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2 Alpine Technical Notes
4 Version 2.19.12, April 2014
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 specfied by the "-aux local_directory" command line argument,
1259 or the directory ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE directory>.
1261 The syntax of a non-list configuration variable is this:
1263 <variable> = <value>
1265 If the value is absent then the variable is unset. To set a variable to
1266 the empty value two double quotes (""). This is equivalent to an absent
1267 value except that it overrides any system-wide default value that may
1268 be set. Quotes may be used around any value. All values are strings and
1269 end at the end of the line or the closing quote. Leading and trailing
1270 space is ignored unless it is included in the quotes. There is one
1271 variable, _use-only-domain-name_, for which the only appropriate values
1272 are _yes_ and _no_. That's because it is a variable from the early days
1273 of _Alpine_ before features existed.
1275 There is also a second type of variable, lists. A list is a
1276 comma-separated list of values. The syntax for a list is:
1278 <variable> = <value> [, <value> , ... ]
1280 A list can be continued on subsequent lines by beginning the line with
1281 white-space. Both the per-user and global configuration files may
1282 contain comments which are lines beginning with a #.
1284 For UNIX _Alpine_, there are five ways in which each variable can be
1285 set. In decreasing order of precedence they are:
1286 1. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file
1287 2. a command line argument
1288 3. the personal exceptions file
1289 4. the personal configuration file
1290 5. the system-wide configuration file.
1292 If the variable is not set in any of those places, there is a default
1293 setting in the source code.
1295 So, system-wide fixed settings always take precedence over command line
1296 flags, which take precedence over per-user exception settings, which
1297 take precedence over per-user settings, which take precedence over
1298 system-wide configuration settings. _PC-Alpine_ has the same list,
1299 except that it does not use a system-wide _fixed_ configuration file.
1300 This can be modified slightly by using inheritance, which is covered
1301 below.
1303 You may get a sample/fresh copy of the system configuration file by
1304 running _alpine -conf_. The result will be printed on the standard
1305 output with very short comments describing each variable. (The online
1306 help in the Setup screens provides much longer comments.) If you need
1307 to fix some of the configuration variables, you would use the same
1308 template for the fixed configuration file as for the regular
1309 system-wide configuration file. (If it isn't clear, the purpose of the
1310 fixed configuration file is to allow system administrators to restrict
1311 the configurability of _Alpine_. It is by no means a bullet-proof
1312 method.) _Alpine_ will automatically create the personal configuration
1313 file the first time it is run, so there is no need to generate a
1314 sample. _Alpine_ reads and writes the personal configuration file
1315 occasionally during normal operation. Users will not normally look at
1316 their personal configuration file, but will use the Setup screens from
1317 within _Alpine_ to set the values in this file. If a user does add
1318 additional comments to the personal configuration file they will be
1319 retained.
1321 References to environment variables may be included in the _Alpine_
1322 configuration files. The format is $variable or ${variable}. The
1323 character ~ will be expanded to the $HOME environment variable. For a
1324 more complete explanation of how environment variables work, see the
1325 section Using Environment Variables.
1327 When environment variables are used for _Alpine_ settings which take
1328 lists, you must have an environment variable set for each member of the
1329 list. That is, _Alpine_ won't properly recognize an environment
1330 variable which is set equal to a comma-delimited list. It is OK to
1331 reference unset environment variables in the _Alpine_ configuration
1332 file, which will expand to nothing.
1334 Remote and Local Configuration
1336 There are two types of storage for configuration information. _Local_
1337 configuration files are used by default. These are just regular files
1338 on the UNIX system or on the PC. _Remote_ configuration folders are
1339 stored on an IMAP server. The advantage of using a remote configuration
1340 is that the same information may be accessed from multiple platforms.
1341 For example, if you use one computer at work and another at home, the
1342 same configuration could be used from both places. A configuration
1343 change from one place would be seen in both places. Technical
1344 information about remote configuration is in Remote Configuration.
1346 Generic and Exceptional Configuration
1348 If you use _Alpine_ from more than one platform it may be convenient to
1349 split your configuration information into two pieces, a generic piece
1350 and exceptions which apply to a particular platform. For example,
1351 suppose you use _Alpine_ from home and from work. Most of your
1352 configuration settings are probably the same in both locations, so
1353 those settings belong in the generic settings configuration. However,
1354 you may use a different SMTP server and INBOX from home than you do
1355 from work. The "smtp-server" and "inbox-path" variables could be part
1356 of your exceptional configuration so that they could be different in
1357 the two places.
1359 You can use the command line option "-x config" to split your
1360 configuration into generic and exceptional pieces. Config may be either
1361 local or remote.
1363 For most people, splitting the configuration information into two
1364 pieces is only going to be useful if the generic information is
1365 accessed remotely. If you already have a local pinerc file with
1366 settings you like you may find that the command Setup/RemoteConfigSetup
1367 will be useful in helping you convert to a remote configuration. The
1368 command line flag copy_pinerc may also be useful.
1370 Configuration Inheritance
1372 Configuration inheritance is a power user feature. It is confusing and
1373 not completely supported by the configuration user interface.
1375 For configuration variables which are lists, like "smtp-server" or
1376 "incoming-folders", the inheritance mechanism makes it possible to
1377 _combine_ the values of options from different configuration locations
1378 instead of _replacing_ the value. Configuration Inheritance has more
1379 information about how inheritance is used.
1380 __________________________________________________________________
1382 General Configuration Variables
1384 The following is a list of all _Alpine_ configuration variables, in
1385 alphabetical order. Note that not all variables apply to all versions
1386 of _Alpine_ and that some variables are only applicable in a system
1387 configuration file and some are only applicable in a personal
1388 configuration file. These are configuration _variables_. Configuration
1389 Features are in a separate section.
1391 _addrbook-sort-rule_
1392 This variable sets up the default address book sorting.
1393 Currently, _Alpine_ will accept the values _dont-sort_,
1394 _fullname-with-lists-last_, _fullname_,
1395 _nickname-with-lists-last_, and _nickname_. The default is to sort
1396 by fullname with lists last. If you use an address book from
1397 more than one computer and those computers sort the address book
1398 differently then the sort order will be the order where the last
1399 change to the address book was made. There are two reasons the
1400 sorting might be different on different systems. First, the
1401 addrbook-sort-rule may be set differently in the two places.
1402 Second, the collation rules on the two computers may be
1403 different. For example, one system might ignore special
1404 characters while the other doesn't or one may sort upper and
1405 lower case letters together while the other doesn't. In any
1406 case, the order you see is the order on the system where the
1407 last change was made, for example by an address book edit or a
1408 Take Address command.
1409 This option is displayed as "Addressbook Sort Rule".
1410 _address-book_
1411 A list of personal address books. Each entry in the list is an
1412 optional nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative
1413 to the home directory. The nickname is separated from the rest
1414 of the line with whitespace. Instead of a local pathname or file
1415 name, a remote folder name can be given. This causes the address
1416 book to be a Remote address book. Remote folder syntax is
1417 discussed in Syntax for Remote Folders. This list of address
1418 books will be combined with the global-address-book list to
1419 arrive at the complete set of address books.
1420 _addressbook-formats_
1421 This option specifies the format that address books are
1422 displayed in. By default, address books are displayed with the
1423 nicknames in the first column, the fullnames in the second
1424 column, and addresses in the third column. The system figures
1425 out reasonable defaults for the widths of the columns. An
1426 address book may be given a different format by listing special
1427 tokens in the order you want them to display. The possible
1428 tokens are NICKNAME, FULLNAME, ADDRESS, FCC, and COMMENT. More
1429 details are included in the online help for this variable.
1430 _alt-addresses_
1431 This option provides a place for you to list alternate email
1432 addresses you may have. Each address in the list should be the
1433 actual email address part of an address, without the full name
1434 field or the angle brackets. For example:
1436 user@example.com
1437 The matching is case-insensitive, so this would match any of
1438 User@example.com, user@Example.Com, or USER@EXAMPLE.COM as well.
1439 If set, the option affects the behavior of the Reply command and
1440 the "+" symbol in the MESSAGE INDEX, which denotes that a
1441 message has been addressed specifically to you.
1442 In the default INDEX display the personal name (or email
1443 address) of the person listed in the message's "From:" header
1444 field is usually displayed except when that address is yours or
1445 one of your alternate addresses. In that case you will usually
1446 see the name of the first person specified in the message's
1447 "To:" header field with the prefix "To: " prepended.
1448 With respect to Reply, the reply-to-all option will exclude
1449 addresses listed here.
1450 The feature copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us is somewhat
1451 related to this option.
1452 In addition to a list of actual addresses, you may use regular
1453 expressions (as used with egrep with the ignore case flag) to
1454 describe the addresses you want to match. _Alpine_ will somewhat
1455 arbitrarily interpret your entry as a regular expression if it
1456 contains any of the characters *, |, +, ?, {, [, ^, $, or \.
1457 Otherwise, it will be treated literally. The feature
1458 disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses may
1459 be used to turn off regular expression processing regardless of
1460 whether or not special characters appear in the entry.
1461 A description of how regular expressions work is beyond the
1462 scope of this help text, but some examples follow.
1463 The entry
1465 .*@example.com
1466 in the alt-addresses list would mean that any address with a
1467 domain name of example.com (such as fred@example.com or
1468 wilma@example.com) will be considered one of your alternate
1469 addresses. Strictly speaking, the dot in example.com ought to be
1470 escaped with a backslash, as in example\.com, and a dollar sign
1471 anchor ought to come at the end of the expression to prevent a
1472 match of example.com.org. Complicating things further, the
1473 dollar sign is special in the _Alpine_ configuration (it
1474 signifies environment variable expansion) so the dollar sign
1475 should be doubled or backslash escaped for _Alpine_'s sake.
1476 Quotes around the whole expression will not escape the dollar
1477 sign successfully. So this example should look like
1479 .*@example\.com$$
1480 The entry
1482 ^fred[0-9]*@example.com$$
1483 would match fred3@example.com or fred17@example.com as well as
1484 fred@example.com.
1485 You could match all addresses that look like
1486 fred+stuff@example.com for any value of stuff with the entry
1488 ^fred\+.*@example.com$$
1489 Notice that you have to escape the plus sign with a backslash
1490 because plus is a special character in regular expressions. If
1491 you wanted to match plain fred as well as fred+stuff the
1492 expression
1494 ^fred(()|\+.*)@example.com$$
1495 would do it, but it would be easier to just add fred@example.com
1496 as a separate entry.
1497 One more example, a match of all first-level subdomains, is
1498 given by
1500 ^fred@[[:alnum:]_-]*\.example\.com$$
1501 Because the regular expression matching is based on an old
1502 library (hs_regex) the regular expressions might not work
1503 exactly as you expect, but they should be close.
1504 This option is displayed as "Alternate Addresses".
1505 _bugs-additional-data_
1506 System-wide configuration files only. Program/Script used by
1507 _Report Bug_ command. Output from the program/script is captured
1508 and attached to the bug report.
1509 _bugs-fullname_, _bugs-address_, _local-fullname_, _local-address_,
1510 _suggest-fullname_, and _suggest-address_
1511 System-wide configuration files only. These are used by the bug
1512 report commands which can be accessed from some of the Help
1513 screens.
1514 _busy-cue-rate_
1515 When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
1516 something is happening with a small animated display in the
1517 status message line near the bottom of the screen. This option
1518 sets how frequently the characters (for example, a spinning bar)
1519 in the active status message lines are updated. At most, it can
1520 be set to be udpated 20 times per second.
1521 Setting this value to zero will prevent display of the
1522 animations altogether.
1523 The option busy-cue-spinner-only can be used to remove the
1524 randomness from this animated display.
1525 _character-set_
1526 This is now obsolete, replaced by three separate variables:
1527 _display-character-set_, _keyboard-character-set_, and
1528 _posting-character-set_. See the section on International
1529 Character Sets for more details.
1530 _color-style_
1531 UNIX _Alpine_ only (color is automatically on with _PC-Alpine_).
1532 If the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of
1533 displaying colors, this variable controls whether or not color
1534 will be used in _Alpine_. If you turn color on and things are
1535 set up correctly, you should see color appear on the screen
1536 immmediately. Modern terminal emulators are usually capable of
1537 displaying colors.
1538 This variable may be set to any of the following values:
1540 no-color
1541 Don't use color.
1543 use-termdef
1544 In order to decide if your terminal is capable of color,
1545 _Alpine_ looks in the terminal capabilities database,
1546 TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on how _Alpine_ was
1547 compiled. This is a good option to choose if you switch
1548 between a color and a non-color terminal with the same
1549 _Alpine_ configuration. _Alpine_ will know to use color on
1550 the color terminal because it is described in the termcap
1551 entry, and _Alpine_ will know to use black and white on
1552 the non-color terminal. Color Details has more information
1553 about configuring a termcap entry for color. This is
1554 usually something a system administrator does.
1556 force-ansi-8color
1557 Because setting up a termcap entry is confusing and
1558 because the terminal capabilities database is often not
1559 correctly configured for color, this choice and the next
1560 may be easier for you to use. If your terminal emulator
1561 responds to ANSI color escape sequences, which many do,
1562 this option will cause _Alpine_ to believe your terminal
1563 will respond to the escape sequences which produce eight
1564 different foreground and background colors. The escape
1565 sequences used to set the foreground colors are
1567 ESC [ 3 <color_number> m
1569 where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and 7.
1570 The numbers 0 through 7 should correspond to the colors
1571 black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
1572 Some terminal emulators use a pre-ANSI scheme which swaps
1573 the colors blue and red and the colors yellow and cyan.
1574 This will cause the default colors to be different, but
1575 other than that things should work fine. There is also a
1576 9th color available, the last one shown, which is the
1577 default color from the terminal emulator. When used as a
1578 background color some people refer to this color as
1579 "transparent", which is why the letters "TRAN" are shown
1580 in the color swatch of the SETUP COLOR screen. The
1581 foreground transparent color is shown as the color of the
1582 "TRAN" text. (The transparent color will not work
1583 correctly in a PC-Alpine configuration.) The escape
1584 sequences used to set the background colors are the same
1585 as for the foreground colors except a "4" replaces the
1586 "3".
1588 Note: With the Tera Term terminal emulator this setting
1589 works well. You should also have the Tera Term "Full
1590 color" option turned OFF. You may find the "Full color"
1591 option in Tera Term's "Setup" menu, in the "Window"
1592 submenu.
1594 force-ansi-16color
1595 Many terminal emulators know about the same eight colors
1596 above plus eight more. This option attempts to use all 16
1597 colors. The same escape sequences as for the eight-color
1598 terminal are used for the first eight colors. The escape
1599 sequences used to set foreground colors 8-15 are the same
1600 as for 0-7 except the "3" is replaced with a "9". The
1601 background color sequences for colors 8-15 are the same as
1602 for 0-7 except the "4" is replaced with "10". You can tell
1603 if the 16 colors are working by turning on this option and
1604 then going into one of the color configuration screens,
1605 for example, the configuration screen for Normal Color. If
1606 you see 16 different colors to select from (plus a 17th
1607 for the transparent color), it's working.
1609 force-xterm-256color
1610 Some versions of xterm (and some other terminal emulators)
1611 have support for 256 colors. The escape sequences used to
1612 set the foreground colors are
1614 ESC [ 38 ; 5 ; <color_number> m
1616 where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and
1617 255. Background colors are the same with the 38 replaced
1618 with a 48. The numbers 0 through 15 are probably similar
1619 to the 16 color version above, then comes a 6x6x6 color
1620 cube, followed by 24 colors of gray. The terminal default
1621 (transparent) color is the 257th color at the bottom. Some
1622 terminal emulators will misinterpret these escape
1623 sequences causing the terminal to blink or overstrike
1624 characters or to do something else undesirable.
1626 The PuTTY terminal emulator has an option called "Allow
1627 terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode" which allows PuTTY
1628 to work well with this 256-color setting.
1630 There are two other possible color values which may be useful in
1631 some situations. In the color configuration screens there will
1632 sometimes be a color which has the label "NORM" inside its color
1633 swatch. If this is selected the corresponding foreground or
1634 background Normal Color will be used. Another similar color is
1635 the one that has the label "NONE" inside its color swatch. The
1636 meaning of this setting is that no color changing will be done.
1637 This NONE color is only useful in contexts where _Alpine_ is
1638 already coloring the text some color other than the Normal
1639 Color. For example, if the Reverse Color is set then the current
1640 line in the MESSAGE INDEX will be colored. If one of the index
1641 symbols (for example, the Index-to-me Symbol) has the NONE color
1642 as its background then the symbol's foreground color will be
1643 used to draw the actual text but the background color will be
1644 the same as whatever the background color already was. The color
1645 values which end up in the configuration file for these special
1646 values are the 11-character words "norm-padded", "none-padded",
1647 and "transparent".
1648 The normal default is "no-color".
1649 Once you've turned on color you may set the colors of many
1650 objects on the screen individually. The Color Configuration
1651 section has more information, or you may just try it by running
1652 the "Setup" command and typing "K" for Kolor to enter the color
1653 configuration screen (Kolor instead of Color because C means
1654 Config). Most categories of color which _Alpine_ supports are
1655 configurable there. Index line color is configured separately.
1656 _composer-word-separators_
1657 This option affects how a "word" is defined in the composer. The
1658 definition of a word is used when using the Forward Word and
1659 Backward Word commands in the composer, as well as when using
1660 the spell checker. Whitespace is always considered a word
1661 separator. Punctuation (like question marks, periods, commas,
1662 and so on) is always a word separator if it comes at the end of
1663 a word. By default, a punctuation character which is in the
1664 middle of a word does not break up that word as long as the
1665 character before and the character after it are both
1666 alphanumeric. If you add a character to this option it will be
1667 considered a word separator even when it occurs in the middle of
1668 an alphanumeric word. For example, if you want to skip through
1669 each part of an address instead of skipping the whole address at
1670 once you might want to include"@" and "." in this list. If you
1671 want the word-skipper to stop on each part of a UNIX filename
1672 you could add "/" to the list. The equal sign and dash are other
1673 possibilities you might find helpful.
1674 _composer-wrap-column_
1675 This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer. This
1676 gives the maximum width that auto-wrapped lines will have. It's
1677 also the maximum width of lines justified using the ^J Justify
1678 command. The normal default is _74_. The largest allowed setting
1679 is normally _80_ in order to prevent very long lines from being
1680 sent in outgoing mail. When the mail is actually sent, trailing
1681 spaces will be stripped off of each line.
1682 _current-indexline-style_
1683 current-indexline-style.
1684 _customized-hdrs_
1685 You may add your own custom headers to outgoing messages. Each
1686 header you specify here must include the header tag (Reply-To:,
1687 Approved:, etc.) and may optionally include a value for that
1688 header. If you want to see these custom headers each time you
1689 compose a message, you must add them to your
1690 default-composer-hdrs list, otherwise they become part of the
1691 rich header set which you only see when you press the rich
1692 header command. (If you are looking for a way to change which
1693 headers are _displayed_ when you view a message, take a look at
1694 the viewer-hdrs option instead.) Here's an example which shows
1695 how you might set your From address
1697 From: Full Name <user@example.com>
1698 and another showing how you might set a Reply-To address
1700 Reply-To: user@example.com
1701 You may also set non-standard header values here. For example,
1702 you could add
1704 Organization: My Organization Name
1705 or even
1707 X-Favorite-Colors: Purple and Gold
1708 If you include a value after the colon then that header will be
1709 included in your outgoing messages unless you delete it before
1710 sending. If a header in the Customized-Headers list has only a
1711 tag but no value, then it will not be included in outgoing
1712 messages unless you edit a value in manually. For example, if
1714 Reply-To:
1715 is in the list, then the Reply-To header will be available for
1716 editing but won't be included unless a value is added while in
1717 the composer.
1718 It's actually a little more complicated than that. The values of
1719 headers that you set with the Customized-Headers option are
1720 defaults. If the message you are about to compose already has a
1721 value for a header, that value is used instead of a value from
1722 your Customized-Headers. For example, if you are Replying to a
1723 message the Subject field will already be filled in. In that
1724 case, if the Customized-Headers list contains a Subject line,
1725 the custom subject will _NOT_ be used. The subject derived from
1726 the subject of the message you are Replying to will be used
1727 instead.
1728 It is also possible to make header setting even more complicated
1729 and more automatic by using Roles, but if all you want to do is
1730 set a default value for a header, you don't need to think about
1731 Roles.
1732 If you change your From address you may also find it useful to
1733 add the changed From address to the alt-addresses configuration
1734 option.
1735 Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of
1736 Customized-Headers, it is not possible to have the value of a
1737 header contain a comma. Nor is there currently an "escape"
1738 mechanism provided to make this work.
1739 This option is displayed as "Customized Headers".
1740 _dead-letter-files_
1741 This option affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a
1742 message being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write
1743 the canceled message to a file named "dead.letter" in your home
1744 directory, or "DEADLETR" when using _PC-Alpine_, overwriting any
1745 previous message.
1746 If you set this option to a value higher than one, then that
1747 many copies of dead letter files will be saved. For example, if
1748 you set this option to "3" then you may have files named
1749 "DEADLETR", "DEADLETR2", and "DEADLETR3"; or "dead.letter",
1750 "dead.letter2", and "dead.letter3". In this example, the most
1751 recently cancelled message will be in "dead.letter", and the
1752 third most recently cancelled message will be in "dead.letter3".
1753 The fourth most recently cancelled message will no longer be
1754 saved.
1755 If you set this option to zero, then NO record of canceled
1756 messages is maintained.
1757 If the feature Quell-Dead-Letter-On-Cancel is set, that
1758 overrides whatever you set for this option. If this option had
1759 existed at the time, then the Quell feature would not have been
1760 added, but it is still there for backwards compatibility. So, in
1761 order for this option to have the desired effect, make sure the
1762 Quell feature is turned off.
1763 _default-composer-hdrs_
1764 You can control which headers you want visible when composing
1765 outgoing email using this option. You can specify any of the
1766 regular set, any Rich Header, or any Customized-Hdrs which you
1767 have already defined. If you use this setting at all, you must
1768 specify all the headers you want to see, you can't just add to
1769 the regular header set. The default set is To:, Cc:, Attchmnt:,
1770 and Subject:.
1771 Note that the "Newsgroups:" header will be abbreviated in the
1772 Composer display, but should be spelled out in full here.
1773 This option is displayed as "Default Composer Headers".
1774 _default-fcc_
1775 The name of the folder to which all outgoing mail goes is set
1776 here. The compiled-in default is _sent-mail_ (UNIX) or _sentmail_
1777 (PC). It can be set to "" (two double quotes with nothing
1778 between them) to turn off saving copies of outgoing mail. If
1779 _default-fcc_ is a relative file name, then it is relative to
1780 your default collection for saves (see folder-collections).
1781 This option is displayed as "Default Fcc (File carbon copy)".
1782 _default-saved-msg-folder_
1783 This option determines the default folder name for _Saves_... If
1784 this is not a path name, it will be in the default collection
1785 for saves. Any valid folder specification, local or IMAP, is
1786 allowed. This default folder only applies when the
1787 saved-msg-name-rule doesn't override it. Unix _Alpine_ default
1788 is normally _saved-messages_ in the default folder collection.
1789 _PC-Alpine_ default is _SAVEMAIL_ (normally stored as
1790 _SAVEMAIL.MTX_).
1791 This option is displayed as "Default Saved Message Folder".
1792 _disable-these-authenticators_
1793 This variable is a list of SASL (Simple Authentication and
1794 Security Layer) authenticators which will be disabled. SASL is a
1795 mechanism for authenticating to IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and other
1796 network servers.
1797 _Alpine_ matches its list of supported authenticators with the
1798 server to determine the most secure authenticator that is
1799 supported by both. If no matching authenticators are found,
1800 _Alpine_ will revert to plaintext login (or, in the case of SMTP,
1801 will be unable to authenticate at all).
1802 The candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more
1803 if you compile _Alpine_ with additional authenticators and/or a
1804 newer version of the c-client library.
1805 + GSSAPI
1806 + CRAM-MD5
1807 + PLAIN
1808 + LOGIN
1809 Normally, you will not disable any authenticators. There are two
1810 exceptions:
1811 1. You use a broken server that advertises an authenticator, but
1812 does not actually implement it.
1813 2. You have a Kerberos-capable version of _Alpine_ and the server
1814 is also Kerberos-capable, but you can not obtain Kerberos
1815 credentials on the server machine, thus you desire to disable
1816 GSSAPI (which in turn disables _Alpine_'s Kerberos support).
1817 It is never necessary to disable authenticators, since _Alpine_
1818 will try other authenticators before giving up. However,
1819 disabling the relevant authenticator avoids annoying error
1820 messages.
1821 _disable-these-drivers_
1822 This variable is a list of mail drivers which will be disabled.
1823 The candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more
1824 in the future if you compile _Alpine_ with a newer version of
1825 the c-client library.
1826 + mbox
1827 + mbx
1828 + mh
1829 + mix
1830 + mmdf
1831 + mtx
1832 + mx
1833 + news
1834 + phile
1835 + tenex
1836 + unix
1837 The _mbox_ driver enables the following behavior: if there is a
1838 file called mbox in your home directory, and if that file is
1839 either empty or in Unix mailbox format, then every time you open
1840 _INBOX_ the _mbox_ driver will automatically transfer mail from
1841 the system mail spool directory into the mbox file and delete it
1842 from the spool directory. If you disable the _mbox_ driver, this
1843 will not happen.
1844 It is not recommended to disable the driver which supports the
1845 system default mailbox format. On most non-SCO systems, that
1846 driver is the _unix_ driver. On most SCO systems, it is the
1847 _mmdf_ driver. The system default driver may be configured to
1848 something else on your system; check with your system manager
1849 for additional information.
1850 It is most likely not very useful for you to disable any of the
1851 drivers other than possibly _mbox_. You could disable some of
1852 the others if you know for certain that you don't need them but
1853 the performance gain in doing so is very modest.
1854 _display-character-set_
1855 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
1856 _display-filters_
1857 This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs
1858 or scripts) that may be used to filter text portions of received
1859 messages prior to their use (e.g., presentation in the "Message
1860 Text" display screen). For security reasons, the full path name
1861 of the filter command must be specified.
1862 Display filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_.
1863 The command is executed and the message is piped into its
1864 standard input. The standard output of the command is read back
1865 by _Alpine_. The __TMPFILE__ token (see below) overrides this
1866 default behavior.
1867 The filter's use is based on the configured _trigger_ string.
1868 The format of a filter definition is:
1870 <trigger> <command> <arguments>
1871 You can specify as many filters as you wish, separating them
1872 with a comma. Each filter can have only one trigger and command.
1873 Thus, two trigger strings which invoke the same command require
1874 separate filter specifications.
1875 The _trigger_ is simply text that, if found in the message, will
1876 invoke the associated command. If the trigger contains any space
1877 characters, it must be placed within quotes. Likewise, should
1878 you wish a filter to be invoked unconditionally, define the
1879 trigger as the null string, "" (two consecutive double-quote
1880 characters). If the trigger string is found anywhere in the text
1881 of the message the filter is invoked. Placing the trigger text
1882 within the tokens defined below changes where within the text
1883 the trigger must be before considering it a match.
1884 Trigger Modifying Tokens:
1886 __CHARSET(string)__
1887 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1888 if the text is in a character set matching string (e.g.,
1889 ISO-8859-2 or ISO-2022-JP).
1891 __LEADING(string)__
1892 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1893 if the enclosed string is found to be the first
1894 non-whitespace text.
1895 NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
1896 character.
1898 __BEGINNING(string)__
1899 This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command
1900 if the enclosed string is found at the beginning of any
1901 line in the text.
1902 NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
1903 character.
1905 The "command" and "arguments" portion is simply the command line
1906 to be invoked if the trigger string is found. Below are tokens
1907 that _Alpine_ will recognize and replace with special values
1908 when the command is actually invoked.
1909 Command Modifying Tokens:
1911 __TMPFILE__
1912 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1913 the path and name of the temporary file containing the
1914 text to be filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to
1915 replace this data with the filter's result. NOTE: Use of
1916 this token implies that the text to be filtered is not
1917 piped into standard input of the executed command and its
1918 standard output is ignored. _Alpine_ restores the tty
1919 modes before invoking the filter in case the filter
1920 interacts with the user via its own standard input and
1921 output.
1923 __RESULTFILE__
1924 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1925 the path and name of a temporary file intended to contain
1926 a status message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this
1927 in the message status field.
1929 __DATAFILE__
1930 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
1931 the path and name of a temporary file that _Alpine_
1932 creates once per session and deletes upon exit. The file
1933 is intended to be used by the filter to store state
1934 information between instances of the filter.
1936 __PREPENDKEY__
1937 When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
1938 random number will be passed down the input stream before
1939 the message text. This number could be used as a session
1940 key. It does not appear as a command-line argument. It is
1941 sent in this way to improve security. The number is unique
1942 to the current _Alpine_ session and is only generated once
1943 per session.
1945 The feature disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters is
1946 related.
1947 Performance caveat/considerations:
1948 Testing for the trigger and invoking the filter doesn't come for
1949 free. There is overhead associated with searching for the
1950 trigger string, testing for the filter's existence and actually
1951 piping the text through the filter. The impact can be reduced if
1952 the Trigger Modifying Tokens above are employed.
1953 Limitation:
1954 If Header Colors are being used, the sequences of bytes which
1955 indicate color changes will be contained in the text which is
1956 passed to the display-filter. If this causes problems you'll
1957 need to turn off Header Colors. The thirteen bytes which
1958 indicate a color change are the character \377 followed by \010
1959 for a foreground color or \011 for a background color. Then
1960 comes eleven characters of RGB data which looks something like
1961 255, 0,255, depending on the particular color, of course.
1962 _download-command_
1963 This option affects the behavior of the _Export_ command. It
1964 specifies a Unix program name, and any necessary command line
1965 arguments, that _Alpine_ can use to transfer the exported
1966 message to your personal computer's disk.
1967 _download-command-prefix_
1968 This option is used in conjunction with the _download-command_
1969 option. It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator
1970 (via standard output) immediately prior to starting the download
1971 command. This is useful for integrated serial line file transfer
1972 agents that permit command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
1973 _editor_
1974 UNIX _Alpine_ only. Sets the name of the alternate editor for
1975 composing mail (message text only, not headers). It will be
1976 invoked with the "^_" command or it will be invoked
1977 automatically if the enable-alternate-editor-implicitly feature
1978 is set.
1979 _empty-header-message_
1980 When sending, if both the To and Cc fields are empty and you are
1981 sending the message to a Bcc, _Alpine_ will put a special
1982 address in the To line. The default value is
1983 "undisclosed-recipients: ;". The reason for this is to avoid
1984 embarrassment caused by some Internet mail transfer software
1985 that interprets a "missing" To: header as an error and replaces
1986 it with an Apparently-to: header that may contain the addresses
1987 you entered on the Bcc: line, defeating the purpose of the Bcc.
1988 You may change the part of this message that comes before the ":
1989 ;" by setting the _empty-header-message_ variable to something
1990 else.
1991 _fcc-name-rule_
1992 Determines default folder name for fcc when composing.
1993 Currently, _Alpine_ will accept the values _default-fcc_,
1994 _by-recipient_, or _last-fcc-used_. If set to _default-fcc_, then
1995 _Alpine_ will use the value defined in the default-fcc variable
1996 (which itself has a default) for the Fcc header field. If set to
1997 _by-recipient_, then _Alpine_ will use the name of the recipient
1998 as a folder name for the fcc. The relevant recipient is the
1999 first address in the To field. If set to "last-fcc-used", then
2000 _Alpine_ will offer to Fcc to whatever folder you used
2001 previously. In all cases, the field can still be edited after it
2002 is initially assigned. If the fcc field in the address book is
2003 set for the first To address, that value over-rides any value
2004 derived from this rule.
2005 _feature-list_
2006 This is a list of the many features (options) which may be
2007 turned on or off. There is a separate section titled
2008 Configuration Features which explains each of the features.
2009 There is some additional explanation about the _feature-list_
2010 variable itself in Feature List Variable.
2011 _file-directory_
2012 _PC-Alpine_ only. This value affects the Composer's "^J Attach"
2013 command, the Attachment Index Screen's "S Save" command, and the
2014 Message Index's "E Export" command.
2015 Normally, when a filename is supplied that lacks a leading
2016 "path" component, _Alpine_ assumes the file exists in the user's
2017 home directory. Under Windows operating systems, this definition
2018 isn't always clear. This feature allows you to explictly set
2019 where _Alpine_ should look for files without a leading path.
2020 NOTE: this feature's value is ignored if either use-current-dir
2021 feature is set or the PINERC has a value for the operating-dir
2022 variable.
2023 _folder-collections_
2024 This is a list of one or more collections where saved mail is
2025 stored. See the sections describing folder collections and
2026 collection syntax for more information. The first collection in
2027 this list is the default collection for _Save_s, including
2028 default-fcc's.
2029 _folder-extension_
2030 _PC-Alpine_ only. File extension used for local folder names.
2031 This is .MTX by default.
2032 _folder-reopen-rule_
2033 _Alpine_ normally checks for new mail in the currently open
2034 folder and in the INBOX every few minutes.
2035 There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does
2036 not work. For example, if a mail folder is opened using the POP
2037 protocol or a newsgroup is being read using the NNTP protocol,
2038 then new-mail checking is disabled.
2039 It may be possible to check for new mail in these cases by
2040 reopening the folder. _Alpine_ does not do this for you
2041 automatically, but you may do the commands manually to cause
2042 this to happen. You reopen by going back to the folder list
2043 screen from the message index screen with the "<" command, and
2044 then going back into the message index screen with the ">"
2045 command. (Actually, any method you would normally use to open a
2046 folder will work the same as the "<" followed by ">" method. For
2047 example, the GoTo Folder command will work, or you may use L to
2048 go to the Folder List screen and Carriage Return to reopen the
2049 folder.)
2050 There are some cases where _Alpine_ knows that reopening the
2051 folder should be useful as a way to discover new mail. At the
2052 time of this writing, connections made using the POP protocol,
2053 news reading using the NNTP protocol, local news reading, and
2054 local ReadOnly folders which are in the traditional UNIX or the
2055 MMDF format all fall into this category. There are other cases
2056 where it _may_ be a way to discover new mail, but _Alpine_ has
2057 no way of knowing, so it might also just be an exercise in
2058 futility. All remote, ReadOnly folders other than those listed
2059 just above fall into this category. The setting of this option
2060 together with the type of folder controls how _Alpine_ will
2061 react to the apparent attempt to reopen a folder.
2062 If you don't reopen, then you will just be back in the message
2063 index with no change. You left the index and came back, but the
2064 folder remained "open" the whole time. However, if you do reopen
2065 the folder, the folder is closed and then reopened. In this
2066 case, the current state of the open folder is lost. The New
2067 status, Important and Answered flags, selected state, Zoom
2068 state, collapsed or expanded state of threads, current message
2069 number, and any other temporary state is all lost when the
2070 reopen happens. For POP folders (but not NNTP newsgroups) the
2071 Deleted flags are also lost.
2072 In the possibilities listed below, the text says "POP/NNTP" in
2073 several places. That really implies the case where _Alpine_
2074 knows it is a good way to discover new mail, which is more than
2075 just POP and NNTP, but POP and NNTP are the cases of most
2076 interest. This option probably has more possible values than it
2077 deserves. They are:
2079 Always reopen
2080 _Alpine_ will not ask whether you want to reopen but will
2081 just do the reopen whenever you type a command that
2082 implies a reopen, regardless of the access method. In
2083 other words, it is assumed you would always answer Yes if
2084 asked about reopening.
2086 Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [Yes]
2087 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2088 POP or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other
2089 remote folders, with a default answer of Yes.
2091 Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [No]
2092 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2093 POP or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other
2094 remote folders, with a default answer of No.
2096 Yes for POP/NNTP, No for other remote
2097 _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is
2098 POP or NNTP, and will assume a No answer for all other
2099 remote folders.
2101 Always ask [Yes]
2102 _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It
2103 will always ask for all remote folders, with a default
2104 answer of Yes.
2106 Always ask [No]
2107 _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It
2108 will always ask for all remote folders, with a default
2109 answer of No.
2111 Ask about POP/NNTP [Yes], No for other remote
2112 _Alpine_ will ask if the access method is POP or NNTP,
2113 with a default answer of Yes. It will never attempt to
2114 reopen other remote folders.
2116 Ask about POP/NNTP [No], No for other remote
2117 This is the default. _Alpine_ will ask if the access
2118 method is POP or NNTP, with a default answer of No. It
2119 will never attempt to reopen other remote folders.
2121 Never reopen
2122 _Alpine_ will never attempt to reopen already open
2123 folders.
2125 Remember, wherever it says POP or NNTP above it really means POP
2126 or NNTP or any of the other situations where it is likely that
2127 reopening is a good way to discover new mail.
2128 There is an alternative that may be of useful in some
2129 situations. Instead of manually checking for new mail you can
2130 set up a Mail Drop and automatically check for new mail.
2131 _folder-sort-rule_
2132 This option controls the order in which folder list entries will
2133 be presented in the FOLDER LIST screen. Choose one of the
2134 following:
2136 _Alphabetical_
2137 sort by alphabetical name independent of type
2139 _Alpha-with-dirs-last_
2140 sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to
2141 the end of the list
2143 _Alpha-with-dirs-first_
2144 sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to
2145 the start of the list
2147 The normal default is _Alphabetical_.
2148 _font-name_
2149 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2150 _font-size_
2151 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2152 _font-style_
2153 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
2154 _forced-abook-entry_
2155 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Force these
2156 address book entries into all writable personal address books.
2157 This is a list variable. Each item in the list has the form:
2159 Nickname | Fullname | Address
2160 with optional whitespace in all the obvious places.
2161 _form-letter-folder_
2162 A Form Letter Folder is a mail folder that is intended to
2163 contain messages that you have composed and that are intended to
2164 be sent in their original form repeatedly.
2165 Setting this variable will alter _Alpine_'s usual behavior when
2166 you execute the Compose command. Normally, _Alpine_ offers a
2167 chance to continue a postponed or interrupted message should one
2168 or the other exist. When this variable is set to a folder name
2169 that exists, _Alpine_ will also offer the chance to select a
2170 message from the folder to insert into the composer, much like
2171 when continuing a postponed message. The difference, however, is
2172 that _Alpine_ will not automatically delete the selected message
2173 from the Form Letter Folder.
2174 Setting this variable will also affect _Alpine_'s behavior when
2175 you Postpone a message from the composer. Normally, _Alpine_
2176 simply stashes the message away in your Postponed-Folder.
2177 Regardless of the specified folder's existence, _Alpine_ will
2178 ask which folder you intend the message to be stored in. Choose
2179 the "F" option to store the message in your Form Letter Folder.
2180 This is the most common way to add a message to the folder.
2181 Another method of adding messages to the folder is via the
2182 _Alpine_ composer's Fcc: field. If you are sending a message that
2183 you expect to send in the same form again, you can enter the
2184 Form Letter Folder's name in this field. _Alpine_, as usual,
2185 will copy the message as it's sent. Note, when you later select
2186 this message from your Form Letter Folder, it will have the same
2187 recipients as the original message.
2188 To delete a message from the Form Letter Folder, you can either
2189 select the folder from a suitable FOLDER LIST screen, or use the
2190 Delete command in the MESSAGE INDEX offered when selecting from
2191 the folder as part of the Compose command. You can delete a Form
2192 Letter Folder just as any other folder from a suitable FOLDER
2193 LIST screen.
2194 You may find that the Roles facility can be used to replace the
2195 Form Letter Folder.
2196 _global-address-book_
2197 A list of shared address books. Each entry in the list is an
2198 optional nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative
2199 to the home directory. A SPACE character separates the nickname
2200 from the rest of the line. Instead of a local pathname or file
2201 name, a remote folder name can be given. This causes the address
2202 book to be a Remote address book. Remote folder syntax is
2203 discussed in Syntax for Remote Folders. This list will be added
2204 to the address-book list to arrive at the complete set of
2205 address books. Global address books are defined to be ReadOnly.
2206 _goto-default-rule_
2207 This value affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _Goto_
2208 command. There are five possible values for this option:
2210 _folder-in-first-collection_
2211 _Alpine_ will offer the most recently visited folder in
2212 the default collection found in the "Collection List"
2213 screen as the default.
2215 _inbox-or-folder-in-first-collection_
2216 If the current folder is _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the
2217 most recently visited folder in the default collection
2218 found in the "Collection List" screen. If the current
2219 folder is other than _INBOX_, _INBOX_ is offered as the
2220 default.
2222 _inbox-or-folder-in-recent-collection_
2223 This is _Alpine_'s default behavior. If the current folder
2224 is _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the last open folder as
2225 the default. If the current folder is other than _INBOX_,
2226 _INBOX_ is offered as the default.
2228 _first-collection-with-inbox-default_
2229 Instead of offering the most recently visited folder in
2230 the default collection, the default collection is offered
2231 but with _INBOX_ as the default folder. If you type in a
2232 folder name it will be in the default collection. If you
2233 simply accept the default, however, your _INBOX_ will be
2234 opened.
2236 _most-recent-folder_
2237 The last accepted value simply causes the most recently
2238 opened folder to be offered as the default regardless of
2239 the currently opened folder.
2241 NOTE: The default while a newsgroup is open remains the same;
2242 the last open newsgroup.
2243 _header-general-background-color_
2244 _header-general-foreground-color_
2245 Header Colors.
2246 _image-viewer_
2247 This variable names the program to call for displaying parts of
2248 a MIME message that are of type IMAGE. If your system supports
2249 the _mailcap_ system, you don't need to set this variable.
2250 _inbox-path_
2251 This specifies the name of the folder to use for the _INBOX_. By
2252 default this is unset and the system's default is used. The most
2253 common reason for setting this is to open an IMAP mailbox for
2254 the _INBOX_. For example, _{imap5.u.example.edu}inbox_ will open
2255 the user's standard _INBOX_ on the mail server, _imap5_.
2256 _incoming-archive-folders_
2257 This is like read-message-folder, only more general. This is a
2258 list of folder pairs, with the first separated from the second
2259 in the pair by a space. The first folder in a pair is the folder
2260 you want to archive, and the second folder is the folder that
2261 read messages from the first should be moved to. Depending on
2262 how you define the auto-move-read-msgs feature, you may or may
2263 not be asked when you leave the first folder if you want read
2264 messages to be moved to the second folder. In either case,
2265 moving the messages means they will be deleted from the first
2266 folder.
2267 If these are not path names, they will be in the default
2268 collection for _Save_s. Any valid folder specification, local or
2269 remote (via IMAP), is allowed. There is no default.
2270 _incoming-check-interval_
2271 This option has no effect unless the feature
2272 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2273 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2274 This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check
2275 for new mail and state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming
2276 Folders Checking is turned on. The default is 3 minutes (180).
2277 This value applies only to folders that are local to the system
2278 that _Alpine_ is running on or that are accessed using the IMAP
2279 protocol. The similar option incoming-check-interval-secondary
2280 applies to all other monitored folders.
2281 _incoming-check-interval-secondary_
2282 This option has no effect unless the feature
2283 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2284 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2285 This option together with the option incoming-check-interval
2286 specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check for new
2287 mail and state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming Folders
2288 Checking is turned on. The default for this option is 3 minutes
2289 (180). For folders that are local to this system or that are
2290 accessed using the IMAP protocol the value of the option
2291 incoming-check-interval is used. For all other monitored
2292 folders, the value of this option is used.
2293 The reason there are two separate options is because it is
2294 usually less expensive to check local and IMAP folders than it
2295 is to check other types, like POP or NNTP folders. You may want
2296 to set this secondary value to a higher number than the primary
2297 check interval.
2298 _incoming-check-list_
2299 This option has no effect unless the feature
2300 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2301 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2302 When monitoring the Incoming Message Folders for Unseen messages
2303 Alpine will normally monitor all Incoming Folders. You may use
2304 this option to restrict the list of monitored folders to a
2305 subset of all Incoming Folders.
2306 _incoming-check-timeout_
2307 This option has no effect unless the feature
2308 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
2309 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
2310 Sets the time in seconds that Alpine will attempt to open a
2311 network connection used for monitoring for Unseen messages in
2312 Incoming Folders. The default is 5. If a connection has not
2313 completed within this many seconds Alpine will give up and
2314 consider it a failed connection.
2315 _incoming-folders_
2316 This is a list of one or more folders other than _INBOX_ that
2317 may receive new messages. This list is slightly special in that
2318 it is always expanded in the folder lister. In the future, it
2319 may become more special. For example, it would be nice if
2320 _Alpine_ would monitor the folders in this list for new mail.
2321 _incoming-startup-rule_
2322 This rule affects _Alpine_'s behavior when opening the _INBOX_
2323 or another folder from the "INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS". This rule
2324 tells _Alpine_ which message to make the current message when an
2325 incoming folder is opened. There are seven possible values for
2326 this option:
2328 _first-unseen_
2329 The current message will be the first unseen message which
2330 has not been marked deleted, or the last message if all of
2331 the messages have been seen. This is the default setting.
2333 _first-recent_
2334 This is similar to _first-unseen_. Instead of first unseen
2335 it is the first recent message. A message is considered to
2336 be recent if it arrived since the last time the folder was
2337 open (by any mail client, not just the current one). So
2338 this option causes the current message to be set to the
2339 first undeleted-recent message, or the last message if
2340 none is both undeleted and recent.
2342 _first-important_
2343 This will result in the current message being set to the
2344 first message marked Important (but not Deleted). If no
2345 messages are marked Important, then it will be the last
2346 message.
2348 _first-important-or-unseen_
2349 This selects the minimum of the first unseen and the first
2350 important messages.
2352 _first-important-or-recent_
2353 This selects the first of the first recent and the first
2354 important messages.
2356 _first_
2357 Set the current message to the first undeleted message
2358 unless all are deleted. In that case set it to the last
2359 message.
2361 _last_
2362 Set the current message to the last undeleted message
2363 unless all are deleted. In that case set it to the last
2364 message.
2366 _incoming-unseen-background-color_
2367 _incoming-unseen-foreground-color_
2368 Incoming Unseen Color.
2369 _index-answered-background-color_
2370 _index-answered-foreground-color_
2371 _index-arrow-background-color_
2372 _index-arrow-foreground-color_
2373 _index-deleted-background-color_
2374 _index-deleted-foreground-color_
2375 _index-from-background-color_
2376 _index-from-foreground-color_
2377 _index-highpriority-background-color_
2378 _index-highpriority-foreground-color_
2379 _index-important-background-color_
2380 _index-important-foreground-color_
2381 _index-lowpriority-background-color_
2382 _index-lowpriority-foreground-color_
2383 _index-new-background-color_
2384 _index-new-foreground-color_
2385 _index-opening-background-color_
2386 _index-opening-foreground-color_
2387 _index-recent-background-color_
2388 _index-recent-foreground-color_
2389 _index-subject-background-color_
2390 _index-subject-foreground-color_
2391 _index-to-me-background-color_
2392 _index-to-me-foreground-color_
2393 _index-unseen-background-color_
2394 _index-unseen-foreground-color_
2395 Index Colors.
2396 _index-format_
2397 This option is used to customize the content of lines in the
2398 MESSAGE INDEX screen. Each line is intended to convey some
2399 amount of immediately relevant information about each message in
2400 the current folder.
2401 _Alpine_ provides a pre-defined set of informational fields with
2402 reasonable column widths automatically computed. You can,
2403 however, replace this default set by listing special tokens in
2404 the order you want them displayed.
2405 The list of available tokens is here.
2406 Spaces are used to separate listed tokens. Additionally, you can
2407 specify how much of the screen's width the taken's associated
2408 data should occupy on the index line by appending the token with
2409 a pair of parentheses enclosing either a number or percentage.
2410 For example, "SUBJECT(13)" means to allocate 13 characters of
2411 space to the subject column, and "SUBJECT(20%)" means to
2412 allocate 20% of the available space to the subjects column,
2413 while plain "SUBJECT" means the system will attempt to figure
2414 out a reasonable amount of space.
2415 There is always one space between every pair of columns, so if
2416 you use fixed column widths (like 13) you should remember to
2417 take that into account. Several of the fields are virtually
2418 fixed-width, so it doesn't make much sense to specify the width
2419 for them. The fields STATUS, FULLSTATUS, IMAPSTATUS, MSGNO, the
2420 DATE fields, SIZE, and DESCRIPSIZE all fall into that category.
2421 You _may_ specify widths for those if you wish, but you're
2422 probably better off letting the system pick those widths.
2423 The default is equivalent to:
2425 index-format=STATUS MSGNO SMARTDATETIME24 FROMORTO(33%) SIZENARROW SUBJ
2426 KEY(67%)
2427 This means that the four fields without percentages will be
2428 allocated first, and then 33% and 67% of the _remaining_ space
2429 will go to the from and subject fields. If one of those two
2430 fields is specified as a percentage and the other is left for
2431 the system to choose, then the percentage is taken as an
2432 absolute percentage of the screen, not of the space remaining
2433 after allocating the first four columns. It doesn't usually make
2434 sense to do it that way. If you leave off all the widths, then
2435 the subject and from fields (if both are present) are allocated
2436 space in a 2 to 1 ratio, which is almost exactly the same as the
2437 default.
2438 What you are most likely to do with this configuration option is
2439 to specify which fields appear at all, which order they appear
2440 in, and the percentage of screen that is used for the from and
2441 subject fields if you don't like the 2 to 1 default.
2442 If you want to retain the default format that _Pine_ 4.64 had,
2443 use
2445 Index-Format=STATUS MSGNO DATE FROMORTO(33%) SIZE SUBJKEY(67%)
2446 _and_ set the feature Disable-Index-Locale-Dates.
2447 _initial-keystroke-list_
2448 This is a comma-separated list of keystrokes which _Alpine_
2449 executes on startup. Items in the list are usually just
2450 characters, but there are some special values. _SPACE,_ _TAB,_
2451 and _CR_ mean a space character, tab character, and a carriage
2452 return, respectively. _F1_ through _F12_ stand for the twelve
2453 function keys. _UP, DOWN, LEFT, _and_ RIGHT _stand for the arrow
2454 keys. Control characters are represented with _^<char>_. A
2455 restriction is that you can't mix function keys and character
2456 keys in this list even though you can, in some cases, mix them
2457 when running _Alpine_. A user can always use only _character_
2458 keys in the startup list even if he or she is using _function_
2459 keys normally, or vice versa. If an element in this list is a
2460 string surrounded by double quotes (") then it will be expanded
2461 into the individual characters in the string, excluding the
2462 double quotes.
2463 _kblock-passwd-count_
2464 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Number of times a
2465 user will have to enter a password when they run the keyboard
2466 lock command in the main menu.
2467 _keyboard-character-set_
2468 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
2469 _keylabel-background-color_
2470 _keylabel-foreground-color_
2471 KeyLabel Color.
2472 _keyname-background-color_
2473 _keyname-foreground-color_
2474 KeyName Color.
2475 _keywords_
2476 You may define your own set of keywords and optionally set them
2477 on a message by message basis. These are similar to the
2478 "Important" flag which the user may set using the Flag command.
2479 The difference is that the Important flag is always present for
2480 each folder. User-defined keywords are chosen by the user. You
2481 may set up the list of possible keywords here, or you may add
2482 keywords from the Flag Details screen that you can get to after
2483 typing the Flag (*) command. After the keywords have been
2484 defined, then you use the Flag command to set or clear the
2485 keywords in each message. The behavior of the flag command may
2486 be modified by using the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option or
2487 the Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option.
2488 Keywords may be used when Selecting messages (Select Keyword).
2489 Keywords may also be used in the Patterns of Rules (Filters,
2490 Indexcolors, etc). Filter rules may be used to set keywords
2491 automatically. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject
2492 of a message by using the SUBJKEY or SUBJKEYINIT tokens in the
2493 Index-Format option. The Keyword-Surrounding-Chars option may be
2494 used to modify the display of keywords using SUBJKEY and
2495 SUBJKEYINIT slightly. Keywords may also be displayed in a column
2496 of their own in the MESSAGE INDEX screen by using the KEY or
2497 KEYINIT tokens. It is also possible to color keywords in the
2498 index using the Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors). Keywords
2499 are not supported by all mail servers.
2500 You may give keywords nicknames if you wish. If the keyword
2501 definition you type in contains a SPACE character, then the
2502 actual value of the keyword is everything after the last SPACE
2503 and the nickname for that keyword is everything before the last
2504 SPACE. For example, suppose you are trying to interoperate with
2505 another email program which uses a particular keyword with an
2506 unpleasant name. Maybe it uses a keyword called
2508 VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2509 but for you that keyword means that the message is work-related.
2510 You could define a keyword to have the value
2512 Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2513 and then you would use the name "Work" when dealing with that
2514 keyword in _Alpine_. If you defined it as
2516 My Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
2517 the nickname would be everything before the last SPACE, that is
2518 the nickname would be "My Work".
2519 Some commonly used keywords begin with dollar signs. This
2520 presents a slight complication, because the dollar sign is
2521 normally used to signify environment variable expansion in the
2522 _Alpine_ configuration. In order to specify a keyword which
2523 begins with a dollar sign you must precede the dollar sign with
2524 a second dollar sign to escape its special meaning. For example,
2525 if you want to include the keyword
2527 $Label1
2528 as one of your possible keywords, you must enter the text
2530 $$Label1
2531 instead.
2532 _keyword-surrounding-chars_
2533 This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX
2534 and MESSAGE TEXT screens. If you have modified the Index-Format
2535 option so that either the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens are
2536 used to display keywords or their initials along with the
2537 Subject; then this option may be used to modify the resulting
2538 display slightly. By default, the keywords or initials displayed
2539 for these tokens will be surrounded with curly braces ({ and })
2540 and a trailing space. For example, if keywords "Work" and "Now"
2541 are set for a message, the "SUBJKEY" token will normally look
2542 like
2544 {Work Now} actual subject
2545 and the SUBJKEYINIT token would look like
2547 {WN} actual subject
2548 The default character before the keywords is the left brace ({)
2549 and the default after the keywords is the right brace followed
2550 by a space (} ).
2551 This option allows you to change that. You should set it to two
2552 values separated by a space. The values may be quoted if they
2553 include space characters. So, for example, the default value
2554 could be specified explicitly by setting this option to
2556 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="{" "} "
2557 The first part wouldn't need to be quoted (but it doesn't hurt).
2558 The second part does need the quotes because it includes a space
2559 character. If you wanted to change the braces to brackets you
2560 could use
2562 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="[" "] "
2563 Inside the quotes you can use backslash quote to mean quote, so
2565 Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="\"" "\" "
2566 would produce
2568 "Work Now" actual subject
2569 It is also possible to color keywords in the index using the
2570 Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors).
2571 It is not possible to change the fact that a space character is
2572 used to separate the keywords if more than one keyword is set
2573 for a message. It is also not possible to change the fact that
2574 there are no separators between the keyword initials if more
2575 than one keyword is set.
2576 This option is displayed as "Keyword Surrounding Characters".
2577 _last-time-prune-questioned_
2578 Personal configuration file only. This variable records the
2579 month the user was last asked if his or her _sent-mail_ folders
2580 should be pruned. The format is _yy.mm_. This is automatically
2581 updated by _Alpine_ when the the pruning is done or declined. If
2582 a user wanted to make _Alpine_ stop asking this question he or
2583 she could set this time to something far in the future. This may
2584 not be set in the system-wide configuration files. Note: The _yy_
2585 year is actually the number of years since 1900, so it will be
2586 equal to 101 in the year 2001.
2587 _last-version-used_
2588 Personal configuration file only. This is set automatically by
2589 _Alpine_. It is used to keep track of the last version of _Alpine_
2590 that was run by the user. Whenever the version number increases,
2591 a new version message is printed out. This may not be set in the
2592 system-wide configuration files.
2593 _ldap-servers_
2594 This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP
2595 library when it was compiled. This variable is normally managed
2596 by _Alpine_ though it can be set in the system-wide
2597 configuration files as well as the personal configuration. It is
2598 a list variable. Each item in the list contains quite a bit of
2599 extra information besides just the server name. To put this into
2600 a system-wide config file the easiest thing to do is to
2601 configure a personal _Alpine_ for the LDAP server then copy the
2602 configuration line into the system-wide config file. Each item
2603 in the list looks like:
2605 server_name[:port] "quoted stuff"
2606 The server_name is just a hostname and it is followed by an
2607 optional colon and port number. The default port is 389.
2608 Following the server name is a single SPACE character followed
2609 by a bunch of characters inside double quotes. The part inside
2610 the quotes is a set of _tag_ = _value_ pairs. Each tag is
2611 preceded by a slash (/) and followed by an equal sign. The value
2612 for that tag is the text up to the next slash. An example of
2613 some quoted stuff is:
2615 "/base=o=University of Washington, c=US/impl=0/.../nick=My Server"
2616 This would set the search base for this server to o=University
2617 of Washington, c=US, set the implicit bit to zero, and set the
2618 nickname for the server to My Server. All of the tags correspond
2619 directly to items in the Setup/Directory screen so experiment
2620 with that if you want to see what the possible tags and values
2621 are.
2622 _literal-signature_
2623 With this option your actual signature, as opposed to the name
2624 of a file containing your signature, is stored in the _Alpine_
2625 configuration file. If this is defined it takes precedence over
2626 the _signature-file_ option.
2627 This is simply a different way to store the signature data. The
2628 signature is stored inside your _Alpine_ configuration file
2629 instead of in a separate signature file. Tokens contained in the
2630 signature work the same way they do with the regular
2631 signature-file.
2632 The Setup/Signature command in _Alpine_'s Main Menu will edit
2633 the _literal-signature_ by default. However, if no
2634 _literal-signature_ is defined and the file named in the
2635 _signature-file_ option exists, then the latter will be used
2636 instead. Compose (Reply, Forward, ...) will default to using the
2637 _literal-signature_ if defined, otherwise it will use the
2638 contents of the file named in _signature-file_.
