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-
- Alpine Technical Notes
-
- Version 2.11, August 2013
-
-Table of Contents
-
- Introduction
-
- * Design Goals
- * Alpine Components
-
- Background Details
-
- * Domain Names
- * RFC 2822 Compliance
- * SMTP and Sendmail
- * Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
- * Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
- * Folder Collections
-
- Building and Installation
-
- * Compile-time Options
- * Including LDAP Functionality
- * Including Kerberos 5 Functionality
- * Other Alpine Compile-time Options
- * IMAPd Compile-time Options
- * Building the Alpine Programs
- * Installing Alpine and Pico on UNIX Platforms
- * Installing PC-Alpine
- * Installing IMAPd
- * Support Files and Environment Variables: UNIX Alpine
- * Support Files, Environment Variables, and Registry Values: PC-Alpine
-
- Command Line Arguments
-
- * Alpine
- * Pico
- * Pilot
-
- Configuration and Preferences
-
- * Alpine Configuration
- * General Configuration Variables
- * Configuration Features
- * Hidden Config Variables and Features
- * Retired Variables
- * Tokens for Index and Replying
- * Conditional Inclusion of Text for Reply-Leadin, Signatures, and
- Templates
- * Per Server Directory Configuration
- * Color Configuration
- * Index Line Color Configuration
- * Role Configuration
- * Filtering Configuration
- * Scoring Configuration
- * Other Rules Configuration
- * Search Rules Configuration
- * Patterns
- * Configuring News
- Configuration Notes
- + Alpine in Function Key Mode
- + Domain Settings
- + Syntax for Collections
- + Syntax for Folder Names
- + Server Name Syntax
- + Folder Namespaces
- + What is a Mail Drop?
- + Sorting a Folder
- + Alternate Editor
- + Signatures and Signature Placement
- + Feature List Variable
- + Configuration Inheritance
- + Using Environment Variables
- + SMTP Servers
- + MIME.Types file
- + Color Details
- + S/MIME Overview
- + Additional Notes on PC-Alpine
-
- Behind the Scenes
-
- * Address Books
- * Remote Configuration
- * Checkpointing
- * Debug Files
- * INBOX and Special Folders
- * Internal Help Files
- * International Character Sets
- * Interrupted and Postponed Messages
- * Message Status
- * MIME: Reading a Message
- * MIME: Sending a Message
- * New Mail Notification
- * NFS
- * Printers and Printing
- * Save and Export
- * Sent Mail
- * Spell Checker
- * Terminal Emulation and Key Mapping
-
- Introduction
-
-Design Goals
-
- Throughout _Alpine_ development, we have had to strike a balance between the
- need to include features which advanced users require and the need to keep
- things simple for beginning users. To strike this balance, we have tried to
- adhere to these design principles:
-
- - The model presented to the user has to be simple and clear.
- Underlying system operation is hidden as much as possible.
- - It's better to have a few easily understood commands that can be
- repeated than to have some more sophisticated command that will do
- the job all at once.
- - Whenever the user has to select a command, file name, address,
- etc., the user should be given (or can get) a menu from which to make
- the selection. Menus need to be complete, small, organized and well
- thought out.
- - _Alpine_ must provide immediate feedback for the user with each
- operation.
- - _Alpine_ must be very tolerant of user errors. Any time a user is
- about to perform an irreversible act (send a message, expunge
- messages from a folder), _Alpine_ should ask for confirmation.
- - Users should be able to learn by exploration without fear of doing
- anything wrong. This is an important feature so the user can get
- started quickly without reading any manuals and so fewer manuals are
- required.
- - The core set of _Alpine_ functions should be kept to a minimum so
- new users don't feel "lost" in seemingly extraneous commands and
- concepts.
-
- Just as there were goals relating to the look and feel of _Alpine_, there
- were equally important goals having to do with _Alpine_'s structure-the
- things that users never see but still rely on every time they use _Alpine_.
- While _Alpine_ can be used as a stand-alone mail user agent, one of its
- strongest assets is its use of the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
- for accessing remote email folders. In addition, _Pine_ (the predecessor of
- _Alpine_) was one of the first programs to support the Multipurpose Internet
- Mail Extensions (MIME) specification. With MIME, _Alpine_ users can reliably
- send any binary file to any other person on the Internet who uses a MIME
- compliant email program.
-
- The decision to use IMAP and MIME reflects the importance of
- interoperability, standardization and robustness in _Alpine_. As you work
- with _Alpine_ more, you will see other features which reflect the same
- values. For example, _Alpine_ enforces strict compliance with RFC 2822,
- implements a strong mail folder locking mechanism and verifies a process
- before overwriting any files (e.g. addressbook, expunging messages).
-
-Alpine Components
-
- If you have picked up the _Alpine_ distribution, then you already know that
- _Alpine_ comes in a few different pieces. They are:
-
- _Alpine_
- The main code from which the _Alpine_ program is compiled.
- _Pico_
- _Pico_ is the name for the _Alpine_ composer. The _Pico_ code is used
- in two ways: (1) it is compiled on its own to be a stand-alone editor
- and, (2) it is compiled as a library for _Alpine_ to support
- composition of messages within _Alpine_. _Pico_ is _Alpine_'s
- internal editor invoked when users need to fill in header lines or
- type the text of an email message.
- _Imap_
- An API for IMAP. Includes the C-Client library, which is compiled
- into _Alpine_, and the IMAP server _IMAPd_. C-Client implements the
- IMAP protocol and also negotiates all access between _Alpine_ and the
- mail folders it operates on, even if the folders are local. The
- C-Client routines are used for email folder parsing and interpreting
- MIME messages. _IMAPd_ is a separate server that handles IMAP
- connections from any IMAP-compliant email program. When _Alpine_
- accesses a remote mailbox, the _Alpine_ program is the IMAP client
- and the _IMAPd_ program is the IMAP server. Of course, _Alpine_ can
- use any IMAP-compliant IMAP server, not just _IMAPd_.
-
- Background Details
-
-Domain Names
-
- Domain names are used to uniquely name each host on the Internet. A domain
- name has a number of parts separated by periods. Each label represents a
- level in the hierarchy. An example of a name is:
-
- olive.cac.washington.edu
-
- In this domain name the top-level label is _edu_, indicating it is at an
- educational institution, the second-level label is _washington_, indicating
- the University of Washington. _cac_ is a specific department within the
- University of Washington, and _olive_ is the host name. The top-level names
- are assigned by Internet organizations, and other names are assigned at the
- appropriate level. The Domain Name Service, DNS, is the distributed database
- used to look up these names.
-
- _Alpine_ relies on domain names in multiple places. A domain name is
- embedded into the message-id line generated for each piece of email. A
- domain name is needed to contact an IMAP server to get access to remote
- INBOXes and folders. Most importantly, domain names are needed to construct
- the From: line of your outgoing messages so that people on the Internet will
- be able to get email back to you.
-
- On UNIX systems, you can set the domain via the user-domain variable in the
- _Alpine_ configuration file, or rely on the file /etc/hosts which usually
- sets the name of the local host. While _Alpine_ can often deliver email
- without the domain name being properly configured, it is best to have this
- set correctly. Problems can usually be solved by adjusting the system's
- entry in the /etc/hosts file. The fully-qualified name should be listed
- before any abbreviations. For example,
-
- 128.95.112.99 olive.cac.washington.edu olive
-
- is preferred over
-
- 128.95.112.99 olive olive.cac.washington.edu
-
- On PCs, the task of configuring the domain name is a bit different. Often
- times PCs do not have domain names-they have _IP addresses_. IP addresses
- are the numbers which uniquely identify a computer on the network. The way
- you configure your IP address depends on the networking software which you
- use on the PC. You can refer to the documentation which came with your
- networking software or see the PC specific installation notes for help
- configuring the IP address with your network software.
-
- With PCs, it is vital that users set the variable user-domain in the _Alpine_
- configuration file (PINERC).
-
- Details on configuring _Alpine_ with correct domain names can be found in
- the Domain Settings section of this document.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-RFC 2822 Compliance
-
- _Alpine_ tries to adhere to RFC 2822 fairly strictly.
-
- As far as outgoing email is concerned, _Alpine_ fully-qualifies addresses
- whenever possible. They are even displayed in fully-qualified form on the
- terminal as the user composes a message. This makes addresses more clear and
- gives a hint to the user that the network extends beyond the local
- organization. _Alpine_ implements fully-qualified domain names by tacking on
- the local domain to all unqualified addresses which a user types in. Any
- address which does not contain an "@" is considered unqualified.
-
- The format for addresses allows for spaces and special characters in the
- full name of an address. For this reason, commas are required to separate
- addresses. If any special characters as defined in RFC 2822 appear in the
- full name, quotes are required around the address. _Alpine_ will insert the
- quotes automatically if needed. The common cases where this happens are with
- periods after initials and parentheses.
-
- _Alpine_ expects dates to be in the standard RFC 822 format which is
- something like:
- [www, ] dd mmm yy hh:mm[:ss] [timezone]
-
- It will attempt to parse dates that are not in this format. When an
- unparsable date is encountered it is shown as question marks in the FOLDER
- INDEX screen.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-SMTP and Sendmail
-
- _Alpine_ is a _user agent_ not a _message transfer agent_ (MTA). In plain
- English, that means _Alpine_ does not know how to interact with other
- computers on the Internet to deliver or receive email. What _Alpine_ does
- know how to do is help users read, organize and create email. The "dirty
- work" of delivering and accepting email is handled by other programs.
-
- All outgoing email is delivered to an SMTP server or to a mail transfer
- agent. A common mail transfer agent is sendmail. The usual method of
- delivery used by _Alpine_ is to use either a local or a remote SMTP server.
-
- The selection of which MTA to use depends on the settings of smtp-server,
- sendmail-path, and compile-time options. The first MTA specified in the
- following list is used:
- 1. _sendmail-path_ in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed
- 2. _smtp-server_ in /usr/local/pine.conf.fixed
- 3. _sendmail-path_ specified on the command line.
- 4. _smtp-server_ specified on the command line.
- 5. _sendmail-path_ in the user's .pinerc file.
- 6. _smtp-server_ in the user's .pinerc file.
- 7. _sendmail-path_ in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
- 8. _smtp-server_ in /usr/local/pine.conf
- 9. DF_SENDMAIL_PATH defined at compile time.
- 10. SENDMAIL and SENDMAILFLAGS defined at compile time.
-
- If the _sendmail-path_ form is used, a child process is forked, and the
- specified command is executed with the message passed on standard input.
- Standard output is then passed back and displayed for the user. _NOTE: The
- program MUST read the message to be posted on standard input, AND operate in
- the style of sendmail's "-t" option. This method is not recommended unless
- there are special reasons you want to do this. _
-
- If an _smtp-server_ is specified, _Alpine_ operates as an SMTP client. SMTP
- stands for _Simple Mail Transfer Protocol_; it specifies the rules by which
- computers on the Internet pass email to one another. In this case, _Alpine_
- passes outgoing email messages to a designated SMTP server instead of to a
- mail transfer program on the local machine. A program on the server then
- takes care of delivering the message. To make _Alpine_ operate as an SMTP
- client, the smtp-server variable must be set to the IP address or host name
- of the SMTP server within your organization. This variable accepts a comma
- separated list of servers, so you can specify multiple alternate SMTP
- servers. _PC-Alpine_ only runs as an SMTP client so the _smtp-server_ option
- is mandatory.
-
- For UNIX _Alpine_, if neither _smtp-server_ or _sendmail-path_ is set, the
- default sendmail program is invoked with the "-bs -odb -oem" flags, and the
- message is sent using the SMTP protocol.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
-
- IMAP is a remote access protocol for message stores. _Alpine_ uses IMAP to
- get at messages and folders which reside on remote machines. With IMAP,
- messages are kept on the server. An IMAP client (such as _Alpine_) can
- request specific messages, headers, message structures, message parts, etc.
- The client can also issue commands which delete messages from folders on the
- server. IMAP's closest kin is POP, the Post Office Protocol, which works by
- transferring an entire mailbox to the client where all the mail is kept. For
- a comparison of IMAP and POP, see the paper "Comparing Two Approaches to
- Remote Mailbox Access: IMAP vs. POP" by Terry Gray. A more detailed
- exploration of message access may be found in the paper " Message Access
- Paradigms and Protocols."
-
- IMAP Features:
- * Allows access to mail folders from more than one client computer.
- * Works well over low-bandwidth lines because information is sent in small
- pieces as needed by the user. For example, only header information is
- sent to build index lists, and if someone sends a large audio file via
- MIME, you can choose when (or if) you want to get that part of the
- message.
- * Email can be delivered and stored on a well-maintained and reliable
- server which is "always-up".
- * Folders can be accessed and manipulated from anywhere on the Internet.
- * Users can get to messages stored in different folders within the same
- _Alpine_ session.
- * Allows use of IMAP server for searching and parsing.
- * The latest revision of IMAP (IMAP4) also provides for disconnected
- operation, including resynchronization of message state between mail
- servers and message caches on clients. _Alpine_ does not support this
- capability, however.
-
- IMAP4rev1 is described in RFC 3501. Further information about IMAP may be
- obtained from the University of Washington's IMAP Information Center.
-
- _Alpine_ is an IMAP4rev1 client.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
-
- MIME is a way of encoding a multipart message structure into a standard
- Internet email message. The parts may be nested and may be of seven
- different types: Text, Audio, Image, Video, Message, Application and
- Multipart (nested). The MIME specification allows email programs such as
- _Alpine_ to reliably and simply exchange binary data (images, spreadsheets,
- etc.). MIME includes support for international character sets, tagging each
- part of a message with the character set it is written in, and providing
- 7-bit encoding of 8-bit character sets.
-
- The MIME standard was officially published in June of 1992 as RFC 1341 and
- subsequently revised in RFC 2045 when it became a full Internet Standard.
- _Pine_ 3.0 was one of the first email programs to Implement MIME. Now, there
- are dozens of commercial and freely available MIME-capable email programs.
- In addition, MIME is being added to newsreaders so MIME messages can be
- posted and read in USENET newsgroups.
-
- The MIME standard also includes support for non-ASCII text in message
- headers through the extensions described in RFC 1342 and subsequently
- revised in RFC 2047.
-
- An actual MIME message looks something like this:
-Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 15:39:35 -0800 (PST)
-From: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
-To: David L Miller <dlm@cac.washington.edu>
-Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Test_MIME_message_with_RFC-1522_headers_=28=E1?= =?i
-so-8859-1?Q?=E2=E3=29?=
-Message-Id: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312150851.21583I-101000@shiva2.cac.washington.edu
->
-Mime-Version: 1.0
-Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="0-1737669234-826673975=:21583"
-Content-Id: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153928.21583O@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
-
- This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
- while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.
- Send mail to mime@docserver.cac.washington.edu for more info.
-
---0-1737669234-826673975=:21583
-Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
-Content-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153104.21583L@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
-
-The text of the message would go here. It is readable if
-one doesn't mind wading around a little bit of the MIME
-formatting. After this is a binary file in base 64
-encoding.
-
-|\ | |\/| David L. Miller dlm@cac.washington.edu (206) 685-6240
-|/ |_ | | Software Engineer, Pine Development Team (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
-University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, JE-20
-4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA
-
---0-1737669234-826673975=:21583
-Content-Type: APPLICATION/ZIP; NAME="test.zip"
-Content-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64
-Content-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.92.960312153638.21583N@shiva2.cac.washington.edu>
-Content-Description: Test Attachment
-
-UEsDBBQAAAAIAGh8bCBbZKT4ygIAAHgFAAAEAAAAdGVzdIVUX2vbMBB/16c4
-9rSBNyjsYX1UHSUROLInycv2qNhKI5ZYxlLa5dvvpDRLw6CFgJF09/t3Rxo3
-WDBDD43rPJjJQpxMbw9m+h3AbyHuLLSDe7JTcPGUbtYm7NzwGP3wBYQnnT8c
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-ieCvzNlgNZJqiccCc5WafLxmKdii4gsmSvYpISkteamzkRwXJiG5SoUpcERK
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-ZKT4ygIAAHgFAAAEAAAAAAAAAAEAAACkgQAAAAB0ZXN0UEsFBgAAAAABAAEA
-MgAAAOwCAAAAAA==
---0-1737669234-826673975=:21583--
-
- For details about _Alpine_'s implementation of MIME, see the two MIME
- sections "MIME: Reading a Message" and "MIME: Sending a Message" later in
- this document.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Folder Collections
-
- Folder Collections are _Alpine_'s way of dealing with more than a single
- group of folders.
-
- For a more complete description of Folder Collections, see the section on
- "Syntax for Collections."
-
- The _Alpine_ distribution is designed to require as little configuration and
- effort at compile time as possible. Still, there are some _Alpine_ behaviors
- which are set at the time you compile _Alpine_. For each of these, there is
- a reasonable (our opinion) default built into the code, so most systems
- administrators will have no need for these steps.
-
- Building and Installation
-
-Compile-time Options
-
- _Alpine_'s UNIX build environment is based on Autotools (the GNU Build
- System). Once you've unpacked the source distribution find the file
- configure in the top-level directory. You may look at the many options
- available by typing
-
- ./configure --help
-
- or you could just try building with the command
-
- ./configure
-
- followed by
-
- make
-
- Note, while the UW IMAP Toolkit (whose c-client library _Alpine_ uses for
- mailbox access) build is not based on Autotools, _Alpine_'s configure script
- should set an appropriate make target and compilation options for most
- systems.
-
- Some of the following can only be set when you build. Others, however, can
- be overridden by command-line flags to _Alpine_ or settings in _Alpine_'s
- user or system configuration files. Some of the options which can be set
- when building:
-
- Including LDAP Functionality
-
- By default, the configure script will attempt to find the LDAP library
- support for you. If you are having trouble with LDAP take a look at the
- configure options
- --with-ldap-dir=DIR
- Specify the root of the LDAP lib/include path.
- --with-ldap-include-dir=DIR
- Specify the LDAP include path.
- --with-ldap-lib-dir=DIR
- Specify the LDAP library path.
- --without-ldap
- Disable LDAP support.
-
- _Alpine_ uses LDAPv3 protocol. When using the LDAPv3 protocol, the results
- are assumed to be in the UTF-8 character set, which _Alpine_ handles well.
- If the LDAP server returns non-ascii data which is not encoded as UTF-8 you
- will probably run into problems.
-
- Including Kerberos 5 Functionality
-
- This works analogously to the LDAP build. By default, the configure script
- will attempt to find the Kerberos library support for you. If you are having
- trouble with Kerberos take a look at the configure options
- --with-krb5-dir=DIR
- Specify the root of the Kerberos lib/include path.
- --with-krb5-include-dir=DIR
- Specify the Kerberos include path.
- --with-krb5-lib-dir=DIR
- Specify the Kerberos library path.
- --without-krb5
- Disable Kerberos support.
-
- Other Alpine Compile-time Options
-
- --disable-nls
- Do not use Native Language Support. NLS refers to the use of GNU
- gettext utilities to localize a program, in the sense that English is
- translated to some other language. At the time this was written the
- low-level support for NSL is included in _Alpine_ but no translations
- have been done. If there is no translation available, that means that
- disabling NLS will make no difference. If you have trouble building
- which is due to gettext or libintl you could try this option, or one
- of the following.
- --with-libintl-prefix[=DIR]
- --without-libintl-prefix
- --with-ssl-dir=DIR
- Specify the root of the SSL lib/include path (OpenSSL).
- --with-ssl-include-dir=DIR
- Specify the SSL include path.
- --with-ssl-lib-dir=DIR
- Specify the SSL library path.
- --with-ssl-certs-dir=DIR
- Specify the path to the SSL certificates directory.
- --without-ssl
- Disable SSL support.
- --without-pthread
- Do not test for nor build with POSIX thread support, which is used
- only for the Busy-Cue in the status line at this time.
- --without-smime
- Disable S/MIME support.
- --disable-debug
- Never create debug files.
- --with-smtp-msa=PATH
- Local Mail Submission Agent (sendmail, by default).
- --with-smtp-msa-flags=FLAGS
- MSA flags for SMTP on stdin/stdout (-bs -odb -oem).
-
- There are many more options which you can see using the
-
- ./configure --help
-
- command.
-
- IMAPd Compile-time Options
-
- There are no options or settings required for the version of _IMAPd_
- distributed with _Alpine_. If you need to be doing more complex
- modifications to IMAP, then you should pick up the IMAP development package
- and work with that code. The developer's version of IMAP is available for
- anonymous ftp from ftp.cac.washington.edu in the directory mail. The file is
- called imap.tar.Z. Unless it has changed since _Alpine_ was released, the
- directory imap in the _Alpine_ distribution is the IMAP development package.
-
- The c-client library has not been converted to use the GNU Build System's
- autotools. The _Alpine_ configure script will try to correctly guess the
- arguments needed for the c-client make command and will build the library,
- but if you need to change anything you should take a look at imap/docs/BUILD
- for more detailed instructions.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Building the Alpine Programs
-
- You may have already compiled _Alpine_ and tried it out. If so, great! If
- not, you should be able to do it without too much trouble by following these
- step-by-step instructions:
-
- 1. Make sure you're in the root of the _Alpine_ source. When you type ls
- you should see the following files and directories (or something close
- to it):
-aclocal.m4 config.sub imap Makefile.am packages web
-alpine configure include Makefile.in pico
-build.bat configure.ac install-sh mapi pith
-build.cmd contrib LICENSE missing po
-config.guess depcomp ltmain.sh mkinstalldirs README
-config.rpath doc m4 NOTICE VERSION
- 2. Give the command ./configure Configure should grind away for a few
- minutes.
- 3. When configure is complete, give the command make. If make stops and
- asks
-
- Do you want to build with IPv6 anyway? Type y or n please:
- you should answer with a 'y'. The compiler should grind away for a few
- minutes. The _Alpine_ binary will end up in .../alpine/alpine and the
- Pico and Pilot binaries in .../pico/pico and .../pico/pilot. Other
- binaries you may be interested in are .../alpine/rpdump and
- .../alpine/rpload and c-client binaries in the directories
- .../imap/imapd, .../imap/ipopd, .../imap/mailutil, and so on.
- 4. If you need to try again, make sure you're getting a clean start by
- giving the command make clean.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Installing Alpine and Pico on UNIX Platforms
-
- Installing _Alpine_ and _Pico_ is simple. You take the program files which
- you have just transferred or built and you move them to the correct
- directory on your system. Most often the binaries go in /usr/local/bin
- though sometimes they are placed in /usr/bin. All the help text is compiled
- into _Alpine_ so there are no _required_ auxiliary files. Instead of copying
- the binaries manually, you may use make install to install them.
-
- There are three optional auxiliary files: /usr/local/lib/pine.info,
- /usr/local/lib/pine.conf, and /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed. The file
- pine.info contains text on how to get further help on the local system. It
- is part of the help text for the main menu and should probably refer to the
- local help desk or the system administrator. If this file doesn't exist a
- generic version which suggests ``talking to the computer support staff at
- your site'' is shown. The file pine.conf is used to set system-wide default
- configurations for _Alpine_. The file pine.conf.fixed is also used to set
- system-wide default configurations for _Alpine_. The difference between
- these two files is that configuration variables set in the pine.conf.fixed
- file may not normally be over-ridden by a user. See the section on Alpine
- Configuration later in this document for details about the pine.conf and
- pine.conf.fixed files.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Installing PC-Alpine
-
- The PC-Alpine distribution comes as a .zip file. To install, unzip the files
- to a directory where you would like the program to reside. Modern Windows
- versions come with the capability of unzipping .zip files. Failing that, you
- can use one of the many .zip file extractors out there. Following current
- Windows conventions, a common directory into which the files could be
- extracted would be C:\Program Files\PC-Alpine\.
-
- Having extracted PC-Alpine's .zip file to the directory of choice, you can
- now run that directory's alpine.exe, which is the actual PC-Alpine program.
- For convenience, you could place shortcuts to it on the task bar, start
- menu, etc.
-
- Upon first running PC-Alpine, you may be asked where you would like to
- access your Configuration file (called the _pinerc_). This is useful in
- accessing already existing configuration files, and it does not matter where
- this file gets created. If you are connecting to an IMAP server to access
- your email, it is also possible to store this Configuration data on that
- server, which facilitates accessing the same configuration from multiple
- machines (in fact, your configuration may have already been set up this way
- for use with other _Alpine_ programs).
-
- After having established the location of the configuration file, it may be
- necessary to specify a few configuration settings before reading or sending
- mail. You may be prompted for the following (which may also be edited from
- the (S)etup (C)onfig screen from the Main Menu):
-
- Folder to open as inbox (or _inbox-path_) - This can be an inbox residing
- on an IMAP or POP3 server, or one residing locally. An example of an INBOX
- for an IMAP server is: {server.example.com}INBOX.
-
- User-id, Personal name, and host/domain, which are to be used as your
- email address.
-
- SMTP server to forward message - You must enter your SMTP server before
- you can send any messages.
-
- At this point, you will be able to read and send email messages. There are,
- however, many more preferences that you can set in the Configuration screen.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Installing IMAPd
-
- When the _Alpine_ distribution is built on a UNIX system, the IMAP server
- binary, imapd, is compiled. Installing imapd requires placing the binary in
- the appropriate directory, usually /usr/etc, and adding entries to
- /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf or their counterparts.
-
- Instead of including installation instructions here we'll just include a
- pointer to detailed instructions in the c-client distribution. Please take a
- look at the file imap/docs/BUILD in the source tree.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Support Files and Environment Variables: UNIX Alpine
-
- This section lists the various files which _Alpine_ uses which are not email
- folders. All of these are the default names of files, they may vary based on
- _Alpine_'s configuration.
- /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
- Pine's global configuration file.
- /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed
- Non-overridable global configuration file.
- /usr/local/lib/pine.info
- Local pointer to system administrator.
- ~/.pinerc
- Personal configuration file for each user.
- ~/.pinercex
- Personal exceptions configuration file for each user.
- ~/.addressbook
- Personal addressbook
- ~/.newsrc
- Personal USENET subscription list. This is shared with other
- newsreading programs.
- ~/.pine-debugX
- The files created for debugging _Alpine_ problems. By default, there
- are 4 .pine-debug files kept at any time.
- ~/.signature
- A signature file which will be included in all outgoing email
- messages.
- ~/.pine-interrupted-mail
- The text of a message which was interrupted by some unexpected error
- which _Alpine_ detected.
- ~/mail/postponed-msgs
- A folder of messages which the user chose to postpone.
- /etc/mailcap
- System-wide mail capabilities file. Only used if $MAILCAPS not set.
- ~/.mailcap
- Personal mail capabilities file. Combines with system-wide mailcap.
- Only used if $MAILCAPS not set.
-
- The location of the following support files may be controlled by variables
- in the personal or global _Alpine_ configuration file: signature,
- addressbook and its index file, postponed messages, and newsrc.
-
- Unix _Alpine_ uses the following environment variables:
- TERM
- Tells _Alpine_ what kind of terminal is being used.
- DISPLAY
- Determines if _Alpine_ will try to display IMAGE attachments.
- TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP
- Specifies location of temporary storage area, first one set wins
- SHELL
- If not set, default is /bin/sh
- MAILCAPS
- A semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Support Files, Environment Variables, and Registry Settings: PC-Alpine
-
- This section lists the various files which _PC-Alpine_ uses which are not
- normal mail folders. All of these are the default names of files, they may
- vary based on _Alpine_'s configuration.
-
- $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or $HOME\PINE\PINERC or <PINE.EXE
- dir>\PINERC
- Path to (required) personal configuration file.
- $PINERCEX or $HOME\PINE\PINERCEX or <PINE.EXE dir>\PINERCEX
- Path to personal exceptions configuration file.
- $PINECONF
- Path of optional global configuration file.
- <PINERC directory>\ADDRBOOK
- Personal addressbook
- <PINERC directory>\PINEDEBG.TXT
- Location of _Alpine_ debug file.
- <PINERC directory>\MAILCAP and/or <PINE.EXE dir>\MAILCAP
- These paths are only used if $MAILCAPS not set.
- $HOME\NEWSRC or <PINERC directory>\NEWSRC
- Personal USENET subscription list. This may be shared with other
- newsreading programs.
- $HOME\MAIL\INTRUPTD
- The text of a message which was interrupted by some unexpected error
- which _Alpine_ detected.
- $HOME\MAIL\POSTPOND
- A folder of messages which the user chose to postpone.
-
- Registry Values:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\University of Washington\Alpine\1.0
- _Pinedir_: The directory that contains the _Alpine_ executable.
- _PineEXE_: The name of the _Alpine_ executable (most commonly
- "alpine.exe").
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\University of Washington\Alpine\1.0
- _PineRC_: The path that points to the default pinerc to use.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine
- _DLLPath_: The path that points to _Alpine_'s pmapi32.dll.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\shell\open\command
- _(Default)_: When set as the default mailer, this is the command that
- is run by external programs.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\Protocols\Mailto\DefaultIcon
- _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
- _Alpine_'s mailto URL rendering.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\Mail\Alpine\Protocols\Mailto\shell\open\command
- _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
- programs when a mailto URL is run with _PC-Alpine_ set as the default
- mailer.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\shell\open\command
- _(Default)_: When set as the default newsreader, this is the command
- that is run by external programs.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\news\DefaultIcon
- _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
- _Alpine_'s news URL rendering.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\news\shell\open\command
- _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
- programs when a news URL is run with _Alpine_ set as the default
- newsreader.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\nntp\DefaultIcon
- _(Default)_: This points to the icon to display in relation to
- _Alpine_'s nntp URL rendering.
- HKLM\Software\Clients\News\Alpine\Protocols\nntp\shell\open\command
- _(Default)_: This value is the command that gets run by external
- programs when a nntp URL is run with _Alpine_ set as the default
- newsreader.
-
- _Alpine_'s personal configuration file may be in the same directory as the
- executable, or if that is inconvenient because the executable is on a shared
- or read-only drive, then it can be in a file named by the $PINERC
- environment variable, or in $HOME\ALPINE\PINERC, where if not set, $HOME
- defaults to the root of the current working drive.
-
- Most of the other support files key off of the location of the PINERC file.
- However, in the case of the NEWSRC file, the path $HOME\NEWSRC is checked
- first. Also, the postponed messages and interrupted message folders are
- placed in the default folder collection, normally in the directory
- $HOME\MAIL.
-
- The location of the following support files may be controlled by variables
- in the personal or global _Alpine_ configuration file: signature,
- addressbook (and its index file), postponed messages, and newsrc.
-
- _PC-Alpine_ uses the following environment variables:
- PINERC
- Overrides default path to pinerc file.
- PINERCEX
- Overrides default path to personal exceptions configuration file.
- PINECONF
- Optional path to global _Alpine_ config file.
- HOME
- If not set, _Alpine_ uses the root of the current drive, e.g. C:
- TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP
- Specifies location of temporary storage area, first one set wins
- COMSPEC
- Specifies shell for external commands.
- MAILCAPS
- A semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files.
-
- Command Line Arguments
-
-Alpine
-
- _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ can accept quite a few command-line arguments. Many
- of these arguments overlap with variables in the _Alpine_ configuration
- file. If there is a difference, then a flag set in the command line takes
- precedence. Both _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ expect command line arguments
- (other than addresses) to be preceded by the "-" (dash) as normally used by
- UNIX programs.
-
- _[addresses]_
- Send-to: If you give _Alpine_ an argument or arguments which do not
- begin with a dash, _Alpine_ treats them as email addresses. _Alpine_
- will startup in the composer with a message started to the addresses
- specified. Once the message is sent, the _Alpine_ session closes.
- Standard input redirection is allowed. Separate multiple addresses
- with a space between them. Addresses are placed in the "To" field
- only.
- < _file_
- _Alpine_ will startup in the composer with _file_ read into the body
- of the message. Once the message is sent, the _Alpine_ session
- closes.
- -attach _file_
- Go directly into composer with given file attached.
- -attachlist _file-list_
- Go directly into composer with given files attached. This must be the
- last option on the command line.
- -attach_and_delete _file_
- Go directly into composer with given file attached, delete when
- finished.
- -aux _local_directory_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This tells _PC-Alpine_ the local directory to use
- for storing auxiliary files, like debug files, address books, and
- signature files. The pinerc may be local or remote.
- -nosplash
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This tells _PC-Alpine_ to not display the splash
- screen upon startup. This may be helpful for certain troubleshooting
- or terminal server scenarios.
- -bail
- If the personal configuration file doesn't already exist, exit. This
- might be useful if the configuration file is accessed using some
- remote filesystem protocol. If the remote mount is missing this will
- cause _Alpine_ to quit instead of creating a new pinerc.
- -c _n_
- When used with the -f option, apply the _n_th context. This is used
- when there are multiple folder collections (contexts) and you want to
- open a folder not in the primary collection.
- -conf
- Configuration: Prints a sample system configuration file to the
- screen or standard output. To generate an initial system
- configuration file, execute
- alpine -conf > /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
- To generate a system configuration file using settings from an old
- system configuration file, execute
- alpine -P old-pine.conf -conf > /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
- A system configuration file is not required.
- -convert_sigs _-p pinerc_
- Convert signatures contained in signature files into literal
- signatures.
- -copy_abook _<local_abook_file> <remote_abook_folder>_
- Copy an address book file to a remote address book folder. If the
- remote folder doesn't exist, it will be created. If it exists but the
- first message in the folder isn't a remote address book header
- message, the copy will be aborted. This flag will not usually be used
- by a user. Instead, the user will create a remote address book from
- within _Alpine_ and copy entries from the local address book by using
- aggregate Save in the address book screen.
- -copy_pinerc _<local_pinerc_file> <remote_pinerc_folder>_
- Copy a pinerc configuration file to a remote pinerc folder. If the
- remote folder doesn't exist, it will be created. If it exists but the
- first message in the folder isn't a remote pinerc header message, the
- copy will be aborted. This flag may be useful to users who already
- have a local pinerc file and would like to convert it to a remote
- pinerc folder and use that instead. This gives a way to bootstrap
- that conversion without having to manually reset all of the variables
- in the remote pinerc folder.
- -d _debug-level_
- Debug Level: Sets the level of debugging information written by
- _Alpine_. _Debug-level_ can be set to any integer 0-9. A debug level
- of 0 turns off debugging for the session. (Actually there are some
- levels higher than 9, but you probably don't want to see them.
- Sensitive authentication information is hidden at levels less than
- 10.)
- -d _keywords_
- You may use a more detailed version of the debugging flag to set the
- debug level in separate parts of _Alpine_. The possibilities are
- flush, timestamp, imap=0..4, tcp, numfiles=0..31, and verbose=0..9.
- _Flush_ causes debugging information to be flushed immediately to the
- debug file as it is written. _Verbose_ is the general debugging
- verbosity level. _Timestamp_ causes timestamps to be added to the
- debug file, which is useful when you are trying to figure out what is
- responsible for delays. _Numfiles_ sets the number of debug files
- saved. _Imap_ sets the debug level for the debugging statements
- related to the conversation with the IMAP server, and more generally,
- for the debugging related to _Alpine_'s interaction with the C-Client
- library. If _imap_ is set higher than 4, sensitive authentication
- information will be included in the debug file. _Tcp_ adds more
- TCP/IP debugging information.
- -f _folder_
- Startup folder: _Alpine_ will open this folder in place of the
- standard INBOX.
- -F _file_
- Open named text file for viewing and forwarding.
- -h
- Help: Prints the list of available command-line arguments to the
- screen.
- -i
- _Alpine_ will start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen instead of the MAIN
- MENU.
- Configuration equivalent: _initial-keystroke-list=i_.
- -I _a,b,c,..._
- Initial Keystrokes: _Alpine_ will execute this comma-separated
- sequence of commands upon startup. This allows users to get _Alpine_
- to start in any of its menus/screens. You cannot include any input to
- the composer in the initial keystrokes. The key <Return> is
- represented by a ``CR'' in the keystroke list; the spacebar is
- designated by the letters ``SPACE''. Control keys are two character
- sequences beginning with ``^'', such as ``^I''. A tab character is
- ``TAB''. Function keys are ``F1'' - ``F12'' and the arrow keys are
- ``UP'', ``DOWN'', ``LEFT'', and ``RIGHT''. A restriction is that you
- can't mix function keys and character keys in this list even though
- you can, in some cases, mix them when running _Alpine_. A user can
- always use only _character_ keys in the startup list even if he or
- she is using _function_ keys normally, or vice versa. If an element
- in this list is a string of characters surrounded by double quotes
- (") then it will be expanded into the individual characters in the
- string, excluding the double quotes.
- Configuration equivalent: _initial-keystroke-list_
- -install
- For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option prompts for some basic setup
- information, then exits.
- -k
- Function-Key Mode: When invoked in this way, _Alpine_ expects the
- input of commands to be function-keys. Otherwise, commands are linked
- to the regular character keys.
- Configuration equivalent: _use-function-keys_ included in
- _feature-list_.
- -n _n_
- Message-Number: When specified, _Alpine_ starts up in the FOLDER
- INDEX screen with the current message being the specified message
- number.
- -nowrite_password_cache
- This tells _Alpine_ to use the local password cache if there is one,
- but to never offer writing new passwords to the cache.
- -o _folder_
- Opens the INBOX (or a folder specified via the -f argument) ReadOnly.
- -p _pinerc_
- Uses the named file as the personal configuration file instead of
- _~/.pinerc_ or the default PINERC search sequence _PC-Alpine_ uses.
- Pinerc may be either a local file or a remote configuration folder.
- -P _pinerc_
- Uses the named file as the system wide configuration file instead of
- _/usr/local/lib/pine.conf_ on UNIX, or nothing on _PC-Alpine_. Pinerc
- may be either a local file or a remote configuration folder.
- -passfile _passfile_
- This tells _Alpine_ what file should be used as the password file.
- This should be a fully-qualified filename.
- -pinerc _file_
- Output fresh pinerc configuration to _file_, preserving the settings
- of variables that the user has made. Use _file_ set to ``-'' to make
- output go to standard out.
- -r
- Restricted Mode: For UNIX _Alpine_ only. _Alpine_ in restricted mode
- can only send email to itself. Save and export are limited.
- -registry _cmd_
- For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option affects the values of _Alpine_'s
- registry entries. Possible values for _cmd_ are set, noset, clear,
- clearsilent, and dump. _Set_ will always reset _Alpine_'s registry
- entries according to its current settings. _NoSet_ will never set any
- values in the registry, but it will still use the values already set
- in the registry. _Clear_ will clear the registry values. _Clearsilent_
- will silently clear the registry values. _Dump_ will display the
- values of current registry settings. Note that the dump command is
- currently disabled. Without the -registry option, _PC-Alpine_ will
- write values into the registry only if there currently aren't any
- values set.
- -sort _key_
- Sort-Key: Specifies the order messages will be displayed in for the
- FOLDER INDEX screen. _Key_ can have the following values: arrival,
- date, subject, orderedsubj, thread, from, size, score, to, cc,
- arrival/reverse, date/reverse, subject/reverse, orderedsubj/reverse,
- thread/reverse, from/reverse, size/reverse, score/reverse,
- to/reverse, and cc/reverse. The default value is "arrival". The _key_
- value reverse is equivalent to arrival/reverse.
- Configuration equivalent: _sort-key_.
- -supported
- Some options may or may not be supported depending on how _Alpine_
- was compiled. This is a way to determine which options are supported
- in the particular copy of _Alpine_ you are using.
- -install
- For _PC-Alpine_ only, this option removes references to Alpine in
- Windows settings. The registry settings are removed and the password
- cache is cleared.
- -url _url_
- Open the given URL.
- -v
- Version: Print version information to the screen.
- -version
- Version: Print version information to the screen.
- -x _exceptions_config_
- Configuration settings in the exceptions config override your normal
- default settings. _Exceptions_config_ may be either a local file or a
- remote pinerc folder.
- -z
- Enable Suspend: When run with this flag, the key sequence ctrl-z will
- suspend the _Alpine_ session.
- Configuration equivalent: _enable-suspend_ included in
- _feature-list_.
- -_option_=_value_
- Assign _value_ to the config option _option_. For example,
- _-signature-file=sig1_ or _-feature-list=signature-at-bottom_. (Note:
- feature-list values are additive and features may be preceded with
- no- to turn them off).
-
-Pico
-
- The following command line options are supported in _Pico_:
-
- +_n_
- Causes _Pico_ to be started with the cursor located _n_ lines into
- the file. (Note: no space between "+" sign and number)
-
- -a
- Display all files and directories, including those beginning with a
- period (.).
-
- -b
- Enable the option to Replace text matches found using the "Where is"
- command. This now does nothing. Instead, the option is always turned
- on (as if the -b flag had been specified).
-
- -d
- Rebind the "delete" key so the character the cursor is on is rubbed
- out rather than the character to its left.
-
- -e
- Enable file name completion.
-
- -f
- Use function keys for commands. _This option supported only in
- conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet._
-
- -g
- Enable "Show Cursor" mode in file browser. Cause cursor to be
- positioned before the current selection rather than placed at the
- lower left of the display.
-
- -k
- Causes "Cut Text" command to remove characters from the cursor
- position to the end of the line rather than remove the entire line.
-
- -m
- Enable mouse functionality. This only works when _Pico_ is run from
- within an X Window System "xterm" window.
-
- -n_n_
- The -n_n_ option enables new mail notification. The _n_ argument is
- optional, and specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox is
- checked for new mail. For example, -n60 causes _Pico_ to check for
- new mail once every minute. The default interval is 180 seconds,
- while the minimum allowed is 30. (Note: no space between "n" and the
- number)
-
- -o _dir_
- Sets operating directory. Only files within this directory are
- accessible. Likewise, the file browser is limited to the specified
- directory subtree.
-
- -p
- Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically Ctrl-Q and
- Ctrl-S, which are sometimes used in communications paths to control
- data flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
-
- -q
- TermdefWins. Termcap or terminfo escape sequences are used in
- preference to default escape sequences.
-
- -Q _quotestr_
- Set the quote string. Especially useful when composing email, setting
- this allows the quote string to be checked for when Justifying
- paragraphs. A common quote string is "> ".
-
- -r_n_
- Sets column used to limit the "Justify" command's right margin.
-
- -t
- Enable "tool" mode. Intended for when _Pico_ is used as the editor
- within other tools (e.g., Elm, Pnews). _Pico_ will not prompt for
- save on exit, and will not rename the buffer during the "Write Out"
- command.
-
- -v
- View the file only, disallowing any editing.
-
- -version
- Print version information.
-
- -w
- Disable word wrap (thus allow editing of long lines).
-
- _Note: Pico will break any lines over 255 characters when reading a
- file, regardless of word wrapping._
-
- -x
- Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
-
- -z
- Enable ^Z suspension of _Pico_.
-
-Pilot
-
- The following command line options are supported in _Pilot_:
-
- -a
- Display all files including those beginning with a period (.).
-
- -f
- Use function keys for commands. _This option supported only in
- conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet._
-
- -g
- Enable "Show Cursor" mode. Cause cursor to be positioned before the
- current selection rather than placed at the lower left of the
- display.
-
- -m
- Enable mouse functionality. This only works when _Pilot_ is run from
- within an X Window System "xterm" window.
-
- -n_n_
- The -n_n_ option enables new mail notification. The _n_ argument is
- optional, and specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox is
- checked for new mail. For example, -n60 causes _Pilot_ to check for
- new mail once every minute. The default interval is 180 seconds,
- while the minimum allowed is 30. (Note: no space between "n" and the
- number)
-
- -o _dir_
- Sets operating directory. Only files within the specified directory
- are accessible and browsing is limited to the specified directory
- subtree.
-
- -v
- Enable single vertical column display.
-
- -x
- Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
-
- -z
- Enable ^Z suspension of _Pilot_.
-
- Configuration and Preferences
-
-Alpine Configuration
-
- There is very little in _Alpine_ which _requires_ compile-time
- configuration. In most cases, the compiled-in preferences will suit users
- and administrators just fine. When running _Alpine_ on a UNIX system, the
- default built-in configuration can be changed by setting variables in the
- system configuration files, /usr/local/lib/pine.conf or
- /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed. (Actually, these files can be changed using
- the configure arguments --with-system-pinerc=VALUE or
- --with-system-fixed-pinerc=VALUE.) The location of the pine.conf file can be
- changed with the -P command line argument. Both _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_
- also use personal (user-based) configuration files. On UNIX machines, the
- personal configuration file is the file ~/.pinerc. For _PC-Alpine_ systems,
- the personal configuration file is in $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or
- ${HOME}\ALPINE\PINERC or <ALPINE.EXE dir>\PINERC. Or the personal
- configuration file can be specified with the -p command line argument.
-
- All of these configuration files, other than the fixed system config
- pine.conf.fixed on UNIX systems, may optionally be remote configuration
- files instead of local files. This is discussed further in the following
- section and in Remote Configuration.
-
- After the personal configuration, _Alpine_ may optionally use a personal
- exceptions configuration file which is specified with the command line
- option "-x exceptions_config". "Exceptions_config" may also be either a
- local file or a remote configuration folder. For Unix _Alpine_, if you don't
- have a "-x" command line option, _Alpine_ will look for the file ".pinercex"
- in the same local directory that the regular config file is located in. If
- the regular config file is remote then Unix _Alpine_ looks in the home
- directory for ".pinercex".
-
- For _PC-Alpine_, if you don't have a "-x" command line option, _PC-Alpine_
- will use the value of the environment variable $PINERCEX. If that is not
- set, _PC-Alpine_ will look for the local file "PINERCEX" in the same local
- directory that the regular config file is located in. If the regular config
- file is remote then _PC-Alpine_ looks in the local directory specfied by the
- "-aux local_directory" command line argument, or the directory
- ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE directory>.
-
- The syntax of a non-list configuration variable is this:
-
- <variable> = <value>
-
- If the value is absent then the variable is unset. To set a variable to the
- empty value two double quotes (""). This is equivalent to an absent value
- except that it overrides any system-wide default value that may be set.
- Quotes may be used around any value. All values are strings and end at the
- end of the line or the closing quote. Leading and trailing space is ignored
- unless it is included in the quotes. There is one variable,
- _use-only-domain-name_, for which the only appropriate values are _yes_ and
- _no_. That's because it is a variable from the early days of _Alpine_ before
- features existed.
-
- There is also a second type of variable, lists. A list is a comma-separated
- list of values. The syntax for a list is:
-
- <variable> = <value> [, <value> , ... ]
-
- A list can be continued on subsequent lines by beginning the line with
- white-space. Both the per-user and global configuration files may contain
- comments which are lines beginning with a #.
-
- For UNIX _Alpine_, there are five ways in which each variable can be set. In
- decreasing order of precedence they are:
- 1. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file
- 2. a command line argument
- 3. the personal exceptions file
- 4. the personal configuration file
- 5. the system-wide configuration file.
-
- If the variable is not set in any of those places, there is a default
- setting in the source code.
-
- So, system-wide fixed settings always take precedence over command line
- flags, which take precedence over per-user exception settings, which take
- precedence over per-user settings, which take precedence over system-wide
- configuration settings. _PC-Alpine_ has the same list, except that it does
- not use a system-wide _fixed_ configuration file. This can be modified
- slightly by using inheritance, which is covered below.
-
- You may get a sample/fresh copy of the system configuration file by running
- _alpine -conf_. The result will be printed on the standard output with very
- short comments describing each variable. (The online help in the Setup
- screens provides much longer comments.) If you need to fix some of the
- configuration variables, you would use the same template for the fixed
- configuration file as for the regular system-wide configuration file. (If it
- isn't clear, the purpose of the fixed configuration file is to allow system
- administrators to restrict the configurability of _Alpine_. It is by no
- means a bullet-proof method.) _Alpine_ will automatically create the
- personal configuration file the first time it is run, so there is no need to
- generate a sample. _Alpine_ reads and writes the personal configuration file
- occasionally during normal operation. Users will not normally look at their
- personal configuration file, but will use the Setup screens from within
- _Alpine_ to set the values in this file. If a user does add additional
- comments to the personal configuration file they will be retained.
-
- References to environment variables may be included in the _Alpine_
- configuration files. The format is $variable or ${variable}. The character ~
- will be expanded to the $HOME environment variable. For a more complete
- explanation of how environment variables work, see the section Using
- Environment Variables.
-
- When environment variables are used for _Alpine_ settings which take lists,
- you must have an environment variable set for each member of the list. That
- is, _Alpine_ won't properly recognize an environment variable which is set
- equal to a comma-delimited list. It is OK to reference unset environment
- variables in the _Alpine_ configuration file, which will expand to nothing.
-
- Remote and Local Configuration
-
- There are two types of storage for configuration information. _Local_
- configuration files are used by default. These are just regular files on the
- UNIX system or on the PC. _Remote_ configuration folders are stored on an
- IMAP server. The advantage of using a remote configuration is that the same
- information may be accessed from multiple platforms. For example, if you use
- one computer at work and another at home, the same configuration could be
- used from both places. A configuration change from one place would be seen
- in both places. Technical information about remote configuration is in
- Remote Configuration.
-
- Generic and Exceptional Configuration
-
- If you use _Alpine_ from more than one platform it may be convenient to
- split your configuration information into two pieces, a generic piece and
- exceptions which apply to a particular platform. For example, suppose you
- use _Alpine_ from home and from work. Most of your configuration settings
- are probably the same in both locations, so those settings belong in the
- generic settings configuration. However, you may use a different SMTP server
- and INBOX from home than you do from work. The "smtp-server" and
- "inbox-path" variables could be part of your exceptional configuration so
- that they could be different in the two places.
-
- You can use the command line option "-x config" to split your configuration
- into generic and exceptional pieces. Config may be either local or remote.
-
- For most people, splitting the configuration information into two pieces is
- only going to be useful if the generic information is accessed remotely. If
- you already have a local pinerc file with settings you like you may find
- that the command Setup/RemoteConfigSetup will be useful in helping you
- convert to a remote configuration. The command line flag copy_pinerc may
- also be useful.
-
- Configuration Inheritance
-
- Configuration inheritance is a power user feature. It is confusing and not
- completely supported by the configuration user interface.
-
- For configuration variables which are lists, like "smtp-server" or
- "incoming-folders", the inheritance mechanism makes it possible to _combine_
- the values of options from different configuration locations instead of
- _replacing_ the value. Configuration Inheritance has more information about
- how inheritance is used.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-General Configuration Variables
-
- The following is a list of all _Alpine_ configuration variables, in
- alphabetical order. Note that not all variables apply to all versions of
- _Alpine_ and that some variables are only applicable in a system
- configuration file and some are only applicable in a personal configuration
- file. These are configuration _variables_. Configuration Features are in a
- separate section.
-
- _addrbook-sort-rule_
- This variable sets up the default address book sorting. Currently,
- _Alpine_ will accept the values _dont-sort_,
- _fullname-with-lists-last_, _fullname_, _nickname-with-lists-last_, and
- _nickname_. The default is to sort by fullname with lists last. If
- you use an address book from more than one computer and those
- computers sort the address book differently then the sort order will
- be the order where the last change to the address book was made.
- There are two reasons the sorting might be different on different
- systems. First, the addrbook-sort-rule may be set differently in the
- two places. Second, the collation rules on the two computers may be
- different. For example, one system might ignore special characters
- while the other doesn't or one may sort upper and lower case letters
- together while the other doesn't. In any case, the order you see is
- the order on the system where the last change was made, for example
- by an address book edit or a Take Address command.
- This option is displayed as "Addressbook Sort Rule".
- _address-book_
- A list of personal address books. Each entry in the list is an
- optional nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative to the
- home directory. The nickname is separated from the rest of the line
- with whitespace. Instead of a local pathname or file name, a remote
- folder name can be given. This causes the address book to be a Remote
- address book. Remote folder syntax is discussed in Syntax for Remote
- Folders. This list of address books will be combined with the
- global-address-book list to arrive at the complete set of address
- books.
- _addressbook-formats_
- This option specifies the format that address books are displayed in.
- By default, address books are displayed with the nicknames in the
- first column, the fullnames in the second column, and addresses in
- the third column. The system figures out reasonable defaults for the
- widths of the columns. An address book may be given a different
- format by listing special tokens in the order you want them to
- display. The possible tokens are NICKNAME, FULLNAME, ADDRESS, FCC,
- and COMMENT. More details are included in the online help for this
- variable.
- _alt-addresses_
- This option provides a place for you to list alternate email
- addresses you may have. Each address in the list should be the actual
- email address part of an address, without the full name field or the
- angle brackets. For example:
-
- user@example.com
- The matching is case-insensitive, so this would match any of
- User@example.com, user@Example.Com, or USER@EXAMPLE.COM as well.
- If set, the option affects the behavior of the Reply command and the
- "+" symbol in the MESSAGE INDEX, which denotes that a message has
- been addressed specifically to you.
- In the default INDEX display the personal name (or email address) of
- the person listed in the message's "From:" header field is usually
- displayed except when that address is yours or one of your alternate
- addresses. In that case you will usually see the name of the first
- person specified in the message's "To:" header field with the prefix
- "To: " prepended.
