-style_
3122 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3123 _printer_
3124 Personal configuration file only. This is the current setting
3125 for a user's printer. This variable is set from _Alpine_'s
3126 _Setup/Printer_ screen.
3127 _prompt-background-color_
3128 _prompt-foreground-color_
3129 Prompt Color.
3130 _pruned-folders_
3131 This variable allows you to define a list of one or more folders
3132 that _Alpine_ will offer to prune for you in the same way it
3133 automatically offers to prune your "sent-mail" folder each
3134 month. Each folder in this list must be a folder in your default
3135 folder collection (the first folder collection if you have more
3136 than one), and it is just the relative name of the folder in the
3137 collection, not the fully-qualified name. It is similar to
3138 sent-mail. Instead of something like
3140 pruned-folders={servername}mail/folder
3141 the correct value to use would be
3143 folder
3144 There is an assumption here that your first collection is the
3145 folders in
3147 {servername}mail
3148 Once a month, for each folder listed, _Alpine_ will offer to
3149 move the contents of the folder to a new folder of the same name
3150 but with the previous month's date appended. _Alpine_ will then
3151 look for any such date-appended folder names created for a
3152 previous month, and offer each one it finds for deletion.
3153 If you decline the first offer, no mail is moved and no new
3154 folder is created.
3155 The new folders will be created in your default folder
3156 collection.
3157 _pruning-rule_
3158 By default, _Alpine_ will ask at the beginning of each month
3159 whether or not you want to rename your sent-mail folder to a
3160 name like sent-mail-month-year. (See the feature
3161 prune-uses-yyyy-mm to change the format of the folder to
3162 sent-mail-yyyy-mm.) It will also ask whether you would like to
3163 delete old sent-mail folders. If you have defined
3164 read-message-folder or pruned-folders _Alpine_ will also ask
3165 about pruning those folders. With this option you may provide an
3166 automatic answer to the rename questions and you may tell
3167 _Alpine_ to not ask about deleting old folders.
3168 _quote1-background-color_
3169 _quote1-foreground-color_
3170 _quote2-background-color_
3171 _quote2-foreground-color_
3172 _quote3-background-color_
3173 _quote3-foreground-color_
3174 Quote Colors.
3175 _quote-replace-string_
3176 This option specifies what string to use as a quote when
3177 _viewing_ a message. The standard way of quoting messages when
3178 replying is the string "> " (quote space). With this variable
3179 set, viewing a message will replace occurrences of "> " with the
3180 replacement string. This setting works best when
3181 Reply-Indent-String or the equivalent setting in your
3182 correspondents' mail programs is set to the default "> ", but it
3183 will also work fine with the Reply-Indent-String set to ">".
3184 Enable the feature Quote-Replace-Nonflowed to also have
3185 quote-replacement performed on non-flowed messages.
3186 Setting this option will replace ">" and "> " with the new
3187 setting. This string may include trailing spaces. To preserve
3188 those spaces enclose the full string in double quotes.
3189 No padding to separate the text of the message from the quote
3190 string is added. This means that if you do not add trailing
3191 spaces to the value of this variable, text will be displayed
3192 right next to the quote string, which may be undesirable. This
3193 can be avoided by adding a new string separated by a space from
3194 your selection of quote string replacement. This last string
3195 will be used for padding. For example, setting this variable to
3196 ">" " " has the effect of setting ">" as the
3197 quote-replace-string, with the text padded by a space from the
3198 last quote string to make it more readable.
3199 One possible setting for this variable could be " " (four
3200 spaces wrapped in quotes), which would have the effect of
3201 indenting each level of quoting four spaces and removing the
3202 ">"'s. Different levels of quoting could be made more
3203 discernible by setting colors for quoted text.
3204 Replying to or forwarding the viewed message will preserve the
3205 original formatting of the message, so quote-replacement will
3206 not be performed on messages that are being composed.
3207 _quote-suppression-threshold_
3208 This option should be used with care. It will cause some of the
3209 quoted text to be eliminated from the display when viewing a
3210 message in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. For example, if you set the
3211 Quote-Suppression-Threshold to the value "5", this will cause
3212 quoted text that is longer than five lines to be truncated.
3213 Quoted text of five or fewer consecutive lines will be displayed
3214 in its entirety. Quoted text of more than six lines will have
3215 the first five lines displayed followed by a line that looks
3216 something like
3218 [ 12 lines of quoted text hidden from view ]
3219 As a special case, if exactly one line of quoted text would be
3220 hidden, the entire quote will be shown instead. So for the above
3221 example, quoted text which is exactly six lines long will will
3222 be shown in its entirety. (In other words, instead of hiding a
3223 single line and adding a line that announces that one line was
3224 hidden, the line is just shown.)
3225 If the sender of a message has carefully chosen the quotes that
3226 he or she includes, hiding those quotes may change the meaning
3227 of the message. For that reason, _Alpine_ requires that when you
3228 want to set the value of this variable to something less than
3229 four lines, you actually have to set it to the negative of that
3230 number. So if you want to set this option to "3", you actually
3231 have to set it to "-3". The only purpose of this is to get you
3232 to think about whether or not you really want to do this! If you
3233 want to delete all quoted text you set the value of this option
3234 to the special value "-10".
3235 The legal values for this option are
3237 0 Default, don't hide anything
3238 -1,-2,-3 Suppress quote lines past 1, 2, or 3 lines
3239 4,5,6,... Suppress if more than that many lines
3240 -10 Suppress all quoted lines
3241 If you set this option to a non-default value you may sometimes
3242 wish to view the quoted text that is not shown. When this is the
3243 case, the HdrMode (Header Mode) command may be used to show the
3244 hidden text. Typing the "H" command once will show the hidden
3245 text. Typing a second "H" will also turn on Full Header mode.
3246 The presence or absence of the HdrMode command is determined by
3247 the "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option in your _Alpine_
3248 configuration, so you will want to be sure that is turned on if
3249 you use quote suppression.
3250 For the purposes of this option, a quote is a line that begins
3251 with the character ">".
3252 Quotes are only suppressed when displaying a message on the
3253 screen. The entire quote will be left intact when printing or
3254 forwarding or something similar.
3255 _read-message-folder_
3256 If set, mail in the _INBOX_ that has been read but not deleted
3257 is moved here, or rather, the user is asked whether or not he or
3258 she wants to move it here upon quitting _Alpine_.
3259 _remote-abook-history_
3260 Sets how many extra copies of remote address book data will be
3261 kept in each remote address book folder. The default is three.
3262 These extra copies are simply old versions of the data. Each
3263 time a change is made a new copy of the address book data is
3264 appended to the folder. Old copies are trimmed, if possible,
3265 when _Alpine_ exits. An old copy can be put back into use by
3266 deleting and expunging newer versions of the data from the
3267 folder. Don't delete the first message from the folder. It is a
3268 special header message for the remote address book and it must
3269 be there. This is to prevent regular folders from being used as
3270 remote address book folders and having their data destroyed.
3271 _remote-abook-metafile_
3272 Personal configuration file only. This is usually set by _Alpine_
3273 and is the name of a file that contains data about remote
3274 address books and remote configuration files.
3275 _remote-abook-validity_
3276 Sets the minimum number of minutes that a remote address book
3277 will be considered up to date. Whenever an entry contained in a
3278 remote address book is used, if more than this many minutes have
3279 passed since the last check the remote server will be queried to
3280 see if the address book has changed. If it has changed, the
3281 local copy is updated. The default value is five minutes. The
3282 special value of -1 means never check. The special value of zero
3283 means only check when the address book is first opened.
3284 No matter what the value, the validity check is always done when
3285 the address book is about to be changed by the user. The check
3286 can be initiated manually by typing _^L_ (Ctrl-L) while in the
3287 address book maintenance screen for the remote address book.
3288 _reply-indent-string_
3289 This variable specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Reply_ command.
3290 When a message is replied to and the text of the message is
3291 included, the included text usually has the string "> "
3292 prepended to each line indicating it is quoted text.
3293 This option specifies a different value for that string. If you
3294 wish to use a string which begins or ends with a space, enclose
3295 the string in double quotes.
3296 Besides simple text, the prepended string can be based on the
3297 message being replied to. The following tokens are substituted
3298 for the message's corresponding value:
3300 _FROM_
3301 This token gets replaced with the message sender's
3302 "username". At most six characters are used.
3304 _NICK_
3305 This token gets replaced with the nickname of the message
3306 sender's address as found in your addressbook. If no
3307 addressbook entry is found, Pine replaces the characters
3308 "_NICK_" with nothing. At most six characters are used.
3310 _INIT_
3311 This token gets replaced with the initials of the sender
3312 of the message.
3314 When the enable-reply-indent-string-editing feature is enabled,
3315 you are given the opportunity to edit the string, whether it is
3316 the default or one automatically generated using the above
3317 tokens.
3318 _reply-leadin_
3319 This option is used to customize the content of the introduction
3320 line that is included when replying to a message and including
3321 the original message in the reply. The normal default (what you
3322 will get if you delete this variable) looks something like:
3324 On Sat, 24 Oct 1998, Fred Flintstone wrote:
3325 where the day of the week is only included if it is available in
3326 the original message. You can replace this default with text of
3327 your own. The text may contain tokens that are replaced with
3328 text that depends on the message you are replying to. For
3329 example, the default is equivalent to:
3331 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
3332 Since this variable includes regular text mixed with special
3333 tokens the tokens have to be surrounded by underscore
3334 characters. For example, to use the token "PREFDATE" you would
3335 need to use "_PREFDATE_", not "PREFDATE".
3336 The list of available tokens is here.
3337 By default, the text is all on a single line and is followed by
3338 a blank line. If your _Reply-Leadin_ turns out to be longer than
3339 80 characters when replying to a particular message, it is
3340 shortened. However, if you use the token
3342 _NEWLINE_
3343 anywhere in the value, no end of line or blank line is appended,
3344 and no shortening is done. The _NEWLINE_ token may be used to
3345 get rid of the blank line following the text, to add more blank
3346 lines, or to form a multi-line _Reply-Leadin_. To clarify how
3347 _NEWLINE_ works recall that the default value is:
3349 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
3350 That is equivalent to
3352 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE__NEWLINE_
3353 In the former case, two newlines are added automatically because
3354 no _NEWLINE_ token appears in the value of the option (for
3355 backwards compatibility). In the latter case, the newlines are
3356 explicit. If you want to remove the blank line that follows the
3357 _Reply-Leadin_ text use a single _NEWLINE_ token like
3359 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE_
3360 Because of the backwards compatibility problem, it is not
3361 possible to remove all of the ends of lines, because then there
3362 will be no _NEWLINE_ tokens and that will cause the automatic
3363 adding of two newlines! If you want, you may embed newlines in
3364 the middle of the text, as well, producing a multi-line
3365 _Reply-Leadin_.
3366 By default, no attempt is made to localize the date. If you
3367 prefer a localized form you may find that one of the tokens
3368 _PREFDATE_ or _PREFDATETIME_ is a satisfactory substitute. If
3369 you want more control one of the many other date tokens, such as
3370 _DATEISO_, might be better.
3371 For the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
3372 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
3373 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based
3374 on whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any
3375 newsgroups if it was used. It's explained in detail here.
3376 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal
3377 token in the introduction line you must precede it with a
3378 backslash character. For example,
3380 \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
3381 would produce something like
3383 _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
3384 It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
3385 expanded token.
3386 _reverse-background-color_
3387 _reverse-foreground-color_
3388 Reverse Color.
3389 _rsh-command_
3390 Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
3391 connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All
3392 four "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first
3393 is for the command's pathname, the second is for the host to
3394 connect to, the third is for the user to connect as, and the
3395 fourth is for the connection method (typically imap).
3396 _rsh-open-timeout_
3397 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
3398 UNIX remote shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum
3399 non-zero value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is
3400 set to zero rsh connections will be completely disabled.
3401 _rsh-path_
3402 Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
3403 connection. The default is typically /usr/ucb/rsh.
3404 _saved-msg-name-rule_
3405 Determines default folder name when _Sav_ing. If set to
3406 _default-folder_ (which is the default setting), then _Alpine_
3407 will offer the folder "saved-messages" (UNIX) or "SAVEMAIL" (PC)
3408 for _Sav_ing messages. The default folder offered in this way
3409 may be changed by using the configuration variable
3410 default-saved-msg-folder.
3411 If this rule is set to _last-folder-used_, _Alpine_ offers to
3412 _Save_ to the folder you last successfully _Saved_ a message to
3413 (this session). The first time you _Save_ a message in a
3414 session, _Alpine_ offers to _Save_ the message to the default
3415 folder.
3416 Choosing any of the _by-_ options causes _Alpine_ to attempt to
3417 get the chosen option's value for the message being _Saved_ (or
3418 for the first message being Saved if using an aggregate Save).
3419 For example, if _by-from_ is chosen, _Alpine_ attempts to get
3420 the value of who the message came from (i.e. the from address).
3421 _Alpine_ then attempts to _Save_ the message to a folder matching
3422 that value. If _by-from_ is chosen and no value is obtained,
3423 _Alpine_ uses _by-sender_. The opposite is also true. If
3424 _by-recipient_ was chosen and the message was posted to a
3425 newsgroup, _Alpine_ will use the newsgroup name. If _by-replyto_
3426 is chosen and no value is obtained, _Alpine_ uses _by-from_.
3427 If any of the "by-realname" options are chosen, _Alpine_ will
3428 attempt to use the personal name part of the address instead of
3429 the mailbox part. If any of the "by-nick" options are chosen,
3430 the address is looked up in your address book and if found, the
3431 nickname for that entry is used. Only simple address book
3432 entries are checked, not distribution lists. Similarly, if any
3433 of the "by-fcc" options are chosen, the fcc from the
3434 corresponding address book entry is used. If by-realname, or the
3435 by-nick or by-fcc lookups result in no value, then if the chosen
3436 option ends with the "then-from", "then-sender", "then-replyto",
3437 or "then-recip" suffix, _Alpine_ reverts to the same behavior as
3438 "by-from", "by-sender", "by-replyto", or "by-recip" depending on
3439 which option was specified. If the chosen option doesn't end
3440 with one of the "then-" suffixes, then _Alpine_ reverts to the
3441 default folder when no match is found in the address book.
3442 Here is an example to make some of the options clearer. If the
3443 message is From
3445 Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>
3446 and this rule is set to "by-from", then the default folder
3447 offered in the save dialog would be "flint".
3448 If this rule is set to "by-realname-of-from" then the default
3449 would be "Fred Flintstone".
3450 If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from" then _Alpine_ will
3451 search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book.
3452 If an entry is found and it has a nickname associated with it,
3453 that nickname will be offered as the default folder. If not, the
3454 default saved message folder will be offered as the default.
3455 If this rule is set to "by-fcc-of-from" then _Alpine_ will
3456 search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book.
3457 If an entry is found and it has an Fcc associated with it, that
3458 Fcc will be offered as the default folder. If not, the default
3459 saved message folder will be offered as the default.
3460 If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from-then-from" then _Alpine_
3461 will search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address
3462 book. If an entry is found and it has a nickname associated with
3463 it, that nickname will be offered as the default folder. If it
3464 is not found (or has no nickname) then the default offered will
3465 be the same as it would be for the "by-from" rule. That is, it
3466 would be "flint"
3467 This option is displayed as "Saved Message Name Rule".
3468 _scroll-margin_
3469 This option controls when _Alpine_'s line-by-line scrolling
3470 occurs. Typically, when a selected item is at the top or bottom
3471 screen edge and the UP or DOWN (and Ctrl-P or Ctrl-N) keys are
3472 pressed, the displayed items are scrolled down or up by a single
3473 line.
3474 This option allows you to tell _Alpine_ the number of lines from
3475 the top and bottom screen edge that line-by-line scrolling
3476 should occur. For example, setting this value to one (1) will
3477 cause _Alpine_ to scroll the display when you move to select an
3478 item on the display's top or bottom edge (instead of moving when
3479 you move off the edge of the screen).
3480 By default, this variable is zero (0), indicating that scrolling
3481 happens when you move up or down to select an item immediately
3482 off the display's top or bottom edge.
3483 _selectable-item-background-color_
3484 _selectable-item-foreground-color_
3485 Selectable-item Color.
3486 _sending-filters_
3487 This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs
3488 and scripts) that may be selectively invoked to process a
3489 message just before it is sent. If set, the Composer's _^X Send_
3490 command will allow you to select which filter (or none) to apply
3491 to the message before it is sent. For security reasons, the full
3492 path of the filter program must be specified.
3493 Sending filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_ and sending filters
3494 are not used if the feature send-without-confirm is set.
3495 Command Modifying Tokens:
3497 __RECIPIENTS__
3498 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3499 the space delimited list of recipients of the message
3500 being sent.
3502 __TMPFILE__
3503 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3504 the path and name of the temporary file containing the
3505 text to be filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to
3506 replace this data with the filter's result. NOTE: Use of
3507 this token implies that the text to be filtered is not
3508 piped into standard input of the executed command and its
3509 standard output is ignored. _Alpine_ restores the tty
3510 modes before invoking the filter in case the filter
3511 interacts with the user via its own standard input and
3512 output.
3514 __RESULTFILE__
3515 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3516 the path and name of a temporary file intended to contain
3517 a status message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this
3518 in the message status field.
3520 __DATAFILE__
3521 When the command is executed, this token is replaced in
3522 the command line with the path and name of a temporary
3523 file that _Alpine_ creates once per session and deletes
3524 upon exit. The file is intended to be used by the filter
3525 to store state information between instances of the
3526 filter.
3528 __PREPENDKEY__
3529 When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
3530 random number will be passed down the input stream before
3531 the message text. It is not included as a command-line
3532 argument. This number could be used as a session key. It
3533 is sent in this way to improve security. The number is
3534 unique to the current _Alpine_ session and is only
3535 generated once per session.
3537 __INCLUDEALLHDRS__
3538 When the command is executed, this token indicates that
3539 the headers of the message will be passed down the input
3540 stream before the message text. It is not included as a
3541 command-line argument. The filter should, of course,
3542 remove the headers before returning control to _Alpine_.
3544 __MIMETYPE__
3545 When the command is executed, this token is replaced in
3546 the command name with a temporary file name used to accept
3547 any new MIME Content-Type information necessitated by the
3548 output of the filter. Upon the filter's exit, if the file
3549 contains new MIME type information, _Alpine_ verifies its
3550 format and replaces the outgoing message's MIME type
3551 information with that contained in the file. This is
3552 basically a cheap way of sending something other than
3553 Text/Plain.
3555 _sendmail-path_
3556 This names the path to an alternative program, and any necessary
3557 arguments, to be used in posting mail messages. See the section
3558 on SMTP and Sendmail for more details.
3559 _signature-file_
3560 This is the name of a file which will be automatically inserted
3561 into outgoing messages. It typically contains information such
3562 as your name, email address and organizational affiliation.
3563 _Alpine_ adds the signature into the message as soon as you enter
3564 the composer so you can choose to remove it or edit it on a
3565 message by message basis. Signature file placement in message
3566 replies is controlled by the signature-at-bottom setting in the
3567 feature list.
3568 This defaults to ~/.signature on UNIX and <PINERC
3569 directory>\PINE.SIG on a PC.
3570 To create or edit your signature file choose Setup from the Main
3571 Menu and then select S for Signature (Main/Setup/Signature).
3572 This puts you into the Signature Editor where you can enter a
3573 _few_ lines of text containing your identity and affiliation.
3574 If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead
3575 of reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a
3576 program which will produce the text to be used on its standard
3577 output. The program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive
3578 any input from _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as
3579 if the contents came from a file.
3580 Instead of storing the data in a local file, the signature data
3581 may be stored remotely in an IMAP folder. In order to do this,
3582 you must use a remote name for the file. A remote signature-file
3583 name might look like:
3585 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/signature
3586 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might
3587 try
3589 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/signature
3590 The syntax used here is the same as the syntax used for remote
3591 configuration files from the command line. Note that you may not
3592 access an existing signature file remotely, you have to create a
3593 new _folder_ which contains the signature data. If the name you
3594 use here for the signature file is a remote name, then when you
3595 edit the file from the Setup/Signature command the data will be
3596 stored remotely in the folder. You aren't required to do
3597 anything special to create the folder, it gets created
3598 automatically if you use a remote name.
3599 Besides regular text, the signature file may also contain (or a
3600 signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with
3601 text which usually depends on the message you are replying to or
3602 forwarding. For example, if the signature file contains the
3603 token
3605 _DATE_
3606 anywhere in the text, then that token is replaced by the date
3607 the message you are replying to or forwarding was sent. If it
3608 contains
3610 _CURDATE_
3611 that is replaced with the current date. The first is an example
3612 of a token which depends on the message you are replying to (or
3613 forwarding) and the second is an example which doesn't depend on
3614 anything other than the current date. You have to be a little
3615 careful with this facility since tokens which depend on the
3616 message you are replying to or forwarding will be replaced by
3617 nothing in the case where you are composing a new message from
3618 scratch. The use of roles may help you in this respect. It
3619 allows you to use different signature files in different cases.
3620 The list of tokens available for use in the signature file is
3621 here.
3622 Instead of, or along with the use of _roles_ to give you
3623 different signature files in different situations, there is also
3624 a way to conditionally include text based on whether or not a
3625 token would result in specific replacement text. For example,
3626 you could include some text based on whether or not the _NEWS_
3627 token would result in any newsgroups if it was used. This is
3628 explained in detail here. This isn't for the faint of heart.
3629 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal
3630 token in the signature you must precede it with a backslash
3631 character. For example,
3633 \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
3634 would produce something like
3636 _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
3637 It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
3638 expanded token.
3639 _signature-background-color_
3640 _signature-foreground-color_
3641 Signature Color.
3642 _smime-public-cert-directory_
3643 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3644 If the option smime-public-cert-container is set then this
3645 option will have no effect.
3646 Normally, Public Certificates for use with S/MIME will be stored
3647 in the directory which is the value of this option. Those
3648 certificates will be stored in PEM format, one certificate per
3649 file. The name of the file for the certificate corresponding to
3651 emailaddress
3652 should be
3654 emailaddress.crt
3655 For example, a file for user@example.com would be in the file
3657 user@example.com.crt
3658 in this directory.
3659 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3660 Typically, the public certificates that you have will come from
3661 S/MIME signed messages that are sent to you. _Alpine_ will
3662 extract the public certificate from the signed message and store
3663 it in the certificates directory. These PEM format public
3664 certificates look something like:
3665 -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
3666 MIIFvTCCBKWgAwIBAgIQD4fYFHVI8T20yN4nus097DANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
3667 rjELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxCzAJBgNVBAgTAlVUMRcwFQYDVQQHEw5TYWx0IExha2Ug
3668 Q2l0eTEeMBwGA1UEChMVVGhlIFVTRVJUUlVTVCBOZXR3b3JrMSEwHwYDVQQLExho
3669 ...
3670 2b9KGqDyMWW/rjNnmpjzjT2ObGM7lRA8lke4FLOLajhrz4ogO3b4DFfAAM1VSZH8
3671 D6sOwOLJZkLY8FRsfk63K+2EMzA2+qAzMKupgeTLqXIf
3672 -----END CERTIFICATE-----
3674 + General S/MIME Overview
3675 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Directory".
3676 _smime-public-cert-container_
3677 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3678 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3679 smime-public-cert-directory
3680 This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an
3681 IMAP server instead of storing the certificates one per file
3682 locally. In order to do that you just give this option a remote
3683 folder name for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is
3684 similar to the name you might use for a remote configuration
3685 file. A remote folder name might look something like:
3687 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/publiccerts
3688 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3689 + General S/MIME Overview
3690 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Container".
3691 _smime-private-key-directory_
3692 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3693 In order to sign outgoing S/MIME messages you will need a
3694 personal digital ID certificate. You will usually get such a
3695 certificate from a certificate authority such as Thawte or
3696 CAcert. (In order to encrypt outgoing messages you don't need a
3697 personal digital ID, you need the public certificate of the
3698 recipient instead.) If the option smime-private-key-container is
3699 set then this option will have no effect.
3700 Normally, Private Keys for use with S/MIME will be stored in the
3701 directory which is the value of this option. Those certificates
3702 will be stored in PEM format, one certificate per file. The name
3703 of the file for the certificate corresponding to your
3705 emailaddress
3706 should be
3708 emailaddress.key
3709 For example, if your address is user@example.com the name of the
3710 file would be
3712 user@example.com.key
3713 in this directory.
3714 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3715 Typically, the private key that you have will come from a
3716 Certificate Authority. The private key should be stored in a PEM
3717 format file that looks something like:
3718 -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
3719 Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
3720 DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,2CBD328FD84CF5C6
3722 YBEXYLgLU9NJoc1V+vJ6UvcF08RX54S6jXsmgL0b5HGkudG6fhnmHkH7+UCvM5NI
3723 SXO/F8iuZDfs1VGG0NyitkFZ0Zn2vfaGovBvm15gx24b2xnZDLRB7/bNZkurnK5k
3724 VjAjZ2xXn2hFp2GJwqRdmxYNqsKGu52B99oti5HUWuZ2GFRaWjn5hYOqeApZE2uA
3725 ...
3726 oSRqfI51UdSRt0tmGhHeTvybUVrHm9eKft8TTGf+qSBqzSc55CsmoVbRzw4Nfhix
3727 m+4TJybNGNfAgOctSkEyY/OCb49fRRQTCBZVIhzLGGmpYmkO55HbIA==
3728 -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
3730 + General S/MIME Overview
3731 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Directory".
3732 _smime-private-key-container_
3733 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3734 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3735 smime-private-key-directory.
3736 This option gives you a way to store keys remotely on an IMAP
3737 server instead of storing the keys one per file locally. In
3738 order to do that you just give this option a remote folder name
3739 for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is similar to
3740 the name you might use for a remote configuration file. A remote
3741 folder name might look something like:
3743 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/privatekeys
3744 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3745 + General S/MIME Overview
3746 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Container".
3747 _smime-cacert-directory_
3748 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3749 If the option smime-cacert-container is set then this option
3750 will have no effect.
3751 CACert is a shorthand name for certification authority
3752 certificate. Normally _Alpine_ will use the CACerts that are
3753 located in the standard system location for CACerts. It may be
3754 the case that one of your correspondents has a Digital ID which
3755 has been signed by a certificate authority that is not in the
3756 regular set of system certificate authorities. You may
3757 supplement the system list by adding further certificates of
3758 your own. These should be stored in the directory which is the
3759 value of this option. The certificates will be stored in PEM
3760 format, one certificate per file. The names of the files can be
3761 anything ending in ".crt".
3762 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3763 These PEM format CA certificates look very similar to your
3764 public certificates for particular email addresses
3765 (smime-public-cert-directory).
3766 + General S/MIME Overview
3767 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Directory".
3768 _smime-cacert-container_
3769 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3770 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3771 smime-cacert-directory.
3772 This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an
3773 IMAP server instead of storing the certificates one per file
3774 locally. In order to do that you just give this option a remote
3775 folder name for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is
3776 similar to the name you might use for a remote configuration
3777 file. A remote folder name might look something like:
3779 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/cacerts
3780 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3781 + General S/MIME Overview
3782 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Container".
3783 _smtp-server_
3784 One or more SMTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
3785 will use for outgoing mail. If not set, _Alpine_ passes outgoing
3786 email to the _sendmail_ program on the local machine. _PC-Alpine_
3787 users must have this variable set in order to send mail as they
3788 have no _sendmail_ program.
3789 Your SMTP server may offer SMTP AUTH authentication. It may even
3790 require it. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH authentication
3791 you may specify a "user" name parameter to cause _Alpine_ to
3792 attempt to authenticate. This parameter requires an associated
3793 value, the username identifier with which to establish the
3794 server connection. An example might be:
3796 smtpserver.example.com/user=katie
3797 If AUTH authentication is offered by the server, this will cause
3798 _Alpine_ to attempt to use it. If AUTH authentication is not
3799 offered by the server, this will cause _Alpine_ to fail sending
3800 with an error similar to:
3802 Error: SMTP authentication not available
3803 Another type of authentication that is used by some ISPs is
3804 called "POP before SMTP" or "IMAP before SMTP", which means that
3805 you have to authenticate yourself to the POP or IMAP server by
3806 opening a mailbox before you can send mail. To do this, you
3807 usually only have to open your INBOX.
3808 You may tell _Alpine_ to use the Message Submission port (587)
3809 instead of the SMTP port (25) by including the "submit"
3810 parameter in this option. At this time "/submit" is simply
3811 equivalent to specifying port 587, though it may imply more than
3812 that at some point in the future. Some ISPs are blocking port 25
3813 in order to reduce the amount of spam being sent to their users.
3814 You may find that the submit option allows you to get around
3815 such a block.
3817 smtpserver.example.com/submit
3818 To specify any non-standard port number on the SMTP server you
3819 may follow the hostname with a colon followed by the portnumber.
3821 smtpserver.example.com:12345
3822 Normally, when a connection is made to the Smtp-Server _Alpine_
3823 will attempt to negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using
3824 Transport Layer Security (TLS). If that fails then a
3825 non-encrypted connection will be attempted instead. You may
3826 specify that a TLS connection is required if you wish. If you
3827 append "/tls" to the name then the connection will fail instead
3828 of falling back to a non-secure connection.
3830 smtpserver.example.com/tls
3831 See the SMTP Servers section or the Server Name Syntax section
3832 for some more details.
3833 This option is displayed as "SMTP Server (for sending)".
3834 _sort-key_
3835 This variable sets up the default Message Index sorting. The
3836 default is to sort by arrival order (the order the messages
3837 arrived in the folder). It has the same functionality as the
3838 _-sort_ command line argument and the _$_ command in the "Folder
3839 Index". If a _sort-key_ is set, then all folders open during the
3840 session will have that as the default sort order.
3841 _speller_
3842 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3843 For _PC-Alpine_, you must install the aspell library code that
3844 you may get from http://aspell.net/win32/.
3845 This option affects the behavior of the _^T_ (spell check)
3846 command in the Composer. It specifies the program invoked by _^T_
3847 in the Composer. By default, _Alpine_ uses the system's "spell"
3848 command. _Alpine_ will use the command defined by this option
3849 (if any) instead. When invoking the spell-checking program,
3850 _Alpine_ appends a tempfile name (where the message is passed) to
3851 the command line. _Alpine_ expects the speller to correct the
3852 spelling in that file. When you exit from the speller program
3853 _Alpine_ will read the tmpfile back into the composer.
3854 For Unix _Alpine_ the program _ispell_ works well as an
3855 alternate spell checker. If your Unix system has _ispell_ it is
3856 probably reasonable to make it the default speller by
3857 configuring it as the default in the system configuration file,
3858 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
3859 If this option is not set, then the system's _spell_ command is
3860 used. The spell command does not work the same as the alternate
3861 speller. It produces a list of misspelled words on its standard
3862 output, instead, and doesn't take a tempfile as an argument.
3863 Don't set this speller option to the standard Unix spell
3864 command. That won't work. If you want to use the standard Unix
3865 spell command, set the speller option to nothing.
3866 _ssh-command_
3867 Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
3868 connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All
3869 four "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first
3870 is for the command's pathname, the second is for the host to
3871 connect to, the third is for the user to connect as, and the
3872 fourth is for the connection method (typically imap).
3873 _ssh-open-timeout_
3874 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
3875 UNIX secure shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum
3876 non-zero value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is
3877 set to zero ssh connections will be completely disabled.
3878 _ssh-path_
3879 Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
3880 connection. The default is typically /usr/bin/ssh.
3881 _standard-printer_
3882 System-wide configuration file only. Specifies a list of
3883 commands for category 2 of the _Setup/Printer_ screen, the
3884 standard print command section. This is not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3885 _status-background-color_
3886 _status-foreground-color_
3887 Status Color.
3888 _status-message-delay_
3889 This option has evolved over time, causing the possible values
3890 to be counter-intuitive. Read carefully before you set this
3891 option. First we explain what the option does, then there is a
3892 longer discussion following that.
3893 If this is set to zero, the default value, it has _no_ effect.
3894 Positive and negative values serve two similar, but different
3895 purposes.
3896 If it is set to a positive number, it causes the cursor to move
3897 to the status line whenever a status message is printed and
3898 pause there for this many seconds. It will probably only be
3899 useful if the show-cursor feature is also turned on. Setting
3900 this option to a positive number can only be used to _increase_
3901 the status message delay. This may be useful for Braille
3902 displays, or other non-traditional displays.
3903 If it is set to a negative number the interpretation is a bit
3904 complicated. Negative numbers are used to _decrease_ the amount
3905 of delay _Alpine_ uses to allow you to read important status
3906 messages. Of course, this may cause you to miss some important
3907 messages. If you see a message flash by but miss what it says
3908 you can use the Journal command from the Main menu to read it.
3909 If you set this option to a negative value, the delay will be no
3910 more than one second less than the absolute value of the value
3911 you set. So if you set it to -1, the delay will be no more than
3912 zero seconds, no delay at all. If you set it to -2, the delay
3913 will be no more than 1 second. And so on, -3 is 2 seconds, -4 is
3914 3 seconds, ... If the delay that _Alpine_ would have used by
3915 default is less than this delay, then the smaller delay set by
3916 _Alpine_ will be used. Setting this option to a negative value
3917 can only reduce the amount of delay, never increase it.
3918 Here is a more detailed explanation. Status messages are the
3919 messages which show up spontaneously in the status message line,
3920 the third line from the bottom of the screen. By default,
3921 _Alpine_ assigns each status message it produces a minimum
3922 display time. Some status messages have a minimum display time
3923 of zero. You can see an example of such a message by paging up
3924 in this help text until you reach the top of the screen. If you
3925 try to page past the top you will see the message
3927 [Already at start of help text]
3928 in the status line. If there is another more important use of
3929 the status message line this message might be replaced quickly,
3930 or it even might not be shown at all. However, if there is no
3931 reason to get rid of the message, it might stay there for
3932 several seconds while you read the help. An example where it is
3933 replaced immediately happens when you page up in the help text
3934 past the top of the screen, but then type the "WhereIs" command
3935 right after paging up. The message will disappear immediately
3936 without causing a delay (unless you have set this option to a
3937 positive value) to allow you to type input for the "WhereIs"
3938 command. Since it isn't a very important message, _Alpine_ has
3939 set its minimum display time to zero seconds.
3940 Other messages have minimum display times of three or more
3941 seconds. These are usually error messages that _Alpine_ thinks
3942 you ought to see. For example, it might be a message about a
3943 failed Save or a failed folder open. It is often the case that
3944 this minimum display time won't delay you in any way because the
3945 status message line is not needed for another reason. However,
3946 there are times when _Alpine_ has to delay what it is doing in
3947 order to display a status message for the minimum display time.
3948 This happens when a message is being displayed and _Alpine_
3949 wants to ask for input from the keyboard. For example, when you
3950 Save a message you use the status message line. You get a prompt
3951 there asking for the name of the folder to save to. If there is
3952 a status message being displayed that has not yet displayed for
3953 its minimum time _Alpine_ will display that status message
3954 surrounded with the characters > and < to show you that it is
3955 delaying. That might happen, for example, if you tried to save
3956 to a folder that caused an error, then followed that immediately
3957 with another Save command. You might find yourself waiting for a
3958 status message like
3960 [>Can't get write access to mailbox, access is readonly<]
3961 to finish displaying for three seconds. If that is something you
3962 find happening to you frequently, you may use negative values of
3963 this option to decrease or eliminate that delay, at the risk of
3964 missing the message.
3965 _stay-open-folders_
3966 This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. There is no
3967 default value for this option. It is related to the options
3968 Preopen-Stayopen-Folders, Max-Remote-Connections, and
3969 offer-expunge-of-Stayopen-Folders.
3970 Note: changes made to this list take effect the next time you
3971 open a folder in the list.
3972 This is a list of folders that will be permanently kept open
3973 once they are first opened. The names in this list may be either
3974 the nickname of an Incoming folder or the full technical
3975 specification of a folder. The folders in this list need not be
3976 remote IMAP folders, they could usefully be local folders, as
3977 well. If a folder in the list is a newsgroup or is not accessed
3978 either locally or via IMAP, then the entry will be ignored. For
3979 example, folders accessed via NNTP or POP3 will not be kept
3980 open, since the way that new mail is found with those protocols
3981 involves closing and reopening the connection.
3982 Once a Stay Open folder has been opened, new-mail checking will
3983 continue to happen on that folder for the rest of the _Alpine_
3984 session. Your INBOX is always implicitly included in this
3985 Stay-Open list and doesn't need to be added explicitly.
3986 Another difference that you may notice between a Stay Open
3987 folder and a non-Stay Open folder is which message is selected
3988 as the current message when you enter the folder index.
3989 Normally, the starting position for an incoming folder (which
3990 most Stay Open folders will likely be) is controlled by the
3991 Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a folder is a Stay Open
3992 folder, when you re-enter the folder after the first time the
3993 current message will be the same as it was when you left the
3994 folder. An exception is made if you use the TAB command to get
3995 to the folder. In that case, the message number will be
3996 incremented by one from what it was when you left the folder.
3997 The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it
3998 is special and different from what you might at first expect.
3999 The feature Use-Regular-Startup-Rule-for-Stayopen-Folders may be
4000 used to turn off this special treatment.
4001 If the message that was current when you left the folder no
4002 longer exists, then the regular startup rule will be used
4003 instead.
4004 This option is displayed as "Stayopen Folders".
4005 _tcp-open-timeout_
4006 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
4007 network connection. The default is 30, the minimum is 5, and the
4008 maximum is system defined (typically 75). If a connection has
4009 not completed within this many seconds _Alpine_ will give up and
4010 consider it a failed connection.
4011 _tcp-query-timeout_
4012 When _Alpine_ times out a network read or write it will normally
4013 just display a message saying "Still waiting". However, if
4014 enough time has elapsed since it started waiting it will offer
4015 to let you break the connection. That amount of time is set by
4016 this option, which defaults to 60 seconds, has a minimum of 5
4017 seconds, and a maximum of 1000 seconds.
4018 _tcp-read-warning-timeout_
4019 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network
4020 read before warning you that things are moving slowly and
4021 possibly giving you the option to break the connection. The
4022 default is 15 seconds. The minimum is 5 seconds and the maximumn
4023 is 1000 seconds.
4024 _tcp-write-warning-timeout_
4025 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network
4026 write before warning you that things are moving slowly and
4027 possibly giving you the option to break the connection. The
4028 default is 0 which means it is unset. If set to a non-zero
4029 value, the minimum is 5 and the maximum is 1000.
4030 _threading-display-style_
4031 When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this
4032 option will affect the MESSAGE INDEX display. By default,
4033 _Alpine_ will display the MESSAGE INDEX in the
4034 "show-thread-structure" style if a folder is sorted by Threads
4035 or OrderedSubject. The possible values are:
4037 _none_
4038 Regular index display. The same index line as would be
4039 displayed without threading is used. The only difference
4040 will be in the order of the messages.
4042 _show-thread-structure_
4043 Threaded Subjects will be indented and vertical bars and
4044 horizontal lines will be added to make it easier to see
4045 the relationships among the messages in a thread (a
4046 conversation).
4048 _mutt-like_
4049 This is the same as the option above except that the
4050 Subject is suppressed (is blank) if it matches the
4051 previous Subject in the thread. The name comes from the
4052 email client Mutt. Here is an example of what a mutt-like
4053 index might look like. In this example, the first column
4054 represents the message number, the threading-index-style
4055 is set to "regular-index-with-expanded-threads", and the
4056 Threading-Lastreply-Character is set to a backslash:
4058 1 Some topic
4059 2 . Subject original message in thread
4060 3 |-> reply to 2
4061 4 . |-> another reply to 2
4062 5 . | \-> reply to 4
4063 6 . | \-> reply to 5
4064 7 | \-> reply to 6
4065 8 |-> another reply to 2
4066 9 . |->New subject another reply to 2 but with a New subject
4067 10 | |-> reply to 9
4068 11 | \-> another reply to 9
4069 12 | \-> reply to 11
4070 13 \-> final reply to 2
4071 14 Next topic
4073 _indent-subject-1_
4074 Threaded Subjects will be indented one space per level of
4075 the conversation. The bars and lines that show up in the
4076 show-thread-structure display will not be there with this
4077 style.
4079 _indent-subject-2_
4080 Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of
4081 one space.
4083 _indent-from-1_
4084 Similar to indent-subject-1, except that instead of
4085 indenting the Subject field one space the From field of a
4086 thread will be indented one space per level of the
4087 conversation.
4089 _indent-from-2_
4090 Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of
4091 one space.
4093 _show-structure-in-from_
4094 The structure of the thread is illustrated with indenting,
4095 vertical bars, and horizontal lines just like with the
4096 show-thread-structure option, but the From field is used
4097 to show the relationships instead of the Subject field.
4099 _threading-expanded-character_
4100 The Threading-Expanded-Character option has a small effect on
4101 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4102 other than _none_. The value of this option is a single
4103 character. This character is used to indicate that part of a
4104 thread has been expanded and could be collapsed if desired with
4105 the "/" Collapse/Expand command. By default, the value of this
4106 option is a dot (.).
4107 If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and
4108 the following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
4109 This option is closely related to the
4110 threading-indicator-character option. Another similar option
4111 which affects the thread display is the
4112 threading-lastreply-character option.
4113 _threading-index-style_
4114 When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this
4115 option will affect the INDEX displays. The possible values are:
4117 _regular-index-with-expanded-threads_
4118 This is the default display. If the configuration option
4119 threading-display-style is set to something other than
4120 "none", then this setting will cause _Alpine_ to start off
4121 with a MESSAGE INDEX with all of the threads expanded.
4122 That is, each message will have a line in the MESSAGE
4123 INDEX display. The Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used
4124 to manually collapse or expand a thread or subthread (see
4125 also slash-collapses-entire-thread).
4127 This setting affects the display when the folder is first
4128 threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized
4129 by re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex
4130 command ($). After re-sorting the threads will once again
4131 all be expanded, even if you have previously collapsed
4132 some of them.
4134 If "threading-display-style" is set to "none", then the
4135 display will be the regular default _Alpine_ MESSAGE
4136 INDEX, but sorted in a different order.
4138 _regular-index-with-collapsed-threads_
4139 If the configuration option threading-display-style is set
4140 to something other than "none", then this setting will
4141 cause _Alpine_ to start out with all of the threads
4142 collapsed instead of starting out with all of the threads
4143 expanded. The Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used to
4144 manually collapse or expand a thread or subthread (see
4145 also slash-collapses-entire-thread).
4147 This setting affects the display when the folder is first
4148 threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized
4149 by re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex
4150 command ($). After re-sorting the threads will once again
4151 all be collapsed, even if you have previously expanded
4152 some of them.
4154 _separate-index-screen-always_
4155 With this setting and the next, you will see an index of
4156 threads instead of an index of messages, provided you have
4157 sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject.
4159 The THREAD INDEX contains a '*' in the first column if any
4160 message in the thread is marked Important. If not, it
4161 contains a '+' if any message in the thread is to you. The
4162 second column is blank. The third column contains a 'D' if
4163 all of the messages in the thread are deleted. Otherwise,
4164 it contains an 'N' if any of the messages in the thread
4165 are New.
4167 When you view a particular thread from the THREAD INDEX
4168 you will be in the MESSAGE INDEX display but the index
4169 will only contain messages from the thread you are
4170 viewing.
4172 _separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages_
4173 This is very similar to the option above. When you are in
4174 the THREAD INDEX, one of the available commands is
4175 "ViewThd". With the setting "separate-index-screen-always"
4176 (the option above) when you view a particular thread you
4177 will be in the MESSAGE INDEX display and the index will
4178 only contain messages from the thread you are viewing. If
4179 the thread you are viewing consists of a single message,
4180 the MESSAGE INDEX will be an index with only one message
4181 in it. If you use this
4182 "separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages" setting
4183 instead, then that index which contains a single message
4184 will be skipped and you will go directly from the THREAD
4185 INDEX into the MESSAGE TEXT screen.
4187 _threading-indicator-character_
4188 The Threading-Indicator-Character option has a small effect on
4189 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4190 other than _none_ and sorting by Threads or OrderedSubject. The
4191 value of this option is a single character. This character is
4192 used to indicate that part of a thread (a conversation) is
4193 hidden beneath a message. The message could be expanded if
4194 desired with the "/" Collapse/Expand command. By default, the
4195 value of this option is the greater than sign (>).
4196 If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and
4197 the following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
4198 This option is closely related to the
4199 threading-expanded-character option. Another similar option
4200 which affects the thread display is the
4201 threading-lastreply-character option.
4202 _threading-lastreply-character_
4203 The Threading-Lastreply-Character option has a small effect on
4204 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4205 of _show-thread-structure_, _mutt-like_, or
4206 _show-structure-in-from_; and sorting by Threads or
4207 OrderedSubject. The value of this option is a single character.
4208 This character is used instead of the vertical line character
4209 when there are no more replies directly to the parent of the
4210 current message. It can be used to "round-off" the bottom of the
4211 vertical line by setting it to a character such as a backslash
4212 (\) or a backquote (`). The default value of this option is the
4213 backslash character (\). This option may not be set to the Empty
4214 Value. In that case, the default will be used instead.
4215 This option is displayed as "Threading Last Reply Character".
4216 _title-background-color_
4217 _title-foreground-color_
4218 Title Color.
4219 _title-closed-background-color_
4220 _title-closed-foreground-color_
4221 Title-closed Color.
4222 _titlebar-color-style_
4223 titlebar-color-style.
4224 _unknown-character-set_
4225 A text message should either be made up of all US-ASCII
4226 characters or it should contain a charset label which tells the
4227 software which character set encoding to use to interpret the
4228 message. Sometimes a malformed message may be unlabeled but
4229 contain non-ascii text. This message is outside of the standards
4230 so any attempt to read it could fail. When _Alpine_ attempts to
4231 read such a message it will try to interpret the text in the
4232 character set you specify here. For example, if you have
4233 correspondents who send you unlabeled messages that are usually
4234 made up of characters from the WINDOWS-1251 character set,
4235 setting this unknown-character-set to WINDOWS-1251 will allow
4236 you to read those messages. Of course, if the unlabeled message
4237 is actually in some other character set, then you may see
4238 garbage on your screen.
4239 In the Setup/Config screen you may choose from a list of all the
4240 character sets _Alpine_ knows about by using the "T" ToCharsets
4241 command.
4242 _upload-command_
4243 This option affects the behavior of the Composer's _^R_ (Read
4244 File) and _^J_ (Attach File, in the header) commands. It
4245 specifies a Unix program name, and any necessary command line
4246 arguments, that _Alpine_ can use to transfer files from your
4247 personal computer into messages that you are composing.
4248 _upload-command-prefix_
4249 This option is used in conjunction with the _upload-command_
4250 option. It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator
4251 (via standard output) immediately prior to starting the upload
4252 command. This is useful for integrated serial line file transfer
4253 agents that permit command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
4254 _url-viewers_
4255 List of programs to use to open Internet URLs. This value
4256 affects _Alpine_'s handling of URLs that are found in the text
4257 of messages you read. Normally, only URLs _Alpine_ can handle
4258 directly are automatically offered for selection in the "Message
4259 Text" screen. When one or more comma delimited Web browsers
4260 capable of deciphering URLs on their command line are added
4261 here, _Alpine_ will choose the first available browser to
4262 display URLs it doesn't recognize.
4263 Additionally, to support various connection methods and
4264 browsers, each entry in this list can begin with the special
4265 token _TEST(test-string)_. The test-string is a shell command
4266 that _Alpine_ will run and which must exit with a status of zero
4267 for _Alpine_ to consider that browser for use (the other
4268 criteria is that the browser must exist as a full path or a path
4269 relative to your home directory).