2639 The _Alpine_ composer is used to edit the literal-signature. The
2640 result of that edit is first converted to a C-style string
2641 before it is stored in the configuration file. In particular,
2642 the two character sequence \n (backslash followed by the
2643 character "n") will be used to signify a line-break in the
2644 signature. You don't have to enter the \n, but it will be
2645 visible in the SETUP CONFIGURATION window after you are done
2646 editing the signature.
2647 _mail-check-interval_
2648 This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check
2649 for new mail. If set to zero, new-mail checking is disabled.
2650 (You can always manually force a new-mail check by typing ^L
2651 (Ctrl-L), which is also the command to refresh the screen, or by
2652 typing the Next command when the current message is the last
2653 message of the folder.) There is a minimum value for this
2654 option, normally 15 seconds. The default value is normally 150
2655 seconds. The higher you set this option, the easier it is on the
2656 server.
2657 There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does
2658 not work. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
2659 folder-reopen-rule.
2660 The new-mail checking will not happen exactly at the frequency
2661 that you specify. For example, _Alpine_ may elect to defer a
2662 non-INBOX mail check if you are busy typing. Or, it may check
2663 more frequently than you have specified if that is thought to be
2664 necessary to keep the server from closing the connection to the
2665 folder due to inactivity. If _Alpine_ checks for new mail as a
2666 side effect of another command, it will reset the timer, so that
2667 new-mail checking may seem to happen irregularly instead of
2668 every X seconds like clockwork.
2669 If you are anxious to know about new mail as soon as possible,
2670 set the check interval low, and you'll know about the new mail
2671 by approximately that amount of time after it arrives. If you
2672 aren't so worried about knowing right away, set this option to a
2673 higher value. That will save the server some processing time and
2674 may save you some of the time you spend waiting for new-mail
2675 checks to happen if you are dealing with a slow server or slow
2676 network connection.
2677 If you suspect that new-mail checking is causing slow downs for
2678 you, you may want to look into the options
2679 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox,
2680 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox and
2681 Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent, which refine when mail checking
2682 is done.
2683 If the mailbox being check uses a Mail Drop then there is a
2684 minimum time (maildrop-check-minimum) between new-mail checks.
2685 Because of this minimum you may notice that new mail does not
2686 appear promptly when you expect it. The reason for this is to
2687 protect the server from over-zealous opening and closing of the
2688 Mail Drop folder, since that is a costly operation.
2689 A side effect of disabling mail checking is that there will be
2690 situations in which the user's IMAP connection will be broken
2691 due to inactivity timers on the server. Another side effect is
2692 that the user-input-timeout option won't work.
2693 _mail-check-interval-noncurrent_
2694 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
2695 option, as well as the Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox
2696 and Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox options. If the
2697 "Mail-Check-Interval" option is set to zero, then automatic
2698 new-mail checking is disabled and this option will have no
2699 effect.
2700 Normally this option is set to zero, which means that the value
2701 used will be the same as the value for the
2702 "Mail-Check-Interval". If you set this option to a value
2703 different from zero (usually larger than the value for
2704 "Mail-Check-Interval") then that is the check interval that will
2705 be used for folders which are not the currently open folder or
2706 the INBOX. You may not even have any folders that are noncurrent
2707 and not the INBOX. If you do, it is likely that they are due to
2708 Stay-Open-Folders you have configured. This option also affects
2709 the rate of mail checking done on cached connections to folders
2710 you previously had open but are no longer actively using. You
2711 aren't expected to understand that last sentence, but if you are
2712 interested take a look at Max-Remote-Connections, and the
2713 related options.
2714 _mail-directory_
2715 This variable was more important in previous versions of
2716 _Alpine_. Now it is used only as the default for storing personal
2717 folders (and only if there are no folder-collections defined).
2718 The default value is _~/mail_ on UNIX and _${HOME}\MAIL_ on a
2719 PC.
2720 _mailcap-search-path_
2721 This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mailcap file
2722 search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be
2723 specified) in which to look for mail capability data.
2724 _maildrop-check-minimum_
2725 New-mail checking for a Mail Drop is a little different from new
2726 mail checking for a regular folder. One of the differences is
2727 that the connection to the Mail Drop is not kept open and so the
2728 cost of checking (delay for you and additional load for the
2729 server) may be significant. Because of this additional cost we
2730 set a minimum time that must pass between checks. This minimum
2731 only applies to the automatic checking done by _Alpine_. If you
2732 force a check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or by typing the Next
2733 command when you are at the end of a folder index, then the
2734 check is done right away.
2735 This option specifies, in seconds, the _minimum_ time between
2736 Mail Drop new-mail checks. You may want to set this minimum high
2737 in order to avoid experiencing some of the delays associated
2738 with the checks. Note that the time between checks is still
2739 controlled by the regular Mail-Check-Interval option. When
2740 _Alpine_ is about to do an automatic check for new mail (because
2741 the Mail-Check-Interval has expired) then if the time since the
2742 last new-mail check of any open Mail Drops has been greater than
2743 the MailDrop-Check-Minimum, the Mail Drop is checked for new
2744 mail as well. Therefore, it is only useful to set this option to
2745 a value that is higher than the Mail-Check-Interval.
2746 If this option is set to zero, automatic Mail Drop new-mail
2747 checking is disabled. There is a minimum value, normally 60
2748 seconds. The default value is normally 60 seconds as well. This
2749 applies to the INBOX and to the currently open folder if that is
2750 different from the INBOX.
2751 _max-remote-connections_
2752 This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. The default
2753 value for this option is _2_. If your INBOX is accessed using
2754 the IMAP protocol from an IMAP server, that connection is kept
2755 open throughout the duration of your _Alpine_ session,
2756 independent of the value of this option. The same is true of any
2757 Stay-Open-Folders you have defined. This option controls
2758 _Alpine_'s behavior when connecting to remote IMAP folders other
2759 than your INBOX or your Stay-Open-Folders. It specifies the
2760 maximum number of remote IMAP connections (other than those
2761 mentioned above) that _Alpine_ will use for accessing the rest
2762 of your folders. If you set this option to zero, you will turn
2763 off most remote connection re-use. It's difficult to understand
2764 exactly what this option does, and it is usually fine to leave
2765 it set to its default value. It is probably more likely that you
2766 will be interested in setting the Stay-Open-Folders option
2767 instead of changing the value of this option. A slightly longer
2768 explanation of what is going on with this option is given in the
2769 next paragraphs.
2770 There are some time costs involved in opening and closing remote
2771 IMAP folders, the main costs being the time you have to wait for
2772 the connection to the server and the time for the folder to
2773 open. Opening a folder may involve not only the time the server
2774 takes to do its processing but time that _Alpine_ uses to do
2775 filtering. These times can vary widely. They depend on how
2776 loaded the server is, how large the folder being opened is, and
2777 how you set up filtering, among other things. Once _Alpine_ has
2778 opened a connection to a particular folder, it will attempt to
2779 keep that connection open in case you use it again. In order to
2780 do this, _Alpine_ will attempt to use the Max-Remote-Connections
2781 (the value of this option) IMAP connections you have alloted for
2782 this purpose.
2783 For example, suppose the value of this option is set to "2". If
2784 your INBOX is accessed on a remote server using the IMAP
2785 protocol, that doesn't count as one of the remote connections
2786 but it is always kept open. If you then open another IMAP
2787 folder, that would be your first remote connection counted as
2788 one of the Max-Remote-Connections connections. If you open a
2789 third folder the second will be left open, in case you return to
2790 it. You won't be able to tell it has been left open. It will
2791 appear to be closed when you leave the folder but the connection
2792 will remain in the background. Now suppose you go back to the
2793 second folder (the first folder after the INBOX). A connection
2794 to that folder is still open so you won't have to wait for the
2795 startup time to open it. Meanwhile, the connection to the third
2796 folder will be left behind. Now, if you open a fourth folder,
2797 you will bump into the Max-Remote-Connections limit, because
2798 this will be the third folder other than INBOX and you have the
2799 option set to "2". The connection that is being used for the
2800 third folder will be re-used for this new fourth folder. If you
2801 go back to the third folder after this, it is no longer already
2802 connected when you get there. You'll still save some time since
2803 _Alpine_ will re-use the connection to the fourth folder and you
2804 have already logged in on that connection, but the folder will
2805 have to be re-opened from scratch.
2806 If a folder is large and the startup cost is dominated by the
2807 time it takes to open that folder or to run filters on it, then
2808 it will pay to make the value of this option large enough to
2809 keep it open. On the other hand, if you only revisit a handful
2810 of folders or if the folders are small, then it might make more
2811 sense to keep this number small so that the reconnect time (the
2812 time to start up a new connection and authenticate) is
2813 eliminated instead.
2814 You may also need to consider the impact on the server. On the
2815 surface, a larger number here may cause a larger impact on the
2816 server, since you will have more connections open to the server.
2817 On the other hand, not only will _you_ be avoiding the startup
2818 costs associated with reopening a folder, but the _server_ will
2819 be avoiding those costs as well.
2820 When twenty five minutes pass without any active use of an IMAP
2821 connection being saved for possible re-use, that connection will
2822 be shut down,
2823 This option is displayed as "Maximum Remote Connections".
2824 _meta-message-background-color_
2825 _meta-message-foreground-color_
2826 Meta-message Color.
2827 _mimetype-search-path_
2828 This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mime.types
2829 file search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths
2830 must be specified) in which to look for file-name-extension to
2831 MIME type mapping data. See the Config Notes for details on
2832 _Alpine_'s usage of the MIME.Types File.
2833 _new-version-threshold_
2834 When a new version of _Alpine_ is run for the first time it
2835 offers a special explanatory screen to the user upon startup.
2836 This option helps control when and if that special screen
2837 appears for users that have previously run _Alpine_. It takes as
2838 its value a _Alpine_ version number. _Alpine_ versions less than
2839 the specified value will supress this special screen while
2840 versions equal to or greater than that specified will behave
2841 normally.
2842 _newmail-fifo-path_
2843 This option is only available in UNIX _Alpine_. However, there
2844 is a very similar feature built in to _PC-Alpine_. In
2845 _PC-Alpine_'s Config menu at the top of the screen is an option
2846 called "New Mail Window".
2847 You may have _Alpine_ create a FIFO special file (also called a
2848 named pipe, see mkfifo(3) and fifo(4)) where it will send a
2849 one-line message each time a new message is received in the
2850 current folder, the INBOX, or any open Stay-Open-Folders. To
2851 protect against two different _Alpine_s both writing to the same
2852 FIFO, _Alpine_ will only create the FIFO and write to it if it
2853 doesn't already exist.
2854 A possible way to use this option would be to have a separate
2855 window on your screen running the command
2857 cat filename
2858 where "filename" is the name of the file given for this option.
2859 Because the file won't exist until after you start _Alpine_, you
2860 must _first_ start _Alpine_ and _then_ run the "cat" command.
2861 You may be tempted to use "tail -f filename" to view the new
2862 mail log. However, the common implementations of the tail
2863 command will not do what you are hoping.
2864 The width of the messages produced for the FIFO may be altered
2865 with the NewMail-Window-Width option.
2866 On some systems, fifos may only be created in a local
2867 filesystem. In other words, they may not be in NFS filesystems.
2868 This requirement is not universal. If the system you are using
2869 supports it, it should work. (It is often the case that your
2870 home directory is in an NFS filesystem. If that is the case, you
2871 might try using a file in the "/tmp" filesystem, which is
2872 usually a local filesytem.) Even when it is possible to use an
2873 NFS-mounted filesystem as a place to name the fifo (for example,
2874 your home directory), it will still be the case that the reader
2875 (probably the "cat" command) and the writer (_Alpine_) of the
2876 fifo must be running on the same system.
2877 _newmail-window-width_
2878 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
2879 This option is only useful if you have turned on the
2880 NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail messages
2881 to be sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80 characters
2882 wide by default. You can change the width of the messages by
2883 changing this option. For example, if you are reading those
2884 messages in another window you might want to set this width to
2885 the width of that other window.
2886 For UNIX _Alpine_, this option is only useful if you have turned
2887 on the NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail
2888 messages to be sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80
2889 characters wide by default. You can change the width of those
2890 messages by changing this option. For example, if you are
2891 reading those messages in another window you might want to set
2892 this width to the width of that other window.
2893 If you are using _PC-Alpine_, it has an option in the Config
2894 menu to turn on the "New Mail Window". The present option also
2895 controls the width of that window.
2896 _news-active-file-path_
2897 This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "active file"
2898 for newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via
2899 NNTP. The default path is usually /usr/lib/news/active.
2900 _news-collections_
2901 This is a list of collections where news folders are located.
2902 See the section describing collections for more information.
2903 _news-spool-directory_
2904 This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "news spool"
2905 for newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via
2906 NNTP. The default path is usually /usr/spool/news.
2907 _newsrc-path_
2908 This option overrides the default name _Alpine_ uses for your
2909 "newsrc" news status and subscription file. If set, _Alpine_
2910 will take this value as the full pathname for the desired newsrc
2911 file.
2912 _nntp-range_
2913 This option applies only to newsgroups accessed using the NNTP
2914 protocol. It does not, for example, apply to newsgroups accessed
2915 using an IMAP-to-NNTP proxy.
2916 When you open a connection to a News server using the NNTP
2917 protocol, you normally have access to all of the articles in
2918 each newsgroup. If a server keeps a large backlog of messages it
2919 may speed performance some to restrict attention to only the
2920 newer messages in a group. This option allows you to set how
2921 many article numbers should be checked when opening a newsgroup.
2922 You can think of "nntp-range" as specifying the maximum number
2923 of messages you ever want to see. For example, if you only ever
2924 wanted to look at the last 500 messages in each newsgroup you
2925 could set this option to 500. In actuality, it isn't quite that.
2926 Instead, for performance reasons, it specifies the range of
2927 article numbers to be checked, beginning with the highest
2928 numbered article and going backwards from there. If there are
2929 messages that have been canceled or deleted their article
2930 numbers are still counted as part of the range.
2931 So, more precisely, setting the "nntp-range" will cause article
2932 numbers
2934 last_article_number - nntp-range + 1 through last_article_number
2935 to be considered when reading a newsgroup. The number of
2936 messages that show up in your index will be less than or equal
2937 to the value of "nntp-range".
2938 The purpose of this option is simply to speed up access when
2939 reading news. The speedup comes because _Alpine_ can ignore all
2940 but the last nntp-range article numbers, and can avoid
2941 downloading any information about the ignored articles. There is
2942 a cost you pay for this speedup. That cost is that there is no
2943 way for you to see those ignored articles. The articles that
2944 come before the range you specify are invisible to you and to
2945 _Alpine_, as if they did not exist at all. There is no way to see
2946 those messages using, for example, an unexclude command or
2947 something similar. The only way to see those articles is to set
2948 this option high enough (or set it to zero) and then to reopen
2949 the newsgroup.
2950 If this option is set to 0 (which is also the default), then the
2951 range is unlimited. This option applies globally to all NNTP
2952 servers and to all newsgroups on those servers. There is no way
2953 to set different values for different newsgroups or servers.
2954 _nntp-server_
2955 One or more NNTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
2956 will use for reading and posting news. If you read and post news
2957 to and from a single NNTP server, you can get away with only
2958 setting the _nntp-server_ variable and leaving the
2959 _news-collections_ variable unset.
2960 When you define an NNTP server, _Alpine_ implicitly defines a
2961 news collection for you, assuming that server as the news server
2962 and assuming that you will use the NNTP protocol and a local
2963 newsrc configuration file for reading news. See also Configuring
2964 News.
2965 Your NNTP server may offer NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO
2966 USER" authentication. It may even require it. If your NNTP
2967 server does offer such authentication you may specify a user
2968 name parameter to cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate. The
2969 same is true for the server name in a folder collection which
2970 uses NNTP. This parameter requires an associated value, the
2971 username identifier with which to establish the server
2972 connection. An example might be:
2974 nntpserver.example.com/user=katie
2975 If authentication is offered by the server, this will cause
2976 _Alpine_ to attempt to use it. If authentication is not offered
2977 by the server, this will cause _Alpine_ to fail with an error
2978 similar to:
2980 Error: NNTP authentication not available
2981 For more details about the server name possibilities see Server
2982 Name Syntax.
2983 _normal-background-color_
2984 _normal-foreground-color_
2985 Normal Color.
2986 _opening-text-separator-chars_
2987 This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX
2988 screen. With some setups the text of the subject is followed by
2989 the opening text of the message if there is any room available
2990 in the index line. If you have configured your Index-Format
2991 option to include one of the Subject tokens which causes this
2992 behavior (SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT), then
2993 this option may be used to modify what is displayed slightly. By
2994 default, the Subject is separated from the opening text of the
2995 message by the three characters space dash space;
2997 " - "
2998 Use this option to set it to something different. The value must
2999 be quoted if it includes any space characters. For example, the
3000 default value could be specified explicitly by setting this
3001 option to
3003 Opening-Text-Separator-Chars=" - "
3004 This option is displayed as "Opening Text Separator Characters".
3005 _operating-dir_
3006 System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. This names the
3007 root of the tree to which the user is restricted when reading
3008 and writing folders and files. It is usually used in the _fixed_
3009 configuration file.
3010 _patterns-filters2_
3011 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3012 this variable. These patterns are used with Filtering. This
3013 variable is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Filters
3014 configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the
3015 list is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which
3016 contains zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The only
3017 way to create a filters file is to use the InsertFile command in
3018 the Setup/Rules/Filters screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3019 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing filter
3020 patterns into the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't
3021 thought that many users will need this functionality. The
3022 purpose of filter files is for sharing filters.
3023 This option is displayed as "Patterns Filters".
3024 _patterns-indexcolors_
3025 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3026 this variable. These patterns are used for Index Line Colors.
3027 This variable is normally maintained through the
3028 Setup/Rules/Indexcolor configuration screen. It is a list
3029 variable. Each member of the list is a single pattern/action
3030 pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3031 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a indexcolor file
3032 is to use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor
3033 screen with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the
3034 Shuffle command to move existing patterns into the file. This
3035 isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many users will
3036 need this functionality. The purpose of indexcolor files is for
3037 sharing indexcolors.
3038 _patterns-other_
3039 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3040 this variable. These patterns are used with Miscellaneous Rules
3041 configuration. This variable is normally maintained through the
3042 Setup/Rules/Other configuration screen. It is a list variable.
3043 Each member of the list is a single pattern/action pair, or it
3044 can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3045 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a rules file is to
3046 use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Other screen with
3047 a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command
3048 to move existing rules into the file. This isn't very convenient
3049 but it isn't thought that many users will need this
3050 functionality.
3051 _patterns-roles_
3052 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3053 this variable. These patterns are used with Roles. This variable
3054 is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Roles
3055 configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the
3056 list is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which
3057 contains zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The only
3058 way to create a roles file is to use the InsertFile command in
3059 the Setup/Rules/Roles screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3060 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing roles into
3061 the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that
3062 many users will need this functionality. The purpose of role
3063 files is for sharing roles.
3064 _patterns-scores2_
3065 Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in
3066 this variable. These patterns are used with Scoring. This
3067 variable is normally maintained through the
3068 Setup/Rules/SetScores configuration screen. It is a list
3069 variable. Each member of the list is a single pattern/action
3070 pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more lines of
3071 pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a scores file is to
3072 use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/SetScores screen
3073 with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle
3074 command to move existing scoring patterns into the file. This
3075 isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many users will
3076 need this functionality. The purpose of scoring files is for
3077 sharing scoring rules.
3078 This option is displayed as "Patterns Scores".
3079 _patterns-search_
3080 Matching patterns for use with the Select command are stored in
3081 this variable. These patterns are used with Search Rules
3082 configuration. This variable is normally maintained through the
3083 Setup/Rules/searCh configuration screen. It is a list variable.
3084 Each member of the list is a single pattern, or it can be a file
3085 which contains zero or more lines of patterns. The only way to
3086 create a rules file is to use the InsertFile command in the
3087 Setup/Rules/searCh screen with a filename which doesn't yet
3088 exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing rules into
3089 the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that
3090 many users will need this functionality.
3091 _personal-name_
3092 Personal configuration file only. User's full personal name. On
3093 UNIX systems, the default is taken from the accounts data base
3094 (/etc/passwd). The easiest way to change the full From address
3095 is with the customized-hdrs variable.
3096 _personal-print-category_
3097 Personal configuration file only. This is the category that the
3098 default print command belongs to. There are three categories.
3099 Category 1 is an attached printer which uses the ANSI escape
3100 sequence, category 2 is the standard system print command, and
3101 category 3 is the set of custom printer commands defined by the
3102 user. This just helps _Alpine_ figure out where to put the
3103 cursor when the user runs the _Setup/Printer_ command. This is
3104 not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3105 _personal-print-command_
3106 Personal configuration file only. This corresponds to the third
3107 category in the printer menu, the personally selected print
3108 commands. This variable contains the list of custom commands
3109 that the user has entered in the _Setup/Printer_ screen. This is
3110 not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3111 _posting-character-set_
3112 See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
3113 _postponed-folder_
3114 The folder where postponed messages are stored. The default is
3115 _postponed-msgs_ (Unix) or _POSTPOND_ (PC).
3116 _print-font-name_
3117 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3118 _print-font-size_
3119 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3120 _print-font-style_
3121 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
3122 _printer_
3123 Personal configuration file only. This is the current setting
3124 for a user's printer. This variable is set from _Alpine_'s
3125 _Setup/Printer_ screen.
3126 _prompt-background-color_
3127 _prompt-foreground-color_
3128 Prompt Color.
3129 _pruned-folders_
3130 This variable allows you to define a list of one or more folders
3131 that _Alpine_ will offer to prune for you in the same way it
3132 automatically offers to prune your "sent-mail" folder each
3133 month. Each folder in this list must be a folder in your default
3134 folder collection (the first folder collection if you have more
3135 than one), and it is just the relative name of the folder in the
3136 collection, not the fully-qualified name. It is similar to
3137 sent-mail. Instead of something like
3139 pruned-folders={servername}mail/folder
3140 the correct value to use would be
3142 folder
3143 There is an assumption here that your first collection is the
3144 folders in
3146 {servername}mail
3147 Once a month, for each folder listed, _Alpine_ will offer to
3148 move the contents of the folder to a new folder of the same name
3149 but with the previous month's date appended. _Alpine_ will then
3150 look for any such date-appended folder names created for a
3151 previous month, and offer each one it finds for deletion.
3152 If you decline the first offer, no mail is moved and no new
3153 folder is created.
3154 The new folders will be created in your default folder
3155 collection.
3156 _pruning-rule_
3157 By default, _Alpine_ will ask at the beginning of each month
3158 whether or not you want to rename your sent-mail folder to a
3159 name like sent-mail-month-year. (See the feature
3160 prune-uses-yyyy-mm to change the format of the folder to
3161 sent-mail-yyyy-mm.) It will also ask whether you would like to
3162 delete old sent-mail folders. If you have defined
3163 read-message-folder or pruned-folders _Alpine_ will also ask
3164 about pruning those folders. With this option you may provide an
3165 automatic answer to the rename questions and you may tell
3166 _Alpine_ to not ask about deleting old folders.
3167 _quote1-background-color_
3168 _quote1-foreground-color_
3169 _quote2-background-color_
3170 _quote2-foreground-color_
3171 _quote3-background-color_
3172 _quote3-foreground-color_
3173 Quote Colors.
3174 _quote-replace-string_
3175 This option specifies what string to use as a quote when
3176 _viewing_ a message. The standard way of quoting messages when
3177 replying is the string "> " (quote space). With this variable
3178 set, viewing a message will replace occurrences of "> " with the
3179 replacement string. This setting works best when
3180 Reply-Indent-String or the equivalent setting in your
3181 correspondents' mail programs is set to the default "> ", but it
3182 will also work fine with the Reply-Indent-String set to ">".
3183 Enable the feature Quote-Replace-Nonflowed to also have
3184 quote-replacement performed on non-flowed messages.
3185 Setting this option will replace ">" and "> " with the new
3186 setting. This string may include trailing spaces. To preserve
3187 those spaces enclose the full string in double quotes.
3188 No padding to separate the text of the message from the quote
3189 string is added. This means that if you do not add trailing
3190 spaces to the value of this variable, text will be displayed
3191 right next to the quote string, which may be undesirable. This
3192 can be avoided by adding a new string separated by a space from
3193 your selection of quote string replacement. This last string
3194 will be used for padding. For example, setting this variable to
3195 ">" " " has the effect of setting ">" as the
3196 quote-replace-string, with the text padded by a space from the
3197 last quote string to make it more readable.
3198 One possible setting for this variable could be " " (four
3199 spaces wrapped in quotes), which would have the effect of
3200 indenting each level of quoting four spaces and removing the
3201 ">"'s. Different levels of quoting could be made more
3202 discernible by setting colors for quoted text.
3203 Replying to or forwarding the viewed message will preserve the
3204 original formatting of the message, so quote-replacement will
3205 not be performed on messages that are being composed.
3206 _quote-suppression-threshold_
3207 This option should be used with care. It will cause some of the
3208 quoted text to be eliminated from the display when viewing a
3209 message in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. For example, if you set the
3210 Quote-Suppression-Threshold to the value "5", this will cause
3211 quoted text that is longer than five lines to be truncated.
3212 Quoted text of five or fewer consecutive lines will be displayed
3213 in its entirety. Quoted text of more than six lines will have
3214 the first five lines displayed followed by a line that looks
3215 something like
3217 [ 12 lines of quoted text hidden from view ]
3218 As a special case, if exactly one line of quoted text would be
3219 hidden, the entire quote will be shown instead. So for the above
3220 example, quoted text which is exactly six lines long will will
3221 be shown in its entirety. (In other words, instead of hiding a
3222 single line and adding a line that announces that one line was
3223 hidden, the line is just shown.)
3224 If the sender of a message has carefully chosen the quotes that
3225 he or she includes, hiding those quotes may change the meaning
3226 of the message. For that reason, _Alpine_ requires that when you
3227 want to set the value of this variable to something less than
3228 four lines, you actually have to set it to the negative of that
3229 number. So if you want to set this option to "3", you actually
3230 have to set it to "-3". The only purpose of this is to get you
3231 to think about whether or not you really want to do this! If you
3232 want to delete all quoted text you set the value of this option
3233 to the special value "-10".
3234 The legal values for this option are
3236 0 Default, don't hide anything
3237 -1,-2,-3 Suppress quote lines past 1, 2, or 3 lines
3238 4,5,6,... Suppress if more than that many lines
3239 -10 Suppress all quoted lines
3240 If you set this option to a non-default value you may sometimes
3241 wish to view the quoted text that is not shown. When this is the
3242 case, the HdrMode (Header Mode) command may be used to show the
3243 hidden text. Typing the "H" command once will show the hidden
3244 text. Typing a second "H" will also turn on Full Header mode.
3245 The presence or absence of the HdrMode command is determined by
3246 the "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option in your _Alpine_
3247 configuration, so you will want to be sure that is turned on if
3248 you use quote suppression.
3249 For the purposes of this option, a quote is a line that begins
3250 with the character ">".
3251 Quotes are only suppressed when displaying a message on the
3252 screen. The entire quote will be left intact when printing or
3253 forwarding or something similar.
3254 _read-message-folder_
3255 If set, mail in the _INBOX_ that has been read but not deleted
3256 is moved here, or rather, the user is asked whether or not he or
3257 she wants to move it here upon quitting _Alpine_.
3258 _remote-abook-history_
3259 Sets how many extra copies of remote address book data will be
3260 kept in each remote address book folder. The default is three.
3261 These extra copies are simply old versions of the data. Each
3262 time a change is made a new copy of the address book data is
3263 appended to the folder. Old copies are trimmed, if possible,
3264 when _Alpine_ exits. An old copy can be put back into use by
3265 deleting and expunging newer versions of the data from the
3266 folder. Don't delete the first message from the folder. It is a
3267 special header message for the remote address book and it must
3268 be there. This is to prevent regular folders from being used as
3269 remote address book folders and having their data destroyed.
3270 _remote-abook-metafile_
3271 Personal configuration file only. This is usually set by _Alpine_
3272 and is the name of a file that contains data about remote
3273 address books and remote configuration files.
3274 _remote-abook-validity_
3275 Sets the minimum number of minutes that a remote address book
3276 will be considered up to date. Whenever an entry contained in a
3277 remote address book is used, if more than this many minutes have
3278 passed since the last check the remote server will be queried to
3279 see if the address book has changed. If it has changed, the
3280 local copy is updated. The default value is five minutes. The
3281 special value of -1 means never check. The special value of zero
3282 means only check when the address book is first opened.
3283 No matter what the value, the validity check is always done when
3284 the address book is about to be changed by the user. The check
3285 can be initiated manually by typing _^L_ (Ctrl-L) while in the
3286 address book maintenance screen for the remote address book.
3287 _reply-indent-string_
3288 This variable specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Reply_ command.
3289 When a message is replied to and the text of the message is
3290 included, the included text usually has the string "> "
3291 prepended to each line indicating it is quoted text.
3292 This option specifies a different value for that string. If you
3293 wish to use a string which begins or ends with a space, enclose
3294 the string in double quotes.
3295 Besides simple text, the prepended string can be based on the
3296 message being replied to. The following tokens are substituted
3297 for the message's corresponding value:
3299 _FROM_
3300 This token gets replaced with the message sender's
3301 "username". At most six characters are used.
3303 _NICK_
3304 This token gets replaced with the nickname of the message
3305 sender's address as found in your addressbook. If no
3306 addressbook entry is found, Pine replaces the characters
3307 "_NICK_" with nothing. At most six characters are used.
3309 _INIT_
3310 This token gets replaced with the initials of the sender
3311 of the message.
3313 When the enable-reply-indent-string-editing feature is enabled,
3314 you are given the opportunity to edit the string, whether it is
3315 the default or one automatically generated using the above
3316 tokens.
3317 _reply-leadin_
3318 This option is used to customize the content of the introduction
3319 line that is included when replying to a message and including
3320 the original message in the reply. The normal default (what you
3321 will get if you delete this variable) looks something like:
3323 On Sat, 24 Oct 1998, Fred Flintstone wrote:
3324 where the day of the week is only included if it is available in
3325 the original message. You can replace this default with text of
3326 your own. The text may contain tokens that are replaced with
3327 text that depends on the message you are replying to. For
3328 example, the default is equivalent to:
3330 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
3331 Since this variable includes regular text mixed with special
3332 tokens the tokens have to be surrounded by underscore
3333 characters. For example, to use the token "PREFDATE" you would
3334 need to use "_PREFDATE_", not "PREFDATE".
3335 The list of available tokens is here.
3336 By default, the text is all on a single line and is followed by
3337 a blank line. If your _Reply-Leadin_ turns out to be longer than
3338 80 characters when replying to a particular message, it is
3339 shortened. However, if you use the token
3341 _NEWLINE_
3342 anywhere in the value, no end of line or blank line is appended,
3343 and no shortening is done. The _NEWLINE_ token may be used to
3344 get rid of the blank line following the text, to add more blank
3345 lines, or to form a multi-line _Reply-Leadin_. To clarify how
3346 _NEWLINE_ works recall that the default value is:
3348 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
3349 That is equivalent to
3351 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE__NEWLINE_
3352 In the former case, two newlines are added automatically because
3353 no _NEWLINE_ token appears in the value of the option (for
3354 backwards compatibility). In the latter case, the newlines are
3355 explicit. If you want to remove the blank line that follows the
3356 _Reply-Leadin_ text use a single _NEWLINE_ token like
3358 On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE_
3359 Because of the backwards compatibility problem, it is not
3360 possible to remove all of the ends of lines, because then there
3361 will be no _NEWLINE_ tokens and that will cause the automatic
3362 adding of two newlines! If you want, you may embed newlines in
3363 the middle of the text, as well, producing a multi-line
3364 _Reply-Leadin_.
3365 By default, no attempt is made to localize the date. If you
3366 prefer a localized form you may find that one of the tokens
3367 _PREFDATE_ or _PREFDATETIME_ is a satisfactory substitute. If
3368 you want more control one of the many other date tokens, such as
3369 _DATEISO_, might be better.
3370 For the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
3371 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
3372 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based
3373 on whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any
3374 newsgroups if it was used. It's explained in detail here.
3375 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal
3376 token in the introduction line you must precede it with a
3377 backslash character. For example,
3379 \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
3380 would produce something like
3382 _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
3383 It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
3384 expanded token.
3385 _reverse-background-color_
3386 _reverse-foreground-color_
3387 Reverse Color.
3388 _rsh-command_
3389 Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
3390 connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All
3391 four "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first
3392 is for the command's pathname, the second is for the host to
3393 connnect to, the third is for the user to connect as, and the
3394 fourth is for the connection method (typically imap).
3395 _rsh-open-timeout_
3396 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
3397 UNIX remote shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum
3398 non-zero value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is
3399 set to zero rsh connections will be completely disabled.
3400 _rsh-path_
3401 Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
3402 connection. The default is typically /usr/ucb/rsh.
3403 _saved-msg-name-rule_
3404 Determines default folder name when _Sav_ing. If set to
3405 _default-folder_ (which is the default setting), then _Alpine_
3406 will offer the folder "saved-messages" (UNIX) or "SAVEMAIL" (PC)
3407 for _Sav_ing messages. The default folder offered in this way
3408 may be changed by using the configuration variable
3409 default-saved-msg-folder.
3410 If this rule is set to _last-folder-used_, _Alpine_ offers to
3411 _Save_ to the folder you last successfully _Saved_ a message to
3412 (this session). The first time you _Save_ a message in a
3413 session, _Alpine_ offers to _Save_ the message to the default
3414 folder.
3415 Choosing any of the _by-_ options causes _Alpine_ to attempt to
3416 get the chosen option's value for the message being _Saved_ (or
3417 for the first message being Saved if using an aggregate Save).
3418 For example, if _by-from_ is chosen, _Alpine_ attempts to get
3419 the value of who the message came from (i.e. the from address).
3420 _Alpine_ then attempts to _Save_ the message to a folder matching
3421 that value. If _by-from_ is chosen and no value is obtained,
3422 _Alpine_ uses _by-sender_. The opposite is also true. If
3423 _by-recipient_ was chosen and the message was posted to a
3424 newsgroup, _Alpine_ will use the newsgroup name. If _by-replyto_
3425 is chosen and no value is obtained, _Alpine_ uses _by-from_.
3426 If any of the "by-realname" options are chosen, _Alpine_ will
3427 attempt to use the personal name part of the address instead of
3428 the mailbox part. If any of the "by-nick" options are chosen,
3429 the address is looked up in your address book and if found, the
3430 nickname for that entry is used. Only simple address book
3431 entries are checked, not distribution lists. Similarly, if any
3432 of the "by-fcc" options are chosen, the fcc from the
3433 corresponding address book entry is used. If by-realname, or the
3434 by-nick or by-fcc lookups result in no value, then if the chosen
3435 option ends with the "then-from", "then-sender", "then-replyto",
3436 or "then-recip" suffix, _Alpine_ reverts to the same behavior as
3437 "by-from", "by-sender", "by-replyto", or "by-recip" depending on
3438 which option was specified. If the chosen option doesn't end
3439 with one of the "then-" suffixes, then _Alpine_ reverts to the
3440 default folder when no match is found in the address book.
3441 Here is an example to make some of the options clearer. If the
3442 message is From
3444 Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>
3445 and this rule is set to "by-from", then the default folder
3446 offered in the save dialog would be "flint".
3447 If this rule is set to "by-realname-of-from" then the default
3448 would be "Fred Flintstone".
3449 If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from" then _Alpine_ will
3450 search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book.
3451 If an entry is found and it has a nickname associated with it,
3452 that nickname will be offered as the default folder. If not, the
3453 default saved message folder will be offered as the default.
3454 If this rule is set to "by-fcc-of-from" then _Alpine_ will
3455 search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book.
3456 If an entry is found and it has an Fcc associated with it, that
3457 Fcc will be offered as the default folder. If not, the default
3458 saved message folder will be offered as the default.
3459 If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from-then-from" then _Alpine_
3460 will search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address
3461 book. If an entry is found and it has a nickname associated with
3462 it, that nickname will be offered as the default folder. If it
3463 is not found (or has no nickname) then the default offered will
3464 be the same as it would be for the "by-from" rule. That is, it
3465 would be "flint"
3466 This option is displayed as "Saved Message Name Rule".
3467 _scroll-margin_
3468 This option controls when _Alpine_'s line-by-line scrolling
3469 occurs. Typically, when a selected item is at the top or bottom
3470 screen edge and the UP or DOWN (and Ctrl-P or Ctrl-N) keys are
3471 pressed, the displayed items are scrolled down or up by a single
3472 line.
3473 This option allows you to tell _Alpine_ the number of lines from
3474 the top and bottom screen edge that line-by-line scrolling
3475 should occur. For example, setting this value to one (1) will
3476 cause _Alpine_ to scroll the display when you move to select an
3477 item on the display's top or bottom edge (instead of moving when
3478 you move off the edge of the screen).
3479 By default, this variable is zero (0), indicating that scrolling
3480 happens when you move up or down to select an item immediately
3481 off the display's top or bottom edge.
3482 _selectable-item-background-color_
3483 _selectable-item-foreground-color_
3484 Selectable-item Color.
3485 _sending-filters_
3486 This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs
3487 and scripts) that may be selectively invoked to process a
3488 message just before it is sent. If set, the Composer's _^X Send_
3489 command will allow you to select which filter (or none) to apply
3490 to the message before it is sent. For security reasons, the full
3491 path of the filter program must be specified.
3492 Sending filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_ and sending filters
3493 are not used if the feature send-without-confirm is set.
3494 Command Modifying Tokens:
3496 __RECIPIENTS__
3497 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3498 the space delimited list of recipients of the message
3499 being sent.
3501 __TMPFILE__
3502 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3503 the path and name of the temporary file containing the
3504 text to be filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to
3505 replace this data with the filter's result. NOTE: Use of
3506 this token implies that the text to be filtered is not
3507 piped into standard input of the executed command and its
3508 standard output is ignored. _Alpine_ restores the tty
3509 modes before invoking the filter in case the filter
3510 interacts with the user via its own standard input and
3511 output.
3513 __RESULTFILE__
3514 When the command is executed, this token is replaced with
3515 the path and name of a temporary file intended to contain
3516 a status message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this
3517 in the message status field.
3519 __DATAFILE__
3520 When the command is executed, this token is replaced in
3521 the command line with the path and name of a temporary
3522 file that _Alpine_ creates once per session and deletes
3523 upon exit. The file is intended to be used by the filter
3524 to store state information between instances of the
3525 filter.
3527 __PREPENDKEY__
3528 When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
3529 random number will be passed down the input stream before
3530 the message text. It is not included as a command-line
3531 argument. This number could be used as a session key. It
3532 is sent in this way to improve security. The number is
3533 unique to the current _Alpine_ session and is only
3534 generated once per session.
3536 __INCLUDEALLHDRS__
3537 When the command is executed, this token indicates that
3538 the headers of the message will be passed down the input
3539 stream before the message text. It is not included as a
3540 command-line argument. The filter should, of course,
3541 remove the headers before returning control to _Alpine_.
3543 __MIMETYPE__
3544 When the command is executed, this token is replaced in
3545 the command name with a temporary file name used to accept
3546 any new MIME Content-Type information necessitated by the
3547 output of the filter. Upon the filter's exit, if the file
3548 contains new MIME type information, _Alpine_ verifies its
3549 format and replaces the outgoing message's MIME type
3550 information with that contained in the file. This is
3551 basically a cheap way of sending something other than
3552 Text/Plain.
3554 _sendmail-path_
3555 This names the path to an alternative program, and any necessary
3556 arguments, to be used in posting mail messages. See the section
3557 on SMTP and Sendmail for more details.
3558 _signature-file_
3559 This is the name of a file which will be automatically inserted
3560 into outgoing messages. It typically contains information such
3561 as your name, email address and organizational affiliation.
3562 _Alpine_ adds the signature into the message as soon as you enter
3563 the composer so you can choose to remove it or edit it on a
3564 message by message basis. Signature file placement in message
3565 replies is controlled by the signature-at-bottom setting in the
3566 feature list.
3567 This defaults to ~/.signature on UNIX and <PINERC
3568 directory>\PINE.SIG on a PC.
3569 To create or edit your signature file choose Setup from the Main
3570 Menu and then select S for Signature (Main/Setup/Signature).
3571 This puts you into the Signature Editor where you can enter a
3572 _few_ lines of text containing your identity and affiliation.
3573 If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead
3574 of reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a
3575 program which will produce the text to be used on its standard
3576 output. The program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive
3577 any input from _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as
3578 if the contents came from a file.
3579 Instead of storing the data in a local file, the signature data
3580 may be stored remotely in an IMAP folder. In order to do this,
3581 you must use a remote name for the file. A remote signature-file
3582 name might look like:
3584 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/signature
3585 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might
3586 try
3588 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/signature
3589 The syntax used here is the same as the syntax used for remote
3590 configuration files from the command line. Note that you may not
3591 access an existing signature file remotely, you have to create a
3592 new _folder_ which contains the signature data. If the name you
3593 use here for the signature file is a remote name, then when you
3594 edit the file from the Setup/Signature command the data will be
3595 stored remotely in the folder. You aren't required to do
3596 anything special to create the folder, it gets created
3597 automatically if you use a remote name.
3598 Besides regular text, the signature file may also contain (or a
3599 signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with
3600 text which usually depends on the message you are replying to or
3601 forwarding. For example, if the signature file contains the
3602 token
3604 _DATE_
3605 anywhere in the text, then that token is replaced by the date
3606 the message you are replying to or forwarding was sent. If it
3607 contains
3609 _CURDATE_
3610 that is replaced with the current date. The first is an example
3611 of a token which depends on the message you are replying to (or
3612 forwarding) and the second is an example which doesn't depend on
3613 anything other than the current date. You have to be a little
3614 careful with this facility since tokens which depend on the
3615 message you are replying to or forwarding will be replaced by
3616 nothing in the case where you are composing a new message from
3617 scratch. The use of roles may help you in this respect. It
3618 allows you to use different signature files in different cases.
3619 The list of tokens available for use in the signature file is
3620 here.
3621 Instead of, or along with the use of _roles_ to give you
3622 different signature files in different situations, there is also
3623 a way to conditionally include text based on whether or not a
3624 token would result in specific replacement text. For example,
3625 you could include some text based on whether or not the _NEWS_
3626 token would result in any newsgroups if it was used. This is
3627 explained in detail here. This isn't for the faint of heart.
3628 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal
3629 token in the signature you must precede it with a backslash
3630 character. For example,
3632 \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
3633 would produce something like
3635 _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
3636 It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
3637 expanded token.
3638 _signature-background-color_
3639 _signature-foreground-color_
3640 Signature Color.
3641 _smime-public-cert-directory_
3642 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3643 If the option smime-public-cert-container is set then this
3644 option will have no effect.
3645 Normally, Public Certificates for use with S/MIME will be stored
3646 in the directory which is the value of this option. Those
3647 certificates will be stored in PEM format, one certificate per
3648 file. The name of the file for the certificate corresponding to
3650 emailaddress
3651 should be
3653 emailaddress.crt
3654 For example, a file for user@example.com would be in the file
3656 user@example.com.crt
3657 in this directory.
3658 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3659 Typically, the public certificates that you have will come from
3660 S/MIME signed messages that are sent to you. _Alpine_ will
3661 extract the public certificate from the signed message and store
3662 it in the certificates directory. These PEM format public
3663 certificates look something like:
3664 -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
3665 MIIFvTCCBKWgAwIBAgIQD4fYFHVI8T20yN4nus097DANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
3666 rjELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxCzAJBgNVBAgTAlVUMRcwFQYDVQQHEw5TYWx0IExha2Ug
3667 Q2l0eTEeMBwGA1UEChMVVGhlIFVTRVJUUlVTVCBOZXR3b3JrMSEwHwYDVQQLExho
3668 ...
3669 2b9KGqDyMWW/rjNnmpjzjT2ObGM7lRA8lke4FLOLajhrz4ogO3b4DFfAAM1VSZH8
3670 D6sOwOLJZkLY8FRsfk63K+2EMzA2+qAzMKupgeTLqXIf
3671 -----END CERTIFICATE-----
3673 + General S/MIME Overview
3674 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Directory".
3675 _smime-public-cert-container_
3676 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3677 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3678 smime-public-cert-directory
3679 This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an
3680 IMAP server instead of storing the certificates one per file
3681 locally. In order to do that you just give this option a remote
3682 folder name for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is
3683 similar to the name you might use for a remote configuration
3684 file. A remote folder name might look something like:
3686 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/publiccerts
3687 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3688 + General S/MIME Overview
3689 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Container".
3690 _smime-private-key-directory_
3691 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3692 In order to sign outgoing S/MIME messages you will need a
3693 personal digital ID certificate. You will usually get such a
3694 certificate from a certificate authority such as Thawte or
3695 CAcert. (In order to encrypt outgoing messages you don't need a
3696 personal digital ID, you need the public certificate of the
3697 recipient instead.) If the option smime-private-key-container is
3698 set then this option will have no effect.
3699 Normally, Private Keys for use with S/MIME will be stored in the
3700 directory which is the value of this option. Those certificates
3701 will be stored in PEM format, one certificate per file. The name
3702 of the file for the certificate corresponding to your
3704 emailaddress
3705 should be
3707 emailaddress.key
3708 For example, if your address is user@example.com the name of the
3709 file would be
3711 user@example.com.key
3712 in this directory.
3713 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3714 Typically, the private key that you have will come from a
3715 Certificate Authority. The private key should be stored in a PEM
3716 format file that looks something like:
3717 -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
3718 Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
3719 DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,2CBD328FD84CF5C6
3721 YBEXYLgLU9NJoc1V+vJ6UvcF08RX54S6jXsmgL0b5HGkudG6fhnmHkH7+UCvM5NI
3722 SXO/F8iuZDfs1VGG0NyitkFZ0Zn2vfaGovBvm15gx24b2xnZDLRB7/bNZkurnK5k
3723 VjAjZ2xXn2hFp2GJwqRdmxYNqsKGu52B99oti5HUWuZ2GFRaWjn5hYOqeApZE2uA
3724 ...
3725 oSRqfI51UdSRt0tmGhHeTvybUVrHm9eKft8TTGf+qSBqzSc55CsmoVbRzw4Nfhix
3726 m+4TJybNGNfAgOctSkEyY/OCb49fRRQTCBZVIhzLGGmpYmkO55HbIA==
3727 -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
3729 + General S/MIME Overview
3730 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Directory".
3731 _smime-private-key-container_
3732 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3733 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3734 smime-private-key-directory.
3735 This option gives you a way to store keys remotely on an IMAP
3736 server instead of storing the keys one per file locally. In
3737 order to do that you just give this option a remote folder name
3738 for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is similar to
3739 the name you might use for a remote configuration file. A remote
3740 folder name might look something like:
3742 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/privatekeys
3743 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3744 + General S/MIME Overview
3745 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Container".
3746 _smime-cacert-directory_
3747 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3748 If the option smime-cacert-container is set then this option
3749 will have no effect.
3750 CACert is a shorthand name for certification authority
3751 certificate. Normally _Alpine_ will use the CACerts that are
3752 located in the standard system location for CACerts. It may be
3753 the case that one of your correspondents has a Digital ID which
3754 has been signed by a certificate authority that is not in the
3755 regular set of system certificate authorities. You may
3756 supplement the system list by adding further certificates of
3757 your own. These should be stored in the directory which is the
3758 value of this option. The certificates will be stored in PEM
3759 format, one certificate per file. The names of the files can be
3760 anything ending in ".crt".
3761 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3762 These PEM format CA certificates look very similar to your
3763 public certificates for particular email addresses
3764 (smime-public-cert-directory).
3765 + General S/MIME Overview
3766 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Directory".
3767 _smime-cacert-container_
3768 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3769 If this option is set it will be used instead of
3770 smime-cacert-directory.
3771 This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an
3772 IMAP server instead of storing the certificates one per file
3773 locally. In order to do that you just give this option a remote
3774 folder name for a folder which does not yet exist. The name is
3775 similar to the name you might use for a remote configuration
3776 file. A remote folder name might look something like:
3778 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/cacerts
3779 Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
3780 + General S/MIME Overview
3781 This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Container".
3782 _smtp-server_
3783 One or more SMTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
3784 will use for outgoing mail. If not set, _Alpine_ passes outgoing
3785 email to the _sendmail_ program on the local machine. _PC-Alpine_
3786 users must have this variable set in order to send mail as they
3787 have no _sendmail_ program.
3788 Your SMTP server may offer SMTP AUTH authentication. It may even
3789 require it. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH authentication
3790 you may specify a "user" name parameter to cause _Alpine_ to
3791 attempt to authenticate. This parameter requires an associated
3792 value, the username identifier with which to establish the
3793 server connection. An example might be:
3795 smtpserver.example.com/user=katie
3796 If AUTH authentication is offered by the server, this will cause
3797 _Alpine_ to attempt to use it. If AUTH authentication is not
3798 offered by the server, this will cause _Alpine_ to fail sending
3799 with an error similar to:
3801 Error: SMTP authentication not available
3802 Another type of authentication that is used by some ISPs is
3803 called "POP before SMTP" or "IMAP before SMTP", which means that
3804 you have to authenticate yourself to the POP or IMAP server by
3805 opening a mailbox before you can send mail. To do this, you
3806 usually only have to open your INBOX.
3807 You may tell _Alpine_ to use the Message Submission port (587)
3808 instead of the SMTP port (25) by including the "submit"
3809 parameter in this option. At this time "/submit" is simply
3810 equivalent to specifying port 587, though it may imply more than
3811 that at some point in the future. Some ISPs are blocking port 25
3812 in order to reduce the amount of spam being sent to their users.
3813 You may find that the submit option allows you to get around
3814 such a block.
3816 smtpserver.example.com/submit
3817 To specify any non-standard port number on the SMTP server you
3818 may follow the hostname with a colon followed by the portnumber.
3820 smtpserver.example.com:12345
3821 Normally, when a connection is made to the Smtp-Server _Alpine_
3822 will attempt to negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using
3823 Transport Layer Security (TLS). If that fails then a
3824 non-encrypted connection will be attempted instead. You may
3825 specify that a TLS connection is required if you wish. If you
3826 append "/tls" to the name then the connection will fail instead
3827 of falling back to a non-secure connection.
3829 smtpserver.example.com/tls
3830 See the SMTP Servers section or the Server Name Syntax section
3831 for some more details.
3832 This option is displayed as "SMTP Server (for sending)".
3833 _sort-key_
3834 This variable sets up the default Message Index sorting. The
3835 default is to sort by arrival order (the order the messages
3836 arrived in the folder). It has the same functionality as the
3837 _-sort_ command line argument and the _$_ command in the "Folder
3838 Index". If a _sort-key_ is set, then all folders open during the
3839 session will have that as the default sort order.
3840 _speller_
3841 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
3842 For _PC-Alpine_, you must install the aspell library code that
3843 you may get from http://aspell.net/win32/.
3844 This option affects the behavior of the _^T_ (spell check)
3845 command in the Composer. It specifies the program invoked by _^T_
3846 in the Composer. By default, _Alpine_ uses the system's "spell"
3847 command. _Alpine_ will use the command defined by this option
3848 (if any) instead. When invoking the spell-checking program,
3849 _Alpine_ appends a tempfile name (where the message is passed) to
3850 the command line. _Alpine_ expects the speller to correct the
3851 spelling in that file. When you exit from the speller program
3852 _Alpine_ will read the tmpfile back into the composer.
3853 For Unix _Alpine_ the program _ispell_ works well as an
3854 alternate spell checker. If your Unix system has _ispell_ it is
3855 probably reasonable to make it the default speller by
3856 configuring it as the default in the system configuration file,
3857 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
3858 If this option is not set, then the system's _spell_ command is
3859 used. The spell command does not work the same as the alternate
3860 speller. It produces a list of misspelled words on its standard
3861 output, instead, and doesn't take a tempfile as an argument.
3862 Don't set this speller option to the standard Unix spell
3863 command. That won't work. If you want to use the standard Unix
3864 spell command, set the speller option to nothing.
3865 _ssh-command_
3866 Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
3867 connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All
3868 four "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first
3869 is for the command's pathname, the second is for the host to
3870 connnect to, the third is for the user to connect as, and the
3871 fourth is for the connection method (typically imap).
3872 _ssh-open-timeout_
3873 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
3874 UNIX secure shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum
3875 non-zero value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is
3876 set to zero ssh connections will be completely disabled.
3877 _ssh-path_
3878 Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
3879 connection. The default is typically /usr/bin/ssh.
3880 _standard-printer_
3881 System-wide configuration file only. Specifies a list of
3882 commands for category 2 of the _Setup/Printer_ screen, the
3883 standard print command section. This is not used by _PC-Alpine_.
3884 _status-background-color_
3885 _status-foreground-color_
3886 Status Color.
3887 _status-message-delay_
3888 This option has evolved over time, causing the possible values
3889 to be counter-intuitive. Read carefully before you set this
3890 option. First we explain what the option does, then there is a
3891 longer discussion following that.
3892 If this is set to zero, the default value, it has _no_ effect.
3893 Positive and negative values serve two similar, but different
3894 purposes.
3895 If it is set to a positive number, it causes the cursor to move
3896 to the status line whenever a status message is printed and
3897 pause there for this many seconds. It will probably only be
3898 useful if the show-cursor feature is also turned on. Setting
3899 this option to a postive number can only be used to _increase_
3900 the status message delay. This may be useful for Braille
3901 displays, or other non-traditional displays.
3902 If it is set to a negative number the interpretation is a bit
3903 complicated. Negative numbers are used to _decrease_ the amount
3904 of delay _Alpine_ uses to allow you to read important status
3905 messages. Of course, this may cause you to miss some important
3906 messages. If you see a message flash by but miss what it says
3907 you can use the Journal command from the Main menu to read it.
3908 If you set this option to a negative value, the delay will be no
3909 more than one second less than the absolute value of the value
3910 you set. So if you set it to -1, the delay will be no more than
3911 zero seconds, no delay at all. If you set it to -2, the delay
3912 will be no more than 1 second. And so on, -3 is 2 seconds, -4 is
3913 3 seconds, ... If the delay that _Alpine_ would have used by
3914 default is less than this delay, then the smaller delay set by
3915 _Alpine_ will be used. Setting this option to a negative value
3916 can only reduce the amount of delay, never increase it.
3917 Here is a more detailed explanation. Status messages are the
3918 messages which show up spontaneously in the status message line,
3919 the third line from the bottom of the screen. By default,
3920 _Alpine_ assigns each status message it produces a minimum
3921 display time. Some status messages have a minimum display time
3922 of zero. You can see an example of such a message by paging up
3923 in this help text until you reach the top of the screen. If you
3924 try to page past the top you will see the message
3926 [Already at start of help text]
3927 in the status line. If there is another more important use of
3928 the status message line this message might be replaced quickly,
3929 or it even might not be shown at all. However, if there is no
3930 reason to get rid of the message, it might stay there for
3931 several seconds while you read the help. An example where it is
3932 replaced immediately happens when you page up in the help text
3933 past the top of the screen, but then type the "WhereIs" command
3934 right after paging up. The message will disappear immediately
3935 without causing a delay (unless you have set this option to a
3936 positive value) to allow you to type input for the "WhereIs"
3937 command. Since it isn't a very important message, _Alpine_ has
3938 set its minimum display time to zero seconds.
3939 Other messages have minimum display times of three or more
3940 seconds. These are usually error messages that _Alpine_ thinks
3941 you ought to see. For example, it might be a message about a
3942 failed Save or a failed folder open. It is often the case that
3943 this minimum display time won't delay you in any way because the
3944 status message line is not needed for another reason. However,
3945 there are times when _Alpine_ has to delay what it is doing in
3946 order to display a status message for the minimum display time.
3947 This happens when a message is being displayed and _Alpine_
3948 wants to ask for input from the keyboard. For example, when you
3949 Save a message you use the status message line. You get a prompt
3950 there asking for the name of the folder to save to. If there is
3951 a status message being displayed that has not yet displayed for
3952 its minimum time _Alpine_ will display that status message
3953 surrounded with the characters > and < to show you that it is
3954 delaying. That might happen, for example, if you tried to save
3955 to a folder that caused an error, then followed that immediately
3956 with another Save command. You might find yourself waiting for a
3957 status message like
3959 [>Can't get write access to mailbox, access is readonly<]
3960 to finish displaying for three seconds. If that is something you
3961 find happening to you frequently, you may use negative values of
3962 this option to decrease or eliminate that delay, at the risk of
3963 missing the message.
3964 _stay-open-folders_
3965 This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. There is no
3966 default value for this option. It is related to the options
3967 Preopen-Stayopen-Folders, Max-Remote-Connections, and
3968 offer-expunge-of-Stayopen-Folders.
3969 Note: changes made to this list take effect the next time you
3970 open a folder in the list.
3971 This is a list of folders that will be permanently kept open
3972 once they are first opened. The names in this list may be either
3973 the nickname of an Incoming folder or the full technical
3974 specification of a folder. The folders in this list need not be
3975 remote IMAP folders, they could usefully be local folders, as
3976 well. If a folder in the list is a newsgroup or is not accessed
3977 either locally or via IMAP, then the entry will be ignored. For
3978 example, folders accessed via NNTP or POP3 will not be kept
3979 open, since the way that new mail is found with those protocols
3980 involves closing and reopening the connection.
3981 Once a Stay Open folder has been opened, new-mail checking will
3982 continue to happen on that folder for the rest of the _Alpine_
3983 session. Your INBOX is always implicitly included in this
3984 Stay-Open list and doesn't need to be added explicitly.
3985 Another difference that you may notice between a Stay Open
3986 folder and a non-Stay Open folder is which message is selected
3987 as the current message when you enter the folder index.