- With respect to Reply, the reply-to-all option will exclude addresses
- listed here.
- The feature copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us is somewhat related
- to this option.
- In addition to a list of actual addresses, you may use regular
- expressions (as used with egrep with the ignore case flag) to
- describe the addresses you want to match. _Alpine_ will somewhat
- arbitrarily interpret your entry as a regular expression if it
- contains any of the characters *, |, +, ?, {, [, ^, $, or \.
- Otherwise, it will be treated literally. The feature
- disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses may be
- used to turn off regular expression processing regardless of whether
- or not special characters appear in the entry.
- A description of how regular expressions work is beyond the scope of
- this help text, but some examples follow.
- The entry
-
- .*@example.com
- in the alt-addresses list would mean that any address with a domain
- name of example.com (such as fred@example.com or wilma@example.com)
- will be considered one of your alternate addresses. Strictly
- speaking, the dot in example.com ought to be escaped with a
- backslash, as in example\.com, and a dollar sign anchor ought to come
- at the end of the expression to prevent a match of example.com.org.
- Complicating things further, the dollar sign is special in the
- _Alpine_ configuration (it signifies environment variable expansion)
- so the dollar sign should be doubled or backslash escaped for
- _Alpine_'s sake. Quotes around the whole expression will not escape the
- dollar sign successfully. So this example should look like
-
- .*@example\.com$$
- The entry
-
- ^fred[0-9]*@example.com$$
- would match fred3@example.com or fred17@example.com as well as
- fred@example.com.
- You could match all addresses that look like fred+stuff@example.com
- for any value of stuff with the entry
-
- ^fred\+.*@example.com$$
- Notice that you have to escape the plus sign with a backslash because
- plus is a special character in regular expressions. If you wanted to
- match plain fred as well as fred+stuff the expression
-
- ^fred(()|\+.*)@example.com$$
- would do it, but it would be easier to just add fred@example.com as a
- separate entry.
- One more example, a match of all first-level subdomains, is given by
-
- ^fred@[[:alnum:]_-]*\.example\.com$$
- Because the regular expression matching is based on an old library
- (hs_regex) the regular expressions might not work exactly as you
- expect, but they should be close.
- This option is displayed as "Alternate Addresses".
- _bugs-additional-data_
- System-wide configuration files only. Program/Script used by _Report
- Bug_ command. Output from the program/script is captured and attached
- to the bug report.
- _bugs-fullname_, _bugs-address_, _local-fullname_, _local-address_,
- _suggest-fullname_, and _suggest-address_
- System-wide configuration files only. These are used by the bug
- report commands which can be accessed from some of the Help screens.
- _busy-cue-rate_
- When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
- something is happening with a small animated display in the status
- message line near the bottom of the screen. This option sets how
- frequently the characters (for example, a spinning bar) in the active
- status message lines are updated. At most, it can be set to be
- udpated 20 times per second.
- Setting this value to zero will prevent display of the animations
- altogether.
- The option busy-cue-spinner-only can be used to remove the randomness
- from this animated display.
- _character-set_
- This is now obsolete, replaced by three separate variables:
- _display-character-set_, _keyboard-character-set_, and
- _posting-character-set_. See the section on International Character
- Sets for more details.
- _color-style_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only (color is automatically on with _PC-Alpine_). If
- the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of
- displaying colors, this variable controls whether or not color will
- be used in _Alpine_. If you turn color on and things are set up
- correctly, you should see color appear on the screen immmediately.
- Modern terminal emulators are usually capable of displaying colors.
- This variable may be set to any of the following values:
-
- no-color
- Don't use color.
-
- use-termdef
- In order to decide if your terminal is capable of color,
- _Alpine_ looks in the terminal capabilities database, TERMINFO
- or TERMCAP, depending on how _Alpine_ was compiled. This is a
- good option to choose if you switch between a color and a
- non-color terminal with the same _Alpine_ configuration.
- _Alpine_ will know to use color on the color terminal because it
- is described in the termcap entry, and _Alpine_ will know to
- use black and white on the non-color terminal. Color Details
- has more information about configuring a termcap entry for
- color. This is usually something a system administrator does.
-
- force-ansi-8color
- Because setting up a termcap entry is confusing and because the
- terminal capabilities database is often not correctly
- configured for color, this choice and the next may be easier
- for you to use. If your terminal emulator responds to ANSI
- color escape sequences, which many do, this option will cause
- _Alpine_ to believe your terminal will respond to the escape
- sequences which produce eight different foreground and
- background colors. The escape sequences used to set the
- foreground colors are
-
- ESC [ 3 <color_number> m
-
- where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and 7. The
- numbers 0 through 7 should correspond to the colors black, red,
- green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white. Some terminal
- emulators use a pre-ANSI scheme which swaps the colors blue and
- red and the colors yellow and cyan. This will cause the default
- colors to be different, but other than that things should work
- fine. There is also a 9th color available, the last one shown,
- which is the default color from the terminal emulator. When
- used as a background color some people refer to this color as
- "transparent", which is why the letters "TRAN" are shown in the
- color swatch of the SETUP COLOR screen. The foreground
- transparent color is shown as the color of the "TRAN" text.
- (The transparent color will not work correctly in a PC-Alpine
- configuration.) The escape sequences used to set the background
- colors are the same as for the foreground colors except a "4"
- replaces the "3".
-
- Note: With the Tera Term terminal emulator this setting works
- well. You should also have the Tera Term "Full color" option
- turned OFF. You may find the "Full color" option in Tera Term's
- "Setup" menu, in the "Window" submenu.
-
- force-ansi-16color
- Many terminal emulators know about the same eight colors above
- plus eight more. This option attempts to use all 16 colors. The
- same escape sequences as for the eight-color terminal are used
- for the first eight colors. The escape sequences used to set
- foreground colors 8-15 are the same as for 0-7 except the "3"
- is replaced with a "9". The background color sequences for
- colors 8-15 are the same as for 0-7 except the "4" is replaced
- with "10". You can tell if the 16 colors are working by turning
- on this option and then going into one of the color
- configuration screens, for example, the configuration screen
- for Normal Color. If you see 16 different colors to select from
- (plus a 17th for the transparent color), it's working.
-
- force-xterm-256color
- Some versions of xterm (and some other terminal emulators) have
- support for 256 colors. The escape sequences used to set the
- foreground colors are
-
- ESC [ 38 ; 5 ; <color_number> m
-
- where the color_number is an ASCII digit between 0 and 255.
- Background colors are the same with the 38 replaced with a 48.
- The numbers 0 through 15 are probably similar to the 16 color
- version above, then comes a 6x6x6 color cube, followed by 24
- colors of gray. The terminal default (transparent) color is the
- 257th color at the bottom. Some terminal emulators will
- misinterpret these escape sequences causing the terminal to
- blink or overstrike characters or to do something else
- undesirable.
-
- The PuTTY terminal emulator has an option called "Allow
- terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode" which allows PuTTY to
- work well with this 256-color setting.
-
- There are two other possible color values which may be useful in some
- situations. In the color configuration screens there will sometimes
- be a color which has the label "NORM" inside its color swatch. If
- this is selected the corresponding foreground or background Normal
- Color will be used. Another similar color is the one that has the
- label "NONE" inside its color swatch. The meaning of this setting is
- that no color changing will be done. This NONE color is only useful
- in contexts where _Alpine_ is already coloring the text some color
- other than the Normal Color. For example, if the Reverse Color is set
- then the current line in the MESSAGE INDEX will be colored. If one of
- the index symbols (for example, the Index-to-me Symbol) has the NONE
- color as its background then the symbol's foreground color will be
- used to draw the actual text but the background color will be the
- same as whatever the background color already was. The color values
- which end up in the configuration file for these special values are
- the 11-character words "norm-padded", "none-padded", and
- "transparent".
- The normal default is "no-color".
- Once you've turned on color you may set the colors of many objects on
- the screen individually. The Color Configuration section has more
- information, or you may just try it by running the "Setup" command
- and typing "K" for Kolor to enter the color configuration screen
- (Kolor instead of Color because C means Config). Most categories of
- color which _Alpine_ supports are configurable there. Index line
- color is configured separately.
- _composer-word-separators_
- This option affects how a "word" is defined in the composer. The
- definition of a word is used when using the Forward Word and Backward
- Word commands in the composer, as well as when using the spell
- checker. Whitespace is always considered a word separator.
- Punctuation (like question marks, periods, commas, and so on) is
- always a word separator if it comes at the end of a word. By default,
- a punctuation character which is in the middle of a word does not
- break up that word as long as the character before and the character
- after it are both alphanumeric. If you add a character to this option
- it will be considered a word separator even when it occurs in the
- middle of an alphanumeric word. For example, if you want to skip
- through each part of an address instead of skipping the whole address
- at once you might want to include"@" and "." in this list. If you
- want the word-skipper to stop on each part of a UNIX filename you
- could add "/" to the list. The equal sign and dash are other
- possibilities you might find helpful.
- _composer-wrap-column_
- This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer. This gives
- the maximum width that auto-wrapped lines will have. It's also the
- maximum width of lines justified using the ^J Justify command. The
- normal default is _74_. The largest allowed setting is normally _80_
- in order to prevent very long lines from being sent in outgoing mail.
- When the mail is actually sent, trailing spaces will be stripped off
- of each line.
- _current-indexline-style_
- current-indexline-style.
- _customized-hdrs_
- You may add your own custom headers to outgoing messages. Each header
- you specify here must include the header tag (Reply-To:, Approved:,
- etc.) and may optionally include a value for that header. If you want
- to see these custom headers each time you compose a message, you must
- add them to your default-composer-hdrs list, otherwise they become
- part of the rich header set which you only see when you press the
- rich header command. (If you are looking for a way to change which
- headers are _displayed_ when you view a message, take a look at the
- viewer-hdrs option instead.) Here's an example which shows how you
- might set your From address
-
- From: Full Name <user@example.com>
- and another showing how you might set a Reply-To address
-
- Reply-To: user@example.com
- You may also set non-standard header values here. For example, you
- could add
-
- Organization: My Organization Name
- or even
-
- X-Favorite-Colors: Purple and Gold
- If you include a value after the colon then that header will be
- included in your outgoing messages unless you delete it before
- sending. If a header in the Customized-Headers list has only a tag
- but no value, then it will not be included in outgoing messages
- unless you edit a value in manually. For example, if
-
- Reply-To:
- is in the list, then the Reply-To header will be available for
- editing but won't be included unless a value is added while in the
- composer.
- It's actually a little more complicated than that. The values of
- headers that you set with the Customized-Headers option are defaults.
- If the message you are about to compose already has a value for a
- header, that value is used instead of a value from your
- Customized-Headers. For example, if you are Replying to a message the
- Subject field will already be filled in. In that case, if the
- Customized-Headers list contains a Subject line, the custom subject
- will _NOT_ be used. The subject derived from the subject of the
- message you are Replying to will be used instead.
- It is also possible to make header setting even more complicated and
- more automatic by using Roles, but if all you want to do is set a
- default value for a header, you don't need to think about Roles.
- If you change your From address you may also find it useful to add
- the changed From address to the alt-addresses configuration option.
- Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of
- Customized-Headers, it is not possible to have the value of a header
- contain a comma. Nor is there currently an "escape" mechanism
- provided to make this work.
- This option is displayed as "Customized Headers".
- _dead-letter-files_
- This option affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a message
- being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write the canceled
- message to a file named "dead.letter" in your home directory, or
- "DEADLETR" when using _PC-Alpine_, overwriting any previous message.
- If you set this option to a value higher than one, then that many
- copies of dead letter files will be saved. For example, if you set
- this option to "3" then you may have files named "DEADLETR",
- "DEADLETR2", and "DEADLETR3"; or "dead.letter", "dead.letter2", and
- "dead.letter3". In this example, the most recently cancelled message
- will be in "dead.letter", and the third most recently cancelled
- message will be in "dead.letter3". The fourth most recently cancelled
- message will no longer be saved.
- If you set this option to zero, then NO record of canceled messages
- is maintained.
- If the feature Quell-Dead-Letter-On-Cancel is set, that overrides
- whatever you set for this option. If this option had existed at the
- time, then the Quell feature would not have been added, but it is
- still there for backwards compatibility. So, in order for this option
- to have the desired effect, make sure the Quell feature is turned
- off.
- _default-composer-hdrs_
- You can control which headers you want visible when composing
- outgoing email using this option. You can specify any of the regular
- set, any Rich Header, or any Customized-Hdrs which you have already
- defined. If you use this setting at all, you must specify all the
- headers you want to see, you can't just add to the regular header
- set. The default set is To:, Cc:, Attchmnt:, and Subject:.
- Note that the "Newsgroups:" header will be abbreviated in the
- Composer display, but should be spelled out in full here.
- This option is displayed as "Default Composer Headers".
- _default-fcc_
- The name of the folder to which all outgoing mail goes is set here.
- The compiled-in default is _sent-mail_ (UNIX) or _sentmail_ (PC). It
- can be set to "" (two double quotes with nothing between them) to
- turn off saving copies of outgoing mail. If _default-fcc_ is a
- relative file name, then it is relative to your default collection
- for saves (see folder-collections).
- This option is displayed as "Default Fcc (File carbon copy)".
- _default-saved-msg-folder_
- This option determines the default folder name for _Saves_... If this
- is not a path name, it will be in the default collection for saves.
- Any valid folder specification, local or IMAP, is allowed. This
- default folder only applies when the saved-msg-name-rule doesn't
- override it. Unix _Alpine_ default is normally _saved-messages_ in
- the default folder collection. _PC-Alpine_ default is _SAVEMAIL_
- (normally stored as _SAVEMAIL.MTX_).
- This option is displayed as "Default Saved Message Folder".
- _disable-these-authenticators_
- This variable is a list of SASL (Simple Authentication and Security
- Layer) authenticators which will be disabled. SASL is a mechanism for
- authenticating to IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and other network servers.
- _Alpine_ matches its list of supported authenticators with the server
- to determine the most secure authenticator that is supported by both.
- If no matching authenticators are found, _Alpine_ will revert to
- plaintext login (or, in the case of SMTP, will be unable to
- authenticate at all).
- The candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more if
- you compile _Alpine_ with additional authenticators and/or a newer
- version of the c-client library.
- + GSSAPI
- + CRAM-MD5
- + PLAIN
- + LOGIN
- Normally, you will not disable any authenticators. There are two
- exceptions:
- 1. You use a broken server that advertises an authenticator, but does
- not actually implement it.
- 2. You have a Kerberos-capable version of _Alpine_ and the server is
- also Kerberos-capable, but you can not obtain Kerberos credentials
- on the server machine, thus you desire to disable GSSAPI (which in
- turn disables _Alpine_'s Kerberos support).
- It is never necessary to disable authenticators, since _Alpine_ will
- try other authenticators before giving up. However, disabling the
- relevant authenticator avoids annoying error messages.
- _disable-these-drivers_
- This variable is a list of mail drivers which will be disabled. The
- candidates for disabling are listed below. There may be more in the
- future if you compile _Alpine_ with a newer version of the c-client
- library.
- + mbox
- + mbx
- + mh
- + mix
- + mmdf
- + mtx
- + mx
- + news
- + phile
- + tenex
- + unix
- The _mbox_ driver enables the following behavior: if there is a file
- called mbox in your home directory, and if that file is either empty
- or in Unix mailbox format, then every time you open _INBOX_ the _mbox_
- driver will automatically transfer mail from the system mail spool
- directory into the mbox file and delete it from the spool directory.
- If you disable the _mbox_ driver, this will not happen.
- It is not recommended to disable the driver which supports the system
- default mailbox format. On most non-SCO systems, that driver is the
- _unix_ driver. On most SCO systems, it is the _mmdf_ driver. The
- system default driver may be configured to something else on your
- system; check with your system manager for additional information.
- It is most likely not very useful for you to disable any of the
- drivers other than possibly _mbox_. You could disable some of the
- others if you know for certain that you don't need them but the
- performance gain in doing so is very modest.
- _display-character-set_
- See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
- _display-filters_
- This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs or
- scripts) that may be used to filter text portions of received
- messages prior to their use (e.g., presentation in the "Message Text"
- display screen). For security reasons, the full path name of the
- filter command must be specified.
- Display filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_.
- The command is executed and the message is piped into its standard
- input. The standard output of the command is read back by _Alpine_.
- The __TMPFILE__ token (see below) overrides this default behavior.
- The filter's use is based on the configured _trigger_ string. The
- format of a filter definition is:
-
- <trigger> <command> <arguments>
- You can specify as many filters as you wish, separating them with a
- comma. Each filter can have only one trigger and command. Thus, two
- trigger strings which invoke the same command require separate filter
- specifications.
- The _trigger_ is simply text that, if found in the message, will
- invoke the associated command. If the trigger contains any space
- characters, it must be placed within quotes. Likewise, should you
- wish a filter to be invoked unconditionally, define the trigger as
- the null string, "" (two consecutive double-quote characters). If the
- trigger string is found anywhere in the text of the message the
- filter is invoked. Placing the trigger text within the tokens defined
- below changes where within the text the trigger must be before
- considering it a match.
- Trigger Modifying Tokens:
-
- __CHARSET(string)__
- This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command if the
- text is in a character set matching string (e.g., ISO-8859-2 or
- ISO-2022-JP).
-
- __LEADING(string)__
- This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command if the
- enclosed string is found to be the first non-whitespace text.
- NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
- character.
-
- __BEGINNING(string)__
- This token tells _Alpine_ to invoke the supplied command if the
- enclosed string is found at the beginning of any line in the
- text.
- NOTE: Quotes are necessary if string contains the space
- character.
-
- The "command" and "arguments" portion is simply the command line to
- be invoked if the trigger string is found. Below are tokens that
- _Alpine_ will recognize and replace with special values when the
- command is actually invoked.
- Command Modifying Tokens:
-
- __TMPFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- path and name of the temporary file containing the text to be
- filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to replace this data with
- the filter's result. NOTE: Use of this token implies that the
- text to be filtered is not piped into standard input of the
- executed command and its standard output is ignored. _Alpine_
- restores the tty modes before invoking the filter in case the
- filter interacts with the user via its own standard input and
- output.
-
- __RESULTFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- path and name of a temporary file intended to contain a status
- message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this in the message
- status field.
-
- __DATAFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- path and name of a temporary file that _Alpine_ creates once
- per session and deletes upon exit. The file is intended to be
- used by the filter to store state information between instances
- of the filter.
-
- __PREPENDKEY__
- When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
- random number will be passed down the input stream before the
- message text. This number could be used as a session key. It
- does not appear as a command-line argument. It is sent in this
- way to improve security. The number is unique to the current
- _Alpine_ session and is only generated once per session.
-
- The feature disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters is related.
- Performance caveat/considerations:
- Testing for the trigger and invoking the filter doesn't come for
- free. There is overhead associated with searching for the trigger
- string, testing for the filter's existence and actually piping the
- text through the filter. The impact can be reduced if the Trigger
- Modifying Tokens above are employed.
- Limitation:
- If Header Colors are being used, the sequences of bytes which
- indicate color changes will be contained in the text which is passed
- to the display-filter. If this causes problems you'll need to turn
- off Header Colors. The thirteen bytes which indicate a color change
- are the character \377 followed by \010 for a foreground color or
- \011 for a background color. Then comes eleven characters of RGB data
- which looks something like 255, 0,255, depending on the particular
- color, of course.
- _download-command_
- This option affects the behavior of the _Export_ command. It
- specifies a Unix program name, and any necessary command line
- arguments, that _Alpine_ can use to transfer the exported message to
- your personal computer's disk.
- _download-command-prefix_
- This option is used in conjunction with the _download-command_
- option. It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator (via
- standard output) immediately prior to starting the download command.
- This is useful for integrated serial line file transfer agents that
- permit command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
- _editor_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only. Sets the name of the alternate editor for
- composing mail (message text only, not headers). It will be invoked
- with the "^_" command or it will be invoked automatically if the
- enable-alternate-editor-implicitly feature is set.
- _empty-header-message_
- When sending, if both the To and Cc fields are empty and you are
- sending the message to a Bcc, _Alpine_ will put a special address in
- the To line. The default value is "undisclosed-recipients: ;". The
- reason for this is to avoid embarrassment caused by some Internet
- mail transfer software that interprets a "missing" To: header as an
- error and replaces it with an Apparently-to: header that may contain
- the addresses you entered on the Bcc: line, defeating the purpose of
- the Bcc. You may change the part of this message that comes before
- the ": ;" by setting the _empty-header-message_ variable to something
- else.
- _fcc-name-rule_
- Determines default folder name for fcc when composing. Currently,
- _Alpine_ will accept the values _default-fcc_, _by-recipient_, or
- _last-fcc-used_. If set to _default-fcc_, then _Alpine_ will use the
- value defined in the default-fcc variable (which itself has a
- default) for the Fcc header field. If set to _by-recipient_, then
- _Alpine_ will use the name of the recipient as a folder name for the
- fcc. The relevant recipient is the first address in the To field. If
- set to "last-fcc-used", then _Alpine_ will offer to Fcc to whatever
- folder you used previously. In all cases, the field can still be
- edited after it is initially assigned. If the fcc field in the
- address book is set for the first To address, that value over-rides
- any value derived from this rule.
- _feature-list_
- This is a list of the many features (options) which may be turned on
- or off. There is a separate section titled Configuration Features
- which explains each of the features. There is some additional
- explanation about the _feature-list_ variable itself in Feature List
- Variable.
- _file-directory_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This value affects the Composer's "^J Attach"
- command, the Attachment Index Screen's "S Save" command, and the
- Message Index's "E Export" command.
- Normally, when a filename is supplied that lacks a leading "path"
- component, _Alpine_ assumes the file exists in the user's home
- directory. Under Windows operating systems, this definition isn't
- always clear. This feature allows you to explictly set where _Alpine_
- should look for files without a leading path.
- NOTE: this feature's value is ignored if either use-current-dir
- feature is set or the PINERC has a value for the operating-dir
- variable.
- _folder-collections_
- This is a list of one or more collections where saved mail is stored.
- See the sections describing folder collections and collection syntax
- for more information. The first collection in this list is the
- default collection for _Save_s, including default-fcc's.
- _folder-extension_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. File extension used for local folder names. This is
- .MTX by default.
- _folder-reopen-rule_
- _Alpine_ normally checks for new mail in the currently open folder
- and in the INBOX every few minutes.
- There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does not
- work. For example, if a mail folder is opened using the POP protocol
- or a newsgroup is being read using the NNTP protocol, then new-mail
- checking is disabled.
- It may be possible to check for new mail in these cases by reopening
- the folder. _Alpine_ does not do this for you automatically, but you
- may do the commands manually to cause this to happen. You reopen by
- going back to the folder list screen from the message index screen
- with the "<" command, and then going back into the message index
- screen with the ">" command. (Actually, any method you would normally
- use to open a folder will work the same as the "<" followed by ">"
- method. For example, the GoTo Folder command will work, or you may
- use L to go to the Folder List screen and Carriage Return to reopen
- the folder.)
- There are some cases where _Alpine_ knows that reopening the folder
- should be useful as a way to discover new mail. At the time of this
- writing, connections made using the POP protocol, news reading using
- the NNTP protocol, local news reading, and local ReadOnly folders
- which are in the traditional UNIX or the MMDF format all fall into
- this category. There are other cases where it _may_ be a way to
- discover new mail, but _Alpine_ has no way of knowing, so it might
- also just be an exercise in futility. All remote, ReadOnly folders
- other than those listed just above fall into this category. The
- setting of this option together with the type of folder controls how
- _Alpine_ will react to the apparent attempt to reopen a folder.
- If you don't reopen, then you will just be back in the message index
- with no change. You left the index and came back, but the folder
- remained "open" the whole time. However, if you do reopen the folder,
- the folder is closed and then reopened. In this case, the current
- state of the open folder is lost. The New status, Important and
- Answered flags, selected state, Zoom state, collapsed or expanded
- state of threads, current message number, and any other temporary
- state is all lost when the reopen happens. For POP folders (but not
- NNTP newsgroups) the Deleted flags are also lost.
- In the possibilities listed below, the text says "POP/NNTP" in
- several places. That really implies the case where _Alpine_ knows it
- is a good way to discover new mail, which is more than just POP and
- NNTP, but POP and NNTP are the cases of most interest. This option
- probably has more possible values than it deserves. They are:
-
- Always reopen
- _Alpine_ will not ask whether you want to reopen but will just
- do the reopen whenever you type a command that implies a
- reopen, regardless of the access method. In other words, it is
- assumed you would always answer Yes if asked about reopening.
-
- Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [Yes]
- _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is POP
- or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other remote
- folders, with a default answer of Yes.
-
- Yes for POP/NNTP, Ask about other remote [No]
- _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is POP
- or NNTP, but will ask you whether to reopen other remote
- folders, with a default answer of No.
-
- Yes for POP/NNTP, No for other remote
- _Alpine_ will assume a Yes answer if the access method is POP
- or NNTP, and will assume a No answer for all other remote
- folders.
-
- Always ask [Yes]
- _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It will
- always ask for all remote folders, with a default answer of
- Yes.
-
- Always ask [No]
- _Alpine_ will not differentiate based on access method. It will
- always ask for all remote folders, with a default answer of No.
-
- Ask about POP/NNTP [Yes], No for other remote
- _Alpine_ will ask if the access method is POP or NNTP, with a
- default answer of Yes. It will never attempt to reopen other
- remote folders.
-
- Ask about POP/NNTP [No], No for other remote
- This is the default. _Alpine_ will ask if the access method is
- POP or NNTP, with a default answer of No. It will never attempt
- to reopen other remote folders.
-
- Never reopen
- _Alpine_ will never attempt to reopen already open folders.
-
- Remember, wherever it says POP or NNTP above it really means POP or
- NNTP or any of the other situations where it is likely that reopening
- is a good way to discover new mail.
- There is an alternative that may be of useful in some situations.
- Instead of manually checking for new mail you can set up a Mail Drop
- and automatically check for new mail.
- _folder-sort-rule_
- This option controls the order in which folder list entries will be
- presented in the FOLDER LIST screen. Choose one of the following:
-
- _Alphabetical_
- sort by alphabetical name independent of type
-
- _Alpha-with-dirs-last_
- sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to the end
- of the list
-
- _Alpha-with-dirs-first_
- sort by alphabetical name grouping directory entries to the
- start of the list
-
- The normal default is _Alphabetical_.
- _font-name_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _font-size_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _font-style_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _forced-abook-entry_
- System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Force these address
- book entries into all writable personal address books. This is a list
- variable. Each item in the list has the form:
-
- Nickname | Fullname | Address
- with optional whitespace in all the obvious places.
- _form-letter-folder_
- A Form Letter Folder is a mail folder that is intended to contain
- messages that you have composed and that are intended to be sent in
- their original form repeatedly.
- Setting this variable will alter _Alpine_'s usual behavior when you
- execute the Compose command. Normally, _Alpine_ offers a chance to
- continue a postponed or interrupted message should one or the other
- exist. When this variable is set to a folder name that exists,
- _Alpine_ will also offer the chance to select a message from the
- folder to insert into the composer, much like when continuing a
- postponed message. The difference, however, is that _Alpine_ will not
- automatically delete the selected message from the Form Letter
- Folder.
- Setting this variable will also affect _Alpine_'s behavior when you
- Postpone a message from the composer. Normally, _Alpine_ simply
- stashes the message away in your Postponed-Folder. Regardless of the
- specified folder's existence, _Alpine_ will ask which folder you
- intend the message to be stored in. Choose the "F" option to store
- the message in your Form Letter Folder. This is the most common way
- to add a message to the folder.
- Another method of adding messages to the folder is via the _Alpine_
- composer's Fcc: field. If you are sending a message that you expect
- to send in the same form again, you can enter the Form Letter
- Folder's name in this field. _Alpine_, as usual, will copy the
- message as it's sent. Note, when you later select this message from
- your Form Letter Folder, it will have the same recipients as the
- original message.
- To delete a message from the Form Letter Folder, you can either
- select the folder from a suitable FOLDER LIST screen, or use the
- Delete command in the MESSAGE INDEX offered when selecting from the
- folder as part of the Compose command. You can delete a Form Letter
- Folder just as any other folder from a suitable FOLDER LIST screen.
- You may find that the Roles facility can be used to replace the Form
- Letter Folder.
- _global-address-book_
- A list of shared address books. Each entry in the list is an optional
- nickname followed by a pathname or file name relative to the home
- directory. A SPACE character separates the nickname from the rest of
- the line. Instead of a local pathname or file name, a remote folder
- name can be given. This causes the address book to be a Remote
- address book. Remote folder syntax is discussed in Syntax for Remote
- Folders. This list will be added to the address-book list to arrive
- at the complete set of address books. Global address books are
- defined to be ReadOnly.
- _goto-default-rule_
- This value affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _Goto_ command.
- There are five possible values for this option:
-
- _folder-in-first-collection_
- _Alpine_ will offer the most recently visited folder in the
- default collection found in the "Collection List" screen as the
- default.
-
- _inbox-or-folder-in-first-collection_
- If the current folder is _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the most
- recently visited folder in the default collection found in the
- "Collection List" screen. If the current folder is other than
- _INBOX_, _INBOX_ is offered as the default.
-
- _inbox-or-folder-in-recent-collection_
- This is _Alpine_'s default behavior. If the current folder is
- _INBOX_, _Alpine_ will offer the last open folder as the
- default. If the current folder is other than _INBOX_, _INBOX_
- is offered as the default.
-
- _first-collection-with-inbox-default_
- Instead of offering the most recently visited folder in the
- default collection, the default collection is offered but with
- _INBOX_ as the default folder. If you type in a folder name it
- will be in the default collection. If you simply accept the
- default, however, your _INBOX_ will be opened.
-
- _most-recent-folder_
- The last accepted value simply causes the most recently opened
- folder to be offered as the default regardless of the currently
- opened folder.
-
- NOTE: The default while a newsgroup is open remains the same; the
- last open newsgroup.
- _header-general-background-color_
- _header-general-foreground-color_
- Header Colors.
- _image-viewer_
- This variable names the program to call for displaying parts of a
- MIME message that are of type IMAGE. If your system supports the
- _mailcap_ system, you don't need to set this variable.
- _inbox-path_
- This specifies the name of the folder to use for the _INBOX_. By
- default this is unset and the system's default is used. The most
- common reason for setting this is to open an IMAP mailbox for the
- _INBOX_. For example, _{imap5.u.example.edu}inbox_ will open the
- user's standard _INBOX_ on the mail server, _imap5_.
- _incoming-archive-folders_
- This is like read-message-folder, only more general. This is a list
- of folder pairs, with the first separated from the second in the pair
- by a space. The first folder in a pair is the folder you want to
- archive, and the second folder is the folder that read messages from
- the first should be moved to. Depending on how you define the
- auto-move-read-msgs feature, you may or may not be asked when you
- leave the first folder if you want read messages to be moved to the
- second folder. In either case, moving the messages means they will be
- deleted from the first folder.
- If these are not path names, they will be in the default collection
- for _Save_s. Any valid folder specification, local or remote (via
- IMAP), is allowed. There is no default.
- _incoming-check-interval_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check for
- new mail and state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming Folders
- Checking is turned on. The default is 3 minutes (180). This value
- applies only to folders that are local to the system that _Alpine_ is
- running on or that are accessed using the IMAP protocol. The similar
- option incoming-check-interval-secondary applies to all other
- monitored folders.
- _incoming-check-interval-secondary_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- This option together with the option incoming-check-interval
- specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check for new mail and
- state changes in Incoming Folders when Incoming Folders Checking is
- turned on. The default for this option is 3 minutes (180). For
- folders that are local to this system or that are accessed using the
- IMAP protocol the value of the option incoming-check-interval is
- used. For all other monitored folders, the value of this option is
- used.
- The reason there are two separate options is because it is usually
- less expensive to check local and IMAP folders than it is to check
- other types, like POP or NNTP folders. You may want to set this
- secondary value to a higher number than the primary check interval.
- _incoming-check-list_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- When monitoring the Incoming Message Folders for Unseen messages
- Alpine will normally monitor all Incoming Folders. You may use this
- option to restrict the list of monitored folders to a subset of all
- Incoming Folders.
- _incoming-check-timeout_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- Sets the time in seconds that Alpine will attempt to open a network
- connection used for monitoring for Unseen messages in Incoming
- Folders. The default is 5. If a connection has not completed within
- this many seconds Alpine will give up and consider it a failed
- connection.
- _incoming-folders_
- This is a list of one or more folders other than _INBOX_ that may
- receive new messages. This list is slightly special in that it is
- always expanded in the folder lister. In the future, it may become
- more special. For example, it would be nice if _Alpine_ would monitor
- the folders in this list for new mail.
- _incoming-startup-rule_
- This rule affects _Alpine_'s behavior when opening the _INBOX_ or
- another folder from the "INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS". This rule tells
- _Alpine_ which message to make the current message when an incoming
- folder is opened. There are seven possible values for this option:
-
- _first-unseen_
- The current message will be the first unseen message which has
- not been marked deleted, or the last message if all of the
- messages have been seen. This is the default setting.
-
- _first-recent_
- This is similar to _first-unseen_. Instead of first unseen it
- is the first recent message. A message is considered to be
- recent if it arrived since the last time the folder was open
- (by any mail client, not just the current one). So this option
- causes the current message to be set to the first
- undeleted-recent message, or the last message if none is both
- undeleted and recent.
-
- _first-important_
- This will result in the current message being set to the first
- message marked Important (but not Deleted). If no messages are
- marked Important, then it will be the last message.
-
- _first-important-or-unseen_
- This selects the minimum of the first unseen and the first
- important messages.
-
- _first-important-or-recent_
- This selects the first of the first recent and the first
- important messages.
-
- _first_
- Set the current message to the first undeleted message unless
- all are deleted. In that case set it to the last message.
-
- _last_
- Set the current message to the last undeleted message unless
- all are deleted. In that case set it to the last message.
-
- _incoming-unseen-background-color_
- _incoming-unseen-foreground-color_
- Incoming Unseen Color.
- _index-answered-background-color_
- _index-answered-foreground-color_
- _index-arrow-background-color_
- _index-arrow-foreground-color_
- _index-deleted-background-color_
- _index-deleted-foreground-color_
- _index-from-background-color_
- _index-from-foreground-color_
- _index-highpriority-background-color_
- _index-highpriority-foreground-color_
- _index-important-background-color_
- _index-important-foreground-color_
- _index-lowpriority-background-color_
- _index-lowpriority-foreground-color_
- _index-new-background-color_
- _index-new-foreground-color_
- _index-opening-background-color_
- _index-opening-foreground-color_
- _index-recent-background-color_
- _index-recent-foreground-color_
- _index-subject-background-color_
- _index-subject-foreground-color_
- _index-to-me-background-color_
- _index-to-me-foreground-color_
- _index-unseen-background-color_
- _index-unseen-foreground-color_
- Index Colors.
- _index-format_
- This option is used to customize the content of lines in the MESSAGE
- INDEX screen. Each line is intended to convey some amount of
- immediately relevant information about each message in the current
- folder.
- _Alpine_ provides a pre-defined set of informational fields with
- reasonable column widths automatically computed. You can, however,
- replace this default set by listing special tokens in the order you
- want them displayed.
- The list of available tokens is here.
- Spaces are used to separate listed tokens. Additionally, you can
- specify how much of the screen's width the taken's associated data
- should occupy on the index line by appending the token with a pair of
- parentheses enclosing either a number or percentage. For example,
- "SUBJECT(13)" means to allocate 13 characters of space to the subject
- column, and "SUBJECT(20%)" means to allocate 20% of the available
- space to the subjects column, while plain "SUBJECT" means the system
- will attempt to figure out a reasonable amount of space.
- There is always one space between every pair of columns, so if you
- use fixed column widths (like 13) you should remember to take that
- into account. Several of the fields are virtually fixed-width, so it
- doesn't make much sense to specify the width for them. The fields
- STATUS, FULLSTATUS, IMAPSTATUS, MSGNO, the DATE fields, SIZE, and
- DESCRIPSIZE all fall into that category. You _may_ specify widths for
- those if you wish, but you're probably better off letting the system
- pick those widths.
- The default is equivalent to:
-
-index-format=STATUS MSGNO SMARTDATETIME24 FROMORTO(33%) SIZENARROW SUBJKEY(6
- 7%)
- This means that the four fields without percentages will be allocated
- first, and then 33% and 67% of the _remaining_ space will go to the
- from and subject fields. If one of those two fields is specified as a
- percentage and the other is left for the system to choose, then the
- percentage is taken as an absolute percentage of the screen, not of
- the space remaining after allocating the first four columns. It
- doesn't usually make sense to do it that way. If you leave off all
- the widths, then the subject and from fields (if both are present)
- are allocated space in a 2 to 1 ratio, which is almost exactly the
- same as the default.
- What you are most likely to do with this configuration option is to
- specify which fields appear at all, which order they appear in, and
- the percentage of screen that is used for the from and subject fields
- if you don't like the 2 to 1 default.
- If you want to retain the default format that _Pine_ 4.64 had, use
-
- Index-Format=STATUS MSGNO DATE FROMORTO(33%) SIZE SUBJKEY(67%)
- _and_ set the feature Disable-Index-Locale-Dates.
- _initial-keystroke-list_
- This is a comma-separated list of keystrokes which _Alpine_ executes
- on startup. Items in the list are usually just characters, but there
- are some special values. _SPACE,_ _TAB,_ and _CR_ mean a space
- character, tab character, and a carriage return, respectively. _F1_
- through _F12_ stand for the twelve function keys. _UP, DOWN, LEFT,
- _and_ RIGHT _stand for the arrow keys. Control characters are
- represented with _^<char>_. A restriction is that you can't mix
- function keys and character keys in this list even though you can, in
- some cases, mix them when running _Alpine_. A user can always use
- only _character_ keys in the startup list even if he or she is using
- _function_ keys normally, or vice versa. If an element in this list is
- a string surrounded by double quotes (") then it will be expanded
- into the individual characters in the string, excluding the double
- quotes.
- _kblock-passwd-count_
- System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. Number of times a user
- will have to enter a password when they run the keyboard lock command
- in the main menu.
- _keyboard-character-set_
- See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
- _keylabel-background-color_
- _keylabel-foreground-color_
- KeyLabel Color.
- _keyname-background-color_
- _keyname-foreground-color_
- KeyName Color.
- _keywords_
- You may define your own set of keywords and optionally set them on a
- message by message basis. These are similar to the "Important" flag
- which the user may set using the Flag command. The difference is that
- the Important flag is always present for each folder. User-defined
- keywords are chosen by the user. You may set up the list of possible
- keywords here, or you may add keywords from the Flag Details screen
- that you can get to after typing the Flag (*) command. After the
- keywords have been defined, then you use the Flag command to set or
- clear the keywords in each message. The behavior of the flag command
- may be modified by using the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option or
- the Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option.
- Keywords may be used when Selecting messages (Select Keyword).
- Keywords may also be used in the Patterns of Rules (Filters,
- Indexcolors, etc). Filter rules may be used to set keywords
- automatically. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject of a
- message by using the SUBJKEY or SUBJKEYINIT tokens in the
- Index-Format option. The Keyword-Surrounding-Chars option may be used
- to modify the display of keywords using SUBJKEY and SUBJKEYINIT
- slightly. Keywords may also be displayed in a column of their own in
- the MESSAGE INDEX screen by using the KEY or KEYINIT tokens. It is
- also possible to color keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor
- screen (Keyword Colors). Keywords are not supported by all mail
- servers.
- You may give keywords nicknames if you wish. If the keyword
- definition you type in contains a SPACE character, then the actual
- value of the keyword is everything after the last SPACE and the
- nickname for that keyword is everything before the last SPACE. For
- example, suppose you are trying to interoperate with another email
- program which uses a particular keyword with an unpleasant name.
- Maybe it uses a keyword called
-
- VendorName.SoftwareName.08
- but for you that keyword means that the message is work-related. You
- could define a keyword to have the value
-
- Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
- and then you would use the name "Work" when dealing with that keyword
- in _Alpine_. If you defined it as
-
- My Work VendorName.SoftwareName.08
- the nickname would be everything before the last SPACE, that is the
- nickname would be "My Work".
- Some commonly used keywords begin with dollar signs. This presents a
- slight complication, because the dollar sign is normally used to
- signify environment variable expansion in the _Alpine_ configuration.
- In order to specify a keyword which begins with a dollar sign you
- must precede the dollar sign with a second dollar sign to escape its
- special meaning. For example, if you want to include the keyword
-
- $Label1
- as one of your possible keywords, you must enter the text
-
- $$Label1
- instead.
- _keyword-surrounding-chars_
- This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX and
- MESSAGE TEXT screens. If you have modified the Index-Format option so
- that either the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens are used to display
- keywords or their initials along with the Subject; then this option
- may be used to modify the resulting display slightly. By default, the
- keywords or initials displayed for these tokens will be surrounded
- with curly braces ({ and }) and a trailing space. For example, if
- keywords "Work" and "Now" are set for a message, the "SUBJKEY" token
- will normally look like
-
- {Work Now} actual subject
- and the SUBJKEYINIT token would look like
-
- {WN} actual subject
- The default character before the keywords is the left brace ({) and
- the default after the keywords is the right brace followed by a space
- (} ).
- This option allows you to change that. You should set it to two
- values separated by a space. The values may be quoted if they include
- space characters. So, for example, the default value could be
- specified explicitly by setting this option to
-
- Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="{" "} "
- The first part wouldn't need to be quoted (but it doesn't hurt). The
- second part does need the quotes because it includes a space
- character. If you wanted to change the braces to brackets you could
- use
-
- Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="[" "] "
- Inside the quotes you can use backslash quote to mean quote, so
-
- Keyword-Surrounding-Chars="\"" "\" "
- would produce
-
- "Work Now" actual subject
- It is also possible to color keywords in the index using the
- Setup/Kolor screen (Keyword Colors).
- It is not possible to change the fact that a space character is used
- to separate the keywords if more than one keyword is set for a
- message. It is also not possible to change the fact that there are no
- separators between the keyword initials if more than one keyword is
- set.
- This option is displayed as "Keyword Surrounding Characters".
- _last-time-prune-questioned_
- Personal configuration file only. This variable records the month the
- user was last asked if his or her _sent-mail_ folders should be
- pruned. The format is _yy.mm_. This is automatically updated by
- _Alpine_ when the the pruning is done or declined. If a user wanted to
- make _Alpine_ stop asking this question he or she could set this time
- to something far in the future. This may not be set in the
- system-wide configuration files. Note: The _yy_ year is actually the
- number of years since 1900, so it will be equal to 101 in the year
- 2001.
- _last-version-used_
- Personal configuration file only. This is set automatically by
- _Alpine_. It is used to keep track of the last version of _Alpine_
- that was run by the user. Whenever the version number increases, a
- new version message is printed out. This may not be set in the
- system-wide configuration files.
- _ldap-servers_
- This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP library
- when it was compiled. This variable is normally managed by _Alpine_
- though it can be set in the system-wide configuration files as well
- as the personal configuration. It is a list variable. Each item in
- the list contains quite a bit of extra information besides just the
- server name. To put this into a system-wide config file the easiest
- thing to do is to configure a personal _Alpine_ for the LDAP server
- then copy the configuration line into the system-wide config file.
- Each item in the list looks like:
-
- server_name[:port] "quoted stuff"
- The server_name is just a hostname and it is followed by an optional
- colon and port number. The default port is 389. Following the server
- name is a single SPACE character followed by a bunch of characters
- inside double quotes. The part inside the quotes is a set of _tag_ =
- _value_ pairs. Each tag is preceded by a slash (/) and followed by an
- equal sign. The value for that tag is the text up to the next slash.
- An example of some quoted stuff is:
-
- "/base=o=University of Washington, c=US/impl=0/.../nick=My Server"
- This would set the search base for this server to o=University of
- Washington, c=US, set the implicit bit to zero, and set the nickname
- for the server to My Server. All of the tags correspond directly to
- items in the Setup/Directory screen so experiment with that if you
- want to see what the possible tags and values are.
- _literal-signature_
- With this option your actual signature, as opposed to the name of a
- file containing your signature, is stored in the _Alpine_
- configuration file. If this is defined it takes precedence over the
- _signature-file_ option.
- This is simply a different way to store the signature data. The
- signature is stored inside your _Alpine_ configuration file instead
- of in a separate signature file. Tokens contained in the signature
- work the same way they do with the regular signature-file.
- The Setup/Signature command in _Alpine_'s Main Menu will edit the
- _literal-signature_ by default. However, if no _literal-signature_ is
- defined and the file named in the _signature-file_ option exists,
- then the latter will be used instead. Compose (Reply, Forward, ...)
- will default to using the _literal-signature_ if defined, otherwise
- it will use the contents of the file named in _signature-file_.
- The _Alpine_ composer is used to edit the literal-signature. The
- result of that edit is first converted to a C-style string before it
- is stored in the configuration file. In particular, the two character
- sequence \n (backslash followed by the character "n") will be used to
- signify a line-break in the signature. You don't have to enter the
- \n, but it will be visible in the SETUP CONFIGURATION window after
- you are done editing the signature.
- _mail-check-interval_
- This option specifies, in seconds, how often _Alpine_ will check for
- new mail. If set to zero, new-mail checking is disabled. (You can
- always manually force a new-mail check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L), which
- is also the command to refresh the screen, or by typing the Next
- command when the current message is the last message of the folder.)
- There is a minimum value for this option, normally 15 seconds. The
- default value is normally 150 seconds. The higher you set this
- option, the easier it is on the server.
- There are some situations where automatic new-mail checking does not
- work. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
- folder-reopen-rule.
- The new-mail checking will not happen exactly at the frequency that
- you specify. For example, _Alpine_ may elect to defer a non-INBOX
- mail check if you are busy typing. Or, it may check more frequently
- than you have specified if that is thought to be necessary to keep
- the server from closing the connection to the folder due to
- inactivity. If _Alpine_ checks for new mail as a side effect of
- another command, it will reset the timer, so that new-mail checking
- may seem to happen irregularly instead of every X seconds like
- clockwork.
- If you are anxious to know about new mail as soon as possible, set
- the check interval low, and you'll know about the new mail by
- approximately that amount of time after it arrives. If you aren't so
- worried about knowing right away, set this option to a higher value.
- That will save the server some processing time and may save you some
- of the time you spend waiting for new-mail checks to happen if you
- are dealing with a slow server or slow network connection.
- If you suspect that new-mail checking is causing slow downs for you,
- you may want to look into the options
- Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox,
- Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-InboxandMail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent,
- which refine when mail checking is done.
- If the mailbox being check uses a Mail Drop then there is a minimum
- time (maildrop-check-minimum) between new-mail checks. Because of
- this minimum you may notice that new mail does not appear promptly
- when you expect it. The reason for this is to protect the server from
- over-zealous opening and closing of the Mail Drop folder, since that
- is a costly operation.
- A side effect of disabling mail checking is that there will be
- situations in which the user's IMAP connection will be broken due to
- inactivity timers on the server. Another side effect is that the
- user-input-timeout option won't work.
- _mail-check-interval-noncurrent_
- This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval option, as
- well as the Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox and
- Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox options. If the
- "Mail-Check-Interval" option is set to zero, then automatic new-mail
- checking is disabled and this option will have no effect.
- Normally this option is set to zero, which means that the value used
- will be the same as the value for the "Mail-Check-Interval". If you
- set this option to a value different from zero (usually larger than
- the value for "Mail-Check-Interval") then that is the check interval
- that will be used for folders which are not the currently open folder
- or the INBOX. You may not even have any folders that are noncurrent
- and not the INBOX. If you do, it is likely that they are due to
- Stay-Open-Folders you have configured. This option also affects the
- rate of mail checking done on cached connections to folders you
- previously had open but are no longer actively using. You aren't
- expected to understand that last sentence, but if you are interested
- take a look at Max-Remote-Connections, and the related options.
- _mail-directory_
- This variable was more important in previous versions of _Alpine_.
- Now it is used only as the default for storing personal folders (and
- only if there are no folder-collections defined). The default value
- is _~/mail_ on UNIX and _${HOME}\MAIL_ on a PC.
- _mailcap-search-path_
- This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mailcap file
- search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be
- specified) in which to look for mail capability data.
- _maildrop-check-minimum_
- New-mail checking for a Mail Drop is a little different from new mail
- checking for a regular folder. One of the differences is that the
- connection to the Mail Drop is not kept open and so the cost of
- checking (delay for you and additional load for the server) may be
- significant. Because of this additional cost we set a minimum time
- that must pass between checks. This minimum only applies to the
- automatic checking done by _Alpine_. If you force a check by typing
- ^L (Ctrl-L) or by typing the Next command when you are at the end of
- a folder index, then the check is done right away.
- This option specifies, in seconds, the _minimum_ time between Mail
- Drop new-mail checks. You may want to set this minimum high in order
- to avoid experiencing some of the delays associated with the checks.
- Note that the time between checks is still controlled by the regular
- Mail-Check-Interval option. When _Alpine_ is about to do an automatic
- check for new mail (because the Mail-Check-Interval has expired) then
- if the time since the last new-mail check of any open Mail Drops has
- been greater than the MailDrop-Check-Minimum, the Mail Drop is
- checked for new mail as well. Therefore, it is only useful to set
- this option to a value that is higher than the Mail-Check-Interval.
- If this option is set to zero, automatic Mail Drop new-mail checking
- is disabled. There is a minimum value, normally 60 seconds. The
- default value is normally 60 seconds as well. This applies to the
- INBOX and to the currently open folder if that is different from the
- INBOX.
- _max-remote-connections_
- This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. The default value
- for this option is _2_. If your INBOX is accessed using the IMAP
- protocol from an IMAP server, that connection is kept open throughout
- the duration of your _Alpine_ session, independent of the value of
- this option. The same is true of any Stay-Open-Folders you have
- defined. This option controls _Alpine_'s behavior when connecting to
- remote IMAP folders other than your INBOX or your Stay-Open-Folders.
- It specifies the maximum number of remote IMAP connections (other
- than those mentioned above) that _Alpine_ will use for accessing the
- rest of your folders. If you set this option to zero, you will turn
- off most remote connection re-use. It's difficult to understand
- exactly what this option does, and it is usually fine to leave it set
- to its default value. It is probably more likely that you will be
- interested in setting the Stay-Open-Folders option instead of
- changing the value of this option. A slightly longer explanation of
- what is going on with this option is given in the next paragraphs.
- There are some time costs involved in opening and closing remote IMAP
- folders, the main costs being the time you have to wait for the
- connection to the server and the time for the folder to open. Opening
- a folder may involve not only the time the server takes to do its
- processing but time that _Alpine_ uses to do filtering. These times
- can vary widely. They depend on how loaded the server is, how large
- the folder being opened is, and how you set up filtering, among other
- things. Once _Alpine_ has opened a connection to a particular folder,
- it will attempt to keep that connection open in case you use it
- again. In order to do this, _Alpine_ will attempt to use the
- Max-Remote-Connections (the value of this option) IMAP connections
- you have alloted for this purpose.
- For example, suppose the value of this option is set to "2". If your
- INBOX is accessed on a remote server using the IMAP protocol, that
- doesn't count as one of the remote connections but it is always kept
- open. If you then open another IMAP folder, that would be your first
- remote connection counted as one of the Max-Remote-Connections
- connections. If you open a third folder the second will be left open,
- in case you return to it. You won't be able to tell it has been left
- open. It will appear to be closed when you leave the folder but the
- connection will remain in the background. Now suppose you go back to
- the second folder (the first folder after the INBOX). A connection to
- that folder is still open so you won't have to wait for the startup
- time to open it. Meanwhile, the connection to the third folder will
- be left behind. Now, if you open a fourth folder, you will bump into
- the Max-Remote-Connections limit, because this will be the third
- folder other than INBOX and you have the option set to "2". The
- connection that is being used for the third folder will be re-used
- for this new fourth folder. If you go back to the third folder after
- this, it is no longer already connected when you get there. You'll
- still save some time since _Alpine_ will re-use the connection to the
- fourth folder and you have already logged in on that connection, but
- the folder will have to be re-opened from scratch.
- If a folder is large and the startup cost is dominated by the time it
- takes to open that folder or to run filters on it, then it will pay
- to make the value of this option large enough to keep it open. On the
- other hand, if you only revisit a handful of folders or if the
- folders are small, then it might make more sense to keep this number
- small so that the reconnect time (the time to start up a new
- connection and authenticate) is eliminated instead.
- You may also need to consider the impact on the server. On the
- surface, a larger number here may cause a larger impact on the
- server, since you will have more connections open to the server. On
- the other hand, not only will _you_ be avoiding the startup costs
- associated with reopening a folder, but the _server_ will be avoiding
- those costs as well.
- When twenty five minutes pass without any active use of an IMAP
- connection being saved for possible re-use, that connection will be
- shut down,
- This option is displayed as "Maximum Remote Connections".