4270 Now for an example:
4272 url-viewers=_TEST("test -n '${DISPLAY}'")_ /usr/local/bin/netscape,
4273 /usr/local/bin/lynx, C:\BIN\NETSCAPE.BAT
4274 This example shows that for the first browser in the list to be
4275 used the environment variable DISPLAY must be defined. If it is,
4276 then the file /usr/local/bin/netscape must exist. If either
4277 condition is not met, then the file /usr/local/bin/lynx must
4278 exist. If it doesn't, then the final path and file must exist.
4279 Note that the last entry is a DOS/Windows path. This is one way
4280 to support _Alpine_ running on more than one architecture with
4281 the same configuration file.
4282 _use-only-domain-name_
4283 Can be set to _yes_ or _no._ Anything but _yes_ means _no._ If
4284 set to _yes_ the first label in the host name will be lopped off
4285 to get the domain name and the domain name will be used for
4286 outgoing mail and such. That is, if the host name is
4287 _carson.u.example.edu_ and this variable is set to _yes,_ then
4288 _u.example.edu_ will be used on outgoing mail. Only meaningful if
4289 user-domain is NOT set.
4290 _user-domain_
4291 Sets the domain or host name for the user, overriding the system
4292 host or domain name. See the domain name section. The easiest
4293 way to change the full From address is with the customized-hdrs
4294 variable.
4295 _user-id_
4296 _PC-Alpine_ only and personal configuration file only. Sets the
4297 username that is placed on all outgoing messages. The username
4298 is the part of the address that comes before the "@". The
4299 easiest way to change the full From address is with the
4300 customized-hdrs variable.
4301 _user-input-timeout_
4302 If this is set to an integer greater than zero, then this is the
4303 number of _hours_ to wait for user input before _Alpine_ times
4304 out. If _Alpine_ is in the midst of composing a message or is
4305 waiting for user response to a question, then it will not
4306 timeout. However, if _Alpine_ is sitting idle waiting for the
4307 user to tell it what to do next and the user does not give any
4308 input for this many hours, _Alpine_ will exit. No expunging or
4309 moving of read messages will take place. It will exit similarly
4310 to the way it would exit if it received a hangup signal. This
4311 may be useful for cleaning up unused _Alpine_ sessions which
4312 have been forgotten by their owners. The _Alpine_ developers
4313 envision system administrators setting this to a value of
4314 several hours (24?) so that it won't surprise a user who didn't
4315 want to be disconnected.
4316 _viewer-hdr-colors_
4317 This variable holds the optional Header Colors and patterns
4318 which have been defined by the user. This is usually modified by
4319 using the Header Colors section of the Setup Color screen.
4320 _viewer-hdrs_
4321 You may change the default list of headers that are viewed by
4322 listing the headers you want to view here. If the headers in
4323 your _viewer-hdrs_ list are present in the message, then they
4324 will be shown. The order of the headers you list will also be
4325 honored. If the special value _all-except_ is included as the
4326 first header in the _viewer-hdrs_ list, then all headers in the
4327 message except those in the list will be shown. The values are
4328 all case insensitive.
4329 This option is displayed as "Viewer Headers".
4330 _viewer-margin-left_
4331 This variable controls the left-hand vertical margin's width in
4332 _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of
4333 space characters preceding each displayed line. For consistency
4334 with Viewer-Margin-Right, you may specify the column number to
4335 start in (column numbering begins with number 1) instead of the
4336 width of the margin by appending a lower case letter "c" to the
4337 number. For example, a value of "2c" means to start the text in
4338 column two, which is entirely equivalent to a value of "1",
4339 which means to leave a margin of 1 space.
4340 The default is a left margin of 0 (zero). Misconfigurations (for
4341 example, negative values or values with starting left columns
4342 greater than the ending right column) are silently ignored. If
4343 the number of columns for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left
4344 and the Viewer-Margin-Right is fewer than 8, then margins of
4345 zero will be used instead.
4346 _viewer-margin-right_
4347 This variable controls the right-hand vertical margin's width in
4348 _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of
4349 space characters following each displayed line. You may specify
4350 the column number to end the text in (column numbering begins
4351 with number 1) instead of the width of the margin by appending a
4352 lower case letter "c" to the number. For example, a value of
4353 "76c" means to end the text in column 76. If the screen is 80
4354 characters wide, this is equivalent to a value of "4", which
4355 means to leave a margin of 4 spaces. However, if you use
4356 different size screens at different times, then these two values
4357 are not equivalent.
4358 The default right margin is 4. Misconfigurations (for example,
4359 negative values or values with starting left columns greater
4360 than the ending right column) are silently ignored. If the
4361 number of columns for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left and
4362 the Viewer-Margin-Right is fewer than 8, then margins of zero
4363 will be used instead.
4364 _viewer-overlap_
4365 This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Message Viewing
4366 screen. When the space bar is used to page forward in a message,
4367 the number of lines specified by the _viewer-overlap_ variable
4368 will be repeated from the bottom of the screen. That is, if this
4369 was set to two lines, then the bottom two lines of the screen
4370 would be repeated on the top of the next screen. The normal
4371 default value is "2".
4372 _window-position_
4373 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only. Window position in the
4374 format: CxR+X+Yn Where C and R are the window size in characters
4375 and X and Y are the screen position of the top left corner of
4376 the window.
4377 __________________________________________________________________
4379 Configuration Features
4381 There are several features (options) which may be turned off or on. The
4382 configuration variable feature-list is a list of all the features that
4383 are turned on or off. If the name of a feature is in the list it will
4384 be turned on. If the name of a feature with the characters no-
4385 prepended is in the list, it will turn the feature off. This is useful
4386 for overriding system-wide defaults. This is because, unlike all the
4387 other configuration variables, the _feature-list_ is additive. That is,
4388 first the system-wide _feature-list_ is read and then the user's
4389 _feature-list_ is read. This makes it possible for the system manager to
4390 turn some of the features on by default while still allowing the user
4391 to cancel that default. For example, if the system manager has turned
4392 on the _allow-talk_ feature by default then a user may turn it back off
4393 by including the feature _no-allow-talk_ in his or her personal
4394 configuration file. Of course, these details are usually handled by
4395 _Alpine_ when the user turns an option on or off from inside the
4396 _Setup/Config_ screen.
4398 System managers should take some care when turning on features by
4399 default. Some of the documentation assumes that all of the features are
4400 off by default, so it could be confusing for a user if some are on by
4401 default instead. Feature names are case-independent.
4403 Here is an alphabetical list of possible features.
4404 _allow-changing-from_
4405 Prior to _Pine_ 4.00 there was a _compile_-time option called
4406 ALLOW_CHANGING_FROM. That has been replaced by a _runtime_
4407 feature. If this feature is turned on then the From line can be
4408 changed just like all the other header fields that can be
4409 changed. See the configuration variables customized-hdrs and
4410 default-composer-hdrs for more information on editing headers.
4411 The default value for this feature is ON, so that editing of
4412 From headers is allowed by default.
4413 _allow-talk_
4414 Unix _Alpine_ only. By default, permission for others to _talk_
4415 to your terminal is turned off when you are running _Alpine_.
4416 When this feature is set, permission is instead turned on.
4417 Note: The _talk_ program has nothing to do with _Alpine_ or
4418 email. The _talk_ daemon on your system will attempt to print a
4419 message on your screen when someone else is trying to contact
4420 you. If you wish to see these messages while you are running
4421 _Alpine_, you should enable this feature.
4422 If you do enable this feature and see a _talk_ message, you must
4423 suspend or quit _Alpine_ before you can respond.
4424 _alternate-compose-menu_
4425 This feature controls the menu that is displayed when Compose is
4426 selected. If set, a list of options will be presented, with each
4427 option representing the type of composition that could be used.
4428 This feature is most useful for users who want to avoid being
4429 prompted with each option separately, or who want to avoid the
4430 checking of remote postponed or form letter folders. The
4431 possible types of composition are:
4432 New, for starting a new composition. Note that if New is
4433 selected and roles are set, roles are checked for matches and
4434 applied according to the setting of the matching role.
4435 Interrupted, for continuing an interrupted composition. This
4436 option is only offered if an interrupted message folder is
4437 detected.
4438 Postponed, for continuing postponed compositions. This option is
4439 offered if a postponed-folder is set in the config _REGARDLESS
4440 OF_ whether or not the postponed folder actually exists. This
4441 option is especially handy for avoiding having to check for the
4442 existence of a remote postponed folder.
4443 Form, for using form letters. This option is offered if the
4444 form-letter-folder is set in the config, and is not checked for
4445 existence for reasons similar to those explained by the
4446 postponed option.
4447 setRole, for selecting a role to apply to a composition.
4448 _alternate-role-menu_
4449 Normally the Role Command allows you to choose a role and
4450 compose a new message using that role. When this feature is set,
4451 the role command will first ask whether you want to Compose a
4452 new message, Forward the current message, Reply to the current
4453 message, or Bounce the current message. If you are not in the
4454 MESSAGE INDEX and are not viewing a message, then there is no
4455 current message and the question will be skipped. After you have
4456 chosen to Compose, Forward, Reply or Bounce you will then choose
4457 the role to be used.
4458 When Bouncing the "Set From" address is used for the Resent-From
4459 header, the "Set Fcc" value is used for the Fcc provided that
4460 the option "Fcc-On-Bounce" is turned on, and the "Use SMTP
4461 Server" value is used for the SMTP server, if set. Other actions
4462 of the role are ignored when Bouncing.
4463 This feature is displayed as "Alternate Role (#) Menu".
4464 _assume-slow-link_
4465 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
4466 This feature affects _Alpine_'s display routines. If set, the
4467 normal inverse-video cursor (used to highlight the current item
4468 in a list) will be replaced by an _arrow_ cursor and other
4469 screen update optimizations for low-speed links (e.g. 2400 bps
4470 dialup connections) will be activated. One of the optimizations
4471 is that colored index lines (set up with Indexcolor Rules) will
4472 not be colored. This might be useful if _you_ know you have a
4473 slow speed link but for some reason _Alpine_ doesn't know.
4474 _auto-move-read-msgs_
4475 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s behavior upon
4476 quitting. If set, and the read-message-folder variable is also
4477 set, then _Alpine_ will automatically transfer all read messages
4478 from the _INBOX_ to the designated folder and mark them as
4479 deleted in the _INBOX_. Messages in the _INBOX_ marked with an
4480 _N_ (meaning New, or unseen) are not affected.
4481 This feature is displayed as "Auto Move Read Messages".
4482 _auto-open-next-unread_
4483 This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when
4484 traversing folders in the optional incoming-folders collection
4485 or in optional news-collections.
4486 When the TAB (Next New) key is pressed, and there are no more
4487 unseen messages in the current (incoming message or news)
4488 folder, _Alpine_ will search the list of folders in the current
4489 collection for one containing New or Recent (new since the last
4490 time the folder was opened) messages. This behavior may be
4491 modified slightly with the Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder
4492 feature which causes _Alpine_ to look for Unseen messages
4493 instead of Recent messages. By default, when such a folder is
4494 found, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to open the folder. If
4495 this feature is set, _Alpine_ will automatically open the folder
4496 without prompting.
4497 _auto-unselect-after-apply_
4498 This feature affects the behavior of the Apply command. If set,
4499 the Apply command will do the operation you specify, but then
4500 will implicitly do an "UnSelect All", so that you will
4501 automatically be back in the normal Index view after the Apply.
4502 _auto-unzoom-after-apply_
4503 If set, and if you are currently looking at a Zoomed Index view
4504 of selected messages, the _Apply_ command will do the operation
4505 you specify, but then will implicitly do an _UnZoom_, so that
4506 you will automatically be back in the normal Index view after
4507 the _Apply_. This feature is set by default.
4508 _auto-zoom-after-select_
4509 If set, the _; select_ command will automatically perform a
4510 _Zoom_ after the _select_ is complete. This feature is set by
4511 default.
4512 _busy-cue-spinner-only_
4513 When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
4514 something is happening with a small animated display in the
4515 status message line near the bottom of the screen. Setting this
4516 feature will cause that animation to be the same each time
4517 instead of having _Alpine_ choose a random animation. You may
4518 turn the animation off altogether by setting the busy-cue-rate
4519 option to zero.
4520 _check-newmail-when-quitting_
4521 If set, _Alpine_ will check for new mail after you give the Quit
4522 command. If new mail has arrived since the previous check, you
4523 will be notified and given the choice of quitting or not
4524 quitting.
4525 _combined-addrbook-display_
4526 This feature affects the address book display screens. Normally,
4527 expanding an address book from the ADDRESS BOOK LIST screen will
4528 cause the remaining address books and directory servers to
4529 disappear from the screen, leaving only the entries of the
4530 expanded address book. If this feature is set, then the other
4531 address books will remain on the screen, so that all of the
4532 address books can be present at once.
4533 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4534 Select All command will select all of the entries in the current
4535 address book, not all of the entries in all of the address
4536 books. The WhereIs command will change a little. It will search
4537 through all of the text on the screen plus all of the entries
4538 from expanded address books.
4539 When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
4540 expanded-view-of-addressbooks has an effect.
4541 This feature is displayed as "Combined Addressbook Display".
4542 _combined-folder-display_
4543 This feature affects the folder list display screens. Normally,
4544 each folder list is viewed within its collection only. This
4545 command allows folder lists to be viewed within a single screen
4546 that combines the contents of all collections.
4547 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4548 Select All command will select all of the folders in the current
4549 collection, not all of the entries in all of the collections.
4550 The WhereIs command will change a little. It will search through
4551 all of the folders in the current collection as well as all the
4552 folder in any other expanded collection.
4553 When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
4554 expanded-view-of-folders has an effect.
4555 _combined-subdirectory-display_
4556 This feature affects the Folder List screen when the
4557 combined-folder-display feature is enabled. Normally, selecting
4558 a directory from the Folder List takes you into a new screen
4559 displaying only the contents of that directory.
4560 Enabling this feature will cause the contents of the selected
4561 directory to be displayed within the boundaries of the
4562 Collection it is a part of. All previously displayed collections
4563 will remain in the screen.
4564 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4565 Select All command will select all of the folders in the
4566 directory, as opposed to all of the entries in all of the
4567 collections. The WhereIs command will change a little. It will
4568 search through all of the folders in the current collection as
4569 well as all the folder in any other expanded collection.
4570 _compose-cancel-confirm-uses-yes_
4571 This feature affects what happens when you type ^C to cancel a
4572 composition. By default, if you attempt to cancel a composition
4573 by typing ^C, you will be asked to confirm the cancellation by
4574 typing a "C" for _C_onfirm. It logically ought to be a "Y" for
4575 _Y_es, but that is risky because the "^C Y" needed to cancel a
4576 message is close (on the keyboard) to the "^X Y" needed to send
4577 a message.
4578 If this feature is set the confirmation asked for will be a
4579 "_Y_es" instead of a "_C_onfirm" response.
4580 _compose-cut-from-cursor_
4581 If set, the _^K_ command in the composer will cut from the
4582 current cursor position to the end of the line, rather than
4583 cutting the entire line.
4584 This feature is displayed as "Ctrl-K Cuts From Cursor".
4585 _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_
4586 If set, Delete will be equivalent to ^D, and delete the current
4587 character. Normally _Alpine_ defines the Delete key to be
4588 equivalent to ^H, which deletes the _previous_ character.
4589 This feature is displayed as "Delete Key Maps to Ctrl-D".
4590 _compose-rejects-unqualified-addrs_
4591 If set, unqualified names entered as addresses will be treated
4592 as errors unless they match an addressbook nickname or are
4593 looked up successfully on an LDAP server. _Alpine_ will not
4594 attempt to turn them into complete addresses by adding your
4595 local domain (which _Alpine_ normally does by default).
4596 A complete (fully-qualified) address is one containing a
4597 username followed by an _@_ symbol, followed by a host or domain
4598 name (e.g. _jsmith@example.com_). An unqualified name is one
4599 without the _@_ symbol and host or domain name (e.g. _jsmith_).
4600 This feature is displayed as "Compose Rejects Unqualified
4601 Addresses".
4602 _compose-send-offers-first-filter_
4603 If you have sending-filters configured, setting this feature
4604 will cause the first filter in the _sending-filters_ list to be
4605 offered as the default instead of _unfiltered_, the usual
4606 default.
4607 _compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm_
4608 If you enter the composer while reading a newsgroup, you will
4609 normally be prompted to determine whether you intend the new
4610 message to be posted to the current newsgroup or not. If this
4611 feature is set, _Alpine_ will not prompt you in this situation,
4612 and will assume that you do indeed wish to post to the newsgroup
4613 you are reading.
4614 This feature is displayed as "Compose Sets Newsgroup Without
4615 Confirming".
4616 _confirm-role-even-for-default_
4617 If you have roles, when you Reply to or Forward a message, or
4618 Compose a new message, _Alpine_ will search through your roles
4619 for one which matches. Normally, if no matches are found you
4620 will be placed into the composer with no opportunity to select a
4621 role. If this feature is set, then you will be asked to confirm
4622 that you don't want a role. This will give you the opportunity
4623 to select a role (with the ^T command). If you confirm no role
4624 with a Return, you will be placed in the composer with no role.
4625 You may also confirm with either an "N" or a "Y". These behave
4626 the same as if you pressed the Return. (The "N" and "Y" answers
4627 are available because they match what you might type if there
4628 was a role match.)
4629 If you are using the alternate form of the Compose command
4630 called "Role", then all of your roles will be available to you,
4631 independent of the value of this feature and of the values set
4632 for all of Reply Use, Forward Use, and Compose Use.
4633 _continue-tab-without-confirm_
4634 Normally, when you use the TAB NextNew command and there is a
4635 problem checking a folder, you are asked whether you want to
4636 continue with the search in the following folder or not. This
4637 gives you a chance to stop the NextNew processing.
4638 If this feature is set you will not be asked. It will be assumed
4639 that you want to continue.
4640 This feature is displayed as "Continue NextNew Without
4641 Confirming".
4642 _convert-dates-to-localtime_
4643 Normally, the message dates that you see in the MESSAGE INDEX
4644 and MESSAGE VIEW are displayed in the timezone they were sent
4645 from. For example, if a message was sent to you from a few
4646 timezones to the east it might appear that it was sent from the
4647 future; or if it was sent from somewhere to the west it might
4648 appear as if it is from yesterday even though it was sent only a
4649 few minutes ago. If this feature is set an attempt will be made
4650 to convert the dates to your local timezone to be displayed.
4651 Note that this does not affect the results of Select by Date or
4652 of anything else other than these displayed dates. When viewing
4653 the message you may look at the original unconverted value of
4654 the Date header by using the HdrMode Command.
4655 _copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us_
4656 This feature affects the From address used when Replying to a
4657 message. It is probably only useful if you have some
4658 alt-addresses defined. When enabled, it checks to see if any of
4659 the addresses in the To or Cc fields of the message you are
4660 replying to is one of your addresses. If it is, and there is
4661 only one of them, then that address is used as the From address
4662 in the message you are composing. In other words, you will be
4663 using a From address that is the same as the To address that was
4664 used to get the mail to you in the first place.
4665 If a role is being used and it has a From address defined, that
4666 From address will be used rather than the one derived from this
4667 feature.
4668 _delete-skips-deleted_
4669 If set, this feature will cause the _Delete_ command to advance
4670 past other messages that are marked deleted. In other words,
4671 pressing _D_ will both mark the current message deleted and
4672 advance to the next message that is not marked deleted. This
4673 feature is set by default.
4674 _disable-config-cmd_
4675 If set, the configuration screen _Setup/Config_ will not be
4676 available at all.
4677 _disable-save-input-history_
4678 Many of the prompts that ask for input in the status line near
4679 the bottom of the screen will respond to Up Arrow and Down Arrow
4680 with the history of previous entries. For example, in the
4681 MESSAGE INDEX screen when you use the WhereIs command the text
4682 you entered will be remembered and can be recalled by using the
4683 Up Arrow key. Another example, when saving a message the folders
4684 saved to will be remembered and can be recalled using the arrow
4685 keys.
4686 In the Save prompt, some users prefer that the Up and Down arrow
4687 keys be used for the Previous Collection and Next Collection
4688 commands instead of for a history of previous saves. If this
4689 option is set the Up and Down arrow keys will become synonyms
4690 for the Previous Collection and Next Collection (^P and ^N)
4691 commands in the prompt for the name of a folder to Save to or in
4692 the prompt for the name of a folder to GoTo. When this feature
4693 is not set (the default), ^P and ^N will change the collection
4694 and the arrow keys will show the history.
4695 _disable-keyboard-lock-cmd_
4696 In the Main _Alpine_ menu there is a Keyboard locking command
4697 (_KBLock_). If this feature is set, that command won't be
4698 available to the user.
4699 _disable-keymenu_
4700 If set, the command key menu that normally appears on the bottom
4701 two lines of the screen will not usually be there. Asking for
4702 help with _^G_ or _?_ will cause the key menu to appear instead
4703 of causing the help message to come up. If you want to actually
4704 see the help text, another _^G_ or _?_ will show it to you.
4705 After the key menu has popped up with the help key it will
4706 remain there for an _O Other_ command but will disappear if any
4707 other command is typed.
4708 _disable-password-caching_
4709 Normally, loginname/password combinations are cached in _Alpine_
4710 so that the user does not have to enter the same password more
4711 than once in a session. A disadvantage to this approach is that
4712 the password must be stored in the memory image of the running
4713 _Alpine_ in order that it can be reused. In the event that
4714 _Alpine_ crashes and produces a core dump, and that core dump is
4715 readable by others, the loginname and password could possibly be
4716 read from the core dump.
4717 If this feature is set, then the passwords will not be cached
4718 and the user will have to retype the password whenever _Alpine_
4719 needs it. Even with this feature set there is still some chance
4720 that the core file will contain a password, so care should be
4721 taken to make the core files unreadable.
4722 NOTE: If PASSFILE caching is enabled, this does not disable it.
4723 That is a separate and independent feature.
4724 _disable-password-cmd_
4725 If set the _Newpassword_ command usually available under the
4726 _Setup_ command will not be available.
4727 _disable-pipes-in-sigs_
4728 If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the
4729 name of a signature file. Appending a vertical bar normally
4730 causes the signature file to be executed to produce the
4731 signature.
4732 _disable-pipes-in-templates_
4733 If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the
4734 name of a template file. Appending a vertical bar normally
4735 causes the signature file to be executed to produce the
4736 signature.
4737 _disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses_
4738 Normally, the alt-addresses option is interpreted as a regular
4739 expression. One type of address that might cause trouble is an
4740 address that contains a plus sign. If you want to have an
4741 address with a plus as one of your alternate addresses and you
4742 don't want to use regular expressions, then setting this feature
4743 will cause _Alpine_ to treat the addresses you list literally
4744 instead.
4745 _disable-roles-setup-cmd_
4746 If set the _Roles_ command usually available under the _Setup_
4747 command will not be available.
4748 _disable-roles-sig-edit_
4749 If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not
4750 allow editing of signature files with the F subcommand.
4751 _disable-roles-template-edit_
4752 If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not
4753 allow editing of template files with the F subcommand.
4754 _disable-sender_
4755 If set, _Alpine_ will not generate a "Sender:" or "X-X-Sender"
4756 header. This may be desirable on a system which is virtually
4757 hosting many domains, and the sysadmin has other methods
4758 available for tracking a message to its originator.
4759 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Generate Sender Header".
4760 _disable-setlocale-collate_
4761 This is a hard to understand feature that should only be used in
4762 rare cases. Normally, the C function call
4764 setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "")
4765 is used by _Alpine_. If you want to try turning it off, setting
4766 this feature will turn it off. This part of the locale has to do
4767 with the sort order of characters in your locale.
4768 _disable-shared-namespaces_
4769 If this hidden feature is set the automatic search for
4770 namespaces "ftp", "imapshared", and "imappublic" by the
4771 underlying library will be disabled. The reason this feature
4772 exists is because there are some implementations of system
4773 password lookup routines which are very slow when presented with
4774 a long loginname which does not exist. This feature could be set
4775 to prevent the delay at startup time when the names above are
4776 searched for in the password file.
4777 _disable-signature-edit-cmd_
4778 If set the _Signature_ editing command usually available under
4779 the _Setup_ command will not be available.
4780 _disable-take-fullname-in-addresses_
4781 Normally, when TakeAddr is used to copy an address or addresses
4782 from a message into an address book entry, _Alpine_ will try to
4783 preserve the full name associated with each address in the list
4784 of addresses. The reason for this is so that if the entry is a
4785 list or later becomes a list, then information about the
4786 individual addresses in the list is preserved. If you would
4787 rather just have the simple addresses in the list of addresses,
4788 set this feature. For example, with the default setting you
4789 might see something like this in the ADDRESS BOOK editor after
4790 you type TakeAddr
4791 Nickname : nick
4792 Fullname : Bedrock Elders
4793 Fcc :
4794 Comment :
4795 Addresses : Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>,
4796 Barney Rubble <rubble@bedrock.org>
4798 but with this feature set it would look like
4799 Nickname : nick
4800 Fullname : Bedrock Elders
4801 Fcc :
4802 Comment :
4803 Addresses : flint@bedrock.org,
4804 rubble@bedrock.org
4806 instead. Note the difference in the Addresses field.
4807 _disable-take-last-comma-first_
4808 Normally, when _TakeAddr_ is used to copy an address from a
4809 message into an address book, _Alpine_ will attempt to rewrite
4810 the full name of the address in the form:
4812 Last, First
4813 instead of
4815 First Last
4816 It does this because many people find it useful to sort by Last
4817 name instead of First name. If this feature is set, then the
4818 _TakeAddr_ command will not attempt to reverse the name in this
4819 manner.
4820 _disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters_
4821 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
4822 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using
4823 Display-Filters. Normally, before the display filter is run, the
4824 terminal mode is reset to what it was before you started
4825 _Alpine_. This may be necessary if the filter requires the use of
4826 the terminal. For example, it may need to interact with you. If
4827 you set this feature, then the terminal mode will not be reset.
4828 One thing that turning on this feature should fix is the
4829 coloring of quoted text in the message view, which breaks
4830 because the terminal reset resets the color state of the
4831 terminal (Color Configuration).
4832 _downgrade-multipart-to-text_
4833 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail.
4834 Internet standards require _Alpine_ to translate all non-ASCII
4835 characters in messages that it sends using MIME encoding. This
4836 encoding can be ostensibly broken for recipients if any agent
4837 between _Alpine_ and the recipient, such as an email list
4838 expander, appends text to the message, such as list information
4839 or advertising. When sending such messages _Alpine_ attempts to
4840 protect such encoding by placing extra MIME boundaries around
4841 the message text.
4842 These extra boundaries are invisible to recipients that use
4843 MIME-aware email programs (the vast majority). However, if you
4844 correspond with users of email programs that are not MIME-aware,
4845 or do not handle the extra boundaries gracefully, you can use
4846 this feature to prevent _Alpine_ from including the extra MIME
4847 information. Of course, it will increase the likelihood that
4848 non-ASCII text you send may appear corrupt to the recipient.
4849 _enable-8bit-esmtp-negotiation_
4850 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail. By
4851 default, this feature is set. Internet standards require that
4852 all electronic mail messages traversing the global Internet
4853 consist of 7bit ASCII characters unless a pair of cooperating
4854 mail transfer agents explicitly agree to allow 8bit messages. In
4855 general, then, exchanging messages in non-ASCII characters
4856 requires MIME encoding.
4857 However, there are now Internet standards that allow for
4858 unencoded 8bit exchange of messages between cooperating systems.
4859 When this feature is set _Alpine_ will try to negotiate
4860 unencoded 8bit transmission during the sending process. Should
4861 the negotiation fail, _Alpine_ will fall back to its ordinary
4862 encoding rules.
4863 Note, this feature relies on your system's mail transport agent
4864 or configured smtp-server having the negotiation mechanism
4865 introduced in "Extended SMTP" (ESMTP) and the specific extension
4866 called _8BITMIME_.
4867 _enable-8bit-nntp-posting_
4868 The Internet standard for exchanging USENET news messages
4869 (RFC-1036) specifies that USENET messages should conform to
4870 Internet mail standards and contain only 7bit characters, but
4871 much of the news transport software in use today is capable of
4872 successfully sending messages containing 8bit characters. Hence,
4873 many people believe that it is appropriate to send 8bit news
4874 messages without any MIME encoding.
4875 Moreover, there is no Internet standard for explicitly
4876 negotiating 8bit transfer, as there is for Internet email.
4877 Therefore, _Alpine_ provides the option of posting unencoded
4878 8bit news messages, though not as the default. Setting this
4879 feature will turn OFF _Alpine_'s MIME encoding of newsgroup
4880 postings that contain 8bit characters.
4881 Note, articles may cross a path or pass through news transport
4882 software that is unsafe or even hostile to 8bit characters. At
4883 best this will only cause the posting to become garbled. The
4884 safest way to transmit 8bit characters is to leave _Alpine_'s
4885 MIME encoding turned on, but recipients who lack MIME-aware
4886 tools are often annoyed when they receive MIME-encoded messages.
4887 _enable-aggregate-command-set_
4888 When this feature is set you may use the commands and
4889 subcommands that relate to performing operations on more than
4890 one message at a time. We call these "aggregate operations". In
4891 particular, the _; Select_, _A Apply_, and _Z Zoom_ commands are
4892 enabled by this feature. _Select_ is used to _tag_ one or more
4893 messages meeting the specified criteria. _Apply_ can then be
4894 used to apply any message command to all of the selected/tagged
4895 messages. Further, the _Zoom_ command allows you to toggle the
4896 "Folder Index" view between just those Selected and all messages
4897 in the folder.
4898 This feature also enables the _^X_ subcommand in the "Folder
4899 Index" _WhereIs_ command which causes all messages matching the
4900 _WhereIs_ argument to become selected.
4901 You may also use aggregate operations in the address book
4902 screens where you are operating on address book entries instead
4903 of on messages.
4904 _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_
4905 If this feature is set (the default), and the editor variable is
4906 not set, entering the _^__ (Control-underscore) key while
4907 composing a message will prompt you for the name of the editor
4908 you would like to use.
4909 If the environment variable $EDITOR is set, this value will be
4910 offered as a default. If the _editor_ variable is set, the _^__
4911 key will activate the specified editor without prompting, in
4912 which case it is not necessary to set the
4913 _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_ feature. This feature is not
4914 available in _PC-Alpine_.
4915 This feature is displayed as "Enable Alternate Editor Command".
4916 _enable-alternate-editor-implicitly_
4917 If this feature and the editor variable are both set, _Alpine_
4918 will automatically activate the specified editor when the cursor
4919 is moved from the header of the message being composed into the
4920 message text. For replies, the alternate editor will be
4921 activated immediately. If this feature is set but the _editor_
4922 variable is not set, then _Alpine_ will automatically ask for
4923 the name of an alternate editor when the cursor is moved out of
4924 the headers, or if a reply is being done. This feature is not
4925 available in _PC-Alpine_.
4926 _enable-arrow-navigation_
4927 This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow
4928 keys. If set, the left and right arrow keys will operate like
4929 the usual navigation keys _<_ and _>_. This feature is set by
4930 default.
4931 If you set this feature, and do not like the changed behavior of
4932 the up/down arrow keys when navigating through the FOLDER LIST
4933 screen -- _first_ from column to column, if more than one folder
4934 is displayed per row, and _then_ from row to row -- you may
4935 either also wish to set the feature
4936 enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed, single-column-folder-list, or
4937 use the ^P/^N (instead of up/down arrow) keys to move up/down
4938 the list of folders in each column.
4939 _enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed_
4940 This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow
4941 keys in the FOLDER LIST screen when the enable-arrow-navigation
4942 feature is set. This feature is set by default.
4943 When this feature is set, the left and right arrow keys in the
4944 FOLDER LIST screen move the highlight bar to the left or right,
4945 and the up and down arrows move it up or down.
4946 When the "Enable-Arrow-Navigation" feature is set and this
4947 feature is not set; the left and right arrow keys in the Folder
4948 List screen strictly track the commands bound to the '<' and '>'
4949 keys, and the up and down arrow keys move the highlight bar to
4950 the previous and next folder or directory name.
4951 _enable-background-sending_
4952 If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's
4953 _Send?_ confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell
4954 _Alpine_ to handle the actual posting in the background. While
4955 this feature usually allows posting to appear to happen very
4956 fast, it has no affect on the actual delivery time it takes a
4957 message to arrive at its destination.
4958 This feature isn't supported on all systems. All DOS and
4959 Windows, as well as several Unix ports, do not recognize this
4960 feature. It is not possible to use background sending if the
4961 feature send-without-confirm is set.
4962 Error handling is significantly different when this feature is
4963 enabled. Any message posting failure results in the message
4964 being appended to your _Interrupted_ mail folder. When you type
4965 the _Compose_ command, _Alpine_ will notice this folder and
4966 offer to extract any messages contained. Upon continuing a
4967 failed message, _Alpine_ will display the nature of the failure
4968 in the status message line.
4969 Under extreme conditions, it is possible for message data to get
4970 lost. Do not enable this feature if you typically run close to
4971 any sort of disk-space limits or quotas.
4972 _enable-bounce-cmd_
4973 Setting this feature enables the _B Bounce_ command, which will
4974 prompt for an address and _remail_ the message to the new
4975 recipient. This command is used to re-direct messages that you
4976 have received in error, or need to be redirected for some other
4977 reason (e.g. list moderation). The final recipient will see a
4978 header indicating that you have Resent the msg, but the
4979 message's From: header will show the original author of the
4980 message, and replies to it will go back to that author, and not
4981 to you.
4982 This feature is displayed as "Enable Bounce Command".
4983 _enable-cruise-mode_
4984 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you hit the "Space
4985 Bar" at the end of a displayed message. Typically, _Alpine_
4986 complains that the end of the text has already been reached.
4987 Setting this feature causes such keystrokes to be interpreted as
4988 if the _Tab_ key had been hit, thus taking you to the next
4989 _interesting_ message, or scanning ahead to the next incoming
4990 folder with _interesting_ messages.
4991 _enable-cruise-mode-delete_
4992 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s
4993 _enable-cruise-mode_ feature. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_
4994 to implicitly delete read messages when it moves on to display
4995 the next _interesting_ message.
4996 NOTE: Beware when enabling this feature _and_ the
4997 expunge-without-confirm feature.
4998 This feature is displayed as "Enable Cruise Mode With Deleting".
4999 _enable-delivery-status-notification_
5000 If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's
5001 "Send?" confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell
5002 _Alpine_ to request the type of Delivery Status Notification
5003 (DSN) which you would like. Most users will be happy with the
5004 default, and need not enable this feature. See the online help
5005 for more details.
5006 It is not possible to use delivery status notifications if the
5007 feature send-without-confirm is set.
5008 Note that this is not a method to request _READ_ receipts, which
5009 tells the sender when the receiver has read the message. In this
5010 case we're talking about notification of delivery to the
5011 mailbox, not notification that the message has been seen.
5012 _enable-dot-files_
5013 If set, files beginning with dot (".") will be visible in the
5014 file browser. For example, you'll be able to select them when
5015 using the browser to add an attachment to a message.
5016 _enable-dot-folders_
5017 If set, folders beginning with dot (".") may be added and
5018 viewed. This feature is displayed as "Enable Hidden Folders".
5019 _enable-exit-via-lessthan-command_
5020 If set, then on screens where there is an _Exit_ command but no
5021 _<_ command, the _<_ key will perform the same function as the
5022 _Exit_ command. This feature is set by default.
5023 _enable-fast-recent-test_
5024 This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when
5025 traversing folders in the optional Incoming-Folders collection
5026 or in optional News-Collections.
5027 When the TAB (NextNew) key is pressed, the default behavior is
5028 to explicitly examine the status of the folder for the number of
5029 recent messages (messages delivered since the last time it was
5030 viewed). Depending on the size and number of messages in the
5031 folder, this test can be time consuming.
5032 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to only test for the
5033 existence of any recent messages rather than to obtain the
5034 count. This is much faster in many cases. The downside is that
5035 you're not given the number of recent messages when prompted to
5036 view the next folder. If the feature
5037 Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder is turned on, then the present
5038 feature will have no effect.
5039 _enable-flag-cmd_
5040 Setting this feature enables the _* Flag_ command, which allows
5041 you to manipulate the status flags associated with a message. By
5042 default, _Flag_ will set the _Important_ flag, which results in
5043 an asterisk being displayed in column one of the "Folder Index"
5044 for such messages.
5045 This feature is displayed as "Enable Flag Command".
5046 _enable-flag-screen-implicitly_
5047 This feature modifies the behavior of the _* Flag_ command
5048 (provided it too is enabled). By default, when the _* Flag_
5049 command is selected, _Alpine_ offers a prompt to set one of
5050 several flags and also offers the option of entering the
5051 detailed flag manipulation screen via the _^T_ key. Enabling
5052 this feature causes _Alpine_ to immediately enter the detailed
5053 flag screen rather than first offer the simple prompt. The
5054 Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option offers a slightly
5055 different way of setting keywords.
5056 _enable-flag-screen-keyword-shortcut_
5057 This feature modifies the behavior of the Flag command and the
5058 Select command. By default, when the "* Flag" command is
5059 selected, _Alpine_ offers a prompt to set one of several flags
5060 and also offers the option of entering the detailed flag
5061 manipulation screen via the "^T" key. If you have keywords
5062 defined, then enabling this feature adds a shortcut way to set
5063 or unset keywords. You use "*" followed by the first letter of a
5064 keyword (or the nickname of a keyword if you've given it a
5065 nickname) and that will set the keyword.
5066 An example is easier to understand than the explanation. The
5067 flag command can always be used to set the system flags. For
5068 example, to set the Answered flag you would type
5070 * A
5071 Now suppose you have defined a keyword "Work" using the Keywords
5072 option in the Config screen. By default, to set a keyword like
5073 "Work" you would usually have to go to the Flag Details screen
5074 using the "^T To Flag Details" command. Instead, if you have
5075 enabled this feature, you may type
5077 * W
5078 to set the Work flag, or
5080 * ! W
5081 to unset it. Just like for the other flag setting commands, the
5082 case of the letter does not matter, so "w" or "W" both set the
5083 "Work" keyword.
5084 Notice that you can only use this trick for one keyword that
5085 begins with "W". If you happen to have a "Work" keyword and
5086 another keyword that is "WIFI" the "* W" command will set the
5087 first one in your list of keywords. Also, there are five letters
5088 which are reserved for system flags and the NOT command. If you
5089 type "* A" it will always set the Answered flag, not your
5090 "Aardvark" keyword. In order to set the "Aardvark" keyword
5091 you'll still have to use the Flag Details screen.
5092 Because enabling the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option causes
5093 _Alpine_ to skip directly to the Flag Details screen when the
5094 Flag command is used, setting it will cause this feature to have
5095 no effect at all.
5096 Similarly, when Selecting by Keyword, setting this option will
5097 allow you to use Keyword initials instead of full keywords.
5098 _enable-full-header-cmd_
5099 This feature enables the _H Full Headers_ command which toggles
5100 between the display of all headers in the message and the normal
5101 edited view of headers. The _Full Header_ command also controls
5102 which headers are included for _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_,
5103 _Forward_, and _Reply_ functions. (For _Reply_, the _Full Header_
5104 mode will respect the _include-headers-in-reply_ feature
5105 setting.)
5106 If Full Header mode is turned on and you Forward a message, you
5107 will be asked if you'd like to forward the message as an
5108 attachment, as opposed to including the text of the message in
5109 the body of your new message.
5110 If you have also turned on the "Quote Suppression" option then
5111 the Full Headers command actually rotates through three states
5112 instead of just two. The first is the normal view with long
5113 quotes suppressed. The second is the normal view but with the
5114 long quotes included. The last enables the display of all
5115 headers in the message. When using Export, Pipe, Print, Forward,
5116 or Reply the quotes are never suppressed, so the first two
5117 states are identical.
5118 Normally, the Header Mode will reset to the default behavior
5119 when moving to a new message. The mode can be made to persist
5120 from message to message by setting the feature
5121 Quell-Full-Header-Auto-Reset.
5122 This feature is displayed as "Enable Full Header Command".
5123 _enable-full-header-and-text_
5124 This feature affects how the _H Full Headers_ command displays
5125 message text. If set, the raw message text will be displayed.
5126 This especially affects MIME formatted email, where the entire
5127 MIME format will be displayed. This feature similarly affects
5128 how messages are included for the _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_,
5129 _Forward_, and _Reply_ functions.
5130 _enable-goto-in-file-browser_
5131 Setting this causes _Alpine_ to offer the _G Goto_ command in
5132 the file browser. The Goto command allows you to explicitly type
5133 in the desired directory. That is the default.
5134 _enable-incoming-folders_
5135 If set, this feature defines a pseudo-folder collection called
5136 _INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS_. Initially, the only folder included
5137 in this collection will be your _INBOX_, which will no longer
5138 show up in your default saved-message folder collection.
5139 This feature is displayed as "Enable Incoming Folders
5140 Collection".
5141 _enable-incoming-folders-checking_
5142 This feature is only operational if you have enabled the
5143 optional incoming-folders If you do have Incoming Message
5144 Folders and you also set this feature, then the number of Unseen
5145 messages in each folder will be displayed in the FOLDER LIST
5146 screen for the Incoming Message Folders. The number of Unseen
5147 messages in a folder will be displayed in parentheses to the
5148 right of the name of each folder. If there are no Unseen
5149 messages in a folder then only the name is displayed, not a set
5150 of parentheses with zero inside them. A redraw command, Ctrl-L,
5151 can be used in the FOLDER LIST screen for the Incoming Message
5152 Folders to cause an immediate update.
5153 If a check for Unseen messages fails for a particular folder
5154 then Alpine will no longer attempt to check that folder for the
5155 duration of the session and this will be indicated by a question
5156 mark inside the parentheses.
5157 The features incoming-checking-includes-total,
5158 incoming-checking-uses-recent, incoming-check-list,
5159 incoming-check-interval, incoming-check-interval-secondary, and
5160 incoming-check-timeout all affect how this feature behaves.
5161 _Disable-Index-Locale-Dates_
5162 This feature affects the display of dates in the MESSAGE INDEX.
5163 Normally an attempt is made to localize the dates used in the
5164 MESSAGE INDEX display to your locale. This is controlled with
5165 the LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
5166 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the date
5167 format. At the programming level, _Alpine_ is using the strftime
5168 routine to print the parts of a date.
5169 If this feature is set, dates are displayed in English and with
5170 the conventions of the United States.
5171 _enable-jump-shortcut_
5172 When this feature is set you may enter a number (followed by
5173 RETURN) and jump to that message number, when in the MESSAGE
5174 INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screens. In other words, it obviates the
5175 need for typing the _J_ for the _Jump_ command.
5176 _enable-lame-list-mode_
5177 This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to ask your IMAP
5178 server for folder names to display in the the FOLDER LIST
5179 screen. It is intended to compensate for a small set of IMAP
5180 servers that are programmed to ignore a part of the request, and
5181 thus respond to _Alpine_'s query with nonsensical results.
5182 If you find that _Alpine_ is erroneously displaying blank folder
5183 lists, try enabling this feature.
5184 NOTE: Enabling this feature has consequences for the Goto and
5185 Save commands. Many servers allow access to folders outside the
5186 area reserved for your personal folders via some reserved
5187 character, typically '#' (sharp), '~' (tilde) or '/' (slash).
5188 This mechanism allows, at the Goto and Save prompts, quick
5189 access to folders outside your personal folder collection
5190 without requiring a specific collection definition. This
5191 behavior will generally not be available when this feature is
5192 enabled.
5193 This feature is displayed as "Compensate for Deficient IMAP
5194 servers".
5195 _enable-mail-check-cue_
5196 If set, this will cause an asterisk to appear in the upper
5197 left-hand corner of the screen whenever _Alpine_ checks for new
5198 mail, and two asterisks whenever _Alpine_ saves (checkpoints)
5199 the state of the current mailbox to disk.
5200 _enable-mailcap-param-substitution_
5201 If set, this will allow mailcap named parameter substitution to
5202 occur in mailcap entries. By default, this is turned off to
5203 prevent security problems which may occur with some incorrect
5204 mailcap configurations. For more information, RFC1524 and look
5205 for "named parameters" in the text of the RFC.
5206 This feature is displayed as "Enable Mailcap Parameter
5207 Substitution".
5208 _enable-mouse-in-xterm_
5209 This feature controls whether or not an X terminal mouse can be
5210 used with _Alpine_. If set, and the $DISPLAY variable indicates
5211 that an X terminal is being used, the left mouse button on the
5212 mouse can be used to select text or commands. Clicking on a
5213 command at the bottom of the screen will behave as if you had
5214 typed that command. Clicking on an index line will move the
5215 current message highlight to that line. Double-clicking on an
5216 index line will view the message. Double-clicking on a link will
5217 view the link.
5218 This type of mouse support will also work in some terminal
5219 emulators which are not actually X terminals, but which have
5220 extra code to support the xterm style mouse. For those emulators
5221 you not only need to turn this feature on but you also have to
5222 set the $DISPLAY environment variable even though it isn't
5223 needed for your terminal. That will cause _Alpine_ to think that
5224 it is an xterm and to properly interpret the escape sequences
5225 sent by the mouse.
5226 Note: if this feature is set, the behavior of X terminal
5227 cut-and-paste is also modified. It is sometimes possible to hold
5228 the shift key down while clicking left or middle mouse buttons
5229 for the normal xterm cut/paste operations. There is also an
5230 _Alpine_ command to toggle this mode on or off. The command is
5231 Ctrl-\ (Control-backslash).
5232 _enable-msg-view-addresses_
5233 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5234 screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to select possible
5235 email addresses from the displayed text and display them in
5236 boldface for selection.
5237 The first available email address is displayed in inverse. This
5238 is the "selected" address. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_
5239 to enter the message composition screen with the To field filled
5240 in with the selected address.
5241 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the addresses
5242 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5243 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Address
5244 Links".
5245 _enable-msg-view-attachments_
5246 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5247 screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to present
5248 attachments in boldface. The first available attachment is
5249 displayed in inverse. This is the "selected" attachment.
5250 Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display the selected
5251 attachment. Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of
5252 the attachments displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5253 Speaking of arrow keys, the Up and Down Arrows will select the
5254 next and previous attachments if one is available on the screen
5255 for selection. Otherwise, they will simply adjust the viewed
5256 text one line up or down.
5257 Similarly, when selectable items are present in a message, the
5258 Ctrl-F key can be used to select the next item in the message
5259 independent of which portion of the viewed message is currently
5260 displayed. The Ctrl-B key can be used to select the previous
5261 item in the same way.
5262 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Attachment
5263 Links".
5264 _enable-msg-view-forced-arrows_
5265 This feature modifies Up and Down arrow key behavior in
5266 _Alpine_'s "Message Text" screen when selectable Attachments,
5267 URL's, or web-hostnames are presented. _Alpine_'s usual behavior
5268 is to move to the next or previous selectable item if currently
5269 displayed or simply to adjust the screen view by one line if the
5270 next selectable line is off the screen.
5271 Setting this feature causes the Up and Down arrow keys to behave
5272 as if no selectable items were present in the message.
5273 Note, the _Ctrl-F_ (next selectable item) and _Ctrl-B_ (previous
5274 selectable item) functionality is unchanged.
5275 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Forced
5276 Arrows".
5277 _enable-msg-view-urls_
5278 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5279 screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will
5280 select possible URLs from the displayed text and display them in
5281 boldface for selection.
5282 The first available URL is displayed in inverse. This is the
5283 "selected" URL. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display
5284 the selected URL via either built-in means as with mailto:,
5285 imap:, news:, and nntp:, or via an external application as
5286 defined by the url-viewers variable.
5287 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the URLs
5288 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5289 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View URL Links".
5290 _enable-msg-view-web-hostnames_
5291 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5292 screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will
5293 select possible web hostnames from the displayed text and
5294 display them in boldface for selection.
5295 The first available hostname is displayed in inverse. This is
5296 the "selected" hostname. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_
5297 to display the selected hostname via an external application as
5298 defined by the url-viewers variable.