3988 Normally, the starting position for an incoming folder (which
3989 most Stay Open folders will likely be) is controlled by the
3990 Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a folder is a Stay Open
3991 folder, when you re-enter the folder after the first time the
3992 current message will be the same as it was when you left the
3993 folder. An exception is made if you use the TAB command to get
3994 to the folder. In that case, the message number will be
3995 incremented by one from what it was when you left the folder.
3996 The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it
3997 is special and different from what you might at first expect.
3998 The feature Use-Regular-Startup-Rule-for-Stayopen-Folders may be
3999 used to turn off this special treatment.
4000 If the message that was current when you left the folder no
4001 longer exists, then the regular startup rule will be used
4002 instead.
4003 This option is displayed as "Stayopen Folders".
4004 _tcp-open-timeout_
4005 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a
4006 network connection. The default is 30, the minimum is 5, and the
4007 maximum is system defined (typically 75). If a connection has
4008 not completed within this many seconds _Alpine_ will give up and
4009 consider it a failed connection.
4010 _tcp-query-timeout_
4011 When _Alpine_ times out a network read or write it will normally
4012 just display a message saying "Still waiting". However, if
4013 enough time has elapsed since it started waiting it will offer
4014 to let you break the connection. That amount of time is set by
4015 this option, which defaults to 60 seconds, has a minimum of 5
4016 seconds, and a maximum of 1000 seconds.
4017 _tcp-read-warning-timeout_
4018 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network
4019 read before warning you that things are moving slowly and
4020 possibly giving you the option to break the connection. The
4021 default is 15 seconds. The minimum is 5 seconds and the maximumn
4022 is 1000 seconds.
4023 _tcp-write-warning-timeout_
4024 Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network
4025 write before warning you that things are moving slowly and
4026 possibly giving you the option to break the connection. The
4027 default is 0 which means it is unset. If set to a non-zero
4028 value, the minimum is 5 and the maximum is 1000.
4029 _threading-display-style_
4030 When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this
4031 option will affect the MESSAGE INDEX display. By default,
4032 _Alpine_ will display the MESSAGE INDEX in the
4033 "show-thread-structure" style if a folder is sorted by Threads
4034 or OrderedSubject. The possible values are:
4036 _none_
4037 Regular index display. The same index line as would be
4038 displayed without threading is used. The only difference
4039 will be in the order of the messages.
4041 _show-thread-structure_
4042 Threaded Subjects will be indented and vertical bars and
4043 horizontal lines will be added to make it easier to see
4044 the relationships among the messages in a thread (a
4045 conversation).
4047 _mutt-like_
4048 This is the same as the option above except that the
4049 Subject is suppressed (is blank) if it matches the
4050 previous Subject in the thread. The name comes from the
4051 email client Mutt. Here is an example of what a mutt-like
4052 index might look like. In this example, the first column
4053 represents the message number, the threading-index-style
4054 is set to "regular-index-with-expanded-threads", and the
4055 Threading-Lastreply-Character is set to a backslash:
4057 1 Some topic
4058 2 . Subject original message in thread
4059 3 |-> reply to 2
4060 4 . |-> another reply to 2
4061 5 . | \-> reply to 4
4062 6 . | \-> reply to 5
4063 7 | \-> reply to 6
4064 8 |-> another reply to 2
4065 9 . |->New subject another reply to 2 but with a New subject
4066 10 | |-> reply to 9
4067 11 | \-> another reply to 9
4068 12 | \-> reply to 11
4069 13 \-> final reply to 2
4070 14 Next topic
4072 _indent-subject-1_
4073 Threaded Subjects will be indented one space per level of
4074 the conversation. The bars and lines that show up in the
4075 show-thread-structure display will not be there with this
4076 style.
4078 _indent-subject-2_
4079 Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of
4080 one space.
4082 _indent-from-1_
4083 Similar to indent-subject-1, except that instead of
4084 indenting the Subject field one space the From field of a
4085 thread will be indented one space per level of the
4086 conversation.
4088 _indent-from-2_
4089 Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of
4090 one space.
4092 _show-structure-in-from_
4093 The structure of the thread is illustrated with indenting,
4094 vertical bars, and horizontal lines just like with the
4095 show-thread-structure option, but the From field is used
4096 to show the relationships instead of the Subject field.
4098 _threading-expanded-character_
4099 The Threading-Expanded-Character option has a small effect on
4100 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4101 other than _none_. The value of this option is a single
4102 character. This character is used to indicate that part of a
4103 thread has been expanded and could be collapsed if desired with
4104 the "/" Collapse/Expand command. By default, the value of this
4105 option is a dot (.).
4106 If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and
4107 the following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
4108 This option is closely related to the
4109 threading-indicator-character option. Another similar option
4110 which affects the thread display is the
4111 threading-lastreply-character option.
4112 _threading-index-style_
4113 When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this
4114 option will affect the INDEX displays. The possible values are:
4116 _regular-index-with-expanded-threads_
4117 This is the default display. If the configuration option
4118 threading-display-style is set to something other than
4119 "none", then this setting will cause _Alpine_ to start off
4120 with a MESSAGE INDEX with all of the threads expanded.
4121 That is, each message will have a line in the MESSAGE
4122 INDEX display. The Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used
4123 to manually collapse or expand a thread or subthread (see
4124 also slash-collapses-entire-thread).
4126 This setting affects the display when the folder is first
4127 threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized
4128 by re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex
4129 command ($). After re-sorting the threads will once again
4130 all be expanded, even if you have previously collapsed
4131 some of them.
4133 If "threading-display-style" is set to "none", then the
4134 display will be the regular default _Alpine_ MESSAGE
4135 INDEX, but sorted in a different order.
4137 _regular-index-with-collapsed-threads_
4138 If the configuration option threading-display-style is set
4139 to something other than "none", then this setting will
4140 cause _Alpine_ to start out with all of the threads
4141 collapsed instead of starting out with all of the threads
4142 expanded. The Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used to
4143 manually collapse or expand a thread or subthread (see
4144 also slash-collapses-entire-thread).
4146 This setting affects the display when the folder is first
4147 threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized
4148 by re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex
4149 command ($). After re-sorting the threads will once again
4150 all be collapsed, even if you have previously expanded
4151 some of them.
4153 _separate-index-screen-always_
4154 With this setting and the next, you will see an index of
4155 threads instead of an index of messages, provided you have
4156 sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject.
4158 The THREAD INDEX contains a '*' in the first column if any
4159 message in the thread is marked Important. If not, it
4160 contains a '+' if any message in the thread is to you. The
4161 second column is blank. The third column contains a 'D' if
4162 all of the messages in the thread are deleted. Otherwise,
4163 it contains an 'N' if any of the messages in the thread
4164 are New.
4166 When you view a particular thread from the THREAD INDEX
4167 you will be in the MESSAGE INDEX display but the index
4168 will only contain messages from the thread you are
4169 viewing.
4171 _separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages_
4172 This is very similar to the option above. When you are in
4173 the THREAD INDEX, one of the available commands is
4174 "ViewThd". With the setting "separate-index-screen-always"
4175 (the option above) when you view a particular thread you
4176 will be in the MESSAGE INDEX display and the index will
4177 only contain messages from the thread you are viewing. If
4178 the thread you are viewing consists of a single message,
4179 the MESSAGE INDEX will be an index with only one message
4180 in it. If you use this
4181 "separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages" setting
4182 instead, then that index which contains a single message
4183 will be skipped and you will go directly from the THREAD
4184 INDEX into the MESSAGE TEXT screen.
4186 _threading-indicator-character_
4187 The Threading-Indicator-Character option has a small effect on
4188 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4189 other than _none_ and sorting by Threads or OrderedSubject. The
4190 value of this option is a single character. This character is
4191 used to indicate that part of a thread (a conversation) is
4192 hidden beneath a message. The message could be expanded if
4193 desired with the "/" Collapse/Expand command. By default, the
4194 value of this option is the greater than sign (>).
4195 If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and
4196 the following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
4197 This option is closely related to the
4198 threading-expanded-character option. Another similar option
4199 which affects the thread display is the
4200 threading-lastreply-character option.
4201 _threading-lastreply-character_
4202 The Threading-Lastreply-Character option has a small effect on
4203 the MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style
4204 of _show-thread-structure_, _mutt-like_, or
4205 _show-structure-in-from_; and sorting by Threads or
4206 OrderedSubject. The value of this option is a single character.
4207 This character is used instead of the vertical line character
4208 when there are no more replies directly to the parent of the
4209 current message. It can be used to "round-off" the bottom of the
4210 vertical line by setting it to a character such as a backslash
4211 (\) or a backquote (`). The default value of this option is the
4212 backslash character (\). This option may not be set to the Empty
4213 Value. In that case, the default will be used instead.
4214 This option is displayed as "Threading Last Reply Character".
4215 _title-background-color_
4216 _title-foreground-color_
4217 Title Color.
4218 _title-closed-background-color_
4219 _title-closed-foreground-color_
4220 Title-closed Color.
4221 _titlebar-color-style_
4222 titlebar-color-style.
4223 _unknown-character-set_
4224 A text message should either be made up of all US-ASCII
4225 characters or it should contain a charset label which tells the
4226 software which character set encoding to use to interpret the
4227 message. Sometimes a malformed message may be unlabeled but
4228 contain non-ascii text. This message is outside of the standards
4229 so any attempt to read it could fail. When _Alpine_ attempts to
4230 read such a message it will try to interpret the text in the
4231 character set you specify here. For example, if you have
4232 correspondents who send you unlabeled messages that are usually
4233 made up of characters from the WINDOWS-1251 character set,
4234 setting this unknown-character-set to WINDOWS-1251 will allow
4235 you to read those messages. Of course, if the unlabeled message
4236 is actually in some other character set, then you may see
4237 garbage on your screen.
4238 In the Setup/Config screen you may choose from a list of all the
4239 character sets _Alpine_ knows about by using the "T" ToCharsets
4240 command.
4241 _upload-command_
4242 This option affects the behavior of the Composer's _^R_ (Read
4243 File) and _^J_ (Attach File, in the header) commands. It
4244 specifies a Unix program name, and any necessary command line
4245 arguments, that _Alpine_ can use to transfer files from your
4246 personal computer into messages that you are composing.
4247 _upload-command-prefix_
4248 This option is used in conjunction with the _upload-command_
4249 option. It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator
4250 (via standard output) immediately prior to starting the upload
4251 command. This is useful for integrated serial line file transfer
4252 agents that permit command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
4253 _url-viewers_
4254 List of programs to use to open Internet URLs. This value
4255 affects _Alpine_'s handling of URLs that are found in the text
4256 of messages you read. Normally, only URLs _Alpine_ can handle
4257 directly are automatically offered for selection in the "Message
4258 Text" screen. When one or more comma delimited Web browsers
4259 capable of deciphering URLs on their command line are added
4260 here, _Alpine_ will choose the first available browser to
4261 display URLs it doesn't recognize.
4262 Additionally, to support various connection methods and
4263 browsers, each entry in this list can begin with the special
4264 token _TEST(test-string)_. The test-string is a shell command
4265 that _Alpine_ will run and which must exit with a status of zero
4266 for _Alpine_ to consider that browser for use (the other
4267 criteria is that the browser must exist as a full path or a path
4268 relative to your home directory).
4269 Now for an example:
4271 url-viewers=_TEST("test -n '${DISPLAY}'")_ /usr/local/bin/netscape,
4272 /usr/local/bin/lynx, C:\BIN\NETSCAPE.BAT
4273 This example shows that for the first browser in the list to be
4274 used the environment variable DISPLAY must be defined. If it is,
4275 then the file /usr/local/bin/netscape must exist. If either
4276 condition is not met, then the file /usr/local/bin/lynx must
4277 exist. If it doesn't, then the final path and file must exist.
4278 Note that the last entry is a DOS/Windows path. This is one way
4279 to support _Alpine_ running on more than one architecture with
4280 the same configuration file.
4281 _use-only-domain-name_
4282 Can be set to _yes_ or _no._ Anything but _yes_ means _no._ If
4283 set to _yes_ the first label in the host name will be lopped off
4284 to get the domain name and the domain name will be used for
4285 outgoing mail and such. That is, if the host name is
4286 _carson.u.example.edu_ and this variable is set to _yes,_ then
4287 _u.example.edu_ will be used on outgoing mail. Only meaningful if
4288 user-domain is NOT set.
4289 _user-domain_
4290 Sets the domain or host name for the user, overriding the system
4291 host or domain name. See the domain name section. The easiest
4292 way to change the full From address is with the customized-hdrs
4293 variable.
4294 _user-id_
4295 _PC-Alpine_ only and personal configuration file only. Sets the
4296 username that is placed on all outgoing messages. The username
4297 is the part of the address that comes before the "@". The
4298 easiest way to change the full From address is with the
4299 customized-hdrs variable.
4300 _user-input-timeout_
4301 If this is set to an integer greater than zero, then this is the
4302 number of _hours_ to wait for user input before _Alpine_ times
4303 out. If _Alpine_ is in the midst of composing a message or is
4304 waiting for user response to a question, then it will not
4305 timeout. However, if _Alpine_ is sitting idle waiting for the
4306 user to tell it what to do next and the user does not give any
4307 input for this many hours, _Alpine_ will exit. No expunging or
4308 moving of read messages will take place. It will exit similarly
4309 to the way it would exit if it received a hangup signal. This
4310 may be useful for cleaning up unused _Alpine_ sessions which
4311 have been forgotten by their owners. The _Alpine_ developers
4312 envision system administrators setting this to a value of
4313 several hours (24?) so that it won't surprise a user who didn't
4314 want to be disconnected.
4315 _viewer-hdr-colors_
4316 This variable holds the optional Header Colors and patterns
4317 which have been defined by the user. This is usually modified by
4318 using the Header Colors section of the Setup Color screen.
4319 _viewer-hdrs_
4320 You may change the default list of headers that are viewed by
4321 listing the headers you want to view here. If the headers in
4322 your _viewer-hdrs_ list are present in the message, then they
4323 will be shown. The order of the headers you list will also be
4324 honored. If the special value _all-except_ is included as the
4325 first header in the _viewer-hdrs_ list, then all headers in the
4326 message except those in the list will be shown. The values are
4327 all case insensitive.
4328 This option is displayed as "Viewer Headers".
4329 _viewer-margin-left_
4330 This variable controls the left-hand vertical margin's width in
4331 _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of
4332 space characters preceding each displayed line. For consistency
4333 with Viewer-Margin-Right, you may specify the column number to
4334 start in (column numbering begins with number 1) instead of the
4335 width of the margin by appending a lower case letter "c" to the
4336 number. For example, a value of "2c" means to start the text in
4337 column two, which is entirely equivalent to a value of "1",
4338 which means to leave a margin of 1 space.
4339 The default is a left margin of 0 (zero). Misconfigurations (for
4340 example, negative values or values with starting left columns
4341 greater than the ending right column) are silently ignored. If
4342 the number of columns for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left
4343 and the Viewer-Margin-Right is fewer than 8, then margins of
4344 zero will be used instead.
4345 _viewer-margin-right_
4346 This variable controls the right-hand vertical margin's width in
4347 _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of
4348 space characters following each displayed line. You may specify
4349 the column number to end the text in (column numbering begins
4350 with number 1) instead of the width of the margin by appending a
4351 lower case letter "c" to the number. For example, a value of
4352 "76c" means to end the text in column 76. If the screen is 80
4353 characters wide, this is equivalent to a value of "4", which
4354 means to leave a margin of 4 spaces. However, if you use
4355 different size screens at different times, then these two values
4356 are not equivalent.
4357 The default right margin is 4. Misconfigurations (for example,
4358 negative values or values with starting left columns greater
4359 than the ending right column) are silently ignored. If the
4360 number of columns for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left and
4361 the Viewer-Margin-Right is fewer than 8, then margins of zero
4362 will be used instead.
4363 _viewer-overlap_
4364 This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Message Viewing
4365 screen. When the space bar is used to page forward in a message,
4366 the number of lines specified by the _viewer-overlap_ variable
4367 will be repeated from the bottom of the screen. That is, if this
4368 was set to two lines, then the bottom two lines of the screen
4369 would be repeated on the top of the next screen. The normal
4370 default value is "2".
4371 _window-position_
4372 Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only. Window position in the
4373 format: CxR+X+Yn Where C and R are the window size in characters
4374 and X and Y are the screen position of the top left corner of
4375 the window.
4376 __________________________________________________________________
4378 Configuration Features
4380 There are several features (options) which may be turned off or on. The
4381 configuration variable feature-list is a list of all the features that
4382 are turned on or off. If the name of a feature is in the list it will
4383 be turned on. If the name of a feature with the characters no-
4384 prepended is in the list, it will turn the feature off. This is useful
4385 for overriding system-wide defaults. This is because, unlike all the
4386 other configuration variables, the _feature-list_ is additive. That is,
4387 first the system-wide _feature-list_ is read and then the user's
4388 _feature-list_ is read. This makes it possible for the system manager to
4389 turn some of the features on by default while still allowing the user
4390 to cancel that default. For example, if the system manager has turned
4391 on the _allow-talk_ feature by default then a user may turn it back off
4392 by including the feature _no-allow-talk_ in his or her personal
4393 configuration file. Of course, these details are usually handled by
4394 _Alpine_ when the user turns an option on or off from inside the
4395 _Setup/Config_ screen.
4397 System managers should take some care when turning on features by
4398 default. Some of the documentation assumes that all of the features are
4399 off by default, so it could be confusing for a user if some are on by
4400 default instead. Feature names are case-independent.
4402 Here is an alphabetical list of possible features.
4403 _allow-changing-from_
4404 Prior to _Pine_ 4.00 there was a _compile_-time option called
4405 ALLOW_CHANGING_FROM. That has been replaced by a _runtime_
4406 feature. If this feature is turned on then the From line can be
4407 changed just like all the other header fields that can be
4408 changed. See the configuration variables customized-hdrs and
4409 default-composer-hdrs for more information on editing headers.
4410 The default value for this feature is ON, so that editing of
4411 From headers is allowed by default.
4412 _allow-talk_
4413 Unix _Alpine_ only. By default, permission for others to _talk_
4414 to your terminal is turned off when you are running _Alpine_.
4415 When this feature is set, permission is instead turned on.
4416 Note: The _talk_ program has nothing to do with _Alpine_ or
4417 email. The _talk_ daemon on your system will attempt to print a
4418 message on your screen when someone else is trying to contact
4419 you. If you wish to see these messages while you are running
4420 _Alpine_, you should enable this feature.
4421 If you do enable this feature and see a _talk_ message, you must
4422 suspend or quit _Alpine_ before you can respond.
4423 _alternate-compose-menu_
4424 This feature controls the menu that is displayed when Compose is
4425 selected. If set, a list of options will be presented, with each
4426 option representing the type of composition that could be used.
4427 This feature is most useful for users who want to avoid being
4428 prompted with each option separately, or who want to avoid the
4429 checking of remote postponed or form letter folders. The
4430 possible types of composition are:
4431 New, for starting a new composition. Note that if New is
4432 selected and roles are set, roles are checked for matches and
4433 applied according to the setting of the matching role.
4434 Interrupted, for continuing an interrupted composition. This
4435 option is only offered if an interrupted message folder is
4436 detected.
4437 Postponed, for continuing postponed compositions. This option is
4438 offered if a postponed-folder is set in the config _REGARDLESS
4439 OF_ whether or not the postponed folder actually exists. This
4440 option is especially handy for avoiding having to check for the
4441 existence of a remote postponed folder.
4442 Form, for using form letters. This option is offered if the
4443 form-letter-folder is set in the config, and is not checked for
4444 existence for reasons similar to those explained by the
4445 postponed option.
4446 setRole, for selecting a role to apply to a composition.
4447 _alternate-role-menu_
4448 Normally the Role Command allows you to choose a role and
4449 compose a new message using that role. When this feature is set,
4450 the role command will first ask whether you want to Compose a
4451 new message, Forward the current message, Reply to the current
4452 message, or Bounce the current message. If you are not in the
4453 MESSAGE INDEX and are not viewing a message, then there is no
4454 current message and the question will be skipped. After you have
4455 chosen to Compose, Forward, Reply or Bounce you will then choose
4456 the role to be used.
4457 When Bouncing the "Set From" address is used for the Resent-From
4458 header, the "Set Fcc" value is used for the Fcc provided that
4459 the option "Fcc-On-Bounce" is turned on, and the "Use SMTP
4460 Server" value is used for the SMTP server, if set. Other actions
4461 of the role are ignored when Bouncing.
4462 This feature is displayed as "Alternate Role (#) Menu".
4463 _assume-slow-link_
4464 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
4465 This feature affects _Alpine_'s display routines. If set, the
4466 normal inverse-video cursor (used to highlight the current item
4467 in a list) will be replaced by an _arrow_ cursor and other
4468 screen update optimizations for low-speed links (e.g. 2400 bps
4469 dialup connections) will be activated. One of the optimizations
4470 is that colored index lines (set up with Indexcolor Rules) will
4471 not be colored. This might be useful if _you_ know you have a
4472 slow speed link but for some reason _Alpine_ doesn't know.
4473 _auto-move-read-msgs_
4474 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s behavior upon
4475 quitting. If set, and the read-message-folder variable is also
4476 set, then _Alpine_ will automatically transfer all read messages
4477 from the _INBOX_ to the designated folder and mark them as
4478 deleted in the _INBOX_. Messages in the _INBOX_ marked with an
4479 _N_ (meaning New, or unseen) are not affected.
4480 This feature is displayed as "Auto Move Read Messages".
4481 _auto-open-next-unread_
4482 This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when
4483 traversing folders in the optional incoming-folders collection
4484 or in optional news-collections.
4485 When the TAB (Next New) key is pressed, and there are no more
4486 unseen messages in the current (incoming message or news)
4487 folder, _Alpine_ will search the list of folders in the current
4488 collection for one containing New or Recent (new since the last
4489 time the folder was opened) messages. This behavior may be
4490 modified slightly with the Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder
4491 feature which causes _Alpine_ to look for Unseen messages
4492 instead of Recent messages. By default, when such a folder is
4493 found, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to open the folder. If
4494 this feature is set, _Alpine_ will automatically open the folder
4495 without prompting.
4496 _auto-unselect-after-apply_
4497 This feature affects the behavior of the Apply command. If set,
4498 the Apply command will do the operation you specify, but then
4499 will implicitly do an "UnSelect All", so that you will
4500 automatically be back in the normal Index view after the Apply.
4501 _auto-unzoom-after-apply_
4502 If set, and if you are currently looking at a Zoomed Index view
4503 of selected messages, the _Apply_ command will do the operation
4504 you specify, but then will implicitly do an _UnZoom_, so that
4505 you will automatically be back in the normal Index view after
4506 the _Apply_. This feature is set by default.
4507 _auto-zoom-after-select_
4508 If set, the _; select_ command will automatically perform a
4509 _Zoom_ after the _select_ is complete. This feature is set by
4510 default.
4511 _busy-cue-spinner-only_
4512 When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
4513 something is happening with a small animated display in the
4514 status message line near the bottom of the screen. Setting this
4515 feature will cause that animation to be the same each time
4516 instead of having _Alpine_ choose a random animation. You may
4517 turn the animation off altogether by setting the busy-cue-rate
4518 option to zero.
4519 _check-newmail-when-quitting_
4520 If set, _Alpine_ will check for new mail after you give the Quit
4521 command. If new mail has arrived since the previous check, you
4522 will be notified and given the choice of quitting or not
4523 quitting.
4524 _combined-addrbook-display_
4525 This feature affects the address book display screens. Normally,
4526 expanding an address book from the ADDRESS BOOK LIST screen will
4527 cause the remaining address books and directory servers to
4528 disappear from the screen, leaving only the entries of the
4529 expanded address book. If this feature is set, then the other
4530 address books will remain on the screen, so that all of the
4531 address books can be present at once.
4532 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4533 Select All command will select all of the entries in the current
4534 address book, not all of the entries in all of the address
4535 books. The WhereIs command will change a little. It will search
4536 through all of the text on the screen plus all of the entries
4537 from expanded address books.
4538 When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
4539 expanded-view-of-addressbooks has an effect.
4540 This feature is displayed as "Combined Addressbook Display".
4541 _combined-folder-display_
4542 This feature affects the folder list display screens. Normally,
4543 each folder list is viewed within its collection only. This
4544 command allows folder lists to be viewed within a single screen
4545 that combines the contents of all collections.
4546 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4547 Select All command will select all of the folders in the current
4548 collection, not all of the entries in all of the collections.
4549 The WhereIs command will change a little. It will search through
4550 all of the folders in the current collection as well as all the
4551 folder in any other expanded collection.
4552 When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
4553 expanded-view-of-folders has an effect.
4554 _combined-subdirectory-display_
4555 This feature affects the Folder List screen when the
4556 combined-folder-display feature is enabled. Normally, selecting
4557 a directory from the Folder List takes you into a new screen
4558 displaying only the contents of that directory.
4559 Enabling this feature will cause the contents of the selected
4560 directory to be displayed within the boundaries of the
4561 Collection it is a part of. All previously displayed collections
4562 will remain in the screen.
4563 The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the
4564 Select All command will select all of the folders in the
4565 directory, as opposed to all of the entries in all of the
4566 collections. The WhereIs command will change a little. It will
4567 search through all of the folders in the current collection as
4568 well as all the folder in any other expanded collection.
4569 _compose-cancel-confirm-uses-yes_
4570 This feature affects what happens when you type ^C to cancel a
4571 composition. By default, if you attempt to cancel a composition
4572 by typing ^C, you will be asked to confirm the cancellation by
4573 typing a "C" for _C_onfirm. It logically ought to be a "Y" for
4574 _Y_es, but that is risky because the "^C Y" needed to cancel a
4575 message is close (on the keyboard) to the "^X Y" needed to send
4576 a message.
4577 If this feature is set the confirmation asked for will be a
4578 "_Y_es" instead of a "_C_onfirm" response.
4579 _compose-cut-from-cursor_
4580 If set, the _^K_ command in the composer will cut from the
4581 current cursor position to the end of the line, rather than
4582 cutting the entire line.
4583 This feature is displayed as "Ctrl-K Cuts From Cursor".
4584 _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_
4585 If set, Delete will be equivalent to ^D, and delete the current
4586 character. Normally _Alpine_ defines the Delete key to be
4587 equivalent to ^H, which deletes the _previous_ character.
4588 This feature is displayed as "Delete Key Maps to Ctrl-D".
4589 _compose-rejects-unqualified-addrs_
4590 If set, unqualified names entered as addresses will be treated
4591 as errors unless they match an addressbook nickname or are
4592 looked up successfully on an LDAP server. _Alpine_ will not
4593 attempt to turn them into complete addresses by adding your
4594 local domain (which _Alpine_ normally does by default).
4595 A complete (fully-qualified) address is one containing a
4596 username followed by an _@_ symbol, followed by a host or domain
4597 name (e.g. _jsmith@example.com_). An unqualified name is one
4598 without the _@_ symbol and host or domain name (e.g. _jsmith_).
4599 This feature is displayed as "Compose Rejects Unqualified
4600 Addresses".
4601 _compose-send-offers-first-filter_
4602 If you have sending-filters configured, setting this feature
4603 will cause the first filter in the _sending-filters_ list to be
4604 offered as the default instead of _unfiltered_, the usual
4605 default.
4606 _compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm_
4607 If you enter the composer while reading a newsgroup, you will
4608 normally be prompted to determine whether you intend the new
4609 message to be posted to the current newsgroup or not. If this
4610 feature is set, _Alpine_ will not prompt you in this situation,
4611 and will assume that you do indeed wish to post to the newsgroup
4612 you are reading.
4613 This feature is displayed as "Compose Sets Newsgroup Without
4614 Confirming".
4615 _confirm-role-even-for-default_
4616 If you have roles, when you Reply to or Forward a message, or
4617 Compose a new message, _Alpine_ will search through your roles
4618 for one which matches. Normally, if no matches are found you
4619 will be placed into the composer with no opportunity to select a
4620 role. If this feature is set, then you will be asked to confirm
4621 that you don't want a role. This will give you the opportunity
4622 to select a role (with the ^T command). If you confirm no role
4623 with a Return, you will be placed in the composer with no role.
4624 You may also confirm with either an "N" or a "Y". These behave
4625 the same as if you pressed the Return. (The "N" and "Y" answers
4626 are available because they match what you might type if there
4627 was a role match.)
4628 If you are using the alternate form of the Compose command
4629 called "Role", then all of your roles will be available to you,
4630 independent of the value of this feauture and of the values set
4631 for all of Reply Use, Forward Use, and Compose Use.
4632 _continue-tab-without-confirm_
4633 Normally, when you use the TAB NextNew command and there is a
4634 problem checking a folder, you are asked whether you want to
4635 continue with the search in the following folder or not. This
4636 gives you a chance to stop the NextNew processing.
4637 If this feature is set you will not be asked. It will be assumed
4638 that you want to continue.
4639 This feature is displayed as "Continue NextNew Without
4640 Confirming".
4641 _convert-dates-to-localtime_
4642 Normally, the message dates that you see in the MESSAGE INDEX
4643 and MESSAGE VIEW are displayed in the timezone they were sent
4644 from. For example, if a message was sent to you from a few
4645 timezones to the east it might appear that it was sent from the
4646 future; or if it was sent from somewhere to the west it might
4647 appear as if it is from yesterday even though it was sent only a
4648 few minutes ago. If this feature is set an attempt will be made
4649 to convert the dates to your local timezone to be displayed.
4650 Note that this does not affect the results of Select by Date or
4651 of anything else other than these displayed dates. When viewing
4652 the message you may look at the original unconverted value of
4653 the Date header by using the HdrMode Command.
4654 _copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us_
4655 This feature affects the From address used when Replying to a
4656 message. It is probably only useful if you have some
4657 alt-addresses defined. When enabled, it checks to see if any of
4658 the addresses in the To or Cc fields of the message you are
4659 replying to is one of your addresses. If it is, and there is
4660 only one of them, then that address is used as the From address
4661 in the message you are composing. In other words, you will be
4662 using a From address that is the same as the To address that was
4663 used to get the mail to you in the first place.
4664 If a role is being used and it has a From address defined, that
4665 From address will be used rather than the one derived from this
4666 feature.
4667 _delete-skips-deleted_
4668 If set, this feature will cause the _Delete_ command to advance
4669 past other messages that are marked deleted. In other words,
4670 pressing _D_ will both mark the current message deleted and
4671 advance to the next message that is not marked deleted. This
4672 feature is set by default.
4673 _disable-config-cmd_
4674 If set, the configuration screen _Setup/Config_ will not be
4675 available at all.
4676 _disable-save-input-history_
4677 Many of the prompts that ask for input in the status line near
4678 the bottom of the screen will respond to Up Arrow and Down Arrow
4679 with the history of previous entries. For example, in the
4680 MESSAGE INDEX screen when you use the WhereIs command the text
4681 you entered will be remembered and can be recalled by using the
4682 Up Arrow key. Another example, when saving a message the folders
4683 saved to will be remembered and can be recalled using the arrow
4684 keys.
4685 In the Save prompt, some users prefer that the Up and Down arrow
4686 keys be used for the Previous Collection and Next Collection
4687 commands instead of for a history of previous saves. If this
4688 option is set the Up and Down arrow keys will become synonyms
4689 for the Previous Collection and Next Collection (^P and ^N)
4690 commands in the prompt for the name of a folder to Save to or in
4691 the prompt for the name of a folder to GoTo. When this feature
4692 is not set (the default), ^P and ^N will change the collection
4693 and the arrow keys will show the history.
4694 _disable-keyboard-lock-cmd_
4695 In the Main _Alpine_ menu there is a Keyboard locking command
4696 (_KBLock_). If this feature is set, that command won't be
4697 available to the user.
4698 _disable-keymenu_
4699 If set, the command key menu that normally appears on the bottom
4700 two lines of the screen will not usually be there. Asking for
4701 help with _^G_ or _?_ will cause the key menu to appear instead
4702 of causing the help message to come up. If you want to actually
4703 see the help text, another _^G_ or _?_ will show it to you.
4704 After the key menu has popped up with the help key it will
4705 remain there for an _O Other_ command but will disappear if any
4706 other command is typed.
4707 _disable-password-caching_
4708 Normally, loginname/password combinations are cached in _Alpine_
4709 so that the user does not have to enter the same password more
4710 than once in a session. A disadvantage to this approach is that
4711 the password must be stored in the memory image of the running
4712 _Alpine_ in order that it can be reused. In the event that
4713 _Alpine_ crashes and produces a core dump, and that core dump is
4714 readable by others, the loginname and password could possibly be
4715 read from the core dump.
4716 If this feature is set, then the passwords will not be cached
4717 and the user will have to retype the password whenever _Alpine_
4718 needs it. Even with this feature set there is still some chance
4719 that the core file will contain a password, so care should be
4720 taken to make the core files unreadable.
4721 NOTE: If PASSFILE caching is enabled, this does not disable it.
4722 That is a separate and independent feature.
4723 _disable-password-cmd_
4724 If set the _Newpassword_ command usually available under the
4725 _Setup_ command will not be available.
4726 _disable-pipes-in-sigs_
4727 If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the
4728 name of a signature file. Appending a vertical bar normally
4729 causes the signature file to be executed to produce the
4730 signature.
4731 _disable-pipes-in-templates_
4732 If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the
4733 name of a template file. Appending a vertical bar normally
4734 causes the signature file to be executed to produce the
4735 signature.
4736 _disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses_
4737 Normally, the alt-addresses option is interpreted as a regular
4738 expression. One type of address that might cause trouble is an
4739 address that contains a plus sign. If you want to have an
4740 address with a plus as one of your alternate addresses and you
4741 don't want to use regular expressions, then setting this feature
4742 will cause _Alpine_ to treat the addresses you list literally
4743 instead.
4744 _disable-roles-setup-cmd_
4745 If set the _Roles_ command usually available under the _Setup_
4746 command will not be available.
4747 _disable-roles-sig-edit_
4748 If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not
4749 allow editing of signature files with the F subcommand.
4750 _disable-roles-template-edit_
4751 If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not
4752 allow editing of template files with the F subcommand.
4753 _disable-sender_
4754 If set, _Alpine_ will not generate a "Sender:" or "X-X-Sender"
4755 header. This may be desirable on a system which is virtually
4756 hosting many domains, and the sysadmin has other methods
4757 available for tracking a message to its originator.
4758 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Generate Sender Header".
4759 _disable-setlocale-collate_
4760 This is a hard to understand feature that should only be used in
4761 rare cases. Normally, the C function call
4763 setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "")
4764 is used by _Alpine_. If you want to try turning it off, setting
4765 this feature will turn it off. This part of the locale has to do
4766 with the sort order of characters in your locale.
4767 _disable-shared-namespaces_
4768 If this hidden feature is set the automatic search for
4769 namespaces "ftp", "imapshared", and "imappublic" by the
4770 underlying library will be disabled. The reason this feature
4771 exists is because there are some implementations of system
4772 password lookup routines which are very slow when presented with
4773 a long loginname which does not exist. This feature could be set
4774 to prevent the delay at startup time when the names above are
4775 searched for in the password file.
4776 _disable-signature-edit-cmd_
4777 If set the _Signature_ editing command usually available under
4778 the _Setup_ command will not be available.
4779 _disable-take-fullname-in-addresses_
4780 Normally, when TakeAddr is used to copy an address or addresses
4781 from a message into an address book entry, _Alpine_ will try to
4782 preserve the full name associated with each address in the list
4783 of addresses. The reason for this is so that if the entry is a
4784 list or later becomes a list, then information about the
4785 individual addresses in the list is preserved. If you would
4786 rather just have the simple addresses in the list of addresses,
4787 set this feature. For example, with the default setting you
4788 might see something like this in the ADDRESS BOOK editor after
4789 you type TakeAddr
4790 Nickname : nick
4791 Fullname : Bedrock Elders
4792 Fcc :
4793 Comment :
4794 Addresses : Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>,
4795 Barney Rubble <rubble@bedrock.org>
4797 but with this feature set it would look like
4798 Nickname : nick
4799 Fullname : Bedrock Elders
4800 Fcc :
4801 Comment :
4802 Addresses : flint@bedrock.org,
4803 rubble@bedrock.org
4805 instead. Note the difference in the Addresses field.
4806 _disable-take-last-comma-first_
4807 Normally, when _TakeAddr_ is used to copy an address from a
4808 message into an address book, _Alpine_ will attempt to rewrite
4809 the full name of the address in the form:
4811 Last, First
4812 instead of
4814 First Last
4815 It does this because many people find it useful to sort by Last
4816 name instead of First name. If this feature is set, then the
4817 _TakeAddr_ command will not attempt to reverse the name in this
4818 manner.
4819 _disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters_
4820 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
4821 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using
4822 Display-Filters. Normally, before the display filter is run, the
4823 terminal mode is reset to what it was before you started
4824 _Alpine_. This may be necessary if the filter requires the use of
4825 the terminal. For example, it may need to interact with you. If
4826 you set this feature, then the terminal mode will not be reset.
4827 One thing that turning on this feature should fix is the
4828 coloring of quoted text in the message view, which breaks
4829 because the terminal reset resets the color state of the
4830 terminal (Color Configuration).
4831 _downgrade-multipart-to-text_
4832 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail.
4833 Internet standards require _Alpine_ to translate all non-ASCII
4834 characters in messages that it sends using MIME encoding. This
4835 encoding can be ostensibly broken for recipients if any agent
4836 between _Alpine_ and the recipient, such as an email list
4837 expander, appends text to the message, such as list information
4838 or advertising. When sending such messages _Alpine_ attempts to
4839 protect such encoding by placing extra MIME boundaries around
4840 the message text.
4841 These extra boundaries are invisible to recipients that use
4842 MIME-aware email programs (the vast majority). However, if you
4843 correspond with users of email programs that are not MIME-aware,
4844 or do not handle the extra boundaries gracefully, you can use
4845 this feature to prevent _Alpine_ from including the extra MIME
4846 information. Of course, it will increase the likelihood that
4847 non-ASCII text you send may appear corrupt to the recipient.
4848 _enable-8bit-esmtp-negotiation_
4849 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail. By
4850 default, this feature is set. Internet standards require that
4851 all electronic mail messages traversing the global Internet
4852 consist of 7bit ASCII characters unless a pair of cooperating
4853 mail transfer agents explicitly agree to allow 8bit messages. In
4854 general, then, exchanging messages in non-ASCII characters
4855 requires MIME encoding.
4856 However, there are now Internet standards that allow for
4857 unencoded 8bit exchange of messages between cooperating systems.
4858 When this feature is set _Alpine_ will try to negotiate
4859 unencoded 8bit transmission during the sending process. Should
4860 the negotiation fail, _Alpine_ will fall back to its ordinary
4861 encoding rules.
4862 Note, this feature relies on your system's mail transport agent
4863 or configured smtp-server having the negotiation mechanism
4864 introduced in "Extended SMTP" (ESMTP) and the specific extension
4865 called _8BITMIME_.
4866 _enable-8bit-nntp-posting_
4867 The Internet standard for exchanging USENET news messages
4868 (RFC-1036) specifies that USENET messages should conform to
4869 Internet mail standards and contain only 7bit characters, but
4870 much of the news transport software in use today is capable of
4871 successfully sending messages containing 8bit characters. Hence,
4872 many people believe that it is appropriate to send 8bit news
4873 messages without any MIME encoding.
4874 Moreover, there is no Internet standard for explicitly
4875 negotiating 8bit transfer, as there is for Internet email.
4876 Therefore, _Alpine_ provides the option of posting unencoded
4877 8bit news messages, though not as the default. Setting this
4878 feature will turn OFF _Alpine_'s MIME encoding of newsgroup
4879 postings that contain 8bit characters.
4880 Note, articles may cross a path or pass through news transport
4881 software that is unsafe or even hostile to 8bit characters. At
4882 best this will only cause the posting to become garbled. The
4883 safest way to transmit 8bit characters is to leave _Alpine_'s
4884 MIME encoding turned on, but recipients who lack MIME-aware
4885 tools are often annoyed when they receive MIME-encoded messages.
4886 _enable-aggregate-command-set_
4887 When this feature is set you may use the commands and
4888 subcommands that relate to performing operations on more than
4889 one message at a time. We call these "aggregate operations". In
4890 particular, the _; Select_, _A Apply_, and _Z Zoom_ commands are
4891 enabled by this feature. _Select_ is used to _tag_ one or more
4892 messages meeting the specified criteria. _Apply_ can then be
4893 used to apply any message command to all of the selected/tagged
4894 messages. Further, the _Zoom_ command allows you to toggle the
4895 "Folder Index" view between just those Selected and all messages
4896 in the folder.
4897 This feature also enables the _^X_ subcommand in the "Folder
4898 Index" _WhereIs_ command which causes all messages matching the
4899 _WhereIs_ argument to become selected.
4900 You may also use aggregate operations in the address book
4901 screens where you are operating on address book entries instead
4902 of on messages.
4903 _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_
4904 If this feature is set (the default), and the editor variable is
4905 not set, entering the _^__ (Control-underscore) key while
4906 composing a message will prompt you for the name of the editor
4907 you would like to use.
4908 If the environment variable $EDITOR is set, this value will be
4909 offered as a default. If the _editor_ variable is set, the _^__
4910 key will activate the specified editor without prompting, in
4911 which case it is not necessary to set the
4912 _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_ feature. This feature is not
4913 available in _PC-Alpine_.
4914 This feature is displayed as "Enable Alternate Editor Command".
4915 _enable-alternate-editor-implicitly_
4916 If this feature and the editor variable are both set, _Alpine_
4917 will automatically activate the specified editor when the cursor
4918 is moved from the header of the message being composed into the
4919 message text. For replies, the alternate editor will be
4920 activated immediately. If this feature is set but the _editor_
4921 variable is not set, then _Alpine_ will automatically ask for
4922 the name of an alternate editor when the cursor is moved out of
4923 the headers, or if a reply is being done. This feature is not
4924 available in _PC-Alpine_.
4925 _enable-arrow-navigation_
4926 This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow
4927 keys. If set, the left and right arrow keys will operate like
4928 the usual navigation keys _<_ and _>_. This feature is set by
4929 default.
4930 If you set this feature, and do not like the changed behavior of
4931 the up/down arrow keys when navigating through the FOLDER LIST
4932 screen -- _first_ from column to column, if more than one folder
4933 is displayed per row, and _then_ from row to row -- you may
4934 either also wish to set the feature
4935 enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed, single-column-folder-list, or
4936 use the ^P/^N (instead of up/down arrow) keys to move up/down
4937 the list of folders in each column.
4938 _enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed_
4939 This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow
4940 keys in the FOLDER LIST screen when the enable-arrow-navigation
4941 feature is set. This feature is set by default.
4942 When this feature is set, the left and right arrow keys in the
4943 FOLDER LIST screen move the highlight bar to the left or right,
4944 and the up and down arrows move it up or down.
4945 When the "Enable-Arrow-Navigation" feature is set and this
4946 feature is not set; the left and right arrow keys in the Folder
4947 List screen strictly track the commands bound to the '<' and '>'
4948 keys, and the up and down arrow keys move the highlight bar to
4949 the previous and next folder or directory name.
4950 _enable-background-sending_
4951 If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's
4952 _Send?_ confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell
4953 _Alpine_ to handle the actual posting in the background. While
4954 this feature usually allows posting to appear to happen very
4955 fast, it has no affect on the actual delivery time it takes a
4956 message to arrive at its destination.
4957 This feature isn't supported on all systems. All DOS and
4958 Windows, as well as several Unix ports, do not recognize this
4959 feature. It is not possible to use background sending if the
4960 feature send-without-confirm is set.
4961 Error handling is significantly different when this feature is
4962 enabled. Any message posting failure results in the message
4963 being appended to your _Interrupted_ mail folder. When you type
4964 the _Compose_ command, _Alpine_ will notice this folder and
4965 offer to extract any messages contained. Upon continuing a
4966 failed message, _Alpine_ will display the nature of the failure
4967 in the status message line.
4968 Under extreme conditions, it is possible for message data to get
4969 lost. Do not enable this feature if you typically run close to
4970 any sort of disk-space limits or quotas.
4971 _enable-bounce-cmd_
4972 Setting this feature enables the _B Bounce_ command, which will
4973 prompt for an address and _remail_ the message to the new
4974 recipient. This command is used to re-direct messages that you
4975 have received in error, or need to be redirected for some other
4976 reason (e.g. list moderation). The final recipient will see a
4977 header indicating that you have Resent the msg, but the
4978 message's From: header will show the original author of the
4979 message, and replies to it will go back to that author, and not
4980 to you.
4981 This feature is displayed as "Enable Bounce Command".
4982 _enable-cruise-mode_
4983 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you hit the "Space
4984 Bar" at the end of a displayed message. Typically, _Alpine_
4985 complains that the end of the text has already been reached.
4986 Setting this feature causes such keystrokes to be interpreted as
4987 if the _Tab_ key had been hit, thus taking you to the next
4988 _interesting_ message, or scanning ahead to the next incoming
4989 folder with _interesting_ messages.
4990 _enable-cruise-mode-delete_
4991 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s
4992 _enable-cruise-mode_ feature. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_
4993 to implicitly delete read messages when it moves on to display
4994 the next _interesting_ message.
4995 NOTE: Beware when enabling this feature _and_ the
4996 expunge-without-confirm feature.
4997 This feature is displayed as "Enable Cruise Mode With Deleting".
4998 _enable-delivery-status-notification_
4999 If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's
5000 "Send?" confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell
5001 _Alpine_ to request the type of Delivery Status Notification
5002 (DSN) which you would like. Most users will be happy with the
5003 default, and need not enable this feature. See the online help
5004 for more details.
5005 It is not possible to use delivery status notifications if the
5006 feature send-without-confirm is set.
5007 Note that this is not a method to request _READ_ receipts, which
5008 tells the sender when the receiver has read the message. In this
5009 case we're talking about notification of delivery to the
5010 mailbox, not notification that the message has been seen.
5011 _enable-dot-files_
5012 If set, files beginning with dot (".") will be visible in the
5013 file browser. For example, you'll be able to select them when
5014 using the browser to add an attachment to a message.
5015 _enable-dot-folders_
5016 If set, folders beginning with dot (".") may be added and
5017 viewed. This feature is displayed as "Enable Hidden Folders".
5018 _enable-exit-via-lessthan-command_
5019 If set, then on screens where there is an _Exit_ command but no
5020 _<_ command, the _<_ key will perform the same function as the
5021 _Exit_ command. This feature is set by default.
5022 _enable-fast-recent-test_
5023 This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when
5024 traversing folders in the optional Incoming-Folders collection
5025 or in optional News-Collections.
5026 When the TAB (NextNew) key is pressed, the default behavior is
5027 to explicitly examine the status of the folder for the number of
5028 recent messages (messages delivered since the last time it was
5029 viewed). Depending on the size and number of messages in the
5030 folder, this test can be time consuming.
5031 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to only test for the
5032 existence of any recent messages rather than to obtain the
5033 count. This is much faster in many cases. The downside is that
5034 you're not given the number of recent messages when prompted to
5035 view the next folder. If the feature
5036 Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder is turned on, then the present
5037 feature will have no effect.
5038 _enable-flag-cmd_
5039 Setting this feature enables the _* Flag_ command, which allows
5040 you to manipulate the status flags associated with a message. By
5041 default, _Flag_ will set the _Important_ flag, which results in
5042 an asterisk being displayed in column one of the "Folder Index"
5043 for such messages.
5044 This feature is displayed as "Enable Flag Command".
5045 _enable-flag-screen-implicitly_
5046 This feature modifies the behavior of the _* Flag_ command
5047 (provided it too is enabled). By default, when the _* Flag_
5048 command is selected, _Alpine_ offers a prompt to set one of
5049 several flags and also offers the option of entering the
5050 detailed flag manipulation screen via the _^T_ key. Enabling
5051 this feature causes _Alpine_ to immediately enter the detailed
5052 flag screen rather than first offer the simple prompt. The
5053 Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option offers a slightly
5054 different way of setting keywords.
5055 _enable-flag-screen-keyword-shortcut_
5056 This feature modifies the behavior of the Flag command and the
5057 Select command. By default, when the "* Flag" command is
5058 selected, _Alpine_ offers a prompt to set one of several flags
5059 and also offers the option of entering the detailed flag
5060 manipulation screen via the "^T" key. If you have keywords
5061 defined, then enabling this feature adds a shortcut way to set
5062 or unset keywords. You use "*" followed by the first letter of a
5063 keyword (or the nickname of a keyword if you've given it a
5064 nickname) and that will set the keyword.
5065 An example is easier to understand than the explanation. The
5066 flag command can always be used to set the system flags. For
5067 example, to set the Answered flag you would type
5069 * A
5070 Now suppose you have defined a keyword "Work" using the Keywords
5071 option in the Config screen. By default, to set a keyword like
5072 "Work" you would usually have to go to the Flag Details screen
5073 using the "^T To Flag Details" command. Instead, if you have
5074 enabled this feature, you may type
5076 * W
5077 to set the Work flag, or
5079 * ! W
5080 to unset it. Just like for the other flag setting commands, the
5081 case of the letter does not matter, so "w" or "W" both set the
5082 "Work" keyword.
5083 Notice that you can only use this trick for one keyword that
5084 begins with "W". If you happen to have a "Work" keyword and
5085 another keyword that is "WIFI" the "* W" command will set the
5086 first one in your list of keywords. Also, there are five letters
5087 which are reserved for system flags and the NOT command. If you
5088 type "* A" it will always set the Answered flag, not your
5089 "Aardvark" keyword. In order to set the "Aardvark" keyword
5090 you'll still have to use the Flag Details screen.
5091 Because enabling the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option causes
5092 _Alpine_ to skip directly to the Flag Details screen when the
5093 Flag command is used, setting it will cause this feature to have
5094 no effect at all.
5095 Similarly, when Selecting by Keyword, setting this option will
5096 allow you to use Keyword initials instead of full keywords.
5097 _enable-full-header-cmd_
5098 This feature enables the _H Full Headers_ command which toggles
5099 between the display of all headers in the message and the normal
5100 edited view of headers. The _Full Header_ command also controls
5101 which headers are included for _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_,
5102 _Forward_, and _Reply_ functions. (For _Reply_, the _Full Header_
5103 mode will respect the _include-headers-in-reply_ feature
5104 setting.)
5105 If Full Header mode is turned on and you Forward a message, you
5106 will be asked if you'd like to forward the message as an
5107 attachment, as opposed to including the text of the message in
5108 the body of your new message.
5109 If you have also turned on the "Quote Suppression" option then
5110 the Full Headers command actually rotates through three states
5111 instead of just two. The first is the normal view with long
5112 quotes suppressed. The second is the normal view but with the
5113 long quotes included. The last enables the display of all
5114 headers in the message. When using Export, Pipe, Print, Forward,
5115 or Reply the quotes are never suppressed, so the first two
5116 states are identical.
5117 Normally, the Header Mode will reset to the default behavior
5118 when moving to a new message. The mode can be made to persist
5119 from message to message by setting the feature
5120 Quell-Full-Header-Auto-Reset.
5121 This feature is displayed as "Enable Full Header Command".
5122 _enable-full-header-and-text_
5123 This feature affects how the _H Full Headers_ command displays
5124 message text. If set, the raw message text will be displayed.
5125 This especially affects MIME formatted email, where the entire
5126 MIME format will be displayed. This feature similarly affects
5127 how messages are included for the _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_,
5128 _Forward_, and _Reply_ functions.
5129 _enable-goto-in-file-browser_
5130 Setting this causes _Alpine_ to offer the _G Goto_ command in
5131 the file browser. The Goto command allows you to explicitly type
5132 in the desired directory. That is the default.
5133 _enable-incoming-folders_
5134 If set, this feature defines a pseudo-folder collection called
5135 _INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS_. Initially, the only folder included
5136 in this collection will be your _INBOX_, which will no longer
5137 show up in your default saved-message folder collection.
5138 This feature is displayed as "Enable Incoming Folders
5139 Collection".
5140 _enable-incoming-folders-checking_
5141 This feature is only operational if you have enabled the
5142 optional incoming-folders If you do have Incoming Message
5143 Folders and you also set this feature, then the number of Unseen
5144 messages in each folder will be displayed in the FOLDER LIST
5145 screen for the Incoming Message Folders. The number of Unseen
5146 messages in a folder will be displayed in parentheses to the
5147 right of the name of each folder. If there are no Unseen
5148 messages in a folder then only the name is displayed, not a set
5149 of parentheses with zero inside them. A redraw command, Ctrl-L,
5150 can be used in the FOLDER LIST screen for the Incoming Message
5151 Folders to cause an immediate update.
5152 If a check for Unseen messages fails for a particular folder
5153 then Alpine will no longer attempt to check that folder for the
5154 duration of the session and this will be indicated by a question
5155 mark inside the parentheses.
5156 The features incoming-checking-includes-total,
5157 incoming-checking-uses-recent, incoming-check-list,
5158 incoming-check-interval, incoming-check-interval-secondary, and
5159 incoming-check-timeout all affect how this feature behaves.
5160 _Disable-Index-Locale-Dates_
5161 This feature affects the display of dates in the MESSAGE INDEX.
5162 Normally an attempt is made to localize the dates used in the
5163 MESSAGE INDEX display to your locale. This is controlled with
5164 the LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
5165 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the date
5166 format. At the programming level, _Alpine_ is using the strftime
5167 routine to print the parts of a date.
5168 If this feature is set, dates are displayed in English and with
5169 the conventions of the United States.
5170 _enable-jump-shortcut_
5171 When this feature is set you may enter a number (followed by
5172 RETURN) and jump to that message number, when in the MESSAGE
5173 INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screens. In other words, it obviates the
5174 need for typing the _J_ for the _Jump_ command.
5175 _enable-lame-list-mode_
5176 This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to ask your IMAP
5177 server for folder names to display in the the FOLDER LIST
5178 screen. It is intended to compensate for a small set of IMAP
5179 servers that are programmed to ignore a part of the request, and
5180 thus respond to _Alpine_'s query with nonsensical results.
5181 If you find that _Alpine_ is erroneously displaying blank folder
5182 lists, try enabling this feature.
5183 NOTE: Enabling this feature has consequences for the Goto and
5184 Save commands. Many servers allow access to folders outside the
5185 area reserved for your personal folders via some reserved
5186 character, typically '#' (sharp), '~' (tilde) or '/' (slash).
5187 This mechanism allows, at the Goto and Save prompts, quick
5188 access to folders outside your personal folder collection
5189 without requiring a specific collection definition. This
5190 behavior will generally not be available when this feature is
5191 enabled.
5192 This feature is displayed as "Compensate for Deficient IMAP
5193 servers".
5194 _enable-mail-check-cue_
5195 If set, this will cause an asterisk to appear in the upper
5196 left-hand corner of the screen whenever _Alpine_ checks for new
5197 mail, and two asterisks whenever _Alpine_ saves (checkpoints)
5198 the state of the current mailbox to disk.
5199 _enable-mailcap-param-substitution_
5200 If set, this will allow mailcap named parameter substitution to
5201 occur in mailcap entries. By default, this is turned off to
5202 prevent security problems which may occur with some incorrect
5203 mailcap configurations. For more information, RFC1524 and look
5204 for "named parameters" in the text of the RFC.
5205 This feature is displayed as "Enable Mailcap Parameter
5206 Substitution".
5207 _enable-mouse-in-xterm_
5208 This feature controls whether or not an X terminal mouse can be
5209 used with _Alpine_. If set, and the $DISPLAY variable indicates
5210 that an X terminal is being used, the left mouse button on the
5211 mouse can be used to select text or commands. Clicking on a
5212 command at the bottom of the screen will behave as if you had
5213 typed that command. Clicking on an index line will move the
5214 current message highlight to that line. Double-clicking on an
5215 index line will view the message. Double-clicking on a link will
5216 view the link.
5217 This type of mouse support will also work in some terminal
5218 emulators which are not actually X terminals, but which have
5219 extra code to support the xterm style mouse. For those emulators
5220 you not only need to turn this feature on but you also have to
5221 set the $DISPLAY environment variable even though it isn't
5222 needed for your terminal. That will cause _Alpine_ to think that
5223 it is an xterm and to properly interpret the escape sequences
5224 sent by the mouse.
5225 Note: if this feature is set, the behavior of X terminal
5226 cut-and-paste is also modified. It is sometimes possible to hold
5227 the shift key down while clicking left or middle mouse buttons
5228 for the normal xterm cut/paste operations. There is also an
5229 _Alpine_ command to toggle this mode on or off. The command is
5230 Ctrl-\ (Control-backslash).
5231 _enable-msg-view-addresses_
5232 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5233 screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to select possible
5234 email addresses from the displayed text and display them in
5235 boldface for selection.
5236 The first available email address is displayed in inverse. This
5237 is the "selected" address. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_
5238 to enter the message composition screen with the To field filled
5239 in with the selected address.
5240 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the addresses
5241 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5242 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Address
5243 Links".
5244 _enable-msg-view-attachments_
5245 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5246 screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to present
5247 attachments in boldface. The first available attachment is
5248 displayed in inverse. This is the "selected" attachment.
5249 Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display the selected
5250 attachment. Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of
5251 the attachments displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5252 Speaking of arrow keys, the Up and Down Arrows will select the
5253 next and previous attachments if one is available on the screen
5254 for selection. Otherwise, they will simply adjust the viewed
5255 text one line up or down.
5256 Similarly, when selectable items are present in a message, the
5257 Ctrl-F key can be used to select the next item in the message
5258 independent of which portion of the viewed message is currently
5259 displayed. The Ctrl-B key can be used to select the previous
5260 item in the same way.