- _meta-message-background-color_
- _meta-message-foreground-color_
- Meta-message Color.
- _mimetype-search-path_
- This variable is used to replace _Alpine_'s default mime.types file
- search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be
- specified) in which to look for file-name-extension to MIME type
- mapping data. See the Config Notes for details on _Alpine_'s usage of
- the MIME.Types File.
- _new-version-threshold_
- When a new version of _Alpine_ is run for the first time it offers a
- special explanatory screen to the user upon startup. This option
- helps control when and if that special screen appears for users that
- have previously run _Alpine_. It takes as its value a _Alpine_
- version number. _Alpine_ versions less than the specified value will
- supress this special screen while versions equal to or greater than
- that specified will behave normally.
- _newmail-fifo-path_
- This option is only available in UNIX _Alpine_. However, there is a
- very similar feature built in to _PC-Alpine_. In _PC-Alpine_'s Config
- menu at the top of the screen is an option called "New Mail Window".
- You may have _Alpine_ create a FIFO special file (also called a named
- pipe, see mkfifo(3) and fifo(4)) where it will send a one-line
- message each time a new message is received in the current folder,
- the INBOX, or any open Stay-Open-Folders. To protect against two
- different _Alpine_s both writing to the same FIFO, _Alpine_ will only
- create the FIFO and write to it if it doesn't already exist.
- A possible way to use this option would be to have a separate window
- on your screen running the command
-
- cat filename
- where "filename" is the name of the file given for this option.
- Because the file won't exist until after you start _Alpine_, you must
- _first_ start _Alpine_ and _then_ run the "cat" command. You may be
- tempted to use "tail -f filename" to view the new mail log. However,
- the common implementations of the tail command will not do what you
- are hoping.
- The width of the messages produced for the FIFO may be altered with
- the NewMail-Window-Width option.
- On some systems, fifos may only be created in a local filesystem. In
- other words, they may not be in NFS filesystems. This requirement is
- not universal. If the system you are using supports it, it should
- work. (It is often the case that your home directory is in an NFS
- filesystem. If that is the case, you might try using a file in the
- "/tmp" filesystem, which is usually a local filesytem.) Even when it
- is possible to use an NFS-mounted filesystem as a place to name the
- fifo (for example, your home directory), it will still be the case
- that the reader (probably the "cat" command) and the writer
- (_Alpine_) of the fifo must be running on the same system.
- _newmail-window-width_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This option is only useful if you have turned on the
- NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail messages to be
- sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80 characters wide by
- default. You can change the width of the messages by changing this
- option. For example, if you are reading those messages in another
- window you might want to set this width to the width of that other
- window.
- For UNIX _Alpine_, this option is only useful if you have turned on
- the NewMail-FIFO-Path option. That option causes new mail messages to
- be sent to a fifo file. Those messages will be 80 characters wide by
- default. You can change the width of those messages by changing this
- option. For example, if you are reading those messages in another
- window you might want to set this width to the width of that other
- window.
- If you are using _PC-Alpine_, it has an option in the Config menu to
- turn on the "New Mail Window". The present option also controls the
- width of that window.
- _news-active-file-path_
- This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "active file" for
- newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via NNTP. The
- default path is usually /usr/lib/news/active.
- _news-collections_
- This is a list of collections where news folders are located. See the
- section describing collections for more information.
- _news-spool-directory_
- This option tells _Alpine_ where to look for the "news spool" for
- newsgroups when accessing news locally, rather than via NNTP. The
- default path is usually /usr/spool/news.
- _newsrc-path_
- This option overrides the default name _Alpine_ uses for your
- "newsrc" news status and subscription file. If set, _Alpine_ will
- take this value as the full pathname for the desired newsrc file.
- _nntp-range_
- This option applies only to newsgroups accessed using the NNTP
- protocol. It does not, for example, apply to newsgroups accessed
- using an IMAP-to-NNTP proxy.
- When you open a connection to a News server using the NNTP protocol,
- you normally have access to all of the articles in each newsgroup. If
- a server keeps a large backlog of messages it may speed performance
- some to restrict attention to only the newer messages in a group.
- This option allows you to set how many article numbers should be
- checked when opening a newsgroup. You can think of "nntp-range" as
- specifying the maximum number of messages you ever want to see. For
- example, if you only ever wanted to look at the last 500 messages in
- each newsgroup you could set this option to 500. In actuality, it
- isn't quite that. Instead, for performance reasons, it specifies the
- range of article numbers to be checked, beginning with the highest
- numbered article and going backwards from there. If there are
- messages that have been canceled or deleted their article numbers are
- still counted as part of the range.
- So, more precisely, setting the "nntp-range" will cause article
- numbers
-
- last_article_number - nntp-range + 1 through last_article_number
- to be considered when reading a newsgroup. The number of messages
- that show up in your index will be less than or equal to the value of
- "nntp-range".
- The purpose of this option is simply to speed up access when reading
- news. The speedup comes because _Alpine_ can ignore all but the last
- nntp-range article numbers, and can avoid downloading any information
- about the ignored articles. There is a cost you pay for this speedup.
- That cost is that there is no way for you to see those ignored
- articles. The articles that come before the range you specify are
- invisible to you and to _Alpine_, as if they did not exist at all.
- There is no way to see those messages using, for example, an
- unexclude command or something similar. The only way to see those
- articles is to set this option high enough (or set it to zero) and
- then to reopen the newsgroup.
- If this option is set to 0 (which is also the default), then the
- range is unlimited. This option applies globally to all NNTP servers
- and to all newsgroups on those servers. There is no way to set
- different values for different newsgroups or servers.
- _nntp-server_
- One or more NNTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
- will use for reading and posting news. If you read and post news to
- and from a single NNTP server, you can get away with only setting the
- _nntp-server_ variable and leaving the _news-collections_ variable
- unset.
- When you define an NNTP server, _Alpine_ implicitly defines a news
- collection for you, assuming that server as the news server and
- assuming that you will use the NNTP protocol and a local newsrc
- configuration file for reading news. See also Configuring News.
- Your NNTP server may offer NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO USER"
- authentication. It may even require it. If your NNTP server does
- offer such authentication you may specify a user name parameter to
- cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate. The same is true for the
- server name in a folder collection which uses NNTP. This parameter
- requires an associated value, the username identifier with which to
- establish the server connection. An example might be:
-
- nntpserver.example.com/user=katie
- If authentication is offered by the server, this will cause _Alpine_
- to attempt to use it. If authentication is not offered by the server,
- this will cause _Alpine_ to fail with an error similar to:
-
- Error: NNTP authentication not available
- For more details about the server name possibilities see Server Name
- Syntax.
- _normal-background-color_
- _normal-foreground-color_
- Normal Color.
- _opening-text-separator-chars_
- This option controls a minor aspect of _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX
- screen. With some setups the text of the subject is followed by the
- opening text of the message if there is any room available in the
- index line. If you have configured your Index-Format option to
- include one of the Subject tokens which causes this behavior
- (SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT), then this option may
- be used to modify what is displayed slightly. By default, the Subject
- is separated from the opening text of the message by the three
- characters space dash space;
-
- " - "
- Use this option to set it to something different. The value must be
- quoted if it includes any space characters. For example, the default
- value could be specified explicitly by setting this option to
-
- Opening-Text-Separator-Chars=" - "
- This option is displayed as "Opening Text Separator Characters".
- _operating-dir_
- System-wide _Alpine_ configuration files only. This names the root of
- the tree to which the user is restricted when reading and writing
- folders and files. It is usually used in the _fixed_ configuration
- file.
- _patterns-filters2_
- Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used with Filtering. This variable is
- normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Filters configuration
- screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the list is a single
- pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more
- lines of pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a filters file
- is to use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Filters screen
- with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command
- to move existing filter patterns into the file. This isn't very
- convenient but it isn't thought that many users will need this
- functionality. The purpose of filter files is for sharing filters.
- This option is displayed as "Patterns Filters".
- _patterns-indexcolors_
- Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used for Index Line Colors. This
- variable is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor
- configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the list
- is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which contains
- zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a
- indexcolor file is to use the InsertFile command in the
- Setup/Rules/Indexcolor screen with a filename which doesn't yet
- exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move existing patterns into
- the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many
- users will need this functionality. The purpose of indexcolor files
- is for sharing indexcolors.
- _patterns-other_
- Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used with Miscellaneous Rules
- configuration. This variable is normally maintained through the
- Setup/Rules/Other configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each
- member of the list is a single pattern/action pair, or it can be a
- file which contains zero or more lines of pattern/action pairs. The
- only way to create a rules file is to use the InsertFile command in
- the Setup/Rules/Other screen with a filename which doesn't yet exist.
- Then use the Shuffle command to move existing rules into the file.
- This isn't very convenient but it isn't thought that many users will
- need this functionality.
- _patterns-roles_
- Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used with Roles. This variable is
- normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/Roles configuration
- screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the list is a single
- pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more
- lines of pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a roles file is
- to use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/Roles screen with a
- filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command to
- move existing roles into the file. This isn't very convenient but it
- isn't thought that many users will need this functionality. The
- purpose of role files is for sharing roles.
- _patterns-scores2_
- Matching patterns and their corresponding actions are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used with Scoring. This variable is
- normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/SetScores configuration
- screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the list is a single
- pattern/action pair, or it can be a file which contains zero or more
- lines of pattern/action pairs. The only way to create a scores file
- is to use the InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/SetScores screen
- with a filename which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command
- to move existing scoring patterns into the file. This isn't very
- convenient but it isn't thought that many users will need this
- functionality. The purpose of scoring files is for sharing scoring
- rules.
- This option is displayed as "Patterns Scores".
- _patterns-search_
- Matching patterns for use with the Select command are stored in this
- variable. These patterns are used with Search Rules configuration.
- This variable is normally maintained through the Setup/Rules/searCh
- configuration screen. It is a list variable. Each member of the list
- is a single pattern, or it can be a file which contains zero or more
- lines of patterns. The only way to create a rules file is to use the
- InsertFile command in the Setup/Rules/searCh screen with a filename
- which doesn't yet exist. Then use the Shuffle command to move
- existing rules into the file. This isn't very convenient but it isn't
- thought that many users will need this functionality.
- _personal-name_
- Personal configuration file only. User's full personal name. On UNIX
- systems, the default is taken from the accounts data base
- (/etc/passwd). The easiest way to change the full From address is
- with the customized-hdrs variable.
- _personal-print-category_
- Personal configuration file only. This is the category that the
- default print command belongs to. There are three categories.
- Category 1 is an attached printer which uses the ANSI escape
- sequence, category 2 is the standard system print command, and
- category 3 is the set of custom printer commands defined by the user.
- This just helps _Alpine_ figure out where to put the cursor when the
- user runs the _Setup/Printer_ command. This is not used by
- _PC-Alpine_.
- _personal-print-command_
- Personal configuration file only. This corresponds to the third
- category in the printer menu, the personally selected print commands.
- This variable contains the list of custom commands that the user has
- entered in the _Setup/Printer_ screen. This is not used by
- _PC-Alpine_.
- _posting-character-set_
- See the discussion in International Character Sets for details.
- _postponed-folder_
- The folder where postponed messages are stored. The default is
- _postponed-msgs_ (Unix) or _POSTPOND_ (PC).
- _print-font-name_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _print-font-size_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _print-font-style_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only.
- _printer_
- Personal configuration file only. This is the current setting for a
- user's printer. This variable is set from _Alpine_'s _Setup/Printer_
- screen.
- _prompt-background-color_
- _prompt-foreground-color_
- Prompt Color.
- _pruned-folders_
- This variable allows you to define a list of one or more folders that
- _Alpine_ will offer to prune for you in the same way it automatically
- offers to prune your "sent-mail" folder each month. Each folder in
- this list must be a folder in your default folder collection (the
- first folder collection if you have more than one), and it is just
- the relative name of the folder in the collection, not the
- fully-qualified name. It is similar to sent-mail. Instead of
- something like
-
- pruned-folders={servername}mail/folder
- the correct value to use would be
-
- folder
- There is an assumption here that your first collection is the folders
- in
-
- {servername}mail
- Once a month, for each folder listed, _Alpine_ will offer to move the
- contents of the folder to a new folder of the same name but with the
- previous month's date appended. _Alpine_ will then look for any such
- date-appended folder names created for a previous month, and offer
- each one it finds for deletion.
- If you decline the first offer, no mail is moved and no new folder is
- created.
- The new folders will be created in your default folder collection.
- _pruning-rule_
- By default, _Alpine_ will ask at the beginning of each month whether
- or not you want to rename your sent-mail folder to a name like
- sent-mail-month-year. (See the feature prune-uses-yyyy-mm to change
- the format of the folder to sent-mail-yyyy-mm.) It will also ask
- whether you would like to delete old sent-mail folders. If you have
- defined read-message-folder or pruned-folders _Alpine_ will also ask
- about pruning those folders. With this option you may provide an
- automatic answer to the rename questions and you may tell _Alpine_ to
- not ask about deleting old folders.
- _quote1-background-color_
- _quote1-foreground-color_
- _quote2-background-color_
- _quote2-foreground-color_
- _quote3-background-color_
- _quote3-foreground-color_
- Quote Colors.
- _quote-replace-string_
- This option specifies what string to use as a quote when _viewing_ a
- message. The standard way of quoting messages when replying is the
- string "> " (quote space). With this variable set, viewing a message
- will replace occurrences of "> " with the replacement string. This
- setting works best when Reply-Indent-String or the equivalent setting
- in your correspondents' mail programs is set to the default "> ", but
- it will also work fine with the Reply-Indent-String set to ">".
- Enable the feature Quote-Replace-Nonflowed to also have
- quote-replacement performed on non-flowed messages.
- Setting this option will replace ">" and "> " with the new setting.
- This string may include trailing spaces. To preserve those spaces
- enclose the full string in double quotes.
- No padding to separate the text of the message from the quote string
- is added. This means that if you do not add trailing spaces to the
- value of this variable, text will be displayed right next to the
- quote string, which may be undesirable. This can be avoided by adding
- a new string separated by a space from your selection of quote string
- replacement. This last string will be used for padding. For example,
- setting this variable to ">" " " has the effect of setting ">" as the
- quote-replace-string, with the text padded by a space from the last
- quote string to make it more readable.
- One possible setting for this variable could be " " (four spaces
- wrapped in quotes), which would have the effect of indenting each
- level of quoting four spaces and removing the ">"'s. Different levels
- of quoting could be made more discernible by setting colors for
- quoted text.
- Replying to or forwarding the viewed message will preserve the
- original formatting of the message, so quote-replacement will not be
- performed on messages that are being composed.
- _quote-suppression-threshold_
- This option should be used with care. It will cause some of the
- quoted text to be eliminated from the display when viewing a message
- in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. For example, if you set the
- Quote-Suppression-Threshold to the value "5", this will cause quoted
- text that is longer than five lines to be truncated. Quoted text of
- five or fewer consecutive lines will be displayed in its entirety.
- Quoted text of more than six lines will have the first five lines
- displayed followed by a line that looks something like
-
- [ 12 lines of quoted text hidden from view ]
- As a special case, if exactly one line of quoted text would be
- hidden, the entire quote will be shown instead. So for the above
- example, quoted text which is exactly six lines long will will be
- shown in its entirety. (In other words, instead of hiding a single
- line and adding a line that announces that one line was hidden, the
- line is just shown.)
- If the sender of a message has carefully chosen the quotes that he or
- she includes, hiding those quotes may change the meaning of the
- message. For that reason, _Alpine_ requires that when you want to set
- the value of this variable to something less than four lines, you
- actually have to set it to the negative of that number. So if you
- want to set this option to "3", you actually have to set it to "-3".
- The only purpose of this is to get you to think about whether or not
- you really want to do this! If you want to delete all quoted text you
- set the value of this option to the special value "-10".
- The legal values for this option are
-
- 0 Default, don't hide anything
- -1,-2,-3 Suppress quote lines past 1, 2, or 3 lines
- 4,5,6,... Suppress if more than that many lines
- -10 Suppress all quoted lines
- If you set this option to a non-default value you may sometimes wish
- to view the quoted text that is not shown. When this is the case, the
- HdrMode (Header Mode) command may be used to show the hidden text.
- Typing the "H" command once will show the hidden text. Typing a
- second "H" will also turn on Full Header mode. The presence or
- absence of the HdrMode command is determined by the
- "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option in your _Alpine_
- configuration, so you will want to be sure that is turned on if you
- use quote suppression.
- For the purposes of this option, a quote is a line that begins with
- the character ">".
- Quotes are only suppressed when displaying a message on the screen.
- The entire quote will be left intact when printing or forwarding or
- something similar.
- _read-message-folder_
- If set, mail in the _INBOX_ that has been read but not deleted is
- moved here, or rather, the user is asked whether or not he or she
- wants to move it here upon quitting _Alpine_.
- _remote-abook-history_
- Sets how many extra copies of remote address book data will be kept
- in each remote address book folder. The default is three. These extra
- copies are simply old versions of the data. Each time a change is
- made a new copy of the address book data is appended to the folder.
- Old copies are trimmed, if possible, when _Alpine_ exits. An old copy
- can be put back into use by deleting and expunging newer versions of
- the data from the folder. Don't delete the first message from the
- folder. It is a special header message for the remote address book
- and it must be there. This is to prevent regular folders from being
- used as remote address book folders and having their data destroyed.
- _remote-abook-metafile_
- Personal configuration file only. This is usually set by _Alpine_ and
- is the name of a file that contains data about remote address books
- and remote configuration files.
- _remote-abook-validity_
- Sets the minimum number of minutes that a remote address book will be
- considered up to date. Whenever an entry contained in a remote
- address book is used, if more than this many minutes have passed
- since the last check the remote server will be queried to see if the
- address book has changed. If it has changed, the local copy is
- updated. The default value is five minutes. The special value of -1
- means never check. The special value of zero means only check when
- the address book is first opened.
- No matter what the value, the validity check is always done when the
- address book is about to be changed by the user. The check can be
- initiated manually by typing _^L_ (Ctrl-L) while in the address book
- maintenance screen for the remote address book.
- _reply-indent-string_
- This variable specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Reply_ command. When
- a message is replied to and the text of the message is included, the
- included text usually has the string "> " prepended to each line
- indicating it is quoted text.
- This option specifies a different value for that string. If you wish
- to use a string which begins or ends with a space, enclose the string
- in double quotes.
- Besides simple text, the prepended string can be based on the message
- being replied to. The following tokens are substituted for the
- message's corresponding value:
-
- _FROM_
- This token gets replaced with the message sender's "username".
- At most six characters are used.
-
- _NICK_
- This token gets replaced with the nickname of the message
- sender's address as found in your addressbook. If no
- addressbook entry is found, Pine replaces the characters
- "_NICK_" with nothing. At most six characters are used.
-
- _INIT_
- This token gets replaced with the initials of the sender of the
- message.
-
- When the enable-reply-indent-string-editing feature is enabled, you
- are given the opportunity to edit the string, whether it is the
- default or one automatically generated using the above tokens.
- _reply-leadin_
- This option is used to customize the content of the introduction line
- that is included when replying to a message and including the
- original message in the reply. The normal default (what you will get
- if you delete this variable) looks something like:
-
- On Sat, 24 Oct 1998, Fred Flintstone wrote:
- where the day of the week is only included if it is available in the
- original message. You can replace this default with text of your own.
- The text may contain tokens that are replaced with text that depends
- on the message you are replying to. For example, the default is
- equivalent to:
-
- On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
- Since this variable includes regular text mixed with special tokens
- the tokens have to be surrounded by underscore characters. For
- example, to use the token "PREFDATE" you would need to use
- "_PREFDATE_", not "PREFDATE".
- The list of available tokens is here.
- By default, the text is all on a single line and is followed by a
- blank line. If your _Reply-Leadin_ turns out to be longer than 80
- characters when replying to a particular message, it is shortened.
- However, if you use the token
-
- _NEWLINE_
- anywhere in the value, no end of line or blank line is appended, and
- no shortening is done. The _NEWLINE_ token may be used to get rid of
- the blank line following the text, to add more blank lines, or to
- form a multi-line _Reply-Leadin_. To clarify how _NEWLINE_ works
- recall that the default value is:
-
- On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:
- That is equivalent to
-
- On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE__NEWLINE_
- In the former case, two newlines are added automatically because no
- _NEWLINE_ token appears in the value of the option (for backwards
- compatibility). In the latter case, the newlines are explicit. If you
- want to remove the blank line that follows the _Reply-Leadin_ text
- use a single _NEWLINE_ token like
-
- On _DAYDATE_, _FROM_ wrote:_NEWLINE_
- Because of the backwards compatibility problem, it is not possible to
- remove all of the ends of lines, because then there will be no
- _NEWLINE_ tokens and that will cause the automatic adding of two
- newlines! If you want, you may embed newlines in the middle of the
- text, as well, producing a multi-line _Reply-Leadin_.
- By default, no attempt is made to localize the date. If you prefer a
- localized form you may find that one of the tokens _PREFDATE_ or
- _PREFDATETIME_ is a satisfactory substitute. If you want more control
- one of the many other date tokens, such as _DATEISO_, might be
- better.
- For the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include text
- based on whether or not a token would result in specific replacement
- text. For example, you could include some text based on whether or
- not the _NEWS_ token would result in any newsgroups if it was used.
- It's explained in detail here.
- In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token
- in the introduction line you must precede it with a backslash
- character. For example,
-
- \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
- would produce something like
-
- _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
- It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
- expanded token.
- _reverse-background-color_
- _reverse-foreground-color_
- Reverse Color.
- _rsh-command_
- Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
- connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All four
- "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first is for the
- command's pathname, the second is for the host to connnect to, the
- third is for the user to connect as, and the fourth is for the
- connection method (typically imap).
- _rsh-open-timeout_
- Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a UNIX
- remote shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum non-zero
- value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is set to zero rsh
- connections will be completely disabled.
- _rsh-path_
- Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX remote shell
- connection. The default is typically /usr/ucb/rsh.
- _saved-msg-name-rule_
- Determines default folder name when _Sav_ing. If set to
- _default-folder_ (which is the default setting), then _Alpine_ will
- offer the folder "saved-messages" (UNIX) or "SAVEMAIL" (PC) for
- _Sav_ing messages. The default folder offered in this way may be
- changed by using the configuration variable default-saved-msg-folder.
- If this rule is set to _last-folder-used_, _Alpine_ offers to _Save_
- to the folder you last successfully _Saved_ a message to (this
- session). The first time you _Save_ a message in a session, _Alpine_
- offers to _Save_ the message to the default folder.
- Choosing any of the _by-_ options causes _Alpine_ to attempt to get
- the chosen option's value for the message being _Saved_ (or for the
- first message being Saved if using an aggregate Save). For example,
- if _by-from_ is chosen, _Alpine_ attempts to get the value of who the
- message came from (i.e. the from address). _Alpine_ then attempts to
- _Save_ the message to a folder matching that value. If _by-from_ is
- chosen and no value is obtained, _Alpine_ uses _by-sender_. The
- opposite is also true. If _by-recipient_ was chosen and the message
- was posted to a newsgroup, _Alpine_ will use the newsgroup name. If
- _by-replyto_ is chosen and no value is obtained, _Alpine_ uses
- _by-from_.
- If any of the "by-realname" options are chosen, _Alpine_ will attempt
- to use the personal name part of the address instead of the mailbox
- part. If any of the "by-nick" options are chosen, the address is
- looked up in your address book and if found, the nickname for that
- entry is used. Only simple address book entries are checked, not
- distribution lists. Similarly, if any of the "by-fcc" options are
- chosen, the fcc from the corresponding address book entry is used. If
- by-realname, or the by-nick or by-fcc lookups result in no value,
- then if the chosen option ends with the "then-from", "then-sender",
- "then-replyto", or "then-recip" suffix, _Alpine_ reverts to the same
- behavior as "by-from", "by-sender", "by-replyto", or "by-recip"
- depending on which option was specified. If the chosen option doesn't
- end with one of the "then-" suffixes, then _Alpine_ reverts to the
- default folder when no match is found in the address book.
- Here is an example to make some of the options clearer. If the
- message is From
-
- Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>
- and this rule is set to "by-from", then the default folder offered in
- the save dialog would be "flint".
- If this rule is set to "by-realname-of-from" then the default would
- be "Fred Flintstone".
- If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from" then _Alpine_ will search
- for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book. If an entry
- is found and it has a nickname associated with it, that nickname will
- be offered as the default folder. If not, the default saved message
- folder will be offered as the default.
- If this rule is set to "by-fcc-of-from" then _Alpine_ will search for
- the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book. If an entry is
- found and it has an Fcc associated with it, that Fcc will be offered
- as the default folder. If not, the default saved message folder will
- be offered as the default.
- If this rule is set to "by-nick-of-from-then-from" then _Alpine_ will
- search for the address "flint@bedrock.org" in your address book. If
- an entry is found and it has a nickname associated with it, that
- nickname will be offered as the default folder. If it is not found
- (or has no nickname) then the default offered will be the same as it
- would be for the "by-from" rule. That is, it would be "flint"
- This option is displayed as "Saved Message Name Rule".
- _scroll-margin_
- This option controls when _Alpine_'s line-by-line scrolling occurs.
- Typically, when a selected item is at the top or bottom screen edge
- and the UP or DOWN (and Ctrl-P or Ctrl-N) keys are pressed, the
- displayed items are scrolled down or up by a single line.
- This option allows you to tell _Alpine_ the number of lines from the
- top and bottom screen edge that line-by-line scrolling should occur.
- For example, setting this value to one (1) will cause _Alpine_ to
- scroll the display when you move to select an item on the display's
- top or bottom edge (instead of moving when you move off the edge of
- the screen).
- By default, this variable is zero (0), indicating that scrolling
- happens when you move up or down to select an item immediately off
- the display's top or bottom edge.
- _selectable-item-background-color_
- _selectable-item-foreground-color_
- Selectable-item Color.
- _sending-filters_
- This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs and
- scripts) that may be selectively invoked to process a message just
- before it is sent. If set, the Composer's _^X Send_ command will
- allow you to select which filter (or none) to apply to the message
- before it is sent. For security reasons, the full path of the filter
- program must be specified.
- Sending filters do not work with _PC-Alpine_ and sending filters are
- not used if the feature send-without-confirm is set.
- Command Modifying Tokens:
-
- __RECIPIENTS__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- space delimited list of recipients of the message being sent.
-
- __TMPFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- path and name of the temporary file containing the text to be
- filtered. _Alpine_ expects the filter to replace this data with
- the filter's result. NOTE: Use of this token implies that the
- text to be filtered is not piped into standard input of the
- executed command and its standard output is ignored. _Alpine_
- restores the tty modes before invoking the filter in case the
- filter interacts with the user via its own standard input and
- output.
-
- __RESULTFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced with the
- path and name of a temporary file intended to contain a status
- message from the filter. _Alpine_ displays this in the message
- status field.
-
- __DATAFILE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced in the
- command line with the path and name of a temporary file that
- _Alpine_ creates once per session and deletes upon exit. The
- file is intended to be used by the filter to store state
- information between instances of the filter.
-
- __PREPENDKEY__
- When the command is executed, this token indicates that a
- random number will be passed down the input stream before the
- message text. It is not included as a command-line argument.
- This number could be used as a session key. It is sent in this
- way to improve security. The number is unique to the current
- _Alpine_ session and is only generated once per session.
-
- __INCLUDEALLHDRS__
- When the command is executed, this token indicates that the
- headers of the message will be passed down the input stream
- before the message text. It is not included as a command-line
- argument. The filter should, of course, remove the headers
- before returning control to _Alpine_.
-
- __MIMETYPE__
- When the command is executed, this token is replaced in the
- command name with a temporary file name used to accept any new
- MIME Content-Type information necessitated by the output of the
- filter. Upon the filter's exit, if the file contains new MIME
- type information, _Alpine_ verifies its format and replaces the
- outgoing message's MIME type information with that contained in
- the file. This is basically a cheap way of sending something
- other than Text/Plain.
-
- _sendmail-path_
- This names the path to an alternative program, and any necessary
- arguments, to be used in posting mail messages. See the section on
- SMTP and Sendmail for more details.
- _signature-file_
- This is the name of a file which will be automatically inserted into
- outgoing messages. It typically contains information such as your
- name, email address and organizational affiliation. _Alpine_ adds the
- signature into the message as soon as you enter the composer so you
- can choose to remove it or edit it on a message by message basis.
- Signature file placement in message replies is controlled by the
- signature-at-bottom setting in the feature list.
- This defaults to ~/.signature on UNIX and <PINERC directory>\PINE.SIG
- on a PC.
- To create or edit your signature file choose Setup from the Main Menu
- and then select S for Signature (Main/Setup/Signature). This puts you
- into the Signature Editor where you can enter a _few_ lines of text
- containing your identity and affiliation.
- If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead of
- reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a program
- which will produce the text to be used on its standard output. The
- program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive any input from
- _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as if the contents came
- from a file.
- Instead of storing the data in a local file, the signature data may
- be stored remotely in an IMAP folder. In order to do this, you must
- use a remote name for the file. A remote signature-file name might
- look like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/signature
- or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/signature
- The syntax used here is the same as the syntax used for remote
- configuration files from the command line. Note that you may not
- access an existing signature file remotely, you have to create a new
- _folder_ which contains the signature data. If the name you use here
- for the signature file is a remote name, then when you edit the file
- from the Setup/Signature command the data will be stored remotely in
- the folder. You aren't required to do anything special to create the
- folder, it gets created automatically if you use a remote name.
- Besides regular text, the signature file may also contain (or a
- signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text
- which usually depends on the message you are replying to or
- forwarding. For example, if the signature file contains the token
-
- _DATE_
- anywhere in the text, then that token is replaced by the date the
- message you are replying to or forwarding was sent. If it contains
-
- _CURDATE_
- that is replaced with the current date. The first is an example of a
- token which depends on the message you are replying to (or
- forwarding) and the second is an example which doesn't depend on
- anything other than the current date. You have to be a little careful
- with this facility since tokens which depend on the message you are
- replying to or forwarding will be replaced by nothing in the case
- where you are composing a new message from scratch. The use of roles
- may help you in this respect. It allows you to use different
- signature files in different cases.
- The list of tokens available for use in the signature file is here.
- Instead of, or along with the use of _roles_ to give you different
- signature files in different situations, there is also a way to
- conditionally include text based on whether or not a token would
- result in specific replacement text. For example, you could include
- some text based on whether or not the _NEWS_ token would result in
- any newsgroups if it was used. This is explained in detail here. This
- isn't for the faint of heart.
- In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token
- in the signature you must precede it with a backslash character. For
- example,
-
- \_DAYDATE_ = _DAYDATE_
- would produce something like
-
- _DAYDATE_ = Sat, 24 Oct 1998
- It is not possible to have a literal backslash followed by an
- expanded token.
- _signature-background-color_
- _signature-foreground-color_
- Signature Color.
- _smime-public-cert-directory_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- If the option smime-public-cert-container is set then this option
- will have no effect.
- Normally, Public Certificates for use with S/MIME will be stored in
- the directory which is the value of this option. Those certificates
- will be stored in PEM format, one certificate per file. The name of
- the file for the certificate corresponding to
-
- emailaddress
- should be
-
- emailaddress.crt
- For example, a file for user@example.com would be in the file
-
- user@example.com.crt
- in this directory.
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- Typically, the public certificates that you have will come from
- S/MIME signed messages that are sent to you. _Alpine_ will extract
- the public certificate from the signed message and store it in the
- certificates directory. These PEM format public certificates look
- something like:
------BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
-MIIFvTCCBKWgAwIBAgIQD4fYFHVI8T20yN4nus097DANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
-rjELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxCzAJBgNVBAgTAlVUMRcwFQYDVQQHEw5TYWx0IExha2Ug
-Q2l0eTEeMBwGA1UEChMVVGhlIFVTRVJUUlVTVCBOZXR3b3JrMSEwHwYDVQQLExho
-...
-2b9KGqDyMWW/rjNnmpjzjT2ObGM7lRA8lke4FLOLajhrz4ogO3b4DFfAAM1VSZH8
-D6sOwOLJZkLY8FRsfk63K+2EMzA2+qAzMKupgeTLqXIf
------END CERTIFICATE-----
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Directory".
- _smime-public-cert-container_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- If this option is set it will be used instead of
- smime-public-cert-directory
- This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an IMAP
- server instead of storing the certificates one per file locally. In
- order to do that you just give this option a remote folder name for a
- folder which does not yet exist. The name is similar to the name you
- might use for a remote configuration file. A remote folder name might
- look something like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/publiccerts
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Public Cert Container".
- _smime-private-key-directory_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- In order to sign outgoing S/MIME messages you will need a personal
- digital ID certificate. You will usually get such a certificate from
- a certificate authority such as Thawte or CAcert. (In order to
- encrypt outgoing messages you don't need a personal digital ID, you
- need the public certificate of the recipient instead.) If the option
- smime-private-key-container is set then this option will have no
- effect.
- Normally, Private Keys for use with S/MIME will be stored in the
- directory which is the value of this option. Those certificates will
- be stored in PEM format, one certificate per file. The name of the
- file for the certificate corresponding to your
-
- emailaddress
- should be
-
- emailaddress.key
- For example, if your address is user@example.com the name of the file
- would be
-
- user@example.com.key
- in this directory.
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- Typically, the private key that you have will come from a Certificate
- Authority. The private key should be stored in a PEM format file that
- looks something like:
------BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
-DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,2CBD328FD84CF5C6
-
-YBEXYLgLU9NJoc1V+vJ6UvcF08RX54S6jXsmgL0b5HGkudG6fhnmHkH7+UCvM5NI
-SXO/F8iuZDfs1VGG0NyitkFZ0Zn2vfaGovBvm15gx24b2xnZDLRB7/bNZkurnK5k
-VjAjZ2xXn2hFp2GJwqRdmxYNqsKGu52B99oti5HUWuZ2GFRaWjn5hYOqeApZE2uA
-...
-oSRqfI51UdSRt0tmGhHeTvybUVrHm9eKft8TTGf+qSBqzSc55CsmoVbRzw4Nfhix
-m+4TJybNGNfAgOctSkEyY/OCb49fRRQTCBZVIhzLGGmpYmkO55HbIA==
------END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Directory".
- _smime-private-key-container_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- If this option is set it will be used instead of
- smime-private-key-directory.
- This option gives you a way to store keys remotely on an IMAP server
- instead of storing the keys one per file locally. In order to do that
- you just give this option a remote folder name for a folder which
- does not yet exist. The name is similar to the name you might use for
- a remote configuration file. A remote folder name might look
- something like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/privatekeys
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Private Key Container".
- _smime-cacert-directory_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- If the option smime-cacert-container is set then this option will
- have no effect.
- CACert is a shorthand name for certification authority certificate.
- Normally _Alpine_ will use the CACerts that are located in the
- standard system location for CACerts. It may be the case that one of
- your correspondents has a Digital ID which has been signed by a
- certificate authority that is not in the regular set of system
- certificate authorities. You may supplement the system list by adding
- further certificates of your own. These should be stored in the
- directory which is the value of this option. The certificates will be
- stored in PEM format, one certificate per file. The names of the
- files can be anything ending in ".crt".
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- These PEM format CA certificates look very similar to your public
- certificates for particular email addresses
- (smime-public-cert-directory).
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Directory".
- _smime-cacert-container_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- If this option is set it will be used instead of
- smime-cacert-directory.
- This option gives you a way to store certificates remotely on an IMAP
- server instead of storing the certificates one per file locally. In
- order to do that you just give this option a remote folder name for a
- folder which does not yet exist. The name is similar to the name you
- might use for a remote configuration file. A remote folder name might
- look something like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/cacerts
- Use the Setup/SMIME screen to modify this variable.
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This option is displayed as "S/MIME - Cert Authority Container".
- _smtp-server_
- One or more SMTP servers (host name or IP address) which _Alpine_
- will use for outgoing mail. If not set, _Alpine_ passes outgoing
- email to the _sendmail_ program on the local machine. _PC-Alpine_
- users must have this variable set in order to send mail as they have
- no _sendmail_ program.
- Your SMTP server may offer SMTP AUTH authentication. It may even
- require it. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH authentication you
- may specify a "user" name parameter to cause _Alpine_ to attempt to
- authenticate. This parameter requires an associated value, the
- username identifier with which to establish the server connection. An
- example might be:
-
- smtpserver.example.com/user=katie
- If AUTH authentication is offered by the server, this will cause
- _Alpine_ to attempt to use it. If AUTH authentication is not offered
- by the server, this will cause _Alpine_ to fail sending with an error
- similar to:
-
- Error: SMTP authentication not available
- Another type of authentication that is used by some ISPs is called
- "POP before SMTP" or "IMAP before SMTP", which means that you have to
- authenticate yourself to the POP or IMAP server by opening a mailbox
- before you can send mail. To do this, you usually only have to open
- your INBOX.
- You may tell _Alpine_ to use the Message Submission port (587)
- instead of the SMTP port (25) by including the "submit" parameter in
- this option. At this time "/submit" is simply equivalent to
- specifying port 587, though it may imply more than that at some point
- in the future. Some ISPs are blocking port 25 in order to reduce the
- amount of spam being sent to their users. You may find that the
- submit option allows you to get around such a block.
-
- smtpserver.example.com/submit
- To specify any non-standard port number on the SMTP server you may
- follow the hostname with a colon followed by the portnumber.
-
- smtpserver.example.com:12345
- Normally, when a connection is made to the Smtp-Server _Alpine_ will
- attempt to negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using Transport
- Layer Security (TLS). If that fails then a non-encrypted connection
- will be attempted instead. You may specify that a TLS connection is
- required if you wish. If you append "/tls" to the name then the
- connection will fail instead of falling back to a non-secure
- connection.
-
- smtpserver.example.com/tls
- See the SMTP Servers section or the Server Name Syntax section for
- some more details.
- This option is displayed as "SMTP Server (for sending)".
- _sort-key_
- This variable sets up the default Message Index sorting. The default
- is to sort by arrival order (the order the messages arrived in the
- folder). It has the same functionality as the _-sort_ command line
- argument and the _$_ command in the "Folder Index". If a _sort-key_
- is set, then all folders open during the session will have that as
- the default sort order.
- _speller_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- For _PC-Alpine_, you must install the aspell library code that you
- may get from http://aspell.net/win32/.
- This option affects the behavior of the _^T_ (spell check) command in
- the Composer. It specifies the program invoked by _^T_ in the
- Composer. By default, _Alpine_ uses the system's "spell" command.
- _Alpine_ will use the command defined by this option (if any) instead.
- When invoking the spell-checking program, _Alpine_ appends a tempfile
- name (where the message is passed) to the command line. _Alpine_
- expects the speller to correct the spelling in that file. When you
- exit from the speller program _Alpine_ will read the tmpfile back
- into the composer.
- For Unix _Alpine_ the program _ispell_ works well as an alternate
- spell checker. If your Unix system has _ispell_ it is probably
- reasonable to make it the default speller by configuring it as the
- default in the system configuration file, /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
- If this option is not set, then the system's _spell_ command is used.
- The spell command does not work the same as the alternate speller. It
- produces a list of misspelled words on its standard output, instead,
- and doesn't take a tempfile as an argument. Don't set this speller
- option to the standard Unix spell command. That won't work. If you
- want to use the standard Unix spell command, set the speller option
- to nothing.
- _ssh-command_
- Sets the format of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
- connection. The default is "%s %s -l %s exec /etc/r%sd". All four
- "%s" entries MUST exist in the provided command. The first is for the
- command's pathname, the second is for the host to connnect to, the
- third is for the user to connect as, and the fourth is for the
- connection method (typically imap).
- _ssh-open-timeout_
- Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a UNIX
- secure shell connection. The default is 15, the minimum non-zero
- value is 5, and the maximum is unlimited. If this is set to zero ssh
- connections will be completely disabled.
- _ssh-path_
- Sets the name of the command used to open a UNIX secure shell
- connection. The default is typically /usr/bin/ssh.
- _standard-printer_
- System-wide configuration file only. Specifies a list of commands for
- category 2 of the _Setup/Printer_ screen, the standard print command
- section. This is not used by _PC-Alpine_.
- _status-background-color_
- _status-foreground-color_
- Status Color.
- _status-message-delay_
- This option has evolved over time, causing the possible values to be
- counter-intuitive. Read carefully before you set this option. First
- we explain what the option does, then there is a longer discussion
- following that.
- If this is set to zero, the default value, it has _no_ effect.
- Positive and negative values serve two similar, but different
- purposes.
- If it is set to a positive number, it causes the cursor to move to
- the status line whenever a status message is printed and pause there
- for this many seconds. It will probably only be useful if the
- show-cursor feature is also turned on. Setting this option to a
- postive number can only be used to _increase_ the status message
- delay. This may be useful for Braille displays, or other
- non-traditional displays.
- If it is set to a negative number the interpretation is a bit
- complicated. Negative numbers are used to _decrease_ the amount of
- delay _Alpine_ uses to allow you to read important status messages.
- Of course, this may cause you to miss some important messages. If you
- see a message flash by but miss what it says you can use the Journal
- command from the Main menu to read it. If you set this option to a
- negative value, the delay will be no more than one second less than
- the absolute value of the value you set. So if you set it to -1, the
- delay will be no more than zero seconds, no delay at all. If you set
- it to -2, the delay will be no more than 1 second. And so on, -3 is 2
- seconds, -4 is 3 seconds, ... If the delay that _Alpine_ would have
- used by default is less than this delay, then the smaller delay set
- by _Alpine_ will be used. Setting this option to a negative value can
- only reduce the amount of delay, never increase it.
- Here is a more detailed explanation. Status messages are the messages
- which show up spontaneously in the status message line, the third
- line from the bottom of the screen. By default, _Alpine_ assigns each
- status message it produces a minimum display time. Some status
- messages have a minimum display time of zero. You can see an example
- of such a message by paging up in this help text until you reach the
- top of the screen. If you try to page past the top you will see the
- message
-
- [Already at start of help text]
- in the status line. If there is another more important use of the
- status message line this message might be replaced quickly, or it
- even might not be shown at all. However, if there is no reason to get
- rid of the message, it might stay there for several seconds while you
- read the help. An example where it is replaced immediately happens
- when you page up in the help text past the top of the screen, but
- then type the "WhereIs" command right after paging up. The message
- will disappear immediately without causing a delay (unless you have
- set this option to a positive value) to allow you to type input for
- the "WhereIs" command. Since it isn't a very important message,
- _Alpine_ has set its minimum display time to zero seconds.
- Other messages have minimum display times of three or more seconds.
- These are usually error messages that _Alpine_ thinks you ought to
- see. For example, it might be a message about a failed Save or a
- failed folder open. It is often the case that this minimum display
- time won't delay you in any way because the status message line is
- not needed for another reason. However, there are times when _Alpine_
- has to delay what it is doing in order to display a status message
- for the minimum display time. This happens when a message is being
- displayed and _Alpine_ wants to ask for input from the keyboard. For
- example, when you Save a message you use the status message line. You
- get a prompt there asking for the name of the folder to save to. If
- there is a status message being displayed that has not yet displayed
- for its minimum time _Alpine_ will display that status message
- surrounded with the characters > and < to show you that it is
- delaying. That might happen, for example, if you tried to save to a
- folder that caused an error, then followed that immediately with
- another Save command. You might find yourself waiting for a status
- message like
-
- [>Can't get write access to mailbox, access is readonly<]
- to finish displaying for three seconds. If that is something you find
- happening to you frequently, you may use negative values of this
- option to decrease or eliminate that delay, at the risk of missing
- the message.
- _stay-open-folders_
- This option affects low-level behavior of _Alpine_. There is no
- default value for this option. It is related to the options
- Preopen-Stayopen-Folders, Max-Remote-Connections, and
- offer-expunge-of-Stayopen-Folders.
- Note: changes made to this list take effect the next time you open a
- folder in the list.
- This is a list of folders that will be permanently kept open once
- they are first opened. The names in this list may be either the
- nickname of an Incoming folder or the full technical specification of
- a folder. The folders in this list need not be remote IMAP folders,
- they could usefully be local folders, as well. If a folder in the
- list is a newsgroup or is not accessed either locally or via IMAP,
- then the entry will be ignored. For example, folders accessed via
- NNTP or POP3 will not be kept open, since the way that new mail is
- found with those protocols involves closing and reopening the
- connection.
- Once a Stay Open folder has been opened, new-mail checking will
- continue to happen on that folder for the rest of the _Alpine_
- session. Your INBOX is always implicitly included in this Stay-Open
- list and doesn't need to be added explicitly.
- Another difference that you may notice between a Stay Open folder and
- a non-Stay Open folder is which message is selected as the current
- message when you enter the folder index. Normally, the starting
- position for an incoming folder (which most Stay Open folders will
- likely be) is controlled by the Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a
- folder is a Stay Open folder, when you re-enter the folder after the
- first time the current message will be the same as it was when you
- left the folder. An exception is made if you use the TAB command to
- get to the folder. In that case, the message number will be
- incremented by one from what it was when you left the folder.
- The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it is
- special and different from what you might at first expect. The
- feature Use-Regular-Startup-Rule-for-Stayopen-Folders may be used to
- turn off this special treatment.
- If the message that was current when you left the folder no longer
- exists, then the regular startup rule will be used instead.
- This option is displayed as "Stayopen Folders".
- _tcp-open-timeout_
- Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will attempt to open a network
- connection. The default is 30, the minimum is 5, and the maximum is
- system defined (typically 75). If a connection has not completed
- within this many seconds _Alpine_ will give up and consider it a
- failed connection.
- _tcp-query-timeout_
- When _Alpine_ times out a network read or write it will normally just
- display a message saying "Still waiting". However, if enough time has
- elapsed since it started waiting it will offer to let you break the
- connection. That amount of time is set by this option, which defaults
- to 60 seconds, has a minimum of 5 seconds, and a maximum of 1000
- seconds.
- _tcp-read-warning-timeout_
- Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network read
- before warning you that things are moving slowly and possibly giving
- you the option to break the connection. The default is 15 seconds.
- The minimum is 5 seconds and the maximumn is 1000 seconds.
- _tcp-write-warning-timeout_
- Sets the time in seconds that _Alpine_ will wait for a network write
- before warning you that things are moving slowly and possibly giving
- you the option to break the connection. The default is 0 which means
- it is unset. If set to a non-zero value, the minimum is 5 and the
- maximum is 1000.
- _threading-display-style_
- When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this option
- will affect the MESSAGE INDEX display. By default, _Alpine_ will
- display the MESSAGE INDEX in the "show-thread-structure" style if a
- folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject. The possible values
- are:
-
- _none_
- Regular index display. The same index line as would be
- displayed without threading is used. The only difference will
- be in the order of the messages.
-
- _show-thread-structure_
- Threaded Subjects will be indented and vertical bars and
- horizontal lines will be added to make it easier to see the
- relationships among the messages in a thread (a conversation).
-
- _mutt-like_
- This is the same as the option above except that the Subject is
- suppressed (is blank) if it matches the previous Subject in the
- thread. The name comes from the email client Mutt. Here is an
- example of what a mutt-like index might look like. In this
- example, the first column represents the message number, the
- threading-index-style is set to
- "regular-index-with-expanded-threads", and the
- Threading-Lastreply-Character is set to a backslash:
-
- 1 Some topic
- 2 . Subject original message in thread
- 3 |-> reply to 2
- 4 . |-> another reply to 2
- 5 . | \-> reply to 4
- 6 . | \-> reply to 5
- 7 | \-> reply to 6
- 8 |-> another reply to 2
- 9 . |->New subject another reply to 2 but with a New subject
- 10 | |-> reply to 9
- 11 | \-> another reply to 9
- 12 | \-> reply to 11
- 13 \-> final reply to 2
- 14 Next topic
-
- _indent-subject-1_
- Threaded Subjects will be indented one space per level of the
- conversation. The bars and lines that show up in the
- show-thread-structure display will not be there with this
- style.
-
- _indent-subject-2_
- Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of one
- space.
-
- _indent-from-1_
- Similar to indent-subject-1, except that instead of indenting
- the Subject field one space the From field of a thread will be
- indented one space per level of the conversation.
-
- _indent-from-2_
- Same as above but indent two spaces per level instead of one
- space.
-
- _show-structure-in-from_
- The structure of the thread is illustrated with indenting,
- vertical bars, and horizontal lines just like with the
- show-thread-structure option, but the From field is used to
- show the relationships instead of the Subject field.
-
- _threading-expanded-character_
- The Threading-Expanded-Character option has a small effect on the
- MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style other than
- _none_. The value of this option is a single character. This
- character is used to indicate that part of a thread has been expanded
- and could be collapsed if desired with the "/" Collapse/Expand
- command. By default, the value of this option is a dot (.).
- If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and the
- following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
- This option is closely related to the threading-indicator-character
- option. Another similar option which affects the thread display is
- the threading-lastreply-character option.
- _threading-index-style_
- When a folder is sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject, this option
- will affect the INDEX displays. The possible values are:
-
- _regular-index-with-expanded-threads_
- This is the default display. If the configuration option
- threading-display-style is set to something other than "none",
- then this setting will cause _Alpine_ to start off with a
- MESSAGE INDEX with all of the threads expanded. That is, each
- message will have a line in the MESSAGE INDEX display. The
- Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used to manually collapse or
- expand a thread or subthread (see also
- slash-collapses-entire-thread).
-
- This setting affects the display when the folder is first
- threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized by
- re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex command ($).
- After re-sorting the threads will once again all be expanded,
- even if you have previously collapsed some of them.
-
- If "threading-display-style" is set to "none", then the display
- will be the regular default _Alpine_ MESSAGE INDEX, but sorted
- in a different order.
-
- _regular-index-with-collapsed-threads_
- If the configuration option threading-display-style is set to
- something other than "none", then this setting will cause
- _Alpine_ to start out with all of the threads collapsed instead
- of starting out with all of the threads expanded. The
- Collapse/Expand command (/) may be used to manually collapse or
- expand a thread or subthread (see also
- slash-collapses-entire-thread).
-
- This setting affects the display when the folder is first
- threaded. The collapsed state may also be re-initialized by
- re-sorting the folder manually using the SortIndex command ($).
- After re-sorting the threads will once again all be collapsed,
- even if you have previously expanded some of them.
-
- _separate-index-screen-always_
- With this setting and the next, you will see an index of
- threads instead of an index of messages, provided you have
- sorted by Threads or OrderedSubject.
-
- The THREAD INDEX contains a '*' in the first column if any
- message in the thread is marked Important. If not, it contains
- a '+' if any message in the thread is to you. The second column
- is blank. The third column contains a 'D' if all of the
- messages in the thread are deleted. Otherwise, it contains an
- 'N' if any of the messages in the thread are New.
-
- When you view a particular thread from the THREAD INDEX you
- will be in the MESSAGE INDEX display but the index will only
- contain messages from the thread you are viewing.
-
- _separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages_
- This is very similar to the option above. When you are in the
- THREAD INDEX, one of the available commands is "ViewThd". With
- the setting "separate-index-screen-always" (the option above)
- when you view a particular thread you will be in the MESSAGE
- INDEX display and the index will only contain messages from the
- thread you are viewing. If the thread you are viewing consists
- of a single message, the MESSAGE INDEX will be an index with
- only one message in it. If you use this
- "separate-index-screen-except-for-single-messages" setting
- instead, then that index which contains a single message will
- be skipped and you will go directly from the THREAD INDEX into
- the MESSAGE TEXT screen.
-
- _threading-indicator-character_
- The Threading-Indicator-Character option has a small effect on the
- MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style other than
- _none_ and sorting by Threads or OrderedSubject. The value of this
- option is a single character. This character is used to indicate that
- part of a thread (a conversation) is hidden beneath a message. The
- message could be expanded if desired with the "/" Collapse/Expand
- command. By default, the value of this option is the greater than
- sign (>).
- If this option is set to the Empty Value, then the column (and the
- following blank column) will be deleted from the display.
- This option is closely related to the threading-expanded-character
- option. Another similar option which affects the thread display is
- the threading-lastreply-character option.
- _threading-lastreply-character_
- The Threading-Lastreply-Character option has a small effect on the
- MESSAGE INDEX display when using a threading-display-style of
- _show-thread-structure_, _mutt-like_, or _show-structure-in-from_; and
- sorting by Threads or OrderedSubject. The value of this option is a
- single character. This character is used instead of the vertical line
- character when there are no more replies directly to the parent of
- the current message. It can be used to "round-off" the bottom of the
- vertical line by setting it to a character such as a backslash (\) or
- a backquote (`). The default value of this option is the backslash
- character (\). This option may not be set to the Empty Value. In that
- case, the default will be used instead.
- This option is displayed as "Threading Last Reply Character".
- _title-background-color_
- _title-foreground-color_
- Title Color.
- _title-closed-background-color_
- _title-closed-foreground-color_
- Title-closed Color.
- _titlebar-color-style_
- titlebar-color-style.