5299 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the hostnames
5300 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5301 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Web Hostname
5302 Links".
5303 _enable-multiple-newsrcs_
5304 This feature makes it so _Alpine_ can use multiple newsrcs based
5305 on the news server being connected to, which allows for separate
5306 lists of subscribed-to newsgroups. When this feature is not set,
5307 there is only one list of newsgroups.
5308 Under this feature, the name of a newsrc is based on the news
5309 server. For example, if your newsrc-path is set to ".newsrc",
5310 and the news server you are connecting to is news.example.com,
5311 then the newsrc to be used is .newsrc-news.example.com. Setting
5312 this feature for the first time will allow for the option of
5313 using your old newsrc the next time you read news.
5314 If this feature is set, then the feature
5315 Mult-Newsrc-Hostnames-As-Typed also may affect the name of the
5316 newsrc file that is used.
5317 _enable-newmail-in-xterm-icon_
5318 This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will attempt to
5319 announce new mail arrival when it is running in an X terminal
5320 window and that window is iconified. If set, and the $DISPLAY
5321 variable indicates that an X terminal is being used, _Alpine_
5322 will send appropriate escape sequences to the X terminal to
5323 modify the label on _Alpine_'s icon to indicate that new mail
5324 has arrived. _Alpine_ will also modify the _Alpine_ window's
5325 title to indicate new mail. See also
5326 Enable-Newmail-Short-Text-in-Icon.
5327 _enable-newmail-short-text-in-icon_
5328 This feature controls the text to be displayed in an icon in the
5329 event of a new message arrival. Normally, the message will be
5330 the one that is displayed on the screen. This feature shortens
5331 the message to a count of the number of new messages in
5332 brackets. This may be more useful for those who use the window's
5333 title bar in the task bar as a new mail indicator. This feature
5334 is only useful if the Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon is also set.
5335 Like the Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon feature, this feature is
5336 only relevant when run in an xterm environment.
5337 _enable-partial-match-lists_
5338 This feature affects the subcommands available when _Sav_ing or
5339 Opening a new folder. If set, the subcommand _^X ListMatches_
5340 will be available. This command allows you to type in a
5341 substring of the folder you are looking for and when you type
5342 _^X_ it will display all folders which contain that substring in
5343 their names. This feature is set by default.
5344 _enable-print-via-y-command_
5345 By default, _Alpine_'s print command is available by pressing
5346 the _%_ key. In older versions of _Pine_, the print command was
5347 accessed by pressing the _Y_ key.
5348 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to recognize both the
5349 old command, _Y_, and the new _%_ method for invoking printing.
5350 Note, key menu labels are not changed as a result of enabling
5351 this feature.
5352 _enable-reply-indent-string-editing_
5353 This feature affects the Reply command's "Include original
5354 message in Reply?" prompt. When enabled, it causes the "Edit
5355 Indent String" sub-command to appear which allows you to edit
5356 the string _Alpine_ would otherwise use to denote included text
5357 from the message being replied to.
5358 Thus, you can change _Alpine_'s default message quote character
5359 (usually an angle bracket) on a per message basis. So you could
5360 change your quoted message to look, for example, like this:
5361 On Tues, 26 Jan 1999, John Q. Smith wrote:
5363 John: I just wanted to say hello and to congratulate you
5364 John: on a job well done!
5365 The configuration option "reply-indent-string" may be used to
5366 change what appears as the default string to be edited.
5367 NOTE: Edited reply-indent-strings only apply to the message
5368 currently being replied to.
5369 _enable-rules-under-take_
5370 Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and
5371 helps you put them into your Address Book. If you use Rules for
5372 Indexcolors, Roles, Filtering, or Scoring; you may find it
5373 useful to be able to Take information from a message's headers
5374 and put it into a new Rule. When this feature is set, you will
5375 be given an extra prompt which gives you the choice to Take into
5376 the Address Book or Take into a rule.
5377 This feature is displayed as "Enable Take Rules".
5378 _enable-search-and-replace_
5379 If set _Alpine_'s composer offers the _R Replace_ command option
5380 inside the _W WhereIs_ command.
5381 _enable-sigdashes_
5382 If set and a _signature-file_ exists, the line consisting of the
5383 three characters "-- " (dash dash space) is included before the
5384 signature. This only happens if the signature doesn't already
5385 contain such a line.
5386 In addition, when you Reply or Followup to a message containing
5387 one of these special lines and choose to include its text,
5388 _Alpine_ will observe the convention of not including text beyond
5389 the special line in your reply.
5390 _enable-suspend_
5391 Setting this feature will allow you to type _^Z_ and temporarily
5392 suspend _Alpine_. Not available on _PC-Alpine_.
5393 _enable-tab-completion_
5394 This feature enables the _TAB_ key when at a prompt for a
5395 filename. In this case, _TAB_ will cause the partial name
5396 already entered to be automatically completed, provided the
5397 partial name is unambiguous. This feature is set by default.
5398 Similarly, this feature also enables TAB completion of address
5399 book nicknames when at a prompt for a nickname, or when typing
5400 in an address field in the composer.
5401 _enable-take-export_
5402 Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and
5403 helps you put them into your Address Book. When this feature is
5404 set, you will be given an extra prompt which gives you the
5405 choice to Take addresses into a file instead of your Address
5406 Book. Only the user@domain_name part of the address is put in
5407 the file.
5408 _enable-tray-icon_
5409 _PC-Alpine_ only. This option restores a behavior of previous
5410 versions of PC-Alpine. These versions, when started, installed a
5411 PC-Alpine icon in the notification tray of Window's Taskbar. The
5412 primary use of this icon was to indicate new mail arrival by
5413 turning red (while the Taskbar icon remained green).
5414 Additionally, the icon now changes to yellow to signify that a
5415 mail folder has been closed unexpectedly.
5416 Rather than add another icon to the Taskbar, this version of
5417 PC-Alpine will color its Taskbar entry's icon red (as well as
5418 the icon in the Window Title). This feature is only provided for
5419 backwards compatibility.
5420 _enable-unix-pipe-cmd_
5421 This feature enables the _| Pipe_ command that sends the current
5422 message to the specified Unix command for external processing.
5423 This feature is displayed as "Enable Unix Pipe Command".
5424 _enable-verbose-smtp-posting_
5425 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s message sending.
5426 When enabled, _Alpine_ will send a VERB (i.e., VERBose) command
5427 early in the posting process intended to cause the server SMTP
5428 to provide a more detailed account of the transaction. This
5429 feature is typically only useful to system administrators and
5430 other support personnel as an aid in troubleshooting problems.
5431 Note, this feature relies on a specific capability of the
5432 system's mail transport agent or configured smtp-server.
5433 _expanded-view-of-addressbooks_
5434 If multiple address books (either personal or global) are
5435 defined, and you wish to have them all expanded implicitly upon
5436 entering the ADDRESS BOOK screen, then set this feature. This
5437 feature will have no effect unless the feature
5438 combined-addrbook-display is also set.
5439 _expanded-view-of-distribution-lists_
5440 If this feature is set, then distribution lists in the address
5441 book screen will always be expanded automatically.
5442 _expanded-view-of-folders_
5443 If multiple folder collections are defined, and you wish to have
5444 them all expanded implicitly upon entering the FOLDER LIST
5445 screen, then set this feature. This feature will have no effect
5446 unless the feature combined-folder-display is also set.
5447 _expose-hidden-config_
5448 The purpose of this feature is to allow you to change
5449 configuration features and variables which are normally hidden.
5450 This is particularly useful if you are using a remote
5451 configuration file, where it is difficult to edit the file
5452 manually, but it may also be used on a local pinerc
5453 configuration file.
5454 If set, most configuration variables and features which are
5455 normally hidden from view will show up in the
5456 Setup/Configuration screen. They will be at the bottom of the
5457 configuration screen. You can find them by searching for the
5458 word "hidden".
5459 Note that this is an advanced feature which should be used with
5460 care. The reason that this part of the configuration is normally
5461 hidden is because there is a significant potential for causing
5462 problems if you change these variables. If something breaks
5463 after a change try changing it back to see if that is what is
5464 causing the problem. There are also some variables which are
5465 normally hidden because they are manipulated through _Alpine_ in
5466 other ways. For example, the "address-book" variable is normally
5467 set using the Setup/AddressBooks screen, so there is little
5468 reason to edit it directly. The "incoming-folders" variable is
5469 normally changed by using the Add, Delete, and Rename commands
5470 in the FOLDER LIST screen, and the "last-time-prune-questioned"
5471 variable is normally used internally by _Alpine_ and not set
5472 directly by the user.
5473 _expunge-only-manually_
5474 Normally, when you close a folder which contains deleted
5475 messages you are asked if you want to expunge those messages
5476 from the folder permanently. If this feature is set, you won't
5477 be asked and the deleted messages will remain in the folder. If
5478 you choose to set this feature you will have to expunge the
5479 messages manually using the eXpunge command, which you can use
5480 while in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not expunge deleted
5481 messages the size of your folder will continue to increase until
5482 you are out of disk space.
5483 _expunge-without-confirm_
5484 If set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent before
5485 the expunge takes place. Actually, you will still be prompted
5486 for confirmation if the folder is not the _INBOX_ folder or
5487 another folder in the Incoming Folders collection. See the
5488 _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_ feature which follows.
5489 This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming".
5490 _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_
5491 The regular _expunge-without-confirm_ feature actually only
5492 works for the _INBOX_ folder and for other folders in the
5493 "Incoming Folders" collection. If this feature is set then you
5494 also won't be prompted to confirm expunges for all other
5495 folders.
5496 This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming
5497 Everywhere".
5498 _fcc-on-bounce_
5499 If set, normal Fcc (File Carbon Copy) processing will be done
5500 for bounced messages, just as if you had composed a message to
5501 the address you are bouncing to. If not set, no Fcc of the
5502 message will be saved.
5503 This feature is displayed as "Include Fcc When Bouncing
5504 Messages".
5505 _fcc-only-without-confirm_
5506 This features controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s composer. The
5507 only time this feature will be used is if you attempt to send
5508 mail which has no recipients but does have an Fcc. Normally,
5509 _Alpine_ will ask if you really mean to copy the message only to
5510 the Fcc. That is, it asks if you really meant to have no
5511 recipients. If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted
5512 to confirm your intent to make only a copy of a message with no
5513 recipients.
5514 This feature is closely related to
5515 warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups. The difference between
5516 this feature and that feature is that this feature considers a
5517 Bcc to be a recipient while that feature will ask for
5518 confirmation even if there is a Bcc when there is no To, Cc, or
5519 Newsgroup. The default values also differ. This feature defaults
5520 to asking the question and you have to turn it off. The
5521 warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups feature defaults to not
5522 asking unless you turn it on.
5523 This feature is displayed as "Send to Fcc Only Without
5524 Confirming".
5525 _fcc-without-attachments_
5526 This features controls the way FCC's (File Carbon Copies) are
5527 made of the messages you send.
5528 Normally, _Alpine_ saves an exact copy of your message as it was
5529 sent. When this feature is enabled, the "body" of the message
5530 you send (the text you type in the composer) is preserved in the
5531 copy as before, however all attachments are replaced with text
5532 explaining what had been sent rather than the attachments
5533 themselves.
5534 This feature also affects _Alpine_'s "Send ?" confirmation
5535 prompt in that a new "^F Fcc Attchmnts" option becomes available
5536 which allows you to interactively set whether or not attachments
5537 are saved to the Fcc'd copy.
5538 This feature is displayed as "Fcc Does Not Include Attachments".
5539 _force-arrow-cursor_
5540 This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display routine.
5541 If set, the normal inverse-video cursor will be replaced by a
5542 simple "arrow" cursor, which normally occupies the second column
5543 of the index display.
5544 This is the same index cursor you get if you turn on
5545 Assume-Slow-Link, but the index line coloring will still be
5546 present if this feature is turned on and Assume-Slow-Link is
5547 off.
5548 An alternative version of the Arrow cursor is available by
5549 including the ARROW token in the Index-Format option.
5550 It ought to be the case that this feature also affects the
5551 ATTACHMENT INDEX, but that is not implemented.
5552 _hide-nntp-path_
5553 Normally the Path header that _Alpine_ generates when posting to
5554 a newsgroup contains the name of the computer from which the
5555 message is being sent and the user name. Some believe that this
5556 information is used by spammers. If this feature is set, that
5557 information will be replaced with the text
5559 not-for-mail
5560 instead.
5561 It should be noted that many servers being connected to will
5562 still reveal the information that this feature attempts to
5563 protect.
5564 _include-attachments-in-reply_
5565 If set, any MIME attachments that were part of the original
5566 message will automatically be included in a _Reply_.
5567 _include-header-in-reply_
5568 If set, and a message being replied to is included in the
5569 _Reply_, then headers from that message will also be part of the
5570 reply.
5571 _include-text-in-reply_
5572 Normally, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to include the
5573 original message in your _Reply_. If this feature is set and the
5574 feature enable-reply-indent-string-editing is _not_ set, then
5575 the original message will be included in the reply
5576 automatically, without prompting.
5577 _incoming-checking-includes-total_
5578 This option has no effect unless the feature
5579 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
5580 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
5581 When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to
5582 display the number of unseen messages in each folder. More
5583 precisely, it is the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using
5584 this option you may also display the total number of messages in
5585 each folder. Instead of a single number representing the number
5586 of unseen messages you will get two numbers separated by a slash
5587 character. The first is the number of unseen messages and the
5588 second is the total number of messages.
5589 You may also use the recent message count instead of the unseen
5590 message count by turning on the feature
5591 incoming-checking-uses-recent.
5592 _incoming-checking-uses-recent_
5593 This option has no effect unless the feature
5594 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
5595 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
5596 When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to
5597 display the number of unseen messages in each folder. More
5598 precisely, it is the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using
5599 this option you may display the number of recent messages
5600 instead of the number of unseen messages. A message is only
5601 counted as recent if this is the first session to see it, so the
5602 recent count might be less than the unseen count. The difference
5603 between the two would be accounted for by the unseen messages in
5604 the folder which were there previously but have not been looked
5605 at yet.
5606 If you simultaneously run more than one email client at a time
5607 (for example, you run more than one _Alpine_ in parallel) then
5608 turning this feature on can cause some confusion. The confusion
5609 stems from the fact that each message is only considered to be
5610 recent in one session. That means that the counts of new
5611 messages may be different in the two _Alpine_s running side by
5612 side, because each incoming message will only be counted as
5613 recent in one of the two sessions.
5614 You may also display the total number of messages in each folder
5615 by using the incoming-checking-includes-total option.
5616 _ldap-result-to-addrbook-add_
5617 This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP
5618 library when it was compiled. If both the per-directory-server
5619 option use-implicitly-from-composer and this feature are set,
5620 then when an implicit directory lookup is done from the composer
5621 you will automatically be prompted to add the result of the
5622 directory lookup to your address book.
5623 This feature is displayed as "LDAP Result to Addressbook Add".
5624 _maildrops-preserve-state_
5625 This feature affects the way Mail Drops work. Normally, when
5626 mail is moved from a Mail Drop folder to a destination folder,
5627 the state changes that have taken place since the mail was
5628 originally delivered are lost. Any Seen/New, Answered,
5629 Important/Flagged state that has changed will be ignored. All of
5630 the mail will be considered unSeen, unAnswered, and unImportant
5631 after it is moved.
5632 If this feature is set, then the state changes will not be lost.
5633 In any case, messages which are already marked Deleted when the
5634 mail is to be copied from the Mail Drop will be ignored.
5635 _mark-fcc-seen_
5636 This features controls the way FCCs (File Carbon Copies) are
5637 made of the messages you send. Normally, when _Alpine_ saves a
5638 copy of a message you sent as an Fcc, that copy will be marked
5639 as Unseen. When you look at the folder it was saved in the
5640 message will appear to be a New message until you read it. When
5641 this feature is enabled, the message will be marked as having
5642 been Seen.
5643 _mark-for-cc_
5644 This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display. By
5645 default, a '+' is displayed in the first column if the message
5646 is addressed directly to you. When this feature is set and the
5647 message is not addressed to you, then a '-' character is
5648 displayed if the message is instead Cc'd directly to you.
5649 _mult-newsrc-hostnames-as-typed_
5650 This feature will be of little use to most users. It has no
5651 effect unless the feature Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs is set. When
5652 the Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs feature is set then the setting of
5653 this feature may have an effect on the names of the newsrc files
5654 used. Normally, the name of the news server will be
5655 canonicalized before it is used in the newsrc file name. For
5656 example, if you type the news server name
5658 servername
5659 it is likely that the canonical name will be something like
5661 servername.example.com
5662 Or it may be the case that
5664 servername.example.com
5665 is really an alias (a DNS CNAME) for
5667 othername.example.com
5668 If this feature is not set, then the canonicalized names will be
5669 used. If this feature is set, then the name you typed in (or put
5670 in your configuration) will be used.
5671 This feature is displayed as "Multiple Newsrc Hostnames as
5672 Typed".
5673 _news-approximates-new-status_
5674 This feature causes certain messages to be marked as _New_ in
5675 the MESSAGE INDEX of newsgroups. This feature is set by default.
5676 When opening a newsgroup, _Alpine_ will consult your _newsrc_
5677 file and determine the last message you have previously disposed
5678 of via the _D_ key. If this feature is set, any subsequent
5679 messages will be shown in the Index with an _N_, and the first
5680 of these messages will be highlighted. Although this is only an
5681 approximation of true _New_ or _Unseen_ status, it provides a
5682 useful cue to distinguish more-or-less recent messages from
5683 those you have seen previously, but are not yet ready to mark
5684 deleted.
5685 Background: your _newsrc_ file (used to store message status
5686 information for newsgroups) is only capable of storing a single
5687 flag, and _Alpine_ uses this to record whether or not you are
5688 "done with" a message, as indicated by marking the message as
5689 _Deleted_. Unfortunately, this means that _Alpine_ has no way to
5690 record exactly which messages you have previously seen, so it
5691 normally does not show the _N_ status flag for any messages in a
5692 newsgroup. This feature enables a starting _approximation_ of
5693 seen/unseen status that may be useful.
5694 _news-deletes-across-groups_
5695 This feature controls what _Alpine_ does when you delete a
5696 message in a newsgroup that appears in more than one newsgroup.
5697 Such a message is sometimes termed a "crossposting" in that it
5698 was posted across several newsgroups.
5699 _Alpine_'s default behavior when you delete such a message is to
5700 remove only the copy in the current newsgroup from view when you
5701 use the "Exclude" command or the next time you visit the
5702 newsgroup.
5703 Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to remove every occurrence
5704 of the message from all newsgroups it appears in and to which
5705 you are subscribed.
5706 NOTE: As currently implemented, enabling this feature may
5707 increase the time it takes the Expunge command and newsgroup
5708 closing to complete.
5709 _news-offers-catchup-on-close_
5710 This feature controls what _Alpine_ does as it closes a
5711 newsgroup. When set, _Alpine_ will offer to delete all messages
5712 from the newsgroup as you are quitting _Alpine_ or opening a new
5713 folder.
5714 This feature is useful if you typically read all the interesting
5715 messages in a newsgroup each time you open it. This feature
5716 saves you from having to delete each message in a newsgroup as
5717 you read it or from selecting all the messages and doing an
5718 aggregate delete before you move on to the next folder or
5719 newsgroup.
5720 _news-post-without-validation_
5721 This feature controls whether the NNTP server is queried as
5722 newsgroups are entered for posting. Validation over slow links
5723 (e.g. dialup using SLIP or PPP) can cause delays. Set this
5724 feature to eliminate such delays.
5725 _news-read-in-newsrc-order_
5726 This feature controls the order that newsgroups will be
5727 presented. If set, they will be presented in the same order as
5728 they occur in your _newsrc_ file. If not set, the newsgroups
5729 will be presented in alphabetical order.
5730 _next-thread-without-confirm_
5731 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Next and Prev
5732 commands in the case where you are using one of the
5733 "separate-index-screen" styles for the configuration option
5734 threading-index-style and currently have the folder sorted by a
5735 Threaded or OrderedSubject sort. When you are Viewing a
5736 particular thread you have a MESSAGE INDEX of only the messages
5737 in that thread. If you press the Next command with the last
5738 message in the thread highlighted you will normally be asked if
5739 you want to "View next thread?", assuming there is a next thread
5740 to view. If this feature is set it will be assumed that you
5741 always want to view the next thread and you won't be asked to
5742 confirm that. Similarly, if the first message of the thread is
5743 highlighted and you press the Prev command, this feature will
5744 prevent the question "View previous thread".
5745 This feature only has an effect in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If
5746 you then view a particular message from that screen and press
5747 the Next command, you will be sent to the next thread without
5748 being asked, independent of the setting of this feature.
5749 The feature auto-open-next-unread, also has some similar
5750 effects.
5751 This feature is displayed as "Read Next Thread Without
5752 Confirming".
5753 _offer-expunge-of-inbox_
5754 The INBOX is normally treated differently from regular folders
5755 in several ways. One of the differences is that the normal
5756 "close" sequence of events is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited,
5757 instead of happening when you leave the INBOX to view another
5758 folder. The "close" sequence normally includes the Expunging of
5759 deleted messages (either automatically or after a prompt,
5760 controlled by the features Expunge-Without-Confirm,
5761 Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and Expunge-Only-Manually),
5762 and the handling of the Read-Message-Folder.
5763 If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take
5764 place every time you leave the INBOX. The INBOX will still be
5765 kept open, but the offer to Expunge and the archiving to the
5766 Read-Message-Folder will take place each time you leave the
5767 INBOX instead of only once at the end of the session.
5768 _offer-expunge-of-stayopen-folders_
5769 This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders. Stay
5770 Open folders are treated differently from regular folders in
5771 several ways. One of the differences is that the normal "close"
5772 sequence of events is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited, instead
5773 of happening when you leave the folder to view another folder.
5774 The "close" sequence normally includes the Expunging of deleted
5775 messages (either automatically or after a prompt, controlled by
5776 the features Expunge-Without-Confirm,
5777 Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and Expunge-Only-Manually),
5778 and the handling of Incoming-Archive-Folders.
5779 If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take
5780 place when you leave the Stay Open folder. The folder will still
5781 be kept open, but the offer to Expunge and the archiving will
5782 take place each time you leave the folder instead of only once
5783 at the end of the session. This feature does not affect the
5784 INBOX, which will still only be processed when you exit
5785 _Alpine_.
5786 _pass-c1-control-characters-as-is_
5787 It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy
5788 option left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which
5789 have an octet which has the same value as a control character
5790 are permitted through whether or not this option is turned on.
5791 If the feature pass-control-characters-as-is is set, then this
5792 feature has no effect. However, if you wish to filter out
5793 regular control characters but pass the so-called C1 control
5794 characters (0x80 <= char < 0xA0) through unchanged, then you may
5795 leave pass-control-characters-as-is unset and set this feature.
5796 _pass-control-characters-as-is_
5797 It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy
5798 option left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which
5799 have an octet which has the same value as a control character
5800 are permitted through whether or not this option is turned on.
5801 If set, all characters in a message will be sent to the screen.
5802 Normally, control characters are automatically suppressed in
5803 order to avoid inadvertently changing terminal setup parameters.
5804 Control characters are usually displayed as two character
5805 sequences like
5807 ^C
5808 for Control-C,
5810 ^[
5811 for ESCAPE,
5813 ^?
5814 for DELETE, and
5816 ~E
5817 for the character with value 133 (0x85). (The DEL character is
5818 displayed as ^?, regular control characters are displayed as the
5819 character ^ followed by the character obtained by adding the
5820 five low-order bits of the character to 0x40, and the C1 control
5821 characters 0x80 - 0x9F are displayed as the character ~ followed
5822 by the character obtained by adding the five low-order bits of
5823 the character to 0x40.) Sometimes, in cases where changing a
5824 single control character into a two-character sequence would
5825 confuse _Alpine_'s display routines, a question mark is
5826 substituted for the control character.
5827 If you wish to filter out regular control characters but pass
5828 the so-called C1 control characters (0x80 <= char < 0xA0)
5829 through unchanged, then you may leave this feature unset and set
5830 the feature pass-c1-control-characters-as-is instead.
5831 _predict-nntp-server_
5832 This feature allows _Alpine_ to assume that the open NNTP server
5833 at the time of composition is the NNTP server to which the
5834 message should be posted. This is especially recommended when
5835 there are multiple News collections. If this feature is not set,
5836 _Alpine_ will try to post to the first server in the nntp-server
5837 variable. Setting this feature also negates the need to add News
5838 collection servers to the nntp-server variable.
5839 This feature can be especially handy when used in conjunction
5840 with enable-multiple-newsrcs.
5841 This option is displayed as "NNTP Server (for news)".
5842 _prefer-plain-text_
5843 A message being viewed may contain alternate versions of the
5844 same content. Those alternate versions are ordered by the
5845 sending software such that the first alternative is the least
5846 preferred and the last alternative is the most preferred.
5847 _Alpine_ will normally display the most-preferred version that it
5848 knows how to display. This is most often encountered where the
5849 two alternate versions are a plain text version and an HTML
5850 version, with the HTML version listed last as the most
5851 preferred.
5852 If this option is set, then any plain text version will be
5853 preferred to all other versions.
5854 _preopen-stayopen-folders_
5855 This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders.
5856 Normally, Stay Open folders are only opened on demand, when the
5857 user asks to open them. From then on they are kept open for the
5858 duration of the session. However, if this feature is set, then
5859 the Stay Open folders will all be opened at startup, at the same
5860 time that the INBOX is opened.
5861 _preserve-start-stop-characters_
5862 This feature controls how special control key characters,
5863 typically _^S_ and _^Q_, are interpreted when input to _Alpine_.
5864 These characters are known as the "start" and "stop" characters
5865 and are sometimes used in communications paths to control data
5866 flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
5867 By default, _Alpine_ turns the system's handling of these
5868 special characters off except during printing. However, if you
5869 see _Alpine_ reporting input errors such as:
5871 [ Command "^Q" not defined for this screen. ]
5872 and, at the same time, see your display become garbled, then it
5873 is likely that setting this option will solve the problem. Be
5874 aware, though, that enabling this feature will also cause
5875 _Alpine_ to ostensibly "hang" whenever the _Ctrl-S_ key
5876 combination is entered as the system is now interpreting such
5877 input as a "stop output" command. To "start output" again,
5878 simply type _Ctrl-Q_.
5879 This feature is displayed as "Preserve Start/Stop Characters".
5880 _print-formfeed-between-messages_
5881 Setting this feature causes a formfeed to be printed between
5882 messages when printing multiple messages with the _Apply Print_
5883 command.
5884 _print-includes-from-line_
5885 If this feature is set, then the Unix mail style From line is
5886 included at the start of each message that is printed. This line
5887 looks something like the following, with the address replaced by
5888 the address from the From line of the message being printed:
5890 From user@domain.somewhere.com Mon May 13 14:11:06 1996
5891 _print-index-enabled_
5892 This feature controls the behavior of the _Print_ command when
5893 in the "Folder Index" screen. If set, the _Print_ command will
5894 give you a prompt asking if you wish to print the message index,
5895 or the currently highlighted message. If not set, the message
5896 will be printed.
5897 _print-offers-custom-cmd-prompt_
5898 When this feature is set, the _Print_ command will have an
5899 additional subcommand called _C CustomPrint_. If selected, you
5900 will have the opportunity to enter any system print command,
5901 instead of being restricted to using those that have been
5902 previously configured in the _Setup/Printer_ screen.
5903 This feature is displayed as "Print Offers Custom Command
5904 Prompt".
5905 _prune-uses-yyyy-mm_
5906 By default, _Alpine_ asks monthly whether or not you would like
5907 to rename some folders to a new name containing the date. It
5908 also asks whether or not you would like to delete some old
5909 folders. See the pruning-rule option for an explanation.
5910 By default, the name used when renaming a folder looks like
5912 <foldername>-<month>-<year>
5913 For example, the first time you run _Alpine_ in May of 2004, the
5914 folder "sent-mail" might be renamed to
5916 sent-mail-apr-2004
5917 If this feature is set, the name used will be of the form
5919 <foldername>-<yyyy>-<mm>
5920 where "yyyy" is the year and "mm" is the two-digit month (01,
5921 02, ..., 12). For the April, 2004 example above, it would
5922 instead be
5924 sent-mail-2004-04
5925 because April is the 4th month of the year. A reason you might
5926 want to set this feature is so that the folders will sort in
5927 chronological order.
5928 _publiccerts-in-keychain_
5929 Mac OS X _Alpine_ only.
5930 If this feature is set the Mac OS X default keychain will be
5931 used as the place to store public certificates instead of a
5932 smime-public-cert-directory or a smime-public-cert-container.
5933 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Public Certs in MacOS
5934 Keychain".
5935 _quell-attachment-extension-warn_
5936 This feature suppresses the extra warning you can get when
5937 trying to view an attachment for which there is no mime-type
5938 match. Turning on this feature will just run the program
5939 according to extension instead of first warning the user that it
5940 will run according to the file's extension.
5941 This feature can be used along side
5942 quell-attachment-extra-prompt to preserve the behavior exhibited
5943 in _Pine_ versions prior to _Pine_ 4.50.
5944 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extension
5945 Warning".
5946 _quell-attachment-extra-prompt_
5947 By default, when you attempt to view an attachment externally
5948 from the "Attachment View" screen, you are asked if you really
5949 want to view the selected attachment.
5950 If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm
5951 your selection. Prior to _Pine_ 4.50, the default behavior was
5952 to not prompt. This feature was added for those wanting to
5953 preserve that behavior.
5954 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extra Prompt".
5955 _quell-berkeley-format-timezone_
5956 POSIX mandates a timezone in UNIX mailbox format folder
5957 delimiters (the line which begins with From ). Some versions of
5958 Berkeley mail have trouble with this, and don't recognize the
5959 line as a message delimiter. If this feature is set, the
5960 timezone will be left off the delimiter line.
5961 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Berkeley Format
5962 Timezone".
5963 _quell-charset-warning_
5964 By default, if the message you are viewing contains characters
5965 that are not representable in your display-character-set then
5966 _Alpine_ will add a warning to the start of the displayed text.
5967 If this option is set, then that editorial message will be
5968 suppressed.
5969 Setting this feature also suppresses the comment about the
5970 character set in header lines. For example, when viewing a
5971 message you might see
5973 From: "[ISO-8859-2] Name" <address>
5974 in the From header if your Character-Set is something other than
5975 ISO-8859-2. If you set this feature, the comment about the
5976 character set will no longer be there.
5977 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Character Set Warning".
5978 _quell-content-id_
5979 This feature changes the behavior of _Alpine_ when sending
5980 messages. It is intended to work around a bug in Microsoft's
5981 Outlook XP mail user agent. As of this writing, Microsoft has
5982 acknowledged the bug but has not added it to the Knowledge Base.
5983 We have been told that there will be a post-SP1 hotfix for
5984 Outlook XP. This particular bug has bug fix number
5985 OfficeQFE:4781. The nature of the bug is that messages with
5986 attachments which contain a Content-ID header (which standard
5987 _Alpine_ attachments do) do not show the attachment indicator (a
5988 paperclip) when viewed with Outlook XP. So the user has no
5989 indication that the message contains an attachment.
5990 If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will remove most Content-ID
5991 headers before sending a message. If an attachment is of type
5992 MESSAGE, then the existing Content-ID headers inside the message
5993 will be left intact. This would only happen with _Alpine_ if a
5994 message was forwarded as an attachment or if a message with a
5995 message attached was forwarded. Similarly if an attachment of
5996 type MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE is forwarded, the Content-ID headers
5997 of the alternative parts will not be removed.
5998 Because the Content-ID header is a standard part of MIME it is
5999 possible that setting this feature will break something. For
6000 example, if an attachment has a Content-ID header which is
6001 necessary for the correct functioning of that attachment, it is
6002 possible that _Alpine_ may remove that header when the
6003 attachment is forwarded. However, it seems fairly safe at this
6004 time.
6005 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Content-ID".
6006 _quell-dead-letter-on-cancel_
6007 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a
6008 message being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write
6009 the canceled message to a file named dead.letter in your home
6010 directory (under UNIX; DEADLETR under WINDOWS/DOS) overwriting
6011 any previous message. Under some conditions (some routine), this
6012 can introduce a noticeable delay.
6013 Setting this feature will cause _Alpine_ NOT to write canceled
6014 compositions into the file called dead.letter.
6015 This feature affects the newer option Dead-Letter-Files, which
6016 specifies the number of dead letter files to keep around. If
6017 this feature is set, then the Dead-Letter-Files option has no
6018 effect.
6019 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Save to Deadletter on
6020 Cancel".
6021 _quell-empty-directories_
6022 This feature causes _Alpine_ to remove from the display any
6023 directories that do not contain at least one file or directory.
6024 This can be useful to prevent overly cluttered folder lists when
6025 a collection is stored on a server that treats all names as both
6026 a folder and a directory.
6027 Note, enabling this feature can cause surprising behavior! For
6028 example, you can still use Add to create a directory, but unless
6029 you immediately enter that directory and create a folder, that
6030 newly created directory may not be displayed next time you enter
6031 the folder list.
6032 This feature is displayed as "Hide Empty Directories".
6033 _quell-extra-post-prompt_
6034 This feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the extra question about
6035 posting a message which may go to thousands of readers when you
6036 are about to post to a newsgroup.
6037 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Extra Posting Prompt".
6038 _quell-filtering-done-message_
6039 This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the "filtering done"
6040 message.
6041 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Done Message".
6042 _quell-filtering-messages_
6043 This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the messages about
6044 moving filtered messages and setting flags in messages, due to
6045 Filter Rules.
6046 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Messages".
6047 _quell-flowed-text_
6048 _Alpine_ generates flowed text where possible. The method for
6049 generating flowed text is defined by RFC 3676, the benefit of
6050 doing so is to send message text that can properly be viewed
6051 both on normal width displays and on displays with smaller or
6052 larger than normal screen widths. With flowed text, a space at
6053 the end of a line tells the receiving mail client that the
6054 following line belongs to the same paragraph. Quoted text will
6055 also be affected, with only the innermost level of ">" quoting
6056 being followed by a space. However, if you have changed the
6057 "Reply-Indent-String" so that it is not equal to the default
6058 value of "> ", then quoted text will not be flowed. For this
6059 reason, we recommend that you leave your "Reply-Indent-String"
6060 set to the default.
6061 This feature turns off the generation of flowed text, as it
6062 might be desired to more tightly control how a message is
6063 displayed on the receiving end.
6064 If this feature is _not_ set, you can control on a message by
6065 message basis whether or not flowed text is generated. You do
6066 this by typing ^V at the Send confirmation prompt that you get
6067 after typing ^X to send a message. ^V is a toggle which turns
6068 flowing off and back on if typed again. If for some reason
6069 flowing cannot be done on a particular message, then the ^V
6070 command will not be available. This would be the case, for
6071 example, if this feature was set, or if your
6072 "Reply-Indent-String" was set to a non-default value. If the
6073 feature Send-Without-Confirm is set, then the opportunity to
6074 control on a message by message basis whether or not flowed text
6075 is generated is lost.
6076 When this feature is not set and you have typed ^V to turn off
6077 flowing, the Send confirmation prompt will change to look like
6079 Send message (not flowed)?
6080 Strip-Whitespace-Before-Send will also turn off the sending of
6081 flowed text messages, but it differs in that it also trims all
6082 trailing white space from a message before sending it.
6083 If alternate editors are used extensively, be aware that a
6084 message will still be sent flowed if this feature is unset. In
6085 most cases this will be fine, but if the editor has a "flowed
6086 text" mode, it would be best to use that.
6087 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Send Flowed Text".
6088 _quell-folder-internal-msg_
6089 This feature determines whether or not _Alpine_ will create
6090 "pseudo messages" in folders that are in standard Unix or MMDF
6091 format.
6092 _Alpine_ will normally create these pseudo messages when they
6093 are not already present in a standard Unix or MMDF folder. Their
6094 purpose is to record certain mailbox state data needed for
6095 correct IMAP and POP server operation, and also for _Alpine_ to
6096 be able to mark messages as Answered when the Reply has been
6097 postponed.
6098 Sites which do not use IMAP/POP for remote mail access, and
6099 which need to support mail tools that are adversely affected by
6100 the presence of the pseudo-messages (e.g. some mail notification
6101 tools) may enable this feature to tell _Alpine_ not to create
6102 them. Note that _Alpine_'s "Answered" flag capability will be
6103 adversely affected if this is done.
6104 Note too that, even if this feature is enabled, _Alpine_ will
6105 not remove pseudo-messages when it encounters them (e.g. those
6106 created by UW's imapd or ipopd servers.) This feature has no
6107 effect on folders that are not in standard Unix or MMDF format,
6108 as pseudo-messages are not needed in the other formats to record
6109 mailbox state information.
6110 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Folder Internal Message".
6111 _quell-full-header-auto-reset_
6112 The HdrMode Command normally resets to the default state when
6113 switching to a new message. For example, if you've used the "H"
6114 command to turn on Full Headers for a message you are viewing,
6115 and then you type the Next command to look at the next message,
6116 the full headers will no longer be shown. Setting this feature
6117 disables that reset. Instead, the Header Mode remains the same
6118 from message to message.
6119 The presence or absence of the HdrMode command is determined by
6120 the "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option.
6121 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Full Header Auto Reset".
6122 _quell-imap-envelope-update_
6123 In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being
6124 accessed using IMAP, _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the index
6125 lines on the screen as soon as the information arrives from the
6126 IMAP server. This means that the index information makes it onto
6127 the screen more quickly than it otherwise would. This sometimes
6128 results in behavior that bothers some users. For example, when
6129 paging to a new page of the index, it may be possible for the
6130 lines to be painted on the screen in a random order, rather than
6131 from top to bottom.
6132 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
6133 information to be gathered before it paints the index screen.
6134 Once it collects all of the information, the screen will be
6135 painted quickly from top to bottom.
6136 This feature is displayed as "Suppress IMAP Envelope Update".
6137 _quell-lock-failure-warnings_
6138 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when it encounters a
6139 problem acquiring a mail folder lock. Typically, a secondary
6140 file associated with the mail folder being opened is created as
6141 part of the locking process. On some systems, such file creation
6142 has been administratively precluded by the system configuration.
6143 _Alpine_ issues a warning when such failures occur, which can
6144 become bothersome if the system is configured to disallow such
6145 actions. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to remain silent
6146 when this part of lock creation fails.
6147 WARNING: systems that have been configured in a way that
6148 precludes locking introduce some risk of mail folder corruption
6149 when more than one program attempts to modify the mail folder.
6150 This is most likely to occur to one's _INBOX_ or other "Incoming
6151 Message Folder".
6152 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Lock Failure Warnings".
6153 _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox_
6154 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
6155 option, the Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
6156 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox.
6157 If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
6158 happens while you are composing will not happen for folders
6159 other than your INBOX (which depends on the setting of
6160 "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox").
6161 You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
6162 while composing which you think might be related to the speed of
6163 the new-mail checks.
6164 Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check
6165 may be done in order to keep the server from killing the
6166 connection to the folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a
6167 connection to a folder if there has been no activity on the
6168 connection for 30 minutes or more. Instead of letting that
6169 happen, _Alpine_ will check for new mail before the 30 minutes
6170 is up even though you have turned on this feature to quell those
6171 checks.
6172 Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the folders
6173 will also be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of
6174 checkpointing is to write the changes to a folder out to disk
6175 periodically in order to avoid losing those changes when system
6176 or software problems occur. New-mail checking and checkpointing
6177 while you are not composing are not affected by this option.
6178 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing
6179 Except for INBOX".
6180 _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox_
6181 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
6182 option, the Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
6183 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox.
6184 If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
6185 happens while you are composing will not happen for your INBOX.
6186 Checking of other folders is controlled in a similar way with
6187 the "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox" option.
6188 You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
6189 while composing which you think might be related to the speed of
6190 the new-mail checks.
6191 Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check
6192 may be done in order to keep the server from killing the
6193 connection to the folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a
6194 connection to a folder if there has been no activity on the
6195 connection for 30 minutes or more. Instead of letting that
6196 happen, _Alpine_ will check for new mail before the 30 minutes
6197 is up even though you have turned on this feature to quell those
6198 checks.
6199 Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the INBOX will
6200 also be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of
6201 checkpointing is to write the changes to a folder out to disk
6202 periodically in order to avoid losing those changes when system
6203 or software problems occur. New-mail checking and checkpointing
6204 while you are not composing are not affected by this option.
6205 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing
6206 for INBOX".
6207 _quell-maildomain-warning_
6208 When your configuration is set up so that your domain name
6209 contains no dots, it is usually a configuration error. By
6210 default, _Alpine_ will warn you about this when you start it up.
6211 You will see a warning message that looks like
6213 Incomplete maildomain "<domain>".
6214 If this feature is set, the warning is turned off. This feature
6215 is displayed as "Suppress Maildomain Warning".
6216 _quell-news-envelope-update_
6217 In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being
6218 accessed using NNTP (News), _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the
6219 index lines on the screen as soon as the information arrives
6220 from the NNTP server. This means that the index information
6221 makes it onto the screen more quickly than it otherwise would.
6222 This sometimes results in behavior that bothers some users. For
6223 example, when paging to a new page of the index, it may be
6224 possible for the lines to be painted on the screen in a random
6225 order, rather than from top to bottom.
6226 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
6227 information to be gathered before it paints the index screen.
6228 Once it collects all of the information, the screen will be
6229 painted quickly from top to bottom.
6230 This feature is displayed as "Suppress News Envelope Update".
6231 _quell-partial-fetching_
6232 Partial fetching is a feature of the IMAP protocol. By default,
6233 _Alpine_ will use partial fetching when copying the contents of a
6234 message or attachment from the IMAP server to _Alpine_. This
6235 means that the fetch will be done in many small chunks instead
6236 of one big chunk. The main benefit of this approach is that the
6237 fetch becomes interruptible. That is, the user can type _^C_ to
6238 stop the fetch early. In some cases partial fetching may cause a
6239 performance problem so that the fetching of data takes
6240 significantly longer when partial fetching is used. Turning on
6241 this feature will turn off partial fetching.
6242 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Partial Fetching".
6243 _quell-personal-name-prompt_
6244 _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a
6245 personal-name. This prompt normally happens before composing a
6246 message, and only happens when there is no personal name already
6247 set.
6248 _quell-server-after-link-in-html_
6249 By default, links in HTML text are displayed with the host the
6250 link references appended, within square brackets, to the link
6251 text. _Alpine_ does this to help indicate where a link will take
6252 you, particularly when the link text might suggest a different
6253 destination.
6254 Setting this feature will prevent the server name from being
6255 appended to the displayed text.
6256 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Server After Link in
6257 HTML".
6258 _quell-ssl-largeblocks_
6259 This feature (_PC-Alpine_ only) changes the behavior of fetching
6260 messages and attachments so that the message data is fetched in
6261 chunks no larger than 12K bytes. This works around a bug in
6262 Microsoft's SSL/TLS support. Some versions of Microsoft SSL are
6263 not able to read full-sized (16K) SSL/TLS packets. Some servers
6264 will send such packets and this will cause _PC-Alpine_ to crash
6265 with the error
6267 incomplete SecBuffer exceeds maximum buffer size
6268 Microsoft is aware of the problem and has developed a hotfix for
6269 it, but as of this writing the hotfix has not yet been added to
6270 the Knowledge Base.
6271 This feature is displayed as "Prevent SSL Largeblocks".
6272 _quell-status-message-beeping_
6273 If set status messages will never emit a beep.
6274 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Status Message Beeping".
6275 _quell-timezone-comment-when-sending_
6276 Normally, when _Alpine_ generates a Date header for outgoing
6277 mail, it will try to include the symbolic timezone at the end of
6278 the header inside parentheses. The symbolic timezone is often
6279 three characters long, but on some operating systems, it may be
6280 longer. Apparently there are some SMTP servers in the world
6281 which will reject an incoming message if it has a Date header
6282 longer than about 80 characters. If this feature is set, the
6283 symbolic timezone normally generated by _Alpine_ will not be
6284 included. You probably don't need to worry about this feature
6285 unless you run into the problem described above.
6286 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Timezone Comment When
6287 Sending".
6288 _quell-user-id-prompt_
6289 _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a
6290 user-id if the information can be obtained from the login name
6291 used to open the INBOX. Normally, this prompt happens before
6292 composing a message, and only happens when there is no user-id
6293 already set in the configuration.
6294 With this feature set, composing a message is only possible
6295 after establishing a connection to the INBOX.
6296 _quell-user-lookup-in-passwd-file_
6297 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer, and if
6298 needed, will usually be set by the system manager in _Alpine_'s
6299 system-wide configuration file. Specifically, if this feature is
6300 set, _Alpine_ will not attempt to look in the system password
6301 file to find a Full Name for the entered address.
6302 Normally, names you enter into address fields (e.g. To: or Cc:)
6303 are checked against your address book(s) to see if they match an
6304 address book nickname. Failing that, (in Unix _Alpine_) the name
6305 is then checked against the Unix password file. If the entered
6306 name matches a username in the system password file, _Alpine_
6307 extracts the corresponding Full Name information for that
6308 individual, and adds that to the address being entered.
6309 However, password file matching can have surprising (incorrect)
6310 results if other users of the system do not receive mail at the
6311 domain you are using. That is, if either the user-domain or
6312 use-only-domain-name option is set such that the administrative
6313 domain of other users on the system isn't accurately reflected,
6314 _Alpine_ should be told that a password file match is
6315 coincidental, and Full Name info will be incorrect. For example,
6316 a personal name from the password file could get falsely paired
6317 with the entered name as it is turned into an address in the
6318 configured domain.
6319 If you are seeing this behavior, enabling this feature will
6320 prevent Unix _Alpine_ from looking up names in the password file
6321 to find the Full Name for incomplete addresses you enter.
6322 This feature is displayed as "Prevent User Lookup in Password
6323 File".
6324 _quit-without-confirm_
6325 This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will ask for
6326 confirmation when a _Quit_ command is received.
6327 This feature is displayed as "Quit Without Confirming".
6328 _quote-replace-nonflowed_
6329 This feature, which is only active when Quote-Replace-String is
6330 also set, enables quote-replacement on non-flowed messages. It
6331 is off by default because a non-flowed message is more dependent
6332 on its format, and thus quote-replacement may cause
6333 less-than-pleasing results. Setting this feature will cause
6334 quote-replacement similar to that of flowed messages, but with
6335 the added possibility of long lines being wrapped into new lines
6336 if the Quote-Replacement-String is longer than the string it is
6337 replacing, which is "> ".
6338 _reply-always-uses-reply-to_
6339 If set, _Alpine_ will not prompt when a message being replied to
6340 contains a _Reply-To:_ header value, but will simply use its
6341 value (as opposed to using the _From:_ field's value).
6342 _return-to-inbox-without-confirm_
6343 Normally, when you use the TAB command and there are no more
6344 folders or newsgroups to visit, you are asked if you want to
6345 return to the INBOX. If this feature is set you will not be
6346 asked. It will be assumed that you do want to return to the
6347 INBOX.
6348 This feature is displayed as "Return to INBOX Without
6349 Confirming".
6350 _save-aggregates-copy-sequence_
6351 This feature will optimize an aggregate copy operation, if
6352 possible, by issuing a single IMAP _COPY_ command with a list of
6353 the messages to be copied. This feature is set by default. This
6354 may reduce network traffic and elapsed time for the Save.
6355 _However, many IMAP servers (including the UW IMAP server) do not
6356 preserve the order of messages when this optimization is
6357 applied._ If this feature is not set, _Alpine_ will copy each
6358 message individually and the order of the messages will be
6359 preserved.
6360 This feature is displayed as "Save Combines Copies (may be out
6361 of order)".