5261 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Attachment
5262 Links".
5263 _enable-msg-view-forced-arrows_
5264 This feature modifies Up and Down arrow key behavior in
5265 _Alpine_'s "Message Text" screen when selectable Attachments,
5266 URL's, or web-hostnames are presented. _Alpine_'s usual behavior
5267 is to move to the next or previous selectable item if currently
5268 displayed or simply to adjust the screen view by one line if the
5269 next selectable line is off the screen.
5270 Setting this feature causes the Up and Down arrow keys to behave
5271 as if no selectable items were present in the message.
5272 Note, the _Ctrl-F_ (next selectable item) and _Ctrl-B_ (previous
5273 selectable item) functionality is unchanged.
5274 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Forced
5275 Arrows".
5276 _enable-msg-view-urls_
5277 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5278 screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will
5279 select possible URLs from the displayed text and display them in
5280 boldface for selection.
5281 The first available URL is displayed in inverse. This is the
5282 "selected" URL. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display
5283 the selected URL via either built-in means as with mailto:,
5284 imap:, news:, and nntp:, or via an external application as
5285 defined by the url-viewers variable.
5286 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the URLs
5287 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5288 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View URL Links".
5289 _enable-msg-view-web-hostnames_
5290 This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
5291 screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will
5292 select possible web hostnames from the displayed text and
5293 display them in boldface for selection.
5294 The first available hostname is displayed in inverse. This is
5295 the "selected" hostname. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_
5296 to display the selected hostname via an external application as
5297 defined by the url-viewers variable.
5298 Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the hostnames
5299 displayed in boldface is the current selection.
5300 This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Web Hostname
5301 Links".
5302 _enable-multiple-newsrcs_
5303 This feature makes it so _Alpine_ can use multiple newsrcs based
5304 on the news server being connected to, which allows for separate
5305 lists of subscribed-to newsgroups. When this feature is not set,
5306 there is only one list of newsgroups.
5307 Under this feature, the name of a newsrc is based on the news
5308 server. For example, if your newsrc-path is set to ".newsrc",
5309 and the news server you are connecting to is news.example.com,
5310 then the newsrc to be used is .newsrc-news.example.com. Setting
5311 this feature for the first time will allow for the option of
5312 using your old newsrc the next time you read news.
5313 If this feature is set, then the feature
5314 Mult-Newsrc-Hostnames-As-Typed also may affect the name of the
5315 newsrc file that is used.
5316 _enable-newmail-in-xterm-icon_
5317 This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will attempt to
5318 announce new mail arrival when it is running in an X terminal
5319 window and that window is iconified. If set, and the $DISPLAY
5320 variable indicates that an X terminal is being used, _Alpine_
5321 will send appropriate escape sequences to the X terminal to
5322 modify the label on _Alpine_'s icon to indicate that new mail
5323 has arrived. _Alpine_ will also modify the _Alpine_ window's
5324 title to indicate new mail. See also
5325 Enable-Newmail-Short-Text-in-Icon.
5326 _enable-newmail-short-text-in-icon_
5327 This feature controls the text to be displayed in an icon in the
5328 event of a new message arrival. Normally, the message will be
5329 the one that is displayed on the screen. This feature shortens
5330 the message to a count of the number of new messages in
5331 brackets. This may be more useful for those who use the window's
5332 title bar in the task bar as a new mail indicator. This feature
5333 is only useful if the Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon is also set.
5334 Like the Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon feature, this feature is
5335 only relevant when run in an xterm environment.
5336 _enable-partial-match-lists_
5337 This feature affects the subcommands available when _Sav_ing or
5338 Opening a new folder. If set, the subcommand _^X ListMatches_
5339 will be available. This command allows you to type in a
5340 substring of the folder you are looking for and when you type
5341 _^X_ it will display all folders which contain that substring in
5342 their names. This feature is set by default.
5343 _enable-print-via-y-command_
5344 By default, _Alpine_'s print command is available by pressing
5345 the _%_ key. In older versions of _Pine_, the print command was
5346 accessed by pressing the _Y_ key.
5347 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to recognize both the
5348 old command, _Y_, and the new _%_ method for invoking printing.
5349 Note, key menu labels are not changed as a result of enabling
5350 this feature.
5351 _enable-reply-indent-string-editing_
5352 This feature affects the Reply command's "Include original
5353 message in Reply?" prompt. When enabled, it causes the "Edit
5354 Indent String" sub-command to appear which allows you to edit
5355 the string _Alpine_ would otherwise use to denote included text
5356 from the message being replied to.
5357 Thus, you can change _Alpine_'s default message quote character
5358 (usually an angle bracket) on a per message basis. So you could
5359 change your quoted message to look, for example, like this:
5360 On Tues, 26 Jan 1999, John Q. Smith wrote:
5362 John: I just wanted to say hello and to congratulate you
5363 John: on a job well done!
5364 The configuration option "reply-indent-string" may be used to
5365 change what appears as the default string to be edited.
5366 NOTE: Edited reply-indent-strings only apply to the message
5367 currently being replied to.
5368 _enable-rules-under-take_
5369 Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and
5370 helps you put them into your Address Book. If you use Rules for
5371 Indexcolors, Roles, Filtering, or Scoring; you may find it
5372 useful to be able to Take information from a message's headers
5373 and put it into a new Rule. When this feature is set, you will
5374 be given an extra prompt which gives you the choice to Take into
5375 the Address Book or Take into a rule.
5376 This feature is displayed as "Enable Take Rules".
5377 _enable-search-and-replace_
5378 If set _Alpine_'s composer offers the _R Replace_ command option
5379 inside the _W WhereIs_ command.
5380 _enable-sigdashes_
5381 If set and a _signature-file_ exists, the line consisting of the
5382 three characters "-- " (dash dash space) is included before the
5383 signature. This only happens if the signature doesn't already
5384 contain such a line.
5385 In addition, when you Reply or Followup to a message containing
5386 one of these special lines and choose to include its text,
5387 _Alpine_ will observe the convention of not including text beyond
5388 the special line in your reply.
5389 _enable-suspend_
5390 Setting this feature will allow you to type _^Z_ and temporarily
5391 suspend _Alpine_. Not available on _PC-Alpine_.
5392 _enable-tab-completion_
5393 This feature enables the _TAB_ key when at a prompt for a
5394 filename. In this case, _TAB_ will cause the partial name
5395 already entered to be automatically completed, provided the
5396 partial name is unambiguous. This feature is set by default.
5397 Similarly, this feature also enables TAB completion of address
5398 book nicknames when at a prompt for a nickname, or when typing
5399 in an address field in the composer.
5400 _enable-take-export_
5401 Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and
5402 helps you put them into your Address Book. When this feature is
5403 set, you will be given an extra prompt which gives you the
5404 choice to Take addresses into a file instead of your Address
5405 Book. Only the user@domain_name part of the address is put in
5406 the file.
5407 _enable-tray-icon_
5408 _PC-Alpine_ only. This option restores a behavior of previous
5409 versions of PC-Alpine. These versions, when started, installed a
5410 PC-Alpine icon in the notification tray of Window's Taskbar. The
5411 primary use of this icon was to indicate new mail arrival by
5412 turning red (while the Taskbar icon remained green).
5413 Additionally, the icon now changes to yellow to signify that a
5414 mail folder has been closed unexpectedly.
5415 Rather than add another icon to the Taskbar, this version of
5416 PC-Alpine will color its Taskbar entry's icon red (as well as
5417 the icon in the Window Title). This feature is only provided for
5418 backwards compatibility.
5419 _enable-unix-pipe-cmd_
5420 This feature enables the _| Pipe_ command that sends the current
5421 message to the specified Unix command for external processing.
5422 This feature is displayed as "Enable Unix Pipe Command".
5423 _enable-verbose-smtp-posting_
5424 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s message sending.
5425 When enabled, _Alpine_ will send a VERB (i.e., VERBose) command
5426 early in the posting process intended to cause the server SMTP
5427 to provide a more detailed account of the transaction. This
5428 feature is typically only useful to system administrators and
5429 other support personel as an aid in troublshooting problems.
5430 Note, this feature relies on a specific capability of the
5431 system's mail transport agent or configured smtp-server.
5432 _expanded-view-of-addressbooks_
5433 If multiple address books (either personal or global) are
5434 defined, and you wish to have them all expanded implicitly upon
5435 entering the ADDRESS BOOK screen, then set this feature. This
5436 feature will have no effect unless the feature
5437 combined-addrbook-display is also set.
5438 _expanded-view-of-distribution-lists_
5439 If this feature is set, then distribution lists in the address
5440 book screen will always be expanded automatically.
5441 _expanded-view-of-folders_
5442 If multiple folder collections are defined, and you wish to have
5443 them all expanded implicitly upon entering the FOLDER LIST
5444 screen, then set this feature. This feature will have no effect
5445 unless the feature combined-folder-display is also set.
5446 _expose-hidden-config_
5447 The purpose of this feature is to allow you to change
5448 configuration features and variables which are normally hidden.
5449 This is particularly useful if you are using a remote
5450 configuration file, where it is difficult to edit the file
5451 manually, but it may also be used on a local pinerc
5452 configuration file.
5453 If set, most configuration variables and features which are
5454 normally hidden from view will show up in the
5455 Setup/Configuration screen. They will be at the bottom of the
5456 configuration screen. You can find them by searching for the
5457 word "hidden".
5458 Note that this is an advanced feature which should be used with
5459 care. The reason that this part of the configuration is normally
5460 hidden is because there is a significant potential for causing
5461 problems if you change these variables. If something breaks
5462 after a change try changing it back to see if that is what is
5463 causing the problem. There are also some variables which are
5464 normally hidden because they are manipulated through _Alpine_ in
5465 other ways. For example, the "address-book" variable is normally
5466 set using the Setup/AddressBooks screen, so there is little
5467 reason to edit it directly. The "incoming-folders" variable is
5468 normally changed by using the Add, Delete, and Rename commands
5469 in the FOLDER LIST screen, and the "last-time-prune-questioned"
5470 variable is normally used internally by _Alpine_ and not set
5471 directly by the user.
5472 _expunge-only-manually_
5473 Normally, when you close a folder which contains deleted
5474 messages you are asked if you want to expunge those messages
5475 from the folder permanently. If this feature is set, you won't
5476 be asked and the deleted messages will remain in the folder. If
5477 you choose to set this feature you will have to expunge the
5478 messages manually using the eXpunge command, which you can use
5479 while in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not expunge deleted
5480 messages the size of your folder will continue to increase until
5481 you are out of disk space.
5482 _expunge-without-confirm_
5483 If set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent before
5484 the expunge takes place. Actually, you will still be prompted
5485 for confirmation if the folder is not the _INBOX_ folder or
5486 another folder in the Incoming Folders collection. See the
5487 _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_ feature which follows.
5488 This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming".
5489 _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_
5490 The regular _expunge-without-confirm_ feature actually only
5491 works for the _INBOX_ folder and for other folders in the
5492 "Incoming Folders" collection. If this feature is set then you
5493 also won't be prompted to confirm expunges for all other
5494 folders.
5495 This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming
5496 Everywhere".
5497 _fcc-on-bounce_
5498 If set, normal Fcc (File Carbon Copy) processing will be done
5499 for bounced messages, just as if you had composed a message to
5500 the address you are bouncing to. If not set, no Fcc of the
5501 message will be saved.
5502 This feature is displayed as "Include Fcc When Bouncing
5503 Messages".
5504 _fcc-only-without-confirm_
5505 This features controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s composer. The
5506 only time this feature will be used is if you attempt to send
5507 mail which has no recipients but does have an Fcc. Normally,
5508 _Alpine_ will ask if you really mean to copy the message only to
5509 the Fcc. That is, it asks if you really meant to have no
5510 recipients. If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted
5511 to confirm your intent to make only a copy of a message with no
5512 recipients.
5513 This feature is closely related to
5514 warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups. The difference between
5515 this feature and that feature is that this feature considers a
5516 Bcc to be a recipient while that feature will ask for
5517 confirmation even if there is a Bcc when there is no To, Cc, or
5518 Newsgroup. The default values also differ. This feature defaults
5519 to asking the question and you have to turn it off. The
5520 warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups feature defaults to not
5521 asking unless you turn it on.
5522 This feature is displayed as "Send to Fcc Only Without
5523 Confirming".
5524 _fcc-without-attachments_
5525 This features controls the way FCC's (File Carbon Copies) are
5526 made of the messages you send.
5527 Normally, _Alpine_ saves an exact copy of your message as it was
5528 sent. When this feature is enabled, the "body" of the message
5529 you send (the text you type in the composer) is preserved in the
5530 copy as before, however all attachments are replaced with text
5531 explaining what had been sent rather than the attachments
5532 themselves.
5533 This feature also affects _Alpine_'s "Send ?" confirmation
5534 prompt in that a new "^F Fcc Attchmnts" option becomes available
5535 which allows you to interactively set whether or not attachments
5536 are saved to the Fcc'd copy.
5537 This feature is displayed as "Fcc Does Not Include Attachments".
5538 _force-arrow-cursor_
5539 This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display routine.
5540 If set, the normal inverse-video cursor will be replaced by a
5541 simple "arrow" cursor, which normally occupies the second column
5542 of the index display.
5543 This is the same index cursor you get if you turn on
5544 Assume-Slow-Link, but the index line coloring will still be
5545 present if this feature is turned on and Assume-Slow-Link is
5546 off.
5547 An alternative version of the Arrow cursor is available by
5548 including the ARROW token in the Index-Format option.
5549 It ought to be the case that this feature also affects the
5550 ATTACHMENT INDEX, but that is not implemented.
5551 _hide-nntp-path_
5552 Normally the Path header that _Alpine_ generates when posting to
5553 a newsgroup contains the name of the computer from which the
5554 message is being sent and the user name. Some believe that this
5555 information is used by spammers. If this feature is set, that
5556 information will be replaced with the text
5558 not-for-mail
5559 instead.
5560 It should be noted that many servers being connected to will
5561 still reveal the information that this feature attempts to
5562 protect.
5563 _include-attachments-in-reply_
5564 If set, any MIME attachments that were part of the original
5565 message will automatically be included in a _Reply_.
5566 _include-header-in-reply_
5567 If set, and a message being replied to is included in the
5568 _Reply_, then headers from that message will also be part of the
5569 reply.
5570 _include-text-in-reply_
5571 Normally, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to include the
5572 original message in your _Reply_. If this feature is set and the
5573 feature enable-reply-indent-string-editing is _not_ set, then
5574 the original message will be included in the reply
5575 automatically, without prompting.
5576 _incoming-checking-includes-total_
5577 This option has no effect unless the feature
5578 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
5579 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
5580 When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to
5581 display the number of unseen messages in each folder. More
5582 precisely, it is the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using
5583 this option you may also display the total number of messages in
5584 each folder. Instead of a single number representing the number
5585 of unseen messages you will get two numbers separated by a slash
5586 character. The first is the number of unseen messages and the
5587 second is the total number of messages.
5588 You may also use the recent message count instead of the unseen
5589 message count by turning on the feature
5590 incoming-checking-uses-recent.
5591 _incoming-checking-uses-recent_
5592 This option has no effect unless the feature
5593 enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no
5594 effect unless incoming-folders is set.
5595 When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to
5596 display the number of unseen messages in each folder. More
5597 precisely, it is the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using
5598 this option you may display the number of recent messages
5599 instead of the number of unseen messages. A message is only
5600 counted as recent if this is the first session to see it, so the
5601 recent count might be less than the unseen count. The difference
5602 between the two would be accounted for by the unseen messages in
5603 the folder which were there previously but have not been looked
5604 at yet.
5605 If you simultaneously run more than one email client at a time
5606 (for example, you run more than one _Alpine_ in parallel) then
5607 turning this feature on can cause some confusion. The confusion
5608 stems from the fact that each message is only considered to be
5609 recent in one session. That means that the counts of new
5610 messages may be different in the two _Alpine_s running side by
5611 side, because each incoming message will only be counted as
5612 recent in one of the two sessions.
5613 You may also display the total number of messages in each folder
5614 by using the incoming-checking-includes-total option.
5615 _ldap-result-to-addrbook-add_
5616 This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP
5617 library when it was compiled. If both the per-directory-server
5618 option use-implicitly-from-composer and this feature are set,
5619 then when an implicit directory lookup is done from the composer
5620 you will automatically be prompted to add the result of the
5621 directory lookup to your address book.
5622 This feature is displayed as "LDAP Result to Addressbook Add".
5623 _maildrops-preserve-state_
5624 This feature affects the way Mail Drops work. Normally, when
5625 mail is moved from a Mail Drop folder to a destination folder,
5626 the state changes that have taken place since the mail was
5627 originally delivered are lost. Any Seen/New, Answered,
5628 Important/Flagged state that has changed will be ignored. All of
5629 the mail will be considered unSeen, unAnswered, and unImportant
5630 after it is moved.
5631 If this feature is set, then the state changes will not be lost.
5632 In any case, messages which are already marked Deleted when the
5633 mail is to be copied from the Mail Drop will be ignored.
5634 _mark-fcc-seen_
5635 This features controls the way FCCs (File Carbon Copies) are
5636 made of the messages you send. Normally, when _Alpine_ saves a
5637 copy of a message you sent as an Fcc, that copy will be marked
5638 as Unseen. When you look at the folder it was saved in the
5639 message will appear to be a New message until you read it. When
5640 this feature is enabled, the message will be marked as having
5641 been Seen.
5642 _mark-for-cc_
5643 This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display. By
5644 default, a '+' is displayed in the first column if the message
5645 is addressed directly to you. When this feature is set and the
5646 message is not addressed to you, then a '-' character is
5647 displayed if the message is instead Cc'd directly to you.
5648 _mult-newsrc-hostnames-as-typed_
5649 This feature will be of little use to most users. It has no
5650 effect unless the feature Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs is set. When
5651 the Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs feature is set then the setting of
5652 this feature may have an effect on the names of the newsrc files
5653 used. Normally, the name of the news server will be
5654 canonicalized before it is used in the newsrc file name. For
5655 example, if you type the news server name
5657 servername
5658 it is likely that the canonical name will be something like
5660 servername.example.com
5661 Or it may be the case that
5663 servername.example.com
5664 is really an alias (a DNS CNAME) for
5666 othername.example.com
5667 If this feature is not set, then the canonicalized names will be
5668 used. If this feature is set, then the name you typed in (or put
5669 in your configuration) will be used.
5670 This feature is displayed as "Multiple Newsrc Hostnames as
5671 Typed".
5672 _news-approximates-new-status_
5673 This feature causes certain messages to be marked as _New_ in
5674 the MESSAGE INDEX of newsgroups. This feature is set by default.
5675 When opening a newsgroup, _Alpine_ will consult your _newsrc_
5676 file and determine the last message you have previously disposed
5677 of via the _D_ key. If this feature is set, any subsequent
5678 messages will be shown in the Index with an _N_, and the first
5679 of these messages will be highlighted. Although this is only an
5680 approximation of true _New_ or _Unseen_ status, it provides a
5681 useful cue to distinguish more-or-less recent messages from
5682 those you have seen previously, but are not yet ready to mark
5683 deleted.
5684 Background: your _newsrc_ file (used to store message status
5685 information for newsgroups) is only capable of storing a single
5686 flag, and _Alpine_ uses this to record whether or not you are
5687 "done with" a message, as indicated by marking the message as
5688 _Deleted_. Unfortunately, this means that _Alpine_ has no way to
5689 record exactly which messages you have previously seen, so it
5690 normally does not show the _N_ status flag for any messages in a
5691 newsgroup. This feature enables a starting _approximation_ of
5692 seen/unseen status that may be useful.
5693 _news-deletes-across-groups_
5694 This feature controls what _Alpine_ does when you delete a
5695 message in a newsgroup that appears in more than one newsgroup.
5696 Such a message is sometimes termed a "crossposting" in that it
5697 was posted across several newsgroups.
5698 _Alpine_'s default behavior when you delete such a message is to
5699 remove only the copy in the current newsgroup from view when you
5700 use the "Exclude" command or the next time you visit the
5701 newsgroup.
5702 Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to remove every occurrence
5703 of the message from all newsgroups it appears in and to which
5704 you are subscribed.
5705 NOTE: As currently implemented, enabling this feature may
5706 increase the time it takes the Expunge command and newsgroup
5707 closing to complete.
5708 _news-offers-catchup-on-close_
5709 This feature controls what _Alpine_ does as it closes a
5710 newsgroup. When set, _Alpine_ will offer to delete all messages
5711 from the newsgroup as you are quitting _Alpine_ or opening a new
5712 folder.
5713 This feature is useful if you typically read all the interesting
5714 messages in a newsgroup each time you open it. This feature
5715 saves you from having to delete each message in a newsgroup as
5716 you read it or from selecting all the messages and doing an
5717 aggregate delete before you move on to the next folder or
5718 newsgroup.
5719 _news-post-without-validation_
5720 This feature controls whether the NNTP server is queried as
5721 newsgroups are entered for posting. Validation over slow links
5722 (e.g. dialup using SLIP or PPP) can cause delays. Set this
5723 feature to eliminate such delays.
5724 _news-read-in-newsrc-order_
5725 This feature controls the order that newsgroups will be
5726 presented. If set, they will be presented in the same order as
5727 they occur in your _newsrc_ file. If not set, the newsgroups
5728 will be presented in alphabetical order.
5729 _next-thread-without-confirm_
5730 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Next and Prev
5731 commands in the case where you are using one of the
5732 "separate-index-screen" styles for the configuration option
5733 threading-index-style and currently have the folder sorted by a
5734 Threaded or OrderedSubject sort. When you are Viewing a
5735 particular thread you have a MESSAGE INDEX of only the messages
5736 in that thread. If you press the Next command with the last
5737 message in the thread highlighted you will normally be asked if
5738 you want to "View next thread?", assuming there is a next thread
5739 to view. If this feature is set it will be assumed that you
5740 always want to view the next thread and you won't be asked to
5741 confirm that. Similarly, if the first message of the thread is
5742 highlighted and you press the Prev command, this feature will
5743 prevent the question "View previous thread".
5744 This feature only has an effect in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If
5745 you then view a particular message from that screen and press
5746 the Next command, you will be sent to the next thread without
5747 being asked, independent of the setting of this feature.
5748 The feature auto-open-next-unread, also has some similar
5749 effects.
5750 This feature is displayed as "Read Next Thread Without
5751 Confirming".
5752 _offer-expunge-of-inbox_
5753 The INBOX is normally treated differently from regular folders
5754 in several ways. One of the differences is that the normal
5755 "close" sequence of events is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited,
5756 instead of happening when you leave the INBOX to view another
5757 folder. The "close" sequence normally includes the Expunging of
5758 deleted messages (either automatically or after a prompt,
5759 controlled by the features Expunge-Without-Confirm,
5760 Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and Expunge-Only-Manually),
5761 and the handling of the Read-Message-Folder.
5762 If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take
5763 place every time you leave the INBOX. The INBOX will still be
5764 kept open, but the offer to Expunge and the archiving to the
5765 Read-Message-Folder will take place each time you leave the
5766 INBOX instead of only once at the end of the session.
5767 _offer-expunge-of-stayopen-folders_
5768 This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders. Stay
5769 Open folders are treated differently from regular folders in
5770 several ways. One of the differences is that the normal "close"
5771 sequence of events is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited, instead
5772 of happening when you leave the folder to view another folder.
5773 The "close" sequence normally includes the Expunging of deleted
5774 messages (either automatically or after a prompt, controlled by
5775 the features Expunge-Without-Confirm,
5776 Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and Expunge-Only-Manually),
5777 and the handling of Incoming-Archive-Folders.
5778 If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take
5779 place when you leave the Stay Open folder. The folder will still
5780 be kept open, but the offer to Expunge and the archiving will
5781 take place each time you leave the folder instead of only once
5782 at the end of the session. This feature does not affect the
5783 INBOX, which will still only be processed when you exit
5784 _Alpine_.
5785 _pass-c1-control-characters-as-is_
5786 It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy
5787 option left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which
5788 have an octet which has the same value as a control character
5789 are permitted through whether or not this option is turned on.
5790 If the feature pass-control-characters-as-is is set, then this
5791 feature has no effect. However, if you wish to filter out
5792 regular control characters but pass the so-called C1 control
5793 characters (0x80 <= char < 0xA0) through unchanged, then you may
5794 leave pass-control-characters-as-is unset and set this feature.
5795 _pass-control-characters-as-is_
5796 It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy
5797 option left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which
5798 have an octet which has the same value as a control character
5799 are permitted through whether or not this option is turned on.
5800 If set, all characters in a message will be sent to the screen.
5801 Normally, control characters are automatically suppressed in
5802 order to avoid inadvertently changing terminal setup parameters.
5803 Control characters are usually displayed as two character
5804 sequences like
5806 ^C
5807 for Control-C,
5809 ^[
5810 for ESCAPE,
5812 ^?
5813 for DELETE, and
5815 ~E
5816 for the character with value 133 (0x85). (The DEL character is
5817 displayed as ^?, regular control characters are displayed as the
5818 character ^ followed by the character obtained by adding the
5819 five low-order bits of the character to 0x40, and the C1 control
5820 characters 0x80 - 0x9F are displayed as the character ~ followed
5821 by the character obtained by adding the five low-order bits of
5822 the character to 0x40.) Sometimes, in cases where changing a
5823 single control character into a two-character sequence would
5824 confuse _Alpine_'s display routines, a question mark is
5825 substituted for the control character.
5826 If you wish to filter out regular control characters but pass
5827 the so-called C1 control characters (0x80 <= char < 0xA0)
5828 through unchanged, then you may leave this feature unset and set
5829 the feature pass-c1-control-characters-as-is instead.
5830 _predict-nntp-server_
5831 This feature allows _Alpine_ to assume that the open NNTP server
5832 at the time of composition is the NNTP server to which the
5833 message should be posted. This is especially recommended when
5834 there are multiple News collections. If this feature is not set,
5835 _Alpine_ will try to post to the first server in the nntp-server
5836 variable. Setting this feature also negates the need to add News
5837 collection servers to the nntp-server variable.
5838 This feature can be especially handy when used in conjunction
5839 with enable-multiple-newsrcs.
5840 This option is displayed as "NNTP Server (for news)".
5841 _prefer-plain-text_
5842 A message being viewed may contain alternate versions of the
5843 same content. Those alternate versions are ordered by the
5844 sending software such that the first alternative is the least
5845 preferred and the last alternative is the most preferred.
5846 _Alpine_ will normally display the most-preferred version that it
5847 knows how to display. This is most often encountered where the
5848 two alternate versions are a plain text version and an HTML
5849 version, with the HTML version listed last as the most
5850 preferred.
5851 If this option is set, then any plain text version will be
5852 preferred to all other versions.
5853 _preopen-stayopen-folders_
5854 This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders.
5855 Normally, Stay Open folders are only opened on demand, when the
5856 user asks to open them. From then on they are kept open for the
5857 duration of the session. However, if this feature is set, then
5858 the Stay Open folders will all be opened at startup, at the same
5859 time that the INBOX is opened.
5860 _preserve-start-stop-characters_
5861 This feature controls how special control key characters,
5862 typically _^S_ and _^Q_, are interpreted when input to _Alpine_.
5863 These characters are known as the "start" and "stop" characters
5864 and are sometimes used in communications paths to control data
5865 flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
5866 By default, _Alpine_ turns the system's handling of these
5867 special characters off except during printing. However, if you
5868 see _Alpine_ reporting input errors such as:
5870 [ Command "^Q" not defined for this screen. ]
5871 and, at the same time, see your display become garbled, then it
5872 is likely that setting this option will solve the problem. Be
5873 aware, though, that enabling this feature will also cause
5874 _Alpine_ to ostensibly "hang" whenever the _Ctrl-S_ key
5875 combination is entered as the system is now interpreting such
5876 input as a "stop output" command. To "start output" again,
5877 simply type _Ctrl-Q_.
5878 This feature is displayed as "Preserve Start/Stop Characters".
5879 _print-formfeed-between-messages_
5880 Setting this feature causes a formfeed to be printed between
5881 messages when printing multiple messages with the _Apply Print_
5882 command.
5883 _print-includes-from-line_
5884 If this feature is set, then the Unix mail style From line is
5885 included at the start of each message that is printed. This line
5886 looks something like the following, with the address replaced by
5887 the address from the From line of the message being printed:
5889 From user@domain.somewhere.com Mon May 13 14:11:06 1996
5890 _print-index-enabled_
5891 This feature controls the behavior of the _Print_ command when
5892 in the "Folder Index" screen. If set, the _Print_ command will
5893 give you a prompt asking if you wish to print the message index,
5894 or the currently highlighted message. If not set, the message
5895 will be printed.
5896 _print-offers-custom-cmd-prompt_
5897 When this feature is set, the _Print_ command will have an
5898 additional subcommand called _C CustomPrint_. If selected, you
5899 will have the opportunity to enter any system print command,
5900 instead of being restricted to using those that have been
5901 previously configured in the _Setup/Printer_ screen.
5902 This feature is displayed as "Print Offers Custom Command
5903 Prompt".
5904 _prune-uses-yyyy-mm_
5905 By default, _Alpine_ asks monthly whether or not you would like
5906 to rename some folders to a new name containing the date. It
5907 also asks whether or not you would like to delete some old
5908 folders. See the pruning-rule option for an explanation.
5909 By default, the name used when renaming a folder looks like
5911 <foldername>-<month>-<year>
5912 For example, the first time you run _Alpine_ in May of 2004, the
5913 folder "sent-mail" might be renamed to
5915 sent-mail-apr-2004
5916 If this feature is set, the name used will be of the form
5918 <foldername>-<yyyy>-<mm>
5919 where "yyyy" is the year and "mm" is the two-digit month (01,
5920 02, ..., 12). For the April, 2004 example above, it would
5921 instead be
5923 sent-mail-2004-04
5924 because April is the 4th month of the year. A reason you might
5925 want to set this feature is so that the folders will sort in
5926 chronological order.
5927 _publiccerts-in-keychain_
5928 Mac OS X _Alpine_ only.
5929 If this feature is set the Mac OS X default keychain will be
5930 used as the place to store public certificates instead of a
5931 smime-public-cert-directory or a smime-public-cert-container.
5932 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Public Certs in MacOS
5933 Keychain".
5934 _quell-attachment-extension-warn_
5935 This feature suppresses the extra warning you can get when
5936 trying to view an attachment for which there is no mime-type
5937 match. Turning on this feature will just run the program
5938 according to extension instead of first warning the user that it
5939 will run according to the file's extension.
5940 This feature can be used along side
5941 quell-attachment-extra-prompt to preserve the behavior exhibited
5942 in _Pine_ versions prior to _Pine_ 4.50.
5943 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extension
5944 Warning".
5945 _quell-attachment-extra-prompt_
5946 By default, when you attempt to view an attachment externally
5947 from the "Attachment View" screen, you are asked if you really
5948 want to view the selected attachment.
5949 If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm
5950 your selection. Prior to _Pine_ 4.50, the default behavior was
5951 to not prompt. This feature was added for those wanting to
5952 preserve that behavior.
5953 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extra Prompt".
5954 _quell-berkeley-format-timezone_
5955 POSIX mandates a timezone in UNIX mailbox format folder
5956 delimiters (the line which begins with From ). Some versions of
5957 Berkeley mail have trouble with this, and don't recognize the
5958 line as a message delimiter. If this feature is set, the
5959 timezone will be left off the delimiter line.
5960 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Berkeley Format
5961 Timezone".
5962 _quell-charset-warning_
5963 By default, if the message you are viewing contains characters
5964 that are not representable in your display-character-set then
5965 _Alpine_ will add a warning to the start of the displayed text.
5966 If this option is set, then that editorial message will be
5967 suppressed.
5968 Setting this feature also suppresses the comment about the
5969 character set in header lines. For example, when viewing a
5970 message you might see
5972 From: "[ISO-8859-2] Name" <address>
5973 in the From header if your Character-Set is something other than
5974 ISO-8859-2. If you set this feature, the comment about the
5975 character set will no longer be there.
5976 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Character Set Warning".
5977 _quell-content-id_
5978 This feature changes the behavior of _Alpine_ when sending
5979 messages. It is intended to work around a bug in Microsoft's
5980 Outlook XP mail user agent. As of this writing, Microsoft has
5981 acknowledged the bug but has not added it to the Knowledge Base.
5982 We have been told that there will be a post-SP1 hotfix for
5983 Outlook XP. This particular bug has bug fix number
5984 OfficeQFE:4781. The nature of the bug is that messages with
5985 attachments which contain a Content-ID header (which standard
5986 _Alpine_ attachments do) do not show the attachment indicator (a
5987 paperclip) when viewed with Outlook XP. So the user has no
5988 indication that the message contains an attachment.
5989 If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will remove most Content-ID
5990 headers before sending a message. If an attachment is of type
5991 MESSAGE, then the existing Content-ID headers inside the message
5992 will be left intact. This would only happen with _Alpine_ if a
5993 message was forwarded as an attachment or if a message with a
5994 message attached was forwarded. Similarly if an attachment of
5995 type MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE is forwarded, the Content-ID headers
5996 of the alternative parts will not be removed.
5997 Because the Content-ID header is a standard part of MIME it is
5998 possible that setting this feature will break something. For
5999 example, if an attachment has a Content-ID header which is
6000 necessary for the correct functioning of that attachment, it is
6001 possible that _Alpine_ may remove that header when the
6002 attachment is forwarded. However, it seems fairly safe at this
6003 time.
6004 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Content-ID".
6005 _quell-dead-letter-on-cancel_
6006 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a
6007 message being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write
6008 the canceled message to a file named dead.letter in your home
6009 directory (under UNIX; DEADLETR under WINDOWS/DOS) overwriting
6010 any previous message. Under some conditions (some routine), this
6011 can introduce a noticeable delay.
6012 Setting this feature will cause _Alpine_ NOT to write canceled
6013 compositions into the file called dead.letter.
6014 This feature affects the newer option Dead-Letter-Files, which
6015 specifies the number of dead letter files to keep around. If
6016 this feature is set, then the Dead-Letter-Files option has no
6017 effect.
6018 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Save to Deadletter on
6019 Cancel".
6020 _quell-empty-directories_
6021 This feature causes _Alpine_ to remove from the display any
6022 directories that do not contain at least one file or directory.
6023 This can be useful to prevent overly cluttered folder lists when
6024 a collection is stored on a server that treats all names as both
6025 a folder and a directory.
6026 Note, enabling this feature can cause surprising behavior! For
6027 example, you can still use Add to create a directory, but unless
6028 you immediately enter that directory and create a folder, that
6029 newly created directory may not be displayed next time you enter
6030 the folder list.
6031 This feature is displayed as "Hide Empty Directories".
6032 _quell-extra-post-prompt_
6033 This feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the extra question about
6034 posting a message which may go to thousands of readers when you
6035 are about to post to a newsgroup.
6036 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Extra Posting Prompt".
6037 _quell-filtering-done-message_
6038 This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the "filtering done"
6039 message.
6040 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Done Message".
6041 _quell-filtering-messages_
6042 This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the messages about
6043 moving filtered messages and setting flags in messages, due to
6044 Filter Rules.
6045 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Messages".
6046 _quell-flowed-text_
6047 _Alpine_ generates flowed text where possible. The method for
6048 generating flowed text is defined by RFC 3676, the benefit of
6049 doing so is to send message text that can properly be viewed
6050 both on normal width displays and on displays with smaller or
6051 larger than normal screen widths. With flowed text, a space at
6052 the end of a line tells the receiving mail client that the
6053 following line belongs to the same paragraph. Quoted text will
6054 also be affected, with only the innermost level of ">" quoting
6055 being followed by a space. However, if you have changed the
6056 "Reply-Indent-String" so that it is not equal to the default
6057 value of "> ", then quoted text will not be flowed. For this
6058 reason, we recommend that you leave your "Reply-Indent-String"
6059 set to the default.
6060 This feature turns off the generation of flowed text, as it
6061 might be desired to more tightly control how a message is
6062 displayed on the receiving end.
6063 If this feature is _not_ set, you can control on a message by
6064 message basis whether or not flowed text is generated. You do
6065 this by typing ^V at the Send confirmation prompt that you get
6066 after typing ^X to send a message. ^V is a toggle which turns
6067 flowing off and back on if typed again. If for some reason
6068 flowing cannot be done on a particular message, then the ^V
6069 command will not be available. This would be the case, for
6070 example, if this feature was set, or if your
6071 "Reply-Indent-String" was set to a non-default value. If the
6072 feature Send-Without-Confirm is set, then the opportunity to
6073 control on a message by message basis whether or not flowed text
6074 is generated is lost.
6075 When this feature is not set and you have typed ^V to turn off
6076 flowing, the Send confirmation prompt will change to look like
6078 Send message (not flowed)?
6079 Strip-Whitespace-Before-Send will also turn off the sending of
6080 flowed text messages, but it differs in that it also trims all
6081 trailing white space from a message before sending it.
6082 If alternate editors are used extensively, be aware that a
6083 message will still be sent flowed if this feature is unset. In
6084 most cases this will be fine, but if the editor has a "flowed
6085 text" mode, it would be best to use that.
6086 This feature is displayed as "Do Not Send Flowed Text".
6087 _quell-folder-internal-msg_
6088 This feature determines whether or not _Alpine_ will create
6089 "pseudo messages" in folders that are in standard Unix or MMDF
6090 format.
6091 _Alpine_ will normally create these pseudo messages when they
6092 are not already present in a standard Unix or MMDF folder. Their
6093 purpose is to record certain mailbox state data needed for
6094 correct IMAP and POP server operation, and also for _Alpine_ to
6095 be able to mark messages as Answered when the Reply has been
6096 postponed.
6097 Sites which do not use IMAP/POP for remote mail access, and
6098 which need to support mail tools that are adversely affected by
6099 the presence of the pseudo-messages (e.g. some mail notification
6100 tools) may enable this feature to tell _Alpine_ not to create
6101 them. Note that _Alpine_'s "Answered" flag capability will be
6102 adversely affected if this is done.
6103 Note too that, even if this feature is enabled, _Alpine_ will
6104 not remove pseudo-messages when it encounters them (e.g. those
6105 created by UW's imapd or ipopd servers.) This feature has no
6106 effect on folders that are not in standard Unix or MMDF format,
6107 as pseudo-messages are not needed in the other formats to record
6108 mailbox state information.
6109 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Folder Internal Message".
6110 _quell-full-header-auto-reset_
6111 The HdrMode Command normally resets to the default state when
6112 switching to a new message. For example, if you've used the "H"
6113 command to turn on Full Headers for a message you are viewing,
6114 and then you type the Next command to look at the next message,
6115 the full headers will no longer be shown. Setting this feature
6116 disables that reset. Instead, the Header Mode remains the same
6117 from message to message.
6118 The presence or absence of the HdrMode command is determined by
6119 the "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option.
6120 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Full Header Auto Reset".
6121 _quell-imap-envelope-update_
6122 In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being
6123 accessed using IMAP, _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the index
6124 lines on the screen as soon as the information arrives from the
6125 IMAP server. This means that the index information makes it onto
6126 the screen more quickly than it otherwise would. This sometimes
6127 results in behavior that bothers some users. For example, when
6128 paging to a new page of the index, it may be possible for the
6129 lines to be painted on the screen in a random order, rather than
6130 from top to bottom.
6131 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
6132 information to be gathered before it paints the index screen.
6133 Once it collects all of the information, the screen will be
6134 painted quickly from top to bottom.
6135 This feature is displayed as "Suppress IMAP Envelope Update".
6136 _quell-lock-failure-warnings_
6137 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when it encounters a
6138 problem acquiring a mail folder lock. Typically, a secondary
6139 file associated with the mail folder being opened is created as
6140 part of the locking process. On some systems, such file creation
6141 has been administratively precluded by the system configuration.
6142 _Alpine_ issues a warning when such failures occur, which can
6143 become bothersome if the system is configured to disallow such
6144 actions. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to remain silent
6145 when this part of lock creation fails.
6146 WARNING: systems that have been configured in a way that
6147 precludes locking introduce some risk of mail folder corruption
6148 when more than one program attempts to modify the mail folder.
6149 This is most likely to occur to one's _INBOX_ or other "Incoming
6150 Message Folder".
6151 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Lock Failure Warnings".
6152 _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox_
6153 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
6154 option, the Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
6155 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox.
6156 If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
6157 happens while you are composing will not happen for folders
6158 other than your INBOX (which depends on the setting of
6159 "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox").
6160 You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
6161 while composing which you think might be related to the speed of
6162 the new-mail checks.
6163 Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check
6164 may be done in order to keep the server from killing the
6165 connection to the folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a
6166 connection to a folder if there has been no activity on the
6167 connection for 30 minutes or more. Instead of letting that
6168 happen, _Alpine_ will check for new mail before the 30 minutes
6169 is up even though you have turned on this feature to quell those
6170 checks.
6171 Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the folders
6172 will also be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of
6173 checkpointing is to write the changes to a folder out to disk
6174 periodically in order to avoid losing those changes when system
6175 or software problems occur. New-mail checking and checkpointing
6176 while you are not composing are not affected by this option.
6177 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing
6178 Except for INBOX".
6179 _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox_
6180 This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval
6181 option, the Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
6182 Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox.
6183 If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
6184 happens while you are composing will not happen for your INBOX.
6185 Checking of other folders is controlled in a similar way with
6186 the "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox" option.
6187 You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
6188 while composing which you think might be related to the speed of
6189 the new-mail checks.
6190 Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check
6191 may be done in order to keep the server from killing the
6192 connection to the folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a
6193 connection to a folder if there has been no activity on the
6194 connection for 30 minutes or more. Instead of letting that
6195 happen, _Alpine_ will check for new mail before the 30 minutes
6196 is up even though you have turned on this feature to quell those
6197 checks.
6198 Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the INBOX will
6199 also be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of
6200 checkpointing is to write the changes to a folder out to disk
6201 periodically in order to avoid losing those changes when system
6202 or software problems occur. New-mail checking and checkpointing
6203 while you are not composing are not affected by this option.
6204 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing
6205 for INBOX".
6206 _quell-maildomain-warning_
6207 When your configuration is set up so that your domain name
6208 contains no dots, it is usually a configuration error. By
6209 default, _Alpine_ will warn you about this when you start it up.
6210 You will see a warning message that looks like
6212 Incomplete maildomain "<domain>".
6213 If this feature is set, the warning is turned off. This feature
6214 is displayed as "Suppress Maildomain Warning".
6215 _quell-news-envelope-update_
6216 In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being
6217 accessed using NNTP (News), _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the
6218 index lines on the screen as soon as the information arrives
6219 from the NNTP server. This means that the index information
6220 makes it onto the screen more quickly than it otherwise would.
6221 This sometimes results in behavior that bothers some users. For
6222 example, when paging to a new page of the index, it may be
6223 possible for the lines to be painted on the screen in a random
6224 order, rather than from top to bottom.
6225 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
6226 information to be gathered before it paints the index screen.
6227 Once it collects all of the information, the screen will be
6228 painted quickly from top to bottom.
6229 This feature is displayed as "Suppress News Envelope Update".
6230 _quell-partial-fetching_
6231 Partial fetching is a feature of the IMAP protocol. By default,
6232 _Alpine_ will use partial fetching when copying the contents of a
6233 message or attachment from the IMAP server to _Alpine_. This
6234 means that the fetch will be done in many small chunks instead
6235 of one big chunk. The main benefit of this approach is that the
6236 fetch becomes interruptible. That is, the user can type _^C_ to
6237 stop the fetch early. In some cases partial fetching may cause a
6238 performance problem so that the fetching of data takes
6239 significantly longer when partial fetching is used. Turning on
6240 this feature will turn off partial fetching.
6241 This feature is displayed as "Prevent Partial Fetching".
6242 _quell-personal-name-prompt_
6243 _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a
6244 personal-name. This prompt normally happens before composing a
6245 message, and only happens when there is no personal name already
6246 set.
6247 _quell-server-after-link-in-html_
6248 By default, links in HTML text are displayed with the host the
6249 link references appended, within square brackets, to the link
6250 text. _Alpine_ does this to help indicate where a link will take
6251 you, particularly when the link text might suggest a different
6252 destination.
6253 Setting this feature will prevent the server name from being
6254 appended to the displayed text.
6255 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Server After Link in
6256 HTML".
6257 _quell-ssl-largeblocks_
6258 This feature (_PC-Alpine_ only) changes the behavior of fetching
6259 messages and attachments so that the message data is fetched in
6260 chunks no larger than 12K bytes. This works around a bug in
6261 Microsoft's SSL/TLS support. Some versions of Microsoft SSL are
6262 not able to read full-sized (16K) SSL/TLS packets. Some servers
6263 will send such packets and this will cause _PC-Alpine_ to crash
6264 with the error
6266 incomplete SecBuffer exceeds maximum buffer size
6267 Microsoft is aware of the problem and has developed a hotfix for
6268 it, but as of this writing the hotfix has not yet been added to
6269 the Knowledge Base.
6270 This feature is displayed as "Prevent SSL Largeblocks".
6271 _quell-status-message-beeping_
6272 If set status messages will never emit a beep.
6273 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Status Message Beeping".
6274 _quell-timezone-comment-when-sending_
6275 Normally, when _Alpine_ generates a Date header for outgoing
6276 mail, it will try to include the symbolic timezone at the end of
6277 the header inside parentheses. The symbolic timezone is often
6278 three characters long, but on some operating systems, it may be
6279 longer. Apparently there are some SMTP servers in the world
6280 which will reject an incoming message if it has a Date header
6281 longer than about 80 characters. If this feature is set, the
6282 symbolic timezone normally generated by _Alpine_ will not be
6283 included. You probably don't need to worry about this feature
6284 unless you run into the problem described above.
6285 This feature is displayed as "Suppress Timezone Comment When
6286 Sending".
6287 _quell-user-id-prompt_
6288 _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a
6289 user-id if the information can be obtained from the login name
6290 used to open the INBOX. Normally, this prompt happens before
6291 composing a message, and only happens when there is no user-id
6292 already set in the configuration.
6293 With this feature set, composing a message is only possible
6294 after establishing a connection to the INBOX.
6295 _quell-user-lookup-in-passwd-file_
6296 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer, and if
6297 needed, will usually be set by the system manager in _Alpine_'s
6298 system-wide configuration file. Specifically, if this feature is
6299 set, _Alpine_ will not attempt to look in the system password
6300 file to find a Full Name for the entered address.
6301 Normally, names you enter into address fields (e.g. To: or Cc:)
6302 are checked against your address book(s) to see if they match an
6303 address book nickname. Failing that, (in Unix _Alpine_) the name
6304 is then checked against the Unix password file. If the entered
6305 name matches a username in the system password file, _Alpine_
6306 extracts the corresponding Full Name information for that
6307 individual, and adds that to the address being entered.
6308 However, password file matching can have surprising (incorrect)
6309 results if other users of the system do not receive mail at the
6310 domain you are using. That is, if either the user-domain or
6311 use-only-domain-name option is set such that the administrative
6312 domain of other users on the system isn't accurately reflected,
6313 _Alpine_ should be told that a password file match is
6314 coincidental, and Full Name info will be incorrect. For example,
6315 a personal name from the password file could get falsely paired
6316 with the entered name as it is turned into an address in the
6317 configured domain.
6318 If you are seeing this behavior, enabling this feature will
6319 prevent Unix _Alpine_ from looking up names in the password file
6320 to find the Full Name for incomplete addresses you enter.
6321 This feature is displayed as "Prevent User Lookup in Password
6322 File".
6323 _quit-without-confirm_
6324 This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will ask for
6325 confirmation when a _Quit_ command is received.
6326 This feature is displayed as "Quit Without Confirming".
6327 _quote-replace-nonflowed_
6328 This feature, which is only active when Quote-Replace-String is
6329 also set, enables quote-replacement on non-flowed messages. It
6330 is off by default because a non-flowed message is more dependent
6331 on its format, and thus quote-replacement may cause
6332 less-than-pleasing results. Setting this feature will cause
6333 quote-replacement similar to that of flowed messages, but with
6334 the added possibility of long lines being wrapped into new lines
6335 if the Quote-Replacement-String is longer than the string it is
6336 replacing, which is "> ".
6337 _reply-always-uses-reply-to_
6338 If set, _Alpine_ will not prompt when a message being replied to
6339 contains a _Reply-To:_ header value, but will simply use its
6340 value (as opposed to using the _From:_ field's value).
6341 _return-to-inbox-without-confirm_
6342 Normally, when you use the TAB command and there are no more
6343 folders or newsgroups to visit, you are asked if you want to
6344 return to the INBOX. If this feature is set you will not be
6345 asked. It will be assumed that you do want to return to the
6346 INBOX.
6347 This feature is displayed as "Return to INBOX Without
6348 Confirming".
6349 _save-aggregates-copy-sequence_
6350 This feature will optimize an aggregate copy operation, if
6351 possible, by issuing a single IMAP _COPY_ command with a list of
6352 the messages to be copied. This feature is set by default. This
6353 may reduce network traffic and elapsed time for the Save.
6354 _However, many IMAP servers (including the UW IMAP server) do not
6355 preserve the order of messages when this optimization is
6356 applied._ If this feature is not set, _Alpine_ will copy each
6357 message individually and the order of the messages will be
6358 preserved.
6359 This feature is displayed as "Save Combines Copies (may be out
6360 of order)".
6361 _save-partial-msg-without-confirm_
6362 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Save command. By
6363 default, when you Save a message that has some deleted parts,
6364 you will be asked to confirm that you want to Save with a prompt
6365 that looks like:
6367 Saved copy will NOT include entire message! Continue?
6368 If this feature is set, you will not be asked.
6369 This feature is displayed as "Save Partial Message Without
6370 Confirming".
6371 _save-will-advance_
6372 If set, _Save_ will (in addition to copying the current message
6373 to the designated folder) also advance to the next message.
6374 _save-will-not-delete_
6375 If set, _Save_ will not mark the message Deleted (its default
6376 behavior) after it has been copied to the designated folder.
6377 _save-will-quote-leading-froms_
6378 This feature controls an aspect of the _Save_ command (and also
6379 the way outgoing messages are saved to an FCC folder). If set,
6380 _Alpine_ will add a leading > character in front of message lines
6381 beginning with "From" when they are saved to another folder,
6382 including lines syntactically distinguishable from the type of
6383 message separator line commonly used on Unix systems.
6384 The default behavior is that a > will be prepended only to lines
6385 beginning with "From " that might otherwise be confused with a
6386 message separator line on Unix systems. If _Alpine_ is the only
6387 mail program you use, this default is reasonable. If another
6388 program you use has trouble displaying a message with an
6389 unquoted From saved by _Alpine_, you should enable this feature.
6390 This feature only applies to the common Unix mailbox format that
6391 uses message separator lines beginning with "From ". If _Alpine_
6392 has been configured to use a different mailbox format (possibly
6393 incompatible with other mail programs), then this issue does not
6394 arise, and the feature is irrelevant.
6395 _scramble-message-id_
6396 Normally the Message-ID header that _Alpine_ generates when
6397 sending a message contains the name of the computer from which
6398 the message is being sent. Some believe that this hostname could
6399 be used by spammers or could be used by others for nefarious
6400 purposes. If this feature is set, that name will be transformed
6401 with a simple Rot13 transformation. The result will still have
6402 the correct syntax for a Message-ID but the part of the
6403 MessageID that is often a domain name will not be an actual
6404 domain name because the letters will be scrambled.
6405 It is possible (but unlikely?) that some spam detection software
6406 will use that as a reason to reject the mail as spam. It has
6407 also been reported that some spam detection software uses the
6408 fact that there are no dots after the "@" as a reason to reject
6409 messages. If your _PC-Alpine_ Message-ID is using a name without
6410 a dot that is because that is what Windows thinks is your "Full
6411 computer name". The method used to set this varies from one type
6412 of Windows to another but check under Settings -> Control Panel
6413 -> System and look for Network Identification or Computer Name
6414 or something similar. How to set it is beyond the scope of
6415 _Alpine_.
6416 This feature is displayed as "Scramble the Message-ID When
6417 Sending".
6418 _select-without-confirm_
6419 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Save_, _Export_,
6420 and _Goto_ commands. These commands all take text input to
6421 specify the name of the folder or file to be used, but allow you
6422 to press _^T_ for a list of possible names. If set, the selected
6423 name will be used immediately, without further opportunity to
6424 confirm or edit the name.
6425 This feature is displayed as "Select Ctrl-T Foldername Without
6426 Confirming".
6427 _send-without-confirm_
6428 By default, when you send or post a message you will be asked to
6429 confirm with a question that looks something like:
6431 Send message?
6432 If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm
6433 your intent to send and your message will be sent.
6434 If this feature is set it disables some possibilities and
6435 renders some other features meaningless. You will not be able to
6436 use Sending Filters, Verbose sending mode, Background Sending,
6437 Delivery Status Notifications, or ^V to turn off the generation
6438 of flowed text for this message. These options are normally
6439 available as suboptions in the Send prompt, but with no Send
6440 prompt the options are gone.
6441 A somewhat related feature is quell-extra-post-prompt. which may
6442 be used to eliminate the extra confirmation question when
6443 posting to a newsgroup.
6444 This feature is displayed as "Send Without Confirming".
6445 _separate-folder-and-directory-display_
6446 This feature affects folder collections wherein a folder and
6447 directory can have the same name. By default, _Alpine_ displays
6448 them only once, denoting that it is both a folder and directory
6449 by appending the folder name with the hierarchy character
6450 enclosed in square brackets.
6451 Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to display such names
6452 separately marking the name representing a directory with a
6453 trailing hierarchy delimiter (typically the slash, "/",
6454 character).
6455 The feature also alters the command set slightly. By default,
6456 the right-arrow descends into the directory, while hitting the
6457 Return key will cause the folder by that name to be opened.
6458 With this feature set, the Return key will open the highlighted
6459 folder, or enter the highlighted directory.
6460 _show-cursor_
6461 If set, the system cursor will move to convenient locations in
6462 the displays. For example, to the beginning of the status field
6463 of the highlighted index line, or to the highlighted word after
6464 a successful _WhereIs_ command. It is intended to draw your
6465 attention to the _interesting_ spot on the screen.
6466 _show-plain-text-internally_
6467 This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to display
6468 Text/Plain MIME attachments from the Attachment Index screen.
6469 Normally, the "View" command searches for any externally defined
6470 (usually via the Mailcap file) viewer, and displays the selected
6471 text within that viewer.
6472 Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to ignore any external
6473 viewer settings and always display text with _Alpine_'s internal
6474 viewer.
6475 _show-selected-in-boldface_
6476 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s aggregate
6477 operation commands; in particular, the _Select_ and _WhereIs_
6478 commands. _Select_ and _WhereIs_ (with the _^X_ subcommand) will
6479 search the current folder for messages meeting a specified
6480 criteria, and _tag_ the resulting messages with an _X_ in the
6481 first column of the applicable lines in the "Folder Index". If
6482 this feature is set, instead of using the _X_ to denote a
6483 selected message, _Alpine_ will attempt to display those index
6484 lines in boldface. Whether this is preferable to the _X_ will
6485 depend on personal taste and the type of terminal being used.
6486 _show-sort_
6487 If this feature is set and there is sufficient space on the
6488 screen, a short indication of the current sort order will be
6489 added in the titlebar (the top line on the screen), before the
6490 name of the folder. For example, with the default Arrival sort
6491 in effect, the display would have the characters
6493 [A]
6494 added between the title of the screen and the folder name. The
6495 letters are the same as the letters you may type to manually
6496 sort a folder with the SortIndex command ($). The letters in the
6497 table below are the ones that may show up in the titlebar line.
6499 A _A_rrival
6500 S _S_ubject
6501 F _F_rom
6502 T _T_o
6503 C _C_c
6504 D _D_ate
6505 Z si_Z_e
6506 O _O_rderedsubject
6507 E scor_E_
6508 H t_H_read
6509 If the sort order is Reversed, the letter above will be preceded
6510 by the letter "R", for example
6512 [RS]
6513 means that a Reverse Subject sort is in effect. For the case
6514 where the sort is in Reverse Arrival order, the "A" is left out,
6515 and just an "R" is shown.
6517 [R]
6518 This feature is displayed as "Show Sort in Titlebar".
6519 _signature-at-bottom_
6520 If this feature is set, and a message being _Repl_ied to is
6521 being included in the reply, then the contents of the signature
6522 file (if any) will be inserted after the included message. This
6523 feature does not affect the results of a _Forward_ command.
6524 _single-column-folder-list_
6525 If set, the "Folder List" screen will list one folder per line
6526 instead of several per line.
6527 _slash-collapses-entire-thread_
6528 Normally, the Collapse/Expand Thread command Collapses or
6529 Expands the subthread which starts at the currently highlighted
6530 message, if any. If this feature is set, then the slash command
6531 Collapses or Expands the _entire_ current thread instead of just
6532 the subthread.
6533 _smime-dont-do-smime_
6534 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6535 Setting this feature turns off all of _Alpine_'s S/MIME support.
6536 You might want to set this if you are having trouble due to the
6537 S/MIME support.
6538 + General S/MIME Overview
6539 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Turn off S/MIME".
6540 _smime-encrypt-by-default_
6541 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6542 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6543 includes support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when
6544 you send a message. If this option is set, the "Encrypt" option
6545 will default to ON when sending messages.
6546 Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still
6547 toggle the Encrypt option on or off before sending with the "E
6548 Encrypt" command (provided you have a the public digital ID for
6549 the recipient).
6550 + General S/MIME Overview
6551 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Encrypt by Default".
6552 _smime-remember-passphrase_
6553 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6554 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6555 includes support for S/MIME. If this option is set, you will
6556 only have to enter your passphrase for your private key once
6557 during an _Alpine_ session.
6558 + General S/MIME Overview
6559 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Remember S/MIME
6560 Passphrase".
6561 _smime-sign-by-default_
6562 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
6563 This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_
6564 includes support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when
6565 you send a message. If this option is set, the "Sign" option
6566 will default to ON when sending messages.