- _unknown-character-set_
- A text message should either be made up of all US-ASCII characters or
- it should contain a charset label which tells the software which
- character set encoding to use to interpret the message. Sometimes a
- malformed message may be unlabeled but contain non-ascii text. This
- message is outside of the standards so any attempt to read it could
- fail. When _Alpine_ attempts to read such a message it will try to
- interpret the text in the character set you specify here. For
- example, if you have correspondents who send you unlabeled messages
- that are usually made up of characters from the WINDOWS-1251
- character set, setting this unknown-character-set to WINDOWS-1251
- will allow you to read those messages. Of course, if the unlabeled
- message is actually in some other character set, then you may see
- garbage on your screen.
- In the Setup/Config screen you may choose from a list of all the
- character sets _Alpine_ knows about by using the "T" ToCharsets
- command.
- _upload-command_
- This option affects the behavior of the Composer's _^R_ (Read File)
- and _^J_ (Attach File, in the header) commands. It specifies a Unix
- program name, and any necessary command line arguments, that _Alpine_
- can use to transfer files from your personal computer into messages
- that you are composing.
- _upload-command-prefix_
- This option is used in conjunction with the _upload-command_ option.
- It defines text to be written to the terminal emulator (via standard
- output) immediately prior to starting the upload command. This is
- useful for integrated serial line file transfer agents that permit
- command passing (e.g., Kermit's APC method).
- _url-viewers_
- List of programs to use to open Internet URLs. This value affects
- _Alpine_'s handling of URLs that are found in the text of messages you
- read. Normally, only URLs _Alpine_ can handle directly are
- automatically offered for selection in the "Message Text" screen.
- When one or more comma delimited Web browsers capable of deciphering
- URLs on their command line are added here, _Alpine_ will choose the
- first available browser to display URLs it doesn't recognize.
- Additionally, to support various connection methods and browsers,
- each entry in this list can begin with the special token
- _TEST(test-string)_. The test-string is a shell command that _Alpine_
- will run and which must exit with a status of zero for _Alpine_ to
- consider that browser for use (the other criteria is that the browser
- must exist as a full path or a path relative to your home directory).
- Now for an example:
-
- url-viewers=_TEST("test -n '${DISPLAY}'")_ /usr/local/bin/netscape,
- /usr/local/bin/lynx, C:\BIN\NETSCAPE.BAT
- This example shows that for the first browser in the list to be used
- the environment variable DISPLAY must be defined. If it is, then the
- file /usr/local/bin/netscape must exist. If either condition is not
- met, then the file /usr/local/bin/lynx must exist. If it doesn't,
- then the final path and file must exist. Note that the last entry is
- a DOS/Windows path. This is one way to support _Alpine_ running on
- more than one architecture with the same configuration file.
- _use-only-domain-name_
- Can be set to _yes_ or _no._ Anything but _yes_ means _no._ If set to
- _yes_ the first label in the host name will be lopped off to get the
- domain name and the domain name will be used for outgoing mail and
- such. That is, if the host name is _carson.u.example.edu_ and this
- variable is set to _yes,_ then _u.example.edu_ will be used on
- outgoing mail. Only meaningful if user-domain is NOT set.
- _user-domain_
- Sets the domain or host name for the user, overriding the system host
- or domain name. See the domain name section. The easiest way to
- change the full From address is with the customized-hdrs variable.
- _user-id_
- _PC-Alpine_ only and personal configuration file only. Sets the
- username that is placed on all outgoing messages. The username is the
- part of the address that comes before the "@". The easiest way to
- change the full From address is with the customized-hdrs variable.
- _user-input-timeout_
- If this is set to an integer greater than zero, then this is the
- number of _hours_ to wait for user input before _Alpine_ times out.
- If _Alpine_ is in the midst of composing a message or is waiting for
- user response to a question, then it will not timeout. However, if
- _Alpine_ is sitting idle waiting for the user to tell it what to do
- next and the user does not give any input for this many hours,
- _Alpine_ will exit. No expunging or moving of read messages will take
- place. It will exit similarly to the way it would exit if it received
- a hangup signal. This may be useful for cleaning up unused _Alpine_
- sessions which have been forgotten by their owners. The _Alpine_
- developers envision system administrators setting this to a value of
- several hours (24?) so that it won't surprise a user who didn't want
- to be disconnected.
- _viewer-hdr-colors_
- This variable holds the optional Header Colors and patterns which
- have been defined by the user. This is usually modified by using the
- Header Colors section of the Setup Color screen.
- _viewer-hdrs_
- You may change the default list of headers that are viewed by listing
- the headers you want to view here. If the headers in your
- _viewer-hdrs_ list are present in the message, then they will be
- shown. The order of the headers you list will also be honored. If the
- special value _all-except_ is included as the first header in the
- _viewer-hdrs_ list, then all headers in the message except those in
- the list will be shown. The values are all case insensitive.
- This option is displayed as "Viewer Headers".
- _viewer-margin-left_
- This variable controls the left-hand vertical margin's width in
- _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of space
- characters preceding each displayed line. For consistency with
- Viewer-Margin-Right, you may specify the column number to start in
- (column numbering begins with number 1) instead of the width of the
- margin by appending a lower case letter "c" to the number. For
- example, a value of "2c" means to start the text in column two, which
- is entirely equivalent to a value of "1", which means to leave a
- margin of 1 space.
- The default is a left margin of 0 (zero). Misconfigurations (for
- example, negative values or values with starting left columns greater
- than the ending right column) are silently ignored. If the number of
- columns for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left and the
- Viewer-Margin-Right is fewer than 8, then margins of zero will be
- used instead.
- _viewer-margin-right_
- This variable controls the right-hand vertical margin's width in
- _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen. Its value is the number of space
- characters following each displayed line. You may specify the column
- number to end the text in (column numbering begins with number 1)
- instead of the width of the margin by appending a lower case letter
- "c" to the number. For example, a value of "76c" means to end the
- text in column 76. If the screen is 80 characters wide, this is
- equivalent to a value of "4", which means to leave a margin of 4
- spaces. However, if you use different size screens at different
- times, then these two values are not equivalent.
- The default right margin is 4. Misconfigurations (for example,
- negative values or values with starting left columns greater than the
- ending right column) are silently ignored. If the number of columns
- for text between the Viewer-Margin-Left and the Viewer-Margin-Right
- is fewer than 8, then margins of zero will be used instead.
- _viewer-overlap_
- This option specifies an aspect of _Alpine_'s Message Viewing screen.
- When the space bar is used to page forward in a message, the number
- of lines specified by the _viewer-overlap_ variable will be repeated
- from the bottom of the screen. That is, if this was set to two lines,
- then the bottom two lines of the screen would be repeated on the top
- of the next screen. The normal default value is "2".
- _window-position_
- Winsock version of _PC-Alpine_ only. Window position in the format:
- CxR+X+Yn Where C and R are the window size in characters and X and Y
- are the screen position of the top left corner of the window.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Configuration Features
-
- There are several features (options) which may be turned off or on. The
- configuration variable feature-list is a list of all the features that are
- turned on or off. If the name of a feature is in the list it will be turned
- on. If the name of a feature with the characters no- prepended is in the
- list, it will turn the feature off. This is useful for overriding
- system-wide defaults. This is because, unlike all the other configuration
- variables, the _feature-list_ is additive. That is, first the system-wide
- _feature-list_ is read and then the user's _feature-list_ is read. This makes
- it possible for the system manager to turn some of the features on by
- default while still allowing the user to cancel that default. For example,
- if the system manager has turned on the _allow-talk_ feature by default then
- a user may turn it back off by including the feature _no-allow-talk_ in his
- or her personal configuration file. Of course, these details are usually
- handled by _Alpine_ when the user turns an option on or off from inside the
- _Setup/Config_ screen.
-
- System managers should take some care when turning on features by default.
- Some of the documentation assumes that all of the features are off by
- default, so it could be confusing for a user if some are on by default
- instead. Feature names are case-independent.
-
- Here is an alphabetical list of possible features.
- _allow-changing-from_
- Prior to _Pine_ 4.00 there was a _compile_-time option called
- ALLOW_CHANGING_FROM. That has been replaced by a _runtime_ feature.
- If this feature is turned on then the From line can be changed just
- like all the other header fields that can be changed. See the
- configuration variables customized-hdrs and default-composer-hdrs for
- more information on editing headers.
- The default value for this feature is ON, so that editing of From
- headers is allowed by default.
- _allow-talk_
- Unix _Alpine_ only. By default, permission for others to _talk_ to
- your terminal is turned off when you are running _Alpine_. When this
- feature is set, permission is instead turned on.
- Note: The _talk_ program has nothing to do with _Alpine_ or email.
- The _talk_ daemon on your system will attempt to print a message on
- your screen when someone else is trying to contact you. If you wish
- to see these messages while you are running _Alpine_, you should
- enable this feature.
- If you do enable this feature and see a _talk_ message, you must
- suspend or quit _Alpine_ before you can respond.
- _alternate-compose-menu_
- This feature controls the menu that is displayed when Compose is
- selected. If set, a list of options will be presented, with each
- option representing the type of composition that could be used. This
- feature is most useful for users who want to avoid being prompted
- with each option separately, or who want to avoid the checking of
- remote postponed or form letter folders. The possible types of
- composition are:
- New, for starting a new composition. Note that if New is selected and
- roles are set, roles are checked for matches and applied according to
- the setting of the matching role.
- Interrupted, for continuing an interrupted composition. This option
- is only offered if an interrupted message folder is detected.
- Postponed, for continuing postponed compositions. This option is
- offered if a postponed-folder is set in the config _REGARDLESS OF_
- whether or not the postponed folder actually exists. This option is
- especially handy for avoiding having to check for the existence of a
- remote postponed folder.
- Form, for using form letters. This option is offered if the
- form-letter-folder is set in the config, and is not checked for
- existence for reasons similar to those explained by the postponed
- option.
- setRole, for selecting a role to apply to a composition.
- _alternate-role-menu_
- Normally the Role Command allows you to choose a role and compose a
- new message using that role. When this feature is set, the role
- command will first ask whether you want to Compose a new message,
- Forward the current message, Reply to the current message, or Bounce
- the current message. If you are not in the MESSAGE INDEX and are not
- viewing a message, then there is no current message and the question
- will be skipped. After you have chosen to Compose, Forward, Reply or
- Bounce you will then choose the role to be used.
- When Bouncing the "Set From" address is used for the Resent-From
- header, the "Set Fcc" value is used for the Fcc provided that the
- option "Fcc-On-Bounce" is turned on, and the "Use SMTP Server" value
- is used for the SMTP server, if set. Other actions of the role are
- ignored when Bouncing.
- This feature is displayed as "Alternate Role (#) Menu".
- _assume-slow-link_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s display routines. If set, the normal
- inverse-video cursor (used to highlight the current item in a list)
- will be replaced by an _arrow_ cursor and other screen update
- optimizations for low-speed links (e.g. 2400 bps dialup connections)
- will be activated. One of the optimizations is that colored index
- lines (set up with Indexcolor Rules) will not be colored. This might
- be useful if _you_ know you have a slow speed link but for some
- reason _Alpine_ doesn't know.
- _auto-move-read-msgs_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s behavior upon quitting.
- If set, and the read-message-folder variable is also set, then
- _Alpine_ will automatically transfer all read messages from the _INBOX_
- to the designated folder and mark them as deleted in the _INBOX_.
- Messages in the _INBOX_ marked with an _N_ (meaning New, or unseen)
- are not affected.
- This feature is displayed as "Auto Move Read Messages".
- _auto-open-next-unread_
- This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when traversing
- folders in the optional incoming-folders collection or in optional
- news-collections.
- When the TAB (Next New) key is pressed, and there are no more unseen
- messages in the current (incoming message or news) folder, _Alpine_
- will search the list of folders in the current collection for one
- containing New or Recent (new since the last time the folder was
- opened) messages. This behavior may be modified slightly with the
- Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder feature which causes _Alpine_ to look
- for Unseen messages instead of Recent messages. By default, when such
- a folder is found, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to open the
- folder. If this feature is set, _Alpine_ will automatically open the
- folder without prompting.
- _auto-unselect-after-apply_
- This feature affects the behavior of the Apply command. If set, the
- Apply command will do the operation you specify, but then will
- implicitly do an "UnSelect All", so that you will automatically be
- back in the normal Index view after the Apply.
- _auto-unzoom-after-apply_
- If set, and if you are currently looking at a Zoomed Index view of
- selected messages, the _Apply_ command will do the operation you
- specify, but then will implicitly do an _UnZoom_, so that you will
- automatically be back in the normal Index view after the _Apply_.
- This feature is set by default.
- _auto-zoom-after-select_
- If set, the _; select_ command will automatically perform a _Zoom_
- after the _select_ is complete. This feature is set by default.
- _busy-cue-spinner-only_
- When _Alpine_ is delayed for some reason it usually shows that
- something is happening with a small animated display in the status
- message line near the bottom of the screen. Setting this feature will
- cause that animation to be the same each time instead of having
- _Alpine_ choose a random animation. You may turn the animation off
- altogether by setting the busy-cue-rate option to zero.
- _check-newmail-when-quitting_
- If set, _Alpine_ will check for new mail after you give the Quit
- command. If new mail has arrived since the previous check, you will
- be notified and given the choice of quitting or not quitting.
- _combined-addrbook-display_
- This feature affects the address book display screens. Normally,
- expanding an address book from the ADDRESS BOOK LIST screen will
- cause the remaining address books and directory servers to disappear
- from the screen, leaving only the entries of the expanded address
- book. If this feature is set, then the other address books will
- remain on the screen, so that all of the address books can be present
- at once.
- The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the Select
- All command will select all of the entries in the current address
- book, not all of the entries in all of the address books. The WhereIs
- command will change a little. It will search through all of the text
- on the screen plus all of the entries from expanded address books.
- When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
- expanded-view-of-addressbooks has an effect.
- This feature is displayed as "Combined Addressbook Display".
- _combined-folder-display_
- This feature affects the folder list display screens. Normally, each
- folder list is viewed within its collection only. This command allows
- folder lists to be viewed within a single screen that combines the
- contents of all collections.
- The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the Select
- All command will select all of the folders in the current collection,
- not all of the entries in all of the collections. The WhereIs command
- will change a little. It will search through all of the folders in
- the current collection as well as all the folder in any other
- expanded collection.
- When this feature is set, the setting of the feature
- expanded-view-of-folders has an effect.
- _combined-subdirectory-display_
- This feature affects the Folder List screen when the
- combined-folder-display feature is enabled. Normally, selecting a
- directory from the Folder List takes you into a new screen displaying
- only the contents of that directory.
- Enabling this feature will cause the contents of the selected
- directory to be displayed within the boundaries of the Collection it
- is a part of. All previously displayed collections will remain in the
- screen.
- The way that commands work won't be changed. For example, the Select
- All command will select all of the folders in the directory, as
- opposed to all of the entries in all of the collections. The WhereIs
- command will change a little. It will search through all of the
- folders in the current collection as well as all the folder in any
- other expanded collection.
- _compose-cancel-confirm-uses-yes_
- This feature affects what happens when you type ^C to cancel a
- composition. By default, if you attempt to cancel a composition by
- typing ^C, you will be asked to confirm the cancellation by typing a
- "C" for _C_onfirm. It logically ought to be a "Y" for _Y_es, but that
- is risky because the "^C Y" needed to cancel a message is close (on
- the keyboard) to the "^X Y" needed to send a message.
- If this feature is set the confirmation asked for will be a "_Y_es"
- instead of a "_C_onfirm" response.
- _compose-cut-from-cursor_
- If set, the _^K_ command in the composer will cut from the current
- cursor position to the end of the line, rather than cutting the
- entire line.
- This feature is displayed as "Ctrl-K Cuts From Cursor".
- _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_
- If set, Delete will be equivalent to ^D, and delete the current
- character. Normally _Alpine_ defines the Delete key to be equivalent
- to ^H, which deletes the _previous_ character.
- This feature is displayed as "Delete Key Maps to Ctrl-D".
- _compose-rejects-unqualified-addrs_
- If set, unqualified names entered as addresses will be treated as
- errors unless they match an addressbook nickname or are looked up
- successfully on an LDAP server. _Alpine_ will not attempt to turn
- them into complete addresses by adding your local domain (which
- _Alpine_ normally does by default).
- A complete (fully-qualified) address is one containing a username
- followed by an _@_ symbol, followed by a host or domain name (e.g.
- _jsmith@example.com_). An unqualified name is one without the _@_
- symbol and host or domain name (e.g. _jsmith_).
- This feature is displayed as "Compose Rejects Unqualified Addresses".
- _compose-send-offers-first-filter_
- If you have sending-filters configured, setting this feature will
- cause the first filter in the _sending-filters_ list to be offered as
- the default instead of _unfiltered_, the usual default.
- _compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm_
- If you enter the composer while reading a newsgroup, you will
- normally be prompted to determine whether you intend the new message
- to be posted to the current newsgroup or not. If this feature is set,
- _Alpine_ will not prompt you in this situation, and will assume that
- you do indeed wish to post to the newsgroup you are reading.
- This feature is displayed as "Compose Sets Newsgroup Without
- Confirming".
- _confirm-role-even-for-default_
- If you have roles, when you Reply to or Forward a message, or Compose
- a new message, _Alpine_ will search through your roles for one which
- matches. Normally, if no matches are found you will be placed into
- the composer with no opportunity to select a role. If this feature is
- set, then you will be asked to confirm that you don't want a role.
- This will give you the opportunity to select a role (with the ^T
- command). If you confirm no role with a Return, you will be placed in
- the composer with no role. You may also confirm with either an "N" or
- a "Y". These behave the same as if you pressed the Return. (The "N"
- and "Y" answers are available because they match what you might type
- if there was a role match.)
- If you are using the alternate form of the Compose command called
- "Role", then all of your roles will be available to you, independent
- of the value of this feauture and of the values set for all of Reply
- Use, Forward Use, and Compose Use.
- _continue-tab-without-confirm_
- Normally, when you use the TAB NextNew command and there is a problem
- checking a folder, you are asked whether you want to continue with
- the search in the following folder or not. This gives you a chance to
- stop the NextNew processing.
- If this feature is set you will not be asked. It will be assumed that
- you want to continue.
- This feature is displayed as "Continue NextNew Without Confirming".
- _convert-dates-to-localtime_
- Normally, the message dates that you see in the MESSAGE INDEX and
- MESSAGE VIEW are displayed in the timezone they were sent from. For
- example, if a message was sent to you from a few timezones to the
- east it might appear that it was sent from the future; or if it was
- sent from somewhere to the west it might appear as if it is from
- yesterday even though it was sent only a few minutes ago. If this
- feature is set an attempt will be made to convert the dates to your
- local timezone to be displayed.
- Note that this does not affect the results of Select by Date or of
- anything else other than these displayed dates. When viewing the
- message you may look at the original unconverted value of the Date
- header by using the HdrMode Command.
- _copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us_
- This feature affects the From address used when Replying to a
- message. It is probably only useful if you have some alt-addresses
- defined. When enabled, it checks to see if any of the addresses in
- the To or Cc fields of the message you are replying to is one of your
- addresses. If it is, and there is only one of them, then that address
- is used as the From address in the message you are composing. In
- other words, you will be using a From address that is the same as the
- To address that was used to get the mail to you in the first place.
- If a role is being used and it has a From address defined, that From
- address will be used rather than the one derived from this feature.
- _delete-skips-deleted_
- If set, this feature will cause the _Delete_ command to advance past
- other messages that are marked deleted. In other words, pressing _D_
- will both mark the current message deleted and advance to the next
- message that is not marked deleted. This feature is set by default.
- _disable-config-cmd_
- If set, the configuration screen _Setup/Config_ will not be available
- at all.
- _disable-save-input-history_
- Many of the prompts that ask for input in the status line near the
- bottom of the screen will respond to Up Arrow and Down Arrow with the
- history of previous entries. For example, in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
- when you use the WhereIs command the text you entered will be
- remembered and can be recalled by using the Up Arrow key. Another
- example, when saving a message the folders saved to will be
- remembered and can be recalled using the arrow keys.
- In the Save prompt, some users prefer that the Up and Down arrow keys
- be used for the Previous Collection and Next Collection commands
- instead of for a history of previous saves. If this option is set the
- Up and Down arrow keys will become synonyms for the Previous
- Collection and Next Collection (^P and ^N) commands in the prompt for
- the name of a folder to Save to or in the prompt for the name of a
- folder to GoTo. When this feature is not set (the default), ^P and ^N
- will change the collection and the arrow keys will show the history.
- _disable-keyboard-lock-cmd_
- In the Main _Alpine_ menu there is a Keyboard locking command
- (_KBLock_). If this feature is set, that command won't be available to
- the user.
- _disable-keymenu_
- If set, the command key menu that normally appears on the bottom two
- lines of the screen will not usually be there. Asking for help with
- _^G_ or _?_ will cause the key menu to appear instead of causing the
- help message to come up. If you want to actually see the help text,
- another _^G_ or _?_ will show it to you. After the key menu has
- popped up with the help key it will remain there for an _O Other_
- command but will disappear if any other command is typed.
- _disable-password-caching_
- Normally, loginname/password combinations are cached in _Alpine_ so
- that the user does not have to enter the same password more than once
- in a session. A disadvantage to this approach is that the password
- must be stored in the memory image of the running _Alpine_ in order
- that it can be reused. In the event that _Alpine_ crashes and
- produces a core dump, and that core dump is readable by others, the
- loginname and password could possibly be read from the core dump.
- If this feature is set, then the passwords will not be cached and the
- user will have to retype the password whenever _Alpine_ needs it.
- Even with this feature set there is still some chance that the core
- file will contain a password, so care should be taken to make the
- core files unreadable.
- NOTE: If PASSFILE caching is enabled, this does not disable it. That
- is a separate and independent feature.
- _disable-password-cmd_
- If set the _Newpassword_ command usually available under the _Setup_
- command will not be available.
- _disable-pipes-in-sigs_
- If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the name
- of a signature file. Appending a vertical bar normally causes the
- signature file to be executed to produce the signature.
- _disable-pipes-in-templates_
- If set it will be an error to append a vertical bar (|) to the name
- of a template file. Appending a vertical bar normally causes the
- signature file to be executed to produce the signature.
- _disable-regular-expression-matching-for-alternate-addresses_
- Normally, the alt-addresses option is interpreted as a regular
- expression. One type of address that might cause trouble is an
- address that contains a plus sign. If you want to have an address
- with a plus as one of your alternate addresses and you don't want to
- use regular expressions, then setting this feature will cause _Alpine_
- to treat the addresses you list literally instead.
- _disable-roles-setup-cmd_
- If set the _Roles_ command usually available under the _Setup_
- command will not be available.
- _disable-roles-sig-edit_
- If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not allow
- editing of signature files with the F subcommand.
- _disable-roles-template-edit_
- If set the roles editor in the _Setup/Roles_ command will not allow
- editing of template files with the F subcommand.
- _disable-sender_
- If set, _Alpine_ will not generate a "Sender:" or "X-X-Sender"
- header. This may be desirable on a system which is virtually hosting
- many domains, and the sysadmin has other methods available for
- tracking a message to its originator.
- This feature is displayed as "Do Not Generate Sender Header".
- _disable-setlocale-collate_
- This is a hard to understand feature that should only be used in rare
- cases. Normally, the C function call
-
- setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "")
- is used by _Alpine_. If you want to try turning it off, setting this
- feature will turn it off. This part of the locale has to do with the
- sort order of characters in your locale.
- _disable-shared-namespaces_
- If this hidden feature is set the automatic search for namespaces
- "ftp", "imapshared", and "imappublic" by the underlying library will
- be disabled. The reason this feature exists is because there are some
- implementations of system password lookup routines which are very
- slow when presented with a long loginname which does not exist. This
- feature could be set to prevent the delay at startup time when the
- names above are searched for in the password file.
- _disable-signature-edit-cmd_
- If set the _Signature_ editing command usually available under the
- _Setup_ command will not be available.
- _disable-take-fullname-in-addresses_
- Normally, when TakeAddr is used to copy an address or addresses from
- a message into an address book entry, _Alpine_ will try to preserve
- the full name associated with each address in the list of addresses.
- The reason for this is so that if the entry is a list or later
- becomes a list, then information about the individual addresses in
- the list is preserved. If you would rather just have the simple
- addresses in the list of addresses, set this feature. For example,
- with the default setting you might see something like this in the
- ADDRESS BOOK editor after you type TakeAddr
- Nickname : nick
- Fullname : Bedrock Elders
- Fcc :
- Comment :
- Addresses : Fred Flintstone <flint@bedrock.org>,
- Barney Rubble <rubble@bedrock.org>
- but with this feature set it would look like
- Nickname : nick
- Fullname : Bedrock Elders
- Fcc :
- Comment :
- Addresses : flint@bedrock.org,
- rubble@bedrock.org
- instead. Note the difference in the Addresses field.
- _disable-take-last-comma-first_
- Normally, when _TakeAddr_ is used to copy an address from a message
- into an address book, _Alpine_ will attempt to rewrite the full name
- of the address in the form:
-
- Last, First
- instead of
-
- First Last
- It does this because many people find it useful to sort by Last name
- instead of First name. If this feature is set, then the _TakeAddr_
- command will not attempt to reverse the name in this manner.
- _disable-terminal-reset-for-display-filters_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using Display-Filters.
- Normally, before the display filter is run, the terminal mode is
- reset to what it was before you started _Alpine_. This may be
- necessary if the filter requires the use of the terminal. For
- example, it may need to interact with you. If you set this feature,
- then the terminal mode will not be reset. One thing that turning on
- this feature should fix is the coloring of quoted text in the message
- view, which breaks because the terminal reset resets the color state
- of the terminal (Color Configuration).
- _downgrade-multipart-to-text_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail. Internet
- standards require _Alpine_ to translate all non-ASCII characters in
- messages that it sends using MIME encoding. This encoding can be
- ostensibly broken for recipients if any agent between _Alpine_ and
- the recipient, such as an email list expander, appends text to the
- message, such as list information or advertising. When sending such
- messages _Alpine_ attempts to protect such encoding by placing extra
- MIME boundaries around the message text.
- These extra boundaries are invisible to recipients that use
- MIME-aware email programs (the vast majority). However, if you
- correspond with users of email programs that are not MIME-aware, or
- do not handle the extra boundaries gracefully, you can use this
- feature to prevent _Alpine_ from including the extra MIME
- information. Of course, it will increase the likelihood that
- non-ASCII text you send may appear corrupt to the recipient.
- _enable-8bit-esmtp-negotiation_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when sending mail. By
- default, this feature is set. Internet standards require that all
- electronic mail messages traversing the global Internet consist of
- 7bit ASCII characters unless a pair of cooperating mail transfer
- agents explicitly agree to allow 8bit messages. In general, then,
- exchanging messages in non-ASCII characters requires MIME encoding.
- However, there are now Internet standards that allow for unencoded
- 8bit exchange of messages between cooperating systems. When this
- feature is set _Alpine_ will try to negotiate unencoded 8bit
- transmission during the sending process. Should the negotiation fail,
- _Alpine_ will fall back to its ordinary encoding rules.
- Note, this feature relies on your system's mail transport agent or
- configured smtp-server having the negotiation mechanism introduced in
- "Extended SMTP" (ESMTP) and the specific extension called _8BITMIME_.
- _enable-8bit-nntp-posting_
- The Internet standard for exchanging USENET news messages (RFC-1036)
- specifies that USENET messages should conform to Internet mail
- standards and contain only 7bit characters, but much of the news
- transport software in use today is capable of successfully sending
- messages containing 8bit characters. Hence, many people believe that
- it is appropriate to send 8bit news messages without any MIME
- encoding.
- Moreover, there is no Internet standard for explicitly negotiating
- 8bit transfer, as there is for Internet email. Therefore, _Alpine_
- provides the option of posting unencoded 8bit news messages, though
- not as the default. Setting this feature will turn OFF _Alpine_'s
- MIME encoding of newsgroup postings that contain 8bit characters.
- Note, articles may cross a path or pass through news transport
- software that is unsafe or even hostile to 8bit characters. At best
- this will only cause the posting to become garbled. The safest way to
- transmit 8bit characters is to leave _Alpine_'s MIME encoding turned
- on, but recipients who lack MIME-aware tools are often annoyed when
- they receive MIME-encoded messages.
- _enable-aggregate-command-set_
- When this feature is set you may use the commands and subcommands
- that relate to performing operations on more than one message at a
- time. We call these "aggregate operations". In particular, the _;
- Select_, _A Apply_, and _Z Zoom_ commands are enabled by this
- feature. _Select_ is used to _tag_ one or more messages meeting the
- specified criteria. _Apply_ can then be used to apply any message
- command to all of the selected/tagged messages. Further, the _Zoom_
- command allows you to toggle the "Folder Index" view between just
- those Selected and all messages in the folder.
- This feature also enables the _^X_ subcommand in the "Folder Index"
- _WhereIs_ command which causes all messages matching the _WhereIs_
- argument to become selected.
- You may also use aggregate operations in the address book screens
- where you are operating on address book entries instead of on
- messages.
- _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_
- If this feature is set (the default), and the editor variable is not
- set, entering the _^__ (Control-underscore) key while composing a
- message will prompt you for the name of the editor you would like to
- use.
- If the environment variable $EDITOR is set, this value will be
- offered as a default. If the _editor_ variable is set, the _^__ key
- will activate the specified editor without prompting, in which case
- it is not necessary to set the _enable-alternate-editor-cmd_ feature.
- This feature is not available in _PC-Alpine_.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Alternate Editor Command".
- _enable-alternate-editor-implicitly_
- If this feature and the editor variable are both set, _Alpine_ will
- automatically activate the specified editor when the cursor is moved
- from the header of the message being composed into the message text.
- For replies, the alternate editor will be activated immediately. If
- this feature is set but the _editor_ variable is not set, then
- _Alpine_ will automatically ask for the name of an alternate editor
- when the cursor is moved out of the headers, or if a reply is being
- done. This feature is not available in _PC-Alpine_.
- _enable-arrow-navigation_
- This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow keys.
- If set, the left and right arrow keys will operate like the usual
- navigation keys _<_ and _>_. This feature is set by default.
- If you set this feature, and do not like the changed behavior of the
- up/down arrow keys when navigating through the FOLDER LIST screen --
- _first_ from column to column, if more than one folder is displayed
- per row, and _then_ from row to row -- you may either also wish to
- set the feature enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed,
- single-column-folder-list, or use the ^P/^N (instead of up/down
- arrow) keys to move up/down the list of folders in each column.
- _enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed_
- This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow keys
- in the FOLDER LIST screen when the enable-arrow-navigation feature is
- set. This feature is set by default.
- When this feature is set, the left and right arrow keys in the FOLDER
- LIST screen move the highlight bar to the left or right, and the up
- and down arrows move it up or down.
- When the "Enable-Arrow-Navigation" feature is set and this feature is
- not set; the left and right arrow keys in the Folder List screen
- strictly track the commands bound to the '<' and '>' keys, and the up
- and down arrow keys move the highlight bar to the previous and next
- folder or directory name.
- _enable-background-sending_
- If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's _Send?_
- confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell _Alpine_ to
- handle the actual posting in the background. While this feature
- usually allows posting to appear to happen very fast, it has no
- affect on the actual delivery time it takes a message to arrive at
- its destination.
- This feature isn't supported on all systems. All DOS and Windows, as
- well as several Unix ports, do not recognize this feature. It is not
- possible to use background sending if the feature
- send-without-confirm is set.
- Error handling is significantly different when this feature is
- enabled. Any message posting failure results in the message being
- appended to your _Interrupted_ mail folder. When you type the
- _Compose_ command, _Alpine_ will notice this folder and offer to
- extract any messages contained. Upon continuing a failed message,
- _Alpine_ will display the nature of the failure in the status message
- line.
- Under extreme conditions, it is possible for message data to get
- lost. Do not enable this feature if you typically run close to any
- sort of disk-space limits or quotas.
- _enable-bounce-cmd_
- Setting this feature enables the _B Bounce_ command, which will
- prompt for an address and _remail_ the message to the new recipient.
- This command is used to re-direct messages that you have received in
- error, or need to be redirected for some other reason (e.g. list
- moderation). The final recipient will see a header indicating that
- you have Resent the msg, but the message's From: header will show the
- original author of the message, and replies to it will go back to
- that author, and not to you.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Bounce Command".
- _enable-cruise-mode_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you hit the "Space Bar"
- at the end of a displayed message. Typically, _Alpine_ complains that
- the end of the text has already been reached. Setting this feature
- causes such keystrokes to be interpreted as if the _Tab_ key had been
- hit, thus taking you to the next _interesting_ message, or scanning
- ahead to the next incoming folder with _interesting_ messages.
- _enable-cruise-mode-delete_
- This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s _enable-cruise-mode_
- feature. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to implicitly delete
- read messages when it moves on to display the next _interesting_
- message.
- NOTE: Beware when enabling this feature _and_ the
- expunge-without-confirm feature.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Cruise Mode With Deleting".
- _enable-delivery-status-notification_
- If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's "Send?"
- confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell _Alpine_ to
- request the type of Delivery Status Notification (DSN) which you
- would like. Most users will be happy with the default, and need not
- enable this feature. See the online help for more details.
- It is not possible to use delivery status notifications if the
- feature send-without-confirm is set.
- Note that this is not a method to request _READ_ receipts, which
- tells the sender when the receiver has read the message. In this case
- we're talking about notification of delivery to the mailbox, not
- notification that the message has been seen.
- _enable-dot-files_
- If set, files beginning with dot (".") will be visible in the file
- browser. For example, you'll be able to select them when using the
- browser to add an attachment to a message.
- _enable-dot-folders_
- If set, folders beginning with dot (".") may be added and viewed.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Hidden Folders".
- _enable-exit-via-lessthan-command_
- If set, then on screens where there is an _Exit_ command but no _<_
- command, the _<_ key will perform the same function as the _Exit_
- command. This feature is set by default.
- _enable-fast-recent-test_
- This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when traversing
- folders in the optional Incoming-Folders collection or in optional
- News-Collections.
- When the TAB (NextNew) key is pressed, the default behavior is to
- explicitly examine the status of the folder for the number of recent
- messages (messages delivered since the last time it was viewed).
- Depending on the size and number of messages in the folder, this test
- can be time consuming.
- Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to only test for the
- existence of any recent messages rather than to obtain the count.
- This is much faster in many cases. The downside is that you're not
- given the number of recent messages when prompted to view the next
- folder. If the feature Tab-Uses-Unseen-For-Next-Folder is turned on,
- then the present feature will have no effect.
- _enable-flag-cmd_
- Setting this feature enables the _* Flag_ command, which allows you
- to manipulate the status flags associated with a message. By default,
- _Flag_ will set the _Important_ flag, which results in an asterisk
- being displayed in column one of the "Folder Index" for such
- messages.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Flag Command".
- _enable-flag-screen-implicitly_
- This feature modifies the behavior of the _* Flag_ command (provided
- it too is enabled). By default, when the _* Flag_ command is
- selected, _Alpine_ offers a prompt to set one of several flags and
- also offers the option of entering the detailed flag manipulation
- screen via the _^T_ key. Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to
- immediately enter the detailed flag screen rather than first offer
- the simple prompt. The Enable-Flag-Screen-Keyword-Shortcut option
- offers a slightly different way of setting keywords.
- _enable-flag-screen-keyword-shortcut_
- This feature modifies the behavior of the Flag command and the Select
- command. By default, when the "* Flag" command is selected, _Alpine_
- offers a prompt to set one of several flags and also offers the
- option of entering the detailed flag manipulation screen via the "^T"
- key. If you have keywords defined, then enabling this feature adds a
- shortcut way to set or unset keywords. You use "*" followed by the
- first letter of a keyword (or the nickname of a keyword if you've
- given it a nickname) and that will set the keyword.
- An example is easier to understand than the explanation. The flag
- command can always be used to set the system flags. For example, to
- set the Answered flag you would type
-
- * A
- Now suppose you have defined a keyword "Work" using the Keywords
- option in the Config screen. By default, to set a keyword like "Work"
- you would usually have to go to the Flag Details screen using the "^T
- To Flag Details" command. Instead, if you have enabled this feature,
- you may type
-
- * W
- to set the Work flag, or
-
- * ! W
- to unset it. Just like for the other flag setting commands, the case
- of the letter does not matter, so "w" or "W" both set the "Work"
- keyword.
- Notice that you can only use this trick for one keyword that begins
- with "W". If you happen to have a "Work" keyword and another keyword
- that is "WIFI" the "* W" command will set the first one in your list
- of keywords. Also, there are five letters which are reserved for
- system flags and the NOT command. If you type "* A" it will always
- set the Answered flag, not your "Aardvark" keyword. In order to set
- the "Aardvark" keyword you'll still have to use the Flag Details
- screen.
- Because enabling the Enable-Flag-Screen-Implicitly option causes
- _Alpine_ to skip directly to the Flag Details screen when the Flag
- command is used, setting it will cause this feature to have no effect
- at all.
- Similarly, when Selecting by Keyword, setting this option will allow
- you to use Keyword initials instead of full keywords.
- _enable-full-header-cmd_
- This feature enables the _H Full Headers_ command which toggles
- between the display of all headers in the message and the normal
- edited view of headers. The _Full Header_ command also controls which
- headers are included for _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_, _Forward_, and
- _Reply_ functions. (For _Reply_, the _Full Header_ mode will respect
- the _include-headers-in-reply_ feature setting.)
- If Full Header mode is turned on and you Forward a message, you will
- be asked if you'd like to forward the message as an attachment, as
- opposed to including the text of the message in the body of your new
- message.
- If you have also turned on the "Quote Suppression" option then the
- Full Headers command actually rotates through three states instead of
- just two. The first is the normal view with long quotes suppressed.
- The second is the normal view but with the long quotes included. The
- last enables the display of all headers in the message. When using
- Export, Pipe, Print, Forward, or Reply the quotes are never
- suppressed, so the first two states are identical.
- Normally, the Header Mode will reset to the default behavior when
- moving to a new message. The mode can be made to persist from message
- to message by setting the feature Quell-Full-Header-Auto-Reset.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Full Header Command".
- _enable-full-header-and-text_
- This feature affects how the _H Full Headers_ command displays
- message text. If set, the raw message text will be displayed. This
- especially affects MIME formatted email, where the entire MIME format
- will be displayed. This feature similarly affects how messages are
- included for the _Export_, _Pipe_, _Print_, _Forward_, and _Reply_
- functions.
- _enable-goto-in-file-browser_
- Setting this causes _Alpine_ to offer the _G Goto_ command in the
- file browser. The Goto command allows you to explicitly type in the
- desired directory. That is the default.
- _enable-incoming-folders_
- If set, this feature defines a pseudo-folder collection called
- _INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS_. Initially, the only folder included in
- this collection will be your _INBOX_, which will no longer show up in
- your default saved-message folder collection.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Incoming Folders Collection".
- _enable-incoming-folders-checking_
- This feature is only operational if you have enabled the optional
- incoming-folders If you do have Incoming Message Folders and you also
- set this feature, then the number of Unseen messages in each folder
- will be displayed in the FOLDER LIST screen for the Incoming Message
- Folders. The number of Unseen messages in a folder will be displayed
- in parentheses to the right of the name of each folder. If there are
- no Unseen messages in a folder then only the name is displayed, not a
- set of parentheses with zero inside them. A redraw command, Ctrl-L,
- can be used in the FOLDER LIST screen for the Incoming Message
- Folders to cause an immediate update.
- If a check for Unseen messages fails for a particular folder then
- Alpine will no longer attempt to check that folder for the duration
- of the session and this will be indicated by a question mark inside
- the parentheses.
- The features incoming-checking-includes-total,
- incoming-checking-uses-recent, incoming-check-list,
- incoming-check-interval, incoming-check-interval-secondary, and
- incoming-check-timeout all affect how this feature behaves.
- _Disable-Index-Locale-Dates_
- This feature affects the display of dates in the MESSAGE INDEX.
- Normally an attempt is made to localize the dates used in the MESSAGE
- INDEX display to your locale. This is controlled with the LC_TIME
- locale setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options
- control panel may be used to set the date format. At the programming
- level, _Alpine_ is using the strftime routine to print the parts of a
- date.
- If this feature is set, dates are displayed in English and with the
- conventions of the United States.
- _enable-jump-shortcut_
- When this feature is set you may enter a number (followed by RETURN)
- and jump to that message number, when in the MESSAGE INDEX or MESSAGE
- TEXT screens. In other words, it obviates the need for typing the _J_
- for the _Jump_ command.
- _enable-lame-list-mode_
- This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to ask your IMAP
- server for folder names to display in the the FOLDER LIST screen. It
- is intended to compensate for a small set of IMAP servers that are
- programmed to ignore a part of the request, and thus respond to
- _Alpine_'s query with nonsensical results.
- If you find that _Alpine_ is erroneously displaying blank folder
- lists, try enabling this feature.
- NOTE: Enabling this feature has consequences for the Goto and Save
- commands. Many servers allow access to folders outside the area
- reserved for your personal folders via some reserved character,
- typically '#' (sharp), '~' (tilde) or '/' (slash). This mechanism
- allows, at the Goto and Save prompts, quick access to folders outside
- your personal folder collection without requiring a specific
- collection definition. This behavior will generally not be available
- when this feature is enabled.
- This feature is displayed as "Compensate for Deficient IMAP servers".
- _enable-mail-check-cue_
- If set, this will cause an asterisk to appear in the upper left-hand
- corner of the screen whenever _Alpine_ checks for new mail, and two
- asterisks whenever _Alpine_ saves (checkpoints) the state of the
- current mailbox to disk.
- _enable-mailcap-param-substitution_
- If set, this will allow mailcap named parameter substitution to occur
- in mailcap entries. By default, this is turned off to prevent
- security problems which may occur with some incorrect mailcap
- configurations. For more information, RFC1524 and look for "named
- parameters" in the text of the RFC.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Mailcap Parameter Substitution".
- _enable-mouse-in-xterm_
- This feature controls whether or not an X terminal mouse can be used
- with _Alpine_. If set, and the $DISPLAY variable indicates that an X
- terminal is being used, the left mouse button on the mouse can be
- used to select text or commands. Clicking on a command at the bottom
- of the screen will behave as if you had typed that command. Clicking
- on an index line will move the current message highlight to that
- line. Double-clicking on an index line will view the message.
- Double-clicking on a link will view the link.
- This type of mouse support will also work in some terminal emulators
- which are not actually X terminals, but which have extra code to
- support the xterm style mouse. For those emulators you not only need
- to turn this feature on but you also have to set the $DISPLAY
- environment variable even though it isn't needed for your terminal.
- That will cause _Alpine_ to think that it is an xterm and to properly
- interpret the escape sequences sent by the mouse.
- Note: if this feature is set, the behavior of X terminal
- cut-and-paste is also modified. It is sometimes possible to hold the
- shift key down while clicking left or middle mouse buttons for the
- normal xterm cut/paste operations. There is also an _Alpine_ command
- to toggle this mode on or off. The command is Ctrl-\
- (Control-backslash).
- _enable-msg-view-addresses_
- This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
- screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to select possible email
- addresses from the displayed text and display them in boldface for
- selection.
- The first available email address is displayed in inverse. This is
- the "selected" address. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to
- enter the message composition screen with the To field filled in with
- the selected address.
- Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the addresses
- displayed in boldface is the current selection.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Address Links".
- _enable-msg-view-attachments_
- This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
- screen. Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to present attachments
- in boldface. The first available attachment is displayed in inverse.
- This is the "selected" attachment. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause
- _Alpine_ to display the selected attachment. Use the up and down arrow
- keys to change which of the attachments displayed in boldface is the
- current selection.
- Speaking of arrow keys, the Up and Down Arrows will select the next
- and previous attachments if one is available on the screen for
- selection. Otherwise, they will simply adjust the viewed text one
- line up or down.
- Similarly, when selectable items are present in a message, the Ctrl-F
- key can be used to select the next item in the message independent of
- which portion of the viewed message is currently displayed. The
- Ctrl-B key can be used to select the previous item in the same way.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Attachment Links".
- _enable-msg-view-forced-arrows_
- This feature modifies Up and Down arrow key behavior in _Alpine_'s
- "Message Text" screen when selectable Attachments, URL's, or
- web-hostnames are presented. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to move to
- the next or previous selectable item if currently displayed or simply
- to adjust the screen view by one line if the next selectable line is
- off the screen.
- Setting this feature causes the Up and Down arrow keys to behave as
- if no selectable items were present in the message.
- Note, the _Ctrl-F_ (next selectable item) and _Ctrl-B_ (previous
- selectable item) functionality is unchanged.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Forced Arrows".
- _enable-msg-view-urls_
- This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
- screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will select
- possible URLs from the displayed text and display them in boldface
- for selection.
- The first available URL is displayed in inverse. This is the
- "selected" URL. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display the
- selected URL via either built-in means as with mailto:, imap:, news:,
- and nntp:, or via an external application as defined by the
- url-viewers variable.
- Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the URLs displayed
- in boldface is the current selection.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View URL Links".
- _enable-msg-view-web-hostnames_
- This feature modifies the behavior of _Alpine_'s "Message Text"
- screen. When this feature is set (the default) _Alpine_ will select
- possible web hostnames from the displayed text and display them in
- boldface for selection.
- The first available hostname is displayed in inverse. This is the
- "selected" hostname. Pressing _RETURN_ will cause _Alpine_ to display
- the selected hostname via an external application as defined by the
- url-viewers variable.
- Use the up and down arrow keys to change which of the hostnames
- displayed in boldface is the current selection.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Message View Web Hostname
- Links".
- _enable-multiple-newsrcs_
- This feature makes it so _Alpine_ can use multiple newsrcs based on
- the news server being connected to, which allows for separate lists
- of subscribed-to newsgroups. When this feature is not set, there is
- only one list of newsgroups.
- Under this feature, the name of a newsrc is based on the news server.
- For example, if your newsrc-path is set to ".newsrc", and the news
- server you are connecting to is news.example.com, then the newsrc to
- be used is .newsrc-news.example.com. Setting this feature for the
- first time will allow for the option of using your old newsrc the
- next time you read news.
- If this feature is set, then the feature
- Mult-Newsrc-Hostnames-As-Typed also may affect the name of the newsrc
- file that is used.
- _enable-newmail-in-xterm-icon_
- This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will attempt to
- announce new mail arrival when it is running in an X terminal window
- and that window is iconified. If set, and the $DISPLAY variable
- indicates that an X terminal is being used, _Alpine_ will send
- appropriate escape sequences to the X terminal to modify the label on
- _Alpine_'s icon to indicate that new mail has arrived. _Alpine_ will
- also modify the _Alpine_ window's title to indicate new mail. See
- also Enable-Newmail-Short-Text-in-Icon.
- _enable-newmail-short-text-in-icon_
- This feature controls the text to be displayed in an icon in the
- event of a new message arrival. Normally, the message will be the one
- that is displayed on the screen. This feature shortens the message to
- a count of the number of new messages in brackets. This may be more
- useful for those who use the window's title bar in the task bar as a
- new mail indicator. This feature is only useful if the
- Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon is also set. Like the
- Enable-Newmail-in-Xterm-Icon feature, this feature is only relevant
- when run in an xterm environment.
- _enable-partial-match-lists_
- This feature affects the subcommands available when _Sav_ing or
- Opening a new folder. If set, the subcommand _^X ListMatches_ will be
- available. This command allows you to type in a substring of the
- folder you are looking for and when you type _^X_ it will display all
- folders which contain that substring in their names. This feature is
- set by default.
- _enable-print-via-y-command_
- By default, _Alpine_'s print command is available by pressing the _%_
- key. In older versions of _Pine_, the print command was accessed by
- pressing the _Y_ key.
- Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to recognize both the old
- command, _Y_, and the new _%_ method for invoking printing. Note, key
- menu labels are not changed as a result of enabling this feature.
- _enable-reply-indent-string-editing_
- This feature affects the Reply command's "Include original message in
- Reply?" prompt. When enabled, it causes the "Edit Indent String"
- sub-command to appear which allows you to edit the string _Alpine_
- would otherwise use to denote included text from the message being
- replied to.
- Thus, you can change _Alpine_'s default message quote character
- (usually an angle bracket) on a per message basis. So you could
- change your quoted message to look, for example, like this:
-On Tues, 26 Jan 1999, John Q. Smith wrote:
-
-John: I just wanted to say hello and to congratulate you
-John: on a job well done!
- The configuration option "reply-indent-string" may be used to change
- what appears as the default string to be edited.
- NOTE: Edited reply-indent-strings only apply to the message currently
- being replied to.
- _enable-rules-under-take_
- Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and helps
- you put them into your Address Book. If you use Rules for
- Indexcolors, Roles, Filtering, or Scoring; you may find it useful to
- be able to Take information from a message's headers and put it into
- a new Rule. When this feature is set, you will be given an extra
- prompt which gives you the choice to Take into the Address Book or
- Take into a rule.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Take Rules".
- _enable-search-and-replace_
- If set _Alpine_'s composer offers the _R Replace_ command option
- inside the _W WhereIs_ command.
- _enable-sigdashes_
- If set and a _signature-file_ exists, the line consisting of the
- three characters "-- " (dash dash space) is included before the
- signature. This only happens if the signature doesn't already contain
- such a line.
- In addition, when you Reply or Followup to a message containing one
- of these special lines and choose to include its text, _Alpine_ will
- observe the convention of not including text beyond the special line
- in your reply.
- _enable-suspend_
- Setting this feature will allow you to type _^Z_ and temporarily
- suspend _Alpine_. Not available on _PC-Alpine_.
- _enable-tab-completion_
- This feature enables the _TAB_ key when at a prompt for a filename.
- In this case, _TAB_ will cause the partial name already entered to be
- automatically completed, provided the partial name is unambiguous.
- This feature is set by default.
- Similarly, this feature also enables TAB completion of address book
- nicknames when at a prompt for a nickname, or when typing in an
- address field in the composer.
- _enable-take-export_
- Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and helps
- you put them into your Address Book. When this feature is set, you
- will be given an extra prompt which gives you the choice to Take
- addresses into a file instead of your Address Book. Only the
- user@domain_name part of the address is put in the file.
- _enable-tray-icon_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This option restores a behavior of previous
- versions of PC-Alpine. These versions, when started, installed a
- PC-Alpine icon in the notification tray of Window's Taskbar. The
- primary use of this icon was to indicate new mail arrival by turning
- red (while the Taskbar icon remained green). Additionally, the icon
- now changes to yellow to signify that a mail folder has been closed
- unexpectedly.
- Rather than add another icon to the Taskbar, this version of
- PC-Alpine will color its Taskbar entry's icon red (as well as the
- icon in the Window Title). This feature is only provided for
- backwards compatibility.
- _enable-unix-pipe-cmd_
- This feature enables the _| Pipe_ command that sends the current
- message to the specified Unix command for external processing.
- This feature is displayed as "Enable Unix Pipe Command".
- _enable-verbose-smtp-posting_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s message sending. When
- enabled, _Alpine_ will send a VERB (i.e., VERBose) command early in
- the posting process intended to cause the server SMTP to provide a
- more detailed account of the transaction. This feature is typically
- only useful to system administrators and other support personel as an
- aid in troublshooting problems. Note, this feature relies on a
- specific capability of the system's mail transport agent or
- configured smtp-server.
- _expanded-view-of-addressbooks_
- If multiple address books (either personal or global) are defined,
- and you wish to have them all expanded implicitly upon entering the
- ADDRESS BOOK screen, then set this feature. This feature will have no
- effect unless the feature combined-addrbook-display is also set.
- _expanded-view-of-distribution-lists_
- If this feature is set, then distribution lists in the address book
- screen will always be expanded automatically.
- _expanded-view-of-folders_
- If multiple folder collections are defined, and you wish to have them
- all expanded implicitly upon entering the FOLDER LIST screen, then
- set this feature. This feature will have no effect unless the feature
- combined-folder-display is also set.
- _expose-hidden-config_
- The purpose of this feature is to allow you to change configuration
- features and variables which are normally hidden. This is
- particularly useful if you are using a remote configuration file,
- where it is difficult to edit the file manually, but it may also be
- used on a local pinerc configuration file.
- If set, most configuration variables and features which are normally
- hidden from view will show up in the Setup/Configuration screen. They
- will be at the bottom of the configuration screen. You can find them
- by searching for the word "hidden".
- Note that this is an advanced feature which should be used with care.
- The reason that this part of the configuration is normally hidden is
- because there is a significant potential for causing problems if you
- change these variables. If something breaks after a change try
- changing it back to see if that is what is causing the problem. There
- are also some variables which are normally hidden because they are
- manipulated through _Alpine_ in other ways. For example, the
- "address-book" variable is normally set using the Setup/AddressBooks
- screen, so there is little reason to edit it directly. The
- "incoming-folders" variable is normally changed by using the Add,
- Delete, and Rename commands in the FOLDER LIST screen, and the
- "last-time-prune-questioned" variable is normally used internally by
- _Alpine_ and not set directly by the user.