6362 _save-partial-msg-without-confirm_
6363 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Save command. By
6364 default, when you Save a message that has some deleted parts,
6365 you will be asked to confirm that you want to Save with a prompt
6366 that looks like:
6368 Saved copy will NOT include entire message! Continue?
6369 If this feature is set, you will not be asked.
6370 This feature is displayed as "Save Partial Message Without
6371 Confirming".
6372 _save-will-advance_
6373 If set, _Save_ will (in addition to copying the current message
6374 to the designated folder) also advance to the next message.
6375 _save-will-not-delete_
6376 If set, _Save_ will not mark the message Deleted (its default
6377 behavior) after it has been copied to the designated folder.
6378 _save-will-quote-leading-froms_
6379 This feature controls an aspect of the _Save_ command (and also
6380 the way outgoing messages are saved to an FCC folder). If set,
6381 _Alpine_ will add a leading > character in front of message lines
6382 beginning with "From" when they are saved to another folder,
6383 including lines syntactically distinguishable from the type of
6384 message separator line commonly used on Unix systems.
6385 The default behavior is that a > will be prepended only to lines
6386 beginning with "From " that might otherwise be confused with a
6387 message separator line on Unix systems. If _Alpine_ is the only
6388 mail program you use, this default is reasonable. If another
6389 program you use has trouble displaying a message with an
6390 unquoted From saved by _Alpine_, you should enable this feature.
6391 This feature only applies to the common Unix mailbox format that
6392 uses message separator lines beginning with "From ". If _Alpine_
6393 has been configured to use a different mailbox format (possibly
6394 incompatible with other mail programs), then this issue does not
6395 arise, and the feature is irrelevant.
6396 _scramble-message-id_
6397 Normally the Message-ID header that _Alpine_ generates when
6398 sending a message contains the name of the computer from which
6399 the message is being sent. Some believe that this hostname could
6400 be used by spammers or could be used by others for nefarious
6401 purposes. If this feature is set, that name will be transformed
6402 with a simple Rot13 transformation. The result will still have
6403 the correct syntax for a Message-ID but the part of the
6404 MessageID that is often a domain name will not be an actual
6405 domain name because the letters will be scrambled.
6406 It is possible (but unlikely?) that some spam detection software
6407 will use that as a reason to reject the mail as spam. It has
6408 also been reported that some spam detection software uses the
6409 fact that there are no dots after the "@" as a reason to reject
6410 messages. If your _PC-Alpine_ Message-ID is using a name without
6411 a dot that is because that is what Windows thinks is your "Full
6412 computer name". The method used to set this varies from one type
6413 of Windows to another but check under Settings -> Control Panel
6414 -> System and look for Network Identification or Computer Name
6415 or something similar. How to set it is beyond the scope of
6416 _Alpine_.
6417 This feature is displayed as "Scramble the Message-ID When
6418 Sending".
6419 _select-without-confirm_
6420 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Save_, _Export_,
6421 and _Goto_ commands. These commands all take text input to
6422 specify the name of the folder or file to be used, but allow you
6423 to press _^T_ for a list of possible names. If set, the selected
6424 name will be used immediately, without further opportunity to
6425 confirm or edit the name.
6426 This feature is displayed as "Select Ctrl-T Foldername Without
6427 Confirming".
6428 _send-without-confirm_
6429 By default, when you send or post a message you will be asked to
6430 confirm with a question that looks something like:
6432 Send message?
6433 If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm
6434 your intent to send and your message will be sent.
6435 If this feature is set it disables some possibilities and
6436 renders some other features meaningless. You will not be able to
6437 use Sending Filters, Verbose sending mode, Background Sending,
6438 Delivery Status Notifications, or ^V to turn off the generation
6439 of flowed text for this message. These options are normally
6440 available as suboptions in the Send prompt, but with no Send
6441 prompt the options are gone.
6442 A somewhat related feature is quell-extra-post-prompt. which may
6443 be used to eliminate the extra confirmation question when
6444 posting to a newsgroup.
6445 This feature is displayed as "Send Without Confirming".
6446 _separate-folder-and-directory-display_
6447 This feature affects folder collections wherein a folder and
6448 directory can have the same name. By default, _Alpine_ displays
6449 them only once, denoting that it is both a folder and directory
6450 by appending the folder name with the hierarchy character
6451 enclosed in square brackets.
6452 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to display such names
6453 separately marking the name representing a directory with a
6454 trailing hierarchy delimiter (typically the slash, "/",
6455 character).
6456 The feature also alters the command set slightly. By default,
6457 the right-arrow descends into the directory, while hitting the
6458 Return key will cause the folder by that name to be opened.
6459 With this feature set, the Return key will open the highlighted
6460 folder, or enter the highlighted directory.
6461 _show-cursor_
6462 If set, the system cursor will move to convenient locations in
6463 the displays. For example, to the beginning of the status field
6464 of the highlighted index line, or to the highlighted word after
6465 a successful _WhereIs_ command. It is intended to draw your
6466 attention to the _interesting_ spot on the screen.
6467 _show-plain-text-internally_
6468 This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to display
6469 Text/Plain MIME attachments from the Attachment Index screen.
6470 Normally, the "View" command searches for any externally defined
6471 (usually via the Mailcap file) viewer, and displays the selected
6472 text within that viewer.
6473 Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to ignore any external
6474 viewer settings and always display text with _Alpine_'s internal
6475 viewer.
6476 _show-selected-in-boldface_
6477 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s aggregate
6478 operation commands; in particular, the _Select_ and _WhereIs_
6479 commands. _Select_ and _WhereIs_ (with the _^X_ subcommand) will
6480 search the current folder for messages meeting a specified
6481 criteria, and _tag_ the resulting messages with an _X_ in the
6482 first column of the applicable lines in the "Folder Index". If
6483 this feature is set, instead of using the _X_ to denote a
6484 selected message, _Alpine_ will attempt to display those index
6485 lines in boldface. Whether this is preferable to the _X_ will
6486 depend on personal taste and the type of terminal being used.
6487 _show-sort_
6488 If this feature is set and there is sufficient space on the
6489 screen, a short indication of the current sort order will be
6490 added in the titlebar (the top line on the screen), before the
6491 name of the folder. For example, with the default Arrival sort
6492 in effect, the display would have the characters
6494 [A]
6495 added between the title of the screen and the folder name. The
6496 letters are the same as the letters you may type to manually
6497 sort a folder with the SortIndex command ($). The letters in the
6498 table below are the ones that may show up in the titlebar line.
6500 A _A_rrival
6501 S _S_ubject
6502 F _F_rom
6503 T _T_o
6504 C _C_c
6505 D _D_ate
6506 Z si_Z_e
6507 O _O_rderedsubject
6508 E scor_E_
6509 H t_H_read
6510 If the sort order is Reversed, the letter above will be preceded
6511 by the letter "R", for example
6513 [RS]
6514 means that a Reverse Subject sort is in effect. For the case
6515 where the sort is in Reverse Arrival order, the "A" is left out,
6516 and just an "R" is shown.
6518 [R]
6519 This feature is displayed as "Show Sort in Titlebar".
6520 _signature-at-bottom_
6521 If this feature is set, and a message being _Repl_ied to is
6522 being included in the reply, then the contents of the signature
6523 file (if any) will be inserted after the included message. This
6524 feature does not affect the results of a _Forward_ command.
6525 _single-column-folder-list_
6526 If set, the "Folder List" screen will list one folder per line
6527 instead of several per line.
6528 _slash-collapses-entire-thread_
6529 Normally, the Collapse/Expand Thread command Collapses or
6530 Expands the subthread which starts at the currently highlighted
6531 message, if any. If this feature is set, then the slash command
6532 Collapses or Expands the _entire_ current thread instead of just
6533 the subthread.
6534 _smime-dont-do-smime_
6535 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6536 Setting this feature turns off all of _Alpine_'s S/MIME support.
6537 You might want to set this if you are having trouble due to the
6538 S/MIME support.
6539 + General S/MIME Overview
6540 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Turn off S/MIME".
6541 _smime-encrypt-by-default_
6542 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6543 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6544 includes support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when
6545 you send a message. If this option is set, the "Encrypt" option
6546 will default to ON when sending messages.
6547 Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still
6548 toggle the Encrypt option on or off before sending with the "E
6549 Encrypt" command (provided you have a the public digital ID for
6550 the recipient).
6551 + General S/MIME Overview
6552 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Encrypt by Default".
6553 _smime-remember-passphrase_
6554 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6555 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6556 includes support for S/MIME. If this option is set, you will
6557 only have to enter your passphrase for your private key once
6558 during an _Alpine_ session.
6559 + General S/MIME Overview
6560 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Remember S/MIME
6561 Passphrase".
6562 _smime-sign-by-default_
6563 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6564 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6565 includes support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when
6566 you send a message. If this option is set, the "Sign" option
6567 will default to ON when sending messages.
6568 Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still
6569 toggle the Signing option on or off before sending with the "G
6570 Sign" command (provided you have a personal digital ID
6571 certificate).
6572 + General S/MIME Overview
6573 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Sign by Default".
6574 _sort-default-fcc-alpha_
6575 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6576 screen. If set, the default FCC folder will be sorted
6577 alphabetically with the other folders instead of appearing right
6578 after the INBOX.
6579 This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Fcc Folder
6580 Alphabetically".
6581 _sort-default-save-alpha_
6582 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6583 screen. If set, the default save folder will be sorted
6584 alphabetically with the other folders instead of appearing right
6585 after the INBOX (and default FCC folder).
6586 This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Save Folder
6587 Alphabetically".
6588 _spell-check-before-sending_
6589 When this feature is set, every composed message will be
6590 spell-checked before being sent.
6591 _store-window-position-in-config_
6592 Normally, _PC-Alpine_ will store its window size and position in
6593 the Windows Registry. This is convenient if you want to use the
6594 same remote configuration from more than one PC. If you use
6595 multiple configuration files to start _PC-Alpine_, you may want
6596 to store the window size and position in the configuration file
6597 instead of in the Registry. Setting this feature causes that to
6598 happen.
6599 _strip-from-sigdashes-on-reply_
6600 This feature doesn't do anything if the feature enable-sigdashes
6601 is turned on. However, if the _enable-sigdashes_ feature is not
6602 turned on, then turning on this feature enables support for the
6603 convention of not including text beyond the sigdashes line when
6604 Replying or Following up to a message and including the text of
6605 that message.
6606 In other words, this is a way to turn on the signature stripping
6607 behavior without also turning on the dashes-adding behavior.
6608 _strip-whitespace-before=send_
6609 Trailing whitespace is not stripped from a message before
6610 sending. Trailing whitespace should have no effect on an email
6611 message, and in flowed text can aid in delimiting paragraphs.
6612 However, the old behavior of stripping trailing whitespace was
6613 in place to better deal with older clients that couldn't handle
6614 certain types of text encodings. This feature restores the old
6615 behavior
6616 Trailing whitespace is of aid to flowed-text-formatted messages,
6617 which are generated by default but can be turned off via the
6618 quell-flowed-text feature. strip-whitespace-before-send also has
6619 the effect of turning off sending of flowed text.
6620 This feature is displayed as "Strip Whitespace Before Sending".
6621 _suppress-asterisks-in-password-prompt_
6622 When you are running _Alpine_ you will sometimes be asked for a
6623 password in a prompt on the third line from the bottom of the
6624 screen. Normally each password character you type will cause an
6625 asterisk to echo on the screen. That gives you some feedback to
6626 know that your typing is being recognized. There is a very
6627 slight security risk in doing it this way because someone
6628 watching over your shoulder might be able to see how many
6629 characters there are in your password. If you'd like to suppress
6630 the echoing of the asterisks set this feature.
6631 _suppress-user-agent-when-sending_
6632 If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will not generate a
6633 User-Agent header in outgoing messages.
6634 _tab-checks-recent_
6635 In a FOLDER LIST screen, the TAB key usually just changes which
6636 folder is highlighted. If this feature is set, then the TAB key
6637 will cause the number of recent messages and the total number of
6638 messages in the highlighted folder to be displayed instead.
6639 This feature is displayed as "Tab Checks for Recent Messages".
6640 _tab-uses-unseen-for-next-folder_
6641 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the TAB
6642 NextNew Command to move from one folder to the next. _Alpine_'s
6643 usual behavior is to search for folders with _Recent_ messages
6644 in them. Recent messages are messages which have arrived since
6645 the last time the folder was opened.
6646 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to search for _Unseen_
6647 messages instead of Recent messages. Unseen messages remain
6648 Unseen until you view them (or flag then as Seen with the Flag
6649 Command). Setting this feature allows you to locate messages you
6650 have not read instead of only recently received messages. When
6651 this feature is set, the feature Enable-Fast-Recent-Test will
6652 have no effect, so the checking may be slower.
6653 Another reason why you might want to use this feature is that
6654 _Alpine_ sometimes opens folders implicitly behind the scenes,
6655 and this clears the Recent status of all messages in the folder.
6656 One example where this happens is when Saving or filtering a
6657 message to another folder. If that message has some keywords
6658 set, then because of some shortcomings in the IMAP
6659 specification, the best way to ensure that those keywords are
6660 still set in the saved copy of the message is to open the folder
6661 and set the keywords explicitly. Because this clears the Recent
6662 status of all messages in that folder the folder will not be
6663 found by the NextNew command unless this feature is set.
6664 _tab-visits-next-new-message-only_
6665 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _TAB_
6666 key to move from one message to the next. _Alpine_'s usual
6667 behavior is to select the next _Unread_ message or message
6668 flagged as _Important_.
6669 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the messages
6670 flagged as _Important_, and select _Unread_ messages
6671 exclusively. Tab behavior when there are no new messages left to
6672 select remains unchanged.
6673 _termdef-takes-precedence_
6674 This feature may affect _Alpine_'s low-level input routines.
6675 Termcap (or terminfo, depending on how your copy of _Alpine_ was
6676 compiled and linked) is the name of the database which describes
6677 terminal capabilities. In particular, it describes the sequences
6678 of characters that various keys will emit.
6679 An example would be the Up Arrow key on the keyboard. Up Arrow
6680 is not a distinct character on most Unix systems. When you press
6681 the Up Arrow key a short sequence of characters are produced.
6682 This sequence is supposed to be described in the termcap
6683 database by the "ku" capability (or by the "kcuu1" capability if
6684 you are using terminfo instead of termcap).
6685 By default, _Alpine_ defines some terminal escape sequences that
6686 are commonly used. For example, the sequence "ESC O A" is
6687 recognized as an Up Arrow key. The sequence "ESC [ A" is also
6688 recognized as an Up Arrow key. These are chosen because common
6689 terminals like VT100's or ANSI standard terminals produce these
6690 sequences when you press the Up Arrow key.
6691 If your system's termcap (terminfo) database assigns some other
6692 function to the sequence "ESC O A" it is usually ignored by
6693 _Alpine_. Also, if your termcap (terminfo) database assigns a
6694 sequence which doesn't begin with an escape character (ESC) it
6695 is usually ignored by _Alpine_. This usually works fine because
6696 most terminals emit the escape sequences that _Alpine_ has
6697 defined by default. We have also found that it is usually better
6698 to have these defaults take precedence over the definitions
6699 contained in the database because the defaults are more likely
6700 to be correct than the database.
6701 There are some terminals where this breaks down. If you want
6702 _Alpine_ to believe the definitions given in your termcap
6703 (terminfo) database in preference to the defaults the _Alpine_
6704 itself sets up, then you may turn this feature on. Then,
6705 sequences of characters which are defined in both termcap
6706 (terminfo) and in _Alpine_'s set of defaults will be interpreted
6707 the way that termcap (terminfo) says they should be interpreted.
6708 Also, if your terminal capabilities database assigns a sequence
6709 which doesn't begin with escape, it will not be ignored.
6710 _thread-index-shows-important-color_
6711 This option affects only the THREAD INDEX screen. Whether or not
6712 you ever see a THREAD INDEX screen depends on the setting of the
6713 configuration option threading-index-style and on the sort order
6714 of the index. If a message within a thread is flagged as
6715 Important and this option is set, then the entire line in the
6716 THREAD INDEX will be colored the color of the Index-important
6717 Symbol, which can be set using the Setup Kolor screen.
6718 _try-alternative-authentication-driver-first_
6719 This feature affects how _Alpine_ connects to IMAP servers. It's
6720 utility has largely been overtaken by events, but it may still
6721 be useful in some circumstances. If you only connect to modern
6722 IMAP servers that support "TLS" you can ignore this feature.
6723 Details:
6724 By default, _Alpine_ will attempt to connect to an IMAP server
6725 on the normal IMAP service port (143), and if the server offers
6726 "Transport Layer Security" (TLS) and _Alpine_ has been compiled
6727 with encryption capability, then a secure (encrypted) session
6728 will be negotiated.
6729 With this feature enabled, before connecting on the normal IMAP
6730 port, _Alpine_ will first attempt to connect to an alternate
6731 IMAP service port (993) used specifically for encrypted IMAP
6732 sessions via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) method. If the SSL
6733 attempt fails, _Alpine_ will then try the default behavior
6734 described in the previous paragraph.
6735 TLS negotiation on the normal port is preferred, and supersedes
6736 the use of SSL on port 993, but older servers may not provide
6737 TLS support. This feature may be convenient when accessing IMAP
6738 servers that do not support TLS, but do support SSL connections
6739 on port 993. However, it is important to understand that with
6740 this feature enabled, _Alpine_ will _attempt_ to make a secure
6741 connection if that is possible, but it will proceed to make an
6742 insecure connection if that is the only option offered by the
6743 server, or if the _Alpine_ in question has been built without
6744 encryption capability.
6745 Note that this feature specifies a per-user (or system-wide)
6746 default behavior, but host/folder specification flags may be
6747 used to control the behavior of any specific connection. This
6748 feature interacts with some of the possible host/folder path
6749 specification flags as follows:
6750 The /tls host flag, for example,
6752 {foo.example.com/tls}INBOX
6753 will over-ride this feature for the specified host by bypassing
6754 the SSL connection attempt. Moreover, with /tls specified, the
6755 connection attempt will fail if the service on port 143 does not
6756 offer TLS support.
6757 The /ssl host flag, for example,
6759 {foo.example.com/ssl}INBOX
6760 will insist on an SSL connection for the specified host, and
6761 will fail if the SSL service on port 993 is not available.
6762 _Alpine_ will not subsequently retry a connection on port 143 if
6763 /ssl is specified.
6764 _unselect-will-not-advance_
6765 Normally, when the Unselect current message command (:) is typed
6766 when the current message is selected, the message will be
6767 unselected and the next message will become the current message.
6768 If this feature is set, the cursor will not advance to the next
6769 message. Instead, the current message will remain the current
6770 message after unselecting.
6771 _use-current-dir_
6772 This feature controls an aspect of several commands. If set,
6773 your "current working directory" will be used instead of your
6774 home directory for all of the following operations:
6775 + _Export_ in the "Folder Index" and "Message Text" screens
6776 + Attachment _Save_ in the "Message Text" and "Attachment Text"
6777 screens
6778 + _^R_ file inclusion in the Composer
6779 + _^J_ file attachment in the Composer
6780 This feature is displayed as "Use Current Directory".
6781 _use-function-keys_
6782 This feature specifies that _Alpine_ will respond to function
6783 keys instead of the normal single-letter commands. In this mode,
6784 the key menus at the bottom of each screen will show function
6785 key designations instead of the normal mnemonic key.
6786 _use-regular-startup-rule-for-stayopen-folders_
6787 This feature affects which message is selected as the current
6788 message when you enter a Stay Open folder.
6789 Normally, the starting position for an incoming folder (which
6790 most Stay Open folders will likely be) is controlled by the
6791 Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a folder is a Stay Open
6792 folder, when you re-enter the folder after the first time the
6793 current message will be the same as it was when you left the
6794 folder. An exception is made if you use the TAB command to get
6795 to the folder. In that case, the message number will be
6796 incremented by one from what it was when you left the folder.
6797 The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it
6798 is special and different from what you might at first expect. If
6799 this feature is set, then Stay Open folders will not be treated
6800 specially as far as the startup rule is concerned.
6801 _use-resent-to-in-rules_
6802 This feature is turned off by default because turning it on
6803 causes problems with some deficient IMAP servers. In _Alpine_
6804 Filters and other types of Rules, if the Pattern contains a To
6805 header pattern and this feature is turned on, then a check is
6806 made in the message to see if a Resent-To header is present, and
6807 that is used instead of the To header. If this feature is not
6808 turned on, then the regular To header will always be used.
6809 _use-sender-not-x-sender_
6810 Normally _Alpine_ on Unix adds a header line labeled
6811 _X-X-Sender_, if the sender is different from the _From:_ line.
6812 The standard specifies that this header line should be labeled
6813 _Sender_, not _X-X-Sender_. Setting this feature causes _Sender_
6814 to be used instead of _X-X-Sender_. The standard also states
6815 that the data associated with this header field should not be
6816 used as a Reply address. Unfortunately, certain implementations
6817 of mail list management servers will use the Sender address for
6818 such purposes. These implementations often even recognize the
6819 _X-Sender_ fields as being equivalent to the _Sender_ field, and
6820 use it if present. This is why _Alpine_ defaults to
6821 _X-X-Sender_.
6822 Note, _PC-Alpine_ always adds either an _X-X-Sender_ line if
6823 there is an open, remote mailbox, or an _X-Warning:
6824 UNAuthenticated User_ otherwise
6825 This feature is displayed as "Use Sender Instead of X-X-Sender".
6826 _use-subshell-for-suspend_
6827 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when process suspension
6828 is enabled and then activated via the _^Z_ key. _Alpine_
6829 suspension allows one to temporarily interact with the operating
6830 system command "shell" without quitting _Alpine_, and then
6831 subsequently resume the still-active _Alpine_ session.
6832 When the _enable-suspend_ feature is set and subsequently the
6833 _^Z_ key is pressed, _Alpine_ will normally suspend itself and
6834 return temporary control to _Alpine_'s parent shell process.
6835 However, if this feature is set, _Alpine_ will instead create an
6836 inferior subshell process. This is useful when the parent
6837 process is not intended to be used interactively. Examples
6838 include invoking _Alpine_ via the -e argument of the Unix _xterm_
6839 program, or via a menu system.
6840 Note that one typically resumes a suspended _Alpine_ by entering
6841 the Unix _fg_ command, but if this feature is set, it will be
6842 necessary to enter the _exit_ command instead.
6843 _use-system-translation_
6844 UNIX _Alpine_ only. _Alpine_ normally uses its own internal
6845 software to convert between the multi-byte representation of
6846 characters and the Unicode representation of those same
6847 characters ( see the section on International Character Sets).
6848 It converts from the multi-byte characters your keyboard
6849 produces to Unicode, and from Unicode to the multi-byte
6850 characters your display expects. Alpine also uses its own
6851 internal software to decide how much space on the screen a
6852 particular Unicode character will occupy.
6853 Setting this feature tells _Alpine_ to use the system-supplied
6854 routines to perform these tasks instead. In particular there are
6855 three tasks and three system routines that will be used for
6856 these tasks.
6857 To convert from multi-byte to Unicode the routine
6859 mbstowcs
6860 is used. To convert from Unicode to multi-byte the routine
6862 wcrtomb
6863 is used. And to find the screen width a particular Unicode
6864 character will occupy the routine used is
6866 wcwidth
6867 This feature has been only lightly tested. The internal routines
6868 should normally be used unless you run into a problem that you
6869 think may be solved by using the system routines. Note that your
6870 environment needs to be set up for these routines to work
6871 correctly. In particular, the LANG or LC_CTYPE variable in your
6872 environment will need to be set.
6873 _vertical-folder-list_
6874 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6875 screen. If set, the folders will be listed alphabetically down
6876 the columns rather than across the columns as is the default.
6877 This feature is displayed as "Use Vertical Folder List".
6878 _warn-if-blank-subject_
6879 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
6880 being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to
6881 see if the message about to be sent has a subject or not. If
6882 not, you will be asked if you want to send the message anyway.
6883 _warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups_
6884 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
6885 being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to
6886 see if the message about to be sent has either a To address, a
6887 Cc address, or a Newsgroup. If none of these is set, you will be
6888 asked if you want to send the message anyway.
6889 This feature is closely related to fcc-only-without-confirm.
6890 _Alpine_ will normally ask if you want to copy a message only to
6891 the Fcc. This feature also applies to cases where there is a Bcc
6892 but still no To, Cc, or Newsgroup. If the
6893 Fcc-Only-Without-Confirm feature is set and you are sending a
6894 message with only an Fcc, then you won't be asked about sending
6895 with a blank To and Cc and Newsgroups header even if this
6896 feature is set. Similarly, if you have already been asked if you
6897 want to send to the Fcc only and you have answered Yes, then you
6898 won't be asked again about sending with blank To, Cc, and
6899 Newsgroups headers even if this feature is set.
6901 Hidden Config Variables and Features
6903 There are several configuration variables and features which are
6904 normally hidden from the user. That is, they don't appear on any of the
6905 configuration screens. Some of these are suppressed because they are
6906 intended to be used by system administrators, and in fact may only be
6907 set in system-wide configuration files. Others are available to users
6908 but are thought to be of such little value to most users that their
6909 presence on the Config screens would cause more confusion than help.
6910 Others are hidden in the Setup/Config screen because they are normally
6911 configured in one of the other configuration screens. For example, all
6912 of the colors are hidden because the normal way to configure colors is
6913 through Setup/Colors not Setup/Config. You may set the feature
6914 expose-hidden-config to cause most of these hidden variables and
6915 features to show up at the bottom of the Setup/Config screen.
6917 Hidden Variables Not Settable by Users
6919 These variables are settable only in system-wide configuration files.
6920 * bugs-additional-data
6921 * bugs-address
6922 * bugs-fullname
6923 * forced-abook-entry
6924 * kblock-passwd-count
6925 * local-address
6926 * local-fullname
6927 * mail-directory
6928 * standard-printer
6929 * suggest-address
6930 * suggest-fullname
6932 Hidden Variables Which are Settable by Users
6934 These variables are not shown to users but are settable by means of
6935 hand editing the personal configuration file. This first group is
6936 usually maintained by _Alpine_ and there will usually be no reason to
6937 edit them by hand.
6938 * last-version-used
6939 * patterns-filters2
6940 * patterns-indexcolors
6941 * patterns-roles
6942 * patterns-scores2
6943 * remote-abook-metafile
6945 This group is usually correct but may be changed by system managers or
6946 users in special cases.
6947 * disable-these-authenticators
6948 * disable-these-drivers
6949 * last-time-prune-questioned
6950 * new-version-threshold
6951 * remote-abook-history
6952 * remote-abook-validity
6953 * rsh-command
6954 * rsh-open-timeout
6955 * rsh-path
6956 * sendmail-path
6957 * ssh-command
6958 * ssh-open-timeout
6959 * ssh-path
6960 * tcp-open-timeout
6961 * tcp-query-timeout
6962 * tcp-read-warning-timeout
6963 * tcp-write-warning-timeout
6964 * use-function-keys
6966 System managers are usually interested in setting these in the
6967 system-wide configuration files, though users may set them if they
6968 wish.
6969 * operating-dir
6970 * user-input-timeout
6972 Hidden Features Which are Settable by Users
6974 These are _features_ (as opposed to variables) which users or system
6975 administrators may set. Some of them only make sense for
6976 administrators. To turn these on manually, the configuration file
6977 should be edited and the feature added to the _feature-list_ variable.
6978 You may set the feature expose-hidden-config to cause these hidden
6979 features to show up in the Setup/Config screen. They will be at the
6980 bottom of the screen.
6981 * disable-config-cmd
6982 * disable-keyboard-lock-cmd
6983 * disable-password-cmd
6984 * disable-pipes-in-sigs
6985 * disable-pipes-in-templates
6986 * disable-roles-setup-cmd
6987 * disable-roles-sig-edit
6988 * disable-roles-template-edit
6989 * disable-setlocale-collate
6990 * disable-shared-namespaces
6991 * disable-signature-edit-cmd
6993 Retired Variables and Features
6995 Variables and features that are no longer used by the current _Alpine_
6996 version. When an obsolete variable is encountered, its value is applied
6997 to any new corresponding setting. The replaced values include:
6999 _character-set_
7000 Replaced by three separate variables: _display-character-set_,
7001 _keyboard-character-set_, and _posting-character-set_.
7002 _compose-mime_
7003 _elm-style-save_
7004 Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule_
7005 _feature-level_
7006 Replaced by _feature-list._
7007 _header-in-reply_
7008 Replaced by _include-header-in-reply_ in the _feature-list._
7009 _old-style-reply_
7010 Replaced by _signature-at-bottom_ in the _feature-list._
7011 _use-old-unix-format-write_
7012 No replacement.
7013 _patterns_
7014 Replaced by four separate patterns variables: _patterns-roles_,
7015 _patterns-filters_, _patterns-scores_, and
7016 _patterns-indexcolors_. Since then, _patterns-filters_ has also
7017 become obsolete and is replaced by _patterns-filters2_;
7018 _patterns-scores_ is replaced by _patterns-scores2_.
7019 _save-by-sender_
7020 Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule._
7021 _show-all-characters_
7022 No replacement, it always works this way now.
7024 Tokens for Index and Replying
7026 This set of special tokens may be used in the index-format option, in
7027 the reply-leadin option, in signature files, in template files used in
7028 roles, and in the folder name that is the target of a Filter Rule. Some
7029 of them aren't available in all situations.
7031 The tokens are used as they appear below for the _Index-Format_ option,
7032 but they must be surrounded by underscores for the _Reply-Leadin_
7033 option, in signature and template files, and in the target of Filter
7034 Rules.
7036 _Tokens Available for all Cases (except Filter Rules)_
7038 SUBJECT
7039 This token represents the Subject the sender gave the message.
7040 Alternatives for use in the index screen are SUBJKEY,
7041 SUBJKEYINIT, SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, and SUBJKEYINITTEXT. You
7042 may color the subject text in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
7043 differently by using the Index Subject Color and the Index
7044 Opening Color. options available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7046 FROM
7047 This token represents the personal name (or email address if the
7048 name is unavailable) of the person specified in the message's
7049 "From:" header field. You may color the from text in the MESSAGE
7050 INDEX screen differently by using the Index From Color option
7051 available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7053 ADDRESS
7054 This is similar to the "FROM" token, only it is always the email
7055 address, never the personal name. For example, "mailbox@domain".
7057 MAILBOX
7058 This is the same as the "ADDRESS" except that the domain part of
7059 the address is left off. For example, "mailbox".
7061 SENDER
7062 This token represents the personal name (or email address) of
7063 the person listed in the message's "Sender:" header field.
7065 TO
7066 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7067 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the
7068 message's "To:" header field.
7070 NEWSANDTO
7071 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7072 "Newsgroups:" header field _and_ the personal names (or email
7073 addresses if the names are unavailable) of the persons specified
7074 in the message's "To:" header field.
7076 TOANDNEWS
7077 Same as "NEWSANDTO" except in the opposite order.
7079 NEWS
7080 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7081 "Newsgroups:" header field.
7083 CC
7084 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7085 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the
7086 message's "Cc:" header field.
7088 RECIPS
7089 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7090 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in both the
7091 message's "To:" header field and the message's "Cc:" header
7092 field.
7094 NEWSANDRECIPS
7095 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7096 "Newsgroups:" header field _and_ the personal names (or email
7097 addresses if the names are unavailable) of the persons specified
7098 in the message's "To:" and "Cc:" header fields.
7100 RECIPSANDNEWS
7101 Same as "NEWSANDRECIPS" except in the opposite order.
7103 INIT
7104 This token represents the initials from the personal name of the
7105 person specified in the message's "From:" header field. If there
7106 is no personal name, it is blank.
7108 DATE
7109 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7110 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD.
7111 For example, "Oct 23". The feature convert-dates-to-localtime,
7112 which adjusts for the timezone the message was sent from, may
7113 have an affect on the value of this token as well as the values
7114 of all of the other DATE or TIME tokens. Some of the DATE and
7115 TIME tokens are displayed in a locale-specific way unless the
7116 option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is set.
7118 SMARTDATE
7119 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7120 according to the "Date" header field. It is "Today" if the
7121 message was sent today, "Yesterday" for yesterday, "Wednesday"
7122 if it was last Wednesday, and so on. If the message is from last
7123 year and is more than six months old it includes the year, as
7124 well. There is no adjustment made for different time zones, so
7125 you'll get the day the message was sent according to the time
7126 zone the sender was in. See the SMARTDATE alternatives below, as
7127 well.
7129 SMARTTIME
7130 This token represents the most relevant elements of the date on
7131 which the message was sent (according to the "Date" header
7132 field), in a compact form. If the message was sent today, only
7133 the time is used (e.g. "9:22am", "10:07pm"); if it was sent
7134 during the past week, the day of the week and the hour are used
7135 (e.g. "Wed09am", "Thu10pm"); other dates are given as date,
7136 month, and year (e.g. "23Aug00", "9Apr98"). There is no
7137 adjustment made for different time zones, so you'll get the
7138 day/time the message was sent according to the time zone the
7139 sender was in.
7141 SMARTDATETIME
7142 This is a combination of SMARTDATE and SMARTTIME. It is
7143 SMARTDATE unless the SMARTDATE value is "Today", in which case
7144 it is SMARTTIME. See the SMARTDATETIME alternatives below, as
7145 well.
7147 DATEISO
7148 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7149 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7150 YYYY-MM-DD. For example, "1998-10-23".
7152 SHORTDATEISO
7153 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7154 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7155 YY-MM-DD. For example, "98-10-23".
7157 SHORTDATE1
7158 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7159 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7160 MM/DD/YY. For example, "10/23/98".
7162 SHORTDATE2
7163 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7164 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7165 DD/MM/YY. For example, "23/10/98".
7167 SHORTDATE3
7168 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7169 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7170 DD.MM.YY. For example, "23.10.98".
7172 SHORTDATE4
7173 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7174 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7175 YY.MM.DD. For example, "98.10.23".
7177 LONGDATE
7178 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7179 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD,
7180 YYYY. For example, "Oct 23, 1998".
7182 SMARTDATE alternatives
7183 There are several versions of SMARTDATE which are all the same
7184 except for the way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATE
7185 formats the date using the information from your locale settings
7186 to format the date string. It may end up formatting dates so
7187 that they look like DATEISO tokens, or SHORTDATE2 tokens, or
7188 something else entirely. The feature convert-dates-to-localtime
7189 may have an affect on the values of these tokens. If you want
7190 more control you may use one of the following.
7192 SMARTDATE
7193 If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then
7194 this will be locale specific. Control this with the
7195 LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
7196 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the
7197 Short date format. At the programming level, the strftime
7198 routine is what _Alpine_ uses to print the date. If the
7199 Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is set then this is
7200 equivalent to SMARTDATES1.
7202 SMARTDATEISO
7203 DATEISO format. See text above.
7205 SMARTDATESHORTISO
7206 SHORTDATEISO format.
7208 SMARTDATES1
7209 SHORTDATE1 format.
7211 SMARTDATES2
7212 SHORTDATE2 format.
7214 SMARTDATES3
7215 SHORTDATE3 format.
7217 SMARTDATES4
7218 SHORTDATE4 format.
7220 SMARTDATETIME alternatives
7221 There are several versions of SMARTDATETIME which are all very
7222 similar. The ones which end in 24 use a 24-hour clock for
7223 Today's messages instead of a 12-hour clock. The other variation
7224 is for the way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATETIME
7225 and SMARTDATETIME24 format the date using the information from
7226 your locale settings to format the date string. It may end up
7227 formatting dates so that they look like DATEISO tokens, or
7228 SHORTDATE2 tokens, or something else entirely. The feature
7229 convert-dates-to-localtime may have an affect on the values of
7230 these tokens. The possible choices are:
7232 SMARTDATETIME
7233 Locale specific. Control this with the LC_TIME locale
7234 setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options
7235 control panel may be used to set the Short date format. At
7236 the programming level, the strftime routine is what
7237 _Alpine_ uses to print the date.
7239 SMARTDATETIME
7240 If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then
7241 this will be locale specific. Control this with the
7242 LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
7243 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the
7244 Short date format. At the programming level, the strftime
7245 routine is what _Alpine_ uses to print the date. If the
7246 Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is set then this is
7247 equivalent to SMARTDATETIMES1.
7249 SMARTDATETIME24
7250 Use TIME24 for Today
7252 SMARTDATETIMEISO
7253 DATEISO format. See text above.
7255 SMARTDATETIMEISO24
7256 Use TIME24 for Today
7258 SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO
7259 SHORTDATEISO format.
7261 SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO24
7262 Use TIME24 for Today
7264 SMARTDATETIMES1
7265 SHORTDATE1 format.
7267 SMARTDATETIMES124
7268 Use TIME24 for Today
7270 SMARTDATETIMES2
7271 SHORTDATE2 format.
7273 SMARTDATETIMES224
7274 Use TIME24 for Today
7276 SMARTDATETIMES3
7277 SHORTDATE3 format.
7279 SMARTDATETIMES324
7280 Use TIME24 for Today
7282 SMARTDATETIMES4
7283 SHORTDATE4 format.
7285 SMARTDATETIMES424
7286 Use TIME24 for Today
7288 DAYDATE
7289 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7290 according to the "Date" header field. It looks like "Sat, 23 Oct
7291 1998". This token is never converted in any locale-specific way.
7293 PREFDATE
7294 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7295 according to the "Date" header field. It is your operating
7296 system's idea of the preferred date representation for the
7297 current locale. Internally it uses the %x version of the date
7298 from the strftime routine.
7300 PREFTIME
7301 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7302 according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred time
7303 representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
7304 version of the time from the strftime routine.
7306 PREFDATETIME
7307 This token represents the date and time at which the message was
7308 sent, according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred
7309 date and time representation for the current locale. Internally
7310 it uses the %c version of the time from the strftime routine.
7312 DAY
7313 This token represents the day of the month on which the message
7314 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7315 "23" or "9".
7317 DAY2DIGIT
7318 This token represents the day of the month on which the message
7319 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7320 "23" or "09". It is always 2 digits.
7322 DAYORDINAL
7323 This token represents the ordinal number which is the day of the
7324 month on which the message was sent, according to the "Date"
7325 header field. For example, "23rd" or "9th".
7327 DAYOFWEEK
7328 This token represents the day of the week on which the message
7329 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7330 "Sunday" or "Wednesday".
7332 DAYOFWEEKABBREV
7333 This token represents the day of the week on which the message
7334 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7335 "Sun" or "Wed".
7337 MONTHABBREV
7338 This token represents the month the message was sent, according
7339 to the "Date" header field. For example, "Oct".
7341 MONTHLONG
7342 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7343 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "October".
7345 MONTH
7346 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7347 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "9".
7349 MONTH2DIGIT
7350 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7351 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "09".
7352 It is always 2 digits.
7354 YEAR
7355 This token represents the year the message was sent, according
7356 to the "Date" header field. For example, "1998" or "2001".
7358 YEAR2DIGIT
7359 This token represents the year the message was sent, according
7360 to the "Date" header field. For example, "98" or "01". It is
7361 always 2 digits.
7363 TIME24
7364 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7365 according to the "Date" header field. There is no adjustment
7366 made for different time zones, so you'll get the time the
7367 message was sent according to the time zone the sender was in.
7368 It has the format HH:MM. For example, "17:28".
7370 TIME12
7371 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7372 according to the "Date" header field. This time is for a 12 hour
7373 clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or
7374 "11:13am".
7376 TIMEZONE
7377 This token represents the numeric timezone from the "Date"
7378 header field. It has the format [+-]HHMM. For example, "-0800".
7380 _Tokens Available Only for Index-Format_
7382 MSGNO
7383 This token represents the message's current position in the
7384 folder which, of course, may change as the folder is sorted or
7385 new mail arrives.
7387 STATUS
7388 This token represents a three character wide field displaying
7389 various aspects of the message's state. The first character is
7390 either blank, a '*' for message marked Important, or a '+'
7391 indicating a message addressed directly to you (as opposed to
7392 your having received it via a mailing list, for example). When
7393 the feature mark-for-cc is set, if the first character would
7394 have been blank then it will instead be a '-' if the message is
7395 cc'd to you. The second character is typically blank, though the
7396 arrow cursor may occupy it if either the assume-slow-link or the
7397 force-arrow-cursor feature is set (or you actually are on a slow
7398 link). The third character is either D (Deleted), A (Answered),
7399 N (New), or blank.
7401 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7402 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this
7403 token refers to all of the messages in the collapsed portion of
7404 the thread instead of just the top message. The first character
7405 will be a '*' if _any_ of the messages in the thread are marked
7406 Important, else a '+' if any of the messages are addressed to
7407 you, else a '-' if any of the messages are cc'd to you. The
7408 third character will be a 'D' if _all_ of the messages in the
7409 collapsed thread are marked deleted, an 'A' if _all_ of the
7410 messages in the collapsed thread are marked answered, it will be
7411 an 'N' if any of the messages are undeleted and unseen, and it
7412 will be blank otherwise.
7414 FULLSTATUS
7415 This token represents a less abbreviated alternative to the
7416 "STATUS" token. It is six characters wide. The first character
7417 is '+', '-', or blank, the second blank, the third either '*' or
7418 blank, the fourth N or blank, the fifth A or blank, and the
7419 sixth character is either D or blank.
7421 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7422 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this
7423 token refers to all of the messages in the collapsed portion of
7424 the thread instead of just the top message. The first character
7425 is '+', '-', or blank depending on whether _any_ of the messages
7426 in the collapsed thread are addressed to you or cc'd to you. The
7427 third character will be '*' if any of the messages are marked
7428 Important. The fourth character will be 'N' if all of the
7429 messages in the thread are New, else 'n' if some of the messages
7430 in the thread are New, else blank. The fifth character will be
7431 'A' or 'a' or blank, and the sixth character will be 'D' or 'd'
7432 or blank.
7434 IMAPSTATUS
7435 This token represents an even less abbreviated alternative to
7436 the "STATUS" token. It differs from "FULLSTATUS" in only the
7437 fourth character which is an 'N' if the message is new to this
7438 folder since the last time it was opened _and_ it has not been
7439 viewed, an 'R' (Recent) if the message is new to the folder and
7440 has been viewed, a 'U' (Unseen) if the message is not new to the
7441 folder since it was last opened _but_ has not been viewed, or a
7442 blank if the message has been in the folder since it was last
7443 opened and has been viewed.
7445 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7446 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then the
7447 fourth character will be 'N' if all of the messages in the
7448 thread are unseen and recent; else 'n' if some of the messages
7449 in the thread are unseen and recent; else 'U' if all of the
7450 messages in the thread are unseen and not recent; else 'u' if
7451 some of the messages in the thread are unseen and not recent;
7452 else 'R' if all of the messages in the thread are seen and
7453 recent; else 'r' if some of the messages in the thread are seen
7454 and recent; else blank.
7456 SHORTIMAPSTATUS
7457 This is the same as the last four of the six characters of
7458 IMAPSTATUS, so the '+' To Me information will be missing.
7460 SIZE
7461 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7462 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7463 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes (rounded to the
7464 nearest 1,000). If an "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the
7465 size is approximately 1,000,000 times that many bytes. Commas
7466 are not used in this field. This field is seven characters wide,
7467 including the enclosing parentheses. Sizes are rounded when "K"
7468 or "M" is present. The progression of sizes used looks like:
7470 0 1 ... 9999 10K ... 999K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2000M
7472 SIZECOMMA
7473 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7474 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7475 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes (rounded to the
7476 nearest 1,000). If an "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the
7477 size is approximately 1,000,000 times that many bytes. Commas
7478 are used if the number shown is 1,000 or greater. The SIZECOMMA
7479 field is one character wider than the SIZE field. Sizes are
7480 rounded when "K" or "M" is present. The progression of sizes
7481 used looks like:
7483 0 1 ... 99,999 100K ... 9,999K 10.0M ... 999.9M 1,000M ... 2,000M
7485 KSIZE
7486 This token represents the total size of the message, expressed
7487 in kilobytes or megabytes, as most appropriate. These are 1,024
7488 byte kilobytes and 1,024 x 1,024 byte megabytes. The progression
7489 of sizes used looks like:
7491 0K 1K ... 1023K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2047M
7493 SIZENARROW
7494 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7495 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7496 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes. If an "M" (Megabyte)
7497 follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000,000 times
7498 that many bytes. If a "G" (Gigabyte) follows the number, the
7499 size is approximately 1,000,000,000 times that many bytes. This
7500 field uses only five characters of screen width, including the
7501 enclosing parentheses. The progression of sizes used looks like:
7503 0 1 ... 999 1K ... 99K .1M ... .9M 1M ... 99M .1G ... .9G 1G 2G
7505 DESCRIPSIZE
7506 This token is intended to represent a more useful description of
7507 the message than just its size, but it isn't very useful at this
7508 point. The plus sign in this view means there are attachments.
7509 Note that including this token in the "Index-Format" could slow
7510 down the display a little while _Alpine_ collects the necessary
7511 information.
7513 SUBJKEY
7514 This token is the same as the SUBJECT token unless keywords are
7515 set for the message. In that case, a list of keywords enclosed
7516 in braces will be prepended to the subject of the message. Only
7517 those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords option in
7518 Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other words,
7519 keywords that have been set by some other means, perhaps by
7520 another email program, won't show up unless included in
7521 Keywords. Having this set in the Index-Format will also cause
7522 the keywords to be prepended to the subject in the MESSAGE TEXT
7523 screen. If you have given a keyword a nickname (keywords), that
7524 nickname is displayed instead of the actual keyword. The
7525 keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to modify this
7526 token slightly. It is also possible to color keywords in the
7527 index using the Setup/Kolor screen.
7529 SUBJKEYINIT
7530 This token is the same as the SUBJKEY token except that instead
7531 of prepending a list of keywords to the subject, a list of first
7532 initials of keywords will be prepended instead. For example, if
7533 a message has the keywords _Work_ and _Now_ set (or Work and Now
7534 are the _Alpine_ nicknames of keywords which are set) then the
7535 SUBJKEY token would cause a result like
7537 {Work Now} actual subject
7539 whereas the SUBJKEYINIT token would give
7541 {WN} actual subject
7543 Only those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords
7544 option in Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other
7545 words, keywords that have been set by some other means, perhaps
7546 by another email program, won't show up unless included in
7547 Keywords. The keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to
7548 modify this token slightly. It is also possible to color
7549 keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor screen.
7551 SUBJECTTEXT
7552 Same as SUBJECT but if there is room in the Subject field for
7553 more text, the opening part of the text of the message is
7554 displayed after the subject. The time needed to fetch the text
7555 may cause a performance problem which can, of course, be avoided
7556 by using the SUBJECT version of the Subject instead. You may
7557 color this opening text differently by using the Index Opening
7558 Color option available from the Setup Kolor screen. You may
7559 adjust the characters that are displayed between the Subject and
7560 the opening text with the option Opening-Text-Separator-Chars.
7562 SUBJKEYTEXT
7563 Same as SUBJKEY but with the opening message text.
7565 SUBJKEYINITTEXT
7566 Same as SUBJKEYINIT but with the opening message text.
7568 OPENINGTEXT
7569 This is similar to SUBJECTTEXT. Instead of combining the Subject
7570 and the opening text in a single field in the index screen this
7571 token allows you to allocate a separate column just for the
7572 opening text of the message. The time needed to fetch this text
7573 may cause a performance problem. You may color this opening text
7574 differently by using the Index Opening Color option available
7575 from the Setup Kolor screen.
7577 OPENINGTEXTNQ
7578 This is very similar to OPENINGTEXT. The NQ stands for No
7579 Quotes. The only difference is that quoted text (lines beginning
7580 with >) is deleted. For some messages this may be confusing. For
7581 example, a message might have a line preceding some quoted text
7582 that reads something like "On May 8th person A said." That no
7583 longer makes sense after the quoted text is deleted and it will
7584 appear that person A said whatever the text after the quote is,
7585 even though that is really person B talking.