6567 Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still
6568 toggle the Signing option on or off before sending with the "G
6569 Sign" command (provided you have a personal digital ID
6570 certificate).
6571 + General S/MIME Overview
6572 This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Sign by Default".
6573 _sort-default-fcc-alpha_
6574 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6575 screen. If set, the default FCC folder will be sorted
6576 alphabetically with the other folders instead of appearing right
6577 after the INBOX.
6578 This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Fcc Folder
6579 Alphabetically".
6580 _sort-default-save-alpha_
6581 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6582 screen. If set, the default save folder will be sorted
6583 alphabetically with the other folders instead of appearing right
6584 after the INBOX (and default FCC folder).
6585 This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Save Folder
6586 Alphabetically".
6587 _spell-check-before-sending_
6588 When this feature is set, every composed message will be
6589 spell-checked before being sent.
6590 _store-window-position-in-config_
6591 Normally, _PC-Alpine_ will store its window size and position in
6592 the Windows Registry. This is convenient if you want to use the
6593 same remote configuration from more than one PC. If you use
6594 multiple configuration files to start _PC-Alpine_, you may want
6595 to store the window size and position in the configuration file
6596 instead of in the Registry. Setting this feature causes that to
6597 happen.
6598 _strip-from-sigdashes-on-reply_
6599 This feature doesn't do anything if the feature enable-sigdashes
6600 is turned on. However, if the _enable-sigdashes_ feature is not
6601 turned on, then turning on this feature enables support for the
6602 convention of not including text beyond the sigdashes line when
6603 Replying or Following up to a message and including the text of
6604 that message.
6605 In other words, this is a way to turn on the signature stripping
6606 behavior without also turning on the dashes-adding behavior.
6607 _strip-whitespace-before=send_
6608 Trailing whitespace is not stripped from a message before
6609 sending. Trailing whitespace should have no effect on an email
6610 message, and in flowed text can aid in delimiting paragraphs.
6611 However, the old behavior of stripping trailing whitespace was
6612 in place to better deal with older clients that couldn't handle
6613 certain types of text encodings. This feature restores the old
6614 behavior
6615 Trailing whitespace is of aid to flowed-text-formatted messages,
6616 which are generated by default but can be turned off via the
6617 quell-flowed-text feature. strip-whitespace-before-send also has
6618 the effect of turning off sending of flowed text.
6619 This feature is displayed as "Strip Whitespace Before Sending".
6620 _suppress-asterisks-in-password-prompt_
6621 When you are running _Alpine_ you will sometimes be asked for a
6622 password in a prompt on the third line from the bottom of the
6623 screen. Normally each password character you type will cause an
6624 asterisk to echo on the screen. That gives you some feedback to
6625 know that your typing is being recognized. There is a very
6626 slight security risk in doing it this way because someone
6627 watching over your shoulder might be able to see how many
6628 characters there are in your password. If you'd like to suppress
6629 the echoing of the asterisks set this feature.
6630 _suppress-user-agent-when-sending_
6631 If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will not generate a
6632 User-Agent header in outgoing messages.
6633 _tab-checks-recent_
6634 In a FOLDER LIST screen, the TAB key usually just changes which
6635 folder is highlighted. If this feature is set, then the TAB key
6636 will cause the number of recent messages and the total number of
6637 messages in the highlighted folder to be displayed instead.
6638 This feature is displayed as "Tab Checks for Recent Messages".
6639 _tab-uses-unseen-for-next-folder_
6640 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the TAB
6641 NextNew Command to move from one folder to the next. _Alpine_'s
6642 usual behavior is to search for folders with _Recent_ messages
6643 in them. Recent messages are messages which have arrived since
6644 the last time the folder was opened.
6645 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to search for _Unseen_
6646 messages instead of Recent messages. Unseen messages remain
6647 Unseen until you view them (or flag then as Seen with the Flag
6648 Command). Setting this feature allows you to locate messages you
6649 have not read instead of only recently received messages. When
6650 this feature is set, the feature Enable-Fast-Recent-Test will
6651 have no effect, so the checking may be slower.
6652 Another reason why you might want to use this feature is that
6653 _Alpine_ sometimes opens folders implicitly behind the scenes,
6654 and this clears the Recent status of all messages in the folder.
6655 One example where this happens is when Saving or filtering a
6656 message to another folder. If that message has some keywords
6657 set, then because of some shortcomings in the IMAP
6658 specification, the best way to ensure that those keywords are
6659 still set in the saved copy of the message is to open the folder
6660 and set the keywords explicitly. Because this clears the Recent
6661 status of all messages in that folder the folder will not be
6662 found by the NextNew command unless this feature is set.
6663 _tab-visits-next-new-message-only_
6664 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _TAB_
6665 key to move from one message to the next. _Alpine_'s usual
6666 behavior is to select the next _Unread_ message or message
6667 flagged as _Important_.
6668 Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the messages
6669 flagged as _Important_, and select _Unread_ messages
6670 exclusively. Tab behavior when there are no new messages left to
6671 select remains unchanged.
6672 _termdef-takes-precedence_
6673 This feature may affect _Alpine_'s low-level input routines.
6674 Termcap (or terminfo, depending on how your copy of _Alpine_ was
6675 compiled and linked) is the name of the database which describes
6676 terminal capabilities. In particular, it describes the sequences
6677 of characters that various keys will emit.
6678 An example would be the Up Arrow key on the keyboard. Up Arrow
6679 is not a distinct character on most Unix systems. When you press
6680 the Up Arrow key a short sequence of characters are produced.
6681 This sequence is supposed to be described in the termcap
6682 database by the "ku" capability (or by the "kcuu1" capability if
6683 you are using terminfo instead of termcap).
6684 By default, _Alpine_ defines some terminal escape sequences that
6685 are commonly used. For example, the sequence "ESC O A" is
6686 recognized as an Up Arrow key. The sequence "ESC [ A" is also
6687 recognized as an Up Arrow key. These are chosen because common
6688 terminals like VT100's or ANSI standard terminals produce these
6689 sequences when you press the Up Arrow key.
6690 If your system's termcap (terminfo) database assigns some other
6691 function to the sequence "ESC O A" it is usually ignored by
6692 _Alpine_. Also, if your termcap (terminfo) database assigns a
6693 sequence which doesn't begin with an escape character (ESC) it
6694 is usually ignored by _Alpine_. This usually works fine because
6695 most terminals emit the escape sequences that _Alpine_ has
6696 defined by default. We have also found that it is usually better
6697 to have these defaults take precedence over the definitions
6698 contained in the database because the defaults are more likely
6699 to be correct than the database.
6700 There are some terminals where this breaks down. If you want
6701 _Alpine_ to believe the definitions given in your termcap
6702 (terminfo) database in preference to the defaults the _Alpine_
6703 itself sets up, then you may turn this feature on. Then,
6704 sequences of characters which are defined in both termcap
6705 (terminfo) and in _Alpine_'s set of defaults will be interpreted
6706 the way that termcap (terminfo) says they should be interpreted.
6707 Also, if your terminal capabilities database assigns a sequence
6708 which doesn't begin with escape, it will not be ignored.
6709 _thread-index-shows-important-color_
6710 This option affects only the THREAD INDEX screen. Whether or not
6711 you ever see a THREAD INDEX screen depends on the setting of the
6712 configuration option threading-index-style and on the sort order
6713 of the index. If a message within a thread is flagged as
6714 Important and this option is set, then the entire line in the
6715 THREAD INDEX will be colored the color of the Index-important
6716 Symbol, which can be set using the Setup Kolor screen.
6717 _try-alternative-authentication-driver-first_
6718 This feature affects how _Alpine_ connects to IMAP servers. It's
6719 utility has largely been overtaken by events, but it may still
6720 be useful in some circumstances. If you only connect to modern
6721 IMAP servers that support "TLS" you can ignore this feature.
6722 Details:
6723 By default, _Alpine_ will attempt to connect to an IMAP server
6724 on the normal IMAP service port (143), and if the server offers
6725 "Transport Layer Security" (TLS) and _Alpine_ has been compiled
6726 with encryption capability, then a secure (encrypted) session
6727 will be negotiated.
6728 With this feature enabled, before connecting on the normal IMAP
6729 port, _Alpine_ will first attempt to connect to an alternate
6730 IMAP service port (993) used specifically for encrypted IMAP
6731 sessions via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) method. If the SSL
6732 attempt fails, _Alpine_ will then try the default behavior
6733 described in the previous paragraph.
6734 TLS negotiation on the normal port is preferred, and supersedes
6735 the use of SSL on port 993, but older servers may not provide
6736 TLS support. This feature may be convenient when accessing IMAP
6737 servers that do not support TLS, but do support SSL connections
6738 on port 993. However, it is important to understand that with
6739 this feature enabled, _Alpine_ will _attempt_ to make a secure
6740 connection if that is possible, but it will proceed to make an
6741 insecure connection if that is the only option offered by the
6742 server, or if the _Alpine_ in question has been built without
6743 encryption capability.
6744 Note that this feature specifies a per-user (or system-wide)
6745 default behavior, but host/folder specification flags may be
6746 used to control the behavior of any specific connection. This
6747 feature interacts with some of the possible host/folder path
6748 specification flags as follows:
6749 The /tls host flag, for example,
6751 {foo.example.com/tls}INBOX
6752 will over-ride this feature for the specified host by bypassing
6753 the SSL connection attempt. Moreover, with /tls specified, the
6754 connection attempt will fail if the service on port 143 does not
6755 offer TLS support.
6756 The /ssl host flag, for example,
6758 {foo.example.com/ssl}INBOX
6759 will insist on an SSL connection for the specified host, and
6760 will fail if the SSL service on port 993 is not available.
6761 _Alpine_ will not subsequently retry a connection on port 143 if
6762 /ssl is specified.
6763 _unselect-will-not-advance_
6764 Normally, when the Unselect current message command (:) is typed
6765 when the current message is selected, the message will be
6766 unselected and the next message will become the current message.
6767 If this feature is set, the cursor will not advance to the next
6768 message. Instead, the current message will remain the current
6769 message after unselecting.
6770 _use-current-dir_
6771 This feature controls an aspect of several commands. If set,
6772 your "current working directory" will be used instead of your
6773 home directory for all of the following operations:
6774 + _Export_ in the "Folder Index" and "Message Text" screens
6775 + Attachment _Save_ in the "Message Text" and "Attachment Text"
6776 screens
6777 + _^R_ file inclusion in the Composer
6778 + _^J_ file attachment in the Composer
6779 This feature is displayed as "Use Current Directory".
6780 _use-function-keys_
6781 This feature specifies that _Alpine_ will respond to function
6782 keys instead of the normal single-letter commands. In this mode,
6783 the key menus at the bottom of each screen will show function
6784 key designations instead of the normal mnemonic key.
6785 _use-regular-startup-rule-for-stayopen-folders_
6786 This feature affects which message is selected as the current
6787 message when you enter a Stay Open folder.
6788 Normally, the starting position for an incoming folder (which
6789 most Stay Open folders will likely be) is controlled by the
6790 Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a folder is a Stay Open
6791 folder, when you re-enter the folder after the first time the
6792 current message will be the same as it was when you left the
6793 folder. An exception is made if you use the TAB command to get
6794 to the folder. In that case, the message number will be
6795 incremented by one from what it was when you left the folder.
6796 The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it
6797 is special and different from what you might at first expect. If
6798 this feature is set, then Stay Open folders will not be treated
6799 specially as far as the startup rule is concerned.
6800 _use-resent-to-in-rules_
6801 This feature is turned off by default because turning it on
6802 causes problems with some deficient IMAP servers. In _Alpine_
6803 Filters and other types of Rules, if the Pattern contains a To
6804 header pattern and this feature is turned on, then a check is
6805 made in the message to see if a Resent-To header is present, and
6806 that is used instead of the To header. If this feature is not
6807 turned on, then the regular To header will always be used.
6808 _use-sender-not-x-sender_
6809 Normally _Alpine_ on Unix adds a header line labeled
6810 _X-X-Sender_, if the sender is different from the _From:_ line.
6811 The standard specifies that this header line should be labeled
6812 _Sender_, not _X-X-Sender_. Setting this feature causes _Sender_
6813 to be used instead of _X-X-Sender_. The standard also states
6814 that the data associated with this header field should not be
6815 used as a Reply address. Unfortunately, certain implementations
6816 of mail list management servers will use the Sender address for
6817 such purposes. These implementations often even recognize the
6818 _X-Sender_ fields as being equivalent to the _Sender_ field, and
6819 use it if present. This is why _Alpine_ defaults to
6820 _X-X-Sender_.
6821 Note, _PC-Alpine_ always adds either an _X-X-Sender_ line if
6822 there is an open, remote mailbox, or an _X-Warning:
6823 UNAuthenticated User_ otherwise
6824 This feature is displayed as "Use Sender Instead of X-X-Sender".
6825 _use-subshell-for-suspend_
6826 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when process suspension
6827 is enabled and then activated via the _^Z_ key. _Alpine_
6828 suspension allows one to temporarily interact with the operating
6829 system command "shell" without quitting _Alpine_, and then
6830 subsequently resume the still-active _Alpine_ session.
6831 When the _enable-suspend_ feature is set and subsequently the
6832 _^Z_ key is pressed, _Alpine_ will normally suspend itself and
6833 return temporary control to _Alpine_'s parent shell process.
6834 However, if this feature is set, _Alpine_ will instead create an
6835 inferior subshell process. This is useful when the parent
6836 process is not intended to be used interactively. Examples
6837 include invoking _Alpine_ via the -e argument of the Unix _xterm_
6838 program, or via a menu system.
6839 Note that one typically resumes a suspended _Alpine_ by entering
6840 the Unix _fg_ command, but if this feature is set, it will be
6841 necessary to enter the _exit_ command instead.
6842 _use-system-translation_
6843 UNIX _Alpine_ only. _Alpine_ normally uses its own internal
6844 software to convert between the multi-byte representation of
6845 characters and the Unicode representation of those same
6846 characters ( see the section on International Character Sets).
6847 It converts from the multi-byte characters your keyboard
6848 produces to Unicode, and from Unicode to the multi-byte
6849 characters your display expects. Alpine also uses its own
6850 internal software to decide how much space on the screen a
6851 particular Unicode character will occupy.
6852 Setting this feature tells _Alpine_ to use the system-supplied
6853 routines to perform these tasks instead. In particular there are
6854 three tasks and three system routines that will be used for
6855 these tasks.
6856 To convert from multi-byte to Unicode the routine
6858 mbstowcs
6859 is used. To convert from Unicode to multi-byte the routine
6861 wcrtomb
6862 is used. And to find the screen width a particular Unicode
6863 character will occupy the routine used is
6865 wcwidth
6866 This feature has been only lightly tested. The internal routines
6867 should normally be used unless you run into a problem that you
6868 think may be solved by using the system routines. Note that your
6869 environment needs to be set up for these routines to work
6870 correctly. In particular, the LANG or LC_CTYPE variable in your
6871 environment will need to be set.
6872 _vertical-folder-list_
6873 This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST
6874 screen. If set, the folders will be listed alphabetically down
6875 the columns rather than across the columns as is the default.
6876 This feature is displayed as "Use Vertical Folder List".
6877 _warn-if-blank-subject_
6878 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
6879 being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to
6880 see if the message about to be sent has a subject or not. If
6881 not, you will be asked if you want to send the message anyway.
6882 _warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups_
6883 This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
6884 being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to
6885 see if the message about to be sent has either a To address, a
6886 Cc address, or a Newsgroup. If none of these is set, you will be
6887 asked if you want to send the message anyway.
6888 This feature is closely related to fcc-only-without-confirm.
6889 _Alpine_ will normally ask if you want to copy a message only to
6890 the Fcc. This feature also applies to cases where there is a Bcc
6891 but still no To, Cc, or Newsgroup. If the
6892 Fcc-Only-Without-Confirm feature is set and you are sending a
6893 message with only an Fcc, then you won't be asked about sending
6894 with a blank To and Cc and Newsgroups header even if this
6895 feature is set. Similarly, if you have already been asked if you
6896 want to send to the Fcc only and you have answered Yes, then you
6897 won't be asked again about sending with blank To, Cc, and
6898 Newsgroups headers even if this feature is set.
6900 Hidden Config Variables and Features
6902 There are several configuration variables and features which are
6903 normally hidden from the user. That is, they don't appear on any of the
6904 configuration screens. Some of these are suppressed because they are
6905 intended to be used by system administrators, and in fact may only be
6906 set in system-wide configuration files. Others are available to users
6907 but are thought to be of such little value to most users that their
6908 presence on the Config screens would cause more confusion than help.
6909 Others are hidden in the Setup/Config screen because they are normally
6910 configured in one of the other configuration screens. For example, all
6911 of the colors are hidden because the normal way to configure colors is
6912 through Setup/Colors not Setup/Config. You may set the feature
6913 expose-hidden-config to cause most of these hidden variables and
6914 features to show up at the bottom of the Setup/Config screen.
6916 Hidden Variables Not Settable by Users
6918 These variables are settable only in system-wide configuration files.
6919 * bugs-additional-data
6920 * bugs-address
6921 * bugs-fullname
6922 * forced-abook-entry
6923 * kblock-passwd-count
6924 * local-address
6925 * local-fullname
6926 * mail-directory
6927 * standard-printer
6928 * suggest-address
6929 * suggest-fullname
6931 Hidden Variables Which are Settable by Users
6933 These variables are not shown to users but are settable by means of
6934 hand editing the personal configuration file. This first group is
6935 usually maintained by _Alpine_ and there will usually be no reason to
6936 edit them by hand.
6937 * last-version-used
6938 * patterns-filters2
6939 * patterns-indexcolors
6940 * patterns-roles
6941 * patterns-scores2
6942 * remote-abook-metafile
6944 This group is usually correct but may be changed by system managers or
6945 users in special cases.
6946 * disable-these-authenticators
6947 * disable-these-drivers
6948 * last-time-prune-questioned
6949 * new-version-threshold
6950 * remote-abook-history
6951 * remote-abook-validity
6952 * rsh-command
6953 * rsh-open-timeout
6954 * rsh-path
6955 * sendmail-path
6956 * ssh-command
6957 * ssh-open-timeout
6958 * ssh-path
6959 * tcp-open-timeout
6960 * tcp-query-timeout
6961 * tcp-read-warning-timeout
6962 * tcp-write-warning-timeout
6963 * use-function-keys
6965 System managers are usually interested in setting these in the
6966 system-wide configuration files, though users may set them if they
6967 wish.
6968 * operating-dir
6969 * user-input-timeout
6971 Hidden Features Which are Settable by Users
6973 These are _features_ (as opposed to variables) which users or system
6974 administrators may set. Some of them only make sense for
6975 administrators. To turn these on manually, the configuration file
6976 should be edited and the feature added to the _feature-list_ variable.
6977 You may set the feature expose-hidden-config to cause these hidden
6978 features to show up in the Setup/Config screen. They will be at the
6979 bottom of the screen.
6980 * disable-config-cmd
6981 * disable-keyboard-lock-cmd
6982 * disable-password-cmd
6983 * disable-pipes-in-sigs
6984 * disable-pipes-in-templates
6985 * disable-roles-setup-cmd
6986 * disable-roles-sig-edit
6987 * disable-roles-template-edit
6988 * disable-setlocale-collate
6989 * disable-shared-namespaces
6990 * disable-signature-edit-cmd
6992 Retired Variables and Features
6994 Variables and features that are no longer used by the current _Alpine_
6995 version. When an obsolete variable is encountered, its value is applied
6996 to any new corresponding setting. The replaced values include:
6998 _character-set_
6999 Replaced by three separate variables: _display-character-set_,
7000 _keyboard-character-set_, and _posting-character-set_.
7001 _compose-mime_
7002 _elm-style-save_
7003 Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule_
7004 _feature-level_
7005 Replaced by _feature-list._
7006 _header-in-reply_
7007 Replaced by _include-header-in-reply_ in the _feature-list._
7008 _old-style-reply_
7009 Replaced by _signature-at-bottom_ in the _feature-list._
7010 _use-old-unix-format-write_
7011 No replacement.
7012 _patterns_
7013 Replaced by four separate patterns variables: _patterns-roles_,
7014 _patterns-filters_, _patterns-scores_, and
7015 _patterns-indexcolors_. Since then, _patterns-filters_ has also
7016 become obsolete and is replaced by _patterns-filters2_;
7017 _patterns-scores_ is replaced by _patterns-scores2_.
7018 _save-by-sender_
7019 Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule._
7020 _show-all-characters_
7021 No replacement, it always works this way now.
7023 Tokens for Index and Replying
7025 This set of special tokens may be used in the index-format option, in
7026 the reply-leadin option, in signature files, in template files used in
7027 roles, and in the folder name that is the target of a Filter Rule. Some
7028 of them aren't available in all situations.
7030 The tokens are used as they appear below for the _Index-Format_ option,
7031 but they must be surrounded by underscores for the _Reply-Leadin_
7032 option, in signature and template files, and in the target of Filter
7033 Rules.
7035 _Tokens Available for all Cases (except Filter Rules)_
7037 SUBJECT
7038 This token represents the Subject the sender gave the message.
7039 Alternatives for use in the index screen are SUBJKEY,
7040 SUBJKEYINIT, SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, and SUBJKEYINITTEXT. You
7041 may color the subject text in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
7042 differently by using the Index Subject Color and the Index
7043 Opening Color. options available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7045 FROM
7046 This token represents the personal name (or email address if the
7047 name is unavailable) of the person specified in the message's
7048 "From:" header field. You may color the from text in the MESSAGE
7049 INDEX screen differently by using the Index From Color option
7050 available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7052 ADDRESS
7053 This is similar to the "FROM" token, only it is always the email
7054 address, never the personal name. For example, "mailbox@domain".
7056 MAILBOX
7057 This is the same as the "ADDRESS" except that the domain part of
7058 the address is left off. For example, "mailbox".
7060 SENDER
7061 This token represents the personal name (or email address) of
7062 the person listed in the message's "Sender:" header field.
7064 TO
7065 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7066 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the
7067 message's "To:" header field.
7069 NEWSANDTO
7070 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7071 "Newsgroups:" header field _and_ the personal names (or email
7072 addresses if the names are unavailable) of the persons specified
7073 in the message's "To:" header field.
7075 TOANDNEWS
7076 Same as "NEWSANDTO" except in the opposite order.
7078 NEWS
7079 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7080 "Newsgroups:" header field.
7082 CC
7083 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7084 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the
7085 message's "Cc:" header field.
7087 RECIPS
7088 This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if
7089 the names are unavailable) of the persons specified in both the
7090 message's "To:" header field and the message's "Cc:" header
7091 field.
7093 NEWSANDRECIPS
7094 This token represents the newsgroups from the message's
7095 "Newsgroups:" header field _and_ the personal names (or email
7096 addresses if the names are unavailable) of the persons specified
7097 in the message's "To:" and "Cc:" header fields.
7099 RECIPSANDNEWS
7100 Same as "NEWSANDRECIPS" except in the opposite order.
7102 INIT
7103 This token represents the initials from the personal name of the
7104 person specified in the message's "From:" header field. If there
7105 is no personal name, it is blank.
7107 DATE
7108 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7109 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD.
7110 For example, "Oct 23". The feature convert-dates-to-localtime,
7111 which adjusts for the timezone the message was sent from, may
7112 have an affect on the value of this token as well as the values
7113 of all of the other DATE or TIME tokens. Some of the DATE and
7114 TIME tokens are displayed in a locale-specific way unless the
7115 option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is set.
7117 SMARTDATE
7118 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7119 according to the "Date" header field. It is "Today" if the
7120 message was sent today, "Yesterday" for yesterday, "Wednesday"
7121 if it was last Wednesday, and so on. If the message is from last
7122 year and is more than six months old it includes the year, as
7123 well. There is no adjustment made for different time zones, so
7124 you'll get the day the message was sent according to the time
7125 zone the sender was in. See the SMARTDATE alternatives below, as
7126 well.
7128 SMARTTIME
7129 This token represents the most relevant elements of the date on
7130 which the message was sent (according to the "Date" header
7131 field), in a compact form. If the message was sent today, only
7132 the time is used (e.g. "9:22am", "10:07pm"); if it was sent
7133 during the past week, the day of the week and the hour are used
7134 (e.g. "Wed09am", "Thu10pm"); other dates are given as date,
7135 month, and year (e.g. "23Aug00", "9Apr98"). There is no
7136 adjustment made for different time zones, so you'll get the
7137 day/time the message was sent according to the time zone the
7138 sender was in.
7140 SMARTDATETIME
7141 This is a combination of SMARTDATE and SMARTTIME. It is
7142 SMARTDATE unless the SMARTDATE value is "Today", in which case
7143 it is SMARTTIME. See the SMARTDATETIME alternatives below, as
7144 well.
7146 DATEISO
7147 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7148 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7149 YYYY-MM-DD. For example, "1998-10-23".
7151 SHORTDATEISO
7152 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7153 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7154 YY-MM-DD. For example, "98-10-23".
7156 SHORTDATE1
7157 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7158 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7159 MM/DD/YY. For example, "10/23/98".
7161 SHORTDATE2
7162 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7163 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7164 DD/MM/YY. For example, "23/10/98".
7166 SHORTDATE3
7167 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7168 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7169 DD.MM.YY. For example, "23.10.98".
7171 SHORTDATE4
7172 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7173 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format
7174 YY.MM.DD. For example, "98.10.23".
7176 LONGDATE
7177 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7178 according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD,
7179 YYYY. For example, "Oct 23, 1998".
7181 SMARTDATE alternatives
7182 There are several versions of SMARTDATE which are all the same
7183 except for the way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATE
7184 formats the date using the information from your locale settings
7185 to format the date string. It may end up formatting dates so
7186 that they look like DATEISO tokens, or SHORTDATE2 tokens, or
7187 something else entirely. The feature convert-dates-to-localtime
7188 may have an affect on the values of these tokens. If you want
7189 more control you may use one of the following.
7191 SMARTDATE
7192 If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then
7193 this will be locale specific. Control this with the
7194 LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
7195 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the
7196 Short date format. At the programming level, the strftime
7197 routine is what _Alpine_ uses to print the date. If the
7198 Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is set then this is
7199 equivalent to SMARTDATES1.
7201 SMARTDATEISO
7202 DATEISO format. See text above.
7204 SMARTDATESHORTISO
7205 SHORTDATEISO format.
7207 SMARTDATES1
7208 SHORTDATE1 format.
7210 SMARTDATES2
7211 SHORTDATE2 format.
7213 SMARTDATES3
7214 SHORTDATE3 format.
7216 SMARTDATES4
7217 SHORTDATE4 format.
7219 SMARTDATETIME alternatives
7220 There are several versions of SMARTDATETIME which are all very
7221 similar. The ones which end in 24 use a 24-hour clock for
7222 Today's messages instead of a 12-hour clock. The other variation
7223 is for the way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATETIME
7224 and SMARTDATETIME24 format the date using the information from
7225 your locale settings to format the date string. It may end up
7226 formatting dates so that they look like DATEISO tokens, or
7227 SHORTDATE2 tokens, or something else entirely. The feature
7228 convert-dates-to-localtime may have an affect on the values of
7229 these tokens. The possible choices are:
7231 SMARTDATETIME
7232 Locale specific. Control this with the LC_TIME locale
7233 setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options
7234 control panel may be used to set the Short date format. At
7235 the programming level, the strftime routine is what
7236 _Alpine_ uses to print the date.
7238 SMARTDATETIME
7239 If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then
7240 this will be locale specific. Control this with the
7241 LC_TIME locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the
7242 Regional Options control panel may be used to set the
7243 Short date format. At the programming level, the strftime
7244 routine is what _Alpine_ uses to print the date. If the
7245 Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is set then this is
7246 equivalent to SMARTDATETIMES1.
7248 SMARTDATETIME24
7249 Use TIME24 for Today
7251 SMARTDATETIMEISO
7252 DATEISO format. See text above.
7254 SMARTDATETIMEISO24
7255 Use TIME24 for Today
7257 SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO
7258 SHORTDATEISO format.
7260 SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO24
7261 Use TIME24 for Today
7263 SMARTDATETIMES1
7264 SHORTDATE1 format.
7266 SMARTDATETIMES124
7267 Use TIME24 for Today
7269 SMARTDATETIMES2
7270 SHORTDATE2 format.
7272 SMARTDATETIMES224
7273 Use TIME24 for Today
7275 SMARTDATETIMES3
7276 SHORTDATE3 format.
7278 SMARTDATETIMES324
7279 Use TIME24 for Today
7281 SMARTDATETIMES4
7282 SHORTDATE4 format.
7284 SMARTDATETIMES424
7285 Use TIME24 for Today
7287 DAYDATE
7288 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7289 according to the "Date" header field. It looks like "Sat, 23 Oct
7290 1998". This token is never converted in any locale-specific way.
7292 PREFDATE
7293 This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
7294 according to the "Date" header field. It is your operating
7295 system's idea of the preferred date representation for the
7296 current locale. Internally it uses the %x version of the date
7297 from the strftime routine.
7299 PREFTIME
7300 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7301 according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred time
7302 representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
7303 version of the time from the strftime routine.
7305 PREFDATETIME
7306 This token represents the date and time at which the message was
7307 sent, according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred
7308 date and time representation for the current locale. Internally
7309 it uses the %c version of the time from the strftime routine.
7311 DAY
7312 This token represents the day of the month on which the message
7313 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7314 "23" or "9".
7316 DAY2DIGIT
7317 This token represents the day of the month on which the message
7318 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7319 "23" or "09". It is always 2 digits.
7321 DAYORDINAL
7322 This token represents the ordinal number which is the day of the
7323 month on which the message was sent, according to the "Date"
7324 header field. For example, "23rd" or "9th".
7326 DAYOFWEEK
7327 This token represents the day of the week on which the message
7328 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7329 "Sunday" or "Wednesday".
7331 DAYOFWEEKABBREV
7332 This token represents the day of the week on which the message
7333 was sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example,
7334 "Sun" or "Wed".
7336 MONTHABBREV
7337 This token represents the month the message was sent, according
7338 to the "Date" header field. For example, "Oct".
7340 MONTHLONG
7341 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7342 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "October".
7344 MONTH
7345 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7346 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "9".
7348 MONTH2DIGIT
7349 This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
7350 according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "09".
7351 It is always 2 digits.
7353 YEAR
7354 This token represents the year the message was sent, according
7355 to the "Date" header field. For example, "1998" or "2001".
7357 YEAR2DIGIT
7358 This token represents the year the message was sent, according
7359 to the "Date" header field. For example, "98" or "01". It is
7360 always 2 digits.
7362 TIME24
7363 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7364 according to the "Date" header field. There is no adjustment
7365 made for different time zones, so you'll get the time the
7366 message was sent according to the time zone the sender was in.
7367 It has the format HH:MM. For example, "17:28".
7369 TIME12
7370 This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
7371 according to the "Date" header field. This time is for a 12 hour
7372 clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or
7373 "11:13am".
7375 TIMEZONE
7376 This token represents the numeric timezone from the "Date"
7377 header field. It has the format [+-]HHMM. For example, "-0800".
7379 _Tokens Available Only for Index-Format_
7381 MSGNO
7382 This token represents the message's current position in the
7383 folder which, of course, may change as the folder is sorted or
7384 new mail arrives.
7386 STATUS
7387 This token represents a three character wide field displaying
7388 various aspects of the message's state. The first character is
7389 either blank, a '*' for message marked Important, or a '+'
7390 indicating a message addressed directly to you (as opposed to
7391 your having received it via a mailing list, for example). When
7392 the feature mark-for-cc is set, if the first character would
7393 have been blank then it will instead be a '-' if the message is
7394 cc'd to you. The second character is typically blank, though the
7395 arrow cursor may occupy it if either the assume-slow-link or the
7396 force-arrow-cursor feature is set (or you actually are on a slow
7397 link). The third character is either D (Deleted), A (Answered),
7398 N (New), or blank.
7400 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7401 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this
7402 token refers to all of the messages in the collapsed portion of
7403 the thread instead of just the top message. The first character
7404 will be a '*' if _any_ of the messages in the thread are marked
7405 Important, else a '+' if any of the messages are addressed to
7406 you, else a '-' if any of the messages are cc'd to you. The
7407 third character will be a 'D' if _all_ of the messages in the
7408 collapsed thread are marked deleted, an 'A' if _all_ of the
7409 messages in the collapsed thread are marked answered, it will be
7410 an 'N' if any of the messages are undeleted and unseen, and it
7411 will be blank otherwise.
7413 FULLSTATUS
7414 This token represents a less abbreviated alternative to the
7415 "STATUS" token. It is six characters wide. The first character
7416 is '+', '-', or blank, the second blank, the third either '*' or
7417 blank, the fourth N or blank, the fifth A or blank, and the
7418 sixth character is either D or blank.
7420 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7421 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this
7422 token refers to all of the messages in the collapsed portion of
7423 the thread instead of just the top message. The first character
7424 is '+', '-', or blank depending on whether _any_ of the messages
7425 in the collapsed thread are addressed to you or cc'd to you. The
7426 third character will be '*' if any of the messages are marked
7427 Important. The fourth character will be 'N' if all of the
7428 messages in the thread are New, else 'n' if some of the messages
7429 in the thread are New, else blank. The fifth character will be
7430 'A' or 'a' or blank, and the sixth character will be 'D' or 'd'
7431 or blank.
7433 IMAPSTATUS
7434 This token represents an even less abbreviated alternative to
7435 the "STATUS" token. It differs from "FULLSTATUS" in only the
7436 fourth character which is an 'N' if the message is new to this
7437 folder since the last time it was opened _and_ it has not been
7438 viewed, an 'R' (Recent) if the message is new to the folder and
7439 has been viewed, a 'U' (Unseen) if the message is not new to the
7440 folder since it was last opened _but_ has not been viewed, or a
7441 blank if the message has been in the folder since it was last
7442 opened and has been viewed.
7444 If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message
7445 is at the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then the
7446 fourth character will be 'N' if all of the messages in the
7447 thread are unseen and recent; else 'n' if some of the messages
7448 in the thread are unseen and recent; else 'U' if all of the
7449 messages in the thread are unseen and not recent; else 'u' if
7450 some of the messages in the thread are unseen and not recent;
7451 else 'R' if all of the messages in the thread are seen and
7452 recent; else 'r' if some of the messages in the thread are seen
7453 and recent; else blank.
7455 SHORTIMAPSTATUS
7456 This is the same as the last four of the six characters of
7457 IMAPSTATUS, so the '+' To Me information will be missing.
7459 SIZE
7460 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7461 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7462 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes (rounded to the
7463 nearest 1,000). If an "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the
7464 size is approximately 1,000,000 times that many bytes. Commas
7465 are not used in this field. This field is seven characters wide,
7466 including the enclosing parentheses. Sizes are rounded when "K"
7467 or "M" is present. The progression of sizes used looks like:
7469 0 1 ... 9999 10K ... 999K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2000M
7471 SIZECOMMA
7472 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7473 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7474 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes (rounded to the
7475 nearest 1,000). If an "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the
7476 size is approximately 1,000,000 times that many bytes. Commas
7477 are used if the number shown is 1,000 or greater. The SIZECOMMA
7478 field is one character wider than the SIZE field. Sizes are
7479 rounded when "K" or "M" is present. The progression of sizes
7480 used looks like:
7482 0 1 ... 99,999 100K ... 9,999K 10.0M ... 999.9M 1,000M ... 2,000M
7484 KSIZE
7485 This token represents the total size of the message, expressed
7486 in kilobytes or megabytes, as most appropriate. These are 1,024
7487 byte kilobytes and 1,024 x 1,024 byte megabytes. The progression
7488 of sizes used looks like:
7490 0K 1K ... 1023K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2047M
7492 SIZENARROW
7493 This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
7494 If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is
7495 approximately 1,000 times that many bytes. If an "M" (Megabyte)
7496 follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000,000 times
7497 that many bytes. If a "G" (Gigabyte) follows the number, the
7498 size is approximately 1,000,000,000 times that many bytes. This
7499 field uses only five characters of screen width, including the
7500 enclosing parentheses. The progression of sizes used looks like:
7502 0 1 ... 999 1K ... 99K .1M ... .9M 1M ... 99M .1G ... .9G 1G 2G
7504 DESCRIPSIZE
7505 This token is intended to represent a more useful description of
7506 the message than just its size, but it isn't very useful at this
7507 point. The plus sign in this view means there are attachments.
7508 Note that including this token in the "Index-Format" could slow
7509 down the display a little while _Alpine_ collects the necessary
7510 information.
7512 SUBJKEY
7513 This token is the same as the SUBJECT token unless keywords are
7514 set for the message. In that case, a list of keywords enclosed
7515 in braces will be prepended to the subject of the message. Only
7516 those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords option in
7517 Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other words,
7518 keywords that have been set by some other means, perhaps by
7519 another email program, won't show up unless included in
7520 Keywords. Having this set in the Index-Format will also cause
7521 the keywords to be prepended to the subject in the MESSAGE TEXT
7522 screen. If you have given a keyword a nickname (keywords), that
7523 nickname is displayed instead of the actual keyword. The
7524 keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to modify this
7525 token slightly. It is also possible to color keywords in the
7526 index using the Setup/Kolor screen.
7528 SUBJKEYINIT
7529 This token is the same as the SUBJKEY token except that instead
7530 of prepending a list of keywords to the subject, a list of first
7531 initials of keywords will be prepended instead. For example, if
7532 a message has the keywords _Work_ and _Now_ set (or Work and Now
7533 are the _Alpine_ nicknames of keywords which are set) then the
7534 SUBJKEY token would cause a result like
7536 {Work Now} actual subject
7538 whereas the SUBJKEYINIT token would give
7540 {WN} actual subject
7542 Only those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords
7543 option in Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other
7544 words, keywords that have been set by some other means, perhaps
7545 by another email program, won't show up unless included in
7546 Keywords. The keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to
7547 modify this token slightly. It is also possible to color
7548 keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor screen.
7550 SUBJECTTEXT
7551 Same as SUBJECT but if there is room in the Subject field for
7552 more text, the opening part of the text of the message is
7553 displayed after the subject. The time needed to fetch the text
7554 may cause a performance problem which can, of course, be avoided
7555 by using the SUBJECT version of the Subject instead. You may
7556 color this opening text differently by using the Index Opening
7557 Color option available from the Setup Kolor screen. You may
7558 adjust the characters that are displayed between the Subject and
7559 the opening text with the option Opening-Text-Separator-Chars.
7561 SUBJKEYTEXT
7562 Same as SUBJKEY but with the opening message text.
7564 SUBJKEYINITTEXT
7565 Same as SUBJKEYINIT but with the opening message text.
7567 OPENINGTEXT
7568 This is similar to SUBJECTTEXT. Instead of combining the Subject
7569 and the opening text in a single field in the index screen this
7570 token allows you to allocate a separate column just for the
7571 opening text of the message. The time needed to fetch this text
7572 may cause a performance problem. You may color this opening text
7573 differently by using the Index Opening Color option available
7574 from the Setup Kolor screen.
7576 OPENINGTEXTNQ
7577 This is very similar to OPENINGTEXT. The NQ stands for No
7578 Quotes. The only difference is that quoted text (lines beginning
7579 with >) is deleted. For some messages this may be confusing. For
7580 example, a message might have a line preceding some quoted text
7581 that reads something like "On May 8th person A said." That no
7582 longer makes sense after the quoted text is deleted and it will
7583 appear that person A said whatever the text after the quote is,
7584 even though that is really person B talking.
7586 KEY
7587 This is a space-delimited list of keywords that are set for the
7588 message. Only those keywords that you have defined in your
7589 Keywords option in Setup/Config are considered in the list. In
7590 other words, keywords that have been set by some other means,
7591 perhaps by another email program, won't show up unless included
7592 in Keywords. If you have given a keyword a nickname that
7593 nickname is displayed instead of the actual keyword. It is also
7594 possible to color keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor
7595 screen. This token defaults to an arbitrary width of 5. You
7596 should set it to whatever width suits you using something like
7597 KEY(17) in the Index-Format.
7599 KEYINIT
7600 This is a list of keyword initials that are set for the message.
7601 If you have given a keyword a nickname the initial of that
7602 nickname is displayed instead of the initial of the actual
7603 keyword. It is also possible to color keyword initials in the
7604 index using the Setup/Kolor screen. This token defaults to an
7605 arbitrary width of 2. You should set it to whatever width suits
7606 you using something like KEYINIT(3) in the Index-Format.
7608 PRIORITY
7609 The X-Priority header is a non-standard header that is used in a
7610 somewhat standard way by many mail programs. _Alpine_ expects
7611 the value of this header to be a digit with a value from 1 to 5,
7612 with 1 being the highest priority and 5 the lowest priority.
7613 Since this priority is something that the sender sets it is only
7614 an indication of the priority that the sender attaches to the
7615 mail and it is therefore almost totally unreliable for use as a
7616 filtering criterion. This token will display the numeric value
7617 of the priority if it is between 1 and 5. It will be suppressed
7618 (blank) if the value is 3, which is normal priority. It is also
7619 possible to set the color of the PRIORITY field. By default the
7620 token is colored the same as the index line it is part of. You
7621 may set it to be another color with the Index Priority Colors
7622 options available from the Setup Kolor screen.
7624 PRIORITYALPHA
7625 This is a more verbose interpretation of the X-Priority field.
7626 Once again nothing is displayed unless the value of the field is
7627 1, 2, 4, or 5. The values displayed for those values are:
7629 1 Highest
7630 2 High
7631 4 Low
7632 5 Lowest
7634 You may color this token with the Index Priority Colors options.
7636 PRIORITY!
7637 This is a one character, non-numeric version of the X-Priority
7638 field. If the value of the X-Priority header is 1 or 2 an
7639 exclamation point is displayed. If the value is 4 or 5 a "v"
7640 (think down arrow) is displayed. You may color this token with
7641 the Index Priority Colors options.
7643 ATT
7644 This is a one column wide field which represents the number of
7645 attachments a message has. It will be blank if there are no
7646 attachments, a single digit for one to nine attachments, or an
7647 asterisk for more than nine. Note that including this token in
7648 the "Index-Format" could slow down the display a little while
7649 _Alpine_ collects the necessary information.
7651 FROMORTO
7652 This token represents _either_ the personal name (or email
7653 address) of the person listed in the message's "From:" header
7654 field, _or_, if that address is yours or one of your alternate
7655 addresses, the first person specified in the message's "To:"
7656 header field with the prefix "To: " prepended. If the from
7657 address is yours and there is also no "To" address, _Alpine_
7658 will use the address on the "Cc" line. If there is no address
7659 there, either, _Alpine_ will look for a newsgroup name from the
7660 "Newsgroups" header field and put that after the "To: " prefix.
7662 FROMORTONOTNEWS
7663 This is almost the same as _FROMORTO_. The difference is that
7664 newsgroups aren't considered. When a message is from you,
7665 doesn't have a To or Cc, and does have a Newsgroups header; this
7666 token will be your name instead of the name of the newsgroup
7667 (like it would be with FROMORTO).
7669 TEXT
7670 This is a different sort of token. It allows you to display a
7671 label within each index line. It will be the same fixed text for
7672 each line. It is different from all the other tokens in that
7673 there is no space column displayed after this token. Instead, it
7674 is butted up against the following field. It also has a
7675 different syntax. The text to display is given following a colon
7676 after the word "TEXT". For example,
7678 TEXT:abc=
7680 would insert the literal text "abc=" (without the quotes) into
7681 the index display line. You must quote the text if it includes
7682 space characters, like
7684 TEXT:"abc = "
7686 HEADER
7687 This allows you to display the text from a particular header
7688 line in the message. The syntax for this token is substantially
7689 different from all the others in order that you might be able to
7690 display a portion of the text following a particular header. The
7691 header name you are interested in is given following a colon
7692 after the word "HEADER". For example,
7694 HEADER:X-Spam
7696 would display the text of the X-Spam header, if any. Like for
7697 other index tokens a width field may (and probably should)
7698 follow this.
7700 HEADER:X-Spam(10)
7702 displays the first ten characters of the X-Spam header. Unlike
7703 other index tokens, the syntax for HEADER is more flexible. An
7704 optional second argument comes after a comma inside the
7705 parentheses. It specifies the "field" number. By default, the
7706 field separator is a space character. No extra space characters
7707 are allowed in the argument list.
7709 HEADER:X-Spam(10,2)
7711 would display the second field, left-justified, in a 10
7712 character wide field. The second field would consist of all the
7713 text after the first space up to the next space or the end of
7714 the header. The default field number is zero, which stands for
7715 the entire line. There is also an optional third argument which
7716 is a list of field separators. It defaults to a space character.
7717 The example
7719 HEADER:X-Spam(10,2,:% )
7721 would cause the field separators to be any of colon, percent, or
7722 space (there is a space character between the percent and the
7723 right parenthesis). The first field runs from the start of the
7724 header value up to the first colon, percent, or space; the
7725 second goes from there to the next; and so on. In order to use a
7726 comma character as a field separator you must escape it by
7727 preceding it with a backslash (\). The same is true of the
7728 backslash character itself. There is one further optional
7729 argument. It is an R or an L to specify right or left adjustment
7730 of the text within the field. The default is to left justify,
7731 however if you are displaying numbers you might prefer to right
7732 justify.
7734 Here's an example of a SpamAssassin header. The exact look of
7735 the header will vary, but if your incoming mail contains headers
7736 that look like the following
7738 X-Spam-Status: Yes, hits=10.6 tagged_above=-999.0 required=7.0
7739 tests=BAYE...
7741 you might want to display the hits value. The first field starts
7742 with the Y in Yes. To get what you're interested in you might
7743 use "=" and space as the field separators and display the third
7744 field, like
7746 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(4,3,= )
7748 or maybe you would break at the dot instead
7750 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(2,2,=.,R)
7752 Another example we've seen has headers that look like
7754 X-Spam: Gauge=IIIIIII, Probability=7%, Report=...
7756 Because there are two equals and a comma before the 7% and a
7757 comma after it, the token
7759 HEADER:X-Spam-Status(3,4,=\,,R)
7761 should display the probability (for example 7% or 83%) right
7762 justified in a 3-wide field.
7764 ARROW
7765 This gives an alternative way to display the current message in
7766 the MESSAGE INDEX screen. Usually the current message is
7767 indicated by the line being shown in reverse video. Instead, if
7768 the ARROW token is included in your Index-Format, the current
7769 line will include an "arrow" that looks like
7771 ->
7773 in the ARROW token's field. For all of the non-current messages,
7774 the ARROW field will be filled with blanks. If you use the
7775 fixed-field width feature the length of the "arrow" may be
7776 adjusted. The arrow will be drawn as width-1 dashes followed by
7777 a greater than sign. For example, if you use ARROW(3) you will
7778 get
7780 -->
7782 and ARROW(1) will give you just
7784 >
7786 It is also possible to set the color of the ARROW field. By
7787 default (and for non-current messages) the arrow is colored the
7788 same as the index line it is part of. You may set it to be
7789 another color with the Index Arrow Color option available from
7790 the Setup Kolor screen.
7792 SCORE
7793 This gives the score of each message. This will be six columns
7794 wide to accomodate the widest possible score. You will probably
7795 want to use the Index-Format fixed-field width feature to limit
7796 the width of the field to the widest score that you use (e.g.
7797 SCORE(3) if your scores are always between 0 and 999). If you
7798 have not defined any score rules the scores will all be zero. If
7799 any of your score rules contain AllText or BodyText patterns
7800 then including SCORE in the Index-Format may slow down the
7801 display of the MESSAGE INDEX screen.
7803 _Tokens Available for all but Index-Format_
7805 CURNEWS
7806 This token represents the current newsgroup if there is one. For
7807 example, "comp.mail.pine".
7809 MSGID
7810 This token represents the message ID of the message. This token
7811 does not work with Filter Rule folder names.
7813 CURDATE
7814 This token represents the current date. It has the format MMM
7815 DD. For example, "Oct 23".
7817 CURDATEISO
7818 This token represents the current date. It has the format
7819 YYYY-MM-DD. For example, "1998-10-23".
7821 CURDATEISOS
7822 This token represents the current date. It has the format
7823 YY-MM-DD. For example, "98-10-23".
7825 CURPREFDATE
7826 This token represents the current date. It is your operating
7827 system's idea of the preferred date representation for the
7828 current locale. Internally it uses the %x version of the date
7829 from the strftime routine.
7831 CURPREFTIME
7832 This token represents the current time. It is the preferred time
7833 representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
7834 version of the time from the strftime routine.
7836 CURPREFDATETIME
7837 This token represents the current date and time. It is the
7838 preferred date and time representation for the current locale.
7839 Internally it uses the %c version of the time from the strftime
7840 routine.
7842 CURTIME24
7843 This token represents the current time. It has the format HH:MM.
7844 For example, "17:28".
7846 CURTIME12
7847 This token represents the current time. This time is for a 12
7848 hour clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or
7849 "11:13am".
7851 CURDAY
7852 This token represents the current day of the month. For example,
7853 "23" or "9".
7855 CURDAY2DIGIT
7856 This token represents the current day of the month. For example,
7857 "23" or "09". It is always 2 digits.
7859 CURDAYOFWEEK
7860 This token represents the current day of the week. For example,
7861 "Sunday" or "Wednesday".
7863 CURDAYOFWEEKABBREV
7864 This token represents the current day of the week. For example,
7865 "Sun" or "Wed".
7867 CURMONTH
7868 This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or
7869 "9".
7871 CURMONTH2DIGIT
7872 This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or
7873 "09". It is always 2 digits.
7875 CURMONTHLONG
7876 This token represents the current month. For example, "October".
7878 CURMONTHABBREV
7879 This token represents the current month. For example, "Oct".
7881 CURYEAR
7882 This token represents the current year. For example, "1998" or
7883 "2001".
7885 CURYEAR2DIGIT
7886 This token represents the current year. For example, "98" or
7887 "01". It is always 2 digits.
7889 LASTMONTH
7890 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7891 November (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is
7892 October (the 10th month), it is "9". It is possible that this
7893 and the other tokens beginning with LASTMONTH below could be
7894 useful when used with a Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning
7895 of Month" option set.
7897 LASTMONTH2DIGIT
7898 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7899 November (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is
7900 October (the 10th month), it is "09". It is always 2 digits.
7902 LASTMONTHLONG
7903 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7904 November the value is "October".
7906 LASTMONTHABBREV
7907 This token represents last month. For example, if this is
7908 November the value is "Oct".
7910 LASTMONTHYEAR
7911 This token represents what the year was a month ago. For
7912 example, if this is October, 1998, it is "1998". If this is
7913 January, 1998, it is "1997".
7915 LASTMONTHYEAR2DIGIT
7916 This token represents what the year was a month ago. For
7917 example, if this is October, 1998, it is "98". If this is
7918 January, 1998, it is "97".
7920 LASTYEAR
7921 This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998,
7922 it equals "1997". It is possible that this could be useful when
7923 used with a Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning of Year"
7924 option set.
7926 LASTYEAR2DIGIT
7927 This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998,
7928 it equals "97". It is always 2 digits.
7930 ROLENICK
7931 This token represents the nickname of the role currently being
7932 used. If no role is being used, then no text will be printed for
7933 this token. This token does not work with Filter Rule folder
7934 names.
7936 _Token Available Only for Reply-Leadin_
7938 See the help for the Reply-Leadin option, to see why you might want to
7939 use this. Since the _Reply-Leadin_ contains free text this token must
7940 be surrounded by underscores when used.
7942 NEWLINE
7943 This is an end of line marker.
7945 _Token Available Only for Templates and Signatures_
7947 CURSORPOS
7948 This token is different from the others. When it is replaced it
7949 is replaced with nothing, but it sets a _Alpine_ internal
7950 variable which tells the composer to start with the cursor
7951 positioned at the position where this token was. If both the
7952 template file and the signature file contain a "CURSORPOS"
7953 token, then the position in the template file is used. If there
7954 is a template file and neither it nor the signature file
7955 contains a "CURSORPOS" token, then the cursor is positioned
7956 after the end of the contents of the template file when the
7957 composer starts up.
7959 Conditional Inclusion of Text for Reply-Leadin, Signatures, and Templates
7961 Conditional text inclusion may be used with the Reply-Leadin option, in
7962 signature files, and in template files used in roles. It may _not_ be
7963 used with the _Index-Format_ option.
7965 There is a limited if-else capability for including text. The if-else
7966 condition is based on whether or not a given token would result in
7967 replacement text you specify. The syntax of this conditional inclusion
7968 is
7970 _token_(match_this, if_matched [ , if_not_matched ] )
7972 The left parenthesis must follow the underscore immediately, with no
7973 intervening space. It means the token is expanded and the results of
7974 that expansion are compared against the "match_this" argument. If there
7975 is an exact match, then the "if_matched" text is used as the
7976 replacement text. Otherwise, the "if_not_matched" text is used. One of
7977 the most useful values for the "match_this" argument is the empty
7978 string, "". In that case the expansion is compared against the empty
7979 string.
7981 Here's an example to make it clearer. This text could be included in
7982 one of your template files:
7984 _NEWS_("", "I'm replying to email","I'm replying to news")
7986 If that is included in a template file which you are using while
7987 replying to a message (because you chose to use the role it was part
7988 of), and that message has a newsgroup header and a newsgroup in that
7989 header, then the text
7991 I'm replying to news
7993 will be included in the message you are about to compose. On the other
7994 hand, if the message you are replying to does not have a newsgroup,
7995 then the text
7997 I'm replying to email
7999 would be included instead. This would also work in signature files and
8000 in the "Reply-Leadin" option. If the "match_this", "if_matched", or
8001 "if_not_matched" arguments contain spaces, parentheses, or commas; they
8002 have to be quoted with double quotation marks (like in the example
8003 above). If you want to include a literal quote in the text you must
8004 escape the quote by preceding it with a backslash character. If you
8005 want to include a literal backslash character you must escape it by
8006 preceding it with another backslash.
8008 The comma followed by "if_not_matched" is optional. If there is no
8009 "if_not_matched" present then no text is included if the not_matched
8010 case is true. Here's another example:
8012 _NEWS_("", "", "This msg was seen in group: _NEWS_.")
8014 Here you can see that tokens may appear in the arguments. The same is
8015 true for tokens with the conditional parentheses. They may appear in
8016 arguments, though you do have to be careful to get the quoting and
8017 escaping of nested double quotes correct. If this was in the signature
8018 file being used and you were replying to a message sent to
8019 comp.mail.pine the resulting text would be:
8021 This msg was seen in group: comp.mail.pine.
8023 If you were replying to a message which wasn't sent to any newsgroup
8024 the resulting text would be a single blank line. The reason you'd get a
8025 blank line is because the end of the line is outside of the
8026 conditional, so is always included. If you wanted to get rid of that
8027 blank line you could do so by moving the end of line inside the
8028 conditional. In other words, it's ok to have multi-line "if_matched" or
8029 "if_not_matched" arguments. The text just continues until the next
8030 double quotation, even if it's not on the same line.
8032 Here's one more (contrived) example illustrating a matching argument
8033 which is not the empty string.
8035 _SMARTDATE_("Today", _SMARTDATE_, "On _DATE_") _FROM_ wrote:
8037 If this was the value of your "Reply-Leadin" option and you were
8038 replying to a message which was sent today, then the value of the
8039 "Reply-Leadin" would be
8041 Today Fred Flintstone wrote:
8043 But if you were replying to a message sent on Oct. 27 (and that wasn't
8044 today) you would get
8046 On Oct 27 Fred Flintstone wrote:
8048 Per Server Directory Configuration
8050 This is only available if _Alpine_ was built with LDAP support. If
8051 that's the case, there will be a Directory option underneath the Setup
8052 command on the Main Menu. Each server that is defined there has several
8053 configuration variables which control the behavior when using it.
8054 _ldap-server_
8055 This is the name of the host where an LDAP server is running.
8056 To find out whether your organization has its own LDAP server,
8057 contact its computing support staff.
8058 _search-base_
8059 This is the search base to be used on this server. It functions
8060 as a filter by restricting your searches in the LDAP server
8061 database to the specified contents of the specified fields.
8062 Without it, searches submitted to this directory server may
8063 fail. It might be something like:
8064 O = <Your Organization Name>, C = US
8066 or it might be blank. (Some LDAP servers actually ignore
8067 anything specified here.)
8068 If in doubt what parameters you should specify here, contact the
8069 maintainers of the LDAP server.
8070 _port_
8071 This is the TCP port number to be used with this LDAP server. If
8072 you leave this blank port 389 will be used.
8073 _nickname_
8074 This is a nickname to be used in displays. If you don't supply a
8075 nickname the server name from "ldap-server" will be used
8076 instead. This option is strictly for your convenience.
8077 _use-implicitly-from-composer_
8078 Set this feature to have lookups done to this server implicitly
8079 from the composer. If an address doesn't look like a
8080 fully-qualified address, it will be looked up in your address
8081 books, and if it doesn't match a nickname there, then it will be
8082 looked up on the LDAP servers which have this feature set. The
8083 lookups will also be done when using the address completion
8084 feature (TAB command) in the composer if any of the serves have
8085 this feature set. Also see the LDAP feature
8086 lookup-addrbook-contents and the Setup/Config feature
8087 ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
8088 _lookup-addrbook-contents_
8089 Normally implicit LDAP lookups from the composer are done only
8090 for the strings you type in from the composer screen. In other
8091 words, you type in something in the To or CC field and press
8092 return, then the string is looked up. First that string is
8093 looked up in your address books. If a match is found there, then
8094 the results of that match are looked up again. If you place a
8095 string in your address book that you want to have looked up on
8096 the LDAP directory server, you need to turn on this feature. If
8097 you set this feature for a server, you almost always will also
8098 want to set the use-implicitly-from-composer feature. An example
8099 might serve to best illustrate this feature.