- _expunge-only-manually_
- Normally, when you close a folder which contains deleted messages you
- are asked if you want to expunge those messages from the folder
- permanently. If this feature is set, you won't be asked and the
- deleted messages will remain in the folder. If you choose to set this
- feature you will have to expunge the messages manually using the
- eXpunge command, which you can use while in the MESSAGE INDEX screen.
- If you do not expunge deleted messages the size of your folder will
- continue to increase until you are out of disk space.
- _expunge-without-confirm_
- If set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent before the
- expunge takes place. Actually, you will still be prompted for
- confirmation if the folder is not the _INBOX_ folder or another
- folder in the Incoming Folders collection. See the
- _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_ feature which follows.
- This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming".
- _expunge-without-confirm-everywhere_
- The regular _expunge-without-confirm_ feature actually only works for
- the _INBOX_ folder and for other folders in the "Incoming Folders"
- collection. If this feature is set then you also won't be prompted to
- confirm expunges for all other folders.
- This feature is displayed as "Expunge Without Confirming Everywhere".
- _fcc-on-bounce_
- If set, normal Fcc (File Carbon Copy) processing will be done for
- bounced messages, just as if you had composed a message to the
- address you are bouncing to. If not set, no Fcc of the message will
- be saved.
- This feature is displayed as "Include Fcc When Bouncing Messages".
- _fcc-only-without-confirm_
- This features controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s composer. The only
- time this feature will be used is if you attempt to send mail which
- has no recipients but does have an Fcc. Normally, _Alpine_ will ask
- if you really mean to copy the message only to the Fcc. That is, it
- asks if you really meant to have no recipients. If this feature is
- set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm your intent to make only a
- copy of a message with no recipients.
- This feature is closely related to
- warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups. The difference between this
- feature and that feature is that this feature considers a Bcc to be a
- recipient while that feature will ask for confirmation even if there
- is a Bcc when there is no To, Cc, or Newsgroup. The default values
- also differ. This feature defaults to asking the question and you
- have to turn it off. The warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups
- feature defaults to not asking unless you turn it on.
- This feature is displayed as "Send to Fcc Only Without Confirming".
- _fcc-without-attachments_
- This features controls the way FCC's (File Carbon Copies) are made of
- the messages you send.
- Normally, _Alpine_ saves an exact copy of your message as it was
- sent. When this feature is enabled, the "body" of the message you
- send (the text you type in the composer) is preserved in the copy as
- before, however all attachments are replaced with text explaining
- what had been sent rather than the attachments themselves.
- This feature also affects _Alpine_'s "Send ?" confirmation prompt in
- that a new "^F Fcc Attchmnts" option becomes available which allows
- you to interactively set whether or not attachments are saved to the
- Fcc'd copy.
- This feature is displayed as "Fcc Does Not Include Attachments".
- _force-arrow-cursor_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display routine. If
- set, the normal inverse-video cursor will be replaced by a simple
- "arrow" cursor, which normally occupies the second column of the
- index display.
- This is the same index cursor you get if you turn on
- Assume-Slow-Link, but the index line coloring will still be present
- if this feature is turned on and Assume-Slow-Link is off.
- An alternative version of the Arrow cursor is available by including
- the ARROW token in the Index-Format option.
- It ought to be the case that this feature also affects the ATTACHMENT
- INDEX, but that is not implemented.
- _hide-nntp-path_
- Normally the Path header that _Alpine_ generates when posting to a
- newsgroup contains the name of the computer from which the message is
- being sent and the user name. Some believe that this information is
- used by spammers. If this feature is set, that information will be
- replaced with the text
-
- not-for-mail
- instead.
- It should be noted that many servers being connected to will still
- reveal the information that this feature attempts to protect.
- _include-attachments-in-reply_
- If set, any MIME attachments that were part of the original message
- will automatically be included in a _Reply_.
- _include-header-in-reply_
- If set, and a message being replied to is included in the _Reply_,
- then headers from that message will also be part of the reply.
- _include-text-in-reply_
- Normally, _Alpine_ will ask whether you wish to include the original
- message in your _Reply_. If this feature is set and the feature
- enable-reply-indent-string-editing is _not_ set, then the original
- message will be included in the reply automatically, without
- prompting.
- _incoming-checking-includes-total_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to display
- the number of unseen messages in each folder. More precisely, it is
- the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using this option you may
- also display the total number of messages in each folder. Instead of
- a single number representing the number of unseen messages you will
- get two numbers separated by a slash character. The first is the
- number of unseen messages and the second is the total number of
- messages.
- You may also use the recent message count instead of the unseen
- message count by turning on the feature
- incoming-checking-uses-recent.
- _incoming-checking-uses-recent_
- This option has no effect unless the feature
- enable-incoming-folders-checking is set, which in turn has no effect
- unless incoming-folders is set.
- When incoming folder checking is turned on the default is to display
- the number of unseen messages in each folder. More precisely, it is
- the number of undeleted unseen messages. Using this option you may
- display the number of recent messages instead of the number of unseen
- messages. A message is only counted as recent if this is the first
- session to see it, so the recent count might be less than the unseen
- count. The difference between the two would be accounted for by the
- unseen messages in the folder which were there previously but have
- not been looked at yet.
- If you simultaneously run more than one email client at a time (for
- example, you run more than one _Alpine_ in parallel) then turning
- this feature on can cause some confusion. The confusion stems from
- the fact that each message is only considered to be recent in one
- session. That means that the counts of new messages may be different
- in the two _Alpine_s running side by side, because each incoming
- message will only be counted as recent in one of the two sessions.
- You may also display the total number of messages in each folder by
- using the incoming-checking-includes-total option.
- _ldap-result-to-addrbook-add_
- This is only available if _Alpine_ was linked with an LDAP library
- when it was compiled. If both the per-directory-server option
- use-implicitly-from-composer and this feature are set, then when an
- implicit directory lookup is done from the composer you will
- automatically be prompted to add the result of the directory lookup
- to your address book.
- This feature is displayed as "LDAP Result to Addressbook Add".
- _maildrops-preserve-state_
- This feature affects the way Mail Drops work. Normally, when mail is
- moved from a Mail Drop folder to a destination folder, the state
- changes that have taken place since the mail was originally delivered
- are lost. Any Seen/New, Answered, Important/Flagged state that has
- changed will be ignored. All of the mail will be considered unSeen,
- unAnswered, and unImportant after it is moved.
- If this feature is set, then the state changes will not be lost.
- In any case, messages which are already marked Deleted when the mail
- is to be copied from the Mail Drop will be ignored.
- _mark-fcc-seen_
- This features controls the way FCCs (File Carbon Copies) are made of
- the messages you send. Normally, when _Alpine_ saves a copy of a
- message you sent as an Fcc, that copy will be marked as Unseen. When
- you look at the folder it was saved in the message will appear to be
- a New message until you read it. When this feature is enabled, the
- message will be marked as having been Seen.
- _mark-for-cc_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s MESSAGE INDEX display. By default, a
- '+' is displayed in the first column if the message is addressed
- directly to you. When this feature is set and the message is not
- addressed to you, then a '-' character is displayed if the message is
- instead Cc'd directly to you.
- _mult-newsrc-hostnames-as-typed_
- This feature will be of little use to most users. It has no effect
- unless the feature Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs is set. When the
- Enable-Multiple-Newsrcs feature is set then the setting of this
- feature may have an effect on the names of the newsrc files used.
- Normally, the name of the news server will be canonicalized before it
- is used in the newsrc file name. For example, if you type the news
- server name
-
- servername
- it is likely that the canonical name will be something like
-
- servername.example.com
- Or it may be the case that
-
- servername.example.com
- is really an alias (a DNS CNAME) for
-
- othername.example.com
- If this feature is not set, then the canonicalized names will be
- used. If this feature is set, then the name you typed in (or put in
- your configuration) will be used.
- This feature is displayed as "Multiple Newsrc Hostnames as Typed".
- _news-approximates-new-status_
- This feature causes certain messages to be marked as _New_ in the
- MESSAGE INDEX of newsgroups. This feature is set by default.
- When opening a newsgroup, _Alpine_ will consult your _newsrc_ file
- and determine the last message you have previously disposed of via
- the _D_ key. If this feature is set, any subsequent messages will be
- shown in the Index with an _N_, and the first of these messages will
- be highlighted. Although this is only an approximation of true _New_
- or _Unseen_ status, it provides a useful cue to distinguish
- more-or-less recent messages from those you have seen previously, but
- are not yet ready to mark deleted.
- Background: your _newsrc_ file (used to store message status
- information for newsgroups) is only capable of storing a single flag,
- and _Alpine_ uses this to record whether or not you are "done with" a
- message, as indicated by marking the message as _Deleted_.
- Unfortunately, this means that _Alpine_ has no way to record exactly
- which messages you have previously seen, so it normally does not show
- the _N_ status flag for any messages in a newsgroup. This feature
- enables a starting _approximation_ of seen/unseen status that may be
- useful.
- _news-deletes-across-groups_
- This feature controls what _Alpine_ does when you delete a message in
- a newsgroup that appears in more than one newsgroup. Such a message
- is sometimes termed a "crossposting" in that it was posted across
- several newsgroups.
- _Alpine_'s default behavior when you delete such a message is to
- remove only the copy in the current newsgroup from view when you use
- the "Exclude" command or the next time you visit the newsgroup.
- Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to remove every occurrence of
- the message from all newsgroups it appears in and to which you are
- subscribed.
- NOTE: As currently implemented, enabling this feature may increase
- the time it takes the Expunge command and newsgroup closing to
- complete.
- _news-offers-catchup-on-close_
- This feature controls what _Alpine_ does as it closes a newsgroup.
- When set, _Alpine_ will offer to delete all messages from the
- newsgroup as you are quitting _Alpine_ or opening a new folder.
- This feature is useful if you typically read all the interesting
- messages in a newsgroup each time you open it. This feature saves you
- from having to delete each message in a newsgroup as you read it or
- from selecting all the messages and doing an aggregate delete before
- you move on to the next folder or newsgroup.
- _news-post-without-validation_
- This feature controls whether the NNTP server is queried as
- newsgroups are entered for posting. Validation over slow links (e.g.
- dialup using SLIP or PPP) can cause delays. Set this feature to
- eliminate such delays.
- _news-read-in-newsrc-order_
- This feature controls the order that newsgroups will be presented. If
- set, they will be presented in the same order as they occur in your
- _newsrc_ file. If not set, the newsgroups will be presented in
- alphabetical order.
- _next-thread-without-confirm_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Next and Prev commands
- in the case where you are using one of the "separate-index-screen"
- styles for the configuration option threading-index-style and
- currently have the folder sorted by a Threaded or OrderedSubject
- sort. When you are Viewing a particular thread you have a MESSAGE
- INDEX of only the messages in that thread. If you press the Next
- command with the last message in the thread highlighted you will
- normally be asked if you want to "View next thread?", assuming there
- is a next thread to view. If this feature is set it will be assumed
- that you always want to view the next thread and you won't be asked
- to confirm that. Similarly, if the first message of the thread is
- highlighted and you press the Prev command, this feature will prevent
- the question "View previous thread".
- This feature only has an effect in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you
- then view a particular message from that screen and press the Next
- command, you will be sent to the next thread without being asked,
- independent of the setting of this feature.
- The feature auto-open-next-unread, also has some similar effects.
- This feature is displayed as "Read Next Thread Without Confirming".
- _offer-expunge-of-inbox_
- The INBOX is normally treated differently from regular folders in
- several ways. One of the differences is that the normal "close"
- sequence of events is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited, instead of
- happening when you leave the INBOX to view another folder. The
- "close" sequence normally includes the Expunging of deleted messages
- (either automatically or after a prompt, controlled by the features
- Expunge-Without-Confirm, Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and
- Expunge-Only-Manually), and the handling of the Read-Message-Folder.
- If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take place
- every time you leave the INBOX. The INBOX will still be kept open,
- but the offer to Expunge and the archiving to the Read-Message-Folder
- will take place each time you leave the INBOX instead of only once at
- the end of the session.
- _offer-expunge-of-stayopen-folders_
- This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders. Stay Open
- folders are treated differently from regular folders in several ways.
- One of the differences is that the normal "close" sequence of events
- is deferred until _Alpine_ is exited, instead of happening when you
- leave the folder to view another folder. The "close" sequence
- normally includes the Expunging of deleted messages (either
- automatically or after a prompt, controlled by the features
- Expunge-Without-Confirm, Expunge-Without-Confirm-Everywhere, and
- Expunge-Only-Manually), and the handling of Incoming-Archive-Folders.
- If this feature is set the "close" sequence handling will take place
- when you leave the Stay Open folder. The folder will still be kept
- open, but the offer to Expunge and the archiving will take place each
- time you leave the folder instead of only once at the end of the
- session. This feature does not affect the INBOX, which will still
- only be processed when you exit _Alpine_.
- _pass-c1-control-characters-as-is_
- It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy option
- left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which have an octet
- which has the same value as a control character are permitted through
- whether or not this option is turned on.
- If the feature pass-control-characters-as-is is set, then this
- feature has no effect. However, if you wish to filter out regular
- control characters but pass the so-called C1 control characters (0x80
- <= char < 0xA0) through unchanged, then you may leave
- pass-control-characters-as-is unset and set this feature.
- _pass-control-characters-as-is_
- It is probably not useful to set this option. This is a legacy option
- left behind "just in case". Multi-byte characters which have an octet
- which has the same value as a control character are permitted through
- whether or not this option is turned on.
- If set, all characters in a message will be sent to the screen.
- Normally, control characters are automatically suppressed in order to
- avoid inadvertently changing terminal setup parameters. Control
- characters are usually displayed as two character sequences like
-
- ^C
- for Control-C,
-
- ^[
- for ESCAPE,
-
- ^?
- for DELETE, and
-
- ~E
- for the character with value 133 (0x85). (The DEL character is
- displayed as ^?, regular control characters are displayed as the
- character ^ followed by the character obtained by adding the five
- low-order bits of the character to 0x40, and the C1 control
- characters 0x80 - 0x9F are displayed as the character ~ followed by
- the character obtained by adding the five low-order bits of the
- character to 0x40.) Sometimes, in cases where changing a single
- control character into a two-character sequence would confuse
- _Alpine_'s display routines, a question mark is substituted for the
- control character.
- If you wish to filter out regular control characters but pass the
- so-called C1 control characters (0x80 <= char < 0xA0) through
- unchanged, then you may leave this feature unset and set the feature
- pass-c1-control-characters-as-is instead.
- _predict-nntp-server_
- This feature allows _Alpine_ to assume that the open NNTP server at
- the time of composition is the NNTP server to which the message
- should be posted. This is especially recommended when there are
- multiple News collections. If this feature is not set, _Alpine_ will
- try to post to the first server in the nntp-server variable. Setting
- this feature also negates the need to add News collection servers to
- the nntp-server variable.
- This feature can be especially handy when used in conjunction with
- enable-multiple-newsrcs.
- This option is displayed as "NNTP Server (for news)".
- _prefer-plain-text_
- A message being viewed may contain alternate versions of the same
- content. Those alternate versions are ordered by the sending software
- such that the first alternative is the least preferred and the last
- alternative is the most preferred. _Alpine_ will normally display the
- most-preferred version that it knows how to display. This is most
- often encountered where the two alternate versions are a plain text
- version and an HTML version, with the HTML version listed last as the
- most preferred.
- If this option is set, then any plain text version will be preferred
- to all other versions.
- _preopen-stayopen-folders_
- This feature is related to the option Stay-Open-Folders. Normally,
- Stay Open folders are only opened on demand, when the user asks to
- open them. From then on they are kept open for the duration of the
- session. However, if this feature is set, then the Stay Open folders
- will all be opened at startup, at the same time that the INBOX is
- opened.
- _preserve-start-stop-characters_
- This feature controls how special control key characters, typically
- _^S_ and _^Q_, are interpreted when input to _Alpine_. These
- characters are known as the "start" and "stop" characters and are
- sometimes used in communications paths to control data flow between
- devices that operate at different speeds.
- By default, _Alpine_ turns the system's handling of these special
- characters off except during printing. However, if you see _Alpine_
- reporting input errors such as:
-
- [ Command "^Q" not defined for this screen. ]
- and, at the same time, see your display become garbled, then it is
- likely that setting this option will solve the problem. Be aware,
- though, that enabling this feature will also cause _Alpine_ to
- ostensibly "hang" whenever the _Ctrl-S_ key combination is entered as
- the system is now interpreting such input as a "stop output" command.
- To "start output" again, simply type _Ctrl-Q_.
- This feature is displayed as "Preserve Start/Stop Characters".
- _print-formfeed-between-messages_
- Setting this feature causes a formfeed to be printed between messages
- when printing multiple messages with the _Apply Print_ command.
- _print-includes-from-line_
- If this feature is set, then the Unix mail style From line is
- included at the start of each message that is printed. This line
- looks something like the following, with the address replaced by the
- address from the From line of the message being printed:
-
- From user@domain.somewhere.com Mon May 13 14:11:06 1996
- _print-index-enabled_
- This feature controls the behavior of the _Print_ command when in the
- "Folder Index" screen. If set, the _Print_ command will give you a
- prompt asking if you wish to print the message index, or the
- currently highlighted message. If not set, the message will be
- printed.
- _print-offers-custom-cmd-prompt_
- When this feature is set, the _Print_ command will have an additional
- subcommand called _C CustomPrint_. If selected, you will have the
- opportunity to enter any system print command, instead of being
- restricted to using those that have been previously configured in the
- _Setup/Printer_ screen.
- This feature is displayed as "Print Offers Custom Command Prompt".
- _prune-uses-yyyy-mm_
- By default, _Alpine_ asks monthly whether or not you would like to
- rename some folders to a new name containing the date. It also asks
- whether or not you would like to delete some old folders. See the
- pruning-rule option for an explanation.
- By default, the name used when renaming a folder looks like
-
- <foldername>-<month>-<year>
- For example, the first time you run _Alpine_ in May of 2004, the
- folder "sent-mail" might be renamed to
-
- sent-mail-apr-2004
- If this feature is set, the name used will be of the form
-
- <foldername>-<yyyy>-<mm>
- where "yyyy" is the year and "mm" is the two-digit month (01, 02,
- ..., 12). For the April, 2004 example above, it would instead be
-
- sent-mail-2004-04
- because April is the 4th month of the year. A reason you might want
- to set this feature is so that the folders will sort in chronological
- order.
- _publiccerts-in-keychain_
- Mac OS X _Alpine_ only.
- If this feature is set the Mac OS X default keychain will be used as
- the place to store public certificates instead of a
- smime-public-cert-directory or a smime-public-cert-container.
- This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Public Certs in MacOS
- Keychain".
- _quell-attachment-extension-warn_
- This feature suppresses the extra warning you can get when trying to
- view an attachment for which there is no mime-type match. Turning on
- this feature will just run the program according to extension instead
- of first warning the user that it will run according to the file's
- extension.
- This feature can be used along side quell-attachment-extra-prompt to
- preserve the behavior exhibited in _Pine_ versions prior to _Pine_
- 4.50.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extension Warning".
- _quell-attachment-extra-prompt_
- By default, when you attempt to view an attachment externally from
- the "Attachment View" screen, you are asked if you really want to
- view the selected attachment.
- If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm your
- selection. Prior to _Pine_ 4.50, the default behavior was to not
- prompt. This feature was added for those wanting to preserve that
- behavior.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Attachment Extra Prompt".
- _quell-berkeley-format-timezone_
- POSIX mandates a timezone in UNIX mailbox format folder delimiters
- (the line which begins with From ). Some versions of Berkeley mail
- have trouble with this, and don't recognize the line as a message
- delimiter. If this feature is set, the timezone will be left off the
- delimiter line.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Berkeley Format Timezone".
- _quell-charset-warning_
- By default, if the message you are viewing contains characters that
- are not representable in your display-character-set then _Alpine_
- will add a warning to the start of the displayed text. If this option
- is set, then that editorial message will be suppressed.
- Setting this feature also suppresses the comment about the character
- set in header lines. For example, when viewing a message you might
- see
-
- From: "[ISO-8859-2] Name" <address>
- in the From header if your Character-Set is something other than
- ISO-8859-2. If you set this feature, the comment about the character
- set will no longer be there.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Character Set Warning".
- _quell-content-id_
- This feature changes the behavior of _Alpine_ when sending messages.
- It is intended to work around a bug in Microsoft's Outlook XP mail
- user agent. As of this writing, Microsoft has acknowledged the bug
- but has not added it to the Knowledge Base. We have been told that
- there will be a post-SP1 hotfix for Outlook XP. This particular bug
- has bug fix number OfficeQFE:4781. The nature of the bug is that
- messages with attachments which contain a Content-ID header (which
- standard _Alpine_ attachments do) do not show the attachment
- indicator (a paperclip) when viewed with Outlook XP. So the user has
- no indication that the message contains an attachment.
- If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will remove most Content-ID
- headers before sending a message. If an attachment is of type
- MESSAGE, then the existing Content-ID headers inside the message will
- be left intact. This would only happen with _Alpine_ if a message was
- forwarded as an attachment or if a message with a message attached
- was forwarded. Similarly if an attachment of type
- MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE is forwarded, the Content-ID headers of the
- alternative parts will not be removed.
- Because the Content-ID header is a standard part of MIME it is
- possible that setting this feature will break something. For example,
- if an attachment has a Content-ID header which is necessary for the
- correct functioning of that attachment, it is possible that _Alpine_
- may remove that header when the attachment is forwarded. However, it
- seems fairly safe at this time.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Content-ID".
- _quell-dead-letter-on-cancel_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you cancel a message
- being composed. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to write the canceled
- message to a file named dead.letter in your home directory (under
- UNIX; DEADLETR under WINDOWS/DOS) overwriting any previous message.
- Under some conditions (some routine), this can introduce a noticeable
- delay.
- Setting this feature will cause _Alpine_ NOT to write canceled
- compositions into the file called dead.letter.
- This feature affects the newer option Dead-Letter-Files, which
- specifies the number of dead letter files to keep around. If this
- feature is set, then the Dead-Letter-Files option has no effect.
- This feature is displayed as "Do Not Save to Deadletter on Cancel".
- _quell-empty-directories_
- This feature causes _Alpine_ to remove from the display any
- directories that do not contain at least one file or directory. This
- can be useful to prevent overly cluttered folder lists when a
- collection is stored on a server that treats all names as both a
- folder and a directory.
- Note, enabling this feature can cause surprising behavior! For
- example, you can still use Add to create a directory, but unless you
- immediately enter that directory and create a folder, that newly
- created directory may not be displayed next time you enter the folder
- list.
- This feature is displayed as "Hide Empty Directories".
- _quell-extra-post-prompt_
- This feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the extra question about posting
- a message which may go to thousands of readers when you are about to
- post to a newsgroup.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Extra Posting Prompt".
- _quell-filtering-done-message_
- This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the "filtering done"
- message.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Done Message".
- _quell-filtering-messages_
- This feature causes _Alpine_ to suppress the messages about moving
- filtered messages and setting flags in messages, due to Filter Rules.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Filtering Messages".
- _quell-flowed-text_
- _Alpine_ generates flowed text where possible. The method for
- generating flowed text is defined by RFC 3676, the benefit of doing
- so is to send message text that can properly be viewed both on normal
- width displays and on displays with smaller or larger than normal
- screen widths. With flowed text, a space at the end of a line tells
- the receiving mail client that the following line belongs to the same
- paragraph. Quoted text will also be affected, with only the innermost
- level of ">" quoting being followed by a space. However, if you have
- changed the "Reply-Indent-String" so that it is not equal to the
- default value of "> ", then quoted text will not be flowed. For this
- reason, we recommend that you leave your "Reply-Indent-String" set to
- the default.
- This feature turns off the generation of flowed text, as it might be
- desired to more tightly control how a message is displayed on the
- receiving end.
- If this feature is _not_ set, you can control on a message by message
- basis whether or not flowed text is generated. You do this by typing
- ^V at the Send confirmation prompt that you get after typing ^X to
- send a message. ^V is a toggle which turns flowing off and back on if
- typed again. If for some reason flowing cannot be done on a
- particular message, then the ^V command will not be available. This
- would be the case, for example, if this feature was set, or if your
- "Reply-Indent-String" was set to a non-default value. If the feature
- Send-Without-Confirm is set, then the opportunity to control on a
- message by message basis whether or not flowed text is generated is
- lost.
- When this feature is not set and you have typed ^V to turn off
- flowing, the Send confirmation prompt will change to look like
-
- Send message (not flowed)?
- Strip-Whitespace-Before-Send will also turn off the sending of flowed
- text messages, but it differs in that it also trims all trailing
- white space from a message before sending it.
- If alternate editors are used extensively, be aware that a message
- will still be sent flowed if this feature is unset. In most cases
- this will be fine, but if the editor has a "flowed text" mode, it
- would be best to use that.
- This feature is displayed as "Do Not Send Flowed Text".
- _quell-folder-internal-msg_
- This feature determines whether or not _Alpine_ will create "pseudo
- messages" in folders that are in standard Unix or MMDF format.
- _Alpine_ will normally create these pseudo messages when they are not
- already present in a standard Unix or MMDF folder. Their purpose is
- to record certain mailbox state data needed for correct IMAP and POP
- server operation, and also for _Alpine_ to be able to mark messages
- as Answered when the Reply has been postponed.
- Sites which do not use IMAP/POP for remote mail access, and which
- need to support mail tools that are adversely affected by the
- presence of the pseudo-messages (e.g. some mail notification tools)
- may enable this feature to tell _Alpine_ not to create them. Note
- that _Alpine_'s "Answered" flag capability will be adversely affected
- if this is done.
- Note too that, even if this feature is enabled, _Alpine_ will not
- remove pseudo-messages when it encounters them (e.g. those created by
- UW's imapd or ipopd servers.) This feature has no effect on folders
- that are not in standard Unix or MMDF format, as pseudo-messages are
- not needed in the other formats to record mailbox state information.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent Folder Internal Message".
- _quell-full-header-auto-reset_
- The HdrMode Command normally resets to the default state when
- switching to a new message. For example, if you've used the "H"
- command to turn on Full Headers for a message you are viewing, and
- then you type the Next command to look at the next message, the full
- headers will no longer be shown. Setting this feature disables that
- reset. Instead, the Header Mode remains the same from message to
- message.
- The presence or absence of the HdrMode command is determined by the
- "Enable-Full-Header-Cmd" Feature-List option.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Full Header Auto Reset".
- _quell-imap-envelope-update_
- In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being accessed
- using IMAP, _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the index lines on the
- screen as soon as the information arrives from the IMAP server. This
- means that the index information makes it onto the screen more
- quickly than it otherwise would. This sometimes results in behavior
- that bothers some users. For example, when paging to a new page of
- the index, it may be possible for the lines to be painted on the
- screen in a random order, rather than from top to bottom.
- Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
- information to be gathered before it paints the index screen. Once it
- collects all of the information, the screen will be painted quickly
- from top to bottom.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress IMAP Envelope Update".
- _quell-lock-failure-warnings_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when it encounters a problem
- acquiring a mail folder lock. Typically, a secondary file associated
- with the mail folder being opened is created as part of the locking
- process. On some systems, such file creation has been
- administratively precluded by the system configuration.
- _Alpine_ issues a warning when such failures occur, which can become
- bothersome if the system is configured to disallow such actions.
- Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to remain silent when this part
- of lock creation fails.
- WARNING: systems that have been configured in a way that precludes
- locking introduce some risk of mail folder corruption when more than
- one program attempts to modify the mail folder. This is most likely
- to occur to one's _INBOX_ or other "Incoming Message Folder".
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Lock Failure Warnings".
- _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox_
- This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval option, the
- Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
- Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox.
- If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
- happens while you are composing will not happen for folders other
- than your INBOX (which depends on the setting of
- "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox").
- You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
- while composing which you think might be related to the speed of the
- new-mail checks.
- Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check may be
- done in order to keep the server from killing the connection to the
- folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a connection to a folder
- if there has been no activity on the connection for 30 minutes or
- more. Instead of letting that happen, _Alpine_ will check for new
- mail before the 30 minutes is up even though you have turned on this
- feature to quell those checks.
- Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the folders will
- also be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of
- checkpointing is to write the changes to a folder out to disk
- periodically in order to avoid losing those changes when system or
- software problems occur. New-mail checking and checkpointing while
- you are not composing are not affected by this option.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing
- Except for INBOX".
- _Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Inbox_
- This option is closely related to the Mail-Check-Interval option, the
- Mail-Check-Interval-Noncurrent option, and
- Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox.
- If this option is set, then the normal new-mail checking which
- happens while you are composing will not happen for your INBOX.
- Checking of other folders is controlled in a similar way with the
- "Quell-Mailchecks-Composing-Except-Inbox" option.
- You might want to set this option if you are experiencing delays
- while composing which you think might be related to the speed of the
- new-mail checks.
- Even with this option turned on, an occasional new-mail check may be
- done in order to keep the server from killing the connection to the
- folder. For example, IMAP servers may remove a connection to a folder
- if there has been no activity on the connection for 30 minutes or
- more. Instead of letting that happen, _Alpine_ will check for new
- mail before the 30 minutes is up even though you have turned on this
- feature to quell those checks.
- Besides new-mail checks, checkpoint operations on the INBOX will also
- be quelled when you set this option. The purpose of checkpointing is
- to write the changes to a folder out to disk periodically in order to
- avoid losing those changes when system or software problems occur.
- New-mail checking and checkpointing while you are not composing are
- not affected by this option.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent Mailchecks While Composing for
- INBOX".
- _quell-maildomain-warning_
- When your configuration is set up so that your domain name contains
- no dots, it is usually a configuration error. By default, _Alpine_
- will warn you about this when you start it up. You will see a warning
- message that looks like
-
- Incomplete maildomain "<domain>".
- If this feature is set, the warning is turned off. This feature is
- displayed as "Suppress Maildomain Warning".
- _quell-news-envelope-update_
- In the MESSAGE INDEX screen, if the open folder is being accessed
- using NNTP (News), _Alpine_ normally tries to paint the index lines
- on the screen as soon as the information arrives from the NNTP
- server. This means that the index information makes it onto the
- screen more quickly than it otherwise would. This sometimes results
- in behavior that bothers some users. For example, when paging to a
- new page of the index, it may be possible for the lines to be painted
- on the screen in a random order, rather than from top to bottom.
- Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to wait for all of the
- information to be gathered before it paints the index screen. Once it
- collects all of the information, the screen will be painted quickly
- from top to bottom.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress News Envelope Update".
- _quell-partial-fetching_
- Partial fetching is a feature of the IMAP protocol. By default,
- _Alpine_ will use partial fetching when copying the contents of a
- message or attachment from the IMAP server to _Alpine_. This means
- that the fetch will be done in many small chunks instead of one big
- chunk. The main benefit of this approach is that the fetch becomes
- interruptible. That is, the user can type _^C_ to stop the fetch
- early. In some cases partial fetching may cause a performance problem
- so that the fetching of data takes significantly longer when partial
- fetching is used. Turning on this feature will turn off partial
- fetching.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent Partial Fetching".
- _quell-personal-name-prompt_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a
- personal-name. This prompt normally happens before composing a
- message, and only happens when there is no personal name already set.
- _quell-server-after-link-in-html_
- By default, links in HTML text are displayed with the host the link
- references appended, within square brackets, to the link text.
- _Alpine_ does this to help indicate where a link will take you,
- particularly when the link text might suggest a different
- destination.
- Setting this feature will prevent the server name from being appended
- to the displayed text.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Server After Link in HTML".
- _quell-ssl-largeblocks_
- This feature (_PC-Alpine_ only) changes the behavior of fetching
- messages and attachments so that the message data is fetched in
- chunks no larger than 12K bytes. This works around a bug in
- Microsoft's SSL/TLS support. Some versions of Microsoft SSL are not
- able to read full-sized (16K) SSL/TLS packets. Some servers will send
- such packets and this will cause _PC-Alpine_ to crash with the error
-
- incomplete SecBuffer exceeds maximum buffer size
- Microsoft is aware of the problem and has developed a hotfix for it,
- but as of this writing the hotfix has not yet been added to the
- Knowledge Base.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent SSL Largeblocks".
- _quell-status-message-beeping_
- If set status messages will never emit a beep.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Status Message Beeping".
- _quell-timezone-comment-when-sending_
- Normally, when _Alpine_ generates a Date header for outgoing mail, it
- will try to include the symbolic timezone at the end of the header
- inside parentheses. The symbolic timezone is often three characters
- long, but on some operating systems, it may be longer. Apparently
- there are some SMTP servers in the world which will reject an
- incoming message if it has a Date header longer than about 80
- characters. If this feature is set, the symbolic timezone normally
- generated by _Alpine_ will not be included. You probably don't need
- to worry about this feature unless you run into the problem described
- above.
- This feature is displayed as "Suppress Timezone Comment When
- Sending".
- _quell-user-id-prompt_
- _PC-Alpine_ only. This feature quells the prompting for a user-id if
- the information can be obtained from the login name used to open the
- INBOX. Normally, this prompt happens before composing a message, and
- only happens when there is no user-id already set in the
- configuration.
- With this feature set, composing a message is only possible after
- establishing a connection to the INBOX.
- _quell-user-lookup-in-passwd-file_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Composer, and if
- needed, will usually be set by the system manager in _Alpine_'s
- system-wide configuration file. Specifically, if this feature is set,
- _Alpine_ will not attempt to look in the system password file to find
- a Full Name for the entered address.
- Normally, names you enter into address fields (e.g. To: or Cc:) are
- checked against your address book(s) to see if they match an address
- book nickname. Failing that, (in Unix _Alpine_) the name is then
- checked against the Unix password file. If the entered name matches a
- username in the system password file, _Alpine_ extracts the
- corresponding Full Name information for that individual, and adds
- that to the address being entered.
- However, password file matching can have surprising (incorrect)
- results if other users of the system do not receive mail at the
- domain you are using. That is, if either the user-domain or
- use-only-domain-name option is set such that the administrative
- domain of other users on the system isn't accurately reflected,
- _Alpine_ should be told that a password file match is coincidental,
- and Full Name info will be incorrect. For example, a personal name
- from the password file could get falsely paired with the entered name
- as it is turned into an address in the configured domain.
- If you are seeing this behavior, enabling this feature will prevent
- Unix _Alpine_ from looking up names in the password file to find the
- Full Name for incomplete addresses you enter.
- This feature is displayed as "Prevent User Lookup in Password File".
- _quit-without-confirm_
- This feature controls whether or not _Alpine_ will ask for
- confirmation when a _Quit_ command is received.
- This feature is displayed as "Quit Without Confirming".
- _quote-replace-nonflowed_
- This feature, which is only active when Quote-Replace-String is also
- set, enables quote-replacement on non-flowed messages. It is off by
- default because a non-flowed message is more dependent on its format,
- and thus quote-replacement may cause less-than-pleasing results.
- Setting this feature will cause quote-replacement similar to that of
- flowed messages, but with the added possibility of long lines being
- wrapped into new lines if the Quote-Replacement-String is longer than
- the string it is replacing, which is "> ".
- _reply-always-uses-reply-to_
- If set, _Alpine_ will not prompt when a message being replied to
- contains a _Reply-To:_ header value, but will simply use its value
- (as opposed to using the _From:_ field's value).
- _return-to-inbox-without-confirm_
- Normally, when you use the TAB command and there are no more folders
- or newsgroups to visit, you are asked if you want to return to the
- INBOX. If this feature is set you will not be asked. It will be
- assumed that you do want to return to the INBOX.
- This feature is displayed as "Return to INBOX Without Confirming".
- _save-aggregates-copy-sequence_
- This feature will optimize an aggregate copy operation, if possible,
- by issuing a single IMAP _COPY_ command with a list of the messages
- to be copied. This feature is set by default. This may reduce network
- traffic and elapsed time for the Save. _However, many IMAP servers
- (including the UW IMAP server) do not preserve the order of messages
- when this optimization is applied._ If this feature is not set,
- _Alpine_ will copy each message individually and the order of the
- messages will be preserved.
- This feature is displayed as "Save Combines Copies (may be out of
- order)".
- _save-partial-msg-without-confirm_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s Save command. By
- default, when you Save a message that has some deleted parts, you
- will be asked to confirm that you want to Save with a prompt that
- looks like:
-
- Saved copy will NOT include entire message! Continue?
- If this feature is set, you will not be asked.
- This feature is displayed as "Save Partial Message Without
- Confirming".
- _save-will-advance_
- If set, _Save_ will (in addition to copying the current message to
- the designated folder) also advance to the next message.
- _save-will-not-delete_
- If set, _Save_ will not mark the message Deleted (its default
- behavior) after it has been copied to the designated folder.
- _save-will-quote-leading-froms_
- This feature controls an aspect of the _Save_ command (and also the
- way outgoing messages are saved to an FCC folder). If set, _Alpine_
- will add a leading > character in front of message lines beginning
- with "From" when they are saved to another folder, including lines
- syntactically distinguishable from the type of message separator line
- commonly used on Unix systems.
- The default behavior is that a > will be prepended only to lines
- beginning with "From " that might otherwise be confused with a
- message separator line on Unix systems. If _Alpine_ is the only mail
- program you use, this default is reasonable. If another program you
- use has trouble displaying a message with an unquoted From saved by
- _Alpine_, you should enable this feature. This feature only applies to
- the common Unix mailbox format that uses message separator lines
- beginning with "From ". If _Alpine_ has been configured to use a
- different mailbox format (possibly incompatible with other mail
- programs), then this issue does not arise, and the feature is
- irrelevant.
- _scramble-message-id_
- Normally the Message-ID header that _Alpine_ generates when sending a
- message contains the name of the computer from which the message is
- being sent. Some believe that this hostname could be used by spammers
- or could be used by others for nefarious purposes. If this feature is
- set, that name will be transformed with a simple Rot13
- transformation. The result will still have the correct syntax for a
- Message-ID but the part of the MessageID that is often a domain name
- will not be an actual domain name because the letters will be
- scrambled.
- It is possible (but unlikely?) that some spam detection software will
- use that as a reason to reject the mail as spam. It has also been
- reported that some spam detection software uses the fact that there
- are no dots after the "@" as a reason to reject messages. If your
- _PC-Alpine_ Message-ID is using a name without a dot that is because
- that is what Windows thinks is your "Full computer name". The method
- used to set this varies from one type of Windows to another but check
- under Settings -> Control Panel -> System and look for Network
- Identification or Computer Name or something similar. How to set it
- is beyond the scope of _Alpine_.
- This feature is displayed as "Scramble the Message-ID When Sending".
- _select-without-confirm_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s _Save_, _Export_, and
- _Goto_ commands. These commands all take text input to specify the
- name of the folder or file to be used, but allow you to press _^T_
- for a list of possible names. If set, the selected name will be used
- immediately, without further opportunity to confirm or edit the name.
- This feature is displayed as "Select Ctrl-T Foldername Without
- Confirming".
- _send-without-confirm_
- By default, when you send or post a message you will be asked to
- confirm with a question that looks something like:
-
- Send message?
- If this feature is set, you will _not_ be prompted to confirm your
- intent to send and your message will be sent.
- If this feature is set it disables some possibilities and renders
- some other features meaningless. You will not be able to use Sending
- Filters, Verbose sending mode, Background Sending, Delivery Status
- Notifications, or ^V to turn off the generation of flowed text for
- this message. These options are normally available as suboptions in
- the Send prompt, but with no Send prompt the options are gone.
- A somewhat related feature is quell-extra-post-prompt. which may be
- used to eliminate the extra confirmation question when posting to a
- newsgroup.
- This feature is displayed as "Send Without Confirming".
- _separate-folder-and-directory-display_
- This feature affects folder collections wherein a folder and
- directory can have the same name. By default, _Alpine_ displays them
- only once, denoting that it is both a folder and directory by
- appending the folder name with the hierarchy character enclosed in
- square brackets.
- Enabling this feature will cause _Alpine_ to display such names
- separately marking the name representing a directory with a trailing
- hierarchy delimiter (typically the slash, "/", character).
- The feature also alters the command set slightly. By default, the
- right-arrow descends into the directory, while hitting the Return key
- will cause the folder by that name to be opened.
- With this feature set, the Return key will open the highlighted
- folder, or enter the highlighted directory.
- _show-cursor_
- If set, the system cursor will move to convenient locations in the
- displays. For example, to the beginning of the status field of the
- highlighted index line, or to the highlighted word after a successful
- _WhereIs_ command. It is intended to draw your attention to the
- _interesting_ spot on the screen.
- _show-plain-text-internally_
- This feature modifies the method _Alpine_ uses to display Text/Plain
- MIME attachments from the Attachment Index screen. Normally, the
- "View" command searches for any externally defined (usually via the
- Mailcap file) viewer, and displays the selected text within that
- viewer.
- Enabling this feature causes _Alpine_ to ignore any external viewer
- settings and always display text with _Alpine_'s internal viewer.
- _show-selected-in-boldface_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s aggregate operation
- commands; in particular, the _Select_ and _WhereIs_ commands. _Select_
- and _WhereIs_ (with the _^X_ subcommand) will search the current
- folder for messages meeting a specified criteria, and _tag_ the
- resulting messages with an _X_ in the first column of the applicable
- lines in the "Folder Index". If this feature is set, instead of using
- the _X_ to denote a selected message, _Alpine_ will attempt to
- display those index lines in boldface. Whether this is preferable to
- the _X_ will depend on personal taste and the type of terminal being
- used.
- _show-sort_
- If this feature is set and there is sufficient space on the screen, a
- short indication of the current sort order will be added in the
- titlebar (the top line on the screen), before the name of the folder.
- For example, with the default Arrival sort in effect, the display
- would have the characters
-
- [A]
- added between the title of the screen and the folder name. The
- letters are the same as the letters you may type to manually sort a
- folder with the SortIndex command ($). The letters in the table below
- are the ones that may show up in the titlebar line.
-
- A _A_rrival
- S _S_ubject
- F _F_rom
- T _T_o
- C _C_c
- D _D_ate
- Z si_Z_e
- O _O_rderedsubject
- E scor_E_
- H t_H_read
- If the sort order is Reversed, the letter above will be preceded by
- the letter "R", for example
-
- [RS]
- means that a Reverse Subject sort is in effect. For the case where
- the sort is in Reverse Arrival order, the "A" is left out, and just
- an "R" is shown.
-
- [R]
- This feature is displayed as "Show Sort in Titlebar".
- _signature-at-bottom_
- If this feature is set, and a message being _Repl_ied to is being
- included in the reply, then the contents of the signature file (if
- any) will be inserted after the included message. This feature does
- not affect the results of a _Forward_ command.
- _single-column-folder-list_
- If set, the "Folder List" screen will list one folder per line
- instead of several per line.
- _slash-collapses-entire-thread_
- Normally, the Collapse/Expand Thread command Collapses or Expands the
- subthread which starts at the currently highlighted message, if any.
- If this feature is set, then the slash command Collapses or Expands
- the _entire_ current thread instead of just the subthread.
- _smime-dont-do-smime_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- Setting this feature turns off all of _Alpine_'s S/MIME support. You
- might want to set this if you are having trouble due to the S/MIME
- support.
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Turn off S/MIME".
- _smime-encrypt-by-default_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_ includes
- support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a
- message. If this option is set, the "Encrypt" option will default to
- ON when sending messages.
- Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still toggle
- the Encrypt option on or off before sending with the "E Encrypt"
- command (provided you have a the public digital ID for the
- recipient).
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Encrypt by Default".
- _smime-remember-passphrase_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_ includes
- support for S/MIME. If this option is set, you will only have to
- enter your passphrase for your private key once during an _Alpine_
- session.
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Remember S/MIME Passphrase".
- _smime-sign-by-default_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
- This feature only has an effect if your version of _Alpine_ includes
- support for S/MIME. It affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a
- message. If this option is set, the "Sign" option will default to ON
- when sending messages.
- Only the default value is affected. In any case, you may still toggle
- the Signing option on or off before sending with the "G Sign" command
- (provided you have a personal digital ID certificate).
- + General S/MIME Overview
- This feature is displayed as "S/MIME -- Sign by Default".
- _sort-default-fcc-alpha_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST screen. If
- set, the default FCC folder will be sorted alphabetically with the
- other folders instead of appearing right after the INBOX.
- This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Fcc Folder
- Alphabetically".
- _sort-default-save-alpha_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST screen. If
- set, the default save folder will be sorted alphabetically with the
- other folders instead of appearing right after the INBOX (and default
- FCC folder).
- This feature is displayed as "Sort Default Save Folder
- Alphabetically".
- _spell-check-before-sending_
- When this feature is set, every composed message will be
- spell-checked before being sent.
- _store-window-position-in-config_
- Normally, _PC-Alpine_ will store its window size and position in the
- Windows Registry. This is convenient if you want to use the same
- remote configuration from more than one PC. If you use multiple
- configuration files to start _PC-Alpine_, you may want to store the
- window size and position in the configuration file instead of in the
- Registry. Setting this feature causes that to happen.
- _strip-from-sigdashes-on-reply_
- This feature doesn't do anything if the feature enable-sigdashes is
- turned on. However, if the _enable-sigdashes_ feature is not turned
- on, then turning on this feature enables support for the convention
- of not including text beyond the sigdashes line when Replying or
- Following up to a message and including the text of that message.
- In other words, this is a way to turn on the signature stripping
- behavior without also turning on the dashes-adding behavior.
- _strip-whitespace-before=send_
- Trailing whitespace is not stripped from a message before sending.
- Trailing whitespace should have no effect on an email message, and in
- flowed text can aid in delimiting paragraphs. However, the old
- behavior of stripping trailing whitespace was in place to better deal
- with older clients that couldn't handle certain types of text
- encodings. This feature restores the old behavior
- Trailing whitespace is of aid to flowed-text-formatted messages,
- which are generated by default but can be turned off via the
- quell-flowed-text feature. strip-whitespace-before-send also has the
- effect of turning off sending of flowed text.
- This feature is displayed as "Strip Whitespace Before Sending".
- _suppress-asterisks-in-password-prompt_
- When you are running _Alpine_ you will sometimes be asked for a
- password in a prompt on the third line from the bottom of the screen.
- Normally each password character you type will cause an asterisk to
- echo on the screen. That gives you some feedback to know that your
- typing is being recognized. There is a very slight security risk in
- doing it this way because someone watching over your shoulder might
- be able to see how many characters there are in your password. If
- you'd like to suppress the echoing of the asterisks set this feature.
- _suppress-user-agent-when-sending_
- If this feature is set then _Alpine_ will not generate a User-Agent
- header in outgoing messages.
- _tab-checks-recent_
- In a FOLDER LIST screen, the TAB key usually just changes which
- folder is highlighted. If this feature is set, then the TAB key will
- cause the number of recent messages and the total number of messages
- in the highlighted folder to be displayed instead.
- This feature is displayed as "Tab Checks for Recent Messages".
- _tab-uses-unseen-for-next-folder_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the TAB NextNew
- Command to move from one folder to the next. _Alpine_'s usual
- behavior is to search for folders with _Recent_ messages in them.
- Recent messages are messages which have arrived since the last time
- the folder was opened.
- Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to search for _Unseen_ messages
- instead of Recent messages. Unseen messages remain Unseen until you
- view them (or flag then as Seen with the Flag Command). Setting this
- feature allows you to locate messages you have not read instead of
- only recently received messages. When this feature is set, the
- feature Enable-Fast-Recent-Test will have no effect, so the checking
- may be slower.
- Another reason why you might want to use this feature is that _Alpine_
- sometimes opens folders implicitly behind the scenes, and this clears
- the Recent status of all messages in the folder. One example where
- this happens is when Saving or filtering a message to another folder.
- If that message has some keywords set, then because of some
- shortcomings in the IMAP specification, the best way to ensure that
- those keywords are still set in the saved copy of the message is to
- open the folder and set the keywords explicitly. Because this clears
- the Recent status of all messages in that folder the folder will not
- be found by the NextNew command unless this feature is set.
- _tab-visits-next-new-message-only_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when using the _TAB_ key to
- move from one message to the next. _Alpine_'s usual behavior is to
- select the next _Unread_ message or message flagged as _Important_.
- Setting this feature causes _Alpine_ to skip the messages flagged as
- _Important_, and select _Unread_ messages exclusively. Tab behavior
- when there are no new messages left to select remains unchanged.
- _termdef-takes-precedence_
- This feature may affect _Alpine_'s low-level input routines. Termcap
- (or terminfo, depending on how your copy of _Alpine_ was compiled and
- linked) is the name of the database which describes terminal
- capabilities. In particular, it describes the sequences of characters
- that various keys will emit.
- An example would be the Up Arrow key on the keyboard. Up Arrow is not
- a distinct character on most Unix systems. When you press the Up
- Arrow key a short sequence of characters are produced. This sequence
- is supposed to be described in the termcap database by the "ku"
- capability (or by the "kcuu1" capability if you are using terminfo
- instead of termcap).
- By default, _Alpine_ defines some terminal escape sequences that are
- commonly used. For example, the sequence "ESC O A" is recognized as
- an Up Arrow key. The sequence "ESC [ A" is also recognized as an Up
- Arrow key. These are chosen because common terminals like VT100's or
- ANSI standard terminals produce these sequences when you press the Up
- Arrow key.
- If your system's termcap (terminfo) database assigns some other
- function to the sequence "ESC O A" it is usually ignored by _Alpine_.
- Also, if your termcap (terminfo) database assigns a sequence which
- doesn't begin with an escape character (ESC) it is usually ignored by
- _Alpine_. This usually works fine because most terminals emit the
- escape sequences that _Alpine_ has defined by default. We have also
- found that it is usually better to have these defaults take
- precedence over the definitions contained in the database because the
- defaults are more likely to be correct than the database.
- There are some terminals where this breaks down. If you want _Alpine_
- to believe the definitions given in your termcap (terminfo) database
- in preference to the defaults the _Alpine_ itself sets up, then you
- may turn this feature on. Then, sequences of characters which are
- defined in both termcap (terminfo) and in _Alpine_'s set of defaults
- will be interpreted the way that termcap (terminfo) says they should
- be interpreted. Also, if your terminal capabilities database assigns
- a sequence which doesn't begin with escape, it will not be ignored.
- _thread-index-shows-important-color_
- This option affects only the THREAD INDEX screen. Whether or not you
- ever see a THREAD INDEX screen depends on the setting of the
- configuration option threading-index-style and on the sort order of
- the index. If a message within a thread is flagged as Important and
- this option is set, then the entire line in the THREAD INDEX will be
- colored the color of the Index-important Symbol, which can be set
- using the Setup Kolor screen.
- _try-alternative-authentication-driver-first_
- This feature affects how _Alpine_ connects to IMAP servers. It's
- utility has largely been overtaken by events, but it may still be
- useful in some circumstances. If you only connect to modern IMAP
- servers that support "TLS" you can ignore this feature.
- Details:
- By default, _Alpine_ will attempt to connect to an IMAP server on the
- normal IMAP service port (143), and if the server offers "Transport
- Layer Security" (TLS) and _Alpine_ has been compiled with encryption
- capability, then a secure (encrypted) session will be negotiated.
- With this feature enabled, before connecting on the normal IMAP port,
- _Alpine_ will first attempt to connect to an alternate IMAP service
- port (993) used specifically for encrypted IMAP sessions via the
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) method. If the SSL attempt fails, _Alpine_
- will then try the default behavior described in the previous
- paragraph.
- TLS negotiation on the normal port is preferred, and supersedes the
- use of SSL on port 993, but older servers may not provide TLS
- support. This feature may be convenient when accessing IMAP servers
- that do not support TLS, but do support SSL connections on port 993.
- However, it is important to understand that with this feature
- enabled, _Alpine_ will _attempt_ to make a secure connection if that
- is possible, but it will proceed to make an insecure connection if
- that is the only option offered by the server, or if the _Alpine_ in
- question has been built without encryption capability.
- Note that this feature specifies a per-user (or system-wide) default
- behavior, but host/folder specification flags may be used to control
- the behavior of any specific connection. This feature interacts with
- some of the possible host/folder path specification flags as follows:
- The /tls host flag, for example,
-
- {foo.example.com/tls}INBOX
- will over-ride this feature for the specified host by bypassing the
- SSL connection attempt. Moreover, with /tls specified, the connection
- attempt will fail if the service on port 143 does not offer TLS
- support.
- The /ssl host flag, for example,
-
- {foo.example.com/ssl}INBOX
- will insist on an SSL connection for the specified host, and will
- fail if the SSL service on port 993 is not available. _Alpine_ will
- not subsequently retry a connection on port 143 if /ssl is specified.
- _unselect-will-not-advance_
- Normally, when the Unselect current message command (:) is typed when
- the current message is selected, the message will be unselected and
- the next message will become the current message. If this feature is
- set, the cursor will not advance to the next message. Instead, the
- current message will remain the current message after unselecting.