7587 KEY
7588 This is a space-delimited list of keywords that are set for the
7589 message. Only those keywords that you have defined in your
7590 Keywords option in Setup/Config are considered in the list. In
7591 other words, keywords that have been set by some other means,
7592 perhaps by another email program, won't show up unless included
7593 in Keywords. If you have given a keyword a nickname that
7594 nickname is displayed instead of the actual keyword. It is also
7595 possible to color keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor
7596 screen. This token defaults to an arbitrary width of 5. You
7597 should set it to whatever width suits you using something like
7598 KEY(17) in the Index-Format.
7600 KEYINIT
7601 This is a list of keyword initials that are set for the message.
7602 If you have given a keyword a nickname the initial of that
7603 nickname is displayed instead of the initial of the actual
7604 keyword. It is also possible to color keyword initials in the
7605 index using the Setup/Kolor screen. This token defaults to an
7606 arbitrary width of 2. You should set it to whatever width suits
7607 you using something like KEYINIT(3) in the Index-Format.
7609 PRIORITY
7610 The X-Priority header is a non-standard header that is used in a
7611 somewhat standard way by many mail programs. _Alpine_ expects
7612 the value of this header to be a digit with a value from 1 to 5,
7613 with 1 being the highest priority and 5 the lowest priority.
7614 Since this priority is something that the sender sets it is only
7615 an indication of the priority that the sender attaches to the
7616 mail and it is therefore almost totally unreliable for use as a
7617 filtering criterion. This token will display the numeric value
7618 of the priority if it is between 1 and 5. It will be suppressed
7619 (blank) if the value is 3, which is normal priority. It is also
7620 possible to set the color of the PRIORITY field. By default the
7621 token is colored the same as the index line it is part of. You
7622 may set it to be another color with the Index Priority Colors
7623 options available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7625 PRIORITYALPHA
7626 This is a more verbose interpretation of the X-Priority field.
7627 Once again nothing is displayed unless the value of the field is
7628 1, 2, 4, or 5. The values displayed for those values are:
7630 1 Highest
7631 2 High
7632 4 Low
7633 5 Lowest
7635 You may color this token with the Index Priority Colors options.
7637 PRIORITY!
7638 This is a one character, non-numeric version of the X-Priority
7639 field. If the value of the X-Priority header is 1 or 2 an
7640 exclamation point is displayed. If the value is 4 or 5 a "v"
7641 (think down arrow) is displayed. You may color this token with
7642 the Index Priority Colors options.
7644 ATT
7645 This is a one column wide field which represents the number of
7646 attachments a message has. It will be blank if there are no
7647 attachments, a single digit for one to nine attachments, or an
7648 asterisk for more than nine. Note that including this token in
7649 the "Index-Format" could slow down the display a little while
7650 _Alpine_ collects the necessary information.
7652 FROMORTO
7653 This token represents _either_ the personal name (or email
7654 address) of the person listed in the message's "From:" header
7655 field, _or_, if that address is yours or one of your alternate
7656 addresses, the first person specified in the message's "To:"
7657 header field with the prefix "To: " prepended. If the from
7658 address is yours and there is also no "To" address, _Alpine_
7659 will use the address on the "Cc" line. If there is no address
7660 there, either, _Alpine_ will look for a newsgroup name from the
7661 "Newsgroups" header field and put that after the "To: " prefix.
7663 FROMORTONOTNEWS
7664 This is almost the same as _FROMORTO_. The difference is that
7665 newsgroups aren't considered. When a message is from you,
7666 doesn't have a To or Cc, and does have a Newsgroups header; this
7667 token will be your name instead of the name of the newsgroup
7668 (like it would be with FROMORTO).
7670 TEXT
7671 This is a different sort of token. It allows you to display a
7672 label within each index line. It will be the same fixed text for
7673 each line. It is different from all the other tokens in that
7674 there is no space column displayed after this token. Instead, it
7675 is butted up against the following field. It also has a
7676 different syntax. The text to display is given following a colon
7677 after the word "TEXT". For example,
7679 TEXT:abc=
7681 would insert the literal text "abc=" (without the quotes) into
7682 the index display line. You must quote the text if it includes
7683 space characters, like
7685 TEXT:"abc = "
7687 HEADER
7688 This allows you to display the text from a particular header
7689 line in the message. The syntax for this token is substantially
7690 different from all the others in order that you might be able to
7691 display a portion of the text following a particular header. The
7692 header name you are interested in is given following a colon
7693 after the word "HEADER". For example,
7695 HEADER:X-Spam
7697 would display the text of the X-Spam header, if any. Like for
7698 other index tokens a width field may (and probably should)
7699 follow this.
7701 HEADER:X-Spam(10)
7703 displays the first ten characters of the X-Spam header. Unlike
7704 other index tokens, the syntax for HEADER is more flexible. An
7705 optional second argument comes after a comma inside the
7706 parentheses. It specifies the "field" number. By default, the
7707 field separator is a space character. No extra space characters
7708 are allowed in the argument list.
7710 HEADER:X-Spam(10,2)
7712 would display the second field, left-justified, in a 10
7713 character wide field. The second field would consist of all the
7714 text after the first space up to the next space or the end of
7715 the header. The default field number is zero, which stands for
7716 the entire line. There is also an optional third argument which
7717 is a list of field separators. It defaults to a space character.
7718 The example
7720 HEADER:X-Spam(10,2,:% )
7722 would cause the field separators to be any of colon, percent, or
7723 space (there is a space character between the percent and the
7724 right parenthesis). The first field runs from the start of the
7725 header value up to the first colon, percent, or space; the
7726 second goes from there to the next; and so on. In order to use a
7727 comma character as a field separator you must escape it by
7728 preceding it with a backslash (\). The same is true of the
7729 backslash character itself. There is one further optional
7730 argument. It is an R or an L to specify right or left adjustment
7731 of the text within the field. The default is to left justify,
7732 however if you are displaying numbers you might prefer to right
7733 justify.
7735 Here's an example of a SpamAssassin header. The exact look of
7736 the header will vary, but if your incoming mail contains headers
7737 that look like the following
7739 X-Spam-Status: Yes, hits=10.6 tagged_above=-999.0 required=7.0
7740 tests=BAYE...
7742 you might want to display the hits value. The first field starts
7743 with the Y in Yes. To get what you're interested in you might
7744 use "=" and space as the field separators and display the third
7745 field, like
7747 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(4,3,= )
7749 or maybe you would break at the dot instead
7751 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(2,2,=.,R)
7753 Another example we've seen has headers that look like
7755 X-Spam: Gauge=IIIIIII, Probability=7%, Report=...
7757 Because there are two equals and a comma before the 7% and a
7758 comma after it, the token
7760 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(3,4,=\,,R)
7762 should display the probability (for example 7% or 83%) right
7763 justified in a 3-wide field.
7765 ARROW
7766 This gives an alternative way to display the current message in
7767 the MESSAGE INDEX screen. Usually the current message is
7768 indicated by the line being shown in reverse video. Instead, if
7769 the ARROW token is included in your Index-Format, the current
7770 line will include an "arrow" that looks like
7772 ->
7774 in the ARROW token's field. For all of the non-current messages,
7775 the ARROW field will be filled with blanks. If you use the
7776 fixed-field width feature the length of the "arrow" may be
7777 adjusted. The arrow will be drawn as width-1 dashes followed by
7778 a greater than sign. For example, if you use ARROW(3) you will
7779 get
7781 -->
7783 and ARROW(1) will give you just
7785 >
7787 It is also possible to set the color of the ARROW field. By
7788 default (and for non-current messages) the arrow is colored the
7789 same as the index line it is part of. You may set it to be
7790 another color with the Index Arrow Color option available from
7791 the Setup Kolor screen.
7793 SCORE
7794 This gives the score of each message. This will be six columns
7795 wide to accommodate the widest possible score. You will probably
7796 want to use the Index-Format fixed-field width feature to limit
7797 the width of the field to the widest score that you use (e.g.
7798 SCORE(3) if your scores are always between 0 and 999). If you
7799 have not defined any score rules the scores will all be zero. If
7800 any of your score rules contain AllText or BodyText patterns
7801 then including SCORE in the Index-Format may slow down the
7802 display of the MESSAGE INDEX screen.
7804 _Tokens Available for all but Index-Format_
7806 CURNEWS
7807 This token represents the current newsgroup if there is one. For
7808 example, "comp.mail.pine".
7810 MSGID
7811 This token represents the message ID of the message. This token
7812 does not work with Filter Rule folder names.
7814 CURDATE
7815 This token represents the current date. It has the format MMM
7816 DD. For example, "Oct 23".
7818 CURDATEISO
7819 This token represents the current date. It has the format
7820 YYYY-MM-DD. For example, "1998-10-23".
7822 CURDATEISOS
7823 This token represents the current date. It has the format
7824 YY-MM-DD. For example, "98-10-23".
7826 CURPREFDATE
7827 This token represents the current date. It is your operating
7828 system's idea of the preferred date representation for the
7829 current locale. Internally it uses the %x version of the date
7830 from the strftime routine.
7832 CURPREFTIME
7833 This token represents the current time. It is the preferred time
7834 representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
7835 version of the time from the strftime routine.
7837 CURPREFDATETIME
7838 This token represents the current date and time. It is the
7839 preferred date and time representation for the current locale.
7840 Internally it uses the %c version of the time from the strftime
7841 routine.
7843 CURTIME24
7844 This token represents the current time. It has the format HH:MM.
7845 For example, "17:28".
7847 CURTIME12
7848 This token represents the current time. This time is for a 12
7849 hour clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or
7850 "11:13am".
7852 CURDAY
7853 This token represents the current day of the month. For example,
7854 "23" or "9".
7856 CURDAY2DIGIT
7857 This token represents the current day of the month. For example,
7858 "23" or "09". It is always 2 digits.
7860 CURDAYOFWEEK
7861 This token represents the current day of the week. For example,
7862 "Sunday" or "Wednesday".
7864 CURDAYOFWEEKABBREV
7865 This token represents the current day of the week. For example,
7866 "Sun" or "Wed".
7868 CURMONTH
7869 This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or
7870 "9".
7872 CURMONTH2DIGIT
7873 This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or
7874 "09". It is always 2 digits.
7876 CURMONTHLONG
7877 This token represents the current month. For example, "October".
7879 CURMONTHABBREV
7880 This token represents the current month. For example, "Oct".
7882 CURYEAR
7883 This token represents the current year. For example, "1998" or
7884 "2001".
7886 CURYEAR2DIGIT
7887 This token represents the current year. For example, "98" or
7888 "01". It is always 2 digits.
7890 LASTMONTH
7891 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7892 November (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is
7893 October (the 10th month), it is "9". It is possible that this
7894 and the other tokens beginning with LASTMONTH below could be
7895 useful when used with a Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning
7896 of Month" option set.
7898 LASTMONTH2DIGIT
7899 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7900 November (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is
7901 October (the 10th month), it is "09". It is always 2 digits.
7903 LASTMONTHLONG
7904 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7905 November the value is "October".
7907 LASTMONTHABBREV
7908 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7909 November the value is "Oct".
7911 LASTMONTHYEAR
7912 This token represents what the year was a month ago. For
7913 example, if this is October, 1998, it is "1998". If this is
7914 January, 1998, it is "1997".
7916 LASTMONTHYEAR2DIGIT
7917 This token represents what the year was a month ago. For
7918 example, if this is October, 1998, it is "98". If this is
7919 January, 1998, it is "97".
7921 LASTYEAR
7922 This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998,
7923 it equals "1997". It is possible that this could be useful when
7924 used with a Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning of Year"
7925 option set.
7927 LASTYEAR2DIGIT
7928 This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998,
7929 it equals "97". It is always 2 digits.
7931 ROLENICK
7932 This token represents the nickname of the role currently being
7933 used. If no role is being used, then no text will be printed for
7934 this token. This token does not work with Filter Rule folder
7935 names.
7937 _Token Available Only for Reply-Leadin_
7939 See the help for the Reply-Leadin option, to see why you might want to
7940 use this. Since the _Reply-Leadin_ contains free text this token must
7941 be surrounded by underscores when used.
7943 NEWLINE
7944 This is an end of line marker.
7946 _Token Available Only for Templates and Signatures_
7948 CURSORPOS
7949 This token is different from the others. When it is replaced it
7950 is replaced with nothing, but it sets a _Alpine_ internal
7951 variable which tells the composer to start with the cursor
7952 positioned at the position where this token was. If both the
7953 template file and the signature file contain a "CURSORPOS"
7954 token, then the position in the template file is used. If there
7955 is a template file and neither it nor the signature file
7956 contains a "CURSORPOS" token, then the cursor is positioned
7957 after the end of the contents of the template file when the
7958 composer starts up.
7960 Conditional Inclusion of Text for Reply-Leadin, Signatures, and Templates
7962 Conditional text inclusion may be used with the Reply-Leadin option, in
7963 signature files, and in template files used in roles. It may _not_ be
7964 used with the _Index-Format_ option.
7966 There is a limited if-else capability for including text. The if-else
7967 condition is based on whether or not a given token would result in
7968 replacement text you specify. The syntax of this conditional inclusion
7969 is
7971 _token_(match_this, if_matched [ , if_not_matched ] )
7973 The left parenthesis must follow the underscore immediately, with no
7974 intervening space. It means the token is expanded and the results of
7975 that expansion are compared against the "match_this" argument. If there
7976 is an exact match, then the "if_matched" text is used as the
7977 replacement text. Otherwise, the "if_not_matched" text is used. One of
7978 the most useful values for the "match_this" argument is the empty
7979 string, "". In that case the expansion is compared against the empty
7980 string.
7982 Here's an example to make it clearer. This text could be included in
7983 one of your template files:
7985 _NEWS_("", "I'm replying to email","I'm replying to news")
7987 If that is included in a template file which you are using while
7988 replying to a message (because you chose to use the role it was part
7989 of), and that message has a newsgroup header and a newsgroup in that
7990 header, then the text
7992 I'm replying to news
7994 will be included in the message you are about to compose. On the other
7995 hand, if the message you are replying to does not have a newsgroup,
7996 then the text
7998 I'm replying to email
8000 would be included instead. This would also work in signature files and
8001 in the "Reply-Leadin" option. If the "match_this", "if_matched", or
8002 "if_not_matched" arguments contain spaces, parentheses, or commas; they
8003 have to be quoted with double quotation marks (like in the example
8004 above). If you want to include a literal quote in the text you must
8005 escape the quote by preceding it with a backslash character. If you
8006 want to include a literal backslash character you must escape it by
8007 preceding it with another backslash.
8009 The comma followed by "if_not_matched" is optional. If there is no
8010 "if_not_matched" present then no text is included if the not_matched
8011 case is true. Here's another example:
8013 _NEWS_("", "", "This msg was seen in group: _NEWS_.")
8015 Here you can see that tokens may appear in the arguments. The same is
8016 true for tokens with the conditional parentheses. They may appear in
8017 arguments, though you do have to be careful to get the quoting and
8018 escaping of nested double quotes correct. If this was in the signature
8019 file being used and you were replying to a message sent to
8020 comp.mail.pine the resulting text would be:
8022 This msg was seen in group: comp.mail.pine.
8024 If you were replying to a message which wasn't sent to any newsgroup
8025 the resulting text would be a single blank line. The reason you'd get a
8026 blank line is because the end of the line is outside of the
8027 conditional, so is always included. If you wanted to get rid of that
8028 blank line you could do so by moving the end of line inside the
8029 conditional. In other words, it's ok to have multi-line "if_matched" or
8030 "if_not_matched" arguments. The text just continues until the next
8031 double quotation, even if it's not on the same line.
8033 Here's one more (contrived) example illustrating a matching argument
8034 which is not the empty string.
8036 _SMARTDATE_("Today", _SMARTDATE_, "On _DATE_") _FROM_ wrote:
8038 If this was the value of your "Reply-Leadin" option and you were
8039 replying to a message which was sent today, then the value of the
8040 "Reply-Leadin" would be
8042 Today Fred Flintstone wrote:
8044 But if you were replying to a message sent on Oct. 27 (and that wasn't
8045 today) you would get
8047 On Oct 27 Fred Flintstone wrote:
8049 Per Server Directory Configuration
8051 This is only available if _Alpine_ was built with LDAP support. If
8052 that's the case, there will be a Directory option underneath the Setup
8053 command on the Main Menu. Each server that is defined there has several
8054 configuration variables which control the behavior when using it.
8055 _ldap-server_
8056 This is the name of the host where an LDAP server is running.
8057 To find out whether your organization has its own LDAP server,
8058 contact its computing support staff.
8059 _search-base_
8060 This is the search base to be used on this server. It functions
8061 as a filter by restricting your searches in the LDAP server
8062 database to the specified contents of the specified fields.
8063 Without it, searches submitted to this directory server may
8064 fail. It might be something like:
8065 O = <Your Organization Name>, C = US
8067 or it might be blank. (Some LDAP servers actually ignore
8068 anything specified here.)
8069 If in doubt what parameters you should specify here, contact the
8070 maintainers of the LDAP server.
8071 _port_
8072 This is the TCP port number to be used with this LDAP server. If
8073 you leave this blank port 389 will be used.
8074 _nickname_
8075 This is a nickname to be used in displays. If you don't supply a
8076 nickname the server name from "ldap-server" will be used
8077 instead. This option is strictly for your convenience.
8078 _use-implicitly-from-composer_
8079 Set this feature to have lookups done to this server implicitly
8080 from the composer. If an address doesn't look like a
8081 fully-qualified address, it will be looked up in your address
8082 books, and if it doesn't match a nickname there, then it will be
8083 looked up on the LDAP servers which have this feature set. The
8084 lookups will also be done when using the address completion
8085 feature (TAB command) in the composer if any of the serves have
8086 this feature set. Also see the LDAP feature
8087 lookup-addrbook-contents and the Setup/Config feature
8088 ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
8089 _lookup-addrbook-contents_
8090 Normally implicit LDAP lookups from the composer are done only
8091 for the strings you type in from the composer screen. In other
8092 words, you type in something in the To or CC field and press
8093 return, then the string is looked up. First that string is
8094 looked up in your address books. If a match is found there, then
8095 the results of that match are looked up again. If you place a
8096 string in your address book that you want to have looked up on
8097 the LDAP directory server, you need to turn on this feature. If
8098 you set this feature for a server, you almost always will also
8099 want to set the use-implicitly-from-composer feature. An example
8100 might serve to best illustrate this feature.
8101 If an LDAP lookup of "William Clinton" normally returns an entry
8102 with an address of pres@whitehouse.gov, then you might put an
8103 entry in your address book that looks like:
8104 Nickname Address
8105 bill "William Clinton"
8107 Now, when you type "bill" into an address field in the composer
8108 _Alpine_ will find the "bill" entry in your address book. It will
8109 replace "bill" with "William Clinton". It will then search for
8110 an entry with that nickname in your address book and not find
8111 one. If this feature is set, _Alpine_ will then attempt to
8112 lookup "William Clinton" on the LDAP server and find the entry
8113 with address pres@whitehouse.gov.
8114 A better way to accomplish the same thing is probably to use the
8115 feature save-search-criteria-not-result.
8116 _save-search-criteria-not-result_
8117 Normally when you save the results of an LDAP directory lookup
8118 to your address book the _results_ of the lookup are saved. If
8119 this feature is set and the entry being saved was found on this
8120 directory server, then the search _criteria_ is saved instead of
8121 the _results_ of the search. When this address book entry is
8122 used in the future, instead of copying the results from the
8123 address book the directory lookup will be done again. This could
8124 be useful if the copied result might become stale because the
8125 data on the directory server changes (for example, the entry's
8126 email address changes). You probably don't want to set this
8127 feature if the server is at all slow or unreliable.
8128 The way this actually works is that instead of saving the email
8129 address in your address book, _Alpine_ saves enough information
8130 to look up the same directory entry again. In particular, it
8131 saves the server name and the distinguished name of the entry.
8132 It's possible that the server administrators might change the
8133 format of distinguished names on the server, or that the entry
8134 might be removed from the server. If _Alpine_ notices this, you
8135 will be warned and a backup copy of the email address will be
8136 used. You may want to create a new entry in this case, since you
8137 will get the annoying warning every time you use the old entry.
8138 You may do that by Saving the entry to a new nickname in the
8139 same address book. You will be asked whether or not you want to
8140 use the backup email address.
8141 A related feature in the Setup/Config screen is
8142 ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
8143 _disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution_
8144 Spaces in your input are normally handled specially. Each space
8145 character is replaced by
8146 * <SPACE>
8148 in the search query (but not by "* <SPACE> *"). The reason this
8149 is done is so the input string
8150 Greg Donald
8152 (which is converted to "Greg* Donald") will match the names
8153 "Greg Donald", "Gregory Donald", "Greg F. Donald", and "Gregory
8154 F Donald"; but it won't match "Greg McDonald". If the
8155 "Search-Rule" you were using was "begins-with", then it would
8156 also match the name "Greg Donaldson".
8157 Turning on this feature will disable this substitution.
8158 _search-type_
8159 This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. In particular,
8160 this tells the server where to look for the string to be
8161 matched. If set to "name" then the string that is being searched
8162 for will be compared with the string in the "Name" field on the
8163 server (technically, it is the "commonname" field on the
8164 server). "Surname" means we're looking for a match in the
8165 "Surname" field on the server (actually the "sn" field).
8166 "Givenname" really is "givenname" and "email" is the electronic
8167 mail address (this is actually the field called "mail" or
8168 "electronicmail" on the server). The other three types are
8169 combinations of the types listed so far. "Name-or-email" means
8170 the string should appear in either the "name" field OR the
8171 "email" field. Likewise, "surname-or-givenname" means "surname"
8172 OR "givenname" and "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email" means the
8173 obvious thing.
8174 This search _type_ is combined with the search rule to form the
8175 actual search query.
8176 The usual default value for this option is
8177 "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email". This type of search may be slow
8178 on some servers. Try "name-or-email", which is often faster, or
8179 just "name" if the performance seems to be a problem.
8180 Some servers have been configured with different attribute names
8181 for these four fields. In other words, instead of using the
8182 attribute name "mail" for the email address field, the server
8183 might be configured to use something else, for example,
8184 "rfc822mail" or "internetemailaddress". _Alpine_ can be
8185 configured to use these different attribute names by using the
8186 four per-server configuration options:
8187 + email-attribute
8188 + name-attribute
8189 + surname-attribute
8190 + givenname-attribute
8191 _search-rule_
8192 This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. If set to
8193 "equals" then only exact matches count. "Contains" means that
8194 the string you type in is a substring of what you are matching
8195 against. "Begins-with" and "ends-with" mean that the string
8196 starts or ends with the string you type in.
8197 Spaces in your input are normally handled specially, but you can
8198 turn that special handling off with the
8199 disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution feature.
8200 The usual default value for this option is _begins-with_.
8201 _email-attribute_
8202 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8203 looking for an email address. The default value for this option
8204 is "mail" or "electronicmail". If the server you are using uses
8205 a different attribute name for the email address, put that
8206 attribute name here.
8207 This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is
8208 one that contains a search for "email". It will also cause the
8209 attribute value matching this attribute name to be used as the
8210 email address when you look up an entry from the composer.
8211 _name-attribute_
8212 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8213 looking for the name of the entry. The default value for this
8214 option is "cn", which stands for common name. If the server you
8215 are using uses a different attribute name for the name, put that
8216 attribute name here. This will affect the search filter used if
8217 your Search-Type is one that contains a search for "name".
8218 _surname-attribute_
8219 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8220 looking for the surname of the entry. The default value for this
8221 option is "sn". If the server you are using uses a different
8222 attribute name for the surname, put that attribute name here.
8223 This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is
8224 one that contains a search for "surname".
8225 _givenname-attribute_
8226 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8227 looking for the given name of the entry. The default value for
8228 this option is "givenname". If the server you are using uses a
8229 different attribute name for the given name, put that attribute
8230 name here. This will affect the search filter used if your
8231 Search-Type is one that contains a search for "givenname".
8232 _timelimit_
8233 This places a limit on the number of seconds the LDAP search
8234 will continue. The default is 30 seconds. A value of 0 means no
8235 limit. Note that some servers may place limits of their own on
8236 searches.
8237 _sizelimit_
8238 This places a limit on the number of entries returned by the
8239 LDAP server. A value of 0 means no limit. The default is 0. Note
8240 that some servers may place limits of their own on searches.
8241 _custom-search-filter_
8242 This one is for advanced users only! If you define this, then
8243 the search-type and search-rule defined are both ignored.
8244 However, the feature disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution is still
8245 in effect. That is, the space substitution will take place even
8246 in a custom filter unless you disable it.
8247 If your LDAP service stops working and you suspect it might be
8248 because of your custom filter, just delete this filter and try
8249 using the _search-type_ and _search-rule_ instead. Another
8250 option that sometimes causes trouble is the search-base option.
8251 This variable may be set to the string representation of an LDAP
8252 search filter (see RFC1960). In the places where you want the
8253 address string to be substituted in, put a '%s' in this filter
8254 string. Here are some examples:
8255 A "Search-Type" of "name" with "Search-Rule" of "begins-with" is
8256 equivalent to the "custom-search-filter"
8257 (cn=%s*)
8259 When you try to match against the string "string" the program
8260 replaces the "%s" with "string" (without the quotes). You may
8261 have multiple "%s"'s and they will all be replaced with the
8262 string. There is a limit of 10 "%s"'s.
8263 A "Search-Type" of "name-or-email" with "Search-Rule" of
8264 "contains" is equivalent to
8265 (|(cn=*%s*)(mail=*%s*))
8267 If your server uses a different attribute _name_ than _Alpine_
8268 uses by default, (for example, it uses "rfc822mail" instead of
8269 "mail"), then you may be able to use one or more of the four
8270 attribute configuration options instead of defining a custom
8271 filter:
8272 + email-attribute
8273 + name-attribute
8274 + surname-attribute
8275 + givenname-attribute
8277 Color Configuration
8279 If the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of using
8280 color (see color-style option), or if you are using _PC-Alpine_, then
8281 it is possible to set up _Alpine_ so that various parts of the display
8282 will be shown in colors you configure. This is done using the Setup
8283 Color screen. The Setup Color screen is divided into five broad
8284 sections: Options, General Colors, Index Colors, Header Colors, and
8285 Keyword Colors. In addition to these five categories you may also color
8286 lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen by configuring the Index Line Color.
8288 Each color is defined as a foreground color (the color of the actual
8289 text) and a background color (the color of the area behind the text).
8291 Color Options
8293 _current-indexline-style_
8294 This option affects the colors used to display the current line
8295 in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not have Index Line
8296 Colors defined, then this option will have no effect in the
8297 index. Those Rules may be defined by going to the
8298 Setup/Rules/Indexcolor screen.
8300 If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on and
8301 the Incoming Unseen Color is set to something other than the
8302 default, then this option also affects the color used to display
8303 the current folder in the Incoming FOLDER LIST screen.
8305 The available options include:
8307 flip-colors
8308 This is the default. If an index line is colored because
8309 it matches one of your Index Color Rules, then its colors
8310 will be reversed when it is the currently highlighted
8311 line. For example, if the line is normally red text on a
8312 blue background, then when it is the current line it will
8313 be drawn as blue text on a red background.
8315 The rest of the option values all revert to this
8316 flip-colors behavior if there is no Reverse Color defined.
8318 reverse
8319 With this option the Reverse color is always used to
8320 highlight the current line.
8322 reverse-fg
8323 The foreground part of the Reverse Color is used to
8324 highlight the current line. If this would cause the text
8325 to be unreadable (because the foreground and background
8326 colors are the same) or if it would cause no change in the
8327 color of the index line, then the colors are flipped
8328 instead.
8330 Some people think this works particularly well if you use
8331 different background colors to emphasize "interesting"
8332 lines, but always with the same Normal foreground color,
8333 and you use a different foreground color for the Reverse
8334 Color.
8336 reverse-fg-no-ambiguity
8337 With the "reverse-fg" rule above, it is possible that the
8338 resulting color will be exactly the same as the regular
8339 Reverse Color. That can lead to some possible confusion
8340 because an "interesting" line which is the current line
8341 will be displayed exactly the same as a non-interesting
8342 line which is current. You can't tell whether the line is
8343 just a regular current line or if it is an "interesting"
8344 current line by looking at the color. Setting the option
8345 to this value removes that ambiguity. It is the same as
8346 the "reverse-fg" setting unless the resulting interesting
8347 current line would look just like a non-interesting
8348 current line. In that case, the interesting line's colors
8349 are simply flipped (like in the default behavior).
8351 As an alternative way to preserve the line's
8352 interestingness in this case, you may find that using both
8353 a different foreground and a different background color
8354 for the interesting line will help.
8356 reverse-bg
8357 The background part of the Reverse Color is used to
8358 highlight the current line. If this would cause the text
8359 to be unreadable (because the foreground and background
8360 colors are the same) or if it would cause no change in the
8361 color of the index line, then the colors are flipped
8362 instead.
8364 Some people think this works particularly well if you use
8365 different foreground colors to emphasize "interesting"
8366 lines, but always with the same Normal background color,
8367 and you use a different background color for the Reverse
8368 Color.
8370 reverse-bg-no-ambiguity
8371 As with the "reverse-fg" case, the "reverse-bg" rule may
8372 also result in a color which is exactly the same as the
8373 regular Reverse Color. Setting the option to this value
8374 removes that ambiguity. It is the same as the "reverse-bg"
8375 setting unless the resulting current line has the same
8376 color as the Reverse Color. In that case, the interesting
8377 line's colors are simply flipped (like in the default
8378 behavior).
8380 _titlebar-color-style_
8381 This option affects the colors used to display the titlebar (the
8382 top line on the screen) when viewing a message.
8384 The available options include:
8386 default
8387 The color of the titlebar will be the color you set for
8388 the Title Color. The Title Color may be set by using the
8390 indexline
8391 The color of the titlebar will be the same as the color of
8392 the index line corresponding to the message being viewed.
8393 The rules which determine what color the index line will
8394 be may be set up by going to the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor
8395 screen. If the index line for a message is not colored
8396 explicitly by the Indexcolor rules, then the titlebar will
8397 be colored the same as for the "default" option above
8398 (which is not the same color that the index line itself
8399 will have).
8401 reverse-indexline
8402 This is similar to the "indexline" option except the
8403 foreground and background colors from the corresponding
8404 index line will be reversed. For example, if the index
8405 line color is red letters on a white background, then the
8406 titlebar will be white letters on a red background. If the
8407 index line for a message is not colored explicitly by the
8408 Indexcolor rules, then the titlebar will be colored the
8409 same as for the "default" option above (which is not the
8410 same color that the index line itself will have).
8412 General Colors
8414 _Normal Color_
8415 This is the color which most of the screen is painted in. By
8416 default this color is black characters on a white background.
8417 _Reverse Color_
8418 The color _Alpine_ uses for reverse video characters. Actually,
8419 the name is misleading. This used to be reverse video and so the
8420 name remains. It is still used to highlight certain parts of the
8421 screen but the color may be set to whatever you'd like.
8422 _Title Color_
8423 The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the
8424 screen). By default, the Title Color is black characters on a
8425 yellow background. The actual titlebar color may be different
8426 from the Title Color if the option titlebar-color-style is set
8427 to some value other than the default. It may also be different
8428 if the current folder is closed and the Title Closed Color is
8429 set to something different from the Title Color.
8430 _Title-closed Color_
8431 The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the
8432 screen) when the current folder is closed. By default, the Title
8433 Color Closed Color is white characters on a red background.
8434 _Status Color_
8435 The color _Alpine_ uses for messages written to the status
8436 message line near the bottom of the screen. By default, the
8437 Status Color is the same as the Reverse Color.
8438 _KeyLabel Color_
8439 The color _Alpine_ uses for the labels of the commands in the
8440 two-line menu at the bottom of the screen. The label is the long
8441 name, for example, "PrevMsg". By default, the KeyLabel Color is
8442 the same as the Normal Color.
8443 WARNING: Some terminal emulators have the property that the
8444 screen will scroll down one line whenever a character is written
8445 to the character cell in the lower right corner of the screen.
8446 _Alpine_ can usually avoid writing a character in that corner of
8447 the screen. However, if you have defined a KeyLabel Color then
8448 _Alpine_ does have to write a character in that cell in order to
8449 color the cell correctly. If you find that your display
8450 sometimes scrolls up a line this could be the problem. The most
8451 obvious symptom is probably that the titlebar at the top of the
8452 screen scrolls off the screen. Try setting KeyLabel Color to
8453 Default to see if that fixes the problem.
8454 _KeyName Color_
8455 The color _Alpine_ uses for the names of the commands in the
8456 two-line menu at the bottom of the screen. The KeyName is the
8457 shorter name in the menu. For example, the "W" before the
8458 "WhereIs". By default, the KeyName Color is the same as the
8459 Normal Color.
8460 _Selectable-item Color_
8461 The color _Alpine_ uses for displaying selectable items, such as
8462 URLs. By default, the Selectable-item Color is the same as the
8463 Normal Color, except it is also Bold.
8464 _Meta-message Color_
8465 The color _Alpine_ uses in the MESSAGE TEXT screen for messages
8466 to you that aren't part of the message itself. By default, the
8467 Meta-Message Color is black characters on a yellow background.
8468 _Quote Colors_
8469 The colors _Alpine_ uses for coloring quoted text in the MESSAGE
8470 TEXT screen. If a line begins with a > character (or space
8471 followed by >) it is considered a quote. That line will be given
8472 the Quote1 Color (first level quote). If there is a second level
8473 of quoting then the Quote2 Color will be used. _Alpine_
8474 considers there to be a second level of quoting if that first >
8475 is followed by another > (or space followed by >). If there are
8476 characters other than whitespace and > signs, then it isn't
8477 considered another level of quoting. Similarly, if there is a
8478 third level of quoting the Quote3 Color will be used. If there
8479 are more levels after that the Quote Colors are reused. If you
8480 define all three colors then it would repeat like Color1,
8481 Color2, Color3, Color1, Color2, Color3, ... If you only define
8482 the first two it would be Color1, Color2, Color1, Color2, ... If
8483 you define only the Quote1 Color, then the entire quote would be
8484 that color regardless of the quoting levels. By default, the
8485 Quote1 Color is black characters on a greenish-blue background;
8486 the Quote2 Color is black characters on a dull yellow
8487 background; and the Quote3 Color is black characters on a green
8488 background.
8489 _Incoming Unseen Color_
8490 If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on it
8491 is possible to highlight the folders that contain unseen
8492 messages by coloring them with this color. By default, this is
8493 the same as the Normal Color and no highlighting is done.
8494 Usually the "current" folder (the folder the cursor is on) is
8495 highlighted using reverse video. If the current folder is
8496 colored because it contains unseen messages then the color used
8497 to show that it is also the current folder is controlled by the
8498 current-indexline-style feature at the top of the SETUP COLOR
8499 screen.
8500 _Signature Color_
8501 The color _Alpine_ uses for coloring the signature in the
8502 MESSAGE TEXT screen. According to USENET conventions, the
8503 signature is defined as the paragraph following the "sigdashes",
8504 that is, the special line consisting of the three characters
8505 "-- " (i.e., dash, dash, and space). _Alpine_ allows for one
8506 empty line right after the sigdashes to be considered as part of
8507 the signature. By default, the Signature Color is blue
8508 characters on a white background.
8509 _Prompt Color_
8510 The color _Alpine_ uses for confirmation prompts and questions
8511 which appear in the status message line near the bottom of the
8512 screen. By default, the Prompt Color is the same as the Reverse
8513 Color.
8515 Index Colors
8517 You may add color to the single character symbols which give the status
8518 of each message in the MESSAGE INDEX. By default the characters "+",
8519 "*", "D", "A", and "N" show up near the left hand side of the screen,
8520 depending on whether the message is addressed to you, and whether the
8521 message is marked Important, is Deleted, is Answered, or is New. You
8522 may set the color of those symbols. By default, all of these symbols
8523 are drawn with the same color as the rest of the index line they are a
8524 part of.
8526 Besides coloring the message status symbols, you may also color the
8527 entire index line. This is done by using the Index Line Color
8528 configuration screen. It is also possible to color (keywords in the
8529 index using the Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors); the ARROW cursor;
8530 the Subject using Index Subject Color; the From using Index From Color;
8531 and the Index Opening text.
8533 _Index-to-me Symbol Color_
8534 The color used for drawing the "+" symbol which signifies a
8535 message is addressed directly to you.
8536 _Index-important Symbol Color_
8537 The color used for drawing the "*" symbol which signifies a
8538 message has been flagged Important.
8539 _Index-deleted Symbol Color_
8540 The color used for drawing the "D" symbol which signifies a
8541 message has been marked Deleted.
8542 _Index-answered Symbol Color_
8543 The color used for drawing the "A" symbol which signifies a
8544 message has been answered.
8545 _Index-new Symbol Color_
8546 The color used for drawing the "N" symbol which signifies a
8547 message is New.
8548 _Index-recent Symbol Color_
8549 The color used for drawing the "R" symbol which signifies a
8550 message is Recent (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or
8551 "SHORTIMAPSTATUS" token is part of the index-format option).
8552 _Index-unseen Symbol Color_
8553 The color used for drawing the "U" symbol which signifies a
8554 message is Unseen (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or
8555 "SHORTIMAPSTATUS" token is part of the Index-Format option).
8556 _Index-priority Symbol Colors_
8557 The colors used for drawing the tokens "PRIORITY",
8558 "PRIORITYALPHA", and "PRIORITY!" when these are configured as
8559 part of the Index-Format option. You may set the color used to
8560 draw these tokens by use of the colors Index High Priority
8561 Symbol Color and Index Low Priority Symbol Color. This coloring
8562 takes place for all but the current index line, and the Priority
8563 Color appears to be in front of any color from an Index Color
8564 Rule. If the priority has a value of 1 or 2 the High Priority
8565 color will be used, and if the value is 4 or 5 the Low Priority
8566 color will be used.
8567 If you don't set these colors the index line will be colored in
8568 the same color as the bulk of the index line.
8569 _Index-arrow Symbol Color_
8570 The color used for drawing the "ARROW" token when it is
8571 configured as part of the Index-Format option.
8572 _Index-subject Symbol Color_
8573 You may set the color used to draw the Subject part of the index
8574 line. This coloring takes place for all but the current index
8575 line, and the Subject Color appears to be in front of any color
8576 from an Index Color Rule.
8577 If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color
8578 as the bulk of the index line.
8579 _Index-from Symbol Color_
8580 You may set the color used to draw the From part of the index
8581 line. This coloring takes place for all but the current index
8582 line, and the From Color appears to be in front of any color
8583 from an Index Color Rule.
8584 If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color
8585 as the bulk of the index line.
8586 _Index-opening Symbol Color_
8587 It is possible to configure the Index-Format option so that it
8588 includes the subject followed by the "opening" text of the
8589 message if there is enough space. This is done by using one of
8590 the tokens SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT. The
8591 color used for drawing this opening text is given by this
8592 option. The coloring happens for all but the current index line,
8593 and this opening color appears to be in front of any color from
8594 an Index Color Rule.
8595 By default the Index Opening Color is gray characters on a white
8596 background.
8598 The default colors for these symbols are:
8600 Index-to-me black on cyan
8601 Index-important white on bright red
8602 Index-deleted same as Normal Color
8603 Index-answered bright red on yellow
8604 Index-new white on magenta
8605 Index-recent same as Normal Color
8606 Index-unseen same as Normal Color
8608 Header Colors
8610 You may add color to the header fields in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. The
8612 _Header-general Color_
8613 may be used to color all of the headers of the message.
8615 It is also possible to set the colors for specific header fields, for
8616 example for the Subject or From fields, using the viewer-hdr-colors
8617 option.
8619 For Header Colors, there is an additional line on the configuration
8620 screen labeled "Pattern to match". If you leave that blank, then the
8621 whole field for that header will always be colored. However, if you
8622 give a pattern to match, the coloring will only take place if there is
8623 a match for that pattern in the value of the field. For example, if you
8624 are working on a color for the Subject header and you fill in a pattern
8625 of "important", then only Subjects which contain the word "important"
8626 will be colored. For address fields like From or To, a pattern match
8627 will cause only the addresses which match the pattern to be colored.
8629 If the pattern you enter is a comma-separated list of patterns, then
8630 coloring happens if any of those patterns matches.
8632 Keyword Colors
8634 Sets the colors _Alpine_ uses for Keyword fields in the MESSAGE INDEX
8635 screen. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject of a message
8636 by using the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens in the Index-Format
8637 option. Keywords may also be displayed in a column of their own in the
8638 MESSAGE INDEX screen by using the "KEY" or "KEYINIT" tokens.
8640 For example, you might have set up a Keyword "Work" using the Keywords
8641 option in the Setup/Config screen. You could cause that Keyword to show
8642 up as a special color by setting up the Keyword Color using this
8643 option, and then including it in the MESSAGE INDEX screen using one of
8644 the tokens listed above in the Index-Format.
8646 Index Line Colors
8648 You may color whole index lines by using roles. This isn't configured
8649 in the Setup Colors screen, but is configured in the Setup Rules
8650 IndexColor screen.
8652 Index Line Color Configuration
8654 Index Line Color causes lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen to be
8655 colored. This action is only available if your terminal is capable of
8656 displaying color and color display has been enabled with the
8657 Color-Style option. (In PC-Alpine, color is always enabled so there is
8658 no option to turn on.)
8660 Each rule has a "Pattern", which is used to decide which of the rules
8661 is used; and the color which is used if the Pattern matches a
8662 particular message.
8664 Rule Patterns
8666 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a rule the
8667 message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
8668 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
8669 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
8671 Index Line Color
8673 This is the color that index lines are colored when there is a matching
8674 Pattern. This colors the whole index line, except possibly the status
8675 letters which may be colored separately using the Setup Kolor screen.
8677 Role Configuration
8679 You may play different roles depending on who you are replying to. For
8680 example, if you are replying to a message addressed to _help-desk_ you
8681 may be acting as a Help Desk Worker. That role may require that you use
8682 a different return address and/or a different signature.
8684 Roles are optional. If you set up roles they work like this: Each role
8685 has a set of "Uses", which indicate whether or not a role is eligible
8686 to be considered for a particular use; a "Pattern", which is used to
8687 decide which of the eligible roles is used; and a set of "Actions",
8688 which are taken when that role is used. When you reply to a message,
8689 the message you are replying to is compared with the Patterns of the
8690 roles marked as eligible for use when replying. The comparisons start
8691 with the first eligible role and keep going until there is a match. If
8692 a match is found, the matching role's Actions are taken.
8694 It is also possible to set a default role and to change that role
8695 during your _Alpine_ session. When you start _Alpine_ no default role
8696 will be set. You may set or change the current default role by using
8697 the "D" command in the role selection screen. You'll see that screen
8698 while composing a message and being asked to select a role. An easy way
8699 to get to that screen is to use the Role Command to compose a message.
8700 You may find a default role useful if you normally perform the duties
8701 of one of your roles for a while, then you switch to another role and
8702 stay in the new role for another period of time. It may be easier than
8703 using the Role Command to select the role each time you compose a
8704 message.
8706 Role Uses
8708 There are three types of use to be configured; one for Replying, one
8709 for Forwarding, and one for Composing. These indicate whether or not
8710 you want a role to be considered when you type the Reply, Forward, or
8711 Compose commands. (The Role command is an alternate form of the Compose
8712 command, and it is not affected by these settings.) Each of these Use
8713 types has three possible values. The value "Never" means that the role
8714 will never be considered as a candidate for use with the corresponding
8715 command. For example, if you set a role's Reply Use to Never, then when
8716 you Reply to a message, the role won't even be considered. (That isn't
8717 quite true. If the message you are replying to matches some other role
8718 which requires confirmation, then there will be a ^T command available
8719 which allows you to select a role from all of your roles, not just the
8720 reply-eligible roles.)
8722 The options "With confirmation" and "Without confirmation" both mean
8723 that you do want to consider this role when using the corresponding
8724 command. For either of these settings the role's Pattern will be
8725 checked to see if it matches the message. For Reply Use, the message
8726 used to compare the Patterns with is the message being replied to. For
8727 Forward Use, the message used to compare the Pattern with is the
8728 message being forwarded. For Compose Use, there is no message, so the
8729 parts of the Pattern which depend on a message (everything other than
8730 Current Folder Type) are ignored. In all cases, the Current Folder is
8731 checked if defined. If there is a match then this role will either be
8732 used without confirmation or will be the default when confirmation is
8733 asked for, depending on which of the two options is selected. If
8734 confirmation is requested, you will have a chance to choose No Role
8735 instead of the offered role, or to change the role to any one of your
8736 other roles (with the ^T command).
8738 Role Patterns
8740 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a role the
8741 message is compared with the Role Pattern. These Patterns are the same
8742 for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules,
8743 and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
8745 Since header patterns, AllText patterns, and BodyText patterns which
8746 are unset are ignored, a role which has all header patterns unset, the
8747 AllText pattern unset, the BodyText pattern unset, the Score Interval
8748 unset, and the Current Folder Type set to "Any" may be used as a
8749 default role. It should be put last in the list of roles since the
8750 matching starts at the beginning and proceeds until one of the roles is
8751 a match. If no roles at all match, then _Alpine_ will use its regular
8752 methods of defining the role. If you wanted to, you could define a
8753 different "default" role for Replying, Forwarding, and Composing by
8754 setting the "Use" fields appropriately.
8756 Role Actions
8758 Once a role match is found, the role's Actions are taken. For each role
8759 there are several possible actions that may be defined. They are
8760 actions to set the From address, the Reply-To address, the Fcc, the
8761 Signature file, and the Template file.
8763 Initialize Settings Using Role
8765 This is a power user feature. You will usually want to leave this field
8766 empty. The value of this field is the nickname of another one of your
8767 roles. The Action values from that other role are used as the initial
8768 values of the Action items for this role. If you put something in any
8769 of the action fields for this role, that will override whatever was in
8770 the corresponding field of the initializer role.
8772 You might use this field if the "Action" part of one of your roles is
8773 something you want to use in more than one role. Instead of filling in
8774 those action values again for each role, you may give the nickname of
8775 the role where the values are filled in. It's just a shortcut way to
8776 define Role Actions.
8778 Here's an example to help explain how this works. Suppose you have a
8779 role with nickname "role1" and role1 has (among other things)
8781 Set Reply-To = The Pres <president@example.com>
8783 set. If in "role2" you set "Initialize settings using role" to "role1",
8784 then role2 will inherit the Set Reply-To value from role1 by default
8785 (and any of the other inheritable action values that are set). So if
8786 role2 had
8788 Set Reply-To = <No Value Set>
8790 defined, the Reply-To used with role2 would be "The Pres
8791 <president@example.com>" However, if role2 had
8793 Set Reply-To = VP <vicepresident@example.com>
8795 defined, then the Reply-To used with role2 would be "VP
8796 <vicepresident@example.com>" instead.
8798 If you wish, you may choose a nickname from your list of roles by using
8799 the "T" command. If the role you are using to initialize also has a
8800 role it initializes from, then that initialization happens first. That
8801 is, inheritance works as expected with the grandparent and
8802 great-grandparent (and so on) roles having the expected effect.
8804 Set From
8806 This field consists of a single address which will be used as the From
8807 address on the message you are sending. This should be a
8808 fully-qualified address like
8810 Full Name <user@domain>
8812 or just
8814 user@domain
8816 If this is left blank, then the normal From address will be used.
8818 Set Reply-To
8820 The Reply-To address is the address used on the Reply-To line of the
8821 message you are sending. You don't need a Reply-To address unless it is
8822 different from the From address. This should be a fully-qualified
8823 address like
8825 Full Name <user@domain>
8827 or just
8829 user@domain
8831 If this is left blank, then there won't be a Reply-To address unless
8832 you have configured one specially with the customized-hdrs
8833 configuration option.