8100 If an LDAP lookup of "William Clinton" normally returns an entry
8101 with an address of pres@whitehouse.gov, then you might put an
8102 entry in your address book that looks like:
8103 Nickname Address
8104 bill "William Clinton"
8106 Now, when you type "bill" into an address field in the composer
8107 _Alpine_ will find the "bill" entry in your address book. It will
8108 replace "bill" with "William Clinton". It will then search for
8109 an entry with that nickname in your address book and not find
8110 one. If this feature is set, _Alpine_ will then attempt to
8111 lookup "William Clinton" on the LDAP server and find the entry
8112 with address pres@whitehouse.gov.
8113 A better way to accomplish the same thing is probably to use the
8114 feature save-search-criteria-not-result.
8115 _save-search-criteria-not-result_
8116 Normally when you save the results of an LDAP directory lookup
8117 to your address book the _results_ of the lookup are saved. If
8118 this feature is set and the entry being saved was found on this
8119 directory server, then the search _criteria_ is saved instead of
8120 the _results_ of the search. When this address book entry is
8121 used in the future, instead of copying the results from the
8122 address book the directory lookup will be done again. This could
8123 be useful if the copied result might become stale because the
8124 data on the directory server changes (for example, the entry's
8125 email address changes). You probably don't want to set this
8126 feature if the server is at all slow or unreliable.
8127 The way this actually works is that instead of saving the email
8128 address in your address book, _Alpine_ saves enough information
8129 to look up the same directory entry again. In particular, it
8130 saves the server name and the distinguished name of the entry.
8131 It's possible that the server administrators might change the
8132 format of distinguished names on the server, or that the entry
8133 might be removed from the server. If _Alpine_ notices this, you
8134 will be warned and a backup copy of the email address will be
8135 used. You may want to create a new entry in this case, since you
8136 will get the annoying warning every time you use the old entry.
8137 You may do that by Saving the entry to a new nickname in the
8138 same address book. You will be asked whether or not you want to
8139 use the backup email address.
8140 A related feature in the Setup/Config screen is
8141 ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
8142 _disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution_
8143 Spaces in your input are normally handled specially. Each space
8144 character is replaced by
8145 * <SPACE>
8147 in the search query (but not by "* <SPACE> *"). The reason this
8148 is done is so the input string
8149 Greg Donald
8151 (which is converted to "Greg* Donald") will match the names
8152 "Greg Donald", "Gregory Donald", "Greg F. Donald", and "Gregory
8153 F Donald"; but it won't match "Greg McDonald". If the
8154 "Search-Rule" you were using was "begins-with", then it would
8155 also match the name "Greg Donaldson".
8156 Turning on this feature will disable this substitution.
8157 _search-type_
8158 This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. In particular,
8159 this tells the server where to look for the string to be
8160 matched. If set to "name" then the string that is being searched
8161 for will be compared with the string in the "Name" field on the
8162 server (technically, it is the "commonname" field on the
8163 server). "Surname" means we're looking for a match in the
8164 "Surname" field on the server (actually the "sn" field).
8165 "Givenname" really is "givenname" and "email" is the electronic
8166 mail address (this is actually the field called "mail" or
8167 "electronicmail" on the server). The other three types are
8168 combinations of the types listed so far. "Name-or-email" means
8169 the string should appear in either the "name" field OR the
8170 "email" field. Likewise, "surname-or-givenname" means "surname"
8171 OR "givenname" and "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email" means the
8172 obvious thing.
8173 This search _type_ is combined with the search rule to form the
8174 actual search query.
8175 The usual default value for this option is
8176 "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email". This type of search may be slow
8177 on some servers. Try "name-or-email", which is often faster, or
8178 just "name" if the performance seems to be a problem.
8179 Some servers have been configured with different attribute names
8180 for these four fields. In other words, instead of using the
8181 attribute name "mail" for the email address field, the server
8182 might be configured to use something else, for example,
8183 "rfc822mail" or "internetemailaddress". _Alpine_ can be
8184 configured to use these different attribute names by using the
8185 four per-server configuration options:
8186 + email-attribute
8187 + name-attribute
8188 + surname-attribute
8189 + givenname-attribute
8190 _search-rule_
8191 This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. If set to
8192 "equals" then only exact matches count. "Contains" means that
8193 the string you type in is a substring of what you are matching
8194 against. "Begins-with" and "ends-with" mean that the string
8195 starts or ends with the string you type in.
8196 Spaces in your input are normally handled specially, but you can
8197 turn that special handling off with the
8198 disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution feature.
8199 The usual default value for this option is _begins-with_.
8200 _email-attribute_
8201 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8202 looking for an email address. The default value for this option
8203 is "mail" or "electronicmail". If the server you are using uses
8204 a different attribute name for the email address, put that
8205 attribute name here.
8206 This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is
8207 one that contains a search for "email". It will also cause the
8208 attribute value matching this attribute name to be used as the
8209 email address when you look up an entry from the composer.
8210 _name-attribute_
8211 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8212 looking for the name of the entry. The default value for this
8213 option is "cn", which stands for common name. If the server you
8214 are using uses a different attribute name for the name, put that
8215 attribute name here. This will affect the search filter used if
8216 your Search-Type is one that contains a search for "name".
8217 _surname-attribute_
8218 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8219 looking for the surname of the entry. The default value for this
8220 option is "sn". If the server you are using uses a different
8221 attribute name for the surname, put that attribute name here.
8222 This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is
8223 one that contains a search for "surname".
8224 _givenname-attribute_
8225 This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when
8226 looking for the given name of the entry. The default value for
8227 this option is "givenname". If the server you are using uses a
8228 different attribute name for the given name, put that attribute
8229 name here. This will affect the search filter used if your
8230 Search-Type is one that contains a search for "givenname".
8231 _timelimit_
8232 This places a limit on the number of seconds the LDAP search
8233 will continue. The default is 30 seconds. A value of 0 means no
8234 limit. Note that some servers may place limits of their own on
8235 searches.
8236 _sizelimit_
8237 This places a limit on the number of entries returned by the
8238 LDAP server. A value of 0 means no limit. The default is 0. Note
8239 that some servers may place limits of their own on searches.
8240 _custom-search-filter_
8241 This one is for advanced users only! If you define this, then
8242 the search-type and search-rule defined are both ignored.
8243 However, the feature disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution is still
8244 in effect. That is, the space substitution will take place even
8245 in a custom filter unless you disable it.
8246 If your LDAP service stops working and you suspect it might be
8247 because of your custom filter, just delete this filter and try
8248 using the _search-type_ and _search-rule_ instead. Another
8249 option that sometimes causes trouble is the search-base option.
8250 This variable may be set to the string representation of an LDAP
8251 search filter (see RFC1960). In the places where you want the
8252 address string to be substituted in, put a '%s' in this filter
8253 string. Here are some examples:
8254 A "Search-Type" of "name" with "Search-Rule" of "begins-with" is
8255 equivalent to the "custom-search-filter"
8256 (cn=%s*)
8258 When you try to match against the string "string" the program
8259 replaces the "%s" with "string" (without the quotes). You may
8260 have multiple "%s"'s and they will all be replaced with the
8261 string. There is a limit of 10 "%s"'s.
8262 A "Search-Type" of "name-or-email" with "Search-Rule" of
8263 "contains" is equivalent to
8264 (|(cn=*%s*)(mail=*%s*))
8266 If your server uses a different attribute _name_ than _Alpine_
8267 uses by default, (for example, it uses "rfc822mail" instead of
8268 "mail"), then you may be able to use one or more of the four
8269 attribute configuration options instead of defining a custom
8270 filter:
8271 + email-attribute
8272 + name-attribute
8273 + surname-attribute
8274 + givenname-attribute
8276 Color Configuration
8278 If the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of using
8279 color (see color-style option), or if you are using _PC-Alpine_, then
8280 it is possible to set up _Alpine_ so that various parts of the display
8281 will be shown in colors you configure. This is done using the Setup
8282 Color screen. The Setup Color screen is divided into five broad
8283 sections: Options, General Colors, Index Colors, Header Colors, and
8284 Keyword Colors. In addition to these five categories you may also color
8285 lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen by configuring the Index Line Color.
8287 Each color is defined as a foreground color (the color of the actual
8288 text) and a background color (the color of the area behind the text).
8290 Color Options
8292 _current-indexline-style_
8293 This option affects the colors used to display the current line
8294 in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not have Index Line
8295 Colors defined, then this option will have no effect in the
8296 index. Those Rules may be defined by going to the
8297 Setup/Rules/Indexcolor screen.
8299 If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on and
8300 the Incoming Unseen Color is set to something other than the
8301 default, then this option also affects the color used to display
8302 the current folder in the Incoming FOLDER LIST screen.
8304 The available options include:
8306 flip-colors
8307 This is the default. If an index line is colored because
8308 it matches one of your Index Color Rules, then its colors
8309 will be reversed when it is the currently highlighted
8310 line. For example, if the line is normally red text on a
8311 blue background, then when it is the current line it will
8312 be drawn as blue text on a red background.
8314 The rest of the option values all revert to this
8315 flip-colors behavior if there is no Reverse Color defined.
8317 reverse
8318 With this option the Reverse color is always used to
8319 highlight the current line.
8321 reverse-fg
8322 The foreground part of the Reverse Color is used to
8323 highlight the current line. If this would cause the text
8324 to be unreadable (because the foreground and background
8325 colors are the same) or if it would cause no change in the
8326 color of the index line, then the colors are flipped
8327 instead.
8329 Some people think this works particularly well if you use
8330 different background colors to emphasize "interesting"
8331 lines, but always with the same Normal foreground color,
8332 and you use a different foreground color for the Reverse
8333 Color.
8335 reverse-fg-no-ambiguity
8336 With the "reverse-fg" rule above, it is possible that the
8337 resulting color will be exactly the same as the regular
8338 Reverse Color. That can lead to some possible confusion
8339 because an "interesting" line which is the current line
8340 will be displayed exactly the same as a non-interesting
8341 line which is current. You can't tell whether the line is
8342 just a regular current line or if it is an "interesting"
8343 current line by looking at the color. Setting the option
8344 to this value removes that ambiguity. It is the same as
8345 the "reverse-fg" setting unless the resulting interesting
8346 current line would look just like a non-interesting
8347 current line. In that case, the interesting line's colors
8348 are simply flipped (like in the default behavior).
8350 As an alternative way to preserve the line's
8351 interestingness in this case, you may find that using both
8352 a different foreground and a different background color
8353 for the interesting line will help.
8355 reverse-bg
8356 The background part of the Reverse Color is used to
8357 highlight the current line. If this would cause the text
8358 to be unreadable (because the foreground and background
8359 colors are the same) or if it would cause no change in the
8360 color of the index line, then the colors are flipped
8361 instead.
8363 Some people think this works particularly well if you use
8364 different foreground colors to emphasize "interesting"
8365 lines, but always with the same Normal background color,
8366 and you use a different background color for the Reverse
8367 Color.
8369 reverse-bg-no-ambiguity
8370 As with the "reverse-fg" case, the "reverse-bg" rule may
8371 also result in a color which is exactly the same as the
8372 regular Reverse Color. Setting the option to this value
8373 removes that ambiguity. It is the same as the "reverse-bg"
8374 setting unless the resulting current line has the same
8375 color as the Reverse Color. In that case, the interesting
8376 line's colors are simply flipped (like in the default
8377 behavior).
8379 _titlebar-color-style_
8380 This option affects the colors used to display the titlebar (the
8381 top line on the screen) when viewing a message.
8383 The available options include:
8385 default
8386 The color of the titlebar will be the color you set for
8387 the Title Color. The Title Color may be set by using the
8389 indexline
8390 The color of the titlebar will be the same as the color of
8391 the index line corresponding to the message being viewed.
8392 The rules which determine what color the index line will
8393 be may be set up by going to the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor
8394 screen. If the index line for a message is not colored
8395 explicitly by the Indexcolor rules, then the titlebar will
8396 be colored the same as for the "default" option above
8397 (which is not the same color that the index line itself
8398 will have).
8400 reverse-indexline
8401 This is similar to the "indexline" option except the
8402 foreground and background colors from the corresponding
8403 index line will be reversed. For example, if the index
8404 line color is red letters on a white background, then the
8405 titlebar will be white letters on a red background. If the
8406 index line for a message is not colored explicitly by the
8407 Indexcolor rules, then the titlebar will be colored the
8408 same as for the "default" option above (which is not the
8409 same color that the index line itself will have).
8411 General Colors
8413 _Normal Color_
8414 This is the color which most of the screen is painted in. By
8415 default this color is black characters on a white background.
8416 _Reverse Color_
8417 The color _Alpine_ uses for reverse video characters. Actually,
8418 the name is misleading. This used to be reverse video and so the
8419 name remains. It is still used to highlight certain parts of the
8420 screen but the color may be set to whatever you'd like.
8421 _Title Color_
8422 The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the
8423 screen). By default, the Title Color is black characters on a
8424 yellow background. The actual titlebar color may be different
8425 from the Title Color if the option titlebar-color-style is set
8426 to some value other than the default. It may also be different
8427 if the current folder is closed and the Title Closed Color is
8428 set to something different from the Title Color.
8429 _Title-closed Color_
8430 The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the
8431 screen) when the current folder is closed. By default, the Title
8432 Color Closed Color is white characters on a red background.
8433 _Status Color_
8434 The color _Alpine_ uses for messages written to the status
8435 message line near the bottom of the screen. By default, the
8436 Status Color is the same as the Reverse Color.
8437 _KeyLabel Color_
8438 The color _Alpine_ uses for the labels of the commands in the
8439 two-line menu at the bottom of the screen. The label is the long
8440 name, for example, "PrevMsg". By default, the KeyLabel Color is
8441 the same as the Normal Color.
8442 WARNING: Some terminal emulators have the property that the
8443 screen will scroll down one line whenever a character is written
8444 to the character cell in the lower right corner of the screen.
8445 _Alpine_ can usually avoid writing a character in that corner of
8446 the screen. However, if you have defined a KeyLabel Color then
8447 _Alpine_ does have to write a character in that cell in order to
8448 color the cell correctly. If you find that your display
8449 sometimes scrolls up a line this could be the problem. The most
8450 obvious symptom is probably that the titlebar at the top of the
8451 screen scrolls off the screen. Try setting KeyLabel Color to
8452 Default to see if that fixes the problem.
8453 _KeyName Color_
8454 The color _Alpine_ uses for the names of the commands in the
8455 two-line menu at the bottom of the screen. The KeyName is the
8456 shorter name in the menu. For example, the "W" before the
8457 "WhereIs". By default, the KeyName Color is the same as the
8458 Normal Color.
8459 _Selectable-item Color_
8460 The color _Alpine_ uses for displaying selectable items, such as
8461 URLs. By default, the Selectable-item Color is the same as the
8462 Normal Color, except it is also Bold.
8463 _Meta-message Color_
8464 The color _Alpine_ uses in the MESSAGE TEXT screen for messages
8465 to you that aren't part of the message itself. By default, the
8466 Meta-Message Color is black characters on a yellow background.
8467 _Quote Colors_
8468 The colors _Alpine_ uses for coloring quoted text in the MESSAGE
8469 TEXT screen. If a line begins with a > character (or space
8470 followed by >) it is considered a quote. That line will be given
8471 the Quote1 Color (first level quote). If there is a second level
8472 of quoting then the Quote2 Color will be used. _Alpine_
8473 considers there to be a second level of quoting if that first >
8474 is followed by another > (or space followed by >). If there are
8475 characters other than whitespace and > signs, then it isn't
8476 considered another level of quoting. Similarly, if there is a
8477 third level of quoting the Quote3 Color will be used. If there
8478 are more levels after that the Quote Colors are reused. If you
8479 define all three colors then it would repeat like Color1,
8480 Color2, Color3, Color1, Color2, Color3, ... If you only define
8481 the first two it would be Color1, Color2, Color1, Color2, ... If
8482 you define only the Quote1 Color, then the entire quote would be
8483 that color regardless of the quoting levels. By default, the
8484 Quote1 Color is black characters on a greenish-blue background;
8485 the Quote2 Color is black characters on a dull yellow
8486 background; and the Quote3 Color is black characters on a green
8487 background.
8488 _Incoming Unseen Color_
8489 If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on it
8490 is possible to highlight the folders that contain unseen
8491 messages by coloring them with this color. By default, this is
8492 the same as the Normal Color and no highlighting is done.
8493 Usually the "current" folder (the folder the cursor is on) is
8494 highlighted using reverse video. If the current folder is
8495 colored because it contains unseen messages then the color used
8496 to show that it is also the current folder is controlled by the
8497 current-indexline-style feature at the top of the SETUP COLOR
8498 screen.
8499 _Signature Color_
8500 The color _Alpine_ uses for coloring the signature in the
8501 MESSAGE TEXT screen. According to USENET conventions, the
8502 signature is defined as the paragraph following the "sigdashes",
8503 that is, the special line consisting of the three characters
8504 "-- " (i.e., dash, dash, and space). _Alpine_ allows for one
8505 empty line right after the sigdashes to be considered as part of
8506 the signature. By default, the Signature Color is blue
8507 characters on a white background.
8508 _Prompt Color_
8509 The color _Alpine_ uses for confirmation prompts and questions
8510 which appear in the status message line near the bottom of the
8511 screen. By default, the Prompt Color is the same as the Reverse
8512 Color.
8514 Index Colors
8516 You may add color to the single character symbols which give the status
8517 of each message in the MESSAGE INDEX. By default the characters "+",
8518 "*", "D", "A", and "N" show up near the left hand side of the screen,
8519 depending on whether the message is addressed to you, and whether the
8520 message is marked Important, is Deleted, is Answered, or is New. You
8521 may set the color of those symbols. By default, all of these symbols
8522 are drawn with the same color as the rest of the index line they are a
8523 part of.
8525 Besides coloring the message status symbols, you may also color the
8526 entire index line. This is done by using the Index Line Color
8527 configuration screen. It is also possible to color (keywords in the
8528 index using the Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors); the ARROW cursor;
8529 the Subject using Index Subject Color; the From using Index From Color;
8530 and the Index Opening text.
8532 _Index-to-me Symbol Color_
8533 The color used for drawing the "+" symbol which signifies a
8534 message is addressed directly to you.
8535 _Index-important Symbol Color_
8536 The color used for drawing the "*" symbol which signifies a
8537 message has been flagged Important.
8538 _Index-deleted Symbol Color_
8539 The color used for drawing the "D" symbol which signifies a
8540 message has been marked Deleted.
8541 _Index-answered Symbol Color_
8542 The color used for drawing the "A" symbol which signifies a
8543 message has been answered.
8544 _Index-new Symbol Color_
8545 The color used for drawing the "N" symbol which signifies a
8546 message is New.
8547 _Index-recent Symbol Color_
8548 The color used for drawing the "R" symbol which signifies a
8549 message is Recent (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or
8550 "SHORTIMAPSTATUS" token is part of the index-format option).
8551 _Index-unseen Symbol Color_
8552 The color used for drawing the "U" symbol which signifies a
8553 message is Unseen (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or
8554 "SHORTIMAPSTATUS" token is part of the Index-Format option).
8555 _Index-priority Symbol Colors_
8556 The colors used for drawing the tokens "PRIORITY",
8557 "PRIORITYALPHA", and "PRIORITY!" when these are configured as
8558 part of the Index-Format option. You may set the color used to
8559 draw these tokens by use of the colors Index High Priority
8560 Symbol Color and Index Low Priority Symbol Color. This coloring
8561 takes place for all but the current index line, and the Priority
8562 Color appears to be in front of any color from an Index Color
8563 Rule. If the priority has a value of 1 or 2 the High Priority
8564 color will be used, and if the value is 4 or 5 the Low Priority
8565 color will be used.
8566 If you don't set these colors the index line will be colored in
8567 the same color as the bulk of the index line.
8568 _Index-arrow Symbol Color_
8569 The color used for drawing the "ARROW" token when it is
8570 configured as part of the Index-Format option.
8571 _Index-subject Symbol Color_
8572 You may set the color used to draw the Subject part of the index
8573 line. This coloring takes place for all but the current index
8574 line, and the Subject Color appears to be in front of any color
8575 from an Index Color Rule.
8576 If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color
8577 as the bulk of the index line.
8578 _Index-from Symbol Color_
8579 You may set the color used to draw the From part of the index
8580 line. This coloring takes place for all but the current index
8581 line, and the From Color appears to be in front of any color
8582 from an Index Color Rule.
8583 If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color
8584 as the bulk of the index line.
8585 _Index-opening Symbol Color_
8586 It is possible to configure the Index-Format option so that it
8587 includes the subject followed by the "opening" text of the
8588 message if there is enough space. This is done by using one of
8589 the tokens SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT. The
8590 color used for drawing this opening text is given by this
8591 option. The coloring happens for all but the current index line,
8592 and this opening color appears to be in front of any color from
8593 an Index Color Rule.
8594 By default the Index Opening Color is gray characters on a white
8595 background.
8597 The default colors for these symbols are:
8599 Index-to-me black on cyan
8600 Index-important white on bright red
8601 Index-deleted same as Normal Color
8602 Index-answered bright red on yellow
8603 Index-new white on magenta
8604 Index-recent same as Normal Color
8605 Index-unseen same as Normal Color
8607 Header Colors
8609 You may add color to the header fields in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. The
8611 _Header-general Color_
8612 may be used to color all of the headers of the message.
8614 It is also possible to set the colors for specific header fields, for
8615 example for the Subject or From fields, using the viewer-hdr-colors
8616 option.
8618 For Header Colors, there is an additional line on the configuration
8619 screen labeled "Pattern to match". If you leave that blank, then the
8620 whole field for that header will always be colored. However, if you
8621 give a pattern to match, the coloring will only take place if there is
8622 a match for that pattern in the value of the field. For example, if you
8623 are working on a color for the Subject header and you fill in a pattern
8624 of "important", then only Subjects which contain the word "important"
8625 will be colored. For address fields like From or To, a pattern match
8626 will cause only the addresses which match the pattern to be colored.
8628 If the pattern you enter is a comma-separated list of patterns, then
8629 coloring happens if any of those patterns matches.
8631 Keyword Colors
8633 Sets the colors _Alpine_ uses for Keyword fields in the MESSAGE INDEX
8634 screen. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject of a message
8635 by using the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens in the Index-Format
8636 option. Keywords may also be displayed in a column of their own in the
8637 MESSAGE INDEX screen by using the "KEY" or "KEYINIT" tokens.
8639 For example, you might have set up a Keyword "Work" using the Keywords
8640 option in the Setup/Config screen. You could cause that Keyword to show
8641 up as a special color by setting up the Keyword Color using this
8642 option, and then including it in the MESSAGE INDEX screen using one of
8643 the tokens listed above in the Index-Format.
8645 Index Line Colors
8647 You may color whole index lines by using roles. This isn't configured
8648 in the Setup Colors screen, but is configured in the Setup Rules
8649 IndexColor screen.
8651 Index Line Color Configuration
8653 Index Line Color causes lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen to be
8654 colored. This action is only available if your terminal is capable of
8655 displaying color and color display has been enabled with the
8656 Color-Style option. (In PC-Alpine, color is always enabled so there is
8657 no option to turn on.)
8659 Each rule has a "Pattern", which is used to decide which of the rules
8660 is used; and the color which is used if the Pattern matches a
8661 particular message.
8663 Rule Patterns
8665 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a rule the
8666 message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
8667 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
8668 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
8670 Index Line Color
8672 This is the color that index lines are colored when there is a matching
8673 Pattern. This colors the whole index line, except possibly the status
8674 letters which may be colored separately using the Setup Kolor screen.
8676 Role Configuration
8678 You may play different roles depending on who you are replying to. For
8679 example, if you are replying to a message addressed to _help-desk_ you
8680 may be acting as a Help Desk Worker. That role may require that you use
8681 a different return address and/or a different signature.
8683 Roles are optional. If you set up roles they work like this: Each role
8684 has a set of "Uses", which indicate whether or not a role is eligible
8685 to be considered for a particular use; a "Pattern", which is used to
8686 decide which of the eligible roles is used; and a set of "Actions",
8687 which are taken when that role is used. When you reply to a message,
8688 the message you are replying to is compared with the Patterns of the
8689 roles marked as eligible for use when replying. The comparisons start
8690 with the first eligible role and keep going until there is a match. If
8691 a match is found, the matching role's Actions are taken.
8693 It is also possible to set a default role and to change that role
8694 during your _Alpine_ session. When you start _Alpine_ no default role
8695 will be set. You may set or change the current default role by using
8696 the "D" command in the role selection screen. You'll see that screen
8697 while composing a message and being asked to select a role. An easy way
8698 to get to that screen is to use the Role Command to compose a message.
8699 You may find a default role useful if you normally perform the duties
8700 of one of your roles for a while, then you switch to another role and
8701 stay in the new role for another period of time. It may be easier than
8702 using the Role Command to select the role each time you compose a
8703 message.
8705 Role Uses
8707 There are three types of use to be configured; one for Replying, one
8708 for Forwarding, and one for Composing. These indicate whether or not
8709 you want a role to be considered when you type the Reply, Forward, or
8710 Compose commands. (The Role command is an alternate form of the Compose
8711 command, and it is not affected by these settings.) Each of these Use
8712 types has three possible values. The value "Never" means that the role
8713 will never be considered as a candidate for use with the corresponding
8714 command. For example, if you set a role's Reply Use to Never, then when
8715 you Reply to a message, the role won't even be considered. (That isn't
8716 quite true. If the message you are replying to matches some other role
8717 which requires confirmation, then there will be a ^T command available
8718 which allows you to select a role from all of your roles, not just the
8719 reply-eligible roles.)
8721 The options "With confirmation" and "Without confirmation" both mean
8722 that you do want to consider this role when using the corresponding
8723 command. For either of these settings the role's Pattern will be
8724 checked to see if it matches the message. For Reply Use, the message
8725 used to compare the Patterns with is the message being replied to. For
8726 Forward Use, the message used to compare the Pattern with is the
8727 message being forwarded. For Compose Use, there is no message, so the
8728 parts of the Pattern which depend on a message (everything other than
8729 Current Folder Type) are ignored. In all cases, the Current Folder is
8730 checked if defined. If there is a match then this role will either be
8731 used without confirmation or will be the default when confirmation is
8732 asked for, depending on which of the two options is selected. If
8733 confirmation is requested, you will have a chance to choose No Role
8734 instead of the offered role, or to change the role to any one of your
8735 other roles (with the ^T command).
8737 Role Patterns
8739 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a role the
8740 message is compared with the Role Pattern. These Patterns are the same
8741 for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules,
8742 and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
8744 Since header patterns, AllText patterns, and BodyText patterns which
8745 are unset are ignored, a role which has all header patterns unset, the
8746 AllText pattern unset, the BodyText pattern unset, the Score Interval
8747 unset, and the Current Folder Type set to "Any" may be used as a
8748 default role. It should be put last in the list of roles since the
8749 matching starts at the beginning and proceeds until one of the roles is
8750 a match. If no roles at all match, then _Alpine_ will use its regular
8751 methods of defining the role. If you wanted to, you could define a
8752 different "default" role for Replying, Forwarding, and Composing by
8753 setting the "Use" fields appropriately.
8755 Role Actions
8757 Once a role match is found, the role's Actions are taken. For each role
8758 there are several possible actions that may be defined. They are
8759 actions to set the From address, the Reply-To address, the Fcc, the
8760 Signature file, and the Template file.
8762 Initialize Settings Using Role
8764 This is a power user feature. You will usually want to leave this field
8765 empty. The value of this field is the nickname of another one of your
8766 roles. The Action values from that other role are used as the initial
8767 values of the Action items for this role. If you put something in any
8768 of the action fields for this role, that will override whatever was in
8769 the corresponding field of the initializer role.
8771 You might use this field if the "Action" part of one of your roles is
8772 something you want to use in more than one role. Instead of filling in
8773 those action values again for each role, you may give the nickname of
8774 the role where the values are filled in. It's just a shortcut way to
8775 define Role Actions.
8777 Here's an example to help explain how this works. Suppose you have a
8778 role with nickname "role1" and role1 has (among other things)
8780 Set Reply-To = The Pres <president@example.com>
8782 set. If in "role2" you set "Initialize settings using role" to "role1",
8783 then role2 will inherit the Set Reply-To value from role1 by default
8784 (and any of the other inheritable action values that are set). So if
8785 role2 had
8787 Set Reply-To = <No Value Set>
8789 defined, the Reply-To used with role2 would be "The Pres
8790 <president@example.com>" However, if role2 had
8792 Set Reply-To = VP <vicepresident@example.com>
8794 defined, then the Reply-To used with role2 would be "VP
8795 <vicepresident@example.com>" instead.
8797 If you wish, you may choose a nickname from your list of roles by using
8798 the "T" command. If the role you are using to initialize also has a
8799 role it initializes from, then that initialization happens first. That
8800 is, inheritance works as expected with the grandparent and
8801 great-grandparent (and so on) roles having the expected effect.
8803 Set From
8805 This field consists of a single address which will be used as the From
8806 address on the message you are sending. This should be a
8807 fully-qualified address like
8809 Full Name <user@domain>
8811 or just
8813 user@domain
8815 If this is left blank, then the normal From address will be used.
8817 Set Reply-To
8819 The Reply-To address is the address used on the Reply-To line of the
8820 message you are sending. You don't need a Reply-To address unless it is
8821 different from the From address. This should be a fully-qualified
8822 address like
8824 Full Name <user@domain>
8826 or just
8828 user@domain
8830 If this is left blank, then there won't be a Reply-To address unless
8831 you have configured one specially with the customized-hdrs
8832 configuration option.
8834 Set Other-Hdrs
8836 This field gives you a way to set values for headers besides "From" and
8837 "Reply-To". If you want to set either of those, use the specific "Set
8838 From" and "Set Reply-To" settings.
8840 This field is similar to the customized-hdrs option. Each header you
8841 specify here must include the header tag ("To:", "Approved:", etc.) and
8842 may optionally include a value for that header. In order to see these
8843 headers when you compose using this role you must use the rich header
8844 command. Here's an example which shows how you might set the To
8845 address.
8847 Set Other Hdrs = To: Full Name <user@domain>
8849 Headers set in this way are different from headers set with the
8850 customized-hdrs option in that the value you give for a header here
8851 will replace any value that already exists. For example, if you are
8852 Replying to a message there will already be at least one address in the
8853 To header (the address you are Replying to). However, if you Reply
8854 using a role which sets the To header, that role's To header value will
8855 be used instead. The customized-hdrs headers are defaults.
8857 Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of Other
8858 Headers, it is not possible to have the value of a header contain a
8859 comma; nor is there currently an "escape" mechanism provided to make
8860 this work.
8862 Set Fcc
8864 This field consists of a single folder name which will be used in the
8865 Fcc field of the message you are sending. You may put anything here
8866 that you would normally type into the Fcc field from the composer.
8868 In addition, an fcc of "" (two double quotation marks) means no Fcc.
8870 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
8871 deciding the default value of the Fcc field. For many roles, perhaps
8872 most, it may make more sense for you to use the other _Alpine_
8873 facilities for setting the Fcc. In particular, if you want the Fcc to
8874 depend on who you are sending the message to then the fcc-name-rule is
8875 probably more useful. In that case, you would want to leave the Fcc
8876 field here blank. However, if you have a role that depends on who the
8877 message you are replying to was From, or what address that message was
8878 sent to; then it might make sense to set the Fcc for that role here.
8880 Set LiteralSig
8882 This field contains the actual text for your signature, as opposed to
8883 the name of a file containing your signature. If this is defined it
8884 takes precedence over any value set in the _Set Signature_ field.
8886 This is simply a different way to store the signature. The signature is
8887 stored inside your Alpine configuration file instead of in a separate
8888 signature file. Tokens work the same way they do with _Set Signature_.
8890 The two character sequence \n (backslash followed by the character n)
8891 will be used to signify a line-break in your signature. You don't have
8892 to enter the \n, but it will be visible in the CHANGE THIS ROLE RULE
8893 window after you are done editing the signature.
8895 Set Signature
8897 The Signature is the name of a file to be used as the signature file
8898 when this role is being used. If the filename is followed by a vertical
8899 bar (|) then instead of reading the contents of the file the file is
8900 assumed to be a program which will produce the text to be used on its
8901 standard output. The program can't have any arguments and doesn't
8902 receive any input from _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works
8903 as if the contents came from a file.
8905 Signature files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to
8906 do that you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the
8907 regular signature-file option which is configured from the
8908 Setup/Configuration screen. A remote signature file name might look
8909 like:
8911 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/sig3
8913 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
8915 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/sig3
8917 Once you have named the remote signature file you create its contents
8918 by using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set
8919 Signature" line of the role editor.
8921 Besides containing regular text, a signature file may also contain (or
8922 a signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text
8923 which depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The
8924 tokens all look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For
8925 example, if the token
8927 _DATE_
8929 is included in the text of the signature file, then when you reply to
8930 or forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date
8931 the message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
8933 If you use a role which has a signature file for a plain composition
8934 (that is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so
8935 any tokens which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing.
8936 So if you want a signature file to be useful for new compositions it
8937 shouldn't include any of the tokens which depend on the message being
8938 replied to or forwarded.
8940 The list of available tokens is here.
8942 Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
8943 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
8944 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based on
8945 whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any newsgroups if it
8946 was used. It's explained in detail here.
8948 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in
8949 a signature file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For
8950 example, to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use
8951 \_DATE_. It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
8952 expanded token.
8954 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
8955 deciding which file (if any) to use for the signature file.
8957 Set Template
8959 A Template is the name of a file to be included in the message when
8960 this role is being used. The template file is a file which is included
8961 at the top of the message you are composing.
8963 If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead of
8964 reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a program
8965 which will produce the text to be used on its standard output. The
8966 program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive any input from
8967 _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as if the contents came
8968 from a file.
8970 Template files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to do
8971 that you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the
8972 regular signature-file option which is configured from the
8973 Setup/Configuration screen. A remote template file name might look
8974 like:
8976 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/templ3
8978 or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
8980 {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/templ3
8982 Once you have named the remote template file you create its contents by
8983 using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set
8984 Template" line of the role editor.
8986 Besides containing regular text, a template file may also contain (or a
8987 template file program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text
8988 which depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The
8989 tokens all look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For
8990 example, if the token
8992 _DATE_
8994 is included in the text of the template file, then when you reply to or
8995 forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date the
8996 message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
8998 If you use a role which has a template file for a plain composition
8999 (that is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so
9000 any tokens which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing.
9001 So if you want a template file to be useful for new compositions it
9002 shouldn't include any of the tokens which depend on the message being
9003 replied to or forwarded.
9005 The list of available tokens is here.
9007 Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include
9008 text based on whether or not a token would result in specific
9009 replacement text. For example, you could include some text based on
9010 whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in any newsgroups if it
9011 was used. It's explained in detail here.
9013 In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in
9014 a template file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For
9015 example, to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use
9016 \_DATE_. It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
9017 expanded token.
9019 A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will not use a template file
9020 when this role is being used.
9022 Use SMTP Server
9024 If this field has a value, then it will be used as the SMTP server to
9025 send mail when this role is being used (unless the SMTP server variable
9026 is set in the system-wide fixed configuration file). It has the same
9027 semantics as the smtp-server variable in the Setup/Config screen. When
9028 you postpone the composition this SMTP server list will be saved with
9029 the postponed composition and it cannot be changed later. Because of
9030 that, you may want to make this a list of SMTP servers with the
9031 preferred server at the front of the list and alternate servers later
9032 in the list.
9034 If any of the actions are left unset, then the action depends on what
9035 is present in the "Initialize settings using role" field. If you've
9036 listed the nickname of another one of your roles there, then the
9037 corresponding action from that role will be used here. If that action
9038 is also blank, or if there is no nickname specified, then _Alpine_ will
9039 do whatever it normally does to set these actions. This depends on
9040 other configuration options and features you've set.
9042 Filtering Configuration
9044 The software which actually delivers mail (the stuff that happens
9045 before _Alpine_ is involved) for you is in a better position to do mail
9046 filtering than _Alpine_ itself. If possible, you may want to look into
9047 using that sort of mail filtering to deliver mail to different folders,
9048 delete it, or forward it. However, if you'd like _Alpine_ to help with
9049 this, _Alpine_'s filtering is for you.
9051 Filtering is a way to automatically move certain messages from one
9052 folder to another or to delete messages. It can also be used to set
9053 message status bits (Important, Deleted, New, Answered). _Alpine_
9054 doesn't have the ability to forward mail to another address.
9056 Each filtering rule has a "Pattern" and a "Filter Action". When a
9057 folder is opened, when new mail arrives in an open folder, or when mail
9058 is Expunged from a folder; each message is compared with the Patterns
9059 of your filtering rules. The comparisons start with the first rule and
9060 keep going until there is a match. If a match is found, the message may
9061 be deleted or moved, depending on the setting of the Filter Action. If
9062 the message is not deleted, it may have its status altered.
9064 For efficiency, each message is usually only checked once. When new
9065 mail arrives, the new messages are checked but not the old. There are
9066 some exceptions to this rule. The expunge command will cause all
9067 messages to be rechecked, as will editing of the filtering rules.
9069 _NOTE:_ When setting up a Pattern used to delete messages, it is
9070 recommended that you test the Pattern first with a "Move" folder
9071 specified in case unintended matches occur. Messages that are deleted
9072 will be removed from the folder and _unrecoverable_ from within _Alpine_
9073 after the next Expunge command or once the folder being filtered has
9074 been closed.
9076 Filter Patterns
9078 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a filter the
9079 message is compared with the Filter's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9080 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9081 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9083 Since filtering is a potentially destructive action, if you have a
9084 filtering Pattern with nothing other than Current Folder Type set, that
9085 filtering rule is ignored.
9087 Filter Actions
9089 Once a filter match is found for a particular message, there are some
9090 actions which may be taken. First, the message may have its status
9091 changed. This is the same message status that you can manipulate
9092 manually using the Flag Command. There are four elements of message
9093 status that you can control. You can set or clear the Important status,
9094 the New status, the Deleted status, and the Answered status. Of course,
9095 if the filter is going to delete the message, then there is no point in
9096 setting message status. You may also set or clear user-defined keywords
9097 for a message.
9099 Second, the filter may delete or move the message. Deleting the message
9100 marks it Deleted and removes it from view. It is effectively gone
9101 forever (though it technically is still there until the next expunge
9102 command, which may happen implicitly). Moving the message moves it from
9103 the open folder into the folder listed on the "Folder List" line of the
9104 filter configuration. If you list more than one folder name (separated
9105 by commas) then the message will be copied to each of those folders. In
9106 any case, if "Delete" or "Move" is set then the message is removed from
9107 the current folder. If you just want to set the messages status without
9108 deleting it from the folder, then set the filter action to "Just Set
9109 Message Status".
9111 (There is no way to do a Copy instead of a Move, due to the
9112 difficulties involved in keeping track of whether or not a message has
9113 already been copied by a previous _Alpine_ session.)
9115 Move-only-if-not-deleted option
9117 If you have specified a Move to Folder to filter messages into, then
9118 this option has an effect. If this option is set then messages will
9119 only be moved into the specified folder if they aren't already marked
9120 deleted. This might be useful if you have more than one _Alpine_
9121 session running simultaneously and you don't want messages to be
9122 filtered into a folder more than once. This method is not foolproof.
9123 There may be cases where a message gets marked deleted and so it is
9124 never filtered into the folder. For example, if you deleted it in
9125 another _Alpine_ or another mail program that didn't know about the
9126 filtering rule.
9128 This option has no effect if the Filter Action is not set to Move.
9130 Dont-quit-even-if-rule-matches option
9132 If this option is set then this is a non-terminating rule. Usually, for
9133 each message, _Alpine_ searches through the filter rules until a match
9134 is found and then it performs the action associated with that rule.
9135 Rules following the match are not considered. If this option is set
9136 then the search for matches will continue at the next rule.
9138 If a non-terminating rule matches then the actions associated with that
9139 rule, except for any implied deletion of the message, are performed
9140 before the match for the next rule is checked. For example, if the
9141 non-terminating rule sets the Important status, then that status will
9142 be set when the next rule is considered. However, if the
9143 non-terminating rule Moves the message, the message will actually be
9144 copied instead of copied and deleted so that it is still there for the
9145 next rule. A moved message is deleted after all the relevant rules have
9146 been checked. The name of the "Move" action is confusing in this case
9147 because a single message can be moved to more than one folder. It turns
9148 the Move into a Copy instead, but it is still followed by a deletion at
9149 the end.
9151 This option may be useful if you want to have a single message filtered
9152 to two different folders because it matches two different Patterns. For
9153 example, suppose you normally filter messages to a particular mailing
9154 list into one folder, and messages addressed directly to you into a
9155 second folder. If a message is sent to both you and the list (and you
9156 can tell that by looking at the headers of the message) this option may
9157 give you a convenient way to capture a copy to each folder. (It may
9158 also cause you to capture two copies to each folder, depending on
9159 whether your mail system delivers one or two copies of the message to
9160 you and on how the list works.)
9162 Scoring Configuration
9164 Most people will not use scores at all, but if you do use them, here's
9165 how they work in Alpine. Using this screen, you may define Scoring
9166 rules. The score for a message is calculated by looking at every Score
9167 rule defined and adding up the Score Values for the ones which match
9168 the message. If there are no matches for a message, it has a score of
9169 zero. Message scores may be used a couple of ways in Alpine.
9171 Sorting by Score
9173 One of the methods you may use to sort message indexes is to sort by
9174 score. The scores of all the messages in a folder will be calculated
9175 and then the index will be ordered by placing the messages in order of
9176 ascending or descending score.
9178 Scores for use in Patterns
9180 The Patterns used for Roles, Index Line Coloring, and Filtering have a
9181 category labeled "Score Interval". When a message is being compared
9182 with a Pattern to check for a match, if the Score Interval is set only
9183 messages which have a score somewhere in the interval are a match.
9185 Scoring Rule Patterns
9187 In order to determine whether or not a message matches a scoring rule
9188 the message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9189 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9190 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9192 Actually, Scoring rule Patterns are slightly different from the other
9193 types of Patterns because Scoring rule Patterns don't contain a Score
9194 Interval. In other words, when calculating the score for a message,
9195 which is done by looking at the Scoring rule Patterns, scores aren't
9196 used.
9198 Score Value
9200 This is the value that will be added to the score for a message if the
9201 rule's Pattern is a match. Each individual Score Value is an integer
9202 between -100 and 100, and the values from matching rules are added
9203 together to get a message's score. There is also a way to extract the
9204 value from a particular header of each message. See the help text for
9205 Score Value for further information.
9207 Other Rules Configuration
9209 Using this screen, you may define configuration Rules which don't fit
9210 nicely into the other Rules categories.
9212 Other Rule Patterns
9214 Other Rules are a little different from the rest of the Rules because
9215 they depend only on the current folder, and not on a particular
9216 message. In order to determine whether or not a rule's actions should
9217 be applied the current folder is compared with the rule's Pattern,
9218 which consists of only the Current Folder Type. Current Folder Type
9219 works the same for Other Rules as it does for Roles, Filtering, Index
9220 Coloring, and Scoring. Keep in mind that the only part of the Pattern
9221 which applies to Other Rules is the Current Folder Type when looking at
9222 the description of Patterns given "here".
9224 Other Rule Actions
9226 Once a pattern match is found, the rule's Actions are taken. Neither of
9227 the following two rule's depends on a message for its match. That means
9228 that all the parts of the Pattern which depend on matching an attribute
9229 of a message are ignored. So the only part of the Pattern that matters
9230 for these Actions is the Current Folder Type.
9232 Set Sort Order
9234 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9235 have set a sort order which is different from your default sort order.
9236 The default is set in the Setup/Config screen with the Sort-Key option.
9237 If the Sort Order action is set, then the folder will be displayed
9238 sorted in that sort order instead of in the default order.
9240 A possible point of confusion arises when you change the configuration
9241 of the Sort Order for the currently open folder. The folder will
9242 normally be re-sorted when you go back to viewing the index. However,
9243 if you have manually sorted the folder with the Sort command, it will
9244 not be re-sorted.
9246 Set Index Format
9248 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9249 have set an Index Format which is different from your default Index
9250 Format, which is set with the Index-Format option. If so, the index
9251 will be displayed with this format instead of the default.
9253 Set Startup Rule
9255 When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you
9256 have set a startup rule which is different from the default startup
9257 rule. The default for incoming folders is set in the Setup/Config
9258 screen with the "incoming-startup-rule" option. The default for folders
9259 other than INBOX that are not part of your incoming collection (see
9260 enable-incoming-folders feature) is to start with the last message in
9261 the folder. If the Startup Rule is set to something other than
9262 "default", then the rule will determine which message will be the
9263 current message when the folder is first opened.
9265 The various startup rule possibilities work the same here as they do in
9266 the incoming collection, except that the folder can be any specific
9267 folder or any folder type.
9269 Search Rules Configuration
9271 One of the commands that becomes available when that feature is turned
9272 on is the "; Select" command, which is used in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
9273 to select a set of messages. One way of selecting messages is to use a
9274 Rule. All of the messages which match (or don't match if you wish) a
9275 Rule's Pattern will be selected.
9277 Any of your Rules may be used for this purpose. You might already have
9278 Rules set up for filtering, index line color, scores, or roles; and you
9279 may use any of those Rules with the Select command. However, you might
9280 find it more convenient to set up a separate set of Rules just for this
9281 purpose without having to worry about what other effects they may
9282 cause. That is the purpose of these Select Rules.
9284 Rule Patterns
9286 In order to determine whether or not a message is selected by a rule
9287 the message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the
9288 same for use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9289 Rules, and Search Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
9291 There is no action associated with these Search Rules. Only their
9292 Patterns are used.
9294 Patterns
9296 Patterns are used with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
9297 Rules, and Search Rules. Patterns are compared with a message to see if
9298 there is a match. For Filtering, the messages being checked are all the
9299 messages in the folder, one at a time. For Index Line Coloring, each
9300 message that is visible on the screen is checked for matches with the
9301 Index Coloring Patterns. Roles are used with the Reply, Forward, and
9302 Compose commands. For Reply, the message used to compare the Pattern
9303 with is the message being replied to; for Forward, the message used to
9304 compare the Pattern with is the message being forwarded; and for
9305 Compose, there is no message, so the parts of the Pattern which depend
9306 on a message (everything other than Current Folder Type and the
9307 Beginning of Month and Year) are not used. Only the Current Folder Type
9308 matters for Compose (plus the Beginning of Month or Year, which you
9309 wouldn't usually use for a Role). For Scoring, the message being scored
9310 is compared with all of the Score Patterns, and the Score Values from
9311 the ones that match are added together to get the message's score. For
9312 Other Rules, there is no message. Only the Current Folder Type is
9313 checked for Other Rules.
9315 Each Pattern has several possible parts, all of which are optional. In
9316 order for there to be a match, _ALL_ of the _defined_ parts of the
9317 Pattern must match the message. If a part is not defined it is
9318 considered a match. For example, if the To pattern is not defined it
9319 will be displayed as
9321 To pattern = <No Value Set>
9323 That is considered a match because it is not defined. This means that
9324 the Pattern with nothing defined is a match if the Current Folder Type
9325 matches, but there is an exception. Because filtering is a potentially
9326 destructive action, filtering Patterns with nothing other than Current
9327 Folder Type defined are ignored. If you really want a filtering Pattern
9328 to match all messages (subject to Current Folder Type) the best way to
9329 do it is to define a Score interval which includes all possible scores.
9330 This would be the score interval (-INF,INF). This can be used even if
9331 you haven't defined any rules to Set Scores.
9333 There are six predefined header patterns called the To, From, Sender,
9334 Cc, News, and Subject patterns. Besides those six predefined header
9335 patterns, you may add additional header patterns with header fieldnames
9336 of your choosing. You add an extra header pattern by placing the cursor
9337 on one of the patterns while in the role editor and using the
9338 "eXtraHdr" command. The Recip pattern is a header pattern which stands
9339 for Recipient (To OR Cc) and the Partic pattern is a header pattern
9340 which stands for Participant (From OR To OR Cc). (Defining the Recip
9341 pattern does not have the same effect as defining both the To and Cc
9342 patterns. Recip is To _OR_ Cc, not To _AND_ Cc.) Similar to the header
9343 patterns are the AllText pattern and the BodyText pattern. Instead of
9344 comparing this pattern's text against only the contents of a particular
9345 header field, the text for the AllText pattern is compared with text
9346 anywhere in the message's header or body, and the text for the BodyText
9347 pattern is compared with text anywhere in the message's body.
9349 Any of the header patterns, the AllText pattern, or the BodyText
9350 pattern may be negated with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. You can tell
9351 that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking for the character "!" at the
9352 beginning of the pattern line. When the "!" is present, it reverses the
9353 meaning of the match. That is, if the pattern matches then it is
9354 considered to NOT be a match, and if it does not match it is considered
9355 to be a match.
9357 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for a
9358 pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!urgent" into the
9359 Subject pattern, the pattern will look like:
9361 Subject pattern = !urgent
9363 This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!urgent". In
9364 order to match messages which do not have "urgent" in their Subject
9365 field, first type the characters "urgent" followed by carriage return
9366 for the value of the Subject pattern, then negate it by typing the "!"
9367 command. It should look like
9369 ! Subject pattern = urgent
9371 The contents of each of these header patterns (or the AllText or
9372 BodyText patterns) may be a complete email address, part of an address,
9373 or a random set of characters to match against. It may also be a list
9374 of such patterns, which means you are looking for a match against the
9375 first pattern in the list _OR_ the second pattern _OR_ the third and so
9376 on. For example, a Subject pattern equal to
9378 Subject pattern = urgent
9379 emergency
9380 alert
9382 would match all messages with a subject which contained at least one of
9383 those words. It would also match subjects containing the words "alerts"
9384 or "Urgently".
9386 The same example with "NOT" turned on would be
9388 ! Subject pattern = urgent
9389 emergency
9390 alert
9392 which would match all messages with a subject which did NOT contain any
9393 of those words. You can use the "Add Value" command to add new words to
9394 the list, or you can enter them as a comma-separated list.
9396 (It is not possible to specify two patterns which must _BOTH_ be
9397 present for a match. It is only possible to specify that _EITHER_
9398 pattern1 _OR_ pattern2 must be present, and that is exactly what using
9399 a list does.)
9401 The "Current Folder Type" and the "Score Interval" are also part of the
9402 Pattern, although the "Score Interval" is not used when checking for
9403 matches for Scoring. There are five similar settings which relate to
9404 the status of the message. These settings rely on the message being New
9405 or not, Deleted or not, Answered or not, Important or not, and Recent
9406 or not. There are also some other miscellaneous settings. The first is
9407 the Age of the message in days. Another is the Size of the message in
9408 bytes. The third is a setting which detects whether or not the Subject
9409 of a message contains raw 8-bit characters (unencoded characters with
9410 the most significant bit set). There is a setting which detects whether
9411 or not this is the first time _Alpine_ has been run this month (doesn't
9412 depend on individual messages), and another which detects whether or
9413 not this is the first time _Alpine_ has been run this year. Other parts
9414 of the Pattern detect whether or not the From address of a message
9415 appears in your address book, whether or not certain keywords are set
9416 for a message, and whether or not certain character sets are used in a
9417 message.
9419 Parts of a Pattern
9421 Header patterns
9423 A header pattern is simply text which is searched for in the
9424 corresponding header field. For example, if a Pattern has a From header
9425 pattern with the value "@company.com", then only messages which have a
9426 From header which contains the text "@company.com" will be possible
9427 matches. Matches don't have to be exact. For example, if the relevant
9428 field of a message contains the text "mailbox@domain" somewhere in it,
9429 then header patterns of "box", or "x@d", or "mailbox@domain" are all
9430 matches.
9432 All parts of the Pattern must match so, for example, if a message
9433 matches a defined From pattern, it still must be checked against the
9434 other parts of the Pattern which have been defined. The To header
9435 pattern is a slightly special case. If the message being checked has a
9436 Resent-To header and the feature Use-Resent-To-in-Rules is turned on,
9437 the addresses there are used in place of the addresses in the To
9438 header. This is only true for the To header. Resent-cc and Resent-From
9439 headers are never used unless you add them with the eXtraHdrs command.
9441 The meaning of a header pattern may be negated with the "!" "toggle
9442 NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking for
9443 the character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line. It would look
9444 something like
9446 ! From pattern = susan@example.com
9448 When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
9450 If you want to check for the presence of a header field but don't care
9451 about its value, then the empty pattern which you get by entering a
9452 pair of double quotes ("") should match any message which has the
9453 corresponding header field.
9455 AllText patterns
9457 AllText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
9458 searched for anywhere in the message's headers or body, not just in the
9459 contents of a particular header field.
9461 BodyText patterns
9463 BodyText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
9464 searched for anywhere in the message's body, not just in the contents
9465 of a particular header field.
9467 If there is more than one header pattern or AllText pattern or BodyText
9468 pattern for which you want to take the same action there is a shorthand
9469 notation which may be used. Any of these patterns may be a list of
9470 patterns instead of just a single pattern. If any one of the patterns
9471 in the list matches the message then it is considered a match. For
9472 example, if "company1" and "company2" both required you to use the same
9473 role when replying to messages, you might have a To pattern which looks
9474 like
9476 To pattern = company1.com
9477 company2.com
9479 This means that if the mail you are replying to was addressed to either
9480 "anything@company1.com" or "anything@company2.com", then this Pattern
9481 is a match and the same actions will be taken.
9483 The meaning of an AllText or BodyText pattern may be negated with the
9484 "!" "toggle NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by
9485 looking for the character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line.
9486 When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
9488 A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate multiple
9489 values in any of the fields which may have multiple values (such as
9490 header patterns, AllText patterns, BodyText patterns, keywords, folder
9491 lists, and so on), you must escape comma with a backslash (\) if you
9492 want to include a literal comma in one of those fields. In other words,
9493 if you type a backslash followed by a comma it will be interpreted as a
9494 comma by _Alpine_, instead of as a separator between pattern values.
9495 All other backslashes (those not followed by a comma) are literal
9496 backslashes and should not be escaped. It's unlikely you'll ever need
9497 to enter a literal comma or backslash in any of the patterns.
9499 Current Folder Type
9501 The "Current Folder Type" may be set to one of four different values:
9502 "Any", "News", "Email", or "Specific". If the value is set to "News",
9503 then the Pattern will only match if the currently open folder is a
9504 newsgroup. The value "Email" only matches if the current folder is not
9505 news and the value "Any" causes any folder to match. If the value of
9506 "Current Folder Type" is set to "Specific", then you must fill in a
9507 value for "Folder", which is on the line below the "Specific" line. In
9508 this case you will only get a match if the currently open folder is the
9509 specific folder you list. You may give a list of folders instead of
9510 just a single folder name, in which case the Pattern will match if the
9511 open folder is any one of the folders in the list. The name of each
9512 folder in the list may be either "INBOX", the technical specification
9513 of the folder (like what appears in your configuration file) or, if the
9514 folder is one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname you've
9515 given the folder. Here are some samples of specific folder names:
9517 {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
9519 {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
9521 mail/local-folder
9523 The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the "T" command
9524 which is available when the "Folder" line is hilighted, or to use the
9525 "Take" command with the configuration feature "enable-rules-under-take"
9526 turned on.
9528 When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty incurred
9529 when collecting the information necessary to check whether or not a
9530 Pattern matches a message. For this reason, the default Current Folder
9531 Type is set to "Email". If you have Patterns with a Current Folder Type
9532 of either "Any" or "News" and those Patterns are used for Index Line
9533 Coloring or Scoring, you may experience slower screen redrawing in the
9534 MESSAGE INDEX screen when in a newsgroup.
9536 Age Interval
9538 The "Age Interval" may be set to an interval of message ages which
9539 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9540 it is unset it will be ignored. The Age Interval looks like
9542 (min_age,max_age)
9544 where "min_age" and "max_age" are integers greater than or equal to
9545 zero. The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It
9546 represents infinity.
9548 Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of
9549 just a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look
9550 like
9552 (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
9554 When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age, in
9555 days, of the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9556 intervals include both endpoints.
9558 Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the _age_ of
9559 the message. Instead, it is how many days ago the message arrived in
9560 one of your folders. If the current time is a little past midnight,
9561 then a message that arrived just before midnight arrived yesterday,
9562 even though the message is only a few minutes old. By default, the date
9563 being used is not the date in the Date header of the message. It is the
9564 date that the message arrived in one of your folders. When you Save a
9565 message from one folder to another that arrival date is preserved. If
9566 you would like to use the date in the Date header that is possible.
9567 Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near the bottom of the
9568 rule definition.
9570 A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before yesterday,
9571 and so on.
9573 Size Interval
9575 The "Size Interval" may be set to an interval of message sizes which
9576 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9577 it is unset it will be ignored. The Size Interval looks like
9579 (min_size,max_size)
9581 where "min_size" and "max_size" are integers greater than or equal to
9582 zero. The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It
9583 represents infinity.
9585 Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of
9586 just a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look
9587 like
9589 (min_size1,max_size1),(min_size2,max_size2),...
9591 When there is a Size Interval defined, it is a match if the size, in
9592 bytes, of the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9593 intervals include both endpoints.
9595 Score Interval
9597 The "Score Interval" may be set to an interval of message scores which
9598 should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if
9599 it is unset it will be ignored. The Score Interval looks like
9601 (min_score,max_score)
9603 where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000 and
9604 32000. The special values "-INF" and "INF" may be used for the min and
9605 max values to represent negative and positive infinity.