- _use-current-dir_
- This feature controls an aspect of several commands. If set, your
- "current working directory" will be used instead of your home
- directory for all of the following operations:
- + _Export_ in the "Folder Index" and "Message Text" screens
- + Attachment _Save_ in the "Message Text" and "Attachment Text"
- screens
- + _^R_ file inclusion in the Composer
- + _^J_ file attachment in the Composer
- This feature is displayed as "Use Current Directory".
- _use-function-keys_
- This feature specifies that _Alpine_ will respond to function keys
- instead of the normal single-letter commands. In this mode, the key
- menus at the bottom of each screen will show function key
- designations instead of the normal mnemonic key.
- _use-regular-startup-rule-for-stayopen-folders_
- This feature affects which message is selected as the current message
- when you enter a Stay Open folder.
- Normally, the starting position for an incoming folder (which most
- Stay Open folders will likely be) is controlled by the
- Incoming-Startup-Rule. However, if a folder is a Stay Open folder,
- when you re-enter the folder after the first time the current message
- will be the same as it was when you left the folder. An exception is
- made if you use the TAB command to get to the folder. In that case,
- the message number will be incremented by one from what it was when
- you left the folder.
- The above special behavior is thought to be useful. However, it is
- special and different from what you might at first expect. If this
- feature is set, then Stay Open folders will not be treated specially
- as far as the startup rule is concerned.
- _use-resent-to-in-rules_
- This feature is turned off by default because turning it on causes
- problems with some deficient IMAP servers. In _Alpine_ Filters and
- other types of Rules, if the Pattern contains a To header pattern and
- this feature is turned on, then a check is made in the message to see
- if a Resent-To header is present, and that is used instead of the To
- header. If this feature is not turned on, then the regular To header
- will always be used.
- _use-sender-not-x-sender_
- Normally _Alpine_ on Unix adds a header line labeled _X-X-Sender_, if
- the sender is different from the _From:_ line.
- The standard specifies that this header line should be labeled
- _Sender_, not _X-X-Sender_. Setting this feature causes _Sender_ to be
- used instead of _X-X-Sender_. The standard also states that the data
- associated with this header field should not be used as a Reply
- address. Unfortunately, certain implementations of mail list
- management servers will use the Sender address for such purposes.
- These implementations often even recognize the _X-Sender_ fields as
- being equivalent to the _Sender_ field, and use it if present. This
- is why _Alpine_ defaults to _X-X-Sender_.
- Note, _PC-Alpine_ always adds either an _X-X-Sender_ line if there is
- an open, remote mailbox, or an _X-Warning: UNAuthenticated User_
- otherwise
- This feature is displayed as "Use Sender Instead of X-X-Sender".
- _use-subshell-for-suspend_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when process suspension is
- enabled and then activated via the _^Z_ key. _Alpine_ suspension
- allows one to temporarily interact with the operating system command
- "shell" without quitting _Alpine_, and then subsequently resume the
- still-active _Alpine_ session.
- When the _enable-suspend_ feature is set and subsequently the _^Z_
- key is pressed, _Alpine_ will normally suspend itself and return
- temporary control to _Alpine_'s parent shell process. However, if
- this feature is set, _Alpine_ will instead create an inferior
- subshell process. This is useful when the parent process is not
- intended to be used interactively. Examples include invoking _Alpine_
- via the -e argument of the Unix _xterm_ program, or via a menu
- system.
- Note that one typically resumes a suspended _Alpine_ by entering the
- Unix _fg_ command, but if this feature is set, it will be necessary
- to enter the _exit_ command instead.
- _use-system-translation_
- UNIX _Alpine_ only. _Alpine_ normally uses its own internal software
- to convert between the multi-byte representation of characters and
- the Unicode representation of those same characters ( see the section
- on International Character Sets). It converts from the multi-byte
- characters your keyboard produces to Unicode, and from Unicode to the
- multi-byte characters your display expects. Alpine also uses its own
- internal software to decide how much space on the screen a particular
- Unicode character will occupy.
- Setting this feature tells _Alpine_ to use the system-supplied
- routines to perform these tasks instead. In particular there are
- three tasks and three system routines that will be used for these
- tasks.
- To convert from multi-byte to Unicode the routine
-
- mbstowcs
- is used. To convert from Unicode to multi-byte the routine
-
- wcrtomb
- is used. And to find the screen width a particular Unicode character
- will occupy the routine used is
-
- wcwidth
- This feature has been only lightly tested. The internal routines
- should normally be used unless you run into a problem that you think
- may be solved by using the system routines. Note that your
- environment needs to be set up for these routines to work correctly.
- In particular, the LANG or LC_CTYPE variable in your environment will
- need to be set.
- _vertical-folder-list_
- This feature controls an aspect of _Alpine_'s FOLDER LIST screen. If
- set, the folders will be listed alphabetically down the columns
- rather than across the columns as is the default.
- This feature is displayed as "Use Vertical Folder List".
- _warn-if-blank-subject_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
- being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to see if
- the message about to be sent has a subject or not. If not, you will
- be asked if you want to send the message anyway.
- _warn-if-blank-to-and-cc-and-newsgroups_
- This feature affects _Alpine_'s behavior when you send a message
- being composed. If this option is set, _Alpine_ will check to see if
- the message about to be sent has either a To address, a Cc address,
- or a Newsgroup. If none of these is set, you will be asked if you
- want to send the message anyway.
- This feature is closely related to fcc-only-without-confirm. _Alpine_
- will normally ask if you want to copy a message only to the Fcc. This
- feature also applies to cases where there is a Bcc but still no To,
- Cc, or Newsgroup. If the Fcc-Only-Without-Confirm feature is set and
- you are sending a message with only an Fcc, then you won't be asked
- about sending with a blank To and Cc and Newsgroups header even if
- this feature is set. Similarly, if you have already been asked if you
- want to send to the Fcc only and you have answered Yes, then you
- won't be asked again about sending with blank To, Cc, and Newsgroups
- headers even if this feature is set.
-
-Hidden Config Variables and Features
-
- There are several configuration variables and features which are normally
- hidden from the user. That is, they don't appear on any of the configuration
- screens. Some of these are suppressed because they are intended to be used
- by system administrators, and in fact may only be set in system-wide
- configuration files. Others are available to users but are thought to be of
- such little value to most users that their presence on the Config screens
- would cause more confusion than help. Others are hidden in the Setup/Config
- screen because they are normally configured in one of the other
- configuration screens. For example, all of the colors are hidden because the
- normal way to configure colors is through Setup/Colors not Setup/Config. You
- may set the feature expose-hidden-config to cause most of these hidden
- variables and features to show up at the bottom of the Setup/Config screen.
-
- Hidden Variables Not Settable by Users
-
- These variables are settable only in system-wide configuration files.
- * bugs-additional-data
- * bugs-address
- * bugs-fullname
- * forced-abook-entry
- * kblock-passwd-count
- * local-address
- * local-fullname
- * mail-directory
- * standard-printer
- * suggest-address
- * suggest-fullname
-
- Hidden Variables Which are Settable by Users
-
- These variables are not shown to users but are settable by means of hand
- editing the personal configuration file. This first group is usually
- maintained by _Alpine_ and there will usually be no reason to edit them by
- hand.
- * last-version-used
- * patterns-filters2
- * patterns-indexcolors
- * patterns-roles
- * patterns-scores2
- * remote-abook-metafile
-
- This group is usually correct but may be changed by system managers or users
- in special cases.
- * disable-these-authenticators
- * disable-these-drivers
- * last-time-prune-questioned
- * new-version-threshold
- * remote-abook-history
- * remote-abook-validity
- * rsh-command
- * rsh-open-timeout
- * rsh-path
- * sendmail-path
- * ssh-command
- * ssh-open-timeout
- * ssh-path
- * tcp-open-timeout
- * tcp-query-timeout
- * tcp-read-warning-timeout
- * tcp-write-warning-timeout
- * use-function-keys
-
- System managers are usually interested in setting these in the system-wide
- configuration files, though users may set them if they wish.
- * operating-dir
- * user-input-timeout
-
- Hidden Features Which are Settable by Users
-
- These are _features_ (as opposed to variables) which users or system
- administrators may set. Some of them only make sense for administrators. To
- turn these on manually, the configuration file should be edited and the
- feature added to the _feature-list_ variable. You may set the feature
- expose-hidden-config to cause these hidden features to show up in the
- Setup/Config screen. They will be at the bottom of the screen.
- * disable-config-cmd
- * disable-keyboard-lock-cmd
- * disable-password-cmd
- * disable-pipes-in-sigs
- * disable-pipes-in-templates
- * disable-roles-setup-cmd
- * disable-roles-sig-edit
- * disable-roles-template-edit
- * disable-setlocale-collate
- * disable-shared-namespaces
- * disable-signature-edit-cmd
-
-Retired Variables and Features
-
- Variables and features that are no longer used by the current _Alpine_
- version. When an obsolete variable is encountered, its value is applied to
- any new corresponding setting. The replaced values include:
-
- _character-set_
- Replaced by three separate variables: _display-character-set_,
- _keyboard-character-set_, and _posting-character-set_.
- _compose-mime_
- _elm-style-save_
- Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule_
- _feature-level_
- Replaced by _feature-list._
- _header-in-reply_
- Replaced by _include-header-in-reply_ in the _feature-list._
- _old-style-reply_
- Replaced by _signature-at-bottom_ in the _feature-list._
- _use-old-unix-format-write_
- No replacement.
- _patterns_
- Replaced by four separate patterns variables: _patterns-roles_,
- _patterns-filters_, _patterns-scores_, and _patterns-indexcolors_.
- Since then, _patterns-filters_ has also become obsolete and is
- replaced by _patterns-filters2_; _patterns-scores_ is replaced by
- _patterns-scores2_.
- _save-by-sender_
- Replaced by _saved-msg-name-rule._
- _show-all-characters_
- No replacement, it always works this way now.
-
-Tokens for Index and Replying
-
- This set of special tokens may be used in the index-format option, in the
- reply-leadin option, in signature files, in template files used in roles,
- and in the folder name that is the target of a Filter Rule. Some of them
- aren't available in all situations.
-
- The tokens are used as they appear below for the _Index-Format_ option, but
- they must be surrounded by underscores for the _Reply-Leadin_ option, in
- signature and template files, and in the target of Filter Rules.
-
- _Tokens Available for all Cases (except Filter Rules)_
-
- SUBJECT
- This token represents the Subject the sender gave the message.
- Alternatives for use in the index screen are SUBJKEY, SUBJKEYINIT,
- SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, and SUBJKEYINITTEXT. You may color the
- subject text in the MESSAGE INDEX screen differently by using the
- Index Subject Color and the Index Opening Color. options available
- from the Setup Kolor screen.
-
- FROM
- This token represents the personal name (or email address if the name
- is unavailable) of the person specified in the message's "From:"
- header field. You may color the from text in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
- differently by using the Index From Color option available from the
- Setup Kolor screen.
-
- ADDRESS
- This is similar to the "FROM" token, only it is always the email
- address, never the personal name. For example, "mailbox@domain".
-
- MAILBOX
- This is the same as the "ADDRESS" except that the domain part of the
- address is left off. For example, "mailbox".
-
- SENDER
- This token represents the personal name (or email address) of the
- person listed in the message's "Sender:" header field.
-
- TO
- This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if the
- names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the message's
- "To:" header field.
-
- NEWSANDTO
- This token represents the newsgroups from the message's "Newsgroups:"
- header field _and_ the personal names (or email addresses if the
- names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the message's
- "To:" header field.
-
- TOANDNEWS
- Same as "NEWSANDTO" except in the opposite order.
-
- NEWS
- This token represents the newsgroups from the message's "Newsgroups:"
- header field.
-
- CC
- This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if the
- names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the message's
- "Cc:" header field.
-
- RECIPS
- This token represents the personal names (or email addresses if the
- names are unavailable) of the persons specified in both the message's
- "To:" header field and the message's "Cc:" header field.
-
- NEWSANDRECIPS
- This token represents the newsgroups from the message's "Newsgroups:"
- header field _and_ the personal names (or email addresses if the
- names are unavailable) of the persons specified in the message's
- "To:" and "Cc:" header fields.
-
- RECIPSANDNEWS
- Same as "NEWSANDRECIPS" except in the opposite order.
-
- INIT
- This token represents the initials from the personal name of the
- person specified in the message's "From:" header field. If there is
- no personal name, it is blank.
-
- DATE
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD. For
- example, "Oct 23". The feature convert-dates-to-localtime, which
- adjusts for the timezone the message was sent from, may have an
- affect on the value of this token as well as the values of all of the
- other DATE or TIME tokens. Some of the DATE and TIME tokens are
- displayed in a locale-specific way unless the option
- Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is set.
-
- SMARTDATE
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It is "Today" if the message
- was sent today, "Yesterday" for yesterday, "Wednesday" if it was last
- Wednesday, and so on. If the message is from last year and is more
- than six months old it includes the year, as well. There is no
- adjustment made for different time zones, so you'll get the day the
- message was sent according to the time zone the sender was in. See
- the SMARTDATE alternatives below, as well.
-
- SMARTTIME
- This token represents the most relevant elements of the date on which
- the message was sent (according to the "Date" header field), in a
- compact form. If the message was sent today, only the time is used
- (e.g. "9:22am", "10:07pm"); if it was sent during the past week, the
- day of the week and the hour are used (e.g. "Wed09am", "Thu10pm");
- other dates are given as date, month, and year (e.g. "23Aug00",
- "9Apr98"). There is no adjustment made for different time zones, so
- you'll get the day/time the message was sent according to the time
- zone the sender was in.
-
- SMARTDATETIME
- This is a combination of SMARTDATE and SMARTTIME. It is SMARTDATE
- unless the SMARTDATE value is "Today", in which case it is SMARTTIME.
- See the SMARTDATETIME alternatives below, as well.
-
- DATEISO
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format YYYY-MM-DD.
- For example, "1998-10-23".
-
- SHORTDATEISO
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format YY-MM-DD. For
- example, "98-10-23".
-
- SHORTDATE1
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MM/DD/YY. For
- example, "10/23/98".
-
- SHORTDATE2
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format DD/MM/YY. For
- example, "23/10/98".
-
- SHORTDATE3
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format DD.MM.YY. For
- example, "23.10.98".
-
- SHORTDATE4
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format YY.MM.DD. For
- example, "98.10.23".
-
- LONGDATE
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It has the format MMM DD, YYYY.
- For example, "Oct 23, 1998".
-
- SMARTDATE alternatives
- There are several versions of SMARTDATE which are all the same except
- for the way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATE formats the
- date using the information from your locale settings to format the
- date string. It may end up formatting dates so that they look like
- DATEISO tokens, or SHORTDATE2 tokens, or something else entirely. The
- feature convert-dates-to-localtime may have an affect on the values
- of these tokens. If you want more control you may use one of the
- following.
-
- SMARTDATE
- If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then this
- will be locale specific. Control this with the LC_TIME locale
- setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options
- control panel may be used to set the Short date format. At the
- programming level, the strftime routine is what _Alpine_ uses
- to print the date. If the Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is
- set then this is equivalent to SMARTDATES1.
-
- SMARTDATEISO
- DATEISO format. See text above.
-
- SMARTDATESHORTISO
- SHORTDATEISO format.
-
- SMARTDATES1
- SHORTDATE1 format.
-
- SMARTDATES2
- SHORTDATE2 format.
-
- SMARTDATES3
- SHORTDATE3 format.
-
- SMARTDATES4
- SHORTDATE4 format.
-
- SMARTDATETIME alternatives
- There are several versions of SMARTDATETIME which are all very
- similar. The ones which end in 24 use a 24-hour clock for Today's
- messages instead of a 12-hour clock. The other variation is for the
- way they format dates far in the past. SMARTDATETIME and
- SMARTDATETIME24 format the date using the information from your
- locale settings to format the date string. It may end up formatting
- dates so that they look like DATEISO tokens, or SHORTDATE2 tokens, or
- something else entirely. The feature convert-dates-to-localtime may
- have an affect on the values of these tokens. The possible choices
- are:
-
- SMARTDATETIME
- Locale specific. Control this with the LC_TIME locale setting
- on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options control panel
- may be used to set the Short date format. At the programming
- level, the strftime routine is what _Alpine_ uses to print the
- date.
-
- SMARTDATETIME
- If the option Disable-Index-Locale-Dates is not set then this
- will be locale specific. Control this with the LC_TIME locale
- setting on a UNIX system. On Windows the Regional Options
- control panel may be used to set the Short date format. At the
- programming level, the strftime routine is what _Alpine_ uses
- to print the date. If the Disable-Index-Locale-Dates option is
- set then this is equivalent to SMARTDATETIMES1.
-
- SMARTDATETIME24
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMEISO
- DATEISO format. See text above.
-
- SMARTDATETIMEISO24
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO
- SHORTDATEISO format.
-
- SMARTDATETIMESHORTISO24
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMES1
- SHORTDATE1 format.
-
- SMARTDATETIMES124
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMES2
- SHORTDATE2 format.
-
- SMARTDATETIMES224
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMES3
- SHORTDATE3 format.
-
- SMARTDATETIMES324
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- SMARTDATETIMES4
- SHORTDATE4 format.
-
- SMARTDATETIMES424
- Use TIME24 for Today
-
- DAYDATE
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It looks like "Sat, 23 Oct
- 1998". This token is never converted in any locale-specific way.
-
- PREFDATE
- This token represents the date on which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It is your operating system's
- idea of the preferred date representation for the current locale.
- Internally it uses the %x version of the date from the strftime
- routine.
-
- PREFTIME
- This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred time
- representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
- version of the time from the strftime routine.
-
- PREFDATETIME
- This token represents the date and time at which the message was
- sent, according to the "Date" header field. It is the preferred date
- and time representation for the current locale. Internally it uses
- the %c version of the time from the strftime routine.
-
- DAY
- This token represents the day of the month on which the message was
- sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example, "23" or "9".
-
- DAY2DIGIT
- This token represents the day of the month on which the message was
- sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example, "23" or
- "09". It is always 2 digits.
-
- DAYORDINAL
- This token represents the ordinal number which is the day of the
- month on which the message was sent, according to the "Date" header
- field. For example, "23rd" or "9th".
-
- DAYOFWEEK
- This token represents the day of the week on which the message was
- sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example, "Sunday" or
- "Wednesday".
-
- DAYOFWEEKABBREV
- This token represents the day of the week on which the message was
- sent, according to the "Date" header field. For example, "Sun" or
- "Wed".
-
- MONTHABBREV
- This token represents the month the message was sent, according to
- the "Date" header field. For example, "Oct".
-
- MONTHLONG
- This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. For example, "October".
-
- MONTH
- This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "9".
-
- MONTH2DIGIT
- This token represents the month in which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. For example, "10" or "09". It
- is always 2 digits.
-
- YEAR
- This token represents the year the message was sent, according to the
- "Date" header field. For example, "1998" or "2001".
-
- YEAR2DIGIT
- This token represents the year the message was sent, according to the
- "Date" header field. For example, "98" or "01". It is always 2
- digits.
-
- TIME24
- This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. There is no adjustment made for
- different time zones, so you'll get the time the message was sent
- according to the time zone the sender was in. It has the format
- HH:MM. For example, "17:28".
-
- TIME12
- This token represents the time at which the message was sent,
- according to the "Date" header field. This time is for a 12 hour
- clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or "11:13am".
-
- TIMEZONE
- This token represents the numeric timezone from the "Date" header
- field. It has the format [+-]HHMM. For example, "-0800".
-
- _Tokens Available Only for Index-Format_
-
- MSGNO
- This token represents the message's current position in the folder
- which, of course, may change as the folder is sorted or new mail
- arrives.
-
- STATUS
- This token represents a three character wide field displaying various
- aspects of the message's state. The first character is either blank,
- a '*' for message marked Important, or a '+' indicating a message
- addressed directly to you (as opposed to your having received it via
- a mailing list, for example). When the feature mark-for-cc is set, if
- the first character would have been blank then it will instead be a
- '-' if the message is cc'd to you. The second character is typically
- blank, though the arrow cursor may occupy it if either the
- assume-slow-link or the force-arrow-cursor feature is set (or you
- actually are on a slow link). The third character is either D
- (Deleted), A (Answered), N (New), or blank.
-
- If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message is at
- the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this token refers to
- all of the messages in the collapsed portion of the thread instead of
- just the top message. The first character will be a '*' if _any_ of
- the messages in the thread are marked Important, else a '+' if any of
- the messages are addressed to you, else a '-' if any of the messages
- are cc'd to you. The third character will be a 'D' if _all_ of the
- messages in the collapsed thread are marked deleted, an 'A' if _all_
- of the messages in the collapsed thread are marked answered, it will
- be an 'N' if any of the messages are undeleted and unseen, and it
- will be blank otherwise.
-
- FULLSTATUS
- This token represents a less abbreviated alternative to the "STATUS"
- token. It is six characters wide. The first character is '+', '-', or
- blank, the second blank, the third either '*' or blank, the fourth N
- or blank, the fifth A or blank, and the sixth character is either D
- or blank.
-
- If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message is at
- the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then this token refers to
- all of the messages in the collapsed portion of the thread instead of
- just the top message. The first character is '+', '-', or blank
- depending on whether _any_ of the messages in the collapsed thread
- are addressed to you or cc'd to you. The third character will be '*'
- if any of the messages are marked Important. The fourth character
- will be 'N' if all of the messages in the thread are New, else 'n' if
- some of the messages in the thread are New, else blank. The fifth
- character will be 'A' or 'a' or blank, and the sixth character will
- be 'D' or 'd' or blank.
-
- IMAPSTATUS
- This token represents an even less abbreviated alternative to the
- "STATUS" token. It differs from "FULLSTATUS" in only the fourth
- character which is an 'N' if the message is new to this folder since
- the last time it was opened _and_ it has not been viewed, an 'R'
- (Recent) if the message is new to the folder and has been viewed, a
- 'U' (Unseen) if the message is not new to the folder since it was
- last opened _but_ has not been viewed, or a blank if the message has
- been in the folder since it was last opened and has been viewed.
-
- If you are using a threaded view of the index and this message is at
- the top of a collapsed portion of a thread, then the fourth character
- will be 'N' if all of the messages in the thread are unseen and
- recent; else 'n' if some of the messages in the thread are unseen and
- recent; else 'U' if all of the messages in the thread are unseen and
- not recent; else 'u' if some of the messages in the thread are unseen
- and not recent; else 'R' if all of the messages in the thread are
- seen and recent; else 'r' if some of the messages in the thread are
- seen and recent; else blank.
-
- SHORTIMAPSTATUS
- This is the same as the last four of the six characters of
- IMAPSTATUS, so the '+' To Me information will be missing.
-
- SIZE
- This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message. If a
- "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000
- times that many bytes (rounded to the nearest 1,000). If an "M"
- (Megabyte) follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000,000
- times that many bytes. Commas are not used in this field. This field
- is seven characters wide, including the enclosing parentheses. Sizes
- are rounded when "K" or "M" is present. The progression of sizes used
- looks like:
-
- 0 1 ... 9999 10K ... 999K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2000M
-
- SIZECOMMA
- This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message. If a
- "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000
- times that many bytes (rounded to the nearest 1,000). If an "M"
- (Megabyte) follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000,000
- times that many bytes. Commas are used if the number shown is 1,000
- or greater. The SIZECOMMA field is one character wider than the SIZE
- field. Sizes are rounded when "K" or "M" is present. The progression
- of sizes used looks like:
-
- 0 1 ... 99,999 100K ... 9,999K 10.0M ... 999.9M 1,000M ... 2,000M
-
- KSIZE
- This token represents the total size of the message, expressed in
- kilobytes or megabytes, as most appropriate. These are 1,024 byte
- kilobytes and 1,024 x 1,024 byte megabytes. The progression of sizes
- used looks like:
-
- 0K 1K ... 1023K 1.0M ... 99.9M 100M ... 2047M
-
- SIZENARROW
- This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message. If a
- "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is approximately 1,000
- times that many bytes. If an "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the
- size is approximately 1,000,000 times that many bytes. If a "G"
- (Gigabyte) follows the number, the size is approximately
- 1,000,000,000 times that many bytes. This field uses only five
- characters of screen width, including the enclosing parentheses. The
- progression of sizes used looks like:
-
- 0 1 ... 999 1K ... 99K .1M ... .9M 1M ... 99M .1G ... .9G 1G 2G
-
- DESCRIPSIZE
- This token is intended to represent a more useful description of the
- message than just its size, but it isn't very useful at this point.
- The plus sign in this view means there are attachments. Note that
- including this token in the "Index-Format" could slow down the
- display a little while _Alpine_ collects the necessary information.
-
- SUBJKEY
- This token is the same as the SUBJECT token unless keywords are set
- for the message. In that case, a list of keywords enclosed in braces
- will be prepended to the subject of the message. Only those keywords
- that you have defined in your Keywords option in Setup/Config are
- considered in the list. In other words, keywords that have been set
- by some other means, perhaps by another email program, won't show up
- unless included in Keywords. Having this set in the Index-Format will
- also cause the keywords to be prepended to the subject in the MESSAGE
- TEXT screen. If you have given a keyword a nickname (keywords), that
- nickname is displayed instead of the actual keyword. The
- keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to modify this token
- slightly. It is also possible to color keywords in the index using
- the Setup/Kolor screen.
-
- SUBJKEYINIT
- This token is the same as the SUBJKEY token except that instead of
- prepending a list of keywords to the subject, a list of first
- initials of keywords will be prepended instead. For example, if a
- message has the keywords _Work_ and _Now_ set (or Work and Now are
- the _Alpine_ nicknames of keywords which are set) then the SUBJKEY
- token would cause a result like
-
- {Work Now} actual subject
-
- whereas the SUBJKEYINIT token would give
-
- {WN} actual subject
-
- Only those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords option in
- Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other words, keywords
- that have been set by some other means, perhaps by another email
- program, won't show up unless included in Keywords. The
- keyword-surrounding-chars option may be used to modify this token
- slightly. It is also possible to color keywords in the index using
- the Setup/Kolor screen.
-
- SUBJECTTEXT
- Same as SUBJECT but if there is room in the Subject field for more
- text, the opening part of the text of the message is displayed after
- the subject. The time needed to fetch the text may cause a
- performance problem which can, of course, be avoided by using the
- SUBJECT version of the Subject instead. You may color this opening
- text differently by using the Index Opening Color option available
- from the Setup Kolor screen. You may adjust the characters that are
- displayed between the Subject and the opening text with the option
- Opening-Text-Separator-Chars.
-
- SUBJKEYTEXT
- Same as SUBJKEY but with the opening message text.
-
- SUBJKEYINITTEXT
- Same as SUBJKEYINIT but with the opening message text.
-
- OPENINGTEXT
- This is similar to SUBJECTTEXT. Instead of combining the Subject and
- the opening text in a single field in the index screen this token
- allows you to allocate a separate column just for the opening text of
- the message. The time needed to fetch this text may cause a
- performance problem. You may color this opening text differently by
- using the Index Opening Color option available from the Setup Kolor
- screen.
-
- OPENINGTEXTNQ
- This is very similar to OPENINGTEXT. The NQ stands for No Quotes. The
- only difference is that quoted text (lines beginning with >) is
- deleted. For some messages this may be confusing. For example, a
- message might have a line preceding some quoted text that reads
- something like "On May 8th person A said." That no longer makes sense
- after the quoted text is deleted and it will appear that person A
- said whatever the text after the quote is, even though that is really
- person B talking.
-
- KEY
- This is a space-delimited list of keywords that are set for the
- message. Only those keywords that you have defined in your Keywords
- option in Setup/Config are considered in the list. In other words,
- keywords that have been set by some other means, perhaps by another
- email program, won't show up unless included in Keywords. If you have
- given a keyword a nickname that nickname is displayed instead of the
- actual keyword. It is also possible to color keywords in the index
- using the Setup/Kolor screen. This token defaults to an arbitrary
- width of 5. You should set it to whatever width suits you using
- something like KEY(17) in the Index-Format.
-
- KEYINIT
- This is a list of keyword initials that are set for the message. If
- you have given a keyword a nickname the initial of that nickname is
- displayed instead of the initial of the actual keyword. It is also
- possible to color keyword initials in the index using the Setup/Kolor
- screen. This token defaults to an arbitrary width of 2. You should
- set it to whatever width suits you using something like KEYINIT(3) in
- the Index-Format.
-
- PRIORITY
- The X-Priority header is a non-standard header that is used in a
- somewhat standard way by many mail programs. _Alpine_ expects the
- value of this header to be a digit with a value from 1 to 5, with 1
- being the highest priority and 5 the lowest priority. Since this
- priority is something that the sender sets it is only an indication
- of the priority that the sender attaches to the mail and it is
- therefore almost totally unreliable for use as a filtering criterion.
- This token will display the numeric value of the priority if it is
- between 1 and 5. It will be suppressed (blank) if the value is 3,
- which is normal priority. It is also possible to set the color of the
- PRIORITY field. By default the token is colored the same as the index
- line it is part of. You may set it to be another color with the Index
- Priority Colors options available from the Setup Kolor screen.
-
- PRIORITYALPHA
- This is a more verbose interpretation of the X-Priority field. Once
- again nothing is displayed unless the value of the field is 1, 2, 4,
- or 5. The values displayed for those values are:
-
- 1 Highest
- 2 High
- 4 Low
- 5 Lowest
-
- You may color this token with the Index Priority Colors options.
-
- PRIORITY!
- This is a one character, non-numeric version of the X-Priority field.
- If the value of the X-Priority header is 1 or 2 an exclamation point
- is displayed. If the value is 4 or 5 a "v" (think down arrow) is
- displayed. You may color this token with the Index Priority Colors
- options.
-
- ATT
- This is a one column wide field which represents the number of
- attachments a message has. It will be blank if there are no
- attachments, a single digit for one to nine attachments, or an
- asterisk for more than nine. Note that including this token in the
- "Index-Format" could slow down the display a little while _Alpine_
- collects the necessary information.
-
- FROMORTO
- This token represents _either_ the personal name (or email address)
- of the person listed in the message's "From:" header field, _or_, if
- that address is yours or one of your alternate addresses, the first
- person specified in the message's "To:" header field with the prefix
- "To: " prepended. If the from address is yours and there is also no
- "To" address, _Alpine_ will use the address on the "Cc" line. If
- there is no address there, either, _Alpine_ will look for a newsgroup
- name from the "Newsgroups" header field and put that after the "To: "
- prefix.
-
- FROMORTONOTNEWS
- This is almost the same as _FROMORTO_. The difference is that
- newsgroups aren't considered. When a message is from you, doesn't
- have a To or Cc, and does have a Newsgroups header; this token will
- be your name instead of the name of the newsgroup (like it would be
- with FROMORTO).
-
- TEXT
- This is a different sort of token. It allows you to display a label
- within each index line. It will be the same fixed text for each line.
- It is different from all the other tokens in that there is no space
- column displayed after this token. Instead, it is butted up against
- the following field. It also has a different syntax. The text to
- display is given following a colon after the word "TEXT". For
- example,
-
- TEXT:abc=
-
- would insert the literal text "abc=" (without the quotes) into the
- index display line. You must quote the text if it includes space
- characters, like
-
- TEXT:"abc = "
-
- HEADER
- This allows you to display the text from a particular header line in
- the message. The syntax for this token is substantially different
- from all the others in order that you might be able to display a
- portion of the text following a particular header. The header name
- you are interested in is given following a colon after the word
- "HEADER". For example,
-
- HEADER:X-Spam
-
- would display the text of the X-Spam header, if any. Like for other
- index tokens a width field may (and probably should) follow this.
-
- HEADER:X-Spam(10)
-
- displays the first ten characters of the X-Spam header. Unlike other
- index tokens, the syntax for HEADER is more flexible. An optional
- second argument comes after a comma inside the parentheses. It
- specifies the "field" number. By default, the field separator is a
- space character. No extra space characters are allowed in the
- argument list.
-
- HEADER:X-Spam(10,2)
-
- would display the second field, left-justified, in a 10 character
- wide field. The second field would consist of all the text after the
- first space up to the next space or the end of the header. The
- default field number is zero, which stands for the entire line. There
- is also an optional third argument which is a list of field
- separators. It defaults to a space character. The example
-
- HEADER:X-Spam(10,2,:% )
-
- would cause the field separators to be any of colon, percent, or
- space (there is a space character between the percent and the right
- parenthesis). The first field runs from the start of the header value
- up to the first colon, percent, or space; the second goes from there
- to the next; and so on. In order to use a comma character as a field
- separator you must escape it by preceding it with a backslash (\).
- The same is true of the backslash character itself. There is one
- further optional argument. It is an R or an L to specify right or
- left adjustment of the text within the field. The default is to left
- justify, however if you are displaying numbers you might prefer to
- right justify.
-
- Here's an example of a SpamAssassin header. The exact look of the
- header will vary, but if your incoming mail contains headers that
- look like the following
-
-X-Spam-Status: Yes, hits=10.6 tagged_above=-999.0 required=7.0 tests=BAYE...
-
- you might want to display the hits value. The first field starts with
- the Y in Yes. To get what you're interested in you might use "=" and
- space as the field separators and display the third field, like
-
- HEADER:X-Spam-Status(4,3,= )
-
- or maybe you would break at the dot instead
-
- HEADER:X-Spam-Status(2,2,=.,R)
-
- Another example we've seen has headers that look like
-
- X-Spam: Gauge=IIIIIII, Probability=7%, Report=...
-
- Because there are two equals and a comma before the 7% and a comma
- after it, the token
-
- HEADER:X-Spam-Status(3,4,=\,,R)
-
- should display the probability (for example 7% or 83%) right
- justified in a 3-wide field.
-
- ARROW
- This gives an alternative way to display the current message in the
- MESSAGE INDEX screen. Usually the current message is indicated by the
- line being shown in reverse video. Instead, if the ARROW token is
- included in your Index-Format, the current line will include an
- "arrow" that looks like
-
- ->
-
- in the ARROW token's field. For all of the non-current messages, the
- ARROW field will be filled with blanks. If you use the fixed-field
- width feature the length of the "arrow" may be adjusted. The arrow
- will be drawn as width-1 dashes followed by a greater than sign. For
- example, if you use ARROW(3) you will get
-
- -->
-
- and ARROW(1) will give you just
-
- >
-
- It is also possible to set the color of the ARROW field. By default
- (and for non-current messages) the arrow is colored the same as the
- index line it is part of. You may set it to be another color with the
- Index Arrow Color option available from the Setup Kolor screen.
-
- SCORE
- This gives the score of each message. This will be six columns wide
- to accomodate the widest possible score. You will probably want to
- use the Index-Format fixed-field width feature to limit the width of
- the field to the widest score that you use (e.g. SCORE(3) if your
- scores are always between 0 and 999). If you have not defined any
- score rules the scores will all be zero. If any of your score rules
- contain AllText or BodyText patterns then including SCORE in the
- Index-Format may slow down the display of the MESSAGE INDEX screen.
-
- _Tokens Available for all but Index-Format_
-
- CURNEWS
- This token represents the current newsgroup if there is one. For
- example, "comp.mail.pine".
-
- MSGID
- This token represents the message ID of the message. This token does
- not work with Filter Rule folder names.
-
- CURDATE
- This token represents the current date. It has the format MMM DD. For
- example, "Oct 23".
-
- CURDATEISO
- This token represents the current date. It has the format YYYY-MM-DD.
- For example, "1998-10-23".
-
- CURDATEISOS
- This token represents the current date. It has the format YY-MM-DD.
- For example, "98-10-23".
-
- CURPREFDATE
- This token represents the current date. It is your operating system's
- idea of the preferred date representation for the current locale.
- Internally it uses the %x version of the date from the strftime
- routine.
-
- CURPREFTIME
- This token represents the current time. It is the preferred time
- representation for the current locale. Internally it uses the %X
- version of the time from the strftime routine.
-
- CURPREFDATETIME
- This token represents the current date and time. It is the preferred
- date and time representation for the current locale. Internally it
- uses the %c version of the time from the strftime routine.
-
- CURTIME24
- This token represents the current time. It has the format HH:MM. For
- example, "17:28".
-
- CURTIME12
- This token represents the current time. This time is for a 12 hour
- clock. It has the format HH:MMpm. For example, "5:28pm" or "11:13am".
-
- CURDAY
- This token represents the current day of the month. For example, "23"
- or "9".
-
- CURDAY2DIGIT
- This token represents the current day of the month. For example, "23"
- or "09". It is always 2 digits.
-
- CURDAYOFWEEK
- This token represents the current day of the week. For example,
- "Sunday" or "Wednesday".
-
- CURDAYOFWEEKABBREV
- This token represents the current day of the week. For example, "Sun"
- or "Wed".
-
- CURMONTH
- This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or "9".
-
- CURMONTH2DIGIT
- This token represents the current month. For example, "10" or "09".
- It is always 2 digits.
-
- CURMONTHLONG
- This token represents the current month. For example, "October".
-
- CURMONTHABBREV
- This token represents the current month. For example, "Oct".
-
- CURYEAR
- This token represents the current year. For example, "1998" or
- "2001".
-
- CURYEAR2DIGIT
- This token represents the current year. For example, "98" or "01". It
- is always 2 digits.
-
- LASTMONTH
- This token represents last month. For example, if this is November
- (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is October (the 10th
- month), it is "9". It is possible that this and the other tokens
- beginning with LASTMONTH below could be useful when used with a
- Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning of Month" option set.
-
- LASTMONTH2DIGIT
- This token represents last month. For example, if this is November
- (the 11th month), it is equal to "10" or if this is October (the 10th
- month), it is "09". It is always 2 digits.
-
- LASTMONTHLONG
- This token represents last month. For example, if this is November
- the value is "October".
-
- LASTMONTHABBREV
- This token represents last month. For example, if this is November
- the value is "Oct".
-
- LASTMONTHYEAR
- This token represents what the year was a month ago. For example, if
- this is October, 1998, it is "1998". If this is January, 1998, it is
- "1997".
-
- LASTMONTHYEAR2DIGIT
- This token represents what the year was a month ago. For example, if
- this is October, 1998, it is "98". If this is January, 1998, it is
- "97".
-
- LASTYEAR
- This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998, it
- equals "1997". It is possible that this could be useful when used
- with a Filtering Rule that has the "Beginning of Year" option set.
-
- LASTYEAR2DIGIT
- This token represents last year. For example, if this is 1998, it
- equals "97". It is always 2 digits.
-
- ROLENICK
- This token represents the nickname of the role currently being used.
- If no role is being used, then no text will be printed for this
- token. This token does not work with Filter Rule folder names.
-
- _Token Available Only for Reply-Leadin_
-
- See the help for the Reply-Leadin option, to see why you might want to use
- this. Since the _Reply-Leadin_ contains free text this token must be
- surrounded by underscores when used.
-
- NEWLINE
- This is an end of line marker.
-
- _Token Available Only for Templates and Signatures_
-
- CURSORPOS
- This token is different from the others. When it is replaced it is
- replaced with nothing, but it sets a _Alpine_ internal variable which
- tells the composer to start with the cursor positioned at the
- position where this token was. If both the template file and the
- signature file contain a "CURSORPOS" token, then the position in the
- template file is used. If there is a template file and neither it nor
- the signature file contains a "CURSORPOS" token, then the cursor is
- positioned after the end of the contents of the template file when
- the composer starts up.
-
-Conditional Inclusion of Text for Reply-Leadin, Signatures, and Templates
-
- Conditional text inclusion may be used with the Reply-Leadin option, in
- signature files, and in template files used in roles. It may _not_ be used
- with the _Index-Format_ option.
-
- There is a limited if-else capability for including text. The if-else
- condition is based on whether or not a given token would result in
- replacement text you specify. The syntax of this conditional inclusion is
-
- _token_(match_this, if_matched [ , if_not_matched ] )
-
- The left parenthesis must follow the underscore immediately, with no
- intervening space. It means the token is expanded and the results of that
- expansion are compared against the "match_this" argument. If there is an
- exact match, then the "if_matched" text is used as the replacement text.
- Otherwise, the "if_not_matched" text is used. One of the most useful values
- for the "match_this" argument is the empty string, "". In that case the
- expansion is compared against the empty string.
-
- Here's an example to make it clearer. This text could be included in one of
- your template files:
-
- _NEWS_("", "I'm replying to email","I'm replying to news")
-
- If that is included in a template file which you are using while replying to
- a message (because you chose to use the role it was part of), and that
- message has a newsgroup header and a newsgroup in that header, then the text
-
- I'm replying to news
-
- will be included in the message you are about to compose. On the other hand,
- if the message you are replying to does not have a newsgroup, then the text
-
- I'm replying to email
-
- would be included instead. This would also work in signature files and in
- the "Reply-Leadin" option. If the "match_this", "if_matched", or
- "if_not_matched" arguments contain spaces, parentheses, or commas; they have
- to be quoted with double quotation marks (like in the example above). If you
- want to include a literal quote in the text you must escape the quote by
- preceding it with a backslash character. If you want to include a literal
- backslash character you must escape it by preceding it with another
- backslash.
-
- The comma followed by "if_not_matched" is optional. If there is no
- "if_not_matched" present then no text is included if the not_matched case is
- true. Here's another example:
-
- _NEWS_("", "", "This msg was seen in group: _NEWS_.")
-
- Here you can see that tokens may appear in the arguments. The same is true
- for tokens with the conditional parentheses. They may appear in arguments,
- though you do have to be careful to get the quoting and escaping of nested
- double quotes correct. If this was in the signature file being used and you
- were replying to a message sent to comp.mail.pine the resulting text would
- be:
-
- This msg was seen in group: comp.mail.pine.
-
- If you were replying to a message which wasn't sent to any newsgroup the
- resulting text would be a single blank line. The reason you'd get a blank
- line is because the end of the line is outside of the conditional, so is
- always included. If you wanted to get rid of that blank line you could do so
- by moving the end of line inside the conditional. In other words, it's ok to
- have multi-line "if_matched" or "if_not_matched" arguments. The text just
- continues until the next double quotation, even if it's not on the same
- line.
-
- Here's one more (contrived) example illustrating a matching argument which
- is not the empty string.
-
- _SMARTDATE_("Today", _SMARTDATE_, "On _DATE_") _FROM_ wrote:
-
- If this was the value of your "Reply-Leadin" option and you were replying to
- a message which was sent today, then the value of the "Reply-Leadin" would
- be
-
- Today Fred Flintstone wrote:
-
- But if you were replying to a message sent on Oct. 27 (and that wasn't
- today) you would get
-
- On Oct 27 Fred Flintstone wrote:
-
-Per Server Directory Configuration
-
- This is only available if _Alpine_ was built with LDAP support. If that's
- the case, there will be a Directory option underneath the Setup command on
- the Main Menu. Each server that is defined there has several configuration
- variables which control the behavior when using it.
- _ldap-server_
- This is the name of the host where an LDAP server is running.
- To find out whether your organization has its own LDAP server,
- contact its computing support staff.
- _search-base_
- This is the search base to be used on this server. It functions as a
- filter by restricting your searches in the LDAP server database to
- the specified contents of the specified fields. Without it, searches
- submitted to this directory server may fail. It might be something
- like:
- O = <Your Organization Name>, C = US
- or it might be blank. (Some LDAP servers actually ignore anything
- specified here.)
- If in doubt what parameters you should specify here, contact the
- maintainers of the LDAP server.
- _port_
- This is the TCP port number to be used with this LDAP server. If you
- leave this blank port 389 will be used.
- _nickname_
- This is a nickname to be used in displays. If you don't supply a
- nickname the server name from "ldap-server" will be used instead.
- This option is strictly for your convenience.
- _use-implicitly-from-composer_
- Set this feature to have lookups done to this server implicitly from
- the composer. If an address doesn't look like a fully-qualified
- address, it will be looked up in your address books, and if it
- doesn't match a nickname there, then it will be looked up on the LDAP
- servers which have this feature set. The lookups will also be done
- when using the address completion feature (TAB command) in the
- composer if any of the serves have this feature set. Also see the
- LDAP feature lookup-addrbook-contents and the Setup/Config feature
- ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
- _lookup-addrbook-contents_
- Normally implicit LDAP lookups from the composer are done only for
- the strings you type in from the composer screen. In other words, you
- type in something in the To or CC field and press return, then the
- string is looked up. First that string is looked up in your address
- books. If a match is found there, then the results of that match are
- looked up again. If you place a string in your address book that you
- want to have looked up on the LDAP directory server, you need to turn
- on this feature. If you set this feature for a server, you almost
- always will also want to set the use-implicitly-from-composer
- feature. An example might serve to best illustrate this feature.
- If an LDAP lookup of "William Clinton" normally returns an entry with
- an address of pres@whitehouse.gov, then you might put an entry in
- your address book that looks like:
- Nickname Address
- bill "William Clinton"
- Now, when you type "bill" into an address field in the composer
- _Alpine_ will find the "bill" entry in your address book. It will
- replace "bill" with "William Clinton". It will then search for an
- entry with that nickname in your address book and not find one. If
- this feature is set, _Alpine_ will then attempt to lookup "William
- Clinton" on the LDAP server and find the entry with address
- pres@whitehouse.gov.
- A better way to accomplish the same thing is probably to use the
- feature save-search-criteria-not-result.
- _save-search-criteria-not-result_
- Normally when you save the results of an LDAP directory lookup to
- your address book the _results_ of the lookup are saved. If this
- feature is set and the entry being saved was found on this directory
- server, then the search _criteria_ is saved instead of the _results_
- of the search. When this address book entry is used in the future,
- instead of copying the results from the address book the directory
- lookup will be done again. This could be useful if the copied result
- might become stale because the data on the directory server changes
- (for example, the entry's email address changes). You probably don't
- want to set this feature if the server is at all slow or unreliable.
- The way this actually works is that instead of saving the email
- address in your address book, _Alpine_ saves enough information to
- look up the same directory entry again. In particular, it saves the
- server name and the distinguished name of the entry. It's possible
- that the server administrators might change the format of
- distinguished names on the server, or that the entry might be removed
- from the server. If _Alpine_ notices this, you will be warned and a
- backup copy of the email address will be used. You may want to create
- a new entry in this case, since you will get the annoying warning
- every time you use the old entry. You may do that by Saving the entry
- to a new nickname in the same address book. You will be asked whether
- or not you want to use the backup email address.
- A related feature in the Setup/Config screen is
- ldap-result-to-addrbook-add.
- _disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution_
- Spaces in your input are normally handled specially. Each space
- character is replaced by
- * <SPACE>
- in the search query (but not by "* <SPACE> *"). The reason this is
- done is so the input string
- Greg Donald
- (which is converted to "Greg* Donald") will match the names "Greg
- Donald", "Gregory Donald", "Greg F. Donald", and "Gregory F Donald";
- but it won't match "Greg McDonald". If the "Search-Rule" you were
- using was "begins-with", then it would also match the name "Greg
- Donaldson".
- Turning on this feature will disable this substitution.
- _search-type_
- This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. In particular, this
- tells the server where to look for the string to be matched. If set
- to "name" then the string that is being searched for will be compared
- with the string in the "Name" field on the server (technically, it is
- the "commonname" field on the server). "Surname" means we're looking
- for a match in the "Surname" field on the server (actually the "sn"
- field). "Givenname" really is "givenname" and "email" is the
- electronic mail address (this is actually the field called "mail" or
- "electronicmail" on the server). The other three types are
- combinations of the types listed so far. "Name-or-email" means the
- string should appear in either the "name" field OR the "email" field.
- Likewise, "surname-or-givenname" means "surname" OR "givenname" and
- "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email" means the obvious thing.
- This search _type_ is combined with the search rule to form the
- actual search query.
- The usual default value for this option is
- "sur-or-given-or-name-or-email". This type of search may be slow on
- some servers. Try "name-or-email", which is often faster, or just
- "name" if the performance seems to be a problem.
- Some servers have been configured with different attribute names for
- these four fields. In other words, instead of using the attribute
- name "mail" for the email address field, the server might be
- configured to use something else, for example, "rfc822mail" or
- "internetemailaddress". _Alpine_ can be configured to use these
- different attribute names by using the four per-server configuration
- options:
- + email-attribute
- + name-attribute
- + surname-attribute
- + givenname-attribute
- _search-rule_
- This affects the way that LDAP searches are done. If set to "equals"
- then only exact matches count. "Contains" means that the string you
- type in is a substring of what you are matching against.
- "Begins-with" and "ends-with" mean that the string starts or ends
- with the string you type in.
- Spaces in your input are normally handled specially, but you can turn
- that special handling off with the disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution
- feature.
- The usual default value for this option is _begins-with_.
- _email-attribute_
- This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when looking
- for an email address. The default value for this option is "mail" or
- "electronicmail". If the server you are using uses a different
- attribute name for the email address, put that attribute name here.
- This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is one
- that contains a search for "email". It will also cause the attribute
- value matching this attribute name to be used as the email address
- when you look up an entry from the composer.
- _name-attribute_
- This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when looking
- for the name of the entry. The default value for this option is "cn",
- which stands for common name. If the server you are using uses a
- different attribute name for the name, put that attribute name here.
- This will affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is one
- that contains a search for "name".
- _surname-attribute_
- This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when looking
- for the surname of the entry. The default value for this option is
- "sn". If the server you are using uses a different attribute name for
- the surname, put that attribute name here. This will affect the
- search filter used if your Search-Type is one that contains a search
- for "surname".
- _givenname-attribute_
- This is the name of the attribute which is searched for when looking
- for the given name of the entry. The default value for this option is
- "givenname". If the server you are using uses a different attribute
- name for the given name, put that attribute name here. This will
- affect the search filter used if your Search-Type is one that
- contains a search for "givenname".
- _timelimit_
- This places a limit on the number of seconds the LDAP search will
- continue. The default is 30 seconds. A value of 0 means no limit.
- Note that some servers may place limits of their own on searches.
- _sizelimit_
- This places a limit on the number of entries returned by the LDAP
- server. A value of 0 means no limit. The default is 0. Note that some
- servers may place limits of their own on searches.
- _custom-search-filter_
- This one is for advanced users only! If you define this, then the
- search-type and search-rule defined are both ignored. However, the
- feature disable-ad-hoc-space-substitution is still in effect. That
- is, the space substitution will take place even in a custom filter
- unless you disable it.
- If your LDAP service stops working and you suspect it might be
- because of your custom filter, just delete this filter and try using
- the _search-type_ and _search-rule_ instead. Another option that
- sometimes causes trouble is the search-base option.
- This variable may be set to the string representation of an LDAP
- search filter (see RFC1960). In the places where you want the address
- string to be substituted in, put a '%s' in this filter string. Here
- are some examples:
- A "Search-Type" of "name" with "Search-Rule" of "begins-with" is
- equivalent to the "custom-search-filter"
- (cn=%s*)
- When you try to match against the string "string" the program
- replaces the "%s" with "string" (without the quotes). You may have
- multiple "%s"'s and they will all be replaced with the string. There
- is a limit of 10 "%s"'s.
- A "Search-Type" of "name-or-email" with "Search-Rule" of "contains"
- is equivalent to
- (|(cn=*%s*)(mail=*%s*))
- If your server uses a different attribute _name_ than _Alpine_ uses
- by default, (for example, it uses "rfc822mail" instead of "mail"),
- then you may be able to use one or more of the four attribute
- configuration options instead of defining a custom filter:
- + email-attribute
- + name-attribute
- + surname-attribute
- + givenname-attribute
-
-Color Configuration
-
- If the terminal or terminal emulator you are using is capable of using color
- (see color-style option), or if you are using _PC-Alpine_, then it is
- possible to set up _Alpine_ so that various parts of the display will be
- shown in colors you configure. This is done using the Setup Color screen.
- The Setup Color screen is divided into five broad sections: Options, General
- Colors, Index Colors, Header Colors, and Keyword Colors. In addition to
- these five categories you may also color lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen
- by configuring the Index Line Color.
-
- Each color is defined as a foreground color (the color of the actual text)
- and a background color (the color of the area behind the text).
-
- Color Options
-
- _current-indexline-style_
- This option affects the colors used to display the current line in
- the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not have Index Line Colors
- defined, then this option will have no effect in the index. Those
- Rules may be defined by going to the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor screen.
-
- If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on and the
- Incoming Unseen Color is set to something other than the default,
- then this option also affects the color used to display the current
- folder in the Incoming FOLDER LIST screen.
-
- The available options include:
-
- flip-colors
- This is the default. If an index line is colored because it
- matches one of your Index Color Rules, then its colors will be
- reversed when it is the currently highlighted line. For
- example, if the line is normally red text on a blue background,
- then when it is the current line it will be drawn as blue text
- on a red background.
-
- The rest of the option values all revert to this flip-colors
- behavior if there is no Reverse Color defined.
-
- reverse
- With this option the Reverse color is always used to highlight
- the current line.
-
- reverse-fg
- The foreground part of the Reverse Color is used to highlight
- the current line. If this would cause the text to be unreadable
- (because the foreground and background colors are the same) or
- if it would cause no change in the color of the index line,
- then the colors are flipped instead.