8835 Set Other-Hdrs
8837 This field gives you a way to set values for headers besides "From" and
8838 "Reply-To". If you want to set either of those, use the specific "Set
8839 From" and "Set Reply-To" settings.
8841 This field is similar to the customized-hdrs option. Each header you
8842 specify here must include the header tag ("To:", "Approved:", etc.) and
8843 may optionally include a value for that header. In order to see these
8844 headers when you compose using this role you must use the rich header
8845 command. Here's an example which shows how you might set the To
8846 address.
8848 Set Other Hdrs = To: Full Name <user@domain>
8850 Headers set in this way are different from headers set with the
8851 customized-hdrs option in that the value you give for a header here
8852 will replace any value that already exists. For example, if you are
8853 Replying to a message there will already be at least one address in the
8854 To header (the address you are Replying to). However, if you Reply
8855 using a role which sets the To header, that role's To header value will
8856 be used instead. The customized-hdrs headers are defaults.
8858 Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of Other
8859 Headers, it is not possible to have the value of a header contain a
8860 comma; nor is there currently an "escape" mechanism provided to make
8861 this work.
8863 Set Fcc
8865 This field consists of a single folder name which will be used in the
8866 Fcc field of the message you are sending. You may put anything here
8867 that you would normally type into the Fcc field from the composer.
8869 In addition, an fcc of "" (two double quotation marks) means no Fcc.
8871 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
8872 deciding the default value of the Fcc field. For many roles, perhaps
8873 most, it may make more sense for you to use the other _Alpine_
8874 facilities for setting the Fcc. In particular, if you want the Fcc to
8875 depend on who you are sending the message to then the fcc-name-rule is
8876 probably more useful. In that case, you would want to leave the Fcc
8877 field here blank. However, if you have a role that depends on who the
8878 message you are replying to was From, or what address that message was
8879 sent to; then it might make sense to set the Fcc for that role here.
8881 Set LiteralSig
8883 This field contains the actual text for your signature, as opposed to
8884 the name of a file containing your signature. If this is defined it
8885 takes precedence over any value set in the _Set Signature_ field.
8887 This is simply a different way to store the signature. The signature is
8888 stored inside your Alpine configuration file instead of in a separate
8889 signature file. Tokens work the same way they do with _Set Signature_.
8891 The two character sequence \n (backslash followed by the character n)
8892 will be used to signify a line-break in your signature. You don't have
8893 to enter the \n, but it will be visible in the CHANGE THIS ROLE RULE
8894 window after you are done editing the signature.
8896 Set Signature
8898 The Signature is the name of a file to be used as the signature file
8899 when this role is being used. If the filename is followed by a vertical
8900 bar (|) then instead of reading the contents of the file the file is
8901 assumed to be a program which will produce the text to be used on its
8902 standard output. The program can't have any arguments and doesn't
8903 receive any input from _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works
8904 as if the contents came from a file.
8906 Signature files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to
8907 do that you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the
8908 regular signature-file option which is configured from the
8909 Setup/Configuration screen. A remote signature file name might look
8910 like:
8912 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/sig3
8914 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
8916 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/sig3
8918 Once you have named the remote signature file you create its contents
8919 by using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set
8920 Signature" line of the role editor.
8922 Besides containing regular text, a signature file may also contain (or
8923 a signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text
8924 which depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The
8925 tokens all look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For
8926 example, if the token
8928 _DATE_
8930 is included in the text of the signature file, then when you reply to
8931 or forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date
8932 the message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
8934 If you use a role which has a signature file for a plain composition
8935 (that is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so
8936 any tokens which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing.
8937 So if you want a signature file to be useful for new compositions it
8938 shouldn't include any of the tokens which depend on the message being
8939 replied to or forwarded.
8941 The list of available tokens is here.
8943 Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
8944 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
8945 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based on
8946 whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any newsgroups if it
8947 was used. It's explained in detail here.
8949 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in
8950 a signature file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For
8951 example, to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use
8952 \_DATE_. It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
8953 expanded token.
8955 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
8956 deciding which file (if any) to use for the signature file.
8958 Set Template
8960 A Template is the name of a file to be included in the message when
8961 this role is being used. The template file is a file which is included
8962 at the top of the message you are composing.
8964 If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead of
8965 reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a program
8966 which will produce the text to be used on its standard output. The
8967 program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive any input from
8968 _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as if the contents came
8969 from a file.
8971 Template files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to do
8972 that you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the
8973 regular signature-file option which is configured from the
8974 Setup/Configuration screen. A remote template file name might look
8975 like:
8977 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/templ3
8979 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
8981 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/templ3
8983 Once you have named the remote template file you create its contents by
8984 using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set
8985 Template" line of the role editor.
8987 Besides containing regular text, a template file may also contain (or a
8988 template file program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text
8989 which depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The
8990 tokens all look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For
8991 example, if the token
8993 _DATE_
8995 is included in the text of the template file, then when you reply to or
8996 forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date the
8997 message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
8999 If you use a role which has a template file for a plain composition
9000 (that is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so
9001 any tokens which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing.
9002 So if you want a template file to be useful for new compositions it
9003 shouldn't include any of the tokens which depend on the message being
9004 replied to or forwarded.
9006 The list of available tokens is here.
9008 Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
9009 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
9010 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based on
9011 whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any newsgroups if it
9012 was used. It's explained in detail here.
9014 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in
9015 a template file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For
9016 example, to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use
9017 \_DATE_. It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
9018 expanded token.
9020 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will not use a template file
9021 when this role is being used.
9023 Use SMTP Server
9025 If this field has a value, then it will be used as the SMTP server to
9026 send mail when this role is being used (unless the SMTP server variable
9027 is set in the system-wide fixed configuration file). It has the same
9028 semantics as the smtp-server variable in the Setup/Config screen. When
9029 you postpone the composition this SMTP server list will be saved with
9030 the postponed composition and it cannot be changed later. Because of
9031 that, you may want to make this a list of SMTP servers with the
9032 preferred server at the front of the list and alternate servers later
9033 in the list.
9035 If any of the actions are left unset, then the action depends on what
9036 is present in the "Initialize settings using role" field. If you've
9037 listed the nickname of another one of your roles there, then the
9038 corresponding action from that role will be used here. If that action
9039 is also blank, or if there is no nickname specified, then _Alpine_ will
9040 do whatever it normally does to set these actions. This depends on
9041 other configuration options and features you've set.
9043 Filtering Configuration
9045 The software which actually delivers mail (the stuff that happens
9046 before _Alpine_ is involved) for you is in a better position to do mail
9047 filtering than _Alpine_ itself. If possible, you may want to look into
9048 using that sort of mail filtering to deliver mail to different folders,
9049 delete it, or forward it. However, if you'd like _Alpine_ to help with
9050 this, _Alpine_'s filtering is for you.
9052 Filtering is a way to automatically move certain messages from one
9053 folder to another or to delete messages. It can also be used to set
9054 message status bits (Important, Deleted, New, Answered). _Alpine_
9055 doesn't have the ability to forward mail to another address.
9057 Each filtering rule has a "Pattern" and a "Filter Action". When a
9058 folder is opened, when new mail arrives in an open folder, or when mail
9059 is Expunged from a folder; each message is compared with the Patterns
9060 of your filtering rules. The comparisons start with the first rule and
9061 keep going until there is a match. If a match is found, the message may
9062 be deleted or moved, depending on the setting of the Filter Action. If
9063 the message is not deleted, it may have its status altered.
9065 For efficiency, each message is usually only checked once. When new
9066 mail arrives, the new messages are checked but not the old. There are
9067 some exceptions to this rule. The expunge command will cause all
9068 messages to be rechecked, as will editing of the filtering rules.
9070 _NOTE:_ When setting up a Pattern used to delete messages, it is
9071 recommended that you test the Pattern first with a "Move" folder
9072 specified in case unintended matches occur. Messages that are deleted
9073 will be removed from the folder and _unrecoverable_ from within _Alpine_
9074 after the next Expunge command or once the folder being filtered has
9075 been closed.
9077 Filter Patterns
9079 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a filter the
9080 message is compared with the Filter's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9081 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9082 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9084 Since filtering is a potentially destructive action, if you have a
9085 filtering Pattern with nothing other than Current Folder Type set, that
9086 filtering rule is ignored.
9088 Filter Actions
9090 Once a filter match is found for a particular message, there are some
9091 actions which may be taken. First, the message may have its status
9092 changed. This is the same message status that you can manipulate
9093 manually using the Flag Command. There are four elements of message
9094 status that you can control. You can set or clear the Important status,
9095 the New status, the Deleted status, and the Answered status. Of course,
9096 if the filter is going to delete the message, then there is no point in
9097 setting message status. You may also set or clear user-defined keywords
9098 for a message.
9100 Second, the filter may delete or move the message. Deleting the message
9101 marks it Deleted and removes it from view. It is effectively gone
9102 forever (though it technically is still there until the next expunge
9103 command, which may happen implicitly). Moving the message moves it from
9104 the open folder into the folder listed on the "Folder List" line of the
9105 filter configuration. If you list more than one folder name (separated
9106 by commas) then the message will be copied to each of those folders. In
9107 any case, if "Delete" or "Move" is set then the message is removed from
9108 the current folder. If you just want to set the messages status without
9109 deleting it from the folder, then set the filter action to "Just Set
9110 Message Status".
9112 (There is no way to do a Copy instead of a Move, due to the
9113 difficulties involved in keeping track of whether or not a message has
9114 already been copied by a previous _Alpine_ session.)
9116 Move-only-if-not-deleted option
9118 If you have specified a Move to Folder to filter messages into, then
9119 this option has an effect. If this option is set then messages will
9120 only be moved into the specified folder if they aren't already marked
9121 deleted. This might be useful if you have more than one _Alpine_
9122 session running simultaneously and you don't want messages to be
9123 filtered into a folder more than once. This method is not foolproof.
9124 There may be cases where a message gets marked deleted and so it is
9125 never filtered into the folder. For example, if you deleted it in
9126 another _Alpine_ or another mail program that didn't know about the
9127 filtering rule.
9129 This option has no effect if the Filter Action is not set to Move.
9131 Dont-quit-even-if-rule-matches option
9133 If this option is set then this is a non-terminating rule. Usually, for
9134 each message, _Alpine_ searches through the filter rules until a match
9135 is found and then it performs the action associated with that rule.
9136 Rules following the match are not considered. If this option is set
9137 then the search for matches will continue at the next rule.
9139 If a non-terminating rule matches then the actions associated with that
9140 rule, except for any implied deletion of the message, are performed
9141 before the match for the next rule is checked. For example, if the
9142 non-terminating rule sets the Important status, then that status will
9143 be set when the next rule is considered. However, if the
9144 non-terminating rule Moves the message, the message will actually be
9145 copied instead of copied and deleted so that it is still there for the
9146 next rule. A moved message is deleted after all the relevant rules have
9147 been checked. The name of the "Move" action is confusing in this case
9148 because a single message can be moved to more than one folder. It turns
9149 the Move into a Copy instead, but it is still followed by a deletion at
9150 the end.
9152 This option may be useful if you want to have a single message filtered
9153 to two different folders because it matches two different Patterns. For
9154 example, suppose you normally filter messages to a particular mailing
9155 list into one folder, and messages addressed directly to you into a
9156 second folder. If a message is sent to both you and the list (and you
9157 can tell that by looking at the headers of the message) this option may
9158 give you a convenient way to capture a copy to each folder. (It may
9159 also cause you to capture two copies to each folder, depending on
9160 whether your mail system delivers one or two copies of the message to
9161 you and on how the list works.)
9163 Scoring Configuration
9165 Most people will not use scores at all, but if you do use them, here's
9166 how they work in Alpine. Using this screen, you may define Scoring
9167 rules. The score for a message is calculated by looking at every Score
9168 rule defined and adding up the Score Values for the ones which match
9169 the message. If there are no matches for a message, it has a score of
9170 zero. Message scores may be used a couple of ways in Alpine.
9172 Sorting by Score
9174 One of the methods you may use to sort message indexes is to sort by
9175 score. The scores of all the messages in a folder will be calculated
9176 and then the index will be ordered by placing the messages in order of
9177 ascending or descending score.
9179 Scores for use in Patterns
9181 The Patterns used for Roles, Index Line Coloring, and Filtering have a
9182 category labeled "Score Interval". When a message is being compared
9183 with a Pattern to check for a match, if the Score Interval is set only
9184 messages which have a score somewhere in the interval are a match.
9186 Scoring Rule Patterns
9188 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a scoring rule
9189 the message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9190 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9191 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9193 Actually, Scoring rule Patterns are slightly different from the other
9194 types of Patterns because Scoring rule Patterns don't contain a Score
9195 Interval. In other words, when calculating the score for a message,
9196 which is done by looking at the Scoring rule Patterns, scores aren't
9197 used.
9199 Score Value
9201 This is the value that will be added to the score for a message if the
9202 rule's Pattern is a match. Each individual Score Value is an integer
9203 between -100 and 100, and the values from matching rules are added
9204 together to get a message's score. There is also a way to extract the
9205 value from a particular header of each message. See the help text for
9206 Score Value for further information.
9208 Other Rules Configuration
9210 Using this screen, you may define configuration Rules which don't fit
9211 nicely into the other Rules categories.
9213 Other Rule Patterns
9215 Other Rules are a little different from the rest of the Rules because
9216 they depend only on the current folder, and not on a particular
9217 message. In order to determine whether or not a rule's actions should
9218 be applied the current folder is compared with the rule's Pattern,
9219 which consists of only the Current Folder Type. Current Folder Type
9220 works the same for Other Rules as it does for Roles, Filtering, Index
9221 Coloring, and Scoring. Keep in mind that the only part of the Pattern
9222 which applies to Other Rules is the Current Folder Type when looking at
9223 the description of Patterns given "here".
9225 Other Rule Actions
9227 Once a pattern match is found, the rule's Actions are taken. Neither of
9228 the following two rule's depends on a message for its match. That means
9229 that all the parts of the Pattern which depend on matching an attribute
9230 of a message are ignored. So the only part of the Pattern that matters
9231 for these Actions is the Current Folder Type.
9233 Set Sort Order
9235 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9236 have set a sort order which is different from your default sort order.
9237 The default is set in the Setup/Config screen with the Sort-Key option.
9238 If the Sort Order action is set, then the folder will be displayed
9239 sorted in that sort order instead of in the default order.
9241 A possible point of confusion arises when you change the configuration
9242 of the Sort Order for the currently open folder. The folder will
9243 normally be re-sorted when you go back to viewing the index. However,
9244 if you have manually sorted the folder with the Sort command, it will
9245 not be re-sorted.
9247 Set Index Format
9249 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9250 have set an Index Format which is different from your default Index
9251 Format, which is set with the Index-Format option. If so, the index
9252 will be displayed with this format instead of the default.
9254 Set Startup Rule
9256 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9257 have set a startup rule which is different from the default startup
9258 rule. The default for incoming folders is set in the Setup/Config
9259 screen with the "incoming-startup-rule" option. The default for folders
9260 other than INBOX that are not part of your incoming collection (see
9261 enable-incoming-folders feature) is to start with the last message in
9262 the folder. If the Startup Rule is set to something other than
9263 "default", then the rule will determine which message will be the
9264 current message when the folder is first opened.
9266 The various startup rule possibilities work the same here as they do in
9267 the incoming collection, except that the folder can be any specific
9268 folder or any folder type.
9270 Search Rules Configuration
9272 One of the commands that becomes available when that feature is turned
9273 on is the "; Select" command, which is used in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
9274 to select a set of messages. One way of selecting messages is to use a
9275 Rule. All of the messages which match (or don't match if you wish) a
9276 Rule's Pattern will be selected.
9278 Any of your Rules may be used for this purpose. You might already have
9279 Rules set up for filtering, index line color, scores, or roles; and you
9280 may use any of those Rules with the Select command. However, you might
9281 find it more convenient to set up a separate set of Rules just for this
9282 purpose without having to worry about what other effects they may
9283 cause. That is the purpose of these Select Rules.
9285 Rule Patterns
9287 In order to determine whether or not a message is selected by a rule
9288 the message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9289 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9290 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9292 There is no action associated with these Search Rules. Only their
9293 Patterns are used.
9295 Patterns
9297 Patterns are used with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9298 Rules, and Search Rules. Patterns are compared with a message to see if
9299 there is a match. For Filtering, the messages being checked are all the
9300 messages in the folder, one at a time. For Index Line Coloring, each
9301 message that is visible on the screen is checked for matches with the
9302 Index Coloring Patterns. Roles are used with the Reply, Forward, and
9303 Compose commands. For Reply, the message used to compare the Pattern
9304 with is the message being replied to; for Forward, the message used to
9305 compare the Pattern with is the message being forwarded; and for
9306 Compose, there is no message, so the parts of the Pattern which depend
9307 on a message (everything other than Current Folder Type and the
9308 Beginning of Month and Year) are not used. Only the Current Folder Type
9309 matters for Compose (plus the Beginning of Month or Year, which you
9310 wouldn't usually use for a Role). For Scoring, the message being scored
9311 is compared with all of the Score Patterns, and the Score Values from
9312 the ones that match are added together to get the message's score. For
9313 Other Rules, there is no message. Only the Current Folder Type is
9314 checked for Other Rules.
9316 Each Pattern has several possible parts, all of which are optional. In
9317 order for there to be a match, _ALL_ of the _defined_ parts of the
9318 Pattern must match the message. If a part is not defined it is
9319 considered a match. For example, if the To pattern is not defined it
9320 will be displayed as
9322 To pattern = <No Value Set>
9324 That is considered a match because it is not defined. This means that
9325 the Pattern with nothing defined is a match if the Current Folder Type
9326 matches, but there is an exception. Because filtering is a potentially
9327 destructive action, filtering Patterns with nothing other than Current
9328 Folder Type defined are ignored. If you really want a filtering Pattern
9329 to match all messages (subject to Current Folder Type) the best way to
9330 do it is to define a Score interval which includes all possible scores.
9331 This would be the score interval (-INF,INF). This can be used even if
9332 you haven't defined any rules to Set Scores.
9334 There are six predefined header patterns called the To, From, Sender,
9335 Cc, News, and Subject patterns. Besides those six predefined header
9336 patterns, you may add additional header patterns with header fieldnames
9337 of your choosing. You add an extra header pattern by placing the cursor
9338 on one of the patterns while in the role editor and using the
9339 "eXtraHdr" command. The Recip pattern is a header pattern which stands
9340 for Recipient (To OR Cc) and the Partic pattern is a header pattern
9341 which stands for Participant (From OR To OR Cc). (Defining the Recip
9342 pattern does not have the same effect as defining both the To and Cc
9343 patterns. Recip is To _OR_ Cc, not To _AND_ Cc.) Similar to the header
9344 patterns are the AllText pattern and the BodyText pattern. Instead of
9345 comparing this pattern's text against only the contents of a particular
9346 header field, the text for the AllText pattern is compared with text
9347 anywhere in the message's header or body, and the text for the BodyText
9348 pattern is compared with text anywhere in the message's body.
9350 Any of the header patterns, the AllText pattern, or the BodyText
9351 pattern may be negated with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. You can tell
9352 that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking for the character "!" at the
9353 beginning of the pattern line. When the "!" is present, it reverses the
9354 meaning of the match. That is, if the pattern matches then it is
9355 considered to NOT be a match, and if it does not match it is considered
9356 to be a match.
9358 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for a
9359 pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!urgent" into the
9360 Subject pattern, the pattern will look like:
9362 Subject pattern = !urgent
9364 This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!urgent". In
9365 order to match messages which do not have "urgent" in their Subject
9366 field, first type the characters "urgent" followed by carriage return
9367 for the value of the Subject pattern, then negate it by typing the "!"
9368 command. It should look like
9370 ! Subject pattern = urgent
9372 The contents of each of these header patterns (or the AllText or
9373 BodyText patterns) may be a complete email address, part of an address,
9374 or a random set of characters to match against. It may also be a list
9375 of such patterns, which means you are looking for a match against the
9376 first pattern in the list _OR_ the second pattern _OR_ the third and so
9377 on. For example, a Subject pattern equal to
9379 Subject pattern = urgent
9380 emergency
9381 alert
9383 would match all messages with a subject which contained at least one of
9384 those words. It would also match subjects containing the words "alerts"
9385 or "Urgently".
9387 The same example with "NOT" turned on would be
9389 ! Subject pattern = urgent
9390 emergency
9391 alert
9393 which would match all messages with a subject which did NOT contain any
9394 of those words. You can use the "Add Value" command to add new words to
9395 the list, or you can enter them as a comma-separated list.
9397 (It is not possible to specify two patterns which must _BOTH_ be
9398 present for a match. It is only possible to specify that _EITHER_
9399 pattern1 _OR_ pattern2 must be present, and that is exactly what using
9400 a list does.)
9402 The "Current Folder Type" and the "Score Interval" are also part of the
9403 Pattern, although the "Score Interval" is not used when checking for
9404 matches for Scoring. There are five similar settings which relate to
9405 the status of the message. These settings rely on the message being New
9406 or not, Deleted or not, Answered or not, Important or not, and Recent
9407 or not. There are also some other miscellaneous settings. The first is
9408 the Age of the message in days. Another is the Size of the message in
9409 bytes. The third is a setting which detects whether or not the Subject
9410 of a message contains raw 8-bit characters (unencoded characters with
9411 the most significant bit set). There is a setting which detects whether
9412 or not this is the first time _Alpine_ has been run this month (doesn't
9413 depend on individual messages), and another which detects whether or
9414 not this is the first time _Alpine_ has been run this year. Other parts
9415 of the Pattern detect whether or not the From address of a message
9416 appears in your address book, whether or not certain keywords are set
9417 for a message, and whether or not certain character sets are used in a
9418 message.
9420 Parts of a Pattern
9422 Header patterns
9424 A header pattern is simply text which is searched for in the
9425 corresponding header field. For example, if a Pattern has a From header
9426 pattern with the value "@company.com", then only messages which have a
9427 From header which contains the text "@company.com" will be possible
9428 matches. Matches don't have to be exact. For example, if the relevant
9429 field of a message contains the text "mailbox@domain" somewhere in it,
9430 then header patterns of "box", or "x@d", or "mailbox@domain" are all
9431 matches.
9433 All parts of the Pattern must match so, for example, if a message
9434 matches a defined From pattern, it still must be checked against the
9435 other parts of the Pattern which have been defined. The To header
9436 pattern is a slightly special case. If the message being checked has a
9437 Resent-To header and the feature Use-Resent-To-in-Rules is turned on,
9438 the addresses there are used in place of the addresses in the To
9439 header. This is only true for the To header. Resent-cc and Resent-From
9440 headers are never used unless you add them with the eXtraHdrs command.
9442 The meaning of a header pattern may be negated with the "!" "toggle
9443 NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking for
9444 the character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line. It would look
9445 something like
9447 ! From pattern = susan@example.com
9449 When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
9451 If you want to check for the presence of a header field but don't care
9452 about its value, then the empty pattern which you get by entering a
9453 pair of double quotes ("") should match any message which has the
9454 corresponding header field.
9456 AllText patterns
9458 AllText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
9459 searched for anywhere in the message's headers or body, not just in the
9460 contents of a particular header field.
9462 BodyText patterns
9464 BodyText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
9465 searched for anywhere in the message's body, not just in the contents
9466 of a particular header field.
9468 If there is more than one header pattern or AllText pattern or BodyText
9469 pattern for which you want to take the same action there is a shorthand
9470 notation which may be used. Any of these patterns may be a list of
9471 patterns instead of just a single pattern. If any one of the patterns
9472 in the list matches the message then it is considered a match. For
9473 example, if "company1" and "company2" both required you to use the same
9474 role when replying to messages, you might have a To pattern which looks
9475 like
9477 To pattern = company1.com
9478 company2.com
9480 This means that if the mail you are replying to was addressed to either
9481 "anything@company1.com" or "anything@company2.com", then this Pattern
9482 is a match and the same actions will be taken.
9484 The meaning of an AllText or BodyText pattern may be negated with the
9485 "!" "toggle NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by
9486 looking for the character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line.
9487 When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
9489 A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate multiple
9490 values in any of the fields which may have multiple values (such as
9491 header patterns, AllText patterns, BodyText patterns, keywords, folder
9492 lists, and so on), you must escape comma with a backslash (\) if you
9493 want to include a literal comma in one of those fields. In other words,
9494 if you type a backslash followed by a comma it will be interpreted as a
9495 comma by _Alpine_, instead of as a separator between pattern values.
9496 All other backslashes (those not followed by a comma) are literal
9497 backslashes and should not be escaped. It's unlikely you'll ever need
9498 to enter a literal comma or backslash in any of the patterns.
9500 Current Folder Type
9502 The "Current Folder Type" may be set to one of four different values:
9503 "Any", "News", "Email", or "Specific". If the value is set to "News",
9504 then the Pattern will only match if the currently open folder is a
9505 newsgroup. The value "Email" only matches if the current folder is not
9506 news and the value "Any" causes any folder to match. If the value of
9507 "Current Folder Type" is set to "Specific", then you must fill in a
9508 value for "Folder", which is on the line below the "Specific" line. In
9509 this case you will only get a match if the currently open folder is the
9510 specific folder you list. You may give a list of folders instead of
9511 just a single folder name, in which case the Pattern will match if the
9512 open folder is any one of the folders in the list. The name of each
9513 folder in the list may be either "INBOX", the technical specification
9514 of the folder (like what appears in your configuration file) or, if the
9515 folder is one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname you've
9516 given the folder. Here are some samples of specific folder names:
9518 {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
9520 {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
9522 mail/local-folder
9524 The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the "T" command
9525 which is available when the "Folder" line is highlighted, or to use the
9526 "Take" command with the configuration feature "enable-rules-under-take"
9527 turned on.
9529 When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty incurred
9530 when collecting the information necessary to check whether or not a
9531 Pattern matches a message. For this reason, the default Current Folder
9532 Type is set to "Email". If you have Patterns with a Current Folder Type
9533 of either "Any" or "News" and those Patterns are used for Index Line
9534 Coloring or Scoring, you may experience slower screen redrawing in the
9535 MESSAGE INDEX screen when in a newsgroup.
9537 Age Interval
9539 The "Age Interval" may be set to an interval of message ages which
9540 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9541 it is unset it will be ignored. The Age Interval looks like
9543 (min_age,max_age)
9545 where "min_age" and "max_age" are integers greater than or equal to
9546 zero. The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It
9547 represents infinity.
9549 Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of
9550 just a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look
9551 like
9553 (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
9555 When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age, in
9556 days, of the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9557 intervals include both endpoints.
9559 Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the _age_ of
9560 the message. Instead, it is how many days ago the message arrived in
9561 one of your folders. If the current time is a little past midnight,
9562 then a message that arrived just before midnight arrived yesterday,
9563 even though the message is only a few minutes old. By default, the date
9564 being used is not the date in the Date header of the message. It is the
9565 date that the message arrived in one of your folders. When you Save a
9566 message from one folder to another that arrival date is preserved. If
9567 you would like to use the date in the Date header that is possible.
9568 Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near the bottom of the
9569 rule definition.
9571 A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before yesterday,
9572 and so on.
9574 Size Interval
9576 The "Size Interval" may be set to an interval of message sizes which
9577 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9578 it is unset it will be ignored. The Size Interval looks like
9580 (min_size,max_size)
9582 where "min_size" and "max_size" are integers greater than or equal to
9583 zero. The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It
9584 represents infinity.
9586 Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of
9587 just a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look
9588 like
9590 (min_size1,max_size1),(min_size2,max_size2),...
9592 When there is a Size Interval defined, it is a match if the size, in
9593 bytes, of the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9594 intervals include both endpoints.
9596 Score Interval
9598 The "Score Interval" may be set to an interval of message scores which
9599 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9600 it is unset it will be ignored. The Score Interval looks like
9602 (min_score,max_score)
9604 where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000 and
9605 32000. The special values "-INF" and "INF" may be used for the min and
9606 max values to represent negative and positive infinity.
9608 Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list would
9609 look like
9611 (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
9613 When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the score for
9614 the message is contained in any of the intervals in the list. The
9615 intervals include the endpoints. The score for a message is calculated
9616 by looking at every Score rule defined and adding up the Score Values
9617 for the ones which match the message. When deciding whether or not a
9618 Pattern matches a message for purposes of calculating the score, the
9619 Score Interval is ignored.
9621 Message Status
9623 There are five separate message status settings. By default, all five
9624 are set to the value "Don't care", which will match any message. The
9625 value "Yes" means that the particular status must be true for a match,
9626 and the value "No" means that the particular status must not be true
9627 for a match. For example, one of the five Message Status settings is
9628 whether a message is marked Important or not. A "Yes" means that the
9629 message must be Important to be considered a match and "No" means that
9630 the message must not be Important to be considered a match. The same is
9631 true of the other four message status settings which depend on whether
9632 or not the message is New; whether the message has been Answered or
9633 not; whether the message has been Deleted or not, and whether the
9634 message is Recent or not.
9636 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
9638 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
9639 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is still
9640 considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index display that
9641 shows an N for such a message.
9643 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the last
9644 time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by default for
9645 these types of messages. If you were to run two copies of _Alpine_ that
9646 opened a folder one right after the other, a message would only show up
9647 as Recent in (at most) the first _Alpine_ session.
9649 Message Keywords
9651 Keywords are similar to Message Status, but they are chosen by the
9652 user. Provided the mail server allows for it, you may add a set of
9653 possible keywords to a folder and then you may set those keywords or
9654 not for each message in the folder. The syntax of this part of the
9655 Pattern is similar to the header patterns. It is a list of keywords.
9656 The Keyword part of the Pattern is a match if the message has any of
9657 the keywords in the list set. Like other parts of the Pattern, if this
9658 is unset it will be ignored.
9660 Message Character Set
9662 A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the Pattern
9663 matches messages which make use of one or more of the character sets
9664 specified in the pattern. It will be considered a match if a message
9665 uses any of the character sets in the list you give here. The syntax of
9666 this part of the Pattern is similar to the header patterns and the
9667 Message Keywords pattern. It is a list of character sets.
9669 Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7, KOI8-R, or
9670 GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that _Alpine_ provides.
9671 These names are more understandable shorthand names for sets of
9672 character set names. Two examples are "Cyrillic" and "Greek". Selecting
9673 one of these shorthand names is equivalent to selecting all of the
9674 character sets that make up the set. You can see all of these shorthand
9675 names and the lists of character sets they stand for by typing the "T"
9676 command with the Character Set pattern highlighted. The Character Set
9677 part of the Pattern is a match if the message uses any of the character
9678 sets in the list. Like other parts of the Pattern, if this is unset it
9679 will be ignored.
9681 Raw 8-bit in Subject
9683 It seems that lots of unwanted email contains unencoded 8-bit
9684 characters in the Subject. Normally, characters with the 8th bit set
9685 are not allowed in the Subject header unless they are MIME-encoded.
9686 This option gives you a way to match messages which have Subjects which
9687 contain unencoded 8-bit characters. Setting this option will affect
9688 performance in large folders because the subject of each message in the
9689 folder has to be checked.
9691 Beginning of Month
9693 This option gives you a way to take some action once per month. The
9694 value "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been
9695 run this month in order to count as a match,
9697 Beginning of Year
9699 This option gives you a way to take some action once per year. The
9700 value "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been
9701 run this year in order to count as a match,
9703 From or Reply-To address in Address Books
9705 This option gives you a way to match messages which have a From or a
9706 Reply-To address which is in one of your address books. Only the simple
9707 entries in your address books are searched. Address book distribution
9708 lists are ignored! Setting this option will affect performance in large
9709 folders because the From and Reply-To of each message in the folder
9710 have to be checked.
9712 Categorizer Command
9714 This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the
9715 message being checked and its standard output discarded. The full
9716 directory path should be specified. The command will be run and then
9717 its exit status will be checked against the Exit Status Interval, which
9718 defaults to just the value zero. If the exit status of the command
9719 falls in the interval, it is considered a match, otherwise it is not a
9720 match.
9722 This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one that
9723 exists and is executable is used. That makes it possible to use the
9724 same configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
9726 If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable then the
9727 rule is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the command may not
9728 exist, you should be careful to structure your rules so that nothing
9729 destructive happens when the command does not exist. For example, you
9730 might have a filter that filters away spam when there is a match but
9731 does nothing when there is not a match. That would continue to work
9732 correctly if the command didn't exist. However, if you have a filter
9733 which filters away spam when there is not a match and keeps it when
9734 there is a match, that would filter everything if the categorizer
9735 command didn't exist.
9737 Help Configuring Pattern Fields
9739 _Nickname_
9740 This is a nickname to help you. You should have a different
9741 nickname for each role you define. The nickname will be used in
9742 the SETUP ROLE RULES screen to allow you to pick a role to edit.
9743 It will also be used when you send a message to let you know you
9744 are sending with a different role than you use by default, and
9745 it will be useful for choosing a role when composing with the
9746 Role command or when composing with one of the Role Uses set to
9747 With Confirmation. This field is not used in the outgoing
9748 message.
9749 _Comment_
9750 This is a comment to help you. This comment does not play any
9751 functional role, it is simply an optional comment to help you
9752 remember what the rule is for.
9753 _To pattern_
9754 If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be
9755 considered a match, at least one of the recipients from the To
9756 line of the message being replied to or forwarded must match
9757 this pattern. In the case of the Compose command, this pattern
9758 and the other header patterns are ignored. If this pattern is a
9759 list of patterns, then at least one of the recipients must match
9760 at least one of the patterns. (Any other non-blank parts of the
9761 Pattern must match, too.) If the message being replied to or
9762 forwarded has a Resent-To header line, then that is used in
9763 place of the To line. (Note that this special Resent rule only
9764 applies to the To header. The Resent-From, Resent-Subject, and
9765 so on are not consulted.)
9766 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the To Pattern meaning with the
9767 "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of the To
9768 pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will be
9769 considered a match if there are no matches between the addresses
9770 in the To: line and the list of To patterns.
9771 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9772 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle"
9773 into the To pattern, the pattern will look like:
9774 To pattern = !frizzle
9776 This means you want to match the 8 character sequence
9777 "!frizzle". In order to match messages which do not have
9778 "frizzle" in their To field, first type the characters "frizzle"
9779 followed by carriage return for the value of the To pattern,
9780 then negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end up
9781 looking like
9782 ! To pattern = frizzle
9784 _From pattern_
9785 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9786 the address from the From header of the message being replied to
9787 or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
9788 _Sender pattern_
9789 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9790 the address from the Sender header of the message being replied
9791 to or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header. If
9792 there is no Sender header, then the From header is used instead.
9793 _Cc pattern_
9794 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9795 the address from the CC header of the message being replied to
9796 or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
9797 _News pattern_
9798 If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be
9799 considered a match, at least one of the newsgroups from the
9800 Newsgroups line of the message must match this pattern. If this
9801 pattern is a list of patterns, then at least one of the
9802 newsgroups must match at least one of the patterns. (Any other
9803 non-blank parts of the Pattern must match, too.)
9804 _Subject pattern_
9805 This is similar to the other header patterns. It is compared
9806 with the contents from the Subject of the message being replied
9807 to or forwarded.
9808 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9809 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9810 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9811 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9812 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9813 _Extra header patterns_
9814 There isn't actually a field called Extra header patterns, but
9815 you may add extra header patterns by moving the cursor to one of
9816 the header patterns and using the "eXtraHdr" command to add a
9817 new header pattern. You would do this if the six predefined
9818 header patterns don't cover the header you want to use for
9819 pattern matching. Once you've added an extra header pattern, you
9820 use it just like the Subject pattern. Of course, it is compared
9821 with the contents from the particular header field of the
9822 message being replied to or forwarded rather than the contents
9823 from the subject field. To remove an extra header pattern from a
9824 role, use the "RemoveHdr" command on the highlighted extra
9825 header.
9826 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9827 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9828 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9829 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9830 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9831 _Recipient pattern_
9832 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9833 the addresses from both the To header and the Cc header instead
9834 of just the addresses from the To header. It's equivalent to
9835 having two different rules; one with a To pattern and the other
9836 with the same Cc pattern.
9837 _Participant pattern_
9838 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9839 the addresses from the To header, the Cc header, and the From
9840 header instead of just the addresses from the To header. It's
9841 equivalent to having three different rules; one with a To
9842 pattern, another with the same Cc pattern, and another with the
9843 same From pattern.
9844 _AllText pattern_
9845 This is similar to the header patterns. Instead of comparing
9846 with text in a particular header field it is compared with all
9847 of the text in the message header and body.
9848 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9849 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9850 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9851 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9852 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9853 _BodyText pattern_
9854 Just like AllText, except it is compared only with the body of
9855 the message, not the body and header.
9856 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9857 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9858 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9859 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9860 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9861 _Age Interval_
9862 The Age Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you use
9863 this, it should be set to something like:
9865 (min_age,max_age)
9866 where "min_age" and "max_age" are non-negative integers. The
9867 special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It represents
9868 infinity.
9869 In rare cases it may be useful to use the more general form of
9870 the value, which is a comma-separated list of intervals. It
9871 would look something like:
9873 (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
9874 When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age,
9875 in days, of the message is contained in the interval. The
9876 interval includes both endpoints. If the option is set to a list
9877 of intervals then it is a match if the age of the message is
9878 contained in any of the intervals.
9879 Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the
9880 _age_ of the message. Instead, it is how many days ago the
9881 message arrived in one of your folders. If the current time is a
9882 little past midnight, then a message that arrived just before
9883 midnight arrived yesterday, even though the message is only a
9884 few minutes old. By default, the date being used is not the date
9885 in the Date header of the message. It is the date that the
9886 message arrived in one of your folders. When you Save a message
9887 from one folder to another that arrival date is preserved. If
9888 you would like to use the date in the Date header that is
9889 possible. Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near the
9890 bottom of the rule definition.
9891 A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before
9892 yesterday, and so on. The age interval
9894 (2,2)
9895 matches all messages that arrived on the day before yesterday.
9896 The interval
9898 (180,INF)
9899 matches all messages that arrived at least 180 days before
9900 today. The interval
9902 (0,1)
9903 matches all messages that arrived today or yesterday.
9904 _Score Interval_
9905 The Score Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you
9906 use this, it should be set to something like:
9908 (min_score,max_score)
9909 where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000
9910 and 32000. The special values "-INF" and "INF" can be used for
9911 the min and max values. These represent negative and positive
9912 infinity.
9913 Actually, the value may be a list of intervals rather than just
9914 a single interval if that is useful. The elements of the list
9915 are separated by commas like:
9917 (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
9918 When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the
9919 score for the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9920 intervals include both endpoints. The score for a message is
9921 calculated by looking at every scoring rule defined and adding
9922 up the Score Values for the rules which match the message.
9923 _Keyword pattern_
9924 A folder may have user-defined keywords. These are similar to
9925 the Important flag which the user may set using the Flag
9926 command. The difference is that the Important flag is always
9927 present for each folder. User-defined keywords are picked by the
9928 user. You may add new keywords by defining them in the Keywords
9929 option in the Setup/Config screen. After you have added a
9930 potential keyword with the Keywords option, the Flag command may
9931 be used to set or clear the keyword on individual messages. If
9932 you have given a keyword a nickname when configuring it, that
9933 nickname may be used instead of the actual keyword.
9934 When filling in a value for this field, it may be easiest to use
9935 the "T" command, which presents you with a list of the keywords
9936 you have defined to choose from.
9937 This part of the Pattern matches messages with certain keywords
9938 set. It will be considered a match if a message has any of the
9939 keywords in the list set.
9940 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Keyword Pattern meaning
9941 with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of
9942 the Keyword pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will
9943 be considered a match if none of the keywords in the list are
9944 set for a message.
9945 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9946 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle"
9947 into the Keyword pattern, the pattern will look like:
9948 Keyword pattern = !frizzle
9950 This means you want to match the 8 character sequence
9951 "!frizzle". In order to match messages which do not have the
9952 keyword "frizzle" set, first type the characters "frizzle"
9953 followed by carriage return for the value of the Keyword
9954 pattern, then negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end
9955 up looking like
9956 ! Keyword pattern = frizzle
9958 _Character Set pattern_
9959 A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the
9960 Pattern matches messages which make use of certain specified
9961 character sets. It will be considered a match if a message uses
9962 any of the character sets in the list you give here.
9963 When filling in a value for this field, you may use the "T"
9964 command, which presents you with a large list of possible
9965 character sets to choose from. You may also just type in the
9966 name of a character set, and it need not be one that Alpine
9967 knows about.
9968 Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7,
9969 KOI8-R, or GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that
9970 Alpine provides. These names are more understandable shorthand
9971 names for sets of character set names. Two examples are
9972 "Cyrillic" and "Greek". Selecting one of these shorthand names
9973 is equivalent to selecting all of the character sets that make
9974 up the set. You can see all of these shorthand names and the
9975 lists of character sets they stand for by typing the "T"
9976 command.
9977 For the purposes of this Pattern, _Alpine_ will search through a
9978 message for all of the text parts and collect the character sets
9979 declared for each part. It will also look in the Subject line
9980 for a character set used there. _Alpine_ does not actually look
9981 at the text of the message or the text of the Subject to
9982 determine if a declared character set is actually used, it looks
9983 only at the declarations themselves in the MIME part headers and
9984 in the Subject.
9985 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Character Set Pattern
9986 meaning with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the
9987 meaning of the Character Set pattern so that it has the opposite
9988 meaning. It will be considered a match if none of the character
9989 sets in the list are used in a message.
9990 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9991 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!GB2312"
9992 into the Character Set pattern, the pattern will look like:
9993 Charset pattern = !GB2312
9995 This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!GB2312".
9996 In order to match messages which do not have the character set
9997 "GB2312" set, first type the characters "GB2312" followed by
9998 carriage return for the value of the Character Set pattern, then
9999 negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end up looking
10000 like
10001 ! Charset pattern = GB2312
10003 A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate
10004 multiple values in a pattern field, you have to escape comma
10005 with a backslash (\) if you want to include a literal comma in
10006 the field. In other words, if you type a backslash followed by a
10007 comma it will be interpreted as a comma by _Alpine_, instead of
10008 as a separator between pattern values. All other backslashes are
10009 literal backslashes and should not be escaped.
10010 _Current Folder Type_
10011 The Current Folder Type is part of the Pattern. It refers to the
10012 type of the currently open folder, which is the folder you were
10013 last looking at from the MESSAGE INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screen.
10014 In order for a pattern to be considered a match, the current
10015 folder must be of the type you set here. The three types "Any",
10016 "News", and "Email" are all what you might think.
10017 If the Current Folder Type for a Pattern is set to "News", for
10018 example, then that will only be a match if the current folder is
10019 a newsgroup and the rest of the Pattern matches. The value
10020 "Specific" may be used when you want to limit the match to a
10021 specific folder (not just a specific type of folder), or to a
10022 list of specific folders. In order to match a specific folder
10023 you must Select the "Specific" button _AND_ you must fill in the
10024 name (or list of names) of the folder in the "Folder" field. If
10025 the current folder is any of the folders in the list, that is
10026 considered a match. The name of each folder in the list may be
10027 either "INBOX", the technical specification of the folder (like
10028 what appears in your configuration file) or, if the folder is
10029 one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname you've
10030 given the folder. Here are a couple samples of specific folder
10031 names:
10033 {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
10035 {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
10036 The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the T
10037 command which is available when the "Folder" line is
10038 highlighted. Note that you won't be able to edit the "Folder"
10039 line unless the Current Folder Type is set to "Specific", and
10040 any value that "Folder" has is ignored unless the type is set to
10041 "Specific".
10042 When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty
10043 incurred when collecting the information necessary to check a
10044 Pattern. For this reason, the default Current Folder Type is set
10045 to "Email". For example, a role with a non-Normal Index Line
10046 Color and a Current Folder Type of "Any" or "News" may cause the
10047 MESSAGE INDEX screen to draw more slowly when in a newsgroup.
10048 _Message Status Important_
10049 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10050 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10051 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10052 flagged "Important" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10053 the message must _not_ be flagged "Important" in order to be
10054 considered a match.
10055 _Message Status New_
10056 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10057 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10058 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10059 "New" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the message
10060 must _not_ be "New" in order to be a match. "New" is the same as
10061 _Unseen_ and not "New" is the same as _Seen_.
10062 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
10063 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
10064 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is
10065 still considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index
10066 display that shows an N for such a message.
10067 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the
10068 last time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by
10069 default for these types of messages. If you were to run two
10070 copies of _Alpine_ that opened a folder one right after the
10071 other, a message would only show up as Recent in (at most) the
10072 first _Alpine_ session.
10073 _Message Status Recent_
10074 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10075 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10076 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10077 "Recent" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the
10078 message must _not_ be "Recent" in order to be a match. "Recent"
10079 means that the message was added to the folder since the last
10080 time the folder was opened. If more than one mail client has the
10081 folder opened, the message will appear to be "Recent" to only
10082 one of the clients.
10083 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
10084 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
10085 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is
10086 still considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index
10087 display that shows an N for such a message.
10088 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the
10089 last time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by
10090 default for these types of messages. If you were to run two
10091 copies of _Alpine_ that opened a folder one right after the
10092 other, a message would only show up as Recent in (at most) the
10093 first _Alpine_ session.
10094 _Message Status Deleted_
10095 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10096 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10097 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10098 marked "Deleted" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10099 the message must _not_ be marked "Deleted" in order to be a
10100 match.
10101 If you are thinking of using this part of the Pattern as a way
10102 to prevent messages from being filtered more than once in a
10103 Filter Pattern, take a look at the Filter Option
10104 "move-only-if-not-deleted" instead. It should work better than
10105 using this field since it will hide the filtered messages even
10106 if they are already Deleted.
10107 _Message Status Answered_
10108 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10109 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10110 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10111 marked "Answered" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10112 the message must _not_ be marked "Answered" in order to be a
10113 match.
10114 _Subject Contains Raw 8-bit_
10115 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10116 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10117 The other two values are "Yes", which means the Subject of the
10118 message must contain unencoded 8-bit characters (characters with
10119 the most significant bit set) in order to be a match; or "No",
10120 which means the Subject must _not_ contain unencoded 8-bit
10121 characters in order to be a match.
10122 _Beginning of Month_
10123 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10124 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10125 The other two values are "Yes", which means this is the first
10126 time _Alpine_ has been run this month; or "No", which means this
10127 is _not_ the first time _Alpine_ has been run this month. The
10128 way that _Alpine_ decides if it is the beginning of the month or
10129 not is to compare today's date with the date stored in the
10130 Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in the config file. If the
10131 month of today's date is later than the month stored in the
10132 variable, then this is considered to be the first time you have
10133 run Alpine this month, and that turns the Beginning of the Month
10134 option on.
10135 _Beginning of Year_
10136 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10137 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10138 The other two values are "Yes", which means this is the first
10139 time _Alpine_ has been run this year; or "No", which means this
10140 is _not_ the first time _Alpine_ has been run this year. The way
10141 that _Alpine_ decides if it is the beginning of the year or not
10142 is to compare today's date with the date stored in the
10143 Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in the config file. If the
10144 year of today's date is later than the year stored in the
10145 variable, then this is considered to be the first time you have
10146 run Alpine this year, and that turns the Beginning of the Year
10147 option on.
10148 _From or Reply-To in Address Book_
10149 This part of the Pattern may have one of five possible values.
10150 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10151 The value "Yes, in any address book" means either the From
10152 address or the Reply-To address of the message must be in at
10153 least one of your address books in order to be a match. The
10154 value "No, not in any address book" means neither the From nor
10155 the Reply-To addresses may be in any of your address books in
10156 order to be a match.
10157 The values "Yes, in specific address books" and "No, not in any
10158 of specific address books" are similar but instead of depending
10159 on all address books you are allowed to give a list of address
10160 books to look in. Usually this would be a single address book
10161 but it may be a list of address books as well. For each of these
10162 "specific" address book options you Select which of the Specific
10163 options you want (Yes or No) _AND_ fill in the name (or list of
10164 names) of the address book in the "Abook List" field. The names
10165 to be used are those that appear in the ADDRESS BOOK LIST
10166 screen. The easiest way to fill in the Abook List field it to
10167 use the "T" command which is available when the "Abook List"
10168 line is highlighted. Note that you won't be able to edit the
10169 "Abook List" line unless the option is set to one of the two
10170 "Specific", values.