9607 Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list would
9608 look like
9610 (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
9612 When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the score for
9613 the message is contained in any of the intervals in the list. The
9614 intervals include the endpoints. The score for a message is calculated
9615 by looking at every Score rule defined and adding up the Score Values
9616 for the ones which match the message. When deciding whether or not a
9617 Pattern matches a message for purposes of calculating the score, the
9618 Score Interval is ignored.
9620 Message Status
9622 There are five separate message status settings. By default, all five
9623 are set to the value "Don't care", which will match any message. The
9624 value "Yes" means that the particular status must be true for a match,
9625 and the value "No" means that the particular status must not be true
9626 for a match. For example, one of the five Message Status settings is
9627 whether a message is marked Important or not. A "Yes" means that the
9628 message must be Important to be considered a match and "No" means that
9629 the message must not be Important to be considered a match. The same is
9630 true of the other four message status settings which depend on whether
9631 or not the message is New; whether the message has been Answered or
9632 not; whether the message has been Deleted or not, and whether the
9633 message is Recent or not.
9635 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
9637 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
9638 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is still
9639 considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index display that
9640 shows an N for such a message.
9642 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the last
9643 time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by default for
9644 these types of messages. If you were to run two copies of _Alpine_ that
9645 opened a folder one right after the other, a message would only show up
9646 as Recent in (at most) the first _Alpine_ session.
9648 Message Keywords
9650 Keywords are similar to Message Status, but they are chosen by the
9651 user. Provided the mail server allows for it, you may add a set of
9652 possible keywords to a folder and then you may set those keywords or
9653 not for each message in the folder. The syntax of this part of the
9654 Pattern is similar to the header patterns. It is a list of keywords.
9655 The Keyword part of the Pattern is a match if the message has any of
9656 the keywords in the list set. Like other parts of the Pattern, if this
9657 is unset it will be ignored.
9659 Message Character Set
9661 A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the Pattern
9662 matches messages which make use of one or more of the character sets
9663 specified in the pattern. It will be considered a match if a message
9664 uses any of the character sets in the list you give here. The syntax of
9665 this part of the Pattern is similar to the header patterns and the
9666 Message Keywords pattern. It is a list of character sets.
9668 Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7, KOI8-R, or
9669 GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that _Alpine_ provides.
9670 These names are more understandable shorthand names for sets of
9671 character set names. Two examples are "Cyrillic" and "Greek". Selecting
9672 one of these shorthand names is equivalent to selecting all of the
9673 character sets that make up the set. You can see all of these shorthand
9674 names and the lists of character sets they stand for by typing the "T"
9675 command with the Character Set pattern highlighted. The Character Set
9676 part of the Pattern is a match if the message uses any of the character
9677 sets in the list. Like other parts of the Pattern, if this is unset it
9678 will be ignored.
9680 Raw 8-bit in Subject
9682 It seems that lots of unwanted email contains unencoded 8-bit
9683 characters in the Subject. Normally, characters with the 8th bit set
9684 are not allowed in the Subject header unless they are MIME-encoded.
9685 This option gives you a way to match messages which have Subjects which
9686 contain unencoded 8-bit characters. Setting this option will affect
9687 performance in large folders because the subject of each message in the
9688 folder has to be checked.
9690 Beginning of Month
9692 This option gives you a way to take some action once per month. The
9693 value "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been
9694 run this month in order to count as a match,
9696 Beginning of Year
9698 This option gives you a way to take some action once per year. The
9699 value "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been
9700 run this year in order to count as a match,
9702 From or Reply-To address in Address Books
9704 This option gives you a way to match messages which have a From or a
9705 Reply-To address which is in one of your address books. Only the simple
9706 entries in your address books are searched. Address book distribution
9707 lists are ignored! Setting this option will affect performance in large
9708 folders because the From and Reply-To of each message in the folder
9709 have to be checked.
9711 Categorizer Command
9713 This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the
9714 message being checked and its standard output discarded. The full
9715 directory path should be specified. The command will be run and then
9716 its exit status will be checked against the Exit Status Interval, which
9717 defaults to just the value zero. If the exit status of the command
9718 falls in the interval, it is considered a match, otherwise it is not a
9719 match.
9721 This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one that
9722 exists and is executable is used. That makes it possible to use the
9723 same configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
9725 If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable then the
9726 rule is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the command may not
9727 exist, you should be careful to structure your rules so that nothing
9728 destructive happens when the command does not exist. For example, you
9729 might have a filter that filters away spam when there is a match but
9730 does nothing when there is not a match. That would continue to work
9731 correctly if the command didn't exist. However, if you have a filter
9732 which filters away spam when there is not a match and keeps it when
9733 there is a match, that would filter everything if the categorizer
9734 command didn't exist.
9736 Help Configuring Pattern Fields
9738 _Nickname_
9739 This is a nickname to help you. You should have a different
9740 nickname for each role you define. The nickname will be used in
9741 the SETUP ROLE RULES screen to allow you to pick a role to edit.
9742 It will also be used when you send a message to let you know you
9743 are sending with a different role than you use by default, and
9744 it will be useful for choosing a role when composing with the
9745 Role command or when composing with one of the Role Uses set to
9746 With Confirmation. This field is not used in the outgoing
9747 message.
9748 _Comment_
9749 This is a comment to help you. This comment does not play any
9750 functional role, it is simply an optional comment to help you
9751 remember what the rule is for.
9752 _To pattern_
9753 If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be
9754 considered a match, at least one of the recipients from the To
9755 line of the message being replied to or forwarded must match
9756 this pattern. In the case of the Compose command, this pattern
9757 and the other header patterns are ignored. If this pattern is a
9758 list of patterns, then at least one of the recipients must match
9759 at least one of the patterns. (Any other non-blank parts of the
9760 Pattern must match, too.) If the message being replied to or
9761 forwarded has a Resent-To header line, then that is used in
9762 place of the To line. (Note that this special Resent rule only
9763 applies to the To header. The Resent-From, Resent-Subject, and
9764 so on are not consulted.)
9765 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the To Pattern meaning with the
9766 "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of the To
9767 pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will be
9768 considered a match if there are no matches between the addresses
9769 in the To: line and the list of To patterns.
9770 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9771 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle"
9772 into the To pattern, the pattern will look like:
9773 To pattern = !frizzle
9775 This means you want to match the 8 character sequence
9776 "!frizzle". In order to match messages which do not have
9777 "frizzle" in their To field, first type the characters "frizzle"
9778 followed by carriage return for the value of the To pattern,
9779 then negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end up
9780 looking like
9781 ! To pattern = frizzle
9783 _From pattern_
9784 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9785 the address from the From header of the message being replied to
9786 or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
9787 _Sender pattern_
9788 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9789 the address from the Sender header of the message being replied
9790 to or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header. If
9791 there is no Sender header, then the From header is used instead.
9792 _Cc pattern_
9793 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9794 the address from the CC header of the message being replied to
9795 or forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
9796 _News pattern_
9797 If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be
9798 considered a match, at least one of the newsgroups from the
9799 Newsgroups line of the message must match this pattern. If this
9800 pattern is a list of patterns, then at least one of the
9801 newsgroups must match at least one of the patterns. (Any other
9802 non-blank parts of the Pattern must match, too.)
9803 _Subject pattern_
9804 This is similar to the other header patterns. It is compared
9805 with the contents from the Subject of the message being replied
9806 to or forwarded.
9807 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9808 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9809 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9810 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9811 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9812 _Extra header patterns_
9813 There isn't actually a field called Extra header patterns, but
9814 you may add extra header patterns by moving the cursor to one of
9815 the header patterns and using the "eXtraHdr" command to add a
9816 new header pattern. You would do this if the six predefined
9817 header patterns don't cover the header you want to use for
9818 pattern matching. Once you've added an extra header pattern, you
9819 use it just like the Subject pattern. Of course, it is compared
9820 with the contents from the particular header field of the
9821 message being replied to or forwarded rather than the contents
9822 from the subject field. To remove an extra header pattern from a
9823 role, use the "RemoveHdr" command on the highlighted extra
9824 header.
9825 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9826 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9827 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9828 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9829 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9830 _Recipient pattern_
9831 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9832 the addresses from both the To header and the Cc header instead
9833 of just the addresses from the To header. It's equivalent to
9834 having two different rules; one with a To pattern and the other
9835 with the same Cc pattern.
9836 _Participant pattern_
9837 This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with
9838 the addresses from the To header, the Cc header, and the From
9839 header instead of just the addresses from the To header. It's
9840 equivalent to having three different rules; one with a To
9841 pattern, another with the same Cc pattern, and another with the
9842 same From pattern.
9843 _AllText pattern_
9844 This is similar to the header patterns. Instead of comparing
9845 with text in a particular header field it is compared with all
9846 of the text in the message header and body.
9847 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9848 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9849 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9850 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9851 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9852 _BodyText pattern_
9853 Just like AllText, except it is compared only with the body of
9854 the message, not the body and header.
9855 If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search
9856 will be done using the character set you have defined with the
9857 Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated
9858 may use an alternate character set for a search by entering the
9859 MIME encoding of the header string here.)
9860 _Age Interval_
9861 The Age Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you use
9862 this, it should be set to something like:
9864 (min_age,max_age)
9865 where "min_age" and "max_age" are non-negative integers. The
9866 special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It represents
9867 infinity.
9868 In rare cases it may be useful to use the more general form of
9869 the value, which is a comma-separated list of intervals. It
9870 would look something like:
9872 (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
9873 When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age,
9874 in days, of the message is contained in the interval. The
9875 interval includes both endpoints. If the option is set to a list
9876 of intervals then it is a match if the age of the message is
9877 contained in any of the intervals.
9878 Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the
9879 _age_ of the message. Instead, it is how many days ago the
9880 message arrived in one of your folders. If the current time is a
9881 little past midnight, then a message that arrived just before
9882 midnight arrived yesterday, even though the message is only a
9883 few minutes old. By default, the date being used is not the date
9884 in the Date header of the message. It is the date that the
9885 message arrived in one of your folders. When you Save a message
9886 from one folder to another that arrival date is preserved. If
9887 you would like to use the date in the Date header that is
9888 possible. Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near the
9889 bottom of the rule definition.
9890 A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before
9891 yesterday, and so on. The age interval
9893 (2,2)
9894 matches all messages that arrived on the day before yesterday.
9895 The interval
9897 (180,INF)
9898 matches all messages that arrived at least 180 days before
9899 today. The interval
9901 (0,1)
9902 matches all messages that arrived today or yesterday.
9903 _Score Interval_
9904 The Score Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you
9905 use this, it should be set to something like:
9907 (min_score,max_score)
9908 where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000
9909 and 32000. The special values "-INF" and "INF" can be used for
9910 the min and max values. These represent negative and positive
9911 infinity.
9912 Actually, the value may be a list of intervals rather than just
9913 a single interval if that is useful. The elements of the list
9914 are separated by commas like:
9916 (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
9917 When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the
9918 score for the message is contained in any of the intervals. The
9919 intervals include both endpoints. The score for a message is
9920 calculated by looking at every scoring rule defined and adding
9921 up the Score Values for the rules which match the message.
9922 _Keyword pattern_
9923 A folder may have user-defined keywords. These are similar to
9924 the Important flag which the user may set using the Flag
9925 command. The difference is that the Important flag is always
9926 present for each folder. User-defined keywords are picked by the
9927 user. You may add new keywords by defining them in the Keywords
9928 option in the Setup/Config screen. After you have added a
9929 potential keyword with the Keywords option, the Flag command may
9930 be used to set or clear the keyword on individual messages. If
9931 you have given a keyword a nickname when configuring it, that
9932 nickname may be used instead of the actual keyword.
9933 When filling in a value for this field, it may be easiest to use
9934 the "T" command, which presents you with a list of the keywords
9935 you have defined to choose from.
9936 This part of the Pattern matches messages with certain keywords
9937 set. It will be considered a match if a message has any of the
9938 keywords in the list set.
9939 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Keyword Pattern meaning
9940 with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of
9941 the Keyword pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will
9942 be considered a match if none of the keywords in the list are
9943 set for a message.
9944 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9945 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle"
9946 into the Keyword pattern, the pattern will look like:
9947 Keyword pattern = !frizzle
9949 This means you want to match the 8 character sequence
9950 "!frizzle". In order to match messages which do not have the
9951 keyword "frizzle" set, first type the characters "frizzle"
9952 followed by carriage return for the value of the Keyword
9953 pattern, then negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end
9954 up looking like
9955 ! Keyword pattern = frizzle
9957 _Character Set pattern_
9958 A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the
9959 Pattern matches messages which make use of certain specified
9960 character sets. It will be considered a match if a message uses
9961 any of the character sets in the list you give here.
9962 When filling in a value for this field, you may use the "T"
9963 command, which presents you with a large list of possible
9964 character sets to choose from. You may also just type in the
9965 name of a character set, and it need not be one that Alpine
9966 knows about.
9967 Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7,
9968 KOI8-R, or GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that
9969 Alpine provides. These names are more understandable shorthand
9970 names for sets of character set names. Two examples are
9971 "Cyrillic" and "Greek". Selecting one of these shorthand names
9972 is equivalent to selecting all of the character sets that make
9973 up the set. You can see all of these shorthand names and the
9974 lists of character sets they stand for by typing the "T"
9975 command.
9976 For the purposes of this Pattern, _Alpine_ will search through a
9977 message for all of the text parts and collect the character sets
9978 declared for each part. It will also look in the Subject line
9979 for a character set used there. _Alpine_ does not actually look
9980 at the text of the message or the text of the Subject to
9981 determine if a declared character set is actually used, it looks
9982 only at the declarations themselves in the MIME part headers and
9983 in the Subject.
9984 It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Character Set Pattern
9985 meaning with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the
9986 meaning of the Character Set pattern so that it has the opposite
9987 meaning. It will be considered a match if none of the character
9988 sets in the list are used in a message.
9989 Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for
9990 the pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!GB2312"
9991 into the Character Set pattern, the pattern will look like:
9992 Charset pattern = !GB2312
9994 This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!GB2312".
9995 In order to match messages which do not have the character set
9996 "GB2312" set, first type the characters "GB2312" followed by
9997 carriage return for the value of the Character Set pattern, then
9998 negate it by typing the "!" command. It should end up looking
9999 like
10000 ! Charset pattern = GB2312
10002 A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate
10003 multiple values in a pattern field, you have to escape comma
10004 with a backslash (\) if you want to include a literal comma in
10005 the field. In other words, if you type a backslash followed by a
10006 comma it will be interpreted as a comma by _Alpine_, instead of
10007 as a separator between pattern values. All other backslashes are
10008 literal backslashes and should not be escaped.
10009 _Current Folder Type_
10010 The Current Folder Type is part of the Pattern. It refers to the
10011 type of the currently open folder, which is the folder you were
10012 last looking at from the MESSAGE INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screen.
10013 In order for a pattern to be considered a match, the current
10014 folder must be of the type you set here. The three types "Any",
10015 "News", and "Email" are all what you might think.
10016 If the Current Folder Type for a Pattern is set to "News", for
10017 example, then that will only be a match if the current folder is
10018 a newsgroup and the rest of the Pattern matches. The value
10019 "Specific" may be used when you want to limit the match to a
10020 specific folder (not just a specific type of folder), or to a
10021 list of specific folders. In order to match a specific folder
10022 you must Select the "Specific" button _AND_ you must fill in the
10023 name (or list of names) of the folder in the "Folder" field. If
10024 the current folder is any of the folders in the list, that is
10025 considered a match. The name of each folder in the list may be
10026 either "INBOX", the technical specification of the folder (like
10027 what appears in your configuration file) or, if the folder is
10028 one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname you've
10029 given the folder. Here are a couple samples of specific folder
10030 names:
10032 {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
10034 {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
10035 The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the T
10036 command which is available when the "Folder" line is hilighted.
10037 Note that you won't be able to edit the "Folder" line unless the
10038 Current Folder Type is set to "Specific", and any value that
10039 "Folder" has is ignored unless the type is set to "Specific".
10040 When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty
10041 incurred when collecting the information necessary to check a
10042 Pattern. For this reason, the default Current Folder Type is set
10043 to "Email". For example, a role with a non-Normal Index Line
10044 Color and a Current Folder Type of "Any" or "News" may cause the
10045 MESSAGE INDEX screen to draw more slowly when in a newsgroup.
10046 _Message Status Important_
10047 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10048 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10049 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10050 flagged "Important" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10051 the message must _not_ be flagged "Important" in order to be
10052 considered a match.
10053 _Message Status New_
10054 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10055 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10056 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10057 "New" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the message
10058 must _not_ be "New" in order to be a match. "New" is the same as
10059 _Unseen_ and not "New" is the same as _Seen_.
10060 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
10061 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
10062 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is
10063 still considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index
10064 display that shows an N for such a message.
10065 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the
10066 last time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by
10067 default for these types of messages. If you were to run two
10068 copies of _Alpine_ that opened a folder one right after the
10069 other, a message would only show up as Recent in (at most) the
10070 first _Alpine_ session.
10071 _Message Status Recent_
10072 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10073 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10074 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10075 "Recent" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the
10076 message must _not_ be "Recent" in order to be a match. "Recent"
10077 means that the message was added to the folder since the last
10078 time the folder was opened. If more than one mail client has the
10079 folder opened, the message will appear to be "Recent" to only
10080 one of the clients.
10081 The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
10082 New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
10083 mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is
10084 still considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index
10085 display that shows an N for such a message.
10086 Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the
10087 last time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by
10088 default for these types of messages. If you were to run two
10089 copies of _Alpine_ that opened a folder one right after the
10090 other, a message would only show up as Recent in (at most) the
10091 first _Alpine_ session.
10092 _Message Status Deleted_
10093 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10094 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10095 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10096 marked "Deleted" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10097 the message must _not_ be marked "Deleted" in order to be a
10098 match.
10099 If you are thinking of using this part of the Pattern as a way
10100 to prevent messages from being filtered more than once in a
10101 Filter Pattern, take a look at the Filter Option
10102 "move-only-if-not-deleted" instead. It should work better than
10103 using this field since it will hide the filtered messages even
10104 if they are already Deleted.
10105 _Message Status Answered_
10106 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10107 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10108 The other two values are "Yes", which means the message must be
10109 marked "Answered" in order to be a match; or "No", which means
10110 the message must _not_ be marked "Answered" in order to be a
10111 match.
10112 _Subject Contains Raw 8-bit_
10113 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10114 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10115 The other two values are "Yes", which means the Subject of the
10116 message must contain unencoded 8-bit characters (characters with
10117 the most significant bit set) in order to be a match; or "No",
10118 which means the Subject must _not_ contain unencoded 8-bit
10119 characters in order to be a match.
10120 _Beginning of Month_
10121 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10122 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10123 The other two values are "Yes", which means this is the first
10124 time _Alpine_ has been run this month; or "No", which means this
10125 is _not_ the first time _Alpine_ has been run this month. The
10126 way that _Alpine_ decides if it is the beginning of the month or
10127 not is to compare today's date with the date stored in the
10128 Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in the config file. If the
10129 month of today's date is later than the month stored in the
10130 variable, then this is considered to be the first time you have
10131 run Alpine this month, and that turns the Beginning of the Month
10132 option on.
10133 _Beginning of Year_
10134 This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values.
10135 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10136 The other two values are "Yes", which means this is the first
10137 time _Alpine_ has been run this year; or "No", which means this
10138 is _not_ the first time _Alpine_ has been run this year. The way
10139 that _Alpine_ decides if it is the beginning of the year or not
10140 is to compare today's date with the date stored in the
10141 Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in the config file. If the
10142 year of today's date is later than the year stored in the
10143 variable, then this is considered to be the first time you have
10144 run Alpine this year, and that turns the Beginning of the Year
10145 option on.
10146 _From or Reply-To in Address Book_
10147 This part of the Pattern may have one of five possible values.
10148 The default value is "Don't care", which matches any message.
10149 The value "Yes, in any address book" means either the From
10150 address or the Reply-To address of the message must be in at
10151 least one of your address books in order to be a match. The
10152 value "No, not in any address book" means neither the From nor
10153 the Reply-To addresses may be in any of your address books in
10154 order to be a match.
10155 The values "Yes, in specific address books" and "No, not in any
10156 of specific address books" are similar but instead of depending
10157 on all address books you are allowed to give a list of address
10158 books to look in. Usually this would be a single address book
10159 but it may be a list of address books as well. For each of these
10160 "specific" address book options you Select which of the Specific
10161 options you want (Yes or No) _AND_ fill in the name (or list of
10162 names) of the address book in the "Abook List" field. The names
10163 to be used are those that appear in the ADDRESS BOOK LIST
10164 screen. The easiest way to fill in the Abook List field it to
10165 use the "T" command which is available when the "Abook List"
10166 line is highlighted. Note that you won't be able to edit the
10167 "Abook List" line unless the option is set to one of the two
10168 "Specific", values.
10169 _Categorizer Command_
10170 This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the
10171 message being checked and its standard output discarded. The
10172 full directory path should be specified. The command will be run
10173 and then its exit status will be checked against the _Exit
10174 Status Interval_, which defaults to just the value zero. If the
10175 exit status of the command falls in the interval, it is
10176 considered a match, otherwise it is not a match.
10177 This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one
10178 that exists and is executable is used. That makes it possible to
10179 use the same configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
10180 If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable
10181 then the rule is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the
10182 command may not exist, you should be careful to structure your
10183 rules so that nothing destructive happens when the command does
10184 not exist. For example, you might have a filter that filters
10185 away spam when there is a match but does nothing when there is
10186 not a match. That would continue to work correctly if the
10187 command didn't exist. However, if you have a filter which
10188 filters away spam when there is not a match and keeps it when
10189 there is a match, that would filter everything if the
10190 categorizer command didn't exist.
10191 The categorizer command is run and the result is the exit status
10192 of that command. If that exit status falls in the _Exit Status
10193 Interval_ then it is considered a match, otherwise it is not a
10194 match. Of course for the entire rule to match, it must also be
10195 checked against the other defined parts of the Pattern.
10196 The _Exit Status Interval_ defaults to the single value 0
10197 (zero). If you define it, it should be set to something like:
10199 (min_exit_value,max_exit_value)
10200 where "min_exit_value" and "max_exit_value" are integers. The
10201 special values "INF" and "-INF" may be used for large positive
10202 and negative integers.
10203 Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list
10204 would look like
10206 (min_exit_value1,max_exit_value1),(min_exit_value2,max_exit_value2),...
10207 When there is an _Exit Status Interval_ defined, it is a match
10208 if the exit status of the categorizer command is contained in
10209 any of the intervals. The intervals include both endpoints.
10210 The default interval is
10212 (0,0)
10213 and it matches only if the command exits with exit status equal
10214 to zero.
10215 It is also possible to set a _Character Limit_ for the
10216 categorizer command. Setting this option makes it possible to
10217 limit how much of the message is made available to the
10218 categorizer command as input. The default value (-1) means that
10219 the entire message is fed to the command. A value of 0 (zero)
10220 means that only the headers of the message are made available. A
10221 positive integer means that the headers plus that many
10222 characters from the body of the message are passed to the
10223 categorizer.
10225 Configuring News
10227 _Alpine_ can access news folders in any one of three different ways:
10229 REMOTE NNTP
10230 Using the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) to access news
10231 on a remote news server. In this case the newsrc file is stored
10232 on the machine where _Alpine_ is running.
10234 To specify a remote news-collection accessed via NNTP use the
10235 SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server:
10236 value to the NNTP server's hostname appended with the
10237 communication method "/service=NNTP", and set the Path: value to
10238 the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10240 Instead of specifying a news-collection, you may simply set the
10241 nntp-server option, which will cause _Alpine_ to create a
10242 default news-collection for you. Another NNTP option which may
10243 be of interest is nntp-range.
10245 REMOTE IMAP
10246 Using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to access news
10247 on a remote news server. In this case, your newsrc file is
10248 stored on the news server, in your home directory, so you must
10249 have an account on the news server, but you would be running
10250 _Alpine_ on a different machine. The news server must be running
10251 an IMAPd server process.
10253 To specify a remote news-collection accessed via IMAP use the
10254 SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server:
10255 value to the IMAP server's hostname, and set the Path: value to
10256 the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10258 LOCAL
10259 Using local file access to the news database. In this case, your
10260 newsrc file is stored on the news server, in your home
10261 directory, so you must have an account on the news server, and
10262 you would be running _Alpine_ on the same machine.
10264 To specify a local news-collection use the SETUP/collectionList
10265 screen's "Add" command. Leave the Server: value blank, and set
10266 the Path: value to the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
10268 NOTE: Should no news-collection be defined as above, _Alpine_ will
10269 automatically create one using the Setup/Config screen's "nntp-server"
10270 variable's value if defined. The collection will be created as a
10271 "Remote NNTP" as described above.
10273 If you are a _PC-Alpine_ user, either option 1 (NNTP) or option 2
10274 (IMAP) is possible. If you don't have an account on the news server, or
10275 if the news server is not running an IMAP daemon, then you must use
10276 NNTP. (If you are not sure, ask your service provider, university, or
10277 company for help.) In this case, your Unix .newsrc file can be
10278 transferred to your PC. A good place to put it would be in the same
10279 directory as your PINERC file, under the name NEWSRC, but you can
10280 specify a different location.
10282 Other configuration features related to news are
10283 Enable-8bit-Nntp-Posting. Compose-Sets-Newsgroup-Without-Confirm,
10284 News-Approximates-New-Status, News-Deletes-Across-Groups,
10285 News-Offers-Catchup-On-Close, News-Post-Without-Validation,
10286 News-Read-in-Newsrc-Order, and Quell-Extra-Post-Prompt.
10287 __________________________________________________________________
10289 Notes on Configuration and Preferences
10291 Alpine in Function Key Mode
10293 The standard _Alpine_ uses alphabetic keys for most commands, and
10294 control keys in the composer. Despite possible appearances, the current
10295 bindings are the result of much discussion and thought. All the
10296 commands in the composer are single control characters. This keeps
10297 things very neat and simple for users. Two character commands in the
10298 composer are a possibility, but we're trying to avoid them because of
10299 the added complexity for the user.
10301 _Alpine_ can also operate in a function-key mode. To go into this mode
10302 invoke _alpine -k_ or (on some UNIX systems) _alpinef._ On a UNIX
10303 system, you can link or copy the _Alpine_ executable to _alpinef_ to
10304 install _alpinef._ Alternatively, users and systems administrators can
10305 set the _use-function-keys_ feature in the personal or system-wide
10306 _Alpine_ configuration file. The command menus at the bottom of the
10307 screen will show _F1-F12 _instead of the alphabetic commands. In
10308 addition, the help screens will be written in terms of function keys
10309 and not alphabetic keys.
10311 One of the results of using _Alpine_ in function-key mode is that users
10312 can only choose from twelve commands at any given time. In
10313 alphabetic-key mode, a user can press a key for a command (say, q to
10314 quit) and that command can be fulfilled. In function-key mode, the
10315 command must be visible on the bottom key-menu in order to be used.
10316 There are some screens where four screens of commands are operational;
10317 function-key users can get to all of them, just not all at once.
10318 __________________________________________________________________
10320 Domain Settings
10322 _Alpine_ uses the default domain for a few different tasks. First, it
10323 is tacked onto the user-id for outgoing email. Second, it is tacked
10324 onto all "local" (unqualified) addresses in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields
10325 of messages being composed (unless they are found in the address book
10326 or on an LDAP server). The domain name is also used to generate
10327 message-id lines for each outgoing message and to allow _Alpine_ to
10328 check if an address is that of the current _Alpine_ user.
10330 _Alpine_ determines the domain name according to whichever of these it
10331 finds. The list here is in decreasing order of precedence.
10332 1. Value of the variable user-domain in the system fixed configuration
10333 file
10334 2. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the personal configuration
10335 file
10336 3. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the system-wide
10337 configuration file
10338 4. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10339 by a system fixed configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to
10340 _yes_
10341 5. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10342 by a personal configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to
10343 _yes_
10344 6. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
10345 by a system configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to
10346 _yes_
10347 7. Unmodified value (host name) from an external database
10349 The easiest way for this system to work is for _PC-Alpine_ users and
10350 UNIX _Alpine_ system administrators to set the _user-domain_ variable.
10351 The variable _use-only-domain-name_ is helpful if your site
10352 supports/requires hostless addressing, but for some reason you don't
10353 want to use the _user-domain_ variable.
10354 __________________________________________________________________
10356 Syntax for Collections
10358 In many environments, it is quite common to have collections of
10359 archived mail on various hosts around the network. Using the folder
10360 collections facility in _Alpine_, access to these archives is just as
10361 simple as access to folders on _Alpine_'s local disk.
10363 "Collection" is the word we use in _Alpine_ to describe a set of
10364 folders. A collection corresponds loosely to a "directory" containing
10365 mail folders. Folders within a defined collection can be manipulated
10366 (opened, saved-to, etc) using just their simple name. Any number of
10367 folder collections can be defined, and _Alpine_ will adjust its menus
10368 and prompts to help navigate them.
10370 The way collections are defined in _Alpine_ is with the
10371 folder-collections variable in the _Alpine_ configuration file.
10372 _Folder-collections_ takes a list of one or more collections, each
10373 (optionally) preceded by a user-defined logical name (label). Once
10374 collections are defined, _Alpine_ adjusts its menus and behavior to
10375 allow choosing files by their simple name within the collection.
10377 Consider the following:
10378 folder-collections= Local-Mail C:\MAIL\[],
10379 Remote-Mail {imap.u.example.edu}mail/[]
10381 The example shows two collections defined (a comma separated list;
10382 newlines in the list are OK if there's one or more spaces before the
10383 next entry), one local and one remote. Each collection is a
10384 space-delimited pair of elements-first an optional logical-name and
10385 second the collection specifier. The logical-name can have spaces if it
10386 has quotes around it (but keeping the logical name short and
10387 descriptive works best). _Alpine_ will use the logical-name (if
10388 provided) to reference all folders in the collection, so the user never
10389 has to see the ugliness of the collection specifier.
10391 The collection specifier can be thought of as an extended IMAP format
10392 (see the Remote Folders section for a description of IMAP format
10393 names). Basically, a pair of square-brackets are placed in the fully
10394 qualified IMAP path where the simple folder name (the part without the
10395 host name and path) would appear. Like IMAP, the path can be either
10396 fully qualified (i.e., with a leading '/') or relative to your home
10397 directory.
10399 An advanced feature of this notation is that a pattern within the
10400 square brackets allows the user to define a collection to be a subset
10401 of a directory. For example, a collection defined with the specifier:
10402 M-Mail C:MAIL/[m*]
10405 will provide a view in the folder lister of all folders in the PC's
10406 "C:MAIL" directory that start with the letter 'm' (case insensitive
10407 under DOS, of course). Further, the wildcard matching will honor
10408 characters trailing the '*' in the pattern.
10410 From within _Alpine_, the "Folder List" display will be adjusted to
10411 allow browsing of the folders in any defined collection. Even more,
10412 you'll notice in the _Goto_ and _Save_ commands a pair of sub-commands
10413 to rotate through the list of logical collection names, so only a
10414 simple name need be input in order to operate on a folder in any
10415 collection.
10417 The first collection specified in the _folder-collections_ has special
10418 significance. That folder is the "default collection for saves". By
10419 default, in cases where the user does not specify which collection
10420 should be used to _Save_ a message, the default collection for saves
10421 will be used. Also, if the default-fcc is a relative file name, then it
10422 is relative to the default collection for saves. (See also
10423 saved-msg-name-rule.
10425 The notion of collections encompasses both email folders and news
10426 reading. The variable news-collections uses nearly the same format as
10427 _folder-collections_. Newsgroups can be defined for convenient access
10428 via either IMAP or NNTP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both
10429 access methods. In the IMAP case, your news environment state is
10430 maintained on the server and, thus, will be seen by any client. The
10431 downside is that, at the moment, you must have an account on the
10432 server. In the NNTP case, server access is mostly anonymous and no
10433 state/accounting need be maintained on it. The downside is that each
10434 client, for now, must individually maintain news environment state.
10436 An example pinerc entry might be:
10437 news-collections= Remote-State {news.u.example.edu}#news.[],
10438 Local-State {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[]
10440 Only newsgroups to which you are subscribed are included in the
10441 collection.
10443 The pattern matching facility can be applied so as to define a news
10444 collection which is a subset of all the newsgroups you subscribe to.
10445 For example, this could be a valid collection:
10446 Newsfeed-News {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[clari.*]
10448 Collection handling is a tough problem to solve in a general way, and
10449 the explanation of the syntax is a bit ugly. The upside is, hopefully,
10450 that for a little complexity in the _Alpine_ configuration file you get
10451 simple management of multiple folders in diverse locations.
10453 Collection setup is handled by the _Setup/collectionList_ screen.
10454 __________________________________________________________________
10456 Syntax for Folder Names
10458 Remote folders are distinguished from local folders by a leading host
10459 name bracketed by '{' and '}'. The path and folder name immediately
10460 following the closing bracket, '}', is interpreted by the remote server
10461 and is in a form compatible with that server (i.e., path delimiters and
10462 naming syntax relative to that server).
10464 The full syntax for a _Alpine_ folder name looks like
10466 [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>]<namespace-specific-part>
10468 The square brackets ([]) mean that the part is optional.
10470 If there is no remote-specification, then the folder name is
10471 interpreted locally on the computer running _Alpine_. Local folder
10472 names depend on the operating system used by the computer running
10473 _Alpine_, as well as the configuration of that system. For example,
10474 "C:\ALPINE\FOLDERS\OCT-94" might exist on a PC, and
10475 "~/mail/september-1994" might be a reasonable folder name on a system
10476 running Unix.
10478 _Alpine_ users have the option of using folders which are stored on
10479 some other computer. _Alpine_ accesses remote folders via IMAP (the
10480 Internet Message Access Protocol), or in the case of news, via NNTP
10481 (the Network News Transport Protocol). To be able to access remote
10482 folders in _Alpine_, the remote host must be running the appropriate
10483 server software (imapd or nntpd) and you must correctly specify the
10484 name of the folder to _Alpine_, including the domain name of the remote
10485 machine. For example,
10487 {monet.art.example.com}INBOX
10489 could be a remote folder specification, and so could
10491 {unixhost.art.example.com}~/mail/september-1994
10493 and
10495 {winhost.art.example.com}\mymail\SEP-94
10497 Note that in the case of remote folders, the directory/file path in the
10498 specification is determined by the operating system of the remote
10499 computer, _not_ by the operating system of the computer on which you
10500 are running _Alpine_.
10502 As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed
10503 immediately by the name of the folder. (In each of these cases the
10504 optional namespace is missing.) If, as in these examples, there is no
10505 remote access protocol specified, then IMAP is assumed. Check Server
10506 Name Syntax for a more detailed look at what options can be placed
10507 between the brackets. If there are no brackets at all, then the folder
10508 name is interpreted locally on the computer on which you are running
10509 _Alpine_.
10511 To the right of the brackets when a server name is present, or at the
10512 start of the foldername if no server is present, the sharp sign, "#",
10513 holds special meaning. It indicates a folder name outside the area
10514 reserved for your personal folders. In fact, it's used to indicate both
10515 the name of the folder, and a special phrase telling _Alpine_ how to
10516 interpret the name that follows.
10518 So, for example, _Alpine_ can be used to access a newsgroup that might
10519 be available on your computer using:
10521 #news.comp.mail.pine
10523 The sharp sign indicates the folder name is outside your personal
10524 folder area. The "news." phrase after it tells _Alpine_ to interpret
10525 the remainder of the name as a newsgroup.
10527 Similarly, to access a newsgroup on your IMAP server, you might use
10528 something like:
10530 {wharhol.art.example.com}#news.comp.mail.misc
10532 There are a number of such special phrases (or "namespaces") available.
10533 For a more detailed explanation read about Namespaces.
10535 Note that "INBOX" has special meaning in both local and remote folder
10536 names. The name INBOX refers to your "principal incoming message
10537 folder" and will be mapped to the actual file name used for your INBOX
10538 on any given host. Therefore, a name like "{xxx.art.example.com}INBOX"
10539 refers to whatever file is used to store incoming mail for you on that
10540 particular host.
10541 __________________________________________________________________
10543 Server Name Syntax
10545 This section describes the syntax which may be used for server names
10546 which may be associated with remote folders or SMTP servers.
10548 A server name is the hostname of the server. It's a good idea to use
10549 the host's fully-qualified network name.
10551 foo.example.com
10553 However, IP addresses are allowed if surrounded with square-brackets.
10555 [127.0.0.1]
10557 An optional network port number may be supplied by appending a colon
10558 (:) followed by the port number to the server name. By default, the
10559 IMAP port number, 143, is used.
10561 foo.example.com:port
10563 Besides server name and optional port number, various other optional
10564 parameters may be supplied that alter _Alpine_'s interaction with the
10565 server. A parameter is supplied by appending a slash (/) character
10566 followed by the parameter's name and, depending on the particular
10567 parameter, the value assigned to that name, to the server name (and
10568 optional port number). Parameter names are _not_ case sensitive.
10569 Currently supported parameters include:
10571 User
10572 This parameter requires an associated value, and is intended to
10573 provide the username identifier with which to establish the
10574 server connection. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH
10575 authentication, adding this parameter to the SMTP-Server option
10576 will cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate to the server
10577 using the supplied username. Similarly, if your NNTP server
10578 offers NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO USER" authentication,
10579 adding this parameter to the NNTP-Server option (or to the
10580 server name for any folder collection using NNTP) will cause
10581 _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate to the server using the
10582 supplied username. An example might be:
10584 /user=katie
10586 TLS
10587 Normally, when a new connection is made an attempt is made to
10588 negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using Transport Layer
10589 Security (TLS). If that fails then a non-encrypted connection
10590 will be attempted instead. This is a unary parameter indicating
10591 communication with the server must take place over a TLS
10592 connection. If the attempt to use TLS fails then this parameter
10593 will cause the connection to fail instead of falling back to an
10594 unsecure connection.
10596 /tls
10598 SSL
10599 This is a unary parameter indicating communication with the
10600 server should take place over a Secure Socket Layer connection.
10601 The server must support this method, and be prepared to accept
10602 connections on the appropriate port (993 by default). _Alpine_
10603 must be linked with an SSL library for this option to be
10604 operational.
10606 /ssl
10608 NoValidate-Cert
10609 Do not validate certificates (for TLS or SSL connections) from
10610 the server. This is needed if the server uses self-signed
10611 certificates or if _Alpine_ cannot validate the certificate for
10612 some other known reason.
10614 Anonymous
10615 This is a unary parameter (that means it does not have a value)
10616 indicating that the connection be logged in as "anonymous"
10617 rather than a specific user. Not all servers offer anonymous
10618 access; those which do generally only offer read-only access to
10619 certain "public" folders.
10621 /anonymous
10623 Secure
10624 This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection use the
10625 most secure authentication method mutually supported by _Alpine_
10626 and the server. _Alpine_ is capable of authenticating
10627 connections to the server using several methods. By default,
10628 _Alpine_ will attempt each method until either a connection is
10629 established or the list of methods is exhausted. This parameter
10630 causes _Alpine_ to instead fail the connection if the first
10631 (generally most "secure") method fails.
10633 /secure
10635 Submit
10636 This is a unary parameter for use with the "SMTP-Server" option.
10637 It indicates that the connection should be made to the Submit
10638 server (RFC 3676) (port 587) instead of the SMTP port (25). At
10639 the time this help was written the submit option was equivalent
10640 to specifying port 587.
10642 /submit
10644 or
10646 host:587
10648 Debug
10649 This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection be
10650 established in a verbose mode. Basically, it causes _Alpine_ to
10651 log the communication with the server in _Alpine_'s debug file.
10652 Normally, the alpine -d command-line flag would be used instead.
10654 NoRsh
10655 By default, _Alpine_ attempts to login using "rsh", the UNIX
10656 remote shell program. Including "NoRsh" will cause connections
10657 to this server to skip the "rsh" attempt. This might be useful
10658 to avoid long timeouts caused by rsh firewalls, for example.
10660 Service
10661 This parameter requires an associated value. The default value
10662 is "IMAP" which indicates communication with the server based on
10663 the IMAP4rev1 protocol (defined in RFC 3501 -- see
10664 http://www.imap.org/docs/rfc3501.html). Other service values
10665 include:
10667 NNTP
10668 This value indicates communication with the server takes
10669 place via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Use this to
10670 define a collection of newsgroups on a remote news server.
10671 So
10673 /service=NNTP
10675 or just
10677 /NNTP
10679 is the way to specify NNTP access.
10681 POP3
10682 This value indicates communication with the server takes
10683 place via the Post Office Protocol 3 protocol.
10685 /service=POP3
10687 or just
10689 /POP3
10691 Note that there are several important issues to consider
10692 when selecting this option:
10694 1. POP3 provides access to only your INBOX. In other words,
10695 secondary folders such as your "saved-messages" are
10696 inaccessible.
10697 2. _Alpine_'s implementation of POP3 does not follow the
10698 traditional POP model and will leave your mail on the
10699 server. Refer to the Mail Drop functionality for a
10700 possible way around this problem.
10701 3. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
10702 Folder-Reopen-Rule.
10704 Note that it is possible to include more than one parameter in a server
10705 specification by concatenating the parameters. For example:
10707 foo.example.com:port/user=katie/novalidate-cert/debug
10708 __________________________________________________________________
10710 Folder Namespaces
10712 A _Alpine_ folder name looks like
10714 [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>][<namespace-specific-part>]
10716 The local part of a folder name has an optional "Namespace" which tells
10717 _Alpine_ how to interpret the rest of the name.
10719 By default the folder name is interpreted as defining a section of your
10720 personal folder area. This area and how you specify it are defined by
10721 the server, if one is specified, or, typically, the home directory, if
10722 no server is defined.
10724 If a namespace is specified, it begins with the sharp, "#", character
10725 followed by the name of the namespace and then the namespace's
10726 path-element-delimiter. Aside from the path's format, namespaces can
10727 also imply access rights, content policy, audience, location, and,
10728 occasionally, access methods.
10730 Each server exports its own set (possibly of size one) of namespaces.
10731 Hence, it's likely communication with your server's administrator will
10732 be required for specific configurations. Some of the more common
10733 namespaces, however, include:
10735 #news.
10736 This specifies a set of folders in the newsgroup namespace.
10737 Newsgroup names are hierarchically defined with each level
10738 delimited by a period.
10740 #news.comp.mail.pine
10742 #public/
10743 This specifies a folder area that the server may export to the
10744 general public.
10746 #shared/
10747 This specifies a folder area that the folder may export to
10748 groups of users.
10750 #ftp/
10751 This specifies a folder area that is the same as that it may
10752 have exported via the "File Transfer Protocol".
10754 #mh/
10755 This specifies the personal folder area associated with folders
10756 and directories that were created using the MH message handling
10757 system.
10759 #move/
10760 This namespace is interpreted locally by _Alpine_. It has an
10761 unusual interpretation and format.
10763 #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
10765 The #move namespace is followed by two folder names separated by
10766 a delimiter character. The delimiter character may be any
10767 character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name. The
10768 meaning of #move is that mail will be copied from the
10769 MailDropFolder to the DestinationFolder and then deleted (if
10770 possible) from the MailDropFolder. Periodic checks at frequency
10771 Mail-Check-Interval, but with a minimum time between checks set
10772 by MailDrop-Check-Minimum, are made for new mail arriving in the
10773 MailDropFolder. An example which copies mail from a POP inbox to
10774 a local folder follows
10776 #move+{popserver.example.com/pop3/ssl}inbox+local folder
10778 To you it appears that mail is being delivered to the local
10779 folder when it is copied from the MailDropFolder, and you read
10780 mail from the local folder.
10782 Note that if the DestinationFolder does not exist then the
10783 messages are not copied from the MailDropFolder. A #move folder
10784 may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When you are
10785 in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning on
10786 the enable-incoming-folders option) the Add command has a
10787 subcommand "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the
10788 folder in your _Alpine_ configuration. The same is true when you
10789 edit the Inbox-Path option in Setup/Config. Each of these
10790 configuration methods will also create the DestinationFolder if
10791 it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure
10792 the DestinationFolder exists.
10794 In addition, the server may support access to other user's folders,
10795 provided you have suitable permissions. Common methods use a prefix of
10796 either "~user/", or "/user/" to indicate the root of the other user's
10797 folder area.
10798 __________________________________________________________________
10800 What is a Mail Drop?
10802 In some situaions it may make sense to have your mail delivered to one
10803 folder (the Mail Drop) and then when you want to read mail that has
10804 been delivered to the Mail Drop folder _Alpine_ will move it to another
10805 destination folder. Often the Mail Drop will be a remote folder and
10806 messages will be moved from there to a local destination folder.
10808 One example where this might make sense is if the Mail Drop folder is
10809 accessible only with the POP protocol. You could designate your POP
10810 inbox as the Mail Drop folder and have _Alpine_ move mail from there to
10811 a local (on the same machine _Alpine_ is running on) destination
10812 folder, where you'll read it.
10814 A Mail Drop may only be used as your Inbox or as an Incoming folder.
10816 There is no attempt to synchronize the contents of the destination
10817 folder with the contents of the Mail Drop folder. All that happens is
10818 that all of the messages in the Mail Drop folder are copied to the
10819 destination folder and then they are deleted and expunged (if possible)
10820 from the Mail Drop folder. The next time a check for new mail is made,
10821 any messages in the Mail Drop folder are once again copied to the
10822 destination folder and deleted and expunged from the Mail Drop folder.
10823 (If the Mail Drop folder is a news group, then the messages can't be
10824 expunged from the newsgroup. Instead, only Recent messages are copied
10825 from the newsgroup to the destination folder.)
10827 Configuration of a Mail Drop is a little different from configuration
10828 of a folder which does not use a Mail Drop because you have to specify
10829 two folder names instead of one. The two folders may be any types of
10830 folders that _Alpine_ can normally use. They don't have to be a remote
10831 folder and a local folder, that is simply the most common usage. When
10832 you use a Mail Drop folder _Alpine_ will periodically re-open the Mail
10833 Drop to check for new mail. The new-mail checks will happen at the
10834 frequency set with the Mail-Check-Interval option, but with a minimum
10835 time (MailDrop-Check-Minimum) between checks. Because of this minimum
10836 you may notice that new mail does not appear promptly when you expect
10837 it. The reason for this is to protect the server from over-zealous
10838 opening and closing of the Mail Drop folder. If the user initiates the
10839 check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or the Next command when at the end of the
10840 folder index, then the check will happen, regardless of how long it has
10841 been since the previous check.
10843 If there is new mail, that mail will be copied to the destination
10844 folder and then will be deleted from the Mail Drop. Note that using a
10845 Mail Drop with a local destination folder does not make sense if you
10846 read mail from more than one machine, because the mail is downloaded to
10847 the destination folder (which is accessible from only one machine) and
10848 deleted from the Mail Drop.
10850 The feature Maildrops-Preserve-State modifies the operation of Mail
10851 Drops.
10853 The actual syntax used by _Alpine_ for a folder that uses a Mail Drop
10854 is:
10856 #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
10858 The brackets are not literal.
10860 <DELIM>
10862 is a single character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name.
10863 If the name doesn't contain spaces then it can be a space character.
10864 The two folder names are full technical folder names as used by
10865 _Alpine_. Here are a couple examples to give you an idea what is being
10866 talked about:
10868 #move {popserver.example.com/pop3}inbox localfolder
10870 #move+{nntpserver.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine+local folder
10872 A #move folder may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When
10873 you are in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning
10874 on the Enable-Incoming-Folders option) the Add command has a subcommand
10875 "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the folder in your
10876 _Alpine_ configuration. The same is true when you edit the Inbox-Path
10877 option in Setup/Config.
10878 if it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure the
10879 DestinationFolder exists.
10880 __________________________________________________________________
10882 Sorting a Folder
10884 The mail index may be sorted by arrival, date, subject, from, size,
10885 score, to, or cc order. Each sort order can also be reversed. The _$_
10886 command will prompt the user for the sort order. The sort order can
10887 also be specified on the command line with the _-sort_ flag or
10888 (equivalently) with the sort-key variable in the _pinerc_ file. When a
10889 user changes folders, the sort order will go back to the original sort
10890 order. The command line (_-sort_) or configuration file sort
10891 specification (_sort-key_) changes the original sort order.
10893 When a folder is sorted and new mail arrives in the folder it will be
10894 inserted in its properly sorted place. This can be a little odd when
10895 the folder is sorted by something like the subject. It can also be a
10896 little slow if you are viewing a large, sorted _INBOX_, since the
10897 _INBOX_ will have to be re-sorted whenever new mail arrives.
10899 The sorts are all independent of case and ignore leading or trailing
10900 white space. There are actually two forms of subject sort. One called
10901 _Subject_ and the other called _OrderedSubj_. They both ignore "Re:" at
10902 the beginning and "(fwd)" at the end of the subjects. _Subject_ sorts
10903 all the subjects alphabetically. _OrderedSubj_ sorts by subjects
10904 alphabetically, groups messages with the same subject (pseudo-threads),
10905 then sorts the groups by the date of the first message of the group.
10906 Sorting by _Thread_ was added after _OrderedSubj_ and is usually a
10907 better method. Thread sorting uses information in the message headers
10908 References, Message-ID, and Subject. It is possible the sort will be
10909 slightly slower with a Thread sort than with an OrderedSubj sort. The
10910 sort by sender sorts by the user-id (part before the "@"), not the full
10911 name. The arrival sort is no sort at all and the date sort depends on
10912 the format of the date. Some dates are in strange formats and are
10913 unparsable. The time zone is also taken into account.
10915 Sorting large mail folders can be very slow since it requires fetching
10916 all the headers of the mail messages. With UNIX _Alpine_, only the
10917 first sort is slow since _Alpine_ keeps a copy of all the headers. One
10918 exception is sorting in reverse arrival order. This is fast because no
10919 headers have to be examined. _Alpine_ will show progress as it is
10920 sorting.
10921 __________________________________________________________________
10923 Alternate Editor
10925 In the _Alpine_ composer you can use any text editor, such as _vi_ or
10926 _emacs,_ for composing the message text. The addresses and subject still
10927 must be edited using the standard _Alpine_ composer. If you include the
10928 feature enable-alternate-editor-cmd in your _pinerc_ you can type _^__
10929 while in the body of the message in the composer and be prompted for
10930 the editor. If you also set the editor variable in your _pinerc_ then
10931 _^__ will invoke the configured editor when you type it.
10933 Turning on the feature enable-alternate-editor-implicitly will
10934 automatically invoke the editor you have defined with the _editor_
10935 variable whenever you enter the body of a message you are composing.
10936 For example, when you move out of the last header line and into the
10937 body of the message, the alternate editor will be automatically
10938 invoked.
10940 We know that many people would like to use the alternate editor to edit
10941 the mail header as well. We considered several designs for this and
10942 didn't come up with one that we liked and that was easy to implement.
10943 One of the main problems is that you lose access to the address book.
10944 __________________________________________________________________
10946 Signatures and Signature Placement
10948 If the file _~/.signature_ (UNIX) or _<PINERC_directory>\PINE.SIG (PC)
10949 exists, it will be included in all outgoing messages. It is included
10950 before composition starts so that the user has a chance to edit it out
10951 if he or she likes. The file name for the signature can be changed by
10952 setting the signature-file variable in the _pinerc_. If the feature
10953 enable-sigdashes is turned on then the line consisting of the three
10954 characters "-- " is prepended to the signature file. When Replying or
10955 Forwarding a message different signatures my be automatically included
10956 by configuring them in the Roles setup screen. It's easy to include
10957 different signatures by hand, by having multiple signature files
10958 (_.sig1, .sig2, .sig3, etc_) and choosing to include (^R in the
10959 composer) the correct one for the message being sent.
10961 _Alpine_'s default behavior encourages a user to put his or her
10962 contribution before the inclusion of the original text of the message
10963 being forwarded or replied to, This is contrary to some conventions,
10964 but makes the conversation more readable when a long original message
10965 is included in a reply for context. The reader doesn't have to scroll
10966 through the original text that he or she has probably already seen to
10967 find the new text. If the reader wishes to see the old message(s), the
10968 reader can scroll further into the message. Users who prefer to add
10969 their input at the end of a message should set the signature-at-bottom
10970 feature. The signature will then be appended to the end of the message
10971 after any included text. This feature applies when _Reply_ing, not when
10972 _Forward_ing.
10973 __________________________________________________________________
10975 Feature List Variable
10977 _Alpine_ used to have _feature levels_ for users with different amounts
10978 of experience. We found that this was too restrictive. _Alpine_ now has
10979 a feature-list instead. Each user may pick and choose which features
10980 they would like enabled (simple to do in the _Setup/Config_ screen).
10981 There is a short description of each in Configuration Features. There
10982 is also a short on-line help explaining the effect of each of the
10983 features in the _Setup/Config_ screen. When the cursor is highlighting
10984 a feature, the _?_ command will show the help text for that feature.
10985 Features don't have values, they are just turned on or off. They are
10986 all off by default.
10988 The _feature-list_ variable is different from all other configuration
10989 variables in that its value is additive. That is, the system-wide
10990 configuration file can have some features turned on by default. The
10991 user can select other features in their personal configuration file and
10992 those features will be _added_ to the set of features turned on in the
10993 system-wide configuration file. (With all other configuration
10994 variables, the user's values _replace_ the system-wide values.)
10995 Likewise, additional features may be set on the command-line with the
10996 argument "-feature-list=". These will be added to the others.
10998 The treatment of _feature-list_ in the system-wide _fixed_
10999 configuration file is also different from other variables. The system
11000 management can fix the value of individual features by placing them in
11001 the fixed configuration file. Users will not be able to alter those
11002 features, but will still be able to set the other non-restricted
11003 features the way they like.
11005 Because _feature-list_ is additive, there is a way to turn features off
11006 as well as on. Prepending the prefix "no-" to any feature sets it to
11007 off. This is useful for over-riding the system-wide default in the
11008 personal configuration file or for over-riding the system-wide default
11009 or the personal configuration value on the command line. For example,
11010 if the system-wide default configuration has the _quit-without-confirm_
11011 feature set, the user can over-ride that (and turn it off) by including
11012 _no-quit-without-confirm_ in the personal configuration file or by
11013 giving the command line argument
11014 _-feature-list=no-quit-without-confirm._ More features (options) will no
11015 doubt continue to be added.
11016 __________________________________________________________________
11018 Configuration Inheritance
11020 We start with an explanation of how configuration works in hopes of
11021 making it easier to describe how inheritance works.
11023 _Alpine_ uses a hierarchy of configuration values from different
11024 locations. There are five ways in which each configuration option
11025 (configuration variable) can be set. In increasing order of precedence
11026 they are:
11028 1. the system-wide configuration file.
11029 2. the personal configuration file
11030 3. the personal exceptions file
11031 4. a command line argument
11032 5. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file (Unix _Alpine_ only)
11034 The fixed configuration file is normally
11035 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed.
11037 The system-wide configuration file is normally /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
11038 for Unix _Alpine_ and is normally not set for _PC-Alpine_. For
11039 _PC-Alpine_, if the environment variable _$PINECONF_ is set, that is
11040 used for the system-wide configuration. This location can be set or
11041 changed on the command line with the -P flag. The system-wide
11042 configuration file can be either a local file or a remote configuration
11043 folder.
11045 For Unix _Alpine_, the personal configuration file is normally the file
11046 .pinerc in the user's home directory. This can be changed with the -p
11047 command line flag. For _PC-Alpine_, the personal configuration file is
11048 in $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or ${HOME}\ALPINE\PINERC or
11049 <ALPINE.EXE dir>\PINERC. This can be changed with the -p command line
11050 flag. If -p or $PINERC is used, the configuration data may be in a
11051 local file or a remote config folder.
11053 For Unix _Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is
11054 specified with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument.
11055 "Exceptions_config" may be either a local file or a remote
11056 configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command line option, _Alpine_
11057 will look for the file ".pinercex" in the same local directory that the
11058 regular config file is located in. If the regular config file is remote
11059 then Unix _Alpine_ looks in the home directory for ".pinercex".
11061 For _PC-Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is
11062 specified with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument. If
11063 there is no "-x" command line argument the environment variable
11064 $PINERCEX may be set to the name of the "exceptions_config" instead.
11065 "Exceptions_config" may be either a local file or a remote
11066 configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command line option and
11067 $PINERCEX is not set, _PC-Alpine_ will look for the file "PINERCEX" in
11068 the same local directory that the regular config file is located in. If
11069 the regular config file is remote then _PC-Alpine_ looks in the local
11070 directory specified by the "-aux local_directory" command line
11071 argument, or the directory ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE directory>
11072 for a file named "PINERCEX".
11074 To reiterate, the value of a configuration option is taken from the
11075 last location in the list above in which it is set. Or, thinking about
11076 it slightly differently, a default value for an option is established
11077 in the system-wide configuration file (or in the source code if there
11078 is no value in the system-wide file). That default remains in effect
11079 until and unless it is overridden by a value in a location further down
11080 the list, in which case a new "default" value is established. As we
11081 continue down the list of locations we either retain the value at each
11082 step or establish a new value. The value that is still set after going
11083 through the whole list of configuration locations is the one that is
11084 used.
11086 So, for example, if an option is set in the system-wide configuration
11087 file and in the personal configuration file, but is not set in the
11088 exceptions, on the command line, or in the fixed file; then the value
11089 from the personal configuration file is the one that is used. Or, if it
11090 is set in the system-wide config, in the personal config, not in the
11091 exceptions, but is set on the command line; then the value on the
11092 command line is used.
11094 Finally we get to inheritance. For configuration options which are
11095 lists, like "smtp-server" or "incoming-folders", the inheritance
11096 mechanism makes it possible to _combine_ the values from different
11097 locations instead of _replacing_ the value. This is true of all
11098 configuration lists other than the "feature-list", for which you may
11099 already set whatever you want at any configuration location (by using
11100 the "no-" prefix if necessary).
11102 To use inheritance, set the first item in a configuration list to the
11103 token "INHERIT". If the first item is "INHERIT", then instead of
11104 replacing the default value established so far, the rest of the list is
11105 appended to the default value established so far and that is the new
11106 value.