-
- Some people think this works particularly well if you use
- different background colors to emphasize "interesting" lines,
- but always with the same Normal foreground color, and you use a
- different foreground color for the Reverse Color.
-
- reverse-fg-no-ambiguity
- With the "reverse-fg" rule above, it is possible that the
- resulting color will be exactly the same as the regular Reverse
- Color. That can lead to some possible confusion because an
- "interesting" line which is the current line will be displayed
- exactly the same as a non-interesting line which is current.
- You can't tell whether the line is just a regular current line
- or if it is an "interesting" current line by looking at the
- color. Setting the option to this value removes that ambiguity.
- It is the same as the "reverse-fg" setting unless the resulting
- interesting current line would look just like a non-interesting
- current line. In that case, the interesting line's colors are
- simply flipped (like in the default behavior).
-
- As an alternative way to preserve the line's interestingness in
- this case, you may find that using both a different foreground
- and a different background color for the interesting line will
- help.
-
- reverse-bg
- The background part of the Reverse Color is used to highlight
- the current line. If this would cause the text to be unreadable
- (because the foreground and background colors are the same) or
- if it would cause no change in the color of the index line,
- then the colors are flipped instead.
-
- Some people think this works particularly well if you use
- different foreground colors to emphasize "interesting" lines,
- but always with the same Normal background color, and you use a
- different background color for the Reverse Color.
-
- reverse-bg-no-ambiguity
- As with the "reverse-fg" case, the "reverse-bg" rule may also
- result in a color which is exactly the same as the regular
- Reverse Color. Setting the option to this value removes that
- ambiguity. It is the same as the "reverse-bg" setting unless
- the resulting current line has the same color as the Reverse
- Color. In that case, the interesting line's colors are simply
- flipped (like in the default behavior).
-
- _titlebar-color-style_
- This option affects the colors used to display the titlebar (the top
- line on the screen) when viewing a message.
-
- The available options include:
-
- default
- The color of the titlebar will be the color you set for the
- Title Color. The Title Color may be set by using the
-
- indexline
- The color of the titlebar will be the same as the color of the
- index line corresponding to the message being viewed. The rules
- which determine what color the index line will be may be set up
- by going to the Setup/Rules/Indexcolor screen. If the index
- line for a message is not colored explicitly by the Indexcolor
- rules, then the titlebar will be colored the same as for the
- "default" option above (which is not the same color that the
- index line itself will have).
-
- reverse-indexline
- This is similar to the "indexline" option except the foreground
- and background colors from the corresponding index line will be
- reversed. For example, if the index line color is red letters
- on a white background, then the titlebar will be white letters
- on a red background. If the index line for a message is not
- colored explicitly by the Indexcolor rules, then the titlebar
- will be colored the same as for the "default" option above
- (which is not the same color that the index line itself will
- have).
-
- General Colors
-
- _Normal Color_
- This is the color which most of the screen is painted in. By default
- this color is black characters on a white background.
- _Reverse Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for reverse video characters. Actually, the
- name is misleading. This used to be reverse video and so the name
- remains. It is still used to highlight certain parts of the screen
- but the color may be set to whatever you'd like.
- _Title Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the
- screen). By default, the Title Color is black characters on a yellow
- background. The actual titlebar color may be different from the Title
- Color if the option titlebar-color-style is set to some value other
- than the default. It may also be different if the current folder is
- closed and the Title Closed Color is set to something different from
- the Title Color.
- _Title-closed Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for the titlebar (the top line on the screen)
- when the current folder is closed. By default, the Title Color Closed
- Color is white characters on a red background.
- _Status Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for messages written to the status message
- line near the bottom of the screen. By default, the Status Color is
- the same as the Reverse Color.
- _KeyLabel Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for the labels of the commands in the
- two-line menu at the bottom of the screen. The label is the long
- name, for example, "PrevMsg". By default, the KeyLabel Color is the
- same as the Normal Color.
- WARNING: Some terminal emulators have the property that the screen
- will scroll down one line whenever a character is written to the
- character cell in the lower right corner of the screen. _Alpine_ can
- usually avoid writing a character in that corner of the screen.
- However, if you have defined a KeyLabel Color then _Alpine_ does have
- to write a character in that cell in order to color the cell
- correctly. If you find that your display sometimes scrolls up a line
- this could be the problem. The most obvious symptom is probably that
- the titlebar at the top of the screen scrolls off the screen. Try
- setting KeyLabel Color to Default to see if that fixes the problem.
- _KeyName Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for the names of the commands in the two-line
- menu at the bottom of the screen. The KeyName is the shorter name in
- the menu. For example, the "W" before the "WhereIs". By default, the
- KeyName Color is the same as the Normal Color.
- _Selectable-item Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for displaying selectable items, such as
- URLs. By default, the Selectable-item Color is the same as the Normal
- Color, except it is also Bold.
- _Meta-message Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses in the MESSAGE TEXT screen for messages to
- you that aren't part of the message itself. By default, the
- Meta-Message Color is black characters on a yellow background.
- _Quote Colors_
- The colors _Alpine_ uses for coloring quoted text in the MESSAGE TEXT
- screen. If a line begins with a > character (or space followed by >)
- it is considered a quote. That line will be given the Quote1 Color
- (first level quote). If there is a second level of quoting then the
- Quote2 Color will be used. _Alpine_ considers there to be a second
- level of quoting if that first > is followed by another > (or space
- followed by >). If there are characters other than whitespace and >
- signs, then it isn't considered another level of quoting. Similarly,
- if there is a third level of quoting the Quote3 Color will be used.
- If there are more levels after that the Quote Colors are reused. If
- you define all three colors then it would repeat like Color1, Color2,
- Color3, Color1, Color2, Color3, ... If you only define the first two
- it would be Color1, Color2, Color1, Color2, ... If you define only
- the Quote1 Color, then the entire quote would be that color
- regardless of the quoting levels. By default, the Quote1 Color is
- black characters on a greenish-blue background; the Quote2 Color is
- black characters on a dull yellow background; and the Quote3 Color is
- black characters on a green background.
- _Incoming Unseen Color_
- If the option enable-incoming-folders-checking is turned on it is
- possible to highlight the folders that contain unseen messages by
- coloring them with this color. By default, this is the same as the
- Normal Color and no highlighting is done.
- Usually the "current" folder (the folder the cursor is on) is
- highlighted using reverse video. If the current folder is colored
- because it contains unseen messages then the color used to show that
- it is also the current folder is controlled by the
- current-indexline-style feature at the top of the SETUP COLOR screen.
- _Signature Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for coloring the signature in the MESSAGE
- TEXT screen. According to USENET conventions, the signature is
- defined as the paragraph following the "sigdashes", that is, the
- special line consisting of the three characters "-- " (i.e., dash,
- dash, and space). _Alpine_ allows for one empty line right after the
- sigdashes to be considered as part of the signature. By default, the
- Signature Color is blue characters on a white background.
- _Prompt Color_
- The color _Alpine_ uses for confirmation prompts and questions which
- appear in the status message line near the bottom of the screen. By
- default, the Prompt Color is the same as the Reverse Color.
-
- Index Colors
-
- You may add color to the single character symbols which give the status of
- each message in the MESSAGE INDEX. By default the characters "+", "*", "D",
- "A", and "N" show up near the left hand side of the screen, depending on
- whether the message is addressed to you, and whether the message is marked
- Important, is Deleted, is Answered, or is New. You may set the color of
- those symbols. By default, all of these symbols are drawn with the same
- color as the rest of the index line they are a part of.
-
- Besides coloring the message status symbols, you may also color the entire
- index line. This is done by using the Index Line Color configuration screen.
- It is also possible to color (keywords in the index using the Setup/Kolor
- screen (Keyword Colors); the ARROW cursor; the Subject using Index Subject
- Color; the From using Index From Color; and the Index Opening text.
-
- _Index-to-me Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "+" symbol which signifies a message
- is addressed directly to you.
- _Index-important Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "*" symbol which signifies a message
- has been flagged Important.
- _Index-deleted Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "D" symbol which signifies a message
- has been marked Deleted.
- _Index-answered Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "A" symbol which signifies a message
- has been answered.
- _Index-new Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "N" symbol which signifies a message
- is New.
- _Index-recent Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "R" symbol which signifies a message
- is Recent (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or "SHORTIMAPSTATUS"
- token is part of the index-format option).
- _Index-unseen Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "U" symbol which signifies a message
- is Unseen (only visible if the "IMAPSTATUS" or "SHORTIMAPSTATUS"
- token is part of the Index-Format option).
- _Index-priority Symbol Colors_
- The colors used for drawing the tokens "PRIORITY", "PRIORITYALPHA",
- and "PRIORITY!" when these are configured as part of the Index-Format
- option. You may set the color used to draw these tokens by use of the
- colors Index High Priority Symbol Color and Index Low Priority Symbol
- Color. This coloring takes place for all but the current index line,
- and the Priority Color appears to be in front of any color from an
- Index Color Rule. If the priority has a value of 1 or 2 the High
- Priority color will be used, and if the value is 4 or 5 the Low
- Priority color will be used.
- If you don't set these colors the index line will be colored in the
- same color as the bulk of the index line.
- _Index-arrow Symbol Color_
- The color used for drawing the "ARROW" token when it is configured as
- part of the Index-Format option.
- _Index-subject Symbol Color_
- You may set the color used to draw the Subject part of the index
- line. This coloring takes place for all but the current index line,
- and the Subject Color appears to be in front of any color from an
- Index Color Rule.
- If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color as
- the bulk of the index line.
- _Index-from Symbol Color_
- You may set the color used to draw the From part of the index line.
- This coloring takes place for all but the current index line, and the
- From Color appears to be in front of any color from an Index Color
- Rule.
- If you don't set this color it will be colored in the same color as
- the bulk of the index line.
- _Index-opening Symbol Color_
- It is possible to configure the Index-Format option so that it
- includes the subject followed by the "opening" text of the message if
- there is enough space. This is done by using one of the tokens
- SUBJECTTEXT, SUBJKEYTEXT, or SUBJKEYINITTEXT. The color used for
- drawing this opening text is given by this option. The coloring
- happens for all but the current index line, and this opening color
- appears to be in front of any color from an Index Color Rule.
- By default the Index Opening Color is gray characters on a white
- background.
-
- The default colors for these symbols are:
-
- Index-to-me black on cyan
- Index-important white on bright red
- Index-deleted same as Normal Color
- Index-answered bright red on yellow
- Index-new white on magenta
- Index-recent same as Normal Color
- Index-unseen same as Normal Color
-
- Header Colors
-
- You may add color to the header fields in the MESSAGE TEXT screen. The
-
- _Header-general Color_
- may be used to color all of the headers of the message.
-
- It is also possible to set the colors for specific header fields, for
- example for the Subject or From fields, using the viewer-hdr-colors option.
-
- For Header Colors, there is an additional line on the configuration screen
- labeled "Pattern to match". If you leave that blank, then the whole field
- for that header will always be colored. However, if you give a pattern to
- match, the coloring will only take place if there is a match for that
- pattern in the value of the field. For example, if you are working on a
- color for the Subject header and you fill in a pattern of "important", then
- only Subjects which contain the word "important" will be colored. For
- address fields like From or To, a pattern match will cause only the
- addresses which match the pattern to be colored.
-
- If the pattern you enter is a comma-separated list of patterns, then
- coloring happens if any of those patterns matches.
-
- Keyword Colors
-
- Sets the colors _Alpine_ uses for Keyword fields in the MESSAGE INDEX
- screen. Keywords may be displayed as part of the Subject of a message by
- using the "SUBJKEY" or "SUBJKEYINIT" tokens in the Index-Format option.
- Keywords may also be displayed in a column of their own in the MESSAGE INDEX
- screen by using the "KEY" or "KEYINIT" tokens.
-
- For example, you might have set up a Keyword "Work" using the Keywords
- option in the Setup/Config screen. You could cause that Keyword to show up
- as a special color by setting up the Keyword Color using this option, and
- then including it in the MESSAGE INDEX screen using one of the tokens listed
- above in the Index-Format.
-
- Index Line Colors
-
- You may color whole index lines by using roles. This isn't configured in the
- Setup Colors screen, but is configured in the Setup Rules IndexColor screen.
-
-Index Line Color Configuration
-
- Index Line Color causes lines in the MESSAGE INDEX screen to be colored.
- This action is only available if your terminal is capable of displaying
- color and color display has been enabled with the Color-Style option. (In
- PC-Alpine, color is always enabled so there is no option to turn on.)
-
- Each rule has a "Pattern", which is used to decide which of the rules is
- used; and the color which is used if the Pattern matches a particular
- message.
-
- Rule Patterns
-
- In order to determine whether or not a message matches a rule the message is
- compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the same for use with
- Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules, and Search Rules, so
- are described in only one place, "here".
-
- Index Line Color
-
- This is the color that index lines are colored when there is a matching
- Pattern. This colors the whole index line, except possibly the status
- letters which may be colored separately using the Setup Kolor screen.
-
-Role Configuration
-
- You may play different roles depending on who you are replying to. For
- example, if you are replying to a message addressed to _help-desk_ you may
- be acting as a Help Desk Worker. That role may require that you use a
- different return address and/or a different signature.
-
- Roles are optional. If you set up roles they work like this: Each role has a
- set of "Uses", which indicate whether or not a role is eligible to be
- considered for a particular use; a "Pattern", which is used to decide which
- of the eligible roles is used; and a set of "Actions", which are taken when
- that role is used. When you reply to a message, the message you are replying
- to is compared with the Patterns of the roles marked as eligible for use
- when replying. The comparisons start with the first eligible role and keep
- going until there is a match. If a match is found, the matching role's
- Actions are taken.
-
- It is also possible to set a default role and to change that role during
- your _Alpine_ session. When you start _Alpine_ no default role will be set.
- You may set or change the current default role by using the "D" command in
- the role selection screen. You'll see that screen while composing a message
- and being asked to select a role. An easy way to get to that screen is to
- use the Role Command to compose a message. You may find a default role
- useful if you normally perform the duties of one of your roles for a while,
- then you switch to another role and stay in the new role for another period
- of time. It may be easier than using the Role Command to select the role
- each time you compose a message.
-
- Role Uses
-
- There are three types of use to be configured; one for Replying, one for
- Forwarding, and one for Composing. These indicate whether or not you want a
- role to be considered when you type the Reply, Forward, or Compose commands.
- (The Role command is an alternate form of the Compose command, and it is not
- affected by these settings.) Each of these Use types has three possible
- values. The value "Never" means that the role will never be considered as a
- candidate for use with the corresponding command. For example, if you set a
- role's Reply Use to Never, then when you Reply to a message, the role won't
- even be considered. (That isn't quite true. If the message you are replying
- to matches some other role which requires confirmation, then there will be a
- ^T command available which allows you to select a role from all of your
- roles, not just the reply-eligible roles.)
-
- The options "With confirmation" and "Without confirmation" both mean that
- you do want to consider this role when using the corresponding command. For
- either of these settings the role's Pattern will be checked to see if it
- matches the message. For Reply Use, the message used to compare the Patterns
- with is the message being replied to. For Forward Use, the message used to
- compare the Pattern with is the message being forwarded. For Compose Use,
- there is no message, so the parts of the Pattern which depend on a message
- (everything other than Current Folder Type) are ignored. In all cases, the
- Current Folder is checked if defined. If there is a match then this role
- will either be used without confirmation or will be the default when
- confirmation is asked for, depending on which of the two options is
- selected. If confirmation is requested, you will have a chance to choose No
- Role instead of the offered role, or to change the role to any one of your
- other roles (with the ^T command).
-
- Role Patterns
-
- In order to determine whether or not a message matches a role the message is
- compared with the Role Pattern. These Patterns are the same for use with
- Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules, and Search Rules, so
- are described in only one place, "here".
-
- Since header patterns, AllText patterns, and BodyText patterns which are
- unset are ignored, a role which has all header patterns unset, the AllText
- pattern unset, the BodyText pattern unset, the Score Interval unset, and the
- Current Folder Type set to "Any" may be used as a default role. It should be
- put last in the list of roles since the matching starts at the beginning and
- proceeds until one of the roles is a match. If no roles at all match, then
- _Alpine_ will use its regular methods of defining the role. If you wanted to,
- you could define a different "default" role for Replying, Forwarding, and
- Composing by setting the "Use" fields appropriately.
-
- Role Actions
-
- Once a role match is found, the role's Actions are taken. For each role
- there are several possible actions that may be defined. They are actions to
- set the From address, the Reply-To address, the Fcc, the Signature file, and
- the Template file.
-
- Initialize Settings Using Role
-
- This is a power user feature. You will usually want to leave this field
- empty. The value of this field is the nickname of another one of your roles.
- The Action values from that other role are used as the initial values of the
- Action items for this role. If you put something in any of the action fields
- for this role, that will override whatever was in the corresponding field of
- the initializer role.
-
- You might use this field if the "Action" part of one of your roles is
- something you want to use in more than one role. Instead of filling in those
- action values again for each role, you may give the nickname of the role
- where the values are filled in. It's just a shortcut way to define Role
- Actions.
-
- Here's an example to help explain how this works. Suppose you have a role
- with nickname "role1" and role1 has (among other things)
-
- Set Reply-To = The Pres <president@example.com>
-
- set. If in "role2" you set "Initialize settings using role" to "role1", then
- role2 will inherit the Set Reply-To value from role1 by default (and any of
- the other inheritable action values that are set). So if role2 had
-
- Set Reply-To = <No Value Set>
-
- defined, the Reply-To used with role2 would be "The Pres
- <president@example.com>" However, if role2 had
-
- Set Reply-To = VP <vicepresident@example.com>
-
- defined, then the Reply-To used with role2 would be "VP
- <vicepresident@example.com>" instead.
-
- If you wish, you may choose a nickname from your list of roles by using the
- "T" command. If the role you are using to initialize also has a role it
- initializes from, then that initialization happens first. That is,
- inheritance works as expected with the grandparent and great-grandparent
- (and so on) roles having the expected effect.
-
- Set From
-
- This field consists of a single address which will be used as the From
- address on the message you are sending. This should be a fully-qualified
- address like
-
- Full Name <user@domain>
-
- or just
-
- user@domain
-
- If this is left blank, then the normal From address will be used.
-
- Set Reply-To
-
- The Reply-To address is the address used on the Reply-To line of the message
- you are sending. You don't need a Reply-To address unless it is different
- from the From address. This should be a fully-qualified address like
-
- Full Name <user@domain>
-
- or just
-
- user@domain
-
- If this is left blank, then there won't be a Reply-To address unless you
- have configured one specially with the customized-hdrs configuration option.
-
- Set Other-Hdrs
-
- This field gives you a way to set values for headers besides "From" and
- "Reply-To". If you want to set either of those, use the specific "Set From"
- and "Set Reply-To" settings.
-
- This field is similar to the customized-hdrs option. Each header you specify
- here must include the header tag ("To:", "Approved:", etc.) and may
- optionally include a value for that header. In order to see these headers
- when you compose using this role you must use the rich header command.
- Here's an example which shows how you might set the To address.
-
- Set Other Hdrs = To: Full Name <user@domain>
-
- Headers set in this way are different from headers set with the
- customized-hdrs option in that the value you give for a header here will
- replace any value that already exists. For example, if you are Replying to a
- message there will already be at least one address in the To header (the
- address you are Replying to). However, if you Reply using a role which sets
- the To header, that role's To header value will be used instead. The
- customized-hdrs headers are defaults.
-
- Limitation: Because commas are used to separate the list of Other Headers,
- it is not possible to have the value of a header contain a comma; nor is
- there currently an "escape" mechanism provided to make this work.
-
- Set Fcc
-
- This field consists of a single folder name which will be used in the Fcc
- field of the message you are sending. You may put anything here that you
- would normally type into the Fcc field from the composer.
-
- In addition, an fcc of "" (two double quotation marks) means no Fcc.
-
- A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
- deciding the default value of the Fcc field. For many roles, perhaps most,
- it may make more sense for you to use the other _Alpine_ facilities for
- setting the Fcc. In particular, if you want the Fcc to depend on who you are
- sending the message to then the fcc-name-rule is probably more useful. In
- that case, you would want to leave the Fcc field here blank. However, if you
- have a role that depends on who the message you are replying to was From, or
- what address that message was sent to; then it might make sense to set the
- Fcc for that role here.
-
- Set LiteralSig
-
- This field contains the actual text for your signature, as opposed to the
- name of a file containing your signature. If this is defined it takes
- precedence over any value set in the _Set Signature_ field.
-
- This is simply a different way to store the signature. The signature is
- stored inside your Alpine configuration file instead of in a separate
- signature file. Tokens work the same way they do with _Set Signature_.
-
- The two character sequence \n (backslash followed by the character n) will
- be used to signify a line-break in your signature. You don't have to enter
- the \n, but it will be visible in the CHANGE THIS ROLE RULE window after you
- are done editing the signature.
-
- Set Signature
-
- The Signature is the name of a file to be used as the signature file when
- this role is being used. If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|)
- then instead of reading the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a
- program which will produce the text to be used on its standard output. The
- program can't have any arguments and doesn't receive any input from
- _Alpine_, but the rest of the processing works as if the contents came from a
- file.
-
- Signature files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to do
- that you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the regular
- signature-file option which is configured from the Setup/Configuration
- screen. A remote signature file name might look like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/sig3
-
- or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/sig3
-
- Once you have named the remote signature file you create its contents by
- using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set Signature"
- line of the role editor.
-
- Besides containing regular text, a signature file may also contain (or a
- signature program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text which
- depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The tokens all
- look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For example, if the
- token
-
- _DATE_
-
- is included in the text of the signature file, then when you reply to or
- forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date the
- message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
-
- If you use a role which has a signature file for a plain composition (that
- is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so any tokens
- which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing. So if you want a
- signature file to be useful for new compositions it shouldn't include any of
- the tokens which depend on the message being replied to or forwarded.
-
- The list of available tokens is here.
-
- Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include text
- based on whether or not a token would result in specific replacement text.
- For example, you could include some text based on whether or not the _NEWS_
- token would result in any newsgroups if it was used. It's explained in
- detail here.
-
- In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in a
- signature file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For example,
- to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use \_DATE_. It is not
- possible to have a literal backslash followed by an expanded token.
-
- A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will use its normal rules for
- deciding which file (if any) to use for the signature file.
-
- Set Template
-
- A Template is the name of a file to be included in the message when this
- role is being used. The template file is a file which is included at the top
- of the message you are composing.
-
- If the filename is followed by a vertical bar (|) then instead of reading
- the contents of the file the file is assumed to be a program which will
- produce the text to be used on its standard output. The program can't have
- any arguments and doesn't receive any input from _Alpine_, but the rest of
- the processing works as if the contents came from a file.
-
- Template files may be stored remotely on an IMAP server. In order to do that
- you just give the file a remote name. This works just like the regular
- signature-file option which is configured from the Setup/Configuration
- screen. A remote template file name might look like:
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us}mail/templ3
-
- or, if you have an SSL-capable version of _Alpine_, you might try
-
- {myimaphost.myschool.k12.wa.us/user=loginname/ssl}mail/templ3
-
- Once you have named the remote template file you create its contents by
- using the "F" "editFile" command when the cursor is on the "Set Template"
- line of the role editor.
-
- Besides containing regular text, a template file may also contain (or a
- template file program may produce) tokens which are replaced with text which
- depends on the message you are replying to or forwarding. The tokens all
- look like _word_ (a word surrounded by underscores). For example, if the
- token
-
- _DATE_
-
- is included in the text of the template file, then when you reply to or
- forward a message, the token will be replaced with the actual date the
- message you are replying to or forwarding was sent.
-
- If you use a role which has a template file for a plain composition (that
- is, not a reply or forward) then there is no original message, so any tokens
- which depend on the message will be replaced with nothing. So if you want a
- template file to be useful for new compositions it shouldn't include any of
- the tokens which depend on the message being replied to or forwarded.
-
- The list of available tokens is here.
-
- Actually, for the adventurous, there is a way to conditionally include text
- based on whether or not a token would result in specific replacement text.
- For example, you could include some text based on whether or not the _NEWS_
- token would result in any newsgroups if it was used. It's explained in
- detail here.
-
- In the very unlikely event that you want to include a literal token in a
- template file, you must precede it with a backslash character. For example,
- to include the literal text _DATE_ you must actually use \_DATE_. It is not
- possible to have a literal backslash followed by an expanded token.
-
- A blank field here means that _Alpine_ will not use a template file when
- this role is being used.
-
- Use SMTP Server
-
- If this field has a value, then it will be used as the SMTP server to send
- mail when this role is being used (unless the SMTP server variable is set in
- the system-wide fixed configuration file). It has the same semantics as the
- smtp-server variable in the Setup/Config screen. When you postpone the
- composition this SMTP server list will be saved with the postponed
- composition and it cannot be changed later. Because of that, you may want to
- make this a list of SMTP servers with the preferred server at the front of
- the list and alternate servers later in the list.
-
- If any of the actions are left unset, then the action depends on what is
- present in the "Initialize settings using role" field. If you've listed the
- nickname of another one of your roles there, then the corresponding action
- from that role will be used here. If that action is also blank, or if there
- is no nickname specified, then _Alpine_ will do whatever it normally does to
- set these actions. This depends on other configuration options and features
- you've set.
-
-Filtering Configuration
-
- The software which actually delivers mail (the stuff that happens before
- _Alpine_ is involved) for you is in a better position to do mail filtering
- than _Alpine_ itself. If possible, you may want to look into using that sort
- of mail filtering to deliver mail to different folders, delete it, or
- forward it. However, if you'd like _Alpine_ to help with this, _Alpine_'s
- filtering is for you.
-
- Filtering is a way to automatically move certain messages from one folder to
- another or to delete messages. It can also be used to set message status
- bits (Important, Deleted, New, Answered). _Alpine_ doesn't have the ability
- to forward mail to another address.
-
- Each filtering rule has a "Pattern" and a "Filter Action". When a folder is
- opened, when new mail arrives in an open folder, or when mail is Expunged
- from a folder; each message is compared with the Patterns of your filtering
- rules. The comparisons start with the first rule and keep going until there
- is a match. If a match is found, the message may be deleted or moved,
- depending on the setting of the Filter Action. If the message is not
- deleted, it may have its status altered.
-
- For efficiency, each message is usually only checked once. When new mail
- arrives, the new messages are checked but not the old. There are some
- exceptions to this rule. The expunge command will cause all messages to be
- rechecked, as will editing of the filtering rules.
-
- _NOTE:_ When setting up a Pattern used to delete messages, it is recommended
- that you test the Pattern first with a "Move" folder specified in case
- unintended matches occur. Messages that are deleted will be removed from the
- folder and _unrecoverable_ from within _Alpine_ after the next Expunge
- command or once the folder being filtered has been closed.
-
- Filter Patterns
-
- In order to determine whether or not a message matches a filter the message
- is compared with the Filter's Pattern. These Patterns are the same for use
- with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules, and Search
- Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
-
- Since filtering is a potentially destructive action, if you have a filtering
- Pattern with nothing other than Current Folder Type set, that filtering rule
- is ignored.
-
- Filter Actions
-
- Once a filter match is found for a particular message, there are some
- actions which may be taken. First, the message may have its status changed.
- This is the same message status that you can manipulate manually using the
- Flag Command. There are four elements of message status that you can
- control. You can set or clear the Important status, the New status, the
- Deleted status, and the Answered status. Of course, if the filter is going
- to delete the message, then there is no point in setting message status. You
- may also set or clear user-defined keywords for a message.
-
- Second, the filter may delete or move the message. Deleting the message
- marks it Deleted and removes it from view. It is effectively gone forever
- (though it technically is still there until the next expunge command, which
- may happen implicitly). Moving the message moves it from the open folder
- into the folder listed on the "Folder List" line of the filter
- configuration. If you list more than one folder name (separated by commas)
- then the message will be copied to each of those folders. In any case, if
- "Delete" or "Move" is set then the message is removed from the current
- folder. If you just want to set the messages status without deleting it from
- the folder, then set the filter action to "Just Set Message Status".
-
- (There is no way to do a Copy instead of a Move, due to the difficulties
- involved in keeping track of whether or not a message has already been
- copied by a previous _Alpine_ session.)
-
- Move-only-if-not-deleted option
-
- If you have specified a Move to Folder to filter messages into, then this
- option has an effect. If this option is set then messages will only be moved
- into the specified folder if they aren't already marked deleted. This might
- be useful if you have more than one _Alpine_ session running simultaneously
- and you don't want messages to be filtered into a folder more than once.
- This method is not foolproof. There may be cases where a message gets marked
- deleted and so it is never filtered into the folder. For example, if you
- deleted it in another _Alpine_ or another mail program that didn't know
- about the filtering rule.
-
- This option has no effect if the Filter Action is not set to Move.
-
- Dont-quit-even-if-rule-matches option
-
- If this option is set then this is a non-terminating rule. Usually, for each
- message, _Alpine_ searches through the filter rules until a match is found
- and then it performs the action associated with that rule. Rules following
- the match are not considered. If this option is set then the search for
- matches will continue at the next rule.
-
- If a non-terminating rule matches then the actions associated with that
- rule, except for any implied deletion of the message, are performed before
- the match for the next rule is checked. For example, if the non-terminating
- rule sets the Important status, then that status will be set when the next
- rule is considered. However, if the non-terminating rule Moves the message,
- the message will actually be copied instead of copied and deleted so that it
- is still there for the next rule. A moved message is deleted after all the
- relevant rules have been checked. The name of the "Move" action is confusing
- in this case because a single message can be moved to more than one folder.
- It turns the Move into a Copy instead, but it is still followed by a
- deletion at the end.
-
- This option may be useful if you want to have a single message filtered to
- two different folders because it matches two different Patterns. For
- example, suppose you normally filter messages to a particular mailing list
- into one folder, and messages addressed directly to you into a second
- folder. If a message is sent to both you and the list (and you can tell that
- by looking at the headers of the message) this option may give you a
- convenient way to capture a copy to each folder. (It may also cause you to
- capture two copies to each folder, depending on whether your mail system
- delivers one or two copies of the message to you and on how the list works.)
-
-Scoring Configuration
-
- Most people will not use scores at all, but if you do use them, here's how
- they work in Alpine. Using this screen, you may define Scoring rules. The
- score for a message is calculated by looking at every Score rule defined and
- adding up the Score Values for the ones which match the message. If there
- are no matches for a message, it has a score of zero. Message scores may be
- used a couple of ways in Alpine.
-
- Sorting by Score
-
- One of the methods you may use to sort message indexes is to sort by score.
- The scores of all the messages in a folder will be calculated and then the
- index will be ordered by placing the messages in order of ascending or
- descending score.
-
- Scores for use in Patterns
-
- The Patterns used for Roles, Index Line Coloring, and Filtering have a
- category labeled "Score Interval". When a message is being compared with a
- Pattern to check for a match, if the Score Interval is set only messages
- which have a score somewhere in the interval are a match.
-
- Scoring Rule Patterns
-
- In order to determine whether or not a message matches a scoring rule the
- message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the same for
- use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules, and Search
- Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
-
- Actually, Scoring rule Patterns are slightly different from the other types
- of Patterns because Scoring rule Patterns don't contain a Score Interval. In
- other words, when calculating the score for a message, which is done by
- looking at the Scoring rule Patterns, scores aren't used.
-
- Score Value
-
- This is the value that will be added to the score for a message if the
- rule's Pattern is a match. Each individual Score Value is an integer between
- -100 and 100, and the values from matching rules are added together to get a
- message's score. There is also a way to extract the value from a particular
- header of each message. See the help text for Score Value for further
- information.
-
-Other Rules Configuration
-
- Using this screen, you may define configuration Rules which don't fit nicely
- into the other Rules categories.
-
- Other Rule Patterns
-
- Other Rules are a little different from the rest of the Rules because they
- depend only on the current folder, and not on a particular message. In order
- to determine whether or not a rule's actions should be applied the current
- folder is compared with the rule's Pattern, which consists of only the
- Current Folder Type. Current Folder Type works the same for Other Rules as
- it does for Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, and Scoring. Keep in mind that
- the only part of the Pattern which applies to Other Rules is the Current
- Folder Type when looking at the description of Patterns given "here".
-
- Other Rule Actions
-
- Once a pattern match is found, the rule's Actions are taken. Neither of the
- following two rule's depends on a message for its match. That means that all
- the parts of the Pattern which depend on matching an attribute of a message
- are ignored. So the only part of the Pattern that matters for these Actions
- is the Current Folder Type.
-
- Set Sort Order
-
- When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you have
- set a sort order which is different from your default sort order. The
- default is set in the Setup/Config screen with the Sort-Key option. If the
- Sort Order action is set, then the folder will be displayed sorted in that
- sort order instead of in the default order.
-
- A possible point of confusion arises when you change the configuration of
- the Sort Order for the currently open folder. The folder will normally be
- re-sorted when you go back to viewing the index. However, if you have
- manually sorted the folder with the Sort command, it will not be re-sorted.
-
- Set Index Format
-
- When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you have
- set an Index Format which is different from your default Index Format, which
- is set with the Index-Format option. If so, the index will be displayed with
- this format instead of the default.
-
- Set Startup Rule
-
- When you enter a new folder, these rules will be checked to see if you have
- set a startup rule which is different from the default startup rule. The
- default for incoming folders is set in the Setup/Config screen with the
- "incoming-startup-rule" option. The default for folders other than INBOX
- that are not part of your incoming collection (see enable-incoming-folders
- feature) is to start with the last message in the folder. If the Startup
- Rule is set to something other than "default", then the rule will determine
- which message will be the current message when the folder is first opened.
-
- The various startup rule possibilities work the same here as they do in the
- incoming collection, except that the folder can be any specific folder or
- any folder type.
-
-Search Rules Configuration
-
- One of the commands that becomes available when that feature is turned on is
- the "; Select" command, which is used in the MESSAGE INDEX screen to select
- a set of messages. One way of selecting messages is to use a Rule. All of
- the messages which match (or don't match if you wish) a Rule's Pattern will
- be selected.
-
- Any of your Rules may be used for this purpose. You might already have Rules
- set up for filtering, index line color, scores, or roles; and you may use
- any of those Rules with the Select command. However, you might find it more
- convenient to set up a separate set of Rules just for this purpose without
- having to worry about what other effects they may cause. That is the purpose
- of these Select Rules.
-
- Rule Patterns
-
- In order to determine whether or not a message is selected by a rule the
- message is compared with the rule's Pattern. These Patterns are the same for
- use with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other Rules, and Search
- Rules, so are described in only one place, "here".
-
- There is no action associated with these Search Rules. Only their Patterns
- are used.
-
-Patterns
-
- Patterns are used with Roles, Filtering, Index Coloring, Scoring, Other
- Rules, and Search Rules. Patterns are compared with a message to see if
- there is a match. For Filtering, the messages being checked are all the
- messages in the folder, one at a time. For Index Line Coloring, each message
- that is visible on the screen is checked for matches with the Index Coloring
- Patterns. Roles are used with the Reply, Forward, and Compose commands. For
- Reply, the message used to compare the Pattern with is the message being
- replied to; for Forward, the message used to compare the Pattern with is the
- message being forwarded; and for Compose, there is no message, so the parts
- of the Pattern which depend on a message (everything other than Current
- Folder Type and the Beginning of Month and Year) are not used. Only the
- Current Folder Type matters for Compose (plus the Beginning of Month or
- Year, which you wouldn't usually use for a Role). For Scoring, the message
- being scored is compared with all of the Score Patterns, and the Score
- Values from the ones that match are added together to get the message's
- score. For Other Rules, there is no message. Only the Current Folder Type is
- checked for Other Rules.
-
- Each Pattern has several possible parts, all of which are optional. In order
- for there to be a match, _ALL_ of the _defined_ parts of the Pattern must
- match the message. If a part is not defined it is considered a match. For
- example, if the To pattern is not defined it will be displayed as
-
- To pattern = <No Value Set>
-
- That is considered a match because it is not defined. This means that the
- Pattern with nothing defined is a match if the Current Folder Type matches,
- but there is an exception. Because filtering is a potentially destructive
- action, filtering Patterns with nothing other than Current Folder Type
- defined are ignored. If you really want a filtering Pattern to match all
- messages (subject to Current Folder Type) the best way to do it is to define
- a Score interval which includes all possible scores. This would be the score
- interval (-INF,INF). This can be used even if you haven't defined any rules
- to Set Scores.
-
- There are six predefined header patterns called the To, From, Sender, Cc,
- News, and Subject patterns. Besides those six predefined header patterns,
- you may add additional header patterns with header fieldnames of your
- choosing. You add an extra header pattern by placing the cursor on one of
- the patterns while in the role editor and using the "eXtraHdr" command. The
- Recip pattern is a header pattern which stands for Recipient (To OR Cc) and
- the Partic pattern is a header pattern which stands for Participant (From OR
- To OR Cc). (Defining the Recip pattern does not have the same effect as
- defining both the To and Cc patterns. Recip is To _OR_ Cc, not To _AND_ Cc.)
- Similar to the header patterns are the AllText pattern and the BodyText
- pattern. Instead of comparing this pattern's text against only the contents
- of a particular header field, the text for the AllText pattern is compared
- with text anywhere in the message's header or body, and the text for the
- BodyText pattern is compared with text anywhere in the message's body.
-
- Any of the header patterns, the AllText pattern, or the BodyText pattern may
- be negated with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has
- been turned on by looking for the character "!" at the beginning of the
- pattern line. When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
- That is, if the pattern matches then it is considered to NOT be a match, and
- if it does not match it is considered to be a match.
-
- Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for a pattern.
- For example, if you type the characters "!urgent" into the Subject pattern,
- the pattern will look like:
-
- Subject pattern = !urgent
-
- This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!urgent". In order to
- match messages which do not have "urgent" in their Subject field, first type
- the characters "urgent" followed by carriage return for the value of the
- Subject pattern, then negate it by typing the "!" command. It should look
- like
-
- ! Subject pattern = urgent
-
- The contents of each of these header patterns (or the AllText or BodyText
- patterns) may be a complete email address, part of an address, or a random
- set of characters to match against. It may also be a list of such patterns,
- which means you are looking for a match against the first pattern in the
- list _OR_ the second pattern _OR_ the third and so on. For example, a
- Subject pattern equal to
-
- Subject pattern = urgent
- emergency
- alert
-
- would match all messages with a subject which contained at least one of
- those words. It would also match subjects containing the words "alerts" or
- "Urgently".
-
- The same example with "NOT" turned on would be
-
- ! Subject pattern = urgent
- emergency
- alert
-
- which would match all messages with a subject which did NOT contain any of
- those words. You can use the "Add Value" command to add new words to the
- list, or you can enter them as a comma-separated list.
-
- (It is not possible to specify two patterns which must _BOTH_ be present for
- a match. It is only possible to specify that _EITHER_ pattern1 _OR_ pattern2
- must be present, and that is exactly what using a list does.)
-
- The "Current Folder Type" and the "Score Interval" are also part of the
- Pattern, although the "Score Interval" is not used when checking for matches
- for Scoring. There are five similar settings which relate to the status of
- the message. These settings rely on the message being New or not, Deleted or
- not, Answered or not, Important or not, and Recent or not. There are also
- some other miscellaneous settings. The first is the Age of the message in
- days. Another is the Size of the message in bytes. The third is a setting
- which detects whether or not the Subject of a message contains raw 8-bit
- characters (unencoded characters with the most significant bit set). There
- is a setting which detects whether or not this is the first time _Alpine_
- has been run this month (doesn't depend on individual messages), and another
- which detects whether or not this is the first time _Alpine_ has been run
- this year. Other parts of the Pattern detect whether or not the From address
- of a message appears in your address book, whether or not certain keywords
- are set for a message, and whether or not certain character sets are used in
- a message.
-
- Parts of a Pattern
-
- Header patterns
-
- A header pattern is simply text which is searched for in the corresponding
- header field. For example, if a Pattern has a From header pattern with the
- value "@company.com", then only messages which have a From header which
- contains the text "@company.com" will be possible matches. Matches don't
- have to be exact. For example, if the relevant field of a message contains
- the text "mailbox@domain" somewhere in it, then header patterns of "box", or
- "x@d", or "mailbox@domain" are all matches.
-
- All parts of the Pattern must match so, for example, if a message matches a
- defined From pattern, it still must be checked against the other parts of
- the Pattern which have been defined. The To header pattern is a slightly
- special case. If the message being checked has a Resent-To header and the
- feature Use-Resent-To-in-Rules is turned on, the addresses there are used in
- place of the addresses in the To header. This is only true for the To
- header. Resent-cc and Resent-From headers are never used unless you add them
- with the eXtraHdrs command.
-
- The meaning of a header pattern may be negated with the "!" "toggle NOT"
- command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking for the
- character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line. It would look something
- like
-
- ! From pattern = susan@example.com
-
- When the "!" is present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
-
- If you want to check for the presence of a header field but don't care about
- its value, then the empty pattern which you get by entering a pair of double
- quotes ("") should match any message which has the corresponding header
- field.
-
- AllText patterns
-
- AllText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
- searched for anywhere in the message's headers or body, not just in the
- contents of a particular header field.
-
- BodyText patterns
-
- BodyText patterns are just like header patterns except that the text is
- searched for anywhere in the message's body, not just in the contents of a
- particular header field.
-
- If there is more than one header pattern or AllText pattern or BodyText
- pattern for which you want to take the same action there is a shorthand
- notation which may be used. Any of these patterns may be a list of patterns
- instead of just a single pattern. If any one of the patterns in the list
- matches the message then it is considered a match. For example, if
- "company1" and "company2" both required you to use the same role when
- replying to messages, you might have a To pattern which looks like
-
- To pattern = company1.com
- company2.com
-
- This means that if the mail you are replying to was addressed to either
- "anything@company1.com" or "anything@company2.com", then this Pattern is a
- match and the same actions will be taken.
-
- The meaning of an AllText or BodyText pattern may be negated with the "!"
- "toggle NOT" command. You can tell that _NOT_ has been turned on by looking
- for the character "!" at the beginning of the pattern line. When the "!" is
- present, it reverses the meaning of the match.
-
- A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate multiple
- values in any of the fields which may have multiple values (such as header
- patterns, AllText patterns, BodyText patterns, keywords, folder lists, and
- so on), you must escape comma with a backslash (\) if you want to include a
- literal comma in one of those fields. In other words, if you type a
- backslash followed by a comma it will be interpreted as a comma by _Alpine_,
- instead of as a separator between pattern values. All other backslashes
- (those not followed by a comma) are literal backslashes and should not be
- escaped. It's unlikely you'll ever need to enter a literal comma or
- backslash in any of the patterns.
-
- Current Folder Type
-
- The "Current Folder Type" may be set to one of four different values: "Any",
- "News", "Email", or "Specific". If the value is set to "News", then the
- Pattern will only match if the currently open folder is a newsgroup. The
- value "Email" only matches if the current folder is not news and the value
- "Any" causes any folder to match. If the value of "Current Folder Type" is
- set to "Specific", then you must fill in a value for "Folder", which is on
- the line below the "Specific" line. In this case you will only get a match
- if the currently open folder is the specific folder you list. You may give a
- list of folders instead of just a single folder name, in which case the
- Pattern will match if the open folder is any one of the folders in the list.
- The name of each folder in the list may be either "INBOX", the technical
- specification of the folder (like what appears in your configuration file)
- or, if the folder is one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname
- you've given the folder. Here are some samples of specific folder names:
-
- {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
-
- {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
-
- mail/local-folder
-
- The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the "T" command
- which is available when the "Folder" line is hilighted, or to use the "Take"
- command with the configuration feature "enable-rules-under-take" turned on.
-
- When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty incurred when
- collecting the information necessary to check whether or not a Pattern
- matches a message. For this reason, the default Current Folder Type is set
- to "Email". If you have Patterns with a Current Folder Type of either "Any"
- or "News" and those Patterns are used for Index Line Coloring or Scoring,
- you may experience slower screen redrawing in the MESSAGE INDEX screen when
- in a newsgroup.
-
- Age Interval
-
- The "Age Interval" may be set to an interval of message ages which should be
- considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if it is unset it
- will be ignored. The Age Interval looks like
-
- (min_age,max_age)
-
- where "min_age" and "max_age" are integers greater than or equal to zero.
- The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It represents
- infinity.
-
- Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of just
- a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look like
-
- (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
-
- When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age, in days, of
- the message is contained in any of the intervals. The intervals include both
- endpoints.
-
- Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the _age_ of the
- message. Instead, it is how many days ago the message arrived in one of your
- folders. If the current time is a little past midnight, then a message that
- arrived just before midnight arrived yesterday, even though the message is
- only a few minutes old. By default, the date being used is not the date in
- the Date header of the message. It is the date that the message arrived in
- one of your folders. When you Save a message from one folder to another that
- arrival date is preserved. If you would like to use the date in the Date
- header that is possible. Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near
- the bottom of the rule definition.
-
- A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before yesterday, and so
- on.
-
- Size Interval
-
- The "Size Interval" may be set to an interval of message sizes which should
- be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if it is unset
- it will be ignored. The Size Interval looks like
-
- (min_size,max_size)
-
- where "min_size" and "max_size" are integers greater than or equal to zero.
- The special value "INF" may be used for the max value. It represents
- infinity.
-
- Actually, this option may be defined as a list of intervals instead of just
- a single interval. The list is separated by commas. It can look like
-
- (min_size1,max_size1),(min_size2,max_size2),...
-
- When there is a Size Interval defined, it is a match if the size, in bytes,
- of the message is contained in any of the intervals. The intervals include
- both endpoints.
-
- Score Interval
-
- The "Score Interval" may be set to an interval of message scores which
- should be considered a match. Like the other parts of the Pattern, if it is
- unset it will be ignored. The Score Interval looks like
-
- (min_score,max_score)
-
- where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000 and 32000. The
- special values "-INF" and "INF" may be used for the min and max values to
- represent negative and positive infinity.
-
- Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list would look
- like
-
- (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
-
- When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the score for the
- message is contained in any of the intervals in the list. The intervals
- include the endpoints. The score for a message is calculated by looking at
- every Score rule defined and adding up the Score Values for the ones which
- match the message. When deciding whether or not a Pattern matches a message
- for purposes of calculating the score, the Score Interval is ignored.
-
- Message Status
-
- There are five separate message status settings. By default, all five are
- set to the value "Don't care", which will match any message. The value "Yes"
- means that the particular status must be true for a match, and the value
- "No" means that the particular status must not be true for a match. For
- example, one of the five Message Status settings is whether a message is
- marked Important or not. A "Yes" means that the message must be Important to
- be considered a match and "No" means that the message must not be Important
- to be considered a match. The same is true of the other four message status
- settings which depend on whether or not the message is New; whether the
- message has been Answered or not; whether the message has been Deleted or
- not, and whether the message is Recent or not.
-
- The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
-
- New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your mailbox for
- a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is still considered New.
- That matches the default _Alpine_ index display that shows an N for such a
- message.
-
- Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the last time
- you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by default for these types
- of messages. If you were to run two copies of _Alpine_ that opened a folder
- one right after the other, a message would only show up as Recent in (at
- most) the first _Alpine_ session.
-
- Message Keywords
-
- Keywords are similar to Message Status, but they are chosen by the user.
- Provided the mail server allows for it, you may add a set of possible
- keywords to a folder and then you may set those keywords or not for each
- message in the folder. The syntax of this part of the Pattern is similar to
- the header patterns. It is a list of keywords. The Keyword part of the
- Pattern is a match if the message has any of the keywords in the list set.
- Like other parts of the Pattern, if this is unset it will be ignored.
-
- Message Character Set
-
- A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the Pattern
- matches messages which make use of one or more of the character sets
- specified in the pattern. It will be considered a match if a message uses
- any of the character sets in the list you give here. The syntax of this part
- of the Pattern is similar to the header patterns and the Message Keywords
- pattern. It is a list of character sets.
-
- Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7, KOI8-R, or
- GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that _Alpine_ provides. These
- names are more understandable shorthand names for sets of character set
- names. Two examples are "Cyrillic" and "Greek". Selecting one of these
- shorthand names is equivalent to selecting all of the character sets that
- make up the set. You can see all of these shorthand names and the lists of
- character sets they stand for by typing the "T" command with the Character
- Set pattern highlighted. The Character Set part of the Pattern is a match if
- the message uses any of the character sets in the list. Like other parts of
- the Pattern, if this is unset it will be ignored.
-
- Raw 8-bit in Subject
-
- It seems that lots of unwanted email contains unencoded 8-bit characters in
- the Subject. Normally, characters with the 8th bit set are not allowed in
- the Subject header unless they are MIME-encoded. This option gives you a way
- to match messages which have Subjects which contain unencoded 8-bit
- characters. Setting this option will affect performance in large folders
- because the subject of each message in the folder has to be checked.
-
- Beginning of Month
-
- This option gives you a way to take some action once per month. The value
- "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been run this
- month in order to count as a match,
-
- Beginning of Year
-
- This option gives you a way to take some action once per year. The value
- "Yes" means that this must be the first time _Alpine_ has been run this year
- in order to count as a match,
-
- From or Reply-To address in Address Books
-
- This option gives you a way to match messages which have a From or a
- Reply-To address which is in one of your address books. Only the simple
- entries in your address books are searched. Address book distribution lists
- are ignored! Setting this option will affect performance in large folders
- because the From and Reply-To of each message in the folder have to be
- checked.
-
- Categorizer Command
-
- This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the message
- being checked and its standard output discarded. The full directory path
- should be specified. The command will be run and then its exit status will
- be checked against the Exit Status Interval, which defaults to just the
- value zero. If the exit status of the command falls in the interval, it is
- considered a match, otherwise it is not a match.
-
- This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one that exists
- and is executable is used. That makes it possible to use the same
- configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
-
- If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable then the rule
- is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the command may not exist, you
- should be careful to structure your rules so that nothing destructive
- happens when the command does not exist. For example, you might have a
- filter that filters away spam when there is a match but does nothing when
- there is not a match. That would continue to work correctly if the command
- didn't exist. However, if you have a filter which filters away spam when
- there is not a match and keeps it when there is a match, that would filter
- everything if the categorizer command didn't exist.
-
- Help Configuring Pattern Fields
-
- _Nickname_
- This is a nickname to help you. You should have a different nickname
- for each role you define. The nickname will be used in the SETUP ROLE
- RULES screen to allow you to pick a role to edit. It will also be
- used when you send a message to let you know you are sending with a
- different role than you use by default, and it will be useful for
- choosing a role when composing with the Role command or when
- composing with one of the Role Uses set to With Confirmation. This
- field is not used in the outgoing message.
- _Comment_
- This is a comment to help you. This comment does not play any
- functional role, it is simply an optional comment to help you
- remember what the rule is for.
- _To pattern_
- If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be considered a
- match, at least one of the recipients from the To line of the message
- being replied to or forwarded must match this pattern. In the case of
- the Compose command, this pattern and the other header patterns are
- ignored. If this pattern is a list of patterns, then at least one of
- the recipients must match at least one of the patterns. (Any other
- non-blank parts of the Pattern must match, too.) If the message being
- replied to or forwarded has a Resent-To header line, then that is
- used in place of the To line. (Note that this special Resent rule
- only applies to the To header. The Resent-From, Resent-Subject, and
- so on are not consulted.)
- It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the To Pattern meaning with the "!"
- "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of the To pattern so
- that it has the opposite meaning. It will be considered a match if
- there are no matches between the addresses in the To: line and the
- list of To patterns.
- Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for the
- pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle" into the
- To pattern, the pattern will look like:
- To pattern = !frizzle
- This means you want to match the 8 character sequence "!frizzle". In
- order to match messages which do not have "frizzle" in their To
- field, first type the characters "frizzle" followed by carriage
- return for the value of the To pattern, then negate it by typing the
- "!" command. It should end up looking like
- ! To pattern = frizzle
- _From pattern_
- This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with the
- address from the From header of the message being replied to or
- forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
- _Sender pattern_
- This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with the
- address from the Sender header of the message being replied to or
- forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header. If there is no
- Sender header, then the From header is used instead.
- _Cc pattern_
- This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with the
- address from the CC header of the message being replied to or
- forwarded instead of the addresses from the To header.
- _News pattern_
- If this pattern is non-blank, then for this role to be considered a
- match, at least one of the newsgroups from the Newsgroups line of the
- message must match this pattern. If this pattern is a list of
- patterns, then at least one of the newsgroups must match at least one
- of the patterns. (Any other non-blank parts of the Pattern must
- match, too.)
- _Subject pattern_
- This is similar to the other header patterns. It is compared with the
- contents from the Subject of the message being replied to or
- forwarded.
- If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search will
- be done using the character set you have defined with the
- Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated may
- use an alternate character set for a search by entering the MIME
- encoding of the header string here.)
- _Extra header patterns_
- There isn't actually a field called Extra header patterns, but you
- may add extra header patterns by moving the cursor to one of the
- header patterns and using the "eXtraHdr" command to add a new header
- pattern. You would do this if the six predefined header patterns
- don't cover the header you want to use for pattern matching. Once
- you've added an extra header pattern, you use it just like the
- Subject pattern. Of course, it is compared with the contents from the
- particular header field of the message being replied to or forwarded
- rather than the contents from the subject field. To remove an extra
- header pattern from a role, use the &quotRemoveHdr" command on the
- highlighted extra header.