10171 _Categorizer Command_
10172 This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the
10173 message being checked and its standard output discarded. The
10174 full directory path should be specified. The command will be run
10175 and then its exit status will be checked against the _Exit
10176 Status Interval_, which defaults to just the value zero. If the
10177 exit status of the command falls in the interval, it is
10178 considered a match, otherwise it is not a match.
10179 This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one
10180 that exists and is executable is used. That makes it possible to
10181 use the same configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
10182 If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable
10183 then the rule is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the
10184 command may not exist, you should be careful to structure your
10185 rules so that nothing destructive happens when the command does
10186 not exist. For example, you might have a filter that filters
10187 away spam when there is a match but does nothing when there is
10188 not a match. That would continue to work correctly if the
10189 command didn't exist. However, if you have a filter which
10190 filters away spam when there is not a match and keeps it when
10191 there is a match, that would filter everything if the
10192 categorizer command didn't exist.
10193 The categorizer command is run and the result is the exit status
10194 of that command. If that exit status falls in the _Exit Status
10195 Interval_ then it is considered a match, otherwise it is not a
10196 match. Of course for the entire rule to match, it must also be
10197 checked against the other defined parts of the Pattern.
10198 The _Exit Status Interval_ defaults to the single value 0
10199 (zero). If you define it, it should be set to something like:
10201 (min_exit_value,max_exit_value)
10202 where "min_exit_value" and "max_exit_value" are integers. The
10203 special values "INF" and "-INF" may be used for large positive
10204 and negative integers.
10205 Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list
10206 would look like
10208 (min_exit_value1,max_exit_value1),(min_exit_value2,max_exit_value2),...
10209 When there is an _Exit Status Interval_ defined, it is a match
10210 if the exit status of the categorizer command is contained in
10211 any of the intervals. The intervals include both endpoints.
10212 The default interval is
10214 (0,0)
10215 and it matches only if the command exits with exit status equal
10216 to zero.
10217 It is also possible to set a _Character Limit_ for the
10218 categorizer command. Setting this option makes it possible to
10219 limit how much of the message is made available to the
10220 categorizer command as input. The default value (-1) means that
10221 the entire message is fed to the command. A value of 0 (zero)
10222 means that only the headers of the message are made available. A
10223 positive integer means that the headers plus that many
10224 characters from the body of the message are passed to the
10225 categorizer.
10227 Configuring News
10229 _Alpine_ can access news folders in any one of three different ways:
10231 REMOTE NNTP
10232 Using the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) to access news
10233 on a remote news server. In this case the newsrc file is stored
10234 on the machine where _Alpine_ is running.
10236 To specify a remote news-collection accessed via NNTP use the
10237 SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server:
10238 value to the NNTP server's hostname appended with the
10239 communication method "/service=NNTP", and set the Path: value to
10240 the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10242 Instead of specifying a news-collection, you may simply set the
10243 nntp-server option, which will cause _Alpine_ to create a
10244 default news-collection for you. Another NNTP option which may
10245 be of interest is nntp-range.
10247 REMOTE IMAP
10248 Using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to access news
10249 on a remote news server. In this case, your newsrc file is
10250 stored on the news server, in your home directory, so you must
10251 have an account on the news server, but you would be running
10252 _Alpine_ on a different machine. The news server must be running
10253 an IMAPd server process.
10255 To specify a remote news-collection accessed via IMAP use the
10256 SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server:
10257 value to the IMAP server's hostname, and set the Path: value to
10258 the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10260 LOCAL
10261 Using local file access to the news database. In this case, your
10262 newsrc file is stored on the news server, in your home
10263 directory, so you must have an account on the news server, and
10264 you would be running _Alpine_ on the same machine.
10266 To specify a local news-collection use the SETUP/collectionList
10267 screen's "Add" command. Leave the Server: value blank, and set
10268 the Path: value to the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10270 NOTE: Should no news-collection be defined as above, _Alpine_ will
10271 automatically create one using the Setup/Config screen's "nntp-server"
10272 variable's value if defined. The collection will be created as a
10273 "Remote NNTP" as described above.
10275 If you are a _PC-Alpine_ user, either option 1 (NNTP) or option 2
10276 (IMAP) is possible. If you don't have an account on the news server, or
10277 if the news server is not running an IMAP daemon, then you must use
10278 NNTP. (If you are not sure, ask your service provider, university, or
10279 company for help.) In this case, your Unix .newsrc file can be
10280 transferred to your PC. A good place to put it would be in the same
10281 directory as your PINERC file, under the name NEWSRC, but you can
10282 specify a different location.
10284 Other configuration features related to news are
10285 Enable-8bit-Nntp-Posting. Compose-Sets-Newsgroup-Without-Confirm,
10286 News-Approximates-New-Status, News-Deletes-Across-Groups,
10287 News-Offers-Catchup-On-Close, News-Post-Without-Validation,
10288 News-Read-in-Newsrc-Order, and Quell-Extra-Post-Prompt.
10289 __________________________________________________________________
10291 Notes on Configuration and Preferences
10293 Alpine in Function Key Mode
10295 The standard _Alpine_ uses alphabetic keys for most commands, and
10296 control keys in the composer. Despite possible appearances, the current
10297 bindings are the result of much discussion and thought. All the
10298 commands in the composer are single control characters. This keeps
10299 things very neat and simple for users. Two character commands in the
10300 composer are a possibility, but we're trying to avoid them because of
10301 the added complexity for the user.
10303 _Alpine_ can also operate in a function-key mode. To go into this mode
10304 invoke _alpine -k_ or (on some UNIX systems) _alpinef._ On a UNIX
10305 system, you can link or copy the _Alpine_ executable to _alpinef_ to
10306 install _alpinef._ Alternatively, users and systems administrators can
10307 set the _use-function-keys_ feature in the personal or system-wide
10308 _Alpine_ configuration file. The command menus at the bottom of the
10309 screen will show _F1-F12 _instead of the alphabetic commands. In
10310 addition, the help screens will be written in terms of function keys
10311 and not alphabetic keys.
10313 One of the results of using _Alpine_ in function-key mode is that users
10314 can only choose from twelve commands at any given time. In
10315 alphabetic-key mode, a user can press a key for a command (say, q to
10316 quit) and that command can be fulfilled. In function-key mode, the
10317 command must be visible on the bottom key-menu in order to be used.
10318 There are some screens where four screens of commands are operational;
10319 function-key users can get to all of them, just not all at once.
10320 __________________________________________________________________
10322 Domain Settings
10324 _Alpine_ uses the default domain for a few different tasks. First, it
10325 is tacked onto the user-id for outgoing email. Second, it is tacked
10326 onto all "local" (unqualified) addresses in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields
10327 of messages being composed (unless they are found in the address book
10328 or on an LDAP server). The domain name is also used to generate
10329 message-id lines for each outgoing message and to allow _Alpine_ to
10330 check if an address is that of the current _Alpine_ user.
10332 _Alpine_ determines the domain name according to whichever of these it
10333 finds. The list here is in decreasing order of precedence.
10334 1. Value of the variable user-domain in the system fixed configuration
10335 file
10336 2. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the personal configuration
10337 file
10338 3. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the system-wide
10339 configuration file
10340 4. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10341 by a system fixed configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to
10342 _yes_
10343 5. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10344 by a personal configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to
10345 _yes_
10346 6. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10347 by a system configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to
10348 _yes_
10349 7. Unmodified value (host name) from an external database
10351 The easiest way for this system to work is for _PC-Alpine_ users and
10352 UNIX _Alpine_ system administrators to set the _user-domain_ variable.
10353 The variable _use-only-domain-name_ is helpful if your site
10354 supports/requires hostless addressing, but for some reason you don't
10355 want to use the _user-domain_ variable.
10356 __________________________________________________________________
10358 Syntax for Collections
10360 In many environments, it is quite common to have collections of
10361 archived mail on various hosts around the network. Using the folder
10362 collections facility in _Alpine_, access to these archives is just as
10363 simple as access to folders on _Alpine_'s local disk.
10365 "Collection" is the word we use in _Alpine_ to describe a set of
10366 folders. A collection corresponds loosely to a "directory" containing
10367 mail folders. Folders within a defined collection can be manipulated
10368 (opened, saved-to, etc) using just their simple name. Any number of
10369 folder collections can be defined, and _Alpine_ will adjust its menus
10370 and prompts to help navigate them.
10372 The way collections are defined in _Alpine_ is with the
10373 folder-collections variable in the _Alpine_ configuration file.
10374 _Folder-collections_ takes a list of one or more collections, each
10375 (optionally) preceded by a user-defined logical name (label). Once
10376 collections are defined, _Alpine_ adjusts its menus and behavior to
10377 allow choosing files by their simple name within the collection.
10379 Consider the following:
10380 folder-collections= Local-Mail C:\MAIL\[],
10381 Remote-Mail {imap.u.example.edu}mail/[]
10383 The example shows two collections defined (a comma separated list;
10384 newlines in the list are OK if there's one or more spaces before the
10385 next entry), one local and one remote. Each collection is a
10386 space-delimited pair of elements-first an optional logical-name and
10387 second the collection specifier. The logical-name can have spaces if it
10388 has quotes around it (but keeping the logical name short and
10389 descriptive works best). _Alpine_ will use the logical-name (if
10390 provided) to reference all folders in the collection, so the user never
10391 has to see the ugliness of the collection specifier.
10393 The collection specifier can be thought of as an extended IMAP format
10394 (see the Remote Folders section for a description of IMAP format
10395 names). Basically, a pair of square-brackets are placed in the fully
10396 qualified IMAP path where the simple folder name (the part without the
10397 host name and path) would appear. Like IMAP, the path can be either
10398 fully qualified (i.e., with a leading '/') or relative to your home
10399 directory.
10401 An advanced feature of this notation is that a pattern within the
10402 square brackets allows the user to define a collection to be a subset
10403 of a directory. For example, a collection defined with the specifier:
10404 M-Mail C:MAIL/[m*]
10407 will provide a view in the folder lister of all folders in the PC's
10408 "C:MAIL" directory that start with the letter 'm' (case insensitive
10409 under DOS, of course). Further, the wildcard matching will honor
10410 characters trailing the '*' in the pattern.
10412 From within _Alpine_, the "Folder List" display will be adjusted to
10413 allow browsing of the folders in any defined collection. Even more,
10414 you'll notice in the _Goto_ and _Save_ commands a pair of sub-commands
10415 to rotate through the list of logical collection names, so only a
10416 simple name need be input in order to operate on a folder in any
10417 collection.
10419 The first collection specified in the _folder-collections_ has special
10420 significance. That folder is the "default collection for saves". By
10421 default, in cases where the user does not specify which collection
10422 should be used to _Save_ a message, the default collection for saves
10423 will be used. Also, if the default-fcc is a relative file name, then it
10424 is relative to the default collection for saves. (See also
10425 saved-msg-name-rule.
10427 The notion of collections encompasses both email folders and news
10428 reading. The variable news-collections uses nearly the same format as
10429 _folder-collections_. Newsgroups can be defined for convenient access
10430 via either IMAP or NNTP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both
10431 access methods. In the IMAP case, your news environment state is
10432 maintained on the server and, thus, will be seen by any client. The
10433 downside is that, at the moment, you must have an account on the
10434 server. In the NNTP case, server access is mostly anonymous and no
10435 state/accounting need be maintained on it. The downside is that each
10436 client, for now, must individually maintain news environment state.
10438 An example pinerc entry might be:
10439 news-collections= Remote-State {news.u.example.edu}#news.[],
10440 Local-State {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[]
10442 Only newsgroups to which you are subscribed are included in the
10443 collection.
10445 The pattern matching facility can be applied so as to define a news
10446 collection which is a subset of all the newsgroups you subscribe to.
10447 For example, this could be a valid collection:
10448 Newsfeed-News {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[clari.*]
10450 Collection handling is a tough problem to solve in a general way, and
10451 the explanation of the syntax is a bit ugly. The upside is, hopefully,
10452 that for a little complexity in the _Alpine_ configuration file you get
10453 simple management of multiple folders in diverse locations.
10455 Collection setup is handled by the _Setup/collectionList_ screen.
10456 __________________________________________________________________
10458 Syntax for Folder Names
10460 Remote folders are distinguished from local folders by a leading host
10461 name bracketed by '{' and '}'. The path and folder name immediately
10462 following the closing bracket, '}', is interpreted by the remote server
10463 and is in a form compatible with that server (i.e., path delimiters and
10464 naming syntax relative to that server).
10466 The full syntax for a _Alpine_ folder name looks like
10468 [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>]<namespace-specific-part>
10470 The square brackets ([]) mean that the part is optional.
10472 If there is no remote-specification, then the folder name is
10473 interpreted locally on the computer running _Alpine_. Local folder
10474 names depend on the operating system used by the computer running
10475 _Alpine_, as well as the configuration of that system. For example,
10476 "C:\ALPINE\FOLDERS\OCT-94" might exist on a PC, and
10477 "~/mail/september-1994" might be a reasonable folder name on a system
10478 running Unix.
10480 _Alpine_ users have the option of using folders which are stored on
10481 some other computer. _Alpine_ accesses remote folders via IMAP (the
10482 Internet Message Access Protocol), or in the case of news, via NNTP
10483 (the Network News Transport Protocol). To be able to access remote
10484 folders in _Alpine_, the remote host must be running the appropriate
10485 server software (imapd or nntpd) and you must correctly specify the
10486 name of the folder to _Alpine_, including the domain name of the remote
10487 machine. For example,
10489 {monet.art.example.com}INBOX
10491 could be a remote folder specification, and so could
10493 {unixhost.art.example.com}~/mail/september-1994
10495 and
10497 {winhost.art.example.com}\mymail\SEP-94
10499 Note that in the case of remote folders, the directory/file path in the
10500 specification is determined by the operating system of the remote
10501 computer, _not_ by the operating system of the computer on which you
10502 are running _Alpine_.
10504 As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed
10505 immediately by the name of the folder. (In each of these cases the
10506 optional namespace is missing.) If, as in these examples, there is no
10507 remote access protocol specified, then IMAP is assumed. Check Server
10508 Name Syntax for a more detailed look at what options can be placed
10509 between the brackets. If there are no brackets at all, then the folder
10510 name is interpreted locally on the computer on which you are running
10511 _Alpine_.
10513 To the right of the brackets when a server name is present, or at the
10514 start of the foldername if no server is present, the sharp sign, "#",
10515 holds special meaning. It indicates a folder name outside the area
10516 reserved for your personal folders. In fact, it's used to indicate both
10517 the name of the folder, and a special phrase telling _Alpine_ how to
10518 interpret the name that follows.
10520 So, for example, _Alpine_ can be used to access a newsgroup that might
10521 be available on your computer using:
10523 #news.comp.mail.pine
10525 The sharp sign indicates the folder name is outside your personal
10526 folder area. The "news." phrase after it tells _Alpine_ to interpret
10527 the remainder of the name as a newsgroup.
10529 Similarly, to access a newsgroup on your IMAP server, you might use
10530 something like:
10532 {wharhol.art.example.com}#news.comp.mail.misc
10534 There are a number of such special phrases (or "namespaces") available.
10535 For a more detailed explanation read about Namespaces.
10537 Note that "INBOX" has special meaning in both local and remote folder
10538 names. The name INBOX refers to your "principal incoming message
10539 folder" and will be mapped to the actual file name used for your INBOX
10540 on any given host. Therefore, a name like "{xxx.art.example.com}INBOX"
10541 refers to whatever file is used to store incoming mail for you on that
10542 particular host.
10543 __________________________________________________________________
10545 Server Name Syntax
10547 This section describes the syntax which may be used for server names
10548 which may be associated with remote folders or SMTP servers.
10550 A server name is the hostname of the server. It's a good idea to use
10551 the host's fully-qualified network name.
10553 foo.example.com
10555 However, IP addresses are allowed if surrounded with square-brackets.
10557 [127.0.0.1]
10559 An optional network port number may be supplied by appending a colon
10560 (:) followed by the port number to the server name. By default, the
10561 IMAP port number, 143, is used.
10563 foo.example.com:port
10565 Besides server name and optional port number, various other optional
10566 parameters may be supplied that alter _Alpine_'s interaction with the
10567 server. A parameter is supplied by appending a slash (/) character
10568 followed by the parameter's name and, depending on the particular
10569 parameter, the value assigned to that name, to the server name (and
10570 optional port number). Parameter names are _not_ case sensitive.
10571 Currently supported parameters include:
10573 User
10574 This parameter requires an associated value, and is intended to
10575 provide the username identifier with which to establish the
10576 server connection. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH
10577 authentication, adding this parameter to the SMTP-Server option
10578 will cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate to the server
10579 using the supplied username. Similarly, if your NNTP server
10580 offers NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO USER" authentication,
10581 adding this parameter to the NNTP-Server option (or to the
10582 server name for any folder collection using NNTP) will cause
10583 _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate to the server using the
10584 supplied username. An example might be:
10586 /user=katie
10588 TLS
10589 Normally, when a new connection is made an attempt is made to
10590 negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using Transport Layer
10591 Security (TLS). If that fails then a non-encrypted connection
10592 will be attempted instead. This is a unary parameter indicating
10593 communication with the server must take place over a TLS
10594 connection. If the attempt to use TLS fails then this parameter
10595 will cause the connection to fail instead of falling back to an
10596 unsecure connection.
10598 /tls
10600 SSL
10601 This is a unary parameter indicating communication with the
10602 server should take place over a Secure Socket Layer connection.
10603 The server must support this method, and be prepared to accept
10604 connections on the appropriate port (993 by default). _Alpine_
10605 must be linked with an SSL library for this option to be
10606 operational.
10608 /ssl
10610 NoValidate-Cert
10611 Do not validate certificates (for TLS or SSL connections) from
10612 the server. This is needed if the server uses self-signed
10613 certificates or if _Alpine_ cannot validate the certificate for
10614 some other known reason.
10616 Anonymous
10617 This is a unary parameter (that means it does not have a value)
10618 indicating that the connection be logged in as "anonymous"
10619 rather than a specific user. Not all servers offer anonymous
10620 access; those which do generally only offer read-only access to
10621 certain "public" folders.
10623 /anonymous
10625 Secure
10626 This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection use the
10627 most secure authentication method mutually supported by _Alpine_
10628 and the server. _Alpine_ is capable of authenticating
10629 connections to the server using several methods. By default,
10630 _Alpine_ will attempt each method until either a connection is
10631 established or the list of methods is exhausted. This parameter
10632 causes _Alpine_ to instead fail the connection if the first
10633 (generally most "secure") method fails.
10635 /secure
10637 Submit
10638 This is a unary parameter for use with the "SMTP-Server" option.
10639 It indicates that the connection should be made to the Submit
10640 server (RFC 3676) (port 587) instead of the SMTP port (25). At
10641 the time this help was written the submit option was equivalent
10642 to specifying port 587.
10644 /submit
10646 or
10648 host:587
10650 Debug
10651 This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection be
10652 established in a verbose mode. Basically, it causes _Alpine_ to
10653 log the communication with the server in _Alpine_'s debug file.
10654 Normally, the alpine -d command-line flag would be used instead.
10656 NoRsh
10657 By default, _Alpine_ attempts to login using "rsh", the UNIX
10658 remote shell program. Including "NoRsh" will cause connections
10659 to this server to skip the "rsh" attempt. This might be useful
10660 to avoid long timeouts caused by rsh firewalls, for example.
10662 Service
10663 This parameter requires an associated value. The default value
10664 is "IMAP" which indicates communication with the server based on
10665 the IMAP4rev1 protocol (defined in RFC 3501 -- see
10666 http://www.imap.org/docs/rfc3501.html). Other service values
10667 include:
10669 NNTP
10670 This value indicates communication with the server takes
10671 place via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Use this to
10672 define a collection of newsgroups on a remote news server.
10673 So
10675 /service=NNTP
10677 or just
10679 /NNTP
10681 is the way to specify NNTP access.
10683 POP3
10684 This value indicates communication with the server takes
10685 place via the Post Office Protocol 3 protocol.
10687 /service=POP3
10689 or just
10691 /POP3
10693 Note that there are several important issues to consider
10694 when selecting this option:
10696 1. POP3 provides access to only your INBOX. In other words,
10697 secondary folders such as your "saved-messages" are
10698 inaccessible.
10699 2. _Alpine_'s implementation of POP3 does not follow the
10700 traditional POP model and will leave your mail on the
10701 server. Refer to the Mail Drop functionality for a
10702 possible way around this problem.
10703 3. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
10704 Folder-Reopen-Rule.
10706 Note that it is possible to include more than one parameter in a server
10707 specification by concatenating the parameters. For example:
10709 foo.example.com:port/user=katie/novalidate-cert/debug
10710 __________________________________________________________________
10712 Folder Namespaces
10714 A _Alpine_ folder name looks like
10716 [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>][<namespace-specific-part>]
10718 The local part of a folder name has an optional "Namespace" which tells
10719 _Alpine_ how to interpret the rest of the name.
10721 By default the folder name is interpreted as defining a section of your
10722 personal folder area. This area and how you specify it are defined by
10723 the server, if one is specified, or, typically, the home directory, if
10724 no server is defined.
10726 If a namespace is specified, it begins with the sharp, "#", character
10727 followed by the name of the namespace and then the namespace's
10728 path-element-delimiter. Aside from the path's format, namespaces can
10729 also imply access rights, content policy, audience, location, and,
10730 occasionally, access methods.
10732 Each server exports its own set (possibly of size one) of namespaces.
10733 Hence, it's likely communication with your server's administrator will
10734 be required for specific configurations. Some of the more common
10735 namespaces, however, include:
10737 #news.
10738 This specifies a set of folders in the newsgroup namespace.
10739 Newsgroup names are hierarchically defined with each level
10740 delimited by a period.
10742 #news.comp.mail.pine
10744 #public/
10745 This specifies a folder area that the server may export to the
10746 general public.
10748 #shared/
10749 This specifies a folder area that the folder may export to
10750 groups of users.
10752 #ftp/
10753 This specifies a folder area that is the same as that it may
10754 have exported via the "File Transfer Protocol".
10756 #mh/
10757 This specifies the personal folder area associated with folders
10758 and directories that were created using the MH message handling
10759 system.
10761 #move/
10762 This namespace is interpreted locally by _Alpine_. It has an
10763 unusual interpretation and format.
10765 #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
10767 The #move namespace is followed by two folder names separated by
10768 a delimiter character. The delimiter character may be any
10769 character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name. The
10770 meaning of #move is that mail will be copied from the
10771 MailDropFolder to the DestinationFolder and then deleted (if
10772 possible) from the MailDropFolder. Periodic checks at frequency
10773 Mail-Check-Interval, but with a minimum time between checks set
10774 by MailDrop-Check-Minimum, are made for new mail arriving in the
10775 MailDropFolder. An example which copies mail from a POP inbox to
10776 a local folder follows
10778 #move+{popserver.example.com/pop3/ssl}inbox+local folder
10780 To you it appears that mail is being delivered to the local
10781 folder when it is copied from the MailDropFolder, and you read
10782 mail from the local folder.
10784 Note that if the DestinationFolder does not exist then the
10785 messages are not copied from the MailDropFolder. A #move folder
10786 may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When you are
10787 in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning on
10788 the enable-incoming-folders option) the Add command has a
10789 subcommand "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the
10790 folder in your _Alpine_ configuration. The same is true when you
10791 edit the Inbox-Path option in Setup/Config. Each of these
10792 configuration methods will also create the DestinationFolder if
10793 it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure
10794 the DestinationFolder exists.
10796 In addition, the server may support access to other user's folders,
10797 provided you have suitable permissions. Common methods use a prefix of
10798 either "~user/", or "/user/" to indicate the root of the other user's
10799 folder area.
10800 __________________________________________________________________
10802 What is a Mail Drop?
10804 In some situaions it may make sense to have your mail delivered to one
10805 folder (the Mail Drop) and then when you want to read mail that has
10806 been delivered to the Mail Drop folder _Alpine_ will move it to another
10807 destination folder. Often the Mail Drop will be a remote folder and
10808 messages will be moved from there to a local destination folder.
10810 One example where this might make sense is if the Mail Drop folder is
10811 accessible only with the POP protocol. You could designate your POP
10812 inbox as the Mail Drop folder and have _Alpine_ move mail from there to
10813 a local (on the same machine _Alpine_ is running on) destination
10814 folder, where you'll read it.
10816 A Mail Drop may only be used as your Inbox or as an Incoming folder.
10818 There is no attempt to synchronize the contents of the destination
10819 folder with the contents of the Mail Drop folder. All that happens is
10820 that all of the messages in the Mail Drop folder are copied to the
10821 destination folder and then they are deleted and expunged (if possible)
10822 from the Mail Drop folder. The next time a check for new mail is made,
10823 any messages in the Mail Drop folder are once again copied to the
10824 destination folder and deleted and expunged from the Mail Drop folder.
10825 (If the Mail Drop folder is a news group, then the messages can't be
10826 expunged from the newsgroup. Instead, only Recent messages are copied
10827 from the newsgroup to the destination folder.)
10829 Configuration of a Mail Drop is a little different from configuration
10830 of a folder which does not use a Mail Drop because you have to specify
10831 two folder names instead of one. The two folders may be any types of
10832 folders that _Alpine_ can normally use. They don't have to be a remote
10833 folder and a local folder, that is simply the most common usage. When
10834 you use a Mail Drop folder _Alpine_ will periodically re-open the Mail
10835 Drop to check for new mail. The new-mail checks will happen at the
10836 frequency set with the Mail-Check-Interval option, but with a minimum
10837 time (MailDrop-Check-Minimum) between checks. Because of this minimum
10838 you may notice that new mail does not appear promptly when you expect
10839 it. The reason for this is to protect the server from over-zealous
10840 opening and closing of the Mail Drop folder. If the user initiates the
10841 check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or the Next command when at the end of the
10842 folder index, then the check will happen, regardless of how long it has
10843 been since the previous check.
10845 If there is new mail, that mail will be copied to the destination
10846 folder and then will be deleted from the Mail Drop. Note that using a
10847 Mail Drop with a local destination folder does not make sense if you
10848 read mail from more than one machine, because the mail is downloaded to
10849 the destination folder (which is accessible from only one machine) and
10850 deleted from the Mail Drop.
10852 The feature Maildrops-Preserve-State modifies the operation of Mail
10853 Drops.
10855 The actual syntax used by _Alpine_ for a folder that uses a Mail Drop
10856 is:
10858 #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
10860 The brackets are not literal.
10862 <DELIM>
10864 is a single character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name.
10865 If the name doesn't contain spaces then it can be a space character.
10866 The two folder names are full technical folder names as used by
10867 _Alpine_. Here are a couple examples to give you an idea what is being
10868 talked about:
10870 #move {popserver.example.com/pop3}inbox localfolder
10872 #move+{nntpserver.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine+local folder
10874 A #move folder may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When
10875 you are in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning
10876 on the Enable-Incoming-Folders option) the Add command has a subcommand
10877 "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the folder in your
10878 _Alpine_ configuration. The same is true when you edit the Inbox-Path
10879 option in Setup/Config.
10880 if it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure the
10881 DestinationFolder exists.
10882 __________________________________________________________________
10884 Sorting a Folder
10886 The mail index may be sorted by arrival, date, subject, from, size,
10887 score, to, or cc order. Each sort order can also be reversed. The _$_
10888 command will prompt the user for the sort order. The sort order can
10889 also be specified on the command line with the _-sort_ flag or
10890 (equivalently) with the sort-key variable in the _pinerc_ file. When a
10891 user changes folders, the sort order will go back to the original sort
10892 order. The command line (_-sort_) or configuration file sort
10893 specification (_sort-key_) changes the original sort order.
10895 When a folder is sorted and new mail arrives in the folder it will be
10896 inserted in its properly sorted place. This can be a little odd when
10897 the folder is sorted by something like the subject. It can also be a
10898 little slow if you are viewing a large, sorted _INBOX_, since the
10899 _INBOX_ will have to be re-sorted whenever new mail arrives.
10901 The sorts are all independent of case and ignore leading or trailing
10902 white space. There are actually two forms of subject sort. One called
10903 _Subject_ and the other called _OrderedSubj_. They both ignore "Re:" at
10904 the beginning and "(fwd)" at the end of the subjects. _Subject_ sorts
10905 all the subjects alphabetically. _OrderedSubj_ sorts by subjects
10906 alphabetically, groups messages with the same subject (pseudo-threads),
10907 then sorts the groups by the date of the first message of the group.
10908 Sorting by _Thread_ was added after _OrderedSubj_ and is usually a
10909 better method. Thread sorting uses information in the message headers
10910 References, Message-ID, and Subject. It is possible the sort will be
10911 slightly slower with a Thread sort than with an OrderedSubj sort. The
10912 sort by sender sorts by the user-id (part before the "@"), not the full
10913 name. The arrival sort is no sort at all and the date sort depends on
10914 the format of the date. Some dates are in strange formats and are
10915 unparsable. The time zone is also taken into account.
10917 Sorting large mail folders can be very slow since it requires fetching
10918 all the headers of the mail messages. With UNIX _Alpine_, only the
10919 first sort is slow since _Alpine_ keeps a copy of all the headers. One
10920 exception is sorting in reverse arrival order. This is fast because no
10921 headers have to be examined. _Alpine_ will show progress as it is
10922 sorting.
10923 __________________________________________________________________
10925 Alternate Editor
10927 In the _Alpine_ composer you can use any text editor, such as _vi_ or
10928 _emacs,_ for composing the message text. The addresses and subject still
10929 must be edited using the standard _Alpine_ composer. If you include the
10930 feature enable-alternate-editor-cmd in your _pinerc_ you can type _^__
10931 while in the body of the message in the composer and be prompted for
10932 the editor. If you also set the editor variable in your _pinerc_ then
10933 _^__ will invoke the configured editor when you type it.
10935 Turning on the feature enable-alternate-editor-implicitly will
10936 automatically invoke the editor you have defined with the _editor_
10937 variable whenever you enter the body of a message you are composing.
10938 For example, when you move out of the last header line and into the
10939 body of the message, the alternate editor will be automatically
10940 invoked.
10942 We know that many people would like to use the alternate editor to edit
10943 the mail header as well. We considered several designs for this and
10944 didn't come up with one that we liked and that was easy to implement.
10945 One of the main problems is that you lose access to the address book.
10946 __________________________________________________________________
10948 Signatures and Signature Placement
10950 If the file _~/.signature_ (UNIX) or _<PINERC_directory>\PINE.SIG (PC)
10951 exists, it will be included in all outgoing messages. It is included
10952 before composition starts so that the user has a chance to edit it out
10953 if he or she likes. The file name for the signature can be changed by
10954 setting the signature-file variable in the _pinerc_. If the feature
10955 enable-sigdashes is turned on then the line consisting of the three
10956 characters "-- " is prepended to the signature file. When Replying or
10957 Forwarding a message different signatures my be automatically included
10958 by configuring them in the Roles setup screen. It's easy to include
10959 different signatures by hand, by having multiple signature files
10960 (_.sig1, .sig2, .sig3, etc_) and choosing to include (^R in the
10961 composer) the correct one for the message being sent.
10963 _Alpine_'s default behavior encourages a user to put his or her
10964 contribution before the inclusion of the original text of the message
10965 being forwarded or replied to, This is contrary to some conventions,
10966 but makes the conversation more readable when a long original message
10967 is included in a reply for context. The reader doesn't have to scroll
10968 through the original text that he or she has probably already seen to
10969 find the new text. If the reader wishes to see the old message(s), the
10970 reader can scroll further into the message. Users who prefer to add
10971 their input at the end of a message should set the signature-at-bottom
10972 feature. The signature will then be appended to the end of the message
10973 after any included text. This feature applies when _Reply_ing, not when
10974 _Forward_ing.
10975 __________________________________________________________________
10977 Feature List Variable
10979 _Alpine_ used to have _feature levels_ for users with different amounts
10980 of experience. We found that this was too restrictive. _Alpine_ now has
10981 a feature-list instead. Each user may pick and choose which features
10982 they would like enabled (simple to do in the _Setup/Config_ screen).
10983 There is a short description of each in Configuration Features. There
10984 is also a short on-line help explaining the effect of each of the
10985 features in the _Setup/Config_ screen. When the cursor is highlighting
10986 a feature, the _?_ command will show the help text for that feature.
10987 Features don't have values, they are just turned on or off. They are
10988 all off by default.
10990 The _feature-list_ variable is different from all other configuration
10991 variables in that its value is additive. That is, the system-wide
10992 configuration file can have some features turned on by default. The
10993 user can select other features in their personal configuration file and
10994 those features will be _added_ to the set of features turned on in the
10995 system-wide configuration file. (With all other configuration
10996 variables, the user's values _replace_ the system-wide values.)
10997 Likewise, additional features may be set on the command-line with the
10998 argument "-feature-list=". These will be added to the others.
11000 The treatment of _feature-list_ in the system-wide _fixed_
11001 configuration file is also different from other variables. The system
11002 management can fix the value of individual features by placing them in
11003 the fixed configuration file. Users will not be able to alter those
11004 features, but will still be able to set the other non-restricted
11005 features the way they like.
11007 Because _feature-list_ is additive, there is a way to turn features off
11008 as well as on. Prepending the prefix "no-" to any feature sets it to
11009 off. This is useful for over-riding the system-wide default in the
11010 personal configuration file or for over-riding the system-wide default
11011 or the personal configuration value on the command line. For example,
11012 if the system-wide default configuration has the _quit-without-confirm_
11013 feature set, the user can over-ride that (and turn it off) by including
11014 _no-quit-without-confirm_ in the personal configuration file or by
11015 giving the command line argument
11016 _-feature-list=no-quit-without-confirm._ More features (options) will no
11017 doubt continue to be added.
11018 __________________________________________________________________
11020 Configuration Inheritance
11022 We start with an explanation of how configuration works in hopes of
11023 making it easier to describe how inheritance works.
11025 _Alpine_ uses a hierarchy of configuration values from different
11026 locations. There are five ways in which each configuration option
11027 (configuration variable) can be set. In increasing order of precedence
11028 they are:
11030 1. the system-wide configuration file.
11031 2. the personal configuration file
11032 3. the personal exceptions file
11033 4. a command line argument
11034 5. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file (Unix _Alpine_ only)
11036 The fixed configuration file is normally
11037 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed.
11039 The system-wide configuration file is normally /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
11040 for Unix _Alpine_ and is normally not set for _PC-Alpine_. For
11041 _PC-Alpine_, if the environment variable _$PINECONF_ is set, that is
11042 used for the system-wide configuration. This location can be set or
11043 changed on the command line with the -P flag. The system-wide
11044 configuration file can be either a local file or a remote configuration
11045 folder.
11047 For Unix _Alpine_, the personal configuration file is normally the file
11048 .pinerc in the user's home directory. This can be changed with the -p
11049 command line flag. For _PC-Alpine_, the personal configuration file is
11050 in $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or ${HOME}\ALPINE\PINERC or
11051 <ALPINE.EXE dir>\PINERC. This can be changed with the -p command line
11052 flag. If -p or $PINERC is used, the configuration data may be in a
11053 local file or a remote config folder.
11055 For Unix _Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is
11056 specified with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument.
11057 "Exceptions_config" may be either a local file or a remote
11058 configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command line option, _Alpine_
11059 will look for the file ".pinercex" in the same local directory that the
11060 regular config file is located in. If the regular config file is remote
11061 then Unix _Alpine_ looks in the home directory for ".pinercex".
11063 For _PC-Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is
11064 specified with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument. If
11065 there is no "-x" command line argument the environment variable
11066 $PINERCEX may be set to the name of the "exceptions_config" instead.
11067 "Exceptions_config" may be either a local file or a remote
11068 configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command line option and
11069 $PINERCEX is not set, _PC-Alpine_ will look for the file "PINERCEX" in
11070 the same local directory that the regular config file is located in. If
11071 the regular config file is remote then _PC-Alpine_ looks in the local
11072 directory specified by the "-aux local_directory" command line
11073 argument, or the directory ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE directory>
11074 for a file named "PINERCEX".
11076 To reiterate, the value of a configuration option is taken from the
11077 last location in the list above in which it is set. Or, thinking about
11078 it slightly differently, a default value for an option is established
11079 in the system-wide configuration file (or in the source code if there
11080 is no value in the system-wide file). That default remains in effect
11081 until and unless it is overridden by a value in a location further down
11082 the list, in which case a new "default" value is established. As we
11083 continue down the list of locations we either retain the value at each
11084 step or establish a new value. The value that is still set after going
11085 through the whole list of configuration locations is the one that is
11086 used.
11088 So, for example, if an option is set in the system-wide configuration
11089 file and in the personal configuration file, but is not set in the
11090 exceptions, on the command line, or in the fixed file; then the value
11091 from the personal configuration file is the one that is used. Or, if it
11092 is set in the system-wide config, in the personal config, not in the
11093 exceptions, but is set on the command line; then the value on the
11094 command line is used.
11096 Finally we get to inheritance. For configuration options which are
11097 lists, like "smtp-server" or "incoming-folders", the inheritance
11098 mechanism makes it possible to _combine_ the values from different
11099 locations instead of _replacing_ the value. This is true of all
11100 configuration lists other than the "feature-list", for which you may
11101 already set whatever you want at any configuration location (by using
11102 the "no-" prefix if necessary).
11104 To use inheritance, set the first item in a configuration list to the
11105 token "INHERIT". If the first item is "INHERIT", then instead of
11106 replacing the default value established so far, the rest of the list is
11107 appended to the default value established so far and that is the new
11108 value.
11110 Here is an example which may make it clearer. Suppose we have:
11112 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11113 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
11114 Exceptions config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11115 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11116 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11118 This would result in an effective smtp-server option of
11120 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home
11122 The "INHERIT" token can be used in any of the configuration files and
11123 the effect cascades. For example, if we change the above example to:
11125 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11126 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
11127 Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
11128 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11129 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11131 This would result in:
11133 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home, yoursmtp.org
11135 Unset variables are skipped over (the default value is carried forward)
11136 so that, for example:
11138 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11139 Personal config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11140 Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
11141 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11142 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11144 produces:
11146 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, yoursmtp.org
11148 If any later configuration location has a value set (for a particular
11149 list option) which does _not_ begin with "INHERIT", then that value
11150 replaces whatever value has been defined up to that point. In other
11151 words, that cancels out any previous inheritance.
11153 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11154 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.org
11155 Exceptions config : smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
11156 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11157 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11159 results in:
11161 smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
11163 For some configuration options, like "viewer-hdr-colors" or
11164 "patterns-roles", it is difficult to insert the value "INHERIT" into
11165 the list of values for the option using the normal Setup tools. In
11166 other words, the color setting screen (for example) does not provide a
11167 way to input the text "INHERIT" as the first item in the
11168 viewer-hdr-colors option. The way to do this is to either edit the
11169 pinerc file directly and manually insert it, or turn on the
11170 "expose-hidden-config" feature and insert it using the Setup/Config
11171 screen.
11172 __________________________________________________________________
11174 Using Environment Variables
11176 The values of _Alpine_ configuration options may include environment
11177 variables which are replaced by the value of the variable at the time
11178 _Alpine_ is run (and also at the time the config option is changed). The
11179 syntax to use environment variables is a subset of the common Unix
11180 shell dollar-syntax. For example, if
11182 $VAR
11184 appears in the value of a _Alpine_ configuration option it is looked up
11185 in the environment (using getenv("VAR")) and its looked-up value
11186 replaces the $VAR part of the option value. To include a literal dollar
11187 sign you may precede the dollar sign with another dollar sign. In other
11188 words, if the text
11190 $$text
11192 is the value of a configuration option, it will be expanded to
11194 $text
11196 and no environment lookup will be done. For Unix _Alpine_ it will also
11197 work to use a backslash character to escape the special meaning of the
11198 dollar sign, but $$ is preferable since it works for both _PC-Alpine_
11199 and Unix _Alpine_, allowing the configuration option to be in a shared
11200 configuration file.
11202 This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. An example may
11203 make it clearer. Unfortunately, the way in which environment variables
11204 are set is OS-dependent and command shell-dependent. In some Unix
11205 command shells you may use
11207 PERSNAME="Fred Flintstone"
11209 export PERSNAME
11211 Now, if you use _Alpine_'s Setup/Config screen to set
11213 personal-name=$PERSNAME
11215 the $PERSNAME would be replaced by Fred Flintstone so that this would
11216 be equivalent to
11218 personal-name=Fred Flintstone
11220 Note, environment variable substitution happens after configuration
11221 options which are lists are split into the separate elements of the
11222 list, so a single environment variable can't contain a list of values.
11224 The environment variable doesn't have to be the only thing after the
11225 equal sign. However, if the name of the variable is not at the end of
11226 the line or followed by a space (so that you can tell where the
11227 variable name ends), it must be enclosed in curly braces like
11229 ${VAR}
11231 It is always ok to use the braces even if you don't need to.
11233 It is also possible to set a default value for an environment variable.
11234 This default value will be used if the environment variable is not set
11235 (that is, if getenv("VAR") returns NULL). The syntax used to set a
11236 default value is
11238 ${VAR:-default value}
11240 If the config file contains
11242 personal-name=${VAR:-Fred Flintstone}
11244 then when _Alpine_ is run VAR will be looked up in the environment. If
11245 VAR is found then personal-name will have the value that VAR was set
11246 to, otherwise, personal-name will be set to Fred Flintstone, the
11247 default value.
11249 An example where an environment variable might be useful is the
11250 variable inbox-path in the global configuration file. Suppose most
11251 users used the server
11253 imapserver.example.com
11255 but that there were some exceptions who used
11257 altimapserver.example.com
11259 In this case, the system manager might include the following line in
11260 the systemwide default _Alpine_ configuration file
11262 inbox-path=${IMAPSERVER:-imapserver.example.com}
11264 For the exceptional users adding
11266 IMAPSERVER=altimapserver.example.com
11268 to their environment should work.
11270 Another example might be the case where a user has to use a different
11271 SMTP server from work and from home. The setup might be something as
11272 simple as
11274 smtp-server=$SMTP
11276 or perhaps a default value could be given. Note that, as mentioned
11277 above, the variable SMTP cannot contain a list of SMTP servers.
11278 __________________________________________________________________
11280 SMTP Servers
11282 It is sometimes desirable to set smtp-server=localhost instead of
11283 setting sendmail-path to overcome the inability to negotiate ESMTP
11284 options when _sendmail_ is invoked with the _-t_ option. Sendmail can
11285 also be subject to unacceptable delays due to slow DNS lookups and
11286 other problems.
11288 It is sometimes desirable to configure an SMTP server on a port other
11289 than the default port 25. This may be used to provide an alternate
11290 service that is optimized for a particular environment or provides
11291 different features from the port 25 server. An example would be a
11292 program that negotiates ESMTP options and queues a message, but does
11293 not attempt to deliver messages. This would avoid delays frequently
11294 encountered when invoking _sendmail_ directly.
11296 A typical configuration would consist of
11297 * A program that implements the SMTP or ESMTP protocol via stdio.
11298 * An entry in /etc/services for the alternate service.
11299 * An entry in /etc/inetd.conf for the alternate service.
11300 * An entry in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf,
11301 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed or ~/.pinerc.
11302 __________________________________________________________________
11304 MIME.Types file
11306 _Alpine_'s MIME-TYPE support is based on code contributed by Hans
11307 Drexler <drexler@mpi.nl>. _Alpine_ assigns MIME Content-Types
11308 according to file name extensions found in the system-wide files
11309 /usr/local/lib/mime.types and /etc/mime.types, and a user specific
11310 ~/.mime.types file.
11312 In Windows, _Alpine_ looks in the same directory as the PINERC file and
11313 the same dir as ALPINE.EXE. This is similar to the UNIX situation with
11314 personal config info coming before potentially shared config data. An
11315 alternate search path can be specified by setting the
11316 mimetype-search-path variable in the user or system-wide configuration
11317 or by setting the MIMETYPES environment variable.
11319 These files specify file extensions that will be connected to a mime
11320 type. Lines beginning with a '#' character are treated as comments and
11321 ignored. All other lines are treated as a mime type definition. The
11322 first word is a _type/subtype_ specification. All following words are
11323 file _extensions_ belonging to that type/subtype. Words are separated
11324 by whitespace characters. If a file extension occurs more than once,
11325 then the first definition determines the file type and subtype. A
11326 couple sample lines from a mime.types file follow:
11328 image/gif gif
11329 text/html html htm
11330 video/mpeg mpeg mpg mpe
11332 __________________________________________________________________
11334 Color Details
11336 UNIX _Alpine_ may display color if the terminal or terminal emulator
11337 you are using is capable of displaying colors. If the terminal supports
11338 ANSI color escape sequences you will be able to turn color on using the
11339 color-style option and setting it to the value _force-ansi-8color_ or
11340 _force-ansi-16color_. If instead you'd like _Alpine_ to automatically
11341 detect whether or not you are on a color terminal, set _color-style_ to
11342 _use-termdef_ _and_ configure the termcap entry to describe your
11343 terminal's color capabilities.
11345 If the _color-style_ option is set to _use-termdef_, _Alpine_ looks in
11346 the terminal capabilities database, TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on
11347 how _Alpine_ was compiled, to decide whether or not your terminal is
11348 capable of color. For TERMINFO compiled _Alpine_s, the capabilities
11349 that are used for color are "colors", "setaf", "setab", "op", and
11350 "bce". If you have a terminal with color capabilities described by the
11351 "scp" capability, _Alpine_ does not support it. The capabilities "setf"
11352 and "setb" may be used instead of "setaf" and "setab". The capability
11353 "bce" is optional and is used as an optimization, the other
11354 capabilities are required. For TERMCAP compiled _Alpine_s, the
11355 capabilities that are used for color are "Co", "AF", "AB", "op", and
11356 "ut". The capabilities "Sf" and "Sb" may be used instead of "AF" and
11357 "AB", though this isn't a useful feature.
11359 Here are some short descriptions of the capabilities listed above. The
11360 TERMINFO name is listed, followed by the TERMCAP name in parentheses.
11361 _colors_ (_Co_)
11362 The number of different colors.
11363 _setaf_ (_AF_)
11364 Set ANSI foreground color.
11365 _setab_ (_AB_)
11366 Set ANSI background color.
11367 _setf_ (_Sf_)
11368 Set foreground color. Alternate form of _setaf_.
11369 _setb_ (_Sb_)
11370 Set background color. Alternate form of _setab_.
11371 _op_ (_op_)
11372 Set default pair to its original value.
11373 _bce_ (_ut_)
11374 Screen is erased with current background color instead of
11375 default background.
11377 A standard ANSI terminal which supports color will have a TERMINFO
11378 entry which contains:
11379 colors#8
11380 setaf=\E[3%p1%dm
11381 setab=\E[4%p1%dm
11382 op=\E[39;49m
11383 bce
11385 or the TERMCAP equivalent:
11386 Co#8
11387 AF=\E[3%dm
11388 AB=\E[4%dm
11389 op=\E[39;49m
11390 ut
11392 If there are eight colors, the program uses colors 0, 1, ..., 7. For an
11393 ANSI terminal, the foreground color is set by sending the escape
11394 sequence "Escape LeftBracket 3 color_number m" to the terminal. The
11395 background color is set by sending the sequence "Escape LeftBracket 4
11396 color_number m". ANSI colors zero through seven are defined to be
11397 "black", "red", "green", "yellow", "blue", "magenta", "cyan", and
11398 "white". Some terminal emulators will swap blue and red and swap yellow
11399 and cyan. The capabilities "setf" and "setb" are usually designed for
11400 those terminals so that they will flip the color numbers 1 and 4 and
11401 the numbers 3 and 6 to compensate for this. _Alpine_ will use the ANSI
11402 versions of the capabilities if they exist, and will use the non-ANSI
11403 versions (setf and setb) if the ANSI versions don't exist. Here's a
11404 version which does the flipping. This can only be used with TERMINFO
11405 _Alpine_s, because of the arithmetic, which is not supported by TERMCAP.