11108 Here is an example which may make it clearer. Suppose we have:
11110 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11111 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
11112 Exceptions config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11113 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11114 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11116 This would result in an effective smtp-server option of
11118 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home
11120 The "INHERIT" token can be used in any of the configuration files and
11121 the effect cascades. For example, if we change the above example to:
11123 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11124 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
11125 Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
11126 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11127 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11129 This would result in:
11131 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home, yoursmtp.org
11133 Unset variables are skipped over (the default value is carried forward)
11134 so that, for example:
11136 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11137 Personal config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11138 Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
11139 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11140 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11142 produces:
11144 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, yoursmtp.org
11146 If any later configuration location has a value set (for a particular
11147 list option) which does _not_ begin with "INHERIT", then that value
11148 replaces whatever value has been defined up to that point. In other
11149 words, that cancels out any previous inheritance.
11151 System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
11152 Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.org
11153 Exceptions config : smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
11154 Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11155 Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
11157 results in:
11159 smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
11161 For some configuration options, like "viewer-hdr-colors" or
11162 "patterns-roles", it is difficult to insert the value "INHERIT" into
11163 the list of values for the option using the normal Setup tools. In
11164 other words, the color setting screen (for example) does not provide a
11165 way to input the text "INHERIT" as the first item in the
11166 viewer-hdr-colors option. The way to do this is to either edit the
11167 pinerc file directly and manually insert it, or turn on the
11168 "expose-hidden-config" feature and insert it using the Setup/Config
11169 screen.
11170 __________________________________________________________________
11172 Using Environment Variables
11174 The values of _Alpine_ configuration options may include environment
11175 variables which are replaced by the value of the variable at the time
11176 _Alpine_ is run (and also at the time the config option is changed). The
11177 syntax to use environment variables is a subset of the common Unix
11178 shell dollar-syntax. For example, if
11180 $VAR
11182 appears in the value of a _Alpine_ configuration option it is looked up
11183 in the environent (using getenv("VAR")) and its looked-up value
11184 replaces the $VAR part of the option value. To include a literal dollar
11185 sign you may precede the dollar sign with another dollar sign. In other
11186 words, if the text
11188 $$text
11190 is the value of a configuration option, it will be expanded to
11192 $text
11194 and no environment lookup will be done. For Unix _Alpine_ it will also
11195 work to use a backslash character to escape the special meaning of the
11196 dollar sign, but $$ is preferable since it works for both _PC-Alpine_
11197 and Unix _Alpine_, allowing the configuration option to be in a shared
11198 configuration file.
11200 This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. An example may
11201 make it clearer. Unfortunately, the way in which environment variables
11202 are set is OS-dependent and command shell-dependent. In some Unix
11203 command shells you may use
11205 PERSNAME="Fred Flintstone"
11207 export PERSNAME
11209 Now, if you use _Alpine_'s Setup/Config screen to set
11211 personal-name=$PERSNAME
11213 the $PERSNAME would be replaced by Fred Flintstone so that this would
11214 be equivalent to
11216 personal-name=Fred Flintstone
11218 Note, environment variable substitution happens after configuration
11219 options which are lists are split into the separate elements of the
11220 list, so a single environment variable can't contain a list of values.
11222 The environment variable doesn't have to be the only thing after the
11223 equal sign. However, if the name of the variable is not at the end of
11224 the line or followed by a space (so that you can tell where the
11225 variable name ends), it must be enclosed in curly braces like
11227 ${VAR}
11229 It is always ok to use the braces even if you don't need to.
11231 It is also possible to set a default value for an environment variable.
11232 This default value will be used if the environment variable is not set
11233 (that is, if getenv("VAR") returns NULL). The syntax used to set a
11234 default value is
11236 ${VAR:-default value}
11238 If the config file contains
11240 personal-name=${VAR:-Fred Flintstone}
11242 then when _Alpine_ is run VAR will be looked up in the environment. If
11243 VAR is found then personal-name will have the value that VAR was set
11244 to, otherwise, personal-name will be set to Fred Flintstone, the
11245 default value.
11247 An example where an environment variable might be useful is the
11248 variable inbox-path in the global configuration file. Suppose most
11249 users used the server
11251 imapserver.example.com
11253 but that there were some exceptions who used
11255 altimapserver.example.com
11257 In this case, the system manager might include the following line in
11258 the systemwide default _Alpine_ configuration file
11260 inbox-path=${IMAPSERVER:-imapserver.example.com}
11262 For the exceptional users adding
11264 IMAPSERVER=altimapserver.example.com
11266 to their environment should work.
11268 Another example might be the case where a user has to use a different
11269 SMTP server from work and from home. The setup might be something as
11270 simple as
11272 smtp-server=$SMTP
11274 or perhaps a default value could be given. Note that, as mentioned
11275 above, the variable SMTP cannot contain a list of SMTP servers.
11276 __________________________________________________________________
11278 SMTP Servers
11280 It is sometimes desirable to set smtp-server=localhost instead of
11281 setting sendmail-path to overcome the inability to negotiate ESMTP
11282 options when _sendmail_ is invoked with the _-t_ option. Sendmail can
11283 also be subject to unacceptable delays due to slow DNS lookups and
11284 other problems.
11286 It is sometimes desirable to configure an SMTP server on a port other
11287 than the default port 25. This may be used to provide an alternate
11288 service that is optimized for a particular environment or provides
11289 different features from the port 25 server. An example would be a
11290 program that negotiates ESMTP options and queues a message, but does
11291 not attempt to deliver messages. This would avoid delays frequently
11292 encountered when invoking _sendmail_ directly.
11294 A typical configuration would consist of
11295 * A program that implements the SMTP or ESMTP protocol via stdio.
11296 * An entry in /etc/services for the alternate service.
11297 * An entry in /etc/inetd.conf for the alternate service.
11298 * An entry in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf,
11299 /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed or ~/.pinerc.
11300 __________________________________________________________________
11302 MIME.Types file
11304 _Alpine_'s MIME-TYPE support is based on code contributed by Hans
11305 Drexler <drexler@mpi.nl>. _Alpine_ assigns MIME Content-Types
11306 according to file name extensions found in the system-wide files
11307 /usr/local/lib/mime.types and /etc/mime.types, and a user specific
11308 ~/.mime.types file.
11310 In Windows, _Alpine_ looks in the same directory as the PINERC file and
11311 the same dir as ALPINE.EXE. This is similar to the UNIX situation with
11312 personal config info coming before potentially shared config data. An
11313 alternate search path can be specified by setting the
11314 mimetype-search-path variable in the user or system-wide configuration
11315 or by setting the MIMETYPES environment variable.
11317 These files specify file extensions that will be connected to a mime
11318 type. Lines beginning with a '#' character are treated as comments and
11319 ignored. All other lines are treated as a mime type definition. The
11320 first word is a _type/subtype_ specification. All following words are
11321 file _extensions_ belonging to that type/subtype. Words are separated
11322 by whitespace characters. If a file extension occurs more than once,
11323 then the first definition determines the file type and subtype. A
11324 couple sample lines from a mime.types file follow:
11326 image/gif gif
11327 text/html html htm
11328 video/mpeg mpeg mpg mpe
11330 __________________________________________________________________
11332 Color Details
11334 UNIX _Alpine_ may display color if the terminal or terminal emulator
11335 you are using is capable of displaying colors. If the terminal supports
11336 ANSI color escape sequences you will be able to turn color on using the
11337 color-style option and setting it to the value _force-ansi-8color_ or
11338 _force-ansi-16color_. If instead you'd like _Alpine_ to automatically
11339 detect whether or not you are on a color terminal, set _color-style_ to
11340 _use-termdef_ _and_ configure the termcap entry to describe your
11341 terminal's color capabilities.
11343 If the _color-style_ option is set to _use-termdef_, _Alpine_ looks in
11344 the terminal capabilities database, TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on
11345 how _Alpine_ was compiled, to decide whether or not your terminal is
11346 capable of color. For TERMINFO compiled _Alpine_s, the capabilities
11347 that are used for color are "colors", "setaf", "setab", "op", and
11348 "bce". If you have a terminal with color capabilities described by the
11349 "scp" capability, _Alpine_ does not support it. The capabilities "setf"
11350 and "setb" may be used instead of "setaf" and "setab". The capability
11351 "bce" is optional and is used as an optimization, the other
11352 capabilities are required. For TERMCAP compiled _Alpine_s, the
11353 capabilities that are used for color are "Co", "AF", "AB", "op", and
11354 "ut". The capabilities "Sf" and "Sb" may be used instead of "AF" and
11355 "AB", though this isn't a useful feature.
11357 Here are some short descriptions of the capabilities listed above. The
11358 TERMINFO name is listed, followed by the TERMCAP name in parentheses.
11359 _colors_ (_Co_)
11360 The number of different colors.
11361 _setaf_ (_AF_)
11362 Set ANSI foreground color.
11363 _setab_ (_AB_)
11364 Set ANSI background color.
11365 _setf_ (_Sf_)
11366 Set foreground color. Alternate form of _setaf_.
11367 _setb_ (_Sb_)
11368 Set background color. Alternate form of _setab_.
11369 _op_ (_op_)
11370 Set default pair to its original value.
11371 _bce_ (_ut_)
11372 Screen is erased with current background color instead of
11373 default background.
11375 A standard ANSI terminal which supports color will have a TERMINFO
11376 entry which contains:
11377 colors#8
11378 setaf=\E[3%p1%dm
11379 setab=\E[4%p1%dm
11380 op=\E[39;49m
11381 bce
11383 or the TERMCAP equivalent:
11384 Co#8
11385 AF=\E[3%dm
11386 AB=\E[4%dm
11387 op=\E[39;49m
11388 ut
11390 If there are eight colors, the program uses colors 0, 1, ..., 7. For an
11391 ANSI terminal, the foreground color is set by sending the escape
11392 sequence "Escape LeftBracket 3 color_number m" to the terminal. The
11393 background color is set by sending the sequence "Escape LeftBracket 4
11394 color_number m". ANSI colors zero through seven are defined to be
11395 "black", "red", "green", "yellow", "blue", "magenta", "cyan", and
11396 "white". Some terminal emulators will swap blue and red and swap yellow
11397 and cyan. The capabilities "setf" and "setb" are usually designed for
11398 those terminals so that they will flip the color numbers 1 and 4 and
11399 the numbers 3 and 6 to compensate for this. _Alpine_ will use the ANSI
11400 versions of the capabilities if they exist, and will use the non-ANSI
11401 versions (setf and setb) if the ANSI versions don't exist. Here's a
11402 version which does the flipping. This can only be used with TERMINFO
11403 _Alpine_s, because of the arithmetic, which is not supported by TERMCAP.
11404 colors#8
11405 setf=\E[3%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
11406 setb=\E[4%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
11407 op=\E[39;49m
11408 bce
11410 Some terminal emulators are capable of displaying eight more colors
11411 when the foreground colors 30-37 are replaced with 90-97 and the
11412 background colors 40-47 are replaced with 100-107. These terminals
11413 require a fancy termcap entry which can take foreground colors 0, 1,
11414 ..., 15 and map that into 30, 31, ..., 37, 90, 91, ..., 97, and
11415 similarly for the background colors. Here is a terminfo entry which
11416 will do just that:
11417 colors#16
11418 setaf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
11419 setab=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
11420 op=\E[39;49m
11421 bce
11423 and here is the termcap equivalent:
11424 Co#16
11425 AF=\E[%i%i%>\001\034%>\045\064%dm
11426 AB=\E[%i%i%>\001\046%>\057\064%dm
11427 op=\E[39;49m
11428 ut
11430 This is a terminfo entry for 16 colors that also does the color
11431 flipping:
11432 colors#16
11433 setf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%{
11434 4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
11435 setb=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\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 op=\E[39;49m
11438 bce
11440 If you are always using the same display it probably won't matter to
11441 you if the color pairs red/blue and cyan/yellow are flipped, since
11442 you'll always be seeing them flipped. You will get different defaults
11443 than on a display with them not flipped, but that's about all. If you
11444 are trying to use the same pinerc file from displays with different
11445 color characteristics, or from _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_, you will have
11446 to be more careful. The colors numbered 0 through 7 may be used
11447 portably between different systems if you are careful to make them
11448 correspond to the ANSI order mentioned above. You can check this by
11449 looking at a color configuration screen for one of the colors. The
11450 first eight colors should be in the order above. If they aren't, you
11451 could fix that by modifying your termcap entry on the UNIX system. This
11452 is not possible if your system uses TERMCAP instead of TERMINFO.
11453 __________________________________________________________________
11455 S/MIME Overview
11457 UNIX _Alpine_ only.
11459 S/MIME is a standard for the public key encryption and signing of
11460 email. UNIX _Alpine_ contains a basic implementation of S/MIME based on
11461 the OpenSSL libraries.
11463 Some limitations:
11464 * There is no _PC-Alpine_ implementation.
11465 * There is no provision for checking for CRLs (Certificate Revocation
11466 Lists) in _Alpine_.
11467 * This built-in S/MIME implementation is not compatible with and does
11468 not help with PGP.
11469 * There is no mechanism available for feeding either an entire
11470 incoming or an entire outgoing message to an external filter and
11471 using that external filter to do S/MIME or PGP processing.
11472 * Because the implementation currently uses OpenSSL, there is only a
11473 very limited integration with the Mac OS Keychain (the storing and
11474 access of public certificates).
11475 * There is no way to view or manipulate the lists of certificates
11476 from within _Alpine_.
11478 The S/MIME configuration screen is reached by going to the Main Menu
11479 and typing the "S Setup" command followed by "M S/MIME".
11481 S/MIME BASICS
11483 In order to digitally sign messages you send you must have a
11484 public/private key-pair. This may be obtained from a public Certificate
11485 Authority (CA) such as Thawte, Verisign, Comodo, or GoDaddy; or from a
11486 smaller CA such as a university which provides certificates for its
11487 users or a company which provides certificates for its workers. These
11488 certificates are bound to an email address, so the identity being
11489 verified is the email address not a person's name.
11491 Mail is signed by using the sender's private key, which only the owner
11492 of the private key has access to. The signature is verified using the
11493 signer's public key, which anyone can have access to. With _Alpine_,
11494 the first time you receive a signed message the public key of the
11495 sender will be stored for future use.
11497 Mail is encrypted using the recipient's public key and decrypted by the
11498 recipient with their private key.
11500 You need a key of your own in order to sign outgoing messages and to
11501 have others encrypt messages sent to you. You do not need a key of your
11502 own to verify signed messages sent by others or to encrypt messages
11503 sent to others.
11505 ALPINE S/MIME CERTIFICATE STORAGE
11507 By default UNIX _Alpine_ stores the certificates it uses in a directory
11508 in your home directory. The directory name is
11510 .alpine-smime
11512 Within that directory are three subdirectories. Each of the three
11513 subdirectories contains files with PEM-encoded contents, the default
11514 format for OpenSSL. The "public" directory contains public
11515 certificates. The files within that directory have names that are email
11516 addresses with the suffix ".crt" appended. An example filename is
11518 user@example.com.crt
11520 The "private" directory contains private keys, probably just one for
11521 your private key. These are also email addresses but with the suffix
11522 ".key" instead. The third directory is "ca" and it contains
11523 certificates for any Certificate Authorities that you want to trust but
11524 that aren't contained in the set of system CAs. Those files may have
11525 arbitrary names as long as they end with the suffix ".crt".
11527 HOW TO SIGN AND ENCRYPT
11529 If you have a certificate you may sign outgoing messages. After typing
11530 the Ctrl-X command to send a message you will see the prompt
11532 Send message?
11534 Available subcommands include "G Sign" and "E Encrypt". Typing the "G"
11535 command will change the prompt to
11537 Send message (Signed)?
11539 Typing the "E" command will change the prompt to
11541 Send message (Encrypted)?
11543 You may even type both to get
11545 Send message (Encrypted, Signed)?
11547 HOW TO READ SIGNED OR ENCRYPTED MESSAGES
11549 The reading of a signed message should not require any special action
11550 on your part. There should be an editorial addition at the start of the
11551 message which says either
11553 This message was cryptographically signed.
11555 or
11557 This message was cryptographically signed but the signature could not
11558 be verified.
11560 If an encrypted message is sent to you the encrypted text will not be
11561 shown. You will have to type the "Ctrl-D Decrypt" command (from the
11562 screen where you are viewing the message) and supply your passphrase
11563 when asked.
11565 For a signed or encrypted message there is also a "Ctrl-E Security"
11566 command which gives you some information about the certificate used to
11567 sign or encrypt the message.
11569 MISCELLANEOUS
11571 You may have access to a private certificate in the PKCS12 format,
11572 which would sometimes be in a file with a ".p12" suffix. The UNIX shell
11573 command
11575 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
11577 may work to convert that from the PKCS12 format to the PEM format. Then
11578 that file could be placed in the "private" directory with a filename of
11579 your email address followed by the suffix ".key".
11580 __________________________________________________________________
11582 Additional Notes on PC-Alpine
11584 Below are a few odds and ends worth mentioning about _PC-Alpine_. They
11585 have to do with DOS-specific behavior that is either necessary or
11586 useful (and sometimes both!).
11588 As _PC-Alpine_ runs in an environment with limited access control,
11589 accounting or auditing, an additional line is automatically inserted
11590 into the header of mail messages generated by _PC-Alpine_:
11591 X-Sender: <userid>@<imap.host>
11594 By popular demand of system administrators, _PC-Alpine_ has been
11595 modified to prevent sending messages until the user has successfully
11596 logged into a remote mail server. Even though _PC-Alpine_ cannot
11597 prevent users from changing the apparent identity of the sender of a
11598 message, the IMAP server login name and host name included in the
11599 _X-Sender_ line provide some level of traceability by the recipient.
11600 However, this should not be considered a rigorous form of
11601 authentication. It is extremely lightweight, and is not a replacement
11602 for true authentication.
11604 Hand in hand with authentication and accounting is user information.
11605 Since _PC-Alpine_ has no user database to consult for _user-id_,
11606 _personal-name_, etc., necessary information must be provided by the
11607 user/installer before _PC-Alpine_ can properly construct the "From"
11608 address required for outbound messages. _PC-Alpine_ will, by default,
11609 prompt for the requisite pieces as they are needed. This information
11610 corresponds to the _PINERC_ variables user-id, personal-name,
11611 user-domain, and smtp-server.
11613 The user is then asked whether or not this information should
11614 automatically be saved to the _PINERC_. This is useful behavior in
11615 general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
11616 Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be
11617 turned off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above
11618 values in the _PINERC_ to the null string (i.e., a pair of double
11619 quotes). This means that the user will be prompted for the information
11620 once during each _Alpine_ session, and no opportunity to save them in
11621 the _PINERC_ will be offered.
11623 Another feature of DOS is the lack of standard scratch area for
11624 temporary files. During the course of a session, _PC-Alpine_ may
11625 require numerous temporary files (large message texts, various caches,
11626 etc.). Where to create them can be a problem, particularly when running
11627 under certain network operating systems. _PC-Alpine_ observes the
11628 _TMPDIR_, _TMP_, and _TEMP_ environment variables, and creates temporary
11629 files in the directory specified by either. In their absence,
11630 _PC-Alpine_ creates these files in the root of the current working
11631 drive. Some temporary files have to be created in the same directory as
11632 the file they are a temporary copy of. For example, a pinerc file or a
11633 address book file.
11635 Behind the Scenes
11637 Many people ask how certain _Alpine_ features are implemented. This
11638 section outlines some of the details.
11640 Address Books
11642 There are two types of address book storage. There are _local_ address
11643 books, which are the address books that are stored in a local file; and
11644 there are _remote_ address books, which are stored on an IMAP server.
11646 Information About Remote Address Books
11648 NOTE: The remote address book capability does not allow you to
11649 access an existing local address book from a remote system! That is,
11650 you can't set the remote address book to something like
11651 {remote.host}.addressbook and expect to access the existing
11652 .addressbook _file_ on remote.host. Instead, you need to create a
11653 new remote address book in a new, previously unused remote mail
11654 _folder_. Then you can use the _Select_ and _Apply Save_ commands in
11655 the address book screen to _Save_ all of the entries from an
11656 existing local address book to the new remote address book.
11658 A remote address book is stored in a mail folder on an IMAP server. An
11659 _Alpine_ remote address book is just like an _Alpine_ local address book
11660 in that it is not interoperable with other email clients. The folder is
11661 a regular folder containing mail messages but those messages are
11662 special. The first message must be an alpine remote address book header
11663 message which contains the header _x-pine-addrbook_. The last message
11664 in the folder contains the address book data. In between the first and
11665 the last message are old versions of the address book data. The address
11666 book data is simply stored in the message as it would be on disk, with
11667 no MIME encoding. When it is used the data from the last message in the
11668 folder is copied to a local file and then that file is used exactly
11669 like a local address book file is used. When a change is made the
11670 modified local file is appended to the remote folder in a new message.
11671 In other words, the local file is just a cache copy of the data in the
11672 remote folder. Each client which uses the remote address book will have
11673 its own cache copy of the data. Whenever a copy is done the entire
11674 address book is copied, not just the entries which have changed.
11676 _Alpine_ can tell that the remote data has changed by one of several
11677 methods. If the date contained in the Date header of the last message
11678 has changed then it knows it has changed. If the UID of the last
11679 message has changed, or the number of messages in the folder has
11680 changed, it knows that it has changed. When _Alpine_ discovers the
11681 folder has changed it gets a new copy and puts it in the local cache
11682 file.
11684 There is a configuration file variable for remote address books called
11685 remote-abook-metafile. The variable is the name of a file in which
11686 information about remote address books is stored. There is one line in
11687 the metafile for each remote address book. The information stored there
11688 is the name of the cache file and information to help figure out when
11689 the remote folder was last changed. If the metafile or any of the cache
11690 files is deleted then _Alpine_ will rebuild them the next time it runs.
11692 Remote address books have names that look just like regular remote mail
11693 folder names. For example:
11695 {host.domain}foldername
11697 _Alpine_ decides whether or not an address book is remote simply by
11698 looking at the first character of the address book name and comparing
11699 it to '{'.
11701 Information About All Address Books
11703 The address book is named, by default, .addressbook in the user's Unix
11704 home directory, or in the case of _PC-Alpine_, ADDRBOOK, in the same
11705 directory as the PINERC file. There may be more than one address book,
11706 and the default name can be overridden via an entry in any of the
11707 _Alpine_ configuration files. The two configuration variables
11708 address-book and global-address-book are used to specify the names of
11709 the address books. Each of these variables is a list variable. The
11710 total set of address books for a user is the combination of all the
11711 address books specified in these two lists. Each entry in the list is
11712 an optional nickname followed by an address book name. The nickname is
11713 everything up to the last space before the file name. The
11714 _global-address-book_ list will typically be configured in the
11715 system-wide configuration file, though a user may override it like most
11716 other variables. Address books which are listed in the
11717 _global-address-book_ variable are forced read-only, and are typically
11718 shared among multiple users.
11720 Local address books (or local cache files for remote address books) are
11721 simple text files with lines in the format:
11723 <nickname>TAB<fullname>TAB<address>TAB<fcc>TAB<comments>
11725 The last two fields are optional. A "line" may be made up of multiple
11726 actual lines in the file by using continuation lines, which are lines
11727 beginning with SPACE characters. The line breaks may be after TABs or
11728 in between addresses in a distribution list. Each _actual_ line in the
11729 file must be less than 1000 characters in length.
11731 Nicknames (the first field) are short names that the user types instead
11732 of typing in the full address. There are several characters which
11733 aren't allowed in nicknames in order to avoid ambiguity when parsing
11734 the address (SPACE, COMMA, @, ", ;, :, (, ), [, ], <, >, \). Nicknames
11735 aren't required. In fact, none of the fields is required.
11737 The _fullname_ field is usually stored as Last_name, First_name, in
11738 order that a sort on the fullname field comes out sorted by Last_name.
11739 If there is an unquoted comma in the fullname, _Alpine_ will flip the
11740 first and last name around and get rid of the comma when using the
11741 entry in a composition. It isn't required that there be a comma, that's
11742 only useful if the user wants the entries to sort on last names.
11744 The _address_ field takes one of two forms, depending on whether the
11745 entry is a single (simple) address or a distribution list. For a simple
11746 entry, the address field is an RFC 2822 address. This could be either
11747 the email-address part of the address, i.e., the part that goes inside
11748 the brackets (<>), or it could be a full RFC 2822 address. The phrase
11749 part of the address (the fullname) is used unless there is a fullname
11750 present in the fullname field of the address book entry. In that case,
11751 the fullname of the address book entry replaces the fullname of the
11752 address. For a distribution list, the <address> is in the format:
11754 "(" <address>, <address>, <address>, ... ")"
11756 The only purpose for the parentheses around the list of addresses is to
11757 make it easier for the parsing routines to tell that it is a simple
11758 entry instead of a list. The two are displayed differently and treated
11759 slightly differently in some cases, though most of the distinction has
11760 disappeared. Each of the addresses in a list can be a full RFC 2822
11761 address with fullname included, or it may be just the simple
11762 email-address part of the address. This allows the user to have a list
11763 which includes the fullnames of all the list members. In both the
11764 simple and list cases, addresses may also be other nicknames which
11765 appear in this address book or in one of the other address books.
11766 (Those nicknames are searched for by looking through the address books
11767 in the order they appear in the address book screen, with the first
11768 match winning.) Lists may be nested. If addresses refer to each other
11769 in a loop (for example, list A includes list B which includes list A
11770 again) this is detected and flagged. In that case, the address will be
11771 changed to "**** address loop ****".
11773 The optional _fcc_ field is a folder name, just like the fcc field in
11774 the composer headers. If the first address in the To field of a
11775 composition comes from an address book entry with an fcc field, then
11776 that fcc is placed in the fcc header in the composer.
11778 The _comments_ field is just a free text field for storing comments
11779 about an entry. By default, neither the fcc nor the comments field is
11780 shown on the screen in the address book screen. You may make those
11781 fields visible by configuring the variable addressbook-formats. They
11782 are also searched when you use the _WhereIs_ command in the address
11783 book screen and are visible when you _View_ or _Update_ an entry.
11785 The address book is displayed in the order that it is stored. When the
11786 user chooses a different sorting criterion, the data is actually sorted
11787 and stored, as opposed to showing a sorted view of the data.
11789 When the address book is written out, it is first written to a
11790 temporary file and if that write is successful it is renamed. This
11791 guards against errors writing the file that might destroy the whole
11792 address book. The address book is re-written after each change. If the
11793 address book is a remote address book, the file is then appended to the
11794 remote mail folder using IMAP.
11796 The end-of-line character(s) in the address book file are those native
11797 to the system writing it. So it is <LF> on Unix and <CR><LF> on PC's.
11798 However, both Unix and PC versions of _Alpine_ can read either format,
11799 so it should be possible to share a read-only address book among the
11800 two populations (using NFS, for example).
11801 __________________________________________________________________
11803 Address Book Lookup File
11805 _Pine_ used an additional file for each address book, called the LookUp
11806 file. It had the same name as the address book file with the suffix
11807 ".lu" appended. _Alpine_ no longer uses a lookup file.
11809 Validity Checking of Address Books
11811 There is no file locking done on _Alpine_ address books, however, there
11812 is considerable validity checking done to make sure that the address
11813 book hasn't changed unexpectedly. Whenever the address book is about to
11814 be changed, a check is made to see if the file is newer than when we
11815 read it or the remote address book folder has changed since we last
11816 copied it. If either of these is true, the change is aborted.
11818 There is an automatic, behind-the-scene check that happens every so
11819 often, also. For example, if someone else changes one of the address
11820 books that you have configured, your _Alpine_'s copy of the address
11821 book will usually be updated automatically without you noticing. This
11822 checking happens at the same time as new mail checking takes place,
11823 unless you are actively using the address book, in which case it
11824 happens more frequently.
11825 __________________________________________________________________
11827 Remote Configuration
11829 Configuration information may be stored remotely. Remote configuration
11830 information is stored in a folder on an IMAP server. This should be a
11831 folder which is used only for storing the configuration information. In
11832 other words, it should be a folder which didn't exist before.
11834 Remote configuration folders are very similar to remote address book
11835 folders. They both consist of a header message, which serves to
11836 identify the type of folder; the last message, which contains the data;
11837 and intermediate messages, which contain old versions of the data. The
11838 first message must contain the header _x-pine-pinerc_.
11840 When a remote configuration is being used, the folder is checked to
11841 make sure it is a remote configuration folder, then the data contained
11842 in the last message is copied to a temporary file. That file is treated
11843 just like any regular local configuration file from that point on.
11844 Whenever a configuration change is made, the entire file is copied back
11845 to the IMAP server and is appended to the folder as a new message.
11847 Because remote configuration folders are so similar to remote address
11848 books, the configuration variable remote-abook-metafile is used by
11849 both.
11851 Remote configuration folders have names that look just like regular
11852 remote mail folder names. For example:
11854 {host.domain}mypinerc
11856 _Alpine_ decides whether or not a configuration file is remote simply
11857 by looking at the first character of the name and comparing it to '{'.
11858 __________________________________________________________________
11860 Checkpointing
11862 Periodically _Alpine_ will save the whole mail folder to disk to
11863 prevent loss of any mail or mail status in the case that it gets
11864 interrupted, disconnected, or crashes. The period of time _Alpine_
11865 waits to do the checkpoint is calculated to be minimally intrusive. The
11866 timing can be changed (but usually isn't) at compile time. Folder
11867 checkpointing happens for both local folders and those being accessed
11868 with IMAP. The delays are divided into three categories:
11870 The exact algorithm given below is no longer correct. It has gotten
11871 more complicated over time. However, this gives the general idea
11872 _Alpine_ uses when deciding whether or not to do a checkpoint.
11874 Good Time:
11875 This occurs when _Alpine_ has been idle for more than 30
11876 seconds. In this case _Alpine_ will checkpoint if 12 changes to
11877 the file have been made or at least one change has been made and
11878 a checkpoint hasn't been done for five minutes.
11879 Bad Time:
11880 This occurs just after _Alpine_ has executed some command.
11881 _Alpine_ will checkpoint if there are 36 outstanding changes to
11882 the mail file or at least one change and no checkpoint for ten
11883 minutes.
11884 Very Bad Time:
11885 Done when composing a message. In this case, _Alpine_ will only
11886 checkpoint if at least 48 changes have been made or at least one
11887 change has been made in the last twenty minutes with no
11888 checkpoint.
11889 __________________________________________________________________
11891 Debug Files
11893 If UNIX _Alpine_ is compiled with the compiler _DEBUG_ option on (the
11894 default), then _Alpine_ will produce debugging output to a file. This
11895 can be disabled at compile-time with the --disable-debug configure
11896 option, or at run-time with the command line flag -d0. The file is
11897 normally .pine-debugX in the user's home directory where _X_ goes from
11898 1 to 4. Number 1 is always the most recent session and 4 the oldest.
11899 Four are saved because often the user has gone in and out of _Alpine_ a
11900 few times after a problem has occurred before the expert actually gets
11901 to look at it. The amount of output in the debug files varies with the
11902 debug level set when _Alpine_ is compiled and/or as a command line
11903 flag. The default is level 2. This shows very general things and
11904 records errors. Level 9 produces copious amounts of output for each
11905 keystroke.
11907 Similarly, _PC-Alpine_ creates debug files named pinedebg.txtX in the
11908 same directory as the PINERC file.
11909 __________________________________________________________________
11911 INBOX and Special Folders
11913 The _INBOX_ folder is treated specially. It is normally kept open
11914 constantly so that the arrival of new mail can be detected. The name
11915 _INBOX_ refers to wherever new mail is retrieved on the system. If the
11916 inbox-path variable is set, then _INBOX_ refers to that. IMAP servers
11917 understand the concept of _INBOX_, so specifying the folder
11918 _{imap.u.example.edu}INBOX_ is meaningful. The case of the word _INBOX_
11919 is not important, but _Alpine_ tends to display it in all capital
11920 letters.
11922 The folders for sent mail and saved messages folders are also somewhat
11923 special. They are automatically created if they are absent and
11924 recreated if they are deleted.
11925 __________________________________________________________________
11927 Internal Help Files
11929 The file pine.hlp in the alpine subdirectory of the distribution
11930 contains all the help text for _Alpine_. It is compiled right into the
11931 _Alpine_ binary as strings. This is done to simplify installation and
11932 configuration. The pine.hlp file is in a special format that is
11933 documented at the beginning of the file. It is divided into sections,
11934 each with a name that winds up being referenced as a global variable.
11935 This file is processed during the build process and turned into a C
11936 file that is compiled into _Alpine_.
11937 __________________________________________________________________
11939 International Character Sets
11941 _Alpine_ uses Unicode characters internally and it is a goal for
11942 _Alpine_ to handle email in many different languages. _Alpine_ will
11943 properly display only left-to-right character sets in a fixed-width
11944 font. Specifically, _Alpine_ assumes that a fixed-width font is in use,
11945 in the sense that characters are assumed to take up zero, one, or two
11946 character cell widths from left to right on the screen. This is true
11947 even in _PC-Alpine_.
11949 _Alpine_ recognizes some local character sets which are right-to-left
11950 (Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai) or not representable in a fixed-width font
11951 (Arabic) and properly converts texts in these character sets to/from
11952 Unicode; however, there are known display bugs with these character
11953 sets.
11955 There are three possible configuration character settings and some
11956 environment variable settings which can affect how _Alpine_ handles
11957 international characters. The first two of these are only available in
11958 UNIX _Alpine_. The three configuration options are
11959 _display-character-set_, _keyboard-character-set_, and
11960 _posting-character-set_. The _keyboard-character-set_ defaults to being
11961 the same value as the _display-character-set_, and that is usually
11962 correct, because the keyboard almost always produces characters in the
11963 same character set as the display displays. The _display-character-set_
11964 is the character set that _Alpine_ will attempt to use when sending
11965 characters to the display.
11967 Besides those variables there is also use-system-translation which can
11968 be used instead of these. That usage is only lightly tested and is not
11969 recommended.
11971 By default, the _display-character-set_ variable is not set and UNIX
11972 _Alpine_ will attempt to get this information from the environment. In
11973 particular, the nl_langinfo(CODESET) call is used. This usually depends
11974 on the setting of the environment variables LANG or LC_CTYPE. An
11975 explicit configuration setting for _display-character-set_ will, of
11976 course, override any default setting.
11978 For _PC-Alpine_ the _display-character-set_ and the
11979 _keyboard-character-set_ are always equivalent to UTF-8 and this is not
11980 settable.
11982 It is probably best to use UNIX _Alpine_ in a terminal emulator capable
11983 of displaying UTF-8 characters, since that will allow you to view just
11984 about any received text that is correctly formatted (note, however, the
11985 above comments about known index display bugs with certain character
11986 sets). You'll need to have an emulator which uses a UTF-8 font and
11987 you'll need to set up your environment to use a UTF-8 charmap. For
11988 example, on a Linux system you might include
11990 setenv LANG en_US.UTF-8
11992 or something similar in your UNIX startup files. You'd also have to
11993 select a UTF-8 font in your terminal emulator.
11995 The types of values that the character set variables may be set to are
11996 UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, or EUC-JP. The ISO-2022 character sets are not
11997 supported for input or for display, but as a special case, ISO-2022-JP
11998 is supported for use only as a _posting-character-set_. In the
11999 Setup/Config screen you may choose from a list of all the character
12000 sets _Alpine_ knows about by using the "T" ToCharsets command. Here is
12001 a list of many of the possible character sets:
12003 UTF-8 Unicode
12004 US-ASCII 7 bit American English characters
12005 ISO-8859-1 8 bit European "Latin 1" character set
12006 ISO-8859-2 8 bit European "Latin 2" character set
12007 ISO-8859-3 8 bit European "Latin 3" character set
12008 ISO-8859-4 8 bit European "Latin 4" character set
12009 ISO-8859-5 8 bit Latin and Cyrillic
12010 ISO-8859-6 8 bit Latin and Arabic
12011 ISO-8859-7 8 bit Latin and Greek
12012 ISO-8859-8 8 bit Latin and Hebrew
12013 ISO-8859-9 8 bit European "Latin 5" character set
12014 ISO-8859-10 8 bit European "Latin 6" character set
12015 ISO-8859-11 Latin and Thai
12016 ISO-8859-12 Reserved
12017 ISO-8859-13 8 bit European "Latin 7" character set
12018 ISO-8859-14 8 bit European "Latin 8" character set
12019 ISO-8859-15 8 bit European "Latin 9" character set
12020 ISO-8859-16 8 bit European "Latin 10" character set
12021 KOI8-R 8 bit Latin and Russian
12022 KOI8-U 8 bit Latin and Ukranian
12023 WINDOWS-1251 8 bit Latin and Russian
12024 TIS-620 8 bit Latin and Thai
12025 VISCII 8 bit Latin and Vietnamese
12026 GBK Latin and Chinese Simplified
12027 GB2312 Latin and Chinese Simplified
12028 CN-GB Latin and Chinese Simplified
12029 BIG5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
12030 BIG-5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
12031 EUC-JP Latin and Japanese
12032 SHIFT-JIS Latin and Japanese
12033 EUC-KR Latin and Korean
12034 KSC5601 Latin and Korean
12036 When reading incoming email, _Alpine_ understands many different
12037 character sets and is able to convert the incoming mail into Unicode.
12038 The Unicode will be converted to the _display-character-set_ for
12039 display on your terminal. Characters typed at the keyboard will be
12040 converted from the _keyboard-character-set_ to Unicode for _Alpine_'s
12041 internal use. You may find that you can read some malformed messages
12042 that do not contain a character set label by setting the option
12043 unknown-character-set.
12045 The _posting-character-set_ is used when sending messages. The default
12046 behavior obtained by leaving this variable unset is usually what is
12047 wanted. In that default case, _Alpine_ will attempt to label the
12048 message with the most specific character set from the rather arbitrary
12049 set
12051 US-ASCII, ISO-8859-15, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, VISCII, KOI8-R, KOI8-U,
12052 ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-8, TIS-620, ISO-2022-JP, GB2312, BIG5,
12053 EUC-KR, and UTF-8.
12055 For example, if the message is made up of only US-ASCII characters, it
12056 will be labeled US-ASCII. Otherwise, if it is all ISO-8859-15
12057 characters, that will be the label. If that doesn't work the same is
12058 tried for the remaining members of the list.
12060 It might make sense to set _posting-character-set_ to an explicit value
12061 instead. For example, if you usually send messages in Greek, setting
12062 this option to ISO-8859-7 will result in messages being labeled as
12063 US-ASCII if there are no non-ascii characters, ISO-8859-7 if there are
12064 only Greek characters, or UTF-8 if there are some characters which
12065 aren't representable in ISO-8859-7. Another possibility is to set this
12066 option explicitly to UTF-8. In that case _Alpine_ labels only ascii
12067 messages as US-ASCII and all other messages as UTF-8.
12068 __________________________________________________________________
12070 Interrupted and Postponed Messages
12072 If the user is composing mail and is interrupted by being disconnected
12073 (SIGHUP, SIGTERM or end of file on the standard input), _Alpine_ will
12074 save the interrupted composition and allow the user to continue it when
12075 he or she resumes _Alpine_. As the next _Alpine_ session starts, a
12076 message will be given that an interrupted message can be continued. To
12077 continue the interrupted message, simply go into the composer. To get
12078 rid of the interrupted message, go into the composer and then cancel
12079 the message with _^C._
12081 Composition of half-done messages may be postponed to a later time by
12082 giving the _^O_ command. Other messages can be composed while postponed
12083 messages wait. All of the postponed messages are kept in a single
12084 folder. Postponing is a good way to quickly reference other messages
12085 while composing.
12086 __________________________________________________________________
12088 Message Status
12090 The c-client library allows for several flags or status marks to be set
12091 for each message. _Alpine_ uses four of these flags: UNSEEN, DELETED,
12092 ANSWERED, and FLAGGED. The N in _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that a
12093 message is unseen-it has not been read from this folder yet. The D
12094 means that a message is marked for deletion. Messages marked with D are
12095 removed when the user _Expunges_ the folder (which usually happens when
12096 the folder is closed or the user quits _Alpine_). The A in _Alpine_'s
12097 FOLDER INDEX means that the message has been replied-to. The * in
12098 _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that the message has been ``flagged'' as
12099 important. That is, the user used the _Flag_ command to turn the
12100 FLAGGED flag on. This flag can mean whatever the user wants it to mean.
12101 It is just a way to mark some messages as being different from others.
12102 It will usually probably be used to mark a message as somehow being
12103 ``important''. For Berkeley format folders, the message status is
12104 written into the email folder itself on the header lines marked Status:
12105 and X-Status.
12107 It is also possible for a user to define their own flags in addition to
12108 the standard system flags above. In _Alpine_ these user defined flags
12109 are called Keywords.
12110 __________________________________________________________________
12112 MIME: Reading a Message
12114 _Alpine_ should be able to handle just about any MIME message. When a
12115 MIME message is received, _Alpine_ will display a list of all the
12116 parts, their types and sizes. It will display the attachments when
12117 possible and appropriate and allow users to _Save_ all other
12118 attachments.
12120 _Alpine_ honors the "mailcap" configuration system for specifying
12121 external programs for handling attachments. The mailcap file maps MIME
12122 attachment types to the external programs loaded on your system which
12123 can display and/or print the file. A sample mailcap file comes bundled
12124 with the _Alpine_ distribution. It includes comments which explain the
12125 syntax you need to use for mailcap. With the mailcap file, any program
12126 (mail readers, newsreaders, WWW clients) can use the same configuration
12127 for handling MIME-encoded data.
12129 If a MAILCAPS environment variable is defined, _Alpine_ will use that
12130 to look for one or more mailcap files, which are combined. In the
12131 absence of MAILCAPS, Unix _Alpine_ will look for a personal mailcap
12132 file in ~/.mailcap and combine that with a system-wide file in
12133 /etc/mailcap. _PC-Alpine_ will look for a file named MAILCAP in the
12134 same directory as the PINERC file, and/or the directory containing the
12135 ALPINE.EXE executable.
12137 Messages which include _rich text_ or _enriched text_ in the main body
12138 will be displayed in a very limited way (it will show bold and
12139 underlining).
12141 If _Alpine_ sees a MIME message part tagged as type IMAGE, and
12142 _Alpine_'s image-viewer configuration variable is set, _Alpine_ will
12143 attempt to send that attachment to the named image viewing program. In
12144 the case of UNIX _Alpine_, the DISPLAY environment variable is checked
12145 to see if an X-terminal is being used (which can handle the images). If
12146 the _image-viewer_ variable is not set, _Alpine_ uses the _mailcap_
12147 system to determine what to do with IMAGE types, just as it does for
12148 any other non-TEXT type, e.g. type APPLICATION. For MIME's generic
12149 "catch all" type, APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM, the _mailcap_ file will
12150 probably not specify any action, but _Alpine_ users may always _Save_
12151 any MIME attachment to a file.
12153 MIME type "text/plain" is handled a little bit differently than the
12154 other types. If you are viewing the main body part in the MESSAGE TEXT
12155 viewing screen, then _Alpine_ will use its internal viewer to display
12156 it. This happens even if there is a mailcap description which matches
12157 this particular type. However, if you view a part of type "text/plain"
12158 from the ATTACHMENT INDEX screen, then _Alpine_ will check the mailcap
12159 database for a matching entry and use it in preference to its internal
12160 viewer.
12162 Some text attachments, specifically those which are just other email
12163 messages forwarded as MIME messages, are displayed as part of the main
12164 body of the message. This distinction allows easy display when possible
12165 (the forward as MIME case) and use of an attachment viewer when that is
12166 desirable (the plain text file attachment case).
12168 If the parts of a multipart message are alternate versions of the same
12169 thing _Alpine_ will select and display the one best suited. For parts
12170 of type "message/external-body", the parameters showing the retrieval
12171 method will be displayed, and the retrieval process is automated.
12172 Messages of type "message/partial" are not supported.
12173 __________________________________________________________________
12175 MIME: Sending a Message
12177 There are two important factors when trying to include an attachment in
12178 a message: encoding and labeling. _Alpine_ has rules for both of these
12179 which try to assure that the message goes out in a form that is robust
12180 and can be handled by other MIME mail readers.
12182 MIME has two ways of encoding data-Quoted-Printable and Base64.
12183 Quoted-Printable leaves the ASCII text alone and only changes 8-bit
12184 characters to "=" followed by the hex digits. For example, "=09" is a
12185 tab. It has the advantage that it is mostly readable and that it allows
12186 for end of line conversions between unlike systems. Base64 encoding is
12187 similar to _uuencode_ or _btoa_ and just encodes a raw bit stream. This
12188 encoding is designed to get text and binary files through even the most
12189 improperly implemented and configured gateways intact, even those that
12190 distort uuencoded data.
12192 _All_ attachments are encoded using Base64 encoding. This is so that
12193 the attachment will arrive at the other end looking exactly like it did
12194 when it was sent. Since Base64 is completely unreadable except by
12195 MIME-capable mailers or programs, there is an obvious tradeoff being
12196 made here. We chose to ensure absolutely reliable transport of
12197 attachments at the cost of requiring a MIME-capable mailer to read
12198 them. If the user doesn't want absolute integrity he or she may always
12199 _include_ text (with the _^R_ command) in the body of a message instead
12200 of attaching it. With this policy, the only time quoted-printable
12201 encoding is used is when the main body of a message includes special
12202 foreign language characters.
12204 When an attachment is to be sent, _Alpine_ sniffs through it to try to
12205 set the right label (content-type and subtype). An attachment with any
12206 lines longer than 500 characters in it or more than 10% of the
12207 characters are 8-bit it will be considered binary data. _Alpine_ will
12208 recognize (and correctly label) a few special types including GIF,
12209 JPEG, PostScript, and some audio formats. Another method which can be
12210 more robust and flexible for determining the content-type and subtype
12211 is to base it on the file extension. This method uses a MIME.Types
12212 File.
12214 If it is not binary data (has only a small proportion of 8-bit
12215 characters in it,) the attachment is considered 8-bit text. 8-bit text
12216 attachments are labeled "text/plain" with charset set to the value of
12217 the user's _keyboard-character-set_ variable. If an attachment is ASCII
12218 (no 8-bit characters) and contains no control characters then it is
12219 considered plain ASCII text. Such attachments are given the MIME label
12220 "text/plain; charset=US-ASCII", regardless of the setting of the user's
12221 _keyboard-character-set_ variable.
12223 All other attachments are unrecognized and therefore given the generic
12224 MIME label "application/octet-stream".
12225 __________________________________________________________________
12227 New Mail Notification
12229 _Alpine_ checks for new mail in the _INBOX_ and in the currently open
12230 folder every two and a half minutes by default. This default can be
12231 changed in the system-wide configuration file or at compile-time with
12232 the --with-mailcheck-interval=VALUE configuration option. A user can
12233 change it by changing the option mail-check-interval. A new mail check
12234 can be manually forced by redrawing the screen with a _^L_.
12236 When there is new mail, the message(s) will appear in the index, the
12237 screen will beep, and a notice showing the sender and subject will be
12238 displayed. If there has been more than one new message since you last
12239 issued a command to _Alpine_, the notice will show the count of new
12240 messages and the sender of the most recent one.
12241 __________________________________________________________________
12243 NFS
12245 It is possible to access mail folders on _NFS_ mounted volumes with
12246 _Alpine_, but there are some drawbacks to doing this, especially in the
12247 case of incoming-message folders that may be concurrently updated by
12248 _Alpine_ and the system's mail delivery agent. One concern is that
12249 _Alpine_'s user-contention locks don't work because _/tmp_ is usually
12250 not shared, and even if it was, _flock()_ doesn't work across _NFS._
12252 The implementation of the standard UNIX ".lock" file locking has been
12253 modified to work with _NFS_ as follows. Standard hitching post locking
12254 is used so first a uniquely named file is created, usually something
12255 like _xxxx.host.time.pid._ Then a link to it is created named
12256 _xxxx.lock_ where the folder being locked is _xxxx._ This file
12257 constitutes the lock. This is a standard UNIX locking scheme. After the
12258 link returns, a _stat(2)_ is done on the file. If the file has two
12259 links, it is concluded that the lock succeeded and it is safe to
12260 proceed.
12262 In order to minimize the risks of locking failures via _NFS_, we
12263 strongly recommend using IMAP rather than _NFS_ to access remote
12264 incoming message folders, e.g. your _INBOX_. However, it is generally
12265 safe to access personal saved-message folders via _NFS_ since it is
12266 unlikely that more than one process will be updating those folders at
12267 any given time. Still, some problems may occur when two _Alpine_
12268 sessions try to access the same mail folder from different hosts
12269 without using IMAP. Imagine the scenario: _Alpine_-A performs a write
12270 that changes the folder. _Alpine_-B then attempts to perform a write on
12271 the same folder. _Alpine_-B will get upset that the file has been
12272 changed from underneath it and abort operations on the folder.
12273 _Alpine_-B will continue to display mail from the folder that it has in
12274 its internal cache, but it will not read or write any further data. The
12275 only thing that will be lost out of the _Alpine_-B session when this
12276 happens is the last few status changes.
12278 If other mail readers besides _Alpine_ are involved, all bets are off.
12279 Typically, mailers don't take any precautions against a user opening a
12280 mailbox more than once and no special precautions are taken to prevent
12281 _NFS_ problems.
12282 __________________________________________________________________
12284 Printers and Printing
12286 UNIX _Alpine_ can print to the standard UNIX line printers or to
12287 generic printers attached to ANSI terminals using the escape sequences
12288 to turn the printer on and off. The user has a choice of three printers
12289 in the configuration.
12291 The first setting, _attached-to-ansi_, makes use of escape sequences on
12292 ANSI/VT100 terminals. It uses "<ESC>[5i" to begin directing all output
12293 sent to the terminal to the printer and then "<ESC>[4i" to return to
12294 normal. _Alpine_ will send these escape sequences if the printer is set
12295 to _attached-to-ansi._ This works with most ANSI/VT100 emulators on
12296 Macs and PCs such as kermit, NCSA telnet, VersaTerm Pro, and WinQVT.
12297 Various terminal emulators implement the print feature differently.
12298 There is also a closely related method called
12299 _attached-to-ansi-no-formfeed_ which is the same except for the lack of
12300 formfeed character at the end of the print job.
12302 _Attached-to-wyse_ and _attached-to-wyse-no-formfeed_ are very similar
12303 to "attached-to-ansi". The only difference is in the control characters
12304 sent to turn the printer on and off. The Wyse version uses Ctrl-R for
12305 on, and Ctrl-T for off.
12307 The second selection is the standard UNIX print command. The default is
12308 _lpr_, but it can be changed on a system basis to anything so desired
12309 in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
12311 The third selection is the user's personal choice for a UNIX print
12312 command. The text to be printed is piped into the command. _Enscript_
12313 or _lpr_ with options are popular choices. The actual command is
12314 retained even if one of the other print selections is used for a while.
12316 Both the second and third sections are actually lists of possible
12317 commands rather than single commands.
12319 If you have a PostScript printer attached to a PC or Macintosh, then
12320 you will need to use a utility called _ansiprt_ to get printouts on
12321 your printer. _Ansiprt_ source code and details can be found in the
12322 ./contrib directory of the _Alpine_ distribution.
12323 __________________________________________________________________
12325 Save and Export
12327 _Alpine_ users get two options for moving messages in _Alpine_: _Save_
12328 and _Export_. _Save_ is used when the message should remain ``in the
12329 _Alpine_ realm.'' Saved messages include the complete header (including
12330 header lines normally hidden by _Alpine_), are placed in a _Alpine_
12331 folder collection and accumulate in a standard folder format which
12332 _Alpine_ can read. In contrast, the _Export_ command is used to write
12333 the contents of a message to a file for use outside of _Alpine_.
12334 Messages which have been exported are placed in the user's home
12335 directory (unless the feature use-current-dir is turned on), not in a
12336 _Alpine_ folder collection. Unless FullHeaderMode is toggled on, all
12337 delivery-oriented headers are stripped from the message. Even with
12338 _Export_, _Alpine_ retains message separators so that multiple messages
12339 can accumulate in a single file and subsequently be accessed as a
12340 folder. On UNIX systems, the _Export_ command pays attention to the
12341 standard _umask_ for the setting of the file permissions.
12342 __________________________________________________________________
12344 Sent Mail
12346 _Alpine_'s default behavior is to keep a copy of each outgoing message
12347 in a special "sent mail" folder. This folder is also called the fcc for
12348 "file carbon copy". The existence, location and name of the sent mail
12349 folder are all configurable. Sent mail archiving can be turned off by
12350 setting the configuration variable default-fcc="". The sent mail folder
12351 is assumed to be in the default collection for _Save_s, which is the
12352 first collection named in folder-collections. The name of the folder
12353 can be chosen by entering a name in _default-fcc_. With _PC-Alpine_,
12354 this can be a bit complicated. If the default collection for _Save_s is
12355 local (DOS), then the _default-fcc_ needs to be SENTMAIL, which is
12356 syntax for a DOS file. However, if the default collection for _Save_s
12357 is remote, then the _default-fcc_ needs to be sent-mail to match the
12358 UNIX syntax.
12360 The configuration variable fcc-name-rule also plays a role in selecting
12361 the folder to save sent mail in.
12363 A danger here is that the sent mail could grow without bound. For this
12364 reason, we thought it useful to encourage the users to periodically
12365 prune their sent mail folder. The first time _Alpine_ is used each
12366 month it will offer to archive all messages sent from the month before.
12367 _Alpine_ also offers to delete all the sent mail archive folders which
12368 are more than 1 month old. If the user or system has disabled sent mail
12369 archiving (by setting the configuration variable _default-fcc=""_)
12370 there will be no pruning question.
12371 __________________________________________________________________
12373 Spell Checker
12375 Both UNIX _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ depend on the system for their spell
12376 checking and dictionary. _Pico_, the text editor, uses the same spell
12377 checking scheme as _Alpine_.
12379 Lines beginning with ">" (usually messages included in replies) are not
12380 checked. The message text to be checked is on the standard input and
12381 the incorrect words are expected on the standard output.
12383 The default spell checker is UNIX _spell_. You can replace this by
12384 setting the speller configuration variable. A common choice for a
12385 superior replacement is _ispell_.
12387 _PC-Alpine_ relies on the aspell library being installed. Aspell is
12388 independent of Alpine. The Windows version has traditionally been
12389 available at http://aspell.net/win32/. You'll need to download and
12390 install both Aspell and a precompiled dictionary. Aspell is provided in
12391 an installer package. Dictionaries, to be installed after Aspell, are
12392 in '.exe' files to download and run.
12393 __________________________________________________________________
12395 Terminal Emulation and Key Mapping
12397 UNIX _Alpine_ has been designed to require as little as possible from
12398 the terminal. At the minimum, _Alpine_ requires cursor positioning,
12399 clear to end of line, and inverse video. Unfortunately, there are
12400 terminals that are missing some of these such as a vt52. _Alpine_ makes
12401 no assumptions as to whether the terminal wraps or doesn't wrap. If the
12402 terminal has other capabilities it may use some of them. _Alpine_ won't
12403 run well on older terminals that require a space on the screen to
12404 change video attributes, such as the Televideo 925. One can get around
12405 this on some terminals by using "protected field" mode. The terminal
12406 can be made to go into protected mode for reverse video, and then
12407 reverse video is assigned to protected mode.
12409 _Alpine_ handles screens of most any size and resizing on the fly. It
12410 catches SIGWINCH and does the appropriate thing.
12412 On the input side of things, _Alpine_ uses all the standard keys, most
12413 of the control keys and (in function-key mode) the function keys.
12414 _Alpine_ avoids certain control keys, specifically ^S, ^Q, ^H, and _^\_
12415 because they have other meanings outside of _Alpine_ (they control data
12416 flow, etc.) _^H_ is treated the same as the _delete_ key, so the
12417 _backspace_ or _delete_ keys always work regardless of any
12418 configuration. There is a feature _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_
12419 which makes the delete key behave like ^D rather than ^H (deletes
12420 current character instead of previous character).
12422 Sometimes a communications program or communications server in between
12423 you and the other end will eat certain control characters. There is a
12424 work-around when you need it. If you type two escape characters
12425 followed by a character that will be interpreted as the character with
12426 the control key depressed. For example, _ESC ESC T_ is equivalent to
12427 _^T_.
12429 When a function key is pressed and _Alpine_ is in regular (non-function
12430 key) mode, _Alpine_ traps escape sequences for a number of common
12431 function keys so users don't get an error message or have an unexpected
12432 command executed for each character in the function key's escape
12433 sequence. _Alpine_ expects the following escape sequences from
12434 terminals defined as VT100:
12436 ANSI/VT100
12437 F1: <ESC>OP
12438 F2: <ESC>OQ
12439 F3: <ESC>OR
12440 F4: <ESC>OS
12441 F5: <ESC>Op
12442 F6: <ESC>Oq
12443 F7: <ESC>Or
12444 F8: <ESC>Os
12445 F9: <ESC>Ot
12446 F10: <ESC>Ou
12447 F11: <ESC>Ov
12449 Arrow keys are a special case. _Alpine_ has the escape sequences for a
12450 number of conventions for arrow keys hard coded and does not use
12451 _termcap_ to discover them. This is because _termcap_ is sometimes
12452 incorrect, and because many users have PC's running terminal emulators
12453 that don't conform exactly to what they claim to emulate. There is a
12454 feature called termdef-takes-precedence which can be set to cause the
12455 _termcap_ or _terminfo_ definitions to be used instead of the built in
12456 definitions. Some arrow keys on old terminals send single control
12457 characters like _^K_ (one even sends _^\_). These arrow keys will not
12458 work with _Alpine_. The most popular escape sequences for arrow keys
12459 are:
12461 Up: <ESC>[A <ESC>?x <ESC>A <ESC>OA
12462 Down: <ESC>[B <ESC>?r <ESC>B <ESC>OB
12463 Right: <ESC>[C <ESC>?v <ESC>C <ESC>OC
12464 Left: <ESC>[D <ESC>?t <ESC>D <ESC>OD