11406 colors#8
11407 setf=\E[3%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
11408 setb=\E[4%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
11409 op=\E[39;49m
11410 bce
11412 Some terminal emulators are capable of displaying eight more colors
11413 when the foreground colors 30-37 are replaced with 90-97 and the
11414 background colors 40-47 are replaced with 100-107. These terminals
11415 require a fancy termcap entry which can take foreground colors 0, 1,
11416 ..., 15 and map that into 30, 31, ..., 37, 90, 91, ..., 97, and
11417 similarly for the background colors. Here is a terminfo entry which
11418 will do just that:
11419 colors#16
11420 setaf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
11421 setab=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
11422 op=\E[39;49m
11423 bce
11425 and here is the termcap equivalent:
11426 Co#16
11427 AF=\E[%i%i%>\001\034%>\045\064%dm
11428 AB=\E[%i%i%>\001\046%>\057\064%dm
11429 op=\E[39;49m
11430 ut
11432 This is a terminfo entry for 16 colors that also does the color
11433 flipping:
11434 colors#16
11435 setf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%{
11436 4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
11437 setb=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%{
11438 4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
11439 op=\E[39;49m
11440 bce
11442 If you are always using the same display it probably won't matter to
11443 you if the color pairs red/blue and cyan/yellow are flipped, since
11444 you'll always be seeing them flipped. You will get different defaults
11445 than on a display with them not flipped, but that's about all. If you
11446 are trying to use the same pinerc file from displays with different
11447 color characteristics, or from _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_, you will have
11448 to be more careful. The colors numbered 0 through 7 may be used
11449 portably between different systems if you are careful to make them
11450 correspond to the ANSI order mentioned above. You can check this by
11451 looking at a color configuration screen for one of the colors. The
11452 first eight colors should be in the order above. If they aren't, you
11453 could fix that by modifying your termcap entry on the UNIX system. This
11454 is not possible if your system uses TERMCAP instead of TERMINFO.
11455 __________________________________________________________________
11457 S/MIME Overview
11459 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
11461 S/MIME is a standard for the public key encryption and signing of
11462 email. UNIX _Alpine_ contains a basic implementation of S/MIME based on
11463 the OpenSSL libraries.
11465 Some limitations:
11466 * There is no _PC-Alpine_ implementation.
11467 * There is no provision for checking for CRLs (Certificate Revocation
11468 Lists) in _Alpine_.
11469 * This built-in S/MIME implementation is not compatible with and does
11470 not help with PGP.
11471 * There is no mechanism available for feeding either an entire
11472 incoming or an entire outgoing message to an external filter and
11473 using that external filter to do S/MIME or PGP processing.
11474 * Because the implementation currently uses OpenSSL, there is only a
11475 very limited integration with the Mac OS Keychain (the storing and
11476 access of public certificates).
11477 * There is no way to view or manipulate the lists of certificates
11478 from within _Alpine_.
11480 The S/MIME configuration screen is reached by going to the Main Menu
11481 and typing the "S Setup" command followed by "M S/MIME".
11483 S/MIME BASICS
11485 In order to digitally sign messages you send you must have a
11486 public/private key-pair. This may be obtained from a public Certificate
11487 Authority (CA) such as Thawte, Verisign, Comodo, or GoDaddy; or from a
11488 smaller CA such as a university which provides certificates for its
11489 users or a company which provides certificates for its workers. These
11490 certificates are bound to an email address, so the identity being
11491 verified is the email address not a person's name.
11493 Mail is signed by using the sender's private key, which only the owner
11494 of the private key has access to. The signature is verified using the
11495 signer's public key, which anyone can have access to. With _Alpine_,
11496 the first time you receive a signed message the public key of the
11497 sender will be stored for future use.
11499 Mail is encrypted using the recipient's public key and decrypted by the
11500 recipient with their private key.
11502 You need a key of your own in order to sign outgoing messages and to
11503 have others encrypt messages sent to you. You do not need a key of your
11504 own to verify signed messages sent by others or to encrypt messages
11505 sent to others.
11507 ALPINE S/MIME CERTIFICATE STORAGE
11509 By default UNIX _Alpine_ stores the certificates it uses in a directory
11510 in your home directory. The directory name is
11512 .alpine-smime
11514 Within that directory are three subdirectories. Each of the three
11515 subdirectories contains files with PEM-encoded contents, the default
11516 format for OpenSSL. The "public" directory contains public
11517 certificates. The files within that directory have names that are email
11518 addresses with the suffix ".crt" appended. An example filename is
11520 user@example.com.crt
11522 The "private" directory contains private keys, probably just one for
11523 your private key. These are also email addresses but with the suffix
11524 ".key" instead. The third directory is "ca" and it contains
11525 certificates for any Certificate Authorities that you want to trust but
11526 that aren't contained in the set of system CAs. Those files may have
11527 arbitrary names as long as they end with the suffix ".crt".
11529 HOW TO SIGN AND ENCRYPT
11531 If you have a certificate you may sign outgoing messages. After typing
11532 the Ctrl-X command to send a message you will see the prompt
11534 Send message?
11536 Available subcommands include "G Sign" and "E Encrypt". Typing the "G"
11537 command will change the prompt to
11539 Send message (Signed)?
11541 Typing the "E" command will change the prompt to
11543 Send message (Encrypted)?
11545 You may even type both to get
11547 Send message (Encrypted, Signed)?
11549 HOW TO READ SIGNED OR ENCRYPTED MESSAGES
11551 The reading of a signed message should not require any special action
11552 on your part. There should be an editorial addition at the start of the
11553 message which says either
11555 This message was cryptographically signed.
11557 or
11559 This message was cryptographically signed but the signature could not
11560 be verified.
11562 If an encrypted message is sent to you the encrypted text will not be
11563 shown. You will have to type the "Ctrl-D Decrypt" command (from the
11564 screen where you are viewing the message) and supply your passphrase
11565 when asked.
11567 For a signed or encrypted message there is also a "Ctrl-E Security"
11568 command which gives you some information about the certificate used to
11569 sign or encrypt the message.
11571 MISCELLANEOUS
11573 You may have access to a private certificate in the PKCS12 format,
11574 which would sometimes be in a file with a ".p12" suffix. The UNIX shell
11575 command
11577 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
11579 may work to convert that from the PKCS12 format to the PEM format. Then
11580 that file could be placed in the "private" directory with a filename of
11581 your email address followed by the suffix ".key".
11582 __________________________________________________________________
11584 Additional Notes on PC-Alpine
11586 Below are a few odds and ends worth mentioning about _PC-Alpine_. They
11587 have to do with DOS-specific behavior that is either necessary or
11588 useful (and sometimes both!).
11590 As _PC-Alpine_ runs in an environment with limited access control,
11591 accounting or auditing, an additional line is automatically inserted
11592 into the header of mail messages generated by _PC-Alpine_:
11593 X-Sender: <userid>@<imap.host>
11596 By popular demand of system administrators, _PC-Alpine_ has been
11597 modified to prevent sending messages until the user has successfully
11598 logged into a remote mail server. Even though _PC-Alpine_ cannot
11599 prevent users from changing the apparent identity of the sender of a
11600 message, the IMAP server login name and host name included in the
11601 _X-Sender_ line provide some level of traceability by the recipient.
11602 However, this should not be considered a rigorous form of
11603 authentication. It is extremely lightweight, and is not a replacement
11604 for true authentication.
11606 Hand in hand with authentication and accounting is user information.
11607 Since _PC-Alpine_ has no user database to consult for _user-id_,
11608 _personal-name_, etc., necessary information must be provided by the
11609 user/installer before _PC-Alpine_ can properly construct the "From"
11610 address required for outbound messages. _PC-Alpine_ will, by default,
11611 prompt for the requisite pieces as they are needed. This information
11612 corresponds to the _PINERC_ variables user-id, personal-name,
11613 user-domain, and smtp-server.
11615 The user is then asked whether or not this information should
11616 automatically be saved to the _PINERC_. This is useful behavior in
11617 general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
11618 Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be
11619 turned off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above
11620 values in the _PINERC_ to the null string (i.e., a pair of double
11621 quotes). This means that the user will be prompted for the information
11622 once during each _Alpine_ session, and no opportunity to save them in
11623 the _PINERC_ will be offered.
11625 Another feature of DOS is the lack of standard scratch area for
11626 temporary files. During the course of a session, _PC-Alpine_ may
11627 require numerous temporary files (large message texts, various caches,
11628 etc.). Where to create them can be a problem, particularly when running
11629 under certain network operating systems. _PC-Alpine_ observes the
11630 _TMPDIR_, _TMP_, and _TEMP_ environment variables, and creates temporary
11631 files in the directory specified by either. In their absence,
11632 _PC-Alpine_ creates these files in the root of the current working
11633 drive. Some temporary files have to be created in the same directory as
11634 the file they are a temporary copy of. For example, a pinerc file or a
11635 address book file.
11637 Behind the Scenes
11639 Many people ask how certain _Alpine_ features are implemented. This
11640 section outlines some of the details.
11642 Address Books
11644 There are two types of address book storage. There are _local_ address
11645 books, which are the address books that are stored in a local file; and
11646 there are _remote_ address books, which are stored on an IMAP server.
11648 Information About Remote Address Books
11650 NOTE: The remote address book capability does not allow you to
11651 access an existing local address book from a remote system! That is,
11652 you can't set the remote address book to something like
11653 {remote.host}.addressbook and expect to access the existing
11654 .addressbook _file_ on remote.host. Instead, you need to create a
11655 new remote address book in a new, previously unused remote mail
11656 _folder_. Then you can use the _Select_ and _Apply Save_ commands in
11657 the address book screen to _Save_ all of the entries from an
11658 existing local address book to the new remote address book.
11660 A remote address book is stored in a mail folder on an IMAP server. An
11661 _Alpine_ remote address book is just like an _Alpine_ local address book
11662 in that it is not interoperable with other email clients. The folder is
11663 a regular folder containing mail messages but those messages are
11664 special. The first message must be an alpine remote address book header
11665 message which contains the header _x-pine-addrbook_. The last message
11666 in the folder contains the address book data. In between the first and
11667 the last message are old versions of the address book data. The address
11668 book data is simply stored in the message as it would be on disk, with
11669 no MIME encoding. When it is used the data from the last message in the
11670 folder is copied to a local file and then that file is used exactly
11671 like a local address book file is used. When a change is made the
11672 modified local file is appended to the remote folder in a new message.
11673 In other words, the local file is just a cache copy of the data in the
11674 remote folder. Each client which uses the remote address book will have
11675 its own cache copy of the data. Whenever a copy is done the entire
11676 address book is copied, not just the entries which have changed.
11678 _Alpine_ can tell that the remote data has changed by one of several
11679 methods. If the date contained in the Date header of the last message
11680 has changed then it knows it has changed. If the UID of the last
11681 message has changed, or the number of messages in the folder has
11682 changed, it knows that it has changed. When _Alpine_ discovers the
11683 folder has changed it gets a new copy and puts it in the local cache
11684 file.
11686 There is a configuration file variable for remote address books called
11687 remote-abook-metafile. The variable is the name of a file in which
11688 information about remote address books is stored. There is one line in
11689 the metafile for each remote address book. The information stored there
11690 is the name of the cache file and information to help figure out when
11691 the remote folder was last changed. If the metafile or any of the cache
11692 files is deleted then _Alpine_ will rebuild them the next time it runs.
11694 Remote address books have names that look just like regular remote mail
11695 folder names. For example:
11697 {host.domain}foldername
11699 _Alpine_ decides whether or not an address book is remote simply by
11700 looking at the first character of the address book name and comparing
11701 it to '{'.
11703 Information About All Address Books
11705 The address book is named, by default, .addressbook in the user's Unix
11706 home directory, or in the case of _PC-Alpine_, ADDRBOOK, in the same
11707 directory as the PINERC file. There may be more than one address book,
11708 and the default name can be overridden via an entry in any of the
11709 _Alpine_ configuration files. The two configuration variables
11710 address-book and global-address-book are used to specify the names of
11711 the address books. Each of these variables is a list variable. The
11712 total set of address books for a user is the combination of all the
11713 address books specified in these two lists. Each entry in the list is
11714 an optional nickname followed by an address book name. The nickname is
11715 everything up to the last space before the file name. The
11716 _global-address-book_ list will typically be configured in the
11717 system-wide configuration file, though a user may override it like most
11718 other variables. Address books which are listed in the
11719 _global-address-book_ variable are forced read-only, and are typically
11720 shared among multiple users.
11722 Local address books (or local cache files for remote address books) are
11723 simple text files with lines in the format:
11725 <nickname>TAB<fullname>TAB<address>TAB<fcc>TAB<comments>
11727 The last two fields are optional. A "line" may be made up of multiple
11728 actual lines in the file by using continuation lines, which are lines
11729 beginning with SPACE characters. The line breaks may be after TABs or
11730 in between addresses in a distribution list. Each _actual_ line in the
11731 file must be less than 1000 characters in length.
11733 Nicknames (the first field) are short names that the user types instead
11734 of typing in the full address. There are several characters which
11735 aren't allowed in nicknames in order to avoid ambiguity when parsing
11736 the address (SPACE, COMMA, @, ", ;, :, (, ), [, ], <, >, \). Nicknames
11737 aren't required. In fact, none of the fields is required.
11739 The _fullname_ field is usually stored as Last_name, First_name, in
11740 order that a sort on the fullname field comes out sorted by Last_name.
11741 If there is an unquoted comma in the fullname, _Alpine_ will flip the
11742 first and last name around and get rid of the comma when using the
11743 entry in a composition. It isn't required that there be a comma, that's
11744 only useful if the user wants the entries to sort on last names.
11746 The _address_ field takes one of two forms, depending on whether the
11747 entry is a single (simple) address or a distribution list. For a simple
11748 entry, the address field is an RFC 2822 address. This could be either
11749 the email-address part of the address, i.e., the part that goes inside
11750 the brackets (<>), or it could be a full RFC 2822 address. The phrase
11751 part of the address (the fullname) is used unless there is a fullname
11752 present in the fullname field of the address book entry. In that case,
11753 the fullname of the address book entry replaces the fullname of the
11754 address. For a distribution list, the <address> is in the format:
11756 "(" <address>, <address>, <address>, ... ")"
11758 The only purpose for the parentheses around the list of addresses is to
11759 make it easier for the parsing routines to tell that it is a simple
11760 entry instead of a list. The two are displayed differently and treated
11761 slightly differently in some cases, though most of the distinction has
11762 disappeared. Each of the addresses in a list can be a full RFC 2822
11763 address with fullname included, or it may be just the simple
11764 email-address part of the address. This allows the user to have a list
11765 which includes the fullnames of all the list members. In both the
11766 simple and list cases, addresses may also be other nicknames which
11767 appear in this address book or in one of the other address books.
11768 (Those nicknames are searched for by looking through the address books
11769 in the order they appear in the address book screen, with the first
11770 match winning.) Lists may be nested. If addresses refer to each other
11771 in a loop (for example, list A includes list B which includes list A
11772 again) this is detected and flagged. In that case, the address will be
11773 changed to "**** address loop ****".
11775 The optional _fcc_ field is a folder name, just like the fcc field in
11776 the composer headers. If the first address in the To field of a
11777 composition comes from an address book entry with an fcc field, then
11778 that fcc is placed in the fcc header in the composer.
11780 The _comments_ field is just a free text field for storing comments
11781 about an entry. By default, neither the fcc nor the comments field is
11782 shown on the screen in the address book screen. You may make those
11783 fields visible by configuring the variable addressbook-formats. They
11784 are also searched when you use the _WhereIs_ command in the address
11785 book screen and are visible when you _View_ or _Update_ an entry.
11787 The address book is displayed in the order that it is stored. When the
11788 user chooses a different sorting criterion, the data is actually sorted
11789 and stored, as opposed to showing a sorted view of the data.
11791 When the address book is written out, it is first written to a
11792 temporary file and if that write is successful it is renamed. This
11793 guards against errors writing the file that might destroy the whole
11794 address book. The address book is re-written after each change. If the
11795 address book is a remote address book, the file is then appended to the
11796 remote mail folder using IMAP.
11798 The end-of-line character(s) in the address book file are those native
11799 to the system writing it. So it is <LF> on Unix and <CR><LF> on PC's.
11800 However, both Unix and PC versions of _Alpine_ can read either format,
11801 so it should be possible to share a read-only address book among the
11802 two populations (using NFS, for example).
11803 __________________________________________________________________
11805 Address Book Lookup File
11807 _Pine_ used an additional file for each address book, called the LookUp
11808 file. It had the same name as the address book file with the suffix
11809 ".lu" appended. _Alpine_ no longer uses a lookup file.
11811 Validity Checking of Address Books
11813 There is no file locking done on _Alpine_ address books, however, there
11814 is considerable validity checking done to make sure that the address
11815 book hasn't changed unexpectedly. Whenever the address book is about to
11816 be changed, a check is made to see if the file is newer than when we
11817 read it or the remote address book folder has changed since we last
11818 copied it. If either of these is true, the change is aborted.
11820 There is an automatic, behind-the-scene check that happens every so
11821 often, also. For example, if someone else changes one of the address
11822 books that you have configured, your _Alpine_'s copy of the address
11823 book will usually be updated automatically without you noticing. This
11824 checking happens at the same time as new mail checking takes place,
11825 unless you are actively using the address book, in which case it
11826 happens more frequently.
11827 __________________________________________________________________
11829 Remote Configuration
11831 Configuration information may be stored remotely. Remote configuration
11832 information is stored in a folder on an IMAP server. This should be a
11833 folder which is used only for storing the configuration information. In
11834 other words, it should be a folder which didn't exist before.
11836 Remote configuration folders are very similar to remote address book
11837 folders. They both consist of a header message, which serves to
11838 identify the type of folder; the last message, which contains the data;
11839 and intermediate messages, which contain old versions of the data. The
11840 first message must contain the header _x-pine-pinerc_.
11842 When a remote configuration is being used, the folder is checked to
11843 make sure it is a remote configuration folder, then the data contained
11844 in the last message is copied to a temporary file. That file is treated
11845 just like any regular local configuration file from that point on.
11846 Whenever a configuration change is made, the entire file is copied back
11847 to the IMAP server and is appended to the folder as a new message.
11849 Because remote configuration folders are so similar to remote address
11850 books, the configuration variable remote-abook-metafile is used by
11851 both.
11853 Remote configuration folders have names that look just like regular
11854 remote mail folder names. For example:
11856 {host.domain}mypinerc
11858 _Alpine_ decides whether or not a configuration file is remote simply
11859 by looking at the first character of the name and comparing it to '{'.
11860 __________________________________________________________________
11862 Checkpointing
11864 Periodically _Alpine_ will save the whole mail folder to disk to
11865 prevent loss of any mail or mail status in the case that it gets
11866 interrupted, disconnected, or crashes. The period of time _Alpine_
11867 waits to do the checkpoint is calculated to be minimally intrusive. The
11868 timing can be changed (but usually isn't) at compile time. Folder
11869 checkpointing happens for both local folders and those being accessed
11870 with IMAP. The delays are divided into three categories:
11872 The exact algorithm given below is no longer correct. It has gotten
11873 more complicated over time. However, this gives the general idea
11874 _Alpine_ uses when deciding whether or not to do a checkpoint.
11876 Good Time:
11877 This occurs when _Alpine_ has been idle for more than 30
11878 seconds. In this case _Alpine_ will checkpoint if 12 changes to
11879 the file have been made or at least one change has been made and
11880 a checkpoint hasn't been done for five minutes.
11881 Bad Time:
11882 This occurs just after _Alpine_ has executed some command.
11883 _Alpine_ will checkpoint if there are 36 outstanding changes to
11884 the mail file or at least one change and no checkpoint for ten
11885 minutes.
11886 Very Bad Time:
11887 Done when composing a message. In this case, _Alpine_ will only
11888 checkpoint if at least 48 changes have been made or at least one
11889 change has been made in the last twenty minutes with no
11890 checkpoint.
11891 __________________________________________________________________
11893 Debug Files
11895 If UNIX _Alpine_ is compiled with the compiler _DEBUG_ option on (the
11896 default), then _Alpine_ will produce debugging output to a file. This
11897 can be disabled at compile-time with the --disable-debug configure
11898 option, or at run-time with the command line flag -d0. The file is
11899 normally .pine-debugX in the user's home directory where _X_ goes from
11900 1 to 4. Number 1 is always the most recent session and 4 the oldest.
11901 Four are saved because often the user has gone in and out of _Alpine_ a
11902 few times after a problem has occurred before the expert actually gets
11903 to look at it. The amount of output in the debug files varies with the
11904 debug level set when _Alpine_ is compiled and/or as a command line
11905 flag. The default is level 2. This shows very general things and
11906 records errors. Level 9 produces copious amounts of output for each
11907 keystroke.
11909 Similarly, _PC-Alpine_ creates debug files named pinedebg.txtX in the
11910 same directory as the PINERC file.
11911 __________________________________________________________________
11913 INBOX and Special Folders
11915 The _INBOX_ folder is treated specially. It is normally kept open
11916 constantly so that the arrival of new mail can be detected. The name
11917 _INBOX_ refers to wherever new mail is retrieved on the system. If the
11918 inbox-path variable is set, then _INBOX_ refers to that. IMAP servers
11919 understand the concept of _INBOX_, so specifying the folder
11920 _{imap.u.example.edu}INBOX_ is meaningful. The case of the word _INBOX_
11921 is not important, but _Alpine_ tends to display it in all capital
11922 letters.
11924 The folders for sent mail and saved messages folders are also somewhat
11925 special. They are automatically created if they are absent and
11926 recreated if they are deleted.
11927 __________________________________________________________________
11929 Internal Help Files
11931 The file pine.hlp in the alpine subdirectory of the distribution
11932 contains all the help text for _Alpine_. It is compiled right into the
11933 _Alpine_ binary as strings. This is done to simplify installation and
11934 configuration. The pine.hlp file is in a special format that is
11935 documented at the beginning of the file. It is divided into sections,
11936 each with a name that winds up being referenced as a global variable.
11937 This file is processed during the build process and turned into a C
11938 file that is compiled into _Alpine_.
11939 __________________________________________________________________
11941 International Character Sets
11943 _Alpine_ uses Unicode characters internally and it is a goal for
11944 _Alpine_ to handle email in many different languages. _Alpine_ will
11945 properly display only left-to-right character sets in a fixed-width
11946 font. Specifically, _Alpine_ assumes that a fixed-width font is in use,
11947 in the sense that characters are assumed to take up zero, one, or two
11948 character cell widths from left to right on the screen. This is true
11949 even in _PC-Alpine_.
11951 _Alpine_ recognizes some local character sets which are right-to-left
11952 (Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai) or not representable in a fixed-width font
11953 (Arabic) and properly converts texts in these character sets to/from
11954 Unicode; however, there are known display bugs with these character
11955 sets.
11957 There are three possible configuration character settings and some
11958 environment variable settings which can affect how _Alpine_ handles
11959 international characters. The first two of these are only available in
11960 UNIX _Alpine_. The three configuration options are
11961 _display-character-set_, _keyboard-character-set_, and
11962 _posting-character-set_. The _keyboard-character-set_ defaults to being
11963 the same value as the _display-character-set_, and that is usually
11964 correct, because the keyboard almost always produces characters in the
11965 same character set as the display displays. The _display-character-set_
11966 is the character set that _Alpine_ will attempt to use when sending
11967 characters to the display.
11969 Besides those variables there is also use-system-translation which can
11970 be used instead of these. That usage is only lightly tested and is not
11971 recommended.
11973 By default, the _display-character-set_ variable is not set and UNIX
11974 _Alpine_ will attempt to get this information from the environment. In
11975 particular, the nl_langinfo(CODESET) call is used. This usually depends
11976 on the setting of the environment variables LANG or LC_CTYPE. An
11977 explicit configuration setting for _display-character-set_ will, of
11978 course, override any default setting.
11980 For _PC-Alpine_ the _display-character-set_ and the
11981 _keyboard-character-set_ are always equivalent to UTF-8 and this is not
11982 settable.
11984 It is probably best to use UNIX _Alpine_ in a terminal emulator capable
11985 of displaying UTF-8 characters, since that will allow you to view just
11986 about any received text that is correctly formatted (note, however, the
11987 above comments about known index display bugs with certain character
11988 sets). You'll need to have an emulator which uses a UTF-8 font and
11989 you'll need to set up your environment to use a UTF-8 charmap. For
11990 example, on a Linux system you might include
11992 setenv LANG en_US.UTF-8
11994 or something similar in your UNIX startup files. You'd also have to
11995 select a UTF-8 font in your terminal emulator.
11997 The types of values that the character set variables may be set to are
11998 UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, or EUC-JP. The ISO-2022 character sets are not
11999 supported for input or for display, but as a special case, ISO-2022-JP
12000 is supported for use only as a _posting-character-set_. In the
12001 Setup/Config screen you may choose from a list of all the character
12002 sets _Alpine_ knows about by using the "T" ToCharsets command. Here is
12003 a list of many of the possible character sets:
12005 UTF-8 Unicode
12006 US-ASCII 7 bit American English characters
12007 ISO-8859-1 8 bit European "Latin 1" character set
12008 ISO-8859-2 8 bit European "Latin 2" character set
12009 ISO-8859-3 8 bit European "Latin 3" character set
12010 ISO-8859-4 8 bit European "Latin 4" character set
12011 ISO-8859-5 8 bit Latin and Cyrillic
12012 ISO-8859-6 8 bit Latin and Arabic
12013 ISO-8859-7 8 bit Latin and Greek
12014 ISO-8859-8 8 bit Latin and Hebrew
12015 ISO-8859-9 8 bit European "Latin 5" character set
12016 ISO-8859-10 8 bit European "Latin 6" character set
12017 ISO-8859-11 Latin and Thai
12018 ISO-8859-12 Reserved
12019 ISO-8859-13 8 bit European "Latin 7" character set
12020 ISO-8859-14 8 bit European "Latin 8" character set
12021 ISO-8859-15 8 bit European "Latin 9" character set
12022 ISO-8859-16 8 bit European "Latin 10" character set
12023 KOI8-R 8 bit Latin and Russian
12024 KOI8-U 8 bit Latin and Ukrainian
12025 WINDOWS-1251 8 bit Latin and Russian
12026 TIS-620 8 bit Latin and Thai
12027 VISCII 8 bit Latin and Vietnamese
12028 GBK Latin and Chinese Simplified
12029 GB2312 Latin and Chinese Simplified
12030 CN-GB Latin and Chinese Simplified
12031 BIG5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
12032 BIG-5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
12033 EUC-JP Latin and Japanese
12034 SHIFT-JIS Latin and Japanese
12035 EUC-KR Latin and Korean
12036 KSC5601 Latin and Korean
12038 When reading incoming email, _Alpine_ understands many different
12039 character sets and is able to convert the incoming mail into Unicode.
12040 The Unicode will be converted to the _display-character-set_ for
12041 display on your terminal. Characters typed at the keyboard will be
12042 converted from the _keyboard-character-set_ to Unicode for _Alpine_'s
12043 internal use. You may find that you can read some malformed messages
12044 that do not contain a character set label by setting the option
12045 unknown-character-set.
12047 The _posting-character-set_ is used when sending messages. The default
12048 behavior obtained by leaving this variable unset is usually what is
12049 wanted. In that default case, _Alpine_ will attempt to label the
12050 message with the most specific character set from the rather arbitrary
12051 set
12053 US-ASCII, ISO-8859-15, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, VISCII, KOI8-R, KOI8-U,
12054 ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-8, TIS-620, ISO-2022-JP, GB2312, BIG5,
12055 EUC-KR, and UTF-8.
12057 For example, if the message is made up of only US-ASCII characters, it
12058 will be labeled US-ASCII. Otherwise, if it is all ISO-8859-15
12059 characters, that will be the label. If that doesn't work the same is
12060 tried for the remaining members of the list.
12062 It might make sense to set _posting-character-set_ to an explicit value
12063 instead. For example, if you usually send messages in Greek, setting
12064 this option to ISO-8859-7 will result in messages being labeled as
12065 US-ASCII if there are no non-ascii characters, ISO-8859-7 if there are
12066 only Greek characters, or UTF-8 if there are some characters which
12067 aren't representable in ISO-8859-7. Another possibility is to set this
12068 option explicitly to UTF-8. In that case _Alpine_ labels only ascii
12069 messages as US-ASCII and all other messages as UTF-8.
12070 __________________________________________________________________
12072 Interrupted and Postponed Messages
12074 If the user is composing mail and is interrupted by being disconnected
12075 (SIGHUP, SIGTERM or end of file on the standard input), _Alpine_ will
12076 save the interrupted composition and allow the user to continue it when
12077 he or she resumes _Alpine_. As the next _Alpine_ session starts, a
12078 message will be given that an interrupted message can be continued. To
12079 continue the interrupted message, simply go into the composer. To get
12080 rid of the interrupted message, go into the composer and then cancel
12081 the message with _^C._
12083 Composition of half-done messages may be postponed to a later time by
12084 giving the _^O_ command. Other messages can be composed while postponed
12085 messages wait. All of the postponed messages are kept in a single
12086 folder. Postponing is a good way to quickly reference other messages
12087 while composing.
12088 __________________________________________________________________
12090 Message Status
12092 The c-client library allows for several flags or status marks to be set
12093 for each message. _Alpine_ uses four of these flags: UNSEEN, DELETED,
12094 ANSWERED, and FLAGGED. The N in _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that a
12095 message is unseen-it has not been read from this folder yet. The D
12096 means that a message is marked for deletion. Messages marked with D are
12097 removed when the user _Expunges_ the folder (which usually happens when
12098 the folder is closed or the user quits _Alpine_). The A in _Alpine_'s
12099 FOLDER INDEX means that the message has been replied-to. The * in
12100 _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that the message has been ``flagged'' as
12101 important. That is, the user used the _Flag_ command to turn the
12102 FLAGGED flag on. This flag can mean whatever the user wants it to mean.
12103 It is just a way to mark some messages as being different from others.
12104 It will usually probably be used to mark a message as somehow being
12105 ``important''. For Berkeley format folders, the message status is
12106 written into the email folder itself on the header lines marked Status:
12107 and X-Status.
12109 It is also possible for a user to define their own flags in addition to
12110 the standard system flags above. In _Alpine_ these user defined flags
12111 are called Keywords.
12112 __________________________________________________________________
12114 MIME: Reading a Message
12116 _Alpine_ should be able to handle just about any MIME message. When a
12117 MIME message is received, _Alpine_ will display a list of all the
12118 parts, their types and sizes. It will display the attachments when
12119 possible and appropriate and allow users to _Save_ all other
12120 attachments.
12122 _Alpine_ honors the "mailcap" configuration system for specifying
12123 external programs for handling attachments. The mailcap file maps MIME
12124 attachment types to the external programs loaded on your system which
12125 can display and/or print the file. A sample mailcap file comes bundled
12126 with the _Alpine_ distribution. It includes comments which explain the
12127 syntax you need to use for mailcap. With the mailcap file, any program
12128 (mail readers, newsreaders, WWW clients) can use the same configuration
12129 for handling MIME-encoded data.
12131 If a MAILCAPS environment variable is defined, _Alpine_ will use that
12132 to look for one or more mailcap files, which are combined. In the
12133 absence of MAILCAPS, Unix _Alpine_ will look for a personal mailcap
12134 file in ~/.mailcap and combine that with a system-wide file in
12135 /etc/mailcap. _PC-Alpine_ will look for a file named MAILCAP in the
12136 same directory as the PINERC file, and/or the directory containing the
12137 ALPINE.EXE executable.
12139 Messages which include _rich text_ or _enriched text_ in the main body
12140 will be displayed in a very limited way (it will show bold and
12141 underlining).
12143 If _Alpine_ sees a MIME message part tagged as type IMAGE, and
12144 _Alpine_'s image-viewer configuration variable is set, _Alpine_ will
12145 attempt to send that attachment to the named image viewing program. In
12146 the case of UNIX _Alpine_, the DISPLAY environment variable is checked
12147 to see if an X-terminal is being used (which can handle the images). If
12148 the _image-viewer_ variable is not set, _Alpine_ uses the _mailcap_
12149 system to determine what to do with IMAGE types, just as it does for
12150 any other non-TEXT type, e.g. type APPLICATION. For MIME's generic
12151 "catch all" type, APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM, the _mailcap_ file will
12152 probably not specify any action, but _Alpine_ users may always _Save_
12153 any MIME attachment to a file.
12155 MIME type "text/plain" is handled a little bit differently than the
12156 other types. If you are viewing the main body part in the MESSAGE TEXT
12157 viewing screen, then _Alpine_ will use its internal viewer to display
12158 it. This happens even if there is a mailcap description which matches
12159 this particular type. However, if you view a part of type "text/plain"
12160 from the ATTACHMENT INDEX screen, then _Alpine_ will check the mailcap
12161 database for a matching entry and use it in preference to its internal
12162 viewer.
12164 Some text attachments, specifically those which are just other email
12165 messages forwarded as MIME messages, are displayed as part of the main
12166 body of the message. This distinction allows easy display when possible
12167 (the forward as MIME case) and use of an attachment viewer when that is
12168 desirable (the plain text file attachment case).
12170 If the parts of a multipart message are alternate versions of the same
12171 thing _Alpine_ will select and display the one best suited. For parts
12172 of type "message/external-body", the parameters showing the retrieval
12173 method will be displayed, and the retrieval process is automated.
12174 Messages of type "message/partial" are not supported.
12175 __________________________________________________________________
12177 MIME: Sending a Message
12179 There are two important factors when trying to include an attachment in
12180 a message: encoding and labeling. _Alpine_ has rules for both of these
12181 which try to assure that the message goes out in a form that is robust
12182 and can be handled by other MIME mail readers.
12184 MIME has two ways of encoding data-Quoted-Printable and Base64.
12185 Quoted-Printable leaves the ASCII text alone and only changes 8-bit
12186 characters to "=" followed by the hex digits. For example, "=09" is a
12187 tab. It has the advantage that it is mostly readable and that it allows
12188 for end of line conversions between unlike systems. Base64 encoding is
12189 similar to _uuencode_ or _btoa_ and just encodes a raw bit stream. This
12190 encoding is designed to get text and binary files through even the most
12191 improperly implemented and configured gateways intact, even those that
12192 distort uuencoded data.
12194 _All_ attachments are encoded using Base64 encoding. This is so that
12195 the attachment will arrive at the other end looking exactly like it did
12196 when it was sent. Since Base64 is completely unreadable except by
12197 MIME-capable mailers or programs, there is an obvious tradeoff being
12198 made here. We chose to ensure absolutely reliable transport of
12199 attachments at the cost of requiring a MIME-capable mailer to read
12200 them. If the user doesn't want absolute integrity he or she may always
12201 _include_ text (with the _^R_ command) in the body of a message instead
12202 of attaching it. With this policy, the only time quoted-printable
12203 encoding is used is when the main body of a message includes special
12204 foreign language characters.
12206 When an attachment is to be sent, _Alpine_ sniffs through it to try to
12207 set the right label (content-type and subtype). An attachment with any
12208 lines longer than 500 characters in it or more than 10% of the
12209 characters are 8-bit it will be considered binary data. _Alpine_ will
12210 recognize (and correctly label) a few special types including GIF,
12211 JPEG, PostScript, and some audio formats. Another method which can be
12212 more robust and flexible for determining the content-type and subtype
12213 is to base it on the file extension. This method uses a MIME.Types
12214 File.
12216 If it is not binary data (has only a small proportion of 8-bit
12217 characters in it,) the attachment is considered 8-bit text. 8-bit text
12218 attachments are labeled "text/plain" with charset set to the value of
12219 the user's _keyboard-character-set_ variable. If an attachment is ASCII
12220 (no 8-bit characters) and contains no control characters then it is
12221 considered plain ASCII text. Such attachments are given the MIME label
12222 "text/plain; charset=US-ASCII", regardless of the setting of the user's
12223 _keyboard-character-set_ variable.
12225 All other attachments are unrecognized and therefore given the generic
12226 MIME label "application/octet-stream".
12227 __________________________________________________________________
12229 New Mail Notification
12231 _Alpine_ checks for new mail in the _INBOX_ and in the currently open
12232 folder every two and a half minutes by default. This default can be
12233 changed in the system-wide configuration file or at compile-time with
12234 the --with-mailcheck-interval=VALUE configuration option. A user can
12235 change it by changing the option mail-check-interval. A new mail check
12236 can be manually forced by redrawing the screen with a _^L_.
12238 When there is new mail, the message(s) will appear in the index, the
12239 screen will beep, and a notice showing the sender and subject will be
12240 displayed. If there has been more than one new message since you last
12241 issued a command to _Alpine_, the notice will show the count of new
12242 messages and the sender of the most recent one.
12243 __________________________________________________________________
12245 NFS
12247 It is possible to access mail folders on _NFS_ mounted volumes with
12248 _Alpine_, but there are some drawbacks to doing this, especially in the
12249 case of incoming-message folders that may be concurrently updated by
12250 _Alpine_ and the system's mail delivery agent. One concern is that
12251 _Alpine_'s user-contention locks don't work because _/tmp_ is usually
12252 not shared, and even if it was, _flock()_ doesn't work across _NFS._
12254 The implementation of the standard UNIX ".lock" file locking has been
12255 modified to work with _NFS_ as follows. Standard hitching post locking
12256 is used so first a uniquely named file is created, usually something
12257 like _xxxx.host.time.pid._ Then a link to it is created named
12258 _xxxx.lock_ where the folder being locked is _xxxx._ This file
12259 constitutes the lock. This is a standard UNIX locking scheme. After the
12260 link returns, a _stat(2)_ is done on the file. If the file has two
12261 links, it is concluded that the lock succeeded and it is safe to
12262 proceed.
12264 In order to minimize the risks of locking failures via _NFS_, we
12265 strongly recommend using IMAP rather than _NFS_ to access remote
12266 incoming message folders, e.g. your _INBOX_. However, it is generally
12267 safe to access personal saved-message folders via _NFS_ since it is
12268 unlikely that more than one process will be updating those folders at
12269 any given time. Still, some problems may occur when two _Alpine_
12270 sessions try to access the same mail folder from different hosts
12271 without using IMAP. Imagine the scenario: _Alpine_-A performs a write
12272 that changes the folder. _Alpine_-B then attempts to perform a write on
12273 the same folder. _Alpine_-B will get upset that the file has been
12274 changed from underneath it and abort operations on the folder.
12275 _Alpine_-B will continue to display mail from the folder that it has in
12276 its internal cache, but it will not read or write any further data. The
12277 only thing that will be lost out of the _Alpine_-B session when this
12278 happens is the last few status changes.
12280 If other mail readers besides _Alpine_ are involved, all bets are off.
12281 Typically, mailers don't take any precautions against a user opening a
12282 mailbox more than once and no special precautions are taken to prevent
12283 _NFS_ problems.
12284 __________________________________________________________________
12286 Printers and Printing
12288 UNIX _Alpine_ can print to the standard UNIX line printers or to
12289 generic printers attached to ANSI terminals using the escape sequences
12290 to turn the printer on and off. The user has a choice of three printers
12291 in the configuration.
12293 The first setting, _attached-to-ansi_, makes use of escape sequences on
12294 ANSI/VT100 terminals. It uses "<ESC>[5i" to begin directing all output
12295 sent to the terminal to the printer and then "<ESC>[4i" to return to
12296 normal. _Alpine_ will send these escape sequences if the printer is set
12297 to _attached-to-ansi._ This works with most ANSI/VT100 emulators on
12298 Macs and PCs such as kermit, NCSA telnet, VersaTerm Pro, and WinQVT.
12299 Various terminal emulators implement the print feature differently.
12300 There is also a closely related method called
12301 _attached-to-ansi-no-formfeed_ which is the same except for the lack of
12302 formfeed character at the end of the print job.
12304 _Attached-to-wyse_ and _attached-to-wyse-no-formfeed_ are very similar
12305 to "attached-to-ansi". The only difference is in the control characters
12306 sent to turn the printer on and off. The Wyse version uses Ctrl-R for
12307 on, and Ctrl-T for off.
12309 The second selection is the standard UNIX print command. The default is
12310 _lpr_, but it can be changed on a system basis to anything so desired
12311 in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
12313 The third selection is the user's personal choice for a UNIX print
12314 command. The text to be printed is piped into the command. _Enscript_
12315 or _lpr_ with options are popular choices. The actual command is
12316 retained even if one of the other print selections is used for a while.
12318 Both the second and third sections are actually lists of possible
12319 commands rather than single commands.
12321 If you have a PostScript printer attached to a PC or Macintosh, then
12322 you will need to use a utility called _ansiprt_ to get printouts on
12323 your printer. _Ansiprt_ source code and details can be found in the
12324 ./contrib directory of the _Alpine_ distribution.
12325 __________________________________________________________________
12327 Save and Export
12329 _Alpine_ users get two options for moving messages in _Alpine_: _Save_
12330 and _Export_. _Save_ is used when the message should remain ``in the
12331 _Alpine_ realm.'' Saved messages include the complete header (including
12332 header lines normally hidden by _Alpine_), are placed in a _Alpine_
12333 folder collection and accumulate in a standard folder format which
12334 _Alpine_ can read. In contrast, the _Export_ command is used to write
12335 the contents of a message to a file for use outside of _Alpine_.
12336 Messages which have been exported are placed in the user's home
12337 directory (unless the feature use-current-dir is turned on), not in a
12338 _Alpine_ folder collection. Unless FullHeaderMode is toggled on, all
12339 delivery-oriented headers are stripped from the message. Even with
12340 _Export_, _Alpine_ retains message separators so that multiple messages
12341 can accumulate in a single file and subsequently be accessed as a
12342 folder. On UNIX systems, the _Export_ command pays attention to the
12343 standard _umask_ for the setting of the file permissions.
12344 __________________________________________________________________
12346 Sent Mail
12348 _Alpine_'s default behavior is to keep a copy of each outgoing message
12349 in a special "sent mail" folder. This folder is also called the fcc for
12350 "file carbon copy". The existence, location and name of the sent mail
12351 folder are all configurable. Sent mail archiving can be turned off by
12352 setting the configuration variable default-fcc="". The sent mail folder
12353 is assumed to be in the default collection for _Save_s, which is the
12354 first collection named in folder-collections. The name of the folder
12355 can be chosen by entering a name in _default-fcc_. With _PC-Alpine_,
12356 this can be a bit complicated. If the default collection for _Save_s is
12357 local (DOS), then the _default-fcc_ needs to be SENTMAIL, which is
12358 syntax for a DOS file. However, if the default collection for _Save_s
12359 is remote, then the _default-fcc_ needs to be sent-mail to match the
12360 UNIX syntax.
12362 The configuration variable fcc-name-rule also plays a role in selecting
12363 the folder to save sent mail in.
12365 A danger here is that the sent mail could grow without bound. For this
12366 reason, we thought it useful to encourage the users to periodically
12367 prune their sent mail folder. The first time _Alpine_ is used each
12368 month it will offer to archive all messages sent from the month before.
12369 _Alpine_ also offers to delete all the sent mail archive folders which
12370 are more than 1 month old. If the user or system has disabled sent mail
12371 archiving (by setting the configuration variable _default-fcc=""_)
12372 there will be no pruning question.
12373 __________________________________________________________________
12375 Spell Checker
12377 Both UNIX _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ depend on the system for their spell
12378 checking and dictionary. _Pico_, the text editor, uses the same spell
12379 checking scheme as _Alpine_.
12381 Lines beginning with ">" (usually messages included in replies) are not
12382 checked. The message text to be checked is on the standard input and
12383 the incorrect words are expected on the standard output.
12385 The default spell checker is UNIX _spell_. You can replace this by
12386 setting the speller configuration variable. A common choice for a
12387 superior replacement is _ispell_.
12389 _PC-Alpine_ relies on the aspell library being installed. Aspell is
12390 independent of Alpine. The Windows version has traditionally been
12391 available at http://aspell.net/win32/. You'll need to download and
12392 install both Aspell and a precompiled dictionary. Aspell is provided in
12393 an installer package. Dictionaries, to be installed after Aspell, are
12394 in '.exe' files to download and run.
12395 __________________________________________________________________
12397 Terminal Emulation and Key Mapping
12399 UNIX _Alpine_ has been designed to require as little as possible from
12400 the terminal. At the minimum, _Alpine_ requires cursor positioning,
12401 clear to end of line, and inverse video. Unfortunately, there are
12402 terminals that are missing some of these such as a vt52. _Alpine_ makes
12403 no assumptions as to whether the terminal wraps or doesn't wrap. If the
12404 terminal has other capabilities it may use some of them. _Alpine_ won't
12405 run well on older terminals that require a space on the screen to
12406 change video attributes, such as the Televideo 925. One can get around
12407 this on some terminals by using "protected field" mode. The terminal
12408 can be made to go into protected mode for reverse video, and then
12409 reverse video is assigned to protected mode.
12411 _Alpine_ handles screens of most any size and resizing on the fly. It
12412 catches SIGWINCH and does the appropriate thing.
12414 On the input side of things, _Alpine_ uses all the standard keys, most
12415 of the control keys and (in function-key mode) the function keys.
12416 _Alpine_ avoids certain control keys, specifically ^S, ^Q, ^H, and _^\_
12417 because they have other meanings outside of _Alpine_ (they control data
12418 flow, etc.) _^H_ is treated the same as the _delete_ key, so the
12419 _backspace_ or _delete_ keys always work regardless of any
12420 configuration. There is a feature _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_
12421 which makes the delete key behave like ^D rather than ^H (deletes
12422 current character instead of previous character).
12424 Sometimes a communications program or communications server in between
12425 you and the other end will eat certain control characters. There is a
12426 work-around when you need it. If you type two escape characters
12427 followed by a character that will be interpreted as the character with
12428 the control key depressed. For example, _ESC ESC T_ is equivalent to
12429 _^T_.
12431 When a function key is pressed and _Alpine_ is in regular (non-function
12432 key) mode, _Alpine_ traps escape sequences for a number of common
12433 function keys so users don't get an error message or have an unexpected
12434 command executed for each character in the function key's escape
12435 sequence. _Alpine_ expects the following escape sequences from
12436 terminals defined as VT100:
12438 ANSI/VT100
12439 F1: <ESC>OP
12440 F2: <ESC>OQ
12441 F3: <ESC>OR
12442 F4: <ESC>OS
12443 F5: <ESC>Op
12444 F6: <ESC>Oq
12445 F7: <ESC>Or
12446 F8: <ESC>Os
12447 F9: <ESC>Ot
12448 F10: <ESC>Ou
12449 F11: <ESC>Ov
12451 Arrow keys are a special case. _Alpine_ has the escape sequences for a
12452 number of conventions for arrow keys hard coded and does not use
12453 _termcap_ to discover them. This is because _termcap_ is sometimes
12454 incorrect, and because many users have PC's running terminal emulators
12455 that don't conform exactly to what they claim to emulate. There is a
12456 feature called termdef-takes-precedence which can be set to cause the
12457 _termcap_ or _terminfo_ definitions to be used instead of the built in
12458 definitions. Some arrow keys on old terminals send single control
12459 characters like _^K_ (one even sends _^\_). These arrow keys will not
12460 work with _Alpine_. The most popular escape sequences for arrow keys
12461 are:
12463 Up: <ESC>[A <ESC>?x <ESC>A <ESC>OA
12464 Down: <ESC>[B <ESC>?r <ESC>B <ESC>OB
12465 Right: <ESC>[C <ESC>?v <ESC>C <ESC>OC
12466 Left: <ESC>[D <ESC>?t <ESC>D <ESC>OD