- If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search will
- be done using the character set you have defined with the
- Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated may
- use an alternate character set for a search by entering the MIME
- encoding of the header string here.)
- _Recipient pattern_
- This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with the
- addresses from both the To header and the Cc header instead of just
- the addresses from the To header. It's equivalent to having two
- different rules; one with a To pattern and the other with the same Cc
- pattern.
- _Participant pattern_
- This is just like the To pattern except that it is compared with the
- addresses from the To header, the Cc header, and the From header
- instead of just the addresses from the To header. It's equivalent to
- having three different rules; one with a To pattern, another with the
- same Cc pattern, and another with the same From pattern.
- _AllText pattern_
- This is similar to the header patterns. Instead of comparing with
- text in a particular header field it is compared with all of the text
- in the message header and body.
- If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search will
- be done using the character set you have defined with the
- Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated may
- use an alternate character set for a search by entering the MIME
- encoding of the header string here.)
- _BodyText pattern_
- Just like AllText, except it is compared only with the body of the
- message, not the body and header.
- If you enter non-ascii characters in this field then the search will
- be done using the character set you have defined with the
- Character-Set configuration variable. (The truly sophisticated may
- use an alternate character set for a search by entering the MIME
- encoding of the header string here.)
- _Age Interval_
- The Age Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you use
- this, it should be set to something like:
-
- (min_age,max_age)
- where "min_age" and "max_age" are non-negative integers. The special
- value "INF" may be used for the max value. It represents infinity.
- In rare cases it may be useful to use the more general form of the
- value, which is a comma-separated list of intervals. It would look
- something like:
-
- (min_age1,max_age1),(min_age2,max_age2),...
- When there is an Age Interval defined, it is a match if the age, in
- days, of the message is contained in the interval. The interval
- includes both endpoints. If the option is set to a list of intervals
- then it is a match if the age of the message is contained in any of
- the intervals.
- Even though this option is called Age, it isn't actually the _age_ of
- the message. Instead, it is how many days ago the message arrived in
- one of your folders. If the current time is a little past midnight,
- then a message that arrived just before midnight arrived yesterday,
- even though the message is only a few minutes old. By default, the
- date being used is not the date in the Date header of the message. It
- is the date that the message arrived in one of your folders. When you
- Save a message from one folder to another that arrival date is
- preserved. If you would like to use the date in the Date header that
- is possible. Turn on the option _use-date-header-for-age_ near the
- bottom of the rule definition.
- A value of 0 is today, 1 is yesterday, 2 is the day before yesterday,
- and so on. The age interval
-
- (2,2)
- matches all messages that arrived on the day before yesterday. The
- interval
-
- (180,INF)
- matches all messages that arrived at least 180 days before today. The
- interval
-
- (0,1)
- matches all messages that arrived today or yesterday.
- _Score Interval_
- The Score Interval, if defined, is part of the Pattern. If you use
- this, it should be set to something like:
-
- (min_score,max_score)
- where "min_score" and "max_score" are integers between -32000 and
- 32000. The special values "-INF" and "INF" can be used for the min
- and max values. These represent negative and positive infinity.
- Actually, the value may be a list of intervals rather than just a
- single interval if that is useful. The elements of the list are
- separated by commas like:
-
- (min_score1,max_score1),(min_score2,max_score2),...
- When there is a Score Interval defined, it is a match if the score
- for the message is contained in any of the intervals. The intervals
- include both endpoints. The score for a message is calculated by
- looking at every scoring rule defined and adding up the Score Values
- for the rules which match the message.
- _Keyword pattern_
- A folder may have user-defined keywords. These are similar to the
- Important flag which the user may set using the Flag command. The
- difference is that the Important flag is always present for each
- folder. User-defined keywords are picked by the user. You may add new
- keywords by defining them in the Keywords option in the Setup/Config
- screen. After you have added a potential keyword with the Keywords
- option, the Flag command may be used to set or clear the keyword on
- individual messages. If you have given a keyword a nickname when
- configuring it, that nickname may be used instead of the actual
- keyword.
- When filling in a value for this field, it may be easiest to use the
- "T" command, which presents you with a list of the keywords you have
- defined to choose from.
- This part of the Pattern matches messages with certain keywords set.
- It will be considered a match if a message has any of the keywords in
- the list set.
- It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Keyword Pattern meaning with the
- "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of the Keyword
- pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will be considered a
- match if none of the keywords in the list are set for a message.
- Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for the
- pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!frizzle" into the
- Keyword pattern, the pattern will look like:
- Keyword pattern = !frizzle
- This means you want to match the 8 character sequence "!frizzle". In
- order to match messages which do not have the keyword "frizzle" set,
- first type the characters "frizzle" followed by carriage return for
- the value of the Keyword pattern, then negate it by typing the "!"
- command. It should end up looking like
- ! Keyword pattern = frizzle
- _Character Set pattern_
- A message may use one or more character sets. This part of the
- Pattern matches messages which make use of certain specified
- character sets. It will be considered a match if a message uses any
- of the character sets in the list you give here.
- When filling in a value for this field, you may use the "T" command,
- which presents you with a large list of possible character sets to
- choose from. You may also just type in the name of a character set,
- and it need not be one that Alpine knows about.
- Besides actual character set names (for example, ISO-8859-7, KOI8-R,
- or GB2312) you may also use some shorthand names that Alpine
- provides. These names are more understandable shorthand names for
- sets of character set names. Two examples are "Cyrillic" and "Greek".
- Selecting one of these shorthand names is equivalent to selecting all
- of the character sets that make up the set. You can see all of these
- shorthand names and the lists of character sets they stand for by
- typing the "T" command.
- For the purposes of this Pattern, _Alpine_ will search through a
- message for all of the text parts and collect the character sets
- declared for each part. It will also look in the Subject line for a
- character set used there. _Alpine_ does not actually look at the text
- of the message or the text of the Subject to determine if a declared
- character set is actually used, it looks only at the declarations
- themselves in the MIME part headers and in the Subject.
- It is possible to add a _NOT_ to the Character Set Pattern meaning
- with the "!" "toggle NOT" command. This changes the meaning of the
- Character Set pattern so that it has the opposite meaning. It will be
- considered a match if none of the character sets in the list are used
- in a message.
- Don't make the mistake of putting the "!" in the data field for the
- pattern. For example, if you type the characters "!GB2312" into the
- Character Set pattern, the pattern will look like:
- Charset pattern = !GB2312
- This means you want to match the 7 character sequence "!GB2312". In
- order to match messages which do not have the character set "GB2312"
- set, first type the characters "GB2312" followed by carriage return
- for the value of the Character Set pattern, then negate it by typing
- the "!" command. It should end up looking like
- ! Charset pattern = GB2312
- A technicality: Since comma is the character used to separate
- multiple values in a pattern field, you have to escape comma with a
- backslash (\) if you want to include a literal comma in the field. In
- other words, if you type a backslash followed by a comma it will be
- interpreted as a comma by _Alpine_, instead of as a separator between
- pattern values. All other backslashes are literal backslashes and
- should not be escaped.
- _Current Folder Type_
- The Current Folder Type is part of the Pattern. It refers to the type
- of the currently open folder, which is the folder you were last
- looking at from the MESSAGE INDEX or MESSAGE TEXT screen. In order
- for a pattern to be considered a match, the current folder must be of
- the type you set here. The three types "Any", "News", and "Email" are
- all what you might think.
- If the Current Folder Type for a Pattern is set to "News", for
- example, then that will only be a match if the current folder is a
- newsgroup and the rest of the Pattern matches. The value "Specific"
- may be used when you want to limit the match to a specific folder
- (not just a specific type of folder), or to a list of specific
- folders. In order to match a specific folder you must Select the
- "Specific" button _AND_ you must fill in the name (or list of names)
- of the folder in the "Folder" field. If the current folder is any of
- the folders in the list, that is considered a match. The name of each
- folder in the list may be either "INBOX", the technical specification
- of the folder (like what appears in your configuration file) or, if
- the folder is one of your incoming folders, it may be the nickname
- you've given the folder. Here are a couple samples of specific folder
- names:
-
- {monet.art.example.com}mail/art-class
-
- {news.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine
- The easiest way to fill in the "Folder" field is to use the T command
- which is available when the "Folder" line is hilighted. Note that you
- won't be able to edit the "Folder" line unless the Current Folder
- Type is set to "Specific", and any value that "Folder" has is ignored
- unless the type is set to "Specific".
- When reading a newsgroup, there may be a performance penalty incurred
- when collecting the information necessary to check a Pattern. For
- this reason, the default Current Folder Type is set to "Email". For
- example, a role with a non-Normal Index Line Color and a Current
- Folder Type of "Any" or "News" may cause the MESSAGE INDEX screen to
- draw more slowly when in a newsgroup.
- _Message Status Important_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the message must be flagged
- "Important" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the message
- must _not_ be flagged "Important" in order to be considered a match.
- _Message Status New_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the message must be "New" in order
- to be a match; or "No", which means the message must _not_ be "New"
- in order to be a match. "New" is the same as _Unseen_ and not "New"
- is the same as _Seen_.
- The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
- New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
- mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is still
- considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index display that
- shows an N for such a message.
- Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the last
- time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by default for
- these types of messages. If you were to run two copies of _Alpine_
- that opened a folder one right after the other, a message would only
- show up as Recent in (at most) the first _Alpine_ session.
- _Message Status Recent_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the message must be "Recent" in
- order to be a match; or "No", which means the message must _not_ be
- "Recent" in order to be a match. "Recent" means that the message was
- added to the folder since the last time the folder was opened. If
- more than one mail client has the folder opened, the message will
- appear to be "Recent" to only one of the clients.
- The nomenclature for New and Recent is a bit confusing:
- New means that the message is Unseen. It could have been in your
- mailbox for a long time but if you haven't looked at it, it is still
- considered New. That matches the default _Alpine_ index display that
- shows an N for such a message.
- Recent means that the message was added to this folder since the last
- time you opened the folder. _Alpine_ also shows an N by default for
- these types of messages. If you were to run two copies of _Alpine_
- that opened a folder one right after the other, a message would only
- show up as Recent in (at most) the first _Alpine_ session.
- _Message Status Deleted_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the message must be marked
- "Deleted" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the message
- must _not_ be marked "Deleted" in order to be a match.
- If you are thinking of using this part of the Pattern as a way to
- prevent messages from being filtered more than once in a Filter
- Pattern, take a look at the Filter Option "move-only-if-not-deleted"
- instead. It should work better than using this field since it will
- hide the filtered messages even if they are already Deleted.
- _Message Status Answered_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the message must be marked
- "Answered" in order to be a match; or "No", which means the message
- must _not_ be marked "Answered" in order to be a match.
- _Subject Contains Raw 8-bit_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means the Subject of the message must
- contain unencoded 8-bit characters (characters with the most
- significant bit set) in order to be a match; or "No", which means the
- Subject must _not_ contain unencoded 8-bit characters in order to be
- a match.
- _Beginning of Month_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means this is the first time _Alpine_ has
- been run this month; or "No", which means this is _not_ the first
- time _Alpine_ has been run this month. The way that _Alpine_ decides
- if it is the beginning of the month or not is to compare today's date
- with the date stored in the Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in
- the config file. If the month of today's date is later than the month
- stored in the variable, then this is considered to be the first time
- you have run Alpine this month, and that turns the Beginning of the
- Month option on.
- _Beginning of Year_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of three possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The other
- two values are "Yes", which means this is the first time _Alpine_ has
- been run this year; or "No", which means this is _not_ the first time
- _Alpine_ has been run this year. The way that _Alpine_ decides if it
- is the beginning of the year or not is to compare today's date with
- the date stored in the Last-Time-Prune-Questioned variable in the
- config file. If the year of today's date is later than the year
- stored in the variable, then this is considered to be the first time
- you have run Alpine this year, and that turns the Beginning of the
- Year option on.
- _From or Reply-To in Address Book_
- This part of the Pattern may have one of five possible values. The
- default value is "Don't care", which matches any message. The value
- "Yes, in any address book" means either the From address or the
- Reply-To address of the message must be in at least one of your
- address books in order to be a match. The value "No, not in any
- address book" means neither the From nor the Reply-To addresses may
- be in any of your address books in order to be a match.
- The values "Yes, in specific address books" and "No, not in any of
- specific address books" are similar but instead of depending on all
- address books you are allowed to give a list of address books to look
- in. Usually this would be a single address book but it may be a list
- of address books as well. For each of these "specific" address book
- options you Select which of the Specific options you want (Yes or No)
- _AND_ fill in the name (or list of names) of the address book in the
- "Abook List" field. The names to be used are those that appear in the
- ADDRESS BOOK LIST screen. The easiest way to fill in the Abook List
- field it to use the "T" command which is available when the "Abook
- List" line is highlighted. Note that you won't be able to edit the
- "Abook List" line unless the option is set to one of the two
- "Specific", values.
- _Categorizer Command_
- This is a command that is run with its standard input set to the
- message being checked and its standard output discarded. The full
- directory path should be specified. The command will be run and then
- its exit status will be checked against the _Exit Status Interval_,
- which defaults to just the value zero. If the exit status of the
- command falls in the interval, it is considered a match, otherwise it
- is not a match.
- This option may actually be a list of commands. The first one that
- exists and is executable is used. That makes it possible to use the
- same configuration with Unix _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_.
- If none of the commands in the list exists and is executable then the
- rule is _not_ a match. If it is possible that the command may not
- exist, you should be careful to structure your rules so that nothing
- destructive happens when the command does not exist. For example, you
- might have a filter that filters away spam when there is a match but
- does nothing when there is not a match. That would continue to work
- correctly if the command didn't exist. However, if you have a filter
- which filters away spam when there is not a match and keeps it when
- there is a match, that would filter everything if the categorizer
- command didn't exist.
- The categorizer command is run and the result is the exit status of
- that command. If that exit status falls in the _Exit Status Interval_
- then it is considered a match, otherwise it is not a match. Of course
- for the entire rule to match, it must also be checked against the
- other defined parts of the Pattern.
- The _Exit Status Interval_ defaults to the single value 0 (zero). If
- you define it, it should be set to something like:
-
- (min_exit_value,max_exit_value)
- where "min_exit_value" and "max_exit_value" are integers. The special
- values "INF" and "-INF" may be used for large positive and negative
- integers.
- Actually, a list of intervals may be used if you wish. A list would
- look like
-
- (min_exit_value1,max_exit_value1),(min_exit_value2,max_exit_value2),...
- When there is an _Exit Status Interval_ defined, it is a match if the
- exit status of the categorizer command is contained in any of the
- intervals. The intervals include both endpoints.
- The default interval is
-
- (0,0)
- and it matches only if the command exits with exit status equal to
- zero.
- It is also possible to set a _Character Limit_ for the categorizer
- command. Setting this option makes it possible to limit how much of
- the message is made available to the categorizer command as input.
- The default value (-1) means that the entire message is fed to the
- command. A value of 0 (zero) means that only the headers of the
- message are made available. A positive integer means that the headers
- plus that many characters from the body of the message are passed to
- the categorizer.
-
-Configuring News
-
- _Alpine_ can access news folders in any one of three different ways:
-
- REMOTE NNTP
- Using the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) to access news on a
- remote news server. In this case the newsrc file is stored on the
- machine where _Alpine_ is running.
-
- To specify a remote news-collection accessed via NNTP use the
- SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server: value to
- the NNTP server's hostname appended with the communication method
- "/service=NNTP", and set the Path: value to the "#news." namespace
- (without the quotes).
-
- Instead of specifying a news-collection, you may simply set the
- nntp-server option, which will cause _Alpine_ to create a default
- news-collection for you. Another NNTP option which may be of interest
- is nntp-range.
-
- REMOTE IMAP
- Using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to access news on a
- remote news server. In this case, your newsrc file is stored on the
- news server, in your home directory, so you must have an account on
- the news server, but you would be running _Alpine_ on a different
- machine. The news server must be running an IMAPd server process.
-
- To specify a remote news-collection accessed via IMAP use the
- SETUP/collectionList screen's "Add" command. Set the Server: value to
- the IMAP server's hostname, and set the Path: value to the "#news."
- namespace (without the quotes).
-
- LOCAL
- Using local file access to the news database. In this case, your
- newsrc file is stored on the news server, in your home directory, so
- you must have an account on the news server, and you would be running
- _Alpine_ on the same machine.
-
- To specify a local news-collection use the SETUP/collectionList
- screen's "Add" command. Leave the Server: value blank, and set the
- Path: value to the "#news." namespace (without the quotes).
-
- NOTE: Should no news-collection be defined as above, _Alpine_ will
- automatically create one using the Setup/Config screen's "nntp-server"
- variable's value if defined. The collection will be created as a "Remote
- NNTP" as described above.
-
- If you are a _PC-Alpine_ user, either option 1 (NNTP) or option 2 (IMAP) is
- possible. If you don't have an account on the news server, or if the news
- server is not running an IMAP daemon, then you must use NNTP. (If you are
- not sure, ask your service provider, university, or company for help.) In
- this case, your Unix .newsrc file can be transferred to your PC. A good
- place to put it would be in the same directory as your PINERC file, under
- the name NEWSRC, but you can specify a different location.
-
- Other configuration features related to news are Enable-8bit-Nntp-Posting.
- Compose-Sets-Newsgroup-Without-Confirm, News-Approximates-New-Status,
- News-Deletes-Across-Groups, News-Offers-Catchup-On-Close,
- News-Post-Without-Validation, News-Read-in-Newsrc-Order, and
- Quell-Extra-Post-Prompt.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Notes on Configuration and Preferences
-
-Alpine in Function Key Mode
-
- The standard _Alpine_ uses alphabetic keys for most commands, and control
- keys in the composer. Despite possible appearances, the current bindings are
- the result of much discussion and thought. All the commands in the composer
- are single control characters. This keeps things very neat and simple for
- users. Two character commands in the composer are a possibility, but we're
- trying to avoid them because of the added complexity for the user.
-
- _Alpine_ can also operate in a function-key mode. To go into this mode
- invoke _alpine -k_ or (on some UNIX systems) _alpinef._ On a UNIX system,
- you can link or copy the _Alpine_ executable to _alpinef_ to install
- _alpinef._ Alternatively, users and systems administrators can set the
- _use-function-keys_ feature in the personal or system-wide _Alpine_
- configuration file. The command menus at the bottom of the screen will show
- _F1-F12 _instead of the alphabetic commands. In addition, the help screens
- will be written in terms of function keys and not alphabetic keys.
-
- One of the results of using _Alpine_ in function-key mode is that users can
- only choose from twelve commands at any given time. In alphabetic-key mode,
- a user can press a key for a command (say, q to quit) and that command can
- be fulfilled. In function-key mode, the command must be visible on the
- bottom key-menu in order to be used. There are some screens where four
- screens of commands are operational; function-key users can get to all of
- them, just not all at once.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Domain Settings
-
- _Alpine_ uses the default domain for a few different tasks. First, it is
- tacked onto the user-id for outgoing email. Second, it is tacked onto all
- "local" (unqualified) addresses in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields of messages
- being composed (unless they are found in the address book or on an LDAP
- server). The domain name is also used to generate message-id lines for each
- outgoing message and to allow _Alpine_ to check if an address is that of the
- current _Alpine_ user.
-
- _Alpine_ determines the domain name according to whichever of these it
- finds. The list here is in decreasing order of precedence.
- 1. Value of the variable user-domain in the system fixed configuration file
- 2. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the personal configuration file
- 3. Value of the variable _user-domain_ in the system-wide configuration
- file
- 4. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified by a
- system fixed configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to _yes_
- 5. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified by a
- personal configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to _yes_
- 6. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified by a
- system configuration file if _use-only-domain-name_ set to _yes_
- 7. Unmodified value (host name) from an external database
-
- The easiest way for this system to work is for _PC-Alpine_ users and UNIX
- _Alpine_ system administrators to set the _user-domain_ variable. The
- variable _use-only-domain-name_ is helpful if your site supports/requires
- hostless addressing, but for some reason you don't want to use the
- _user-domain_ variable.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Syntax for Collections
-
- In many environments, it is quite common to have collections of archived
- mail on various hosts around the network. Using the folder collections
- facility in _Alpine_, access to these archives is just as simple as access
- to folders on _Alpine_'s local disk.
-
- "Collection" is the word we use in _Alpine_ to describe a set of folders. A
- collection corresponds loosely to a "directory" containing mail folders.
- Folders within a defined collection can be manipulated (opened, saved-to,
- etc) using just their simple name. Any number of folder collections can be
- defined, and _Alpine_ will adjust its menus and prompts to help navigate
- them.
-
- The way collections are defined in _Alpine_ is with the folder-collections
- variable in the _Alpine_ configuration file. _Folder-collections_ takes a
- list of one or more collections, each (optionally) preceded by a
- user-defined logical name (label). Once collections are defined, _Alpine_
- adjusts its menus and behavior to allow choosing files by their simple name
- within the collection.
-
- Consider the following:
- folder-collections= Local-Mail C:\MAIL\[],
- Remote-Mail {imap.u.example.edu}mail/[]
-
- The example shows two collections defined (a comma separated list; newlines
- in the list are OK if there's one or more spaces before the next entry), one
- local and one remote. Each collection is a space-delimited pair of
- elements-first an optional logical-name and second the collection specifier.
- The logical-name can have spaces if it has quotes around it (but keeping the
- logical name short and descriptive works best). _Alpine_ will use the
- logical-name (if provided) to reference all folders in the collection, so
- the user never has to see the ugliness of the collection specifier.
-
- The collection specifier can be thought of as an extended IMAP format (see
- the Remote Folders section for a description of IMAP format names).
- Basically, a pair of square-brackets are placed in the fully qualified IMAP
- path where the simple folder name (the part without the host name and path)
- would appear. Like IMAP, the path can be either fully qualified (i.e., with
- a leading '/') or relative to your home directory.
-
- An advanced feature of this notation is that a pattern within the square
- brackets allows the user to define a collection to be a subset of a
- directory. For example, a collection defined with the specifier:
- M-Mail C:MAIL/[m*]
-
- will provide a view in the folder lister of all folders in the PC's "C:MAIL"
- directory that start with the letter 'm' (case insensitive under DOS, of
- course). Further, the wildcard matching will honor characters trailing the
- '*' in the pattern.
-
- From within _Alpine_, the "Folder List" display will be adjusted to allow
- browsing of the folders in any defined collection. Even more, you'll notice
- in the _Goto_ and _Save_ commands a pair of sub-commands to rotate through
- the list of logical collection names, so only a simple name need be input in
- order to operate on a folder in any collection.
-
- The first collection specified in the _folder-collections_ has special
- significance. That folder is the "default collection for saves". By default,
- in cases where the user does not specify which collection should be used to
- _Save_ a message, the default collection for saves will be used. Also, if the
- default-fcc is a relative file name, then it is relative to the default
- collection for saves. (See also saved-msg-name-rule.
-
- The notion of collections encompasses both email folders and news reading.
- The variable news-collections uses nearly the same format as
- _folder-collections_. Newsgroups can be defined for convenient access via
- either IMAP or NNTP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both access
- methods. In the IMAP case, your news environment state is maintained on the
- server and, thus, will be seen by any client. The downside is that, at the
- moment, you must have an account on the server. In the NNTP case, server
- access is mostly anonymous and no state/accounting need be maintained on it.
- The downside is that each client, for now, must individually maintain news
- environment state.
-
- An example pinerc entry might be:
- news-collections= Remote-State {news.u.example.edu}#news.[],
- Local-State {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[]
-
- Only newsgroups to which you are subscribed are included in the collection.
-
- The pattern matching facility can be applied so as to define a news
- collection which is a subset of all the newsgroups you subscribe to. For
- example, this could be a valid collection:
- Newsfeed-News {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[clari.*
-]
-
- Collection handling is a tough problem to solve in a general way, and the
- explanation of the syntax is a bit ugly. The upside is, hopefully, that for
- a little complexity in the _Alpine_ configuration file you get simple
- management of multiple folders in diverse locations.
-
- Collection setup is handled by the _Setup/collectionList_ screen.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Syntax for Folder Names
-
- Remote folders are distinguished from local folders by a leading host name
- bracketed by '{' and '}'. The path and folder name immediately following the
- closing bracket, '}', is interpreted by the remote server and is in a form
- compatible with that server (i.e., path delimiters and naming syntax
- relative to that server).
-
- The full syntax for a _Alpine_ folder name looks like
-
- [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>]<namespace-specific-part>
-
- The square brackets ([]) mean that the part is optional.
-
- If there is no remote-specification, then the folder name is interpreted
- locally on the computer running _Alpine_. Local folder names depend on the
- operating system used by the computer running _Alpine_, as well as the
- configuration of that system. For example, "C:\ALPINE\FOLDERS\OCT-94" might
- exist on a PC, and "~/mail/september-1994" might be a reasonable folder name
- on a system running Unix.
-
- _Alpine_ users have the option of using folders which are stored on some
- other computer. _Alpine_ accesses remote folders via IMAP (the Internet
- Message Access Protocol), or in the case of news, via NNTP (the Network News
- Transport Protocol). To be able to access remote folders in _Alpine_, the
- remote host must be running the appropriate server software (imapd or nntpd)
- and you must correctly specify the name of the folder to _Alpine_, including
- the domain name of the remote machine. For example,
-
- {monet.art.example.com}INBOX
-
- could be a remote folder specification, and so could
-
- {unixhost.art.example.com}~/mail/september-1994
-
- and
-
- {winhost.art.example.com}\mymail\SEP-94
-
- Note that in the case of remote folders, the directory/file path in the
- specification is determined by the operating system of the remote computer,
- _not_ by the operating system of the computer on which you are running
- _Alpine_.
-
- As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed
- immediately by the name of the folder. (In each of these cases the optional
- namespace is missing.) If, as in these examples, there is no remote access
- protocol specified, then IMAP is assumed. Check Server Name Syntax for a
- more detailed look at what options can be placed between the brackets. If
- there are no brackets at all, then the folder name is interpreted locally on
- the computer on which you are running _Alpine_.
-
- To the right of the brackets when a server name is present, or at the start
- of the foldername if no server is present, the sharp sign, "#", holds
- special meaning. It indicates a folder name outside the area reserved for
- your personal folders. In fact, it's used to indicate both the name of the
- folder, and a special phrase telling _Alpine_ how to interpret the name that
- follows.
-
- So, for example, _Alpine_ can be used to access a newsgroup that might be
- available on your computer using:
-
- #news.comp.mail.pine
-
- The sharp sign indicates the folder name is outside your personal folder
- area. The "news." phrase after it tells _Alpine_ to interpret the remainder
- of the name as a newsgroup.
-
- Similarly, to access a newsgroup on your IMAP server, you might use
- something like:
-
- {wharhol.art.example.com}#news.comp.mail.misc
-
- There are a number of such special phrases (or "namespaces") available. For
- a more detailed explanation read about Namespaces.
-
- Note that "INBOX" has special meaning in both local and remote folder names.
- The name INBOX refers to your "principal incoming message folder" and will
- be mapped to the actual file name used for your INBOX on any given host.
- Therefore, a name like "{xxx.art.example.com}INBOX" refers to whatever file
- is used to store incoming mail for you on that particular host.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Server Name Syntax
-
- This section describes the syntax which may be used for server names which
- may be associated with remote folders or SMTP servers.
-
- A server name is the hostname of the server. It's a good idea to use the
- host's fully-qualified network name.
-
- foo.example.com
-
- However, IP addresses are allowed if surrounded with square-brackets.
-
- [127.0.0.1]
-
- An optional network port number may be supplied by appending a colon (:)
- followed by the port number to the server name. By default, the IMAP port
- number, 143, is used.
-
- foo.example.com:port
-
- Besides server name and optional port number, various other optional
- parameters may be supplied that alter _Alpine_'s interaction with the
- server. A parameter is supplied by appending a slash (/) character followed
- by the parameter's name and, depending on the particular parameter, the
- value assigned to that name, to the server name (and optional port number).
- Parameter names are _not_ case sensitive. Currently supported parameters
- include:
-
- User
- This parameter requires an associated value, and is intended to
- provide the username identifier with which to establish the server
- connection. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH authentication,
- adding this parameter to the SMTP-Server option will cause _Alpine_
- to attempt to authenticate to the server using the supplied username.
- Similarly, if your NNTP server offers NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or
- "AUTHINFO USER" authentication, adding this parameter to the
- NNTP-Server option (or to the server name for any folder collection
- using NNTP) will cause _Alpine_ to attempt to authenticate to the
- server using the supplied username. An example might be:
-
- /user=katie
-
- TLS
- Normally, when a new connection is made an attempt is made to
- negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using Transport Layer Security
- (TLS). If that fails then a non-encrypted connection will be
- attempted instead. This is a unary parameter indicating communication
- with the server must take place over a TLS connection. If the attempt
- to use TLS fails then this parameter will cause the connection to
- fail instead of falling back to an unsecure connection.
-
- /tls
-
- SSL
- This is a unary parameter indicating communication with the server
- should take place over a Secure Socket Layer connection. The server
- must support this method, and be prepared to accept connections on
- the appropriate port (993 by default). _Alpine_ must be linked with
- an SSL library for this option to be operational.
-
- /ssl
-
- NoValidate-Cert
- Do not validate certificates (for TLS or SSL connections) from the
- server. This is needed if the server uses self-signed certificates or
- if _Alpine_ cannot validate the certificate for some other known
- reason.
-
- Anonymous
- This is a unary parameter (that means it does not have a value)
- indicating that the connection be logged in as "anonymous" rather
- than a specific user. Not all servers offer anonymous access; those
- which do generally only offer read-only access to certain "public"
- folders.
-
- /anonymous
-
- Secure
- This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection use the most
- secure authentication method mutually supported by _Alpine_ and the
- server. _Alpine_ is capable of authenticating connections to the
- server using several methods. By default, _Alpine_ will attempt each
- method until either a connection is established or the list of
- methods is exhausted. This parameter causes _Alpine_ to instead fail
- the connection if the first (generally most "secure") method fails.
-
- /secure
-
- Submit
- This is a unary parameter for use with the "SMTP-Server" option. It
- indicates that the connection should be made to the Submit server
- (RFC 3676) (port 587) instead of the SMTP port (25). At the time this
- help was written the submit option was equivalent to specifying port
- 587.
-
- /submit
-
- or
-
- host:587
-
- Debug
- This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection be
- established in a verbose mode. Basically, it causes _Alpine_ to log
- the communication with the server in _Alpine_'s debug file. Normally,
- the alpine -d command-line flag would be used instead.
-
- NoRsh
- By default, _Alpine_ attempts to login using "rsh", the UNIX remote
- shell program. Including "NoRsh" will cause connections to this
- server to skip the "rsh" attempt. This might be useful to avoid long
- timeouts caused by rsh firewalls, for example.
-
- Service
- This parameter requires an associated value. The default value is
- "IMAP" which indicates communication with the server based on the
- IMAP4rev1 protocol (defined in RFC 3501 -- see
- http://www.imap.org/docs/rfc3501.html). Other service values include:
-
- NNTP
- This value indicates communication with the server takes place
- via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Use this to define a
- collection of newsgroups on a remote news server. So
-
- /service=NNTP
-
- or just
-
- /NNTP
-
- is the way to specify NNTP access.
-
- POP3
- This value indicates communication with the server takes place
- via the Post Office Protocol 3 protocol.
-
- /service=POP3
-
- or just
-
- /POP3
-
- Note that there are several important issues to consider when
- selecting this option:
-
- 1. POP3 provides access to only your INBOX. In other words,
- secondary folders such as your "saved-messages" are
- inaccessible.
- 2. _Alpine_'s implementation of POP3 does not follow the
- traditional POP model and will leave your mail on the server.
- Refer to the Mail Drop functionality for a possible way around
- this problem.
- 3. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
- Folder-Reopen-Rule.
-
- Note that it is possible to include more than one parameter in a server
- specification by concatenating the parameters. For example:
-
- foo.example.com:port/user=katie/novalidate-cert/debug
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Folder Namespaces
-
- A _Alpine_ folder name looks like
-
- [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>][<namespace-specific-part>]
-
- The local part of a folder name has an optional "Namespace" which tells
- _Alpine_ how to interpret the rest of the name.
-
- By default the folder name is interpreted as defining a section of your
- personal folder area. This area and how you specify it are defined by the
- server, if one is specified, or, typically, the home directory, if no server
- is defined.
-
- If a namespace is specified, it begins with the sharp, "#", character
- followed by the name of the namespace and then the namespace's
- path-element-delimiter. Aside from the path's format, namespaces can also
- imply access rights, content policy, audience, location, and, occasionally,
- access methods.
-
- Each server exports its own set (possibly of size one) of namespaces. Hence,
- it's likely communication with your server's administrator will be required
- for specific configurations. Some of the more common namespaces, however,
- include:
-
- #news.
- This specifies a set of folders in the newsgroup namespace. Newsgroup
- names are hierarchically defined with each level delimited by a
- period.
-
- #news.comp.mail.pine
-
- #public/
- This specifies a folder area that the server may export to the
- general public.
-
- #shared/
- This specifies a folder area that the folder may export to groups of
- users.
-
- #ftp/
- This specifies a folder area that is the same as that it may have
- exported via the "File Transfer Protocol".
-
- #mh/
- This specifies the personal folder area associated with folders and
- directories that were created using the MH message handling system.
-
- #move/
- This namespace is interpreted locally by _Alpine_. It has an unusual
- interpretation and format.
-
- #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
-
- The #move namespace is followed by two folder names separated by a
- delimiter character. The delimiter character may be any character
- which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name. The meaning of
- #move is that mail will be copied from the MailDropFolder to the
- DestinationFolder and then deleted (if possible) from the
- MailDropFolder. Periodic checks at frequency Mail-Check-Interval, but
- with a minimum time between checks set by MailDrop-Check-Minimum, are
- made for new mail arriving in the MailDropFolder. An example which
- copies mail from a POP inbox to a local folder follows
-
- #move+{popserver.example.com/pop3/ssl}inbox+local folder
-
- To you it appears that mail is being delivered to the local folder
- when it is copied from the MailDropFolder, and you read mail from the
- local folder.
-
- Note that if the DestinationFolder does not exist then the messages
- are not copied from the MailDropFolder. A #move folder may only be
- used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When you are in the FOLDER
- LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning on the
- enable-incoming-folders option) the Add command has a subcommand "Use
- Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the folder in your
- _Alpine_ configuration. The same is true when you edit the Inbox-Path
- option in Setup/Config. Each of these configuration methods will also
- create the DestinationFolder if it doesn't already exist. If you are
- having problems, make sure the DestinationFolder exists.
-
- In addition, the server may support access to other user's folders, provided
- you have suitable permissions. Common methods use a prefix of either
- "~user/", or "/user/" to indicate the root of the other user's folder area.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-What is a Mail Drop?
-
- In some situaions it may make sense to have your mail delivered to one
- folder (the Mail Drop) and then when you want to read mail that has been
- delivered to the Mail Drop folder _Alpine_ will move it to another
- destination folder. Often the Mail Drop will be a remote folder and messages
- will be moved from there to a local destination folder.
-
- One example where this might make sense is if the Mail Drop folder is
- accessible only with the POP protocol. You could designate your POP inbox as
- the Mail Drop folder and have _Alpine_ move mail from there to a local (on
- the same machine _Alpine_ is running on) destination folder, where you'll
- read it.
-
- A Mail Drop may only be used as your Inbox or as an Incoming folder.
-
- There is no attempt to synchronize the contents of the destination folder
- with the contents of the Mail Drop folder. All that happens is that all of
- the messages in the Mail Drop folder are copied to the destination folder
- and then they are deleted and expunged (if possible) from the Mail Drop
- folder. The next time a check for new mail is made, any messages in the Mail
- Drop folder are once again copied to the destination folder and deleted and
- expunged from the Mail Drop folder. (If the Mail Drop folder is a news
- group, then the messages can't be expunged from the newsgroup. Instead, only
- Recent messages are copied from the newsgroup to the destination folder.)
-
- Configuration of a Mail Drop is a little different from configuration of a
- folder which does not use a Mail Drop because you have to specify two folder
- names instead of one. The two folders may be any types of folders that
- _Alpine_ can normally use. They don't have to be a remote folder and a local
- folder, that is simply the most common usage. When you use a Mail Drop
- folder _Alpine_ will periodically re-open the Mail Drop to check for new
- mail. The new-mail checks will happen at the frequency set with the
- Mail-Check-Interval option, but with a minimum time (MailDrop-Check-Minimum)
- between checks. Because of this minimum you may notice that new mail does
- not appear promptly when you expect it. The reason for this is to protect
- the server from over-zealous opening and closing of the Mail Drop folder. If
- the user initiates the check by typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or the Next command when
- at the end of the folder index, then the check will happen, regardless of
- how long it has been since the previous check.
-
- If there is new mail, that mail will be copied to the destination folder and
- then will be deleted from the Mail Drop. Note that using a Mail Drop with a
- local destination folder does not make sense if you read mail from more than
- one machine, because the mail is downloaded to the destination folder (which
- is accessible from only one machine) and deleted from the Mail Drop.
-
- The feature Maildrops-Preserve-State modifies the operation of Mail Drops.
-
- The actual syntax used by _Alpine_ for a folder that uses a Mail Drop is:
-
- #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>
-
- The brackets are not literal.
-
- <DELIM>
-
- is a single character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name. If
- the name doesn't contain spaces then it can be a space character. The two
- folder names are full technical folder names as used by _Alpine_. Here are a
- couple examples to give you an idea what is being talked about:
-
- #move {popserver.example.com/pop3}inbox localfolder
-
- #move+{nntpserver.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine+local folder
-
- A #move folder may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When you
- are in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning on the
- Enable-Incoming-Folders option) the Add command has a subcommand "Use Mail
- Drop" which may be helpful for defining the folder in your _Alpine_
- configuration. The same is true when you edit the Inbox-Path option in
- Setup/Config.
- if it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure the
- DestinationFolder exists.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Sorting a Folder
-
- The mail index may be sorted by arrival, date, subject, from, size, score,
- to, or cc order. Each sort order can also be reversed. The _$_ command will
- prompt the user for the sort order. The sort order can also be specified on
- the command line with the _-sort_ flag or (equivalently) with the sort-key
- variable in the _pinerc_ file. When a user changes folders, the sort order
- will go back to the original sort order. The command line (_-sort_) or
- configuration file sort specification (_sort-key_) changes the original sort
- order.
-
- When a folder is sorted and new mail arrives in the folder it will be
- inserted in its properly sorted place. This can be a little odd when the
- folder is sorted by something like the subject. It can also be a little slow
- if you are viewing a large, sorted _INBOX_, since the _INBOX_ will have to
- be re-sorted whenever new mail arrives.
-
- The sorts are all independent of case and ignore leading or trailing white
- space. There are actually two forms of subject sort. One called _Subject_
- and the other called _OrderedSubj_. They both ignore "Re:" at the beginning
- and "(fwd)" at the end of the subjects. _Subject_ sorts all the subjects
- alphabetically. _OrderedSubj_ sorts by subjects alphabetically, groups
- messages with the same subject (pseudo-threads), then sorts the groups by
- the date of the first message of the group. Sorting by _Thread_ was added
- after _OrderedSubj_ and is usually a better method. Thread sorting uses
- information in the message headers References, Message-ID, and Subject. It
- is possible the sort will be slightly slower with a Thread sort than with an
- OrderedSubj sort. The sort by sender sorts by the user-id (part before the
- "@"), not the full name. The arrival sort is no sort at all and the date
- sort depends on the format of the date. Some dates are in strange formats
- and are unparsable. The time zone is also taken into account.
-
- Sorting large mail folders can be very slow since it requires fetching all
- the headers of the mail messages. With UNIX _Alpine_, only the first sort is
- slow since _Alpine_ keeps a copy of all the headers. One exception is
- sorting in reverse arrival order. This is fast because no headers have to be
- examined. _Alpine_ will show progress as it is sorting.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Alternate Editor
-
- In the _Alpine_ composer you can use any text editor, such as _vi_ or
- _emacs,_ for composing the message text. The addresses and subject still must
- be edited using the standard _Alpine_ composer. If you include the feature
- enable-alternate-editor-cmd in your _pinerc_ you can type _^__ while in the
- body of the message in the composer and be prompted for the editor. If you
- also set the editor variable in your _pinerc_ then _^__ will invoke the
- configured editor when you type it.
-
- Turning on the feature enable-alternate-editor-implicitly will automatically
- invoke the editor you have defined with the _editor_ variable whenever you
- enter the body of a message you are composing. For example, when you move
- out of the last header line and into the body of the message, the alternate
- editor will be automatically invoked.
-
- We know that many people would like to use the alternate editor to edit the
- mail header as well. We considered several designs for this and didn't come
- up with one that we liked and that was easy to implement. One of the main
- problems is that you lose access to the address book.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Signatures and Signature Placement
-
- If the file _~/.signature_ (UNIX) or _<PINERC_directory>\PINE.SIG (PC)
- exists, it will be included in all outgoing messages. It is included before
- composition starts so that the user has a chance to edit it out if he or she
- likes. The file name for the signature can be changed by setting the
- signature-file variable in the _pinerc_. If the feature enable-sigdashes is
- turned on then the line consisting of the three characters "-- " is
- prepended to the signature file. When Replying or Forwarding a message
- different signatures my be automatically included by configuring them in the
- Roles setup screen. It's easy to include different signatures by hand, by
- having multiple signature files (_.sig1, .sig2, .sig3, etc_) and choosing to
- include (^R in the composer) the correct one for the message being sent.
-
- _Alpine_'s default behavior encourages a user to put his or her contribution
- before the inclusion of the original text of the message being forwarded or
- replied to, This is contrary to some conventions, but makes the conversation
- more readable when a long original message is included in a reply for
- context. The reader doesn't have to scroll through the original text that he
- or she has probably already seen to find the new text. If the reader wishes
- to see the old message(s), the reader can scroll further into the message.
- Users who prefer to add their input at the end of a message should set the
- signature-at-bottom feature. The signature will then be appended to the end
- of the message after any included text. This feature applies when
- _Reply_ing, not when _Forward_ing.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Feature List Variable
-
- _Alpine_ used to have _feature levels_ for users with different amounts of
- experience. We found that this was too restrictive. _Alpine_ now has a
- feature-list instead. Each user may pick and choose which features they
- would like enabled (simple to do in the _Setup/Config_ screen). There is a
- short description of each in Configuration Features. There is also a short
- on-line help explaining the effect of each of the features in the
- _Setup/Config_ screen. When the cursor is highlighting a feature, the _?_
- command will show the help text for that feature. Features don't have
- values, they are just turned on or off. They are all off by default.
-
- The _feature-list_ variable is different from all other configuration
- variables in that its value is additive. That is, the system-wide
- configuration file can have some features turned on by default. The user can
- select other features in their personal configuration file and those
- features will be _added_ to the set of features turned on in the system-wide
- configuration file. (With all other configuration variables, the user's
- values _replace_ the system-wide values.) Likewise, additional features may
- be set on the command-line with the argument "-feature-list=". These will be
- added to the others.
-
- The treatment of _feature-list_ in the system-wide _fixed_ configuration
- file is also different from other variables. The system management can fix
- the value of individual features by placing them in the fixed configuration
- file. Users will not be able to alter those features, but will still be able
- to set the other non-restricted features the way they like.
-
- Because _feature-list_ is additive, there is a way to turn features off as
- well as on. Prepending the prefix "no-" to any feature sets it to off. This
- is useful for over-riding the system-wide default in the personal
- configuration file or for over-riding the system-wide default or the
- personal configuration value on the command line. For example, if the
- system-wide default configuration has the _quit-without-confirm_ feature
- set, the user can over-ride that (and turn it off) by including
- _no-quit-without-confirm_ in the personal configuration file or by giving the
- command line argument _-feature-list=no-quit-without-confirm._ More features
- (options) will no doubt continue to be added.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Configuration Inheritance
-
- We start with an explanation of how configuration works in hopes of making
- it easier to describe how inheritance works.
-
- _Alpine_ uses a hierarchy of configuration values from different locations.
- There are five ways in which each configuration option (configuration
- variable) can be set. In increasing order of precedence they are:
-
- 1. the system-wide configuration file.
- 2. the personal configuration file
- 3. the personal exceptions file
- 4. a command line argument
- 5. the system-wide _fixed_ configuration file (Unix _Alpine_ only)
-
- The fixed configuration file is normally /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed.
-
- The system-wide configuration file is normally /usr/local/lib/pine.conf for
- Unix _Alpine_ and is normally not set for _PC-Alpine_. For _PC-Alpine_, if
- the environment variable _$PINECONF_ is set, that is used for the
- system-wide configuration. This location can be set or changed on the
- command line with the -P flag. The system-wide configuration file can be
- either a local file or a remote configuration folder.
-
- For Unix _Alpine_, the personal configuration file is normally the file
- .pinerc in the user's home directory. This can be changed with the -p
- command line flag. For _PC-Alpine_, the personal configuration file is in
- $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or ${HOME}\ALPINE\PINERC or <ALPINE.EXE
- dir>\PINERC. This can be changed with the -p command line flag. If -p or
- $PINERC is used, the configuration data may be in a local file or a remote
- config folder.
-
- For Unix _Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is specified
- with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument. "Exceptions_config"
- may be either a local file or a remote configuration folder. If there is no
- "-x" command line option, _Alpine_ will look for the file ".pinercex" in the
- same local directory that the regular config file is located in. If the
- regular config file is remote then Unix _Alpine_ looks in the home directory
- for ".pinercex".
-
- For _PC-Alpine_, the personal exceptions configuration file is specified
- with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument. If there is no "-x"
- command line argument the environment variable $PINERCEX may be set to the
- name of the "exceptions_config" instead. "Exceptions_config" may be either a
- local file or a remote configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command
- line option and $PINERCEX is not set, _PC-Alpine_ will look for the file
- "PINERCEX" in the same local directory that the regular config file is
- located in. If the regular config file is remote then _PC-Alpine_ looks in
- the local directory specified by the "-aux local_directory" command line
- argument, or the directory ${HOME}\ALPINE, or in <ALPINE.EXE directory> for
- a file named "PINERCEX".
-
- To reiterate, the value of a configuration option is taken from the last
- location in the list above in which it is set. Or, thinking about it
- slightly differently, a default value for an option is established in the
- system-wide configuration file (or in the source code if there is no value
- in the system-wide file). That default remains in effect until and unless it
- is overridden by a value in a location further down the list, in which case
- a new "default" value is established. As we continue down the list of
- locations we either retain the value at each step or establish a new value.
- The value that is still set after going through the whole list of
- configuration locations is the one that is used.
-
- So, for example, if an option is set in the system-wide configuration file
- and in the personal configuration file, but is not set in the exceptions, on
- the command line, or in the fixed file; then the value from the personal
- configuration file is the one that is used. Or, if it is set in the
- system-wide config, in the personal config, not in the exceptions, but is
- set on the command line; then the value on the command line is used.
-
- Finally we get to inheritance. For configuration options which are lists,
- like "smtp-server" or "incoming-folders", the inheritance mechanism makes it
- possible to _combine_ the values from different locations instead of
- _replacing_ the value. This is true of all configuration lists other than the
- "feature-list", for which you may already set whatever you want at any
- configuration location (by using the "no-" prefix if necessary).
-
- To use inheritance, set the first item in a configuration list to the token
- "INHERIT". If the first item is "INHERIT", then instead of replacing the
- default value established so far, the rest of the list is appended to the
- default value established so far and that is the new value.
-
- Here is an example which may make it clearer. Suppose we have:
-
- System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
- Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
- Exceptions config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
-
- This would result in an effective smtp-server option of
-
- smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home
-
- The "INHERIT" token can be used in any of the configuration files and the
- effect cascades. For example, if we change the above example to:
-
- System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
- Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
- Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
- Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
-
- This would result in:
-
- smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home, yoursmtp.org
-
- Unset variables are skipped over (the default value is carried forward) so
- that, for example:
-
- System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
- Personal config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Exceptions config : smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
- Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
-
- produces:
-
- smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, yoursmtp.org
-
- If any later configuration location has a value set (for a particular list
- option) which does _not_ begin with "INHERIT", then that value replaces
- whatever value has been defined up to that point. In other words, that
- cancels out any previous inheritance.
-
- System-wide config : smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
- Personal config : smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.org
- Exceptions config : smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
- Command line : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
- Fixed config : smtp-server = <No Value Set>
-
- results in:
-
- smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
-
- For some configuration options, like "viewer-hdr-colors" or
- "patterns-roles", it is difficult to insert the value "INHERIT" into the
- list of values for the option using the normal Setup tools. In other words,
- the color setting screen (for example) does not provide a way to input the
- text "INHERIT" as the first item in the viewer-hdr-colors option. The way to
- do this is to either edit the pinerc file directly and manually insert it,
- or turn on the "expose-hidden-config" feature and insert it using the
- Setup/Config screen.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Using Environment Variables
-
- The values of _Alpine_ configuration options may include environment
- variables which are replaced by the value of the variable at the time
- _Alpine_ is run (and also at the time the config option is changed). The
- syntax to use environment variables is a subset of the common Unix shell
- dollar-syntax. For example, if
-
- $VAR
-
- appears in the value of a _Alpine_ configuration option it is looked up in
- the environent (using getenv("VAR")) and its looked-up value replaces the
- $VAR part of the option value. To include a literal dollar sign you may
- precede the dollar sign with another dollar sign. In other words, if the
- text
-
- $$text
-
- is the value of a configuration option, it will be expanded to
-
- $text
-
- and no environment lookup will be done. For Unix _Alpine_ it will also work
- to use a backslash character to escape the special meaning of the dollar
- sign, but $$ is preferable since it works for both _PC-Alpine_ and Unix
- _Alpine_, allowing the configuration option to be in a shared configuration
- file.
-
- This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. An example may make it
- clearer. Unfortunately, the way in which environment variables are set is
- OS-dependent and command shell-dependent. In some Unix command shells you
- may use
-
- PERSNAME="Fred Flintstone"
-
- export PERSNAME
-
- Now, if you use _Alpine_'s Setup/Config screen to set
-
- personal-name=$PERSNAME
-
- the $PERSNAME would be replaced by Fred Flintstone so that this would be
- equivalent to
-
- personal-name=Fred Flintstone
-
- Note, environment variable substitution happens after configuration options
- which are lists are split into the separate elements of the list, so a
- single environment variable can't contain a list of values.
-
- The environment variable doesn't have to be the only thing after the equal
- sign. However, if the name of the variable is not at the end of the line or
- followed by a space (so that you can tell where the variable name ends), it
- must be enclosed in curly braces like
-
- ${VAR}
-
- It is always ok to use the braces even if you don't need to.
-
- It is also possible to set a default value for an environment variable. This
- default value will be used if the environment variable is not set (that is,
- if getenv("VAR") returns NULL). The syntax used to set a default value is
-
- ${VAR:-default value}
-
- If the config file contains
-
- personal-name=${VAR:-Fred Flintstone}
-
- then when _Alpine_ is run VAR will be looked up in the environment. If VAR
- is found then personal-name will have the value that VAR was set to,
- otherwise, personal-name will be set to Fred Flintstone, the default value.
-
- An example where an environment variable might be useful is the variable
- inbox-path in the global configuration file. Suppose most users used the
- server
-
- imapserver.example.com
-
- but that there were some exceptions who used
-
- altimapserver.example.com
-
- In this case, the system manager might include the following line in the
- systemwide default _Alpine_ configuration file
-
- inbox-path=${IMAPSERVER:-imapserver.example.com}
-
- For the exceptional users adding
-
- IMAPSERVER=altimapserver.example.com
-
- to their environment should work.
-
- Another example might be the case where a user has to use a different SMTP
- server from work and from home. The setup might be something as simple as
-
- smtp-server=$SMTP
-
- or perhaps a default value could be given. Note that, as mentioned above,
- the variable SMTP cannot contain a list of SMTP servers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-SMTP Servers
-
- It is sometimes desirable to set smtp-server=localhost instead of setting
- sendmail-path to overcome the inability to negotiate ESMTP options when
- _sendmail_ is invoked with the _-t_ option. Sendmail can also be subject to
- unacceptable delays due to slow DNS lookups and other problems.
-
- It is sometimes desirable to configure an SMTP server on a port other than
- the default port 25. This may be used to provide an alternate service that
- is optimized for a particular environment or provides different features
- from the port 25 server. An example would be a program that negotiates ESMTP
- options and queues a message, but does not attempt to deliver messages. This
- would avoid delays frequently encountered when invoking _sendmail_ directly.
-
- A typical configuration would consist of
- * A program that implements the SMTP or ESMTP protocol via stdio.
- * An entry in /etc/services for the alternate service.
- * An entry in /etc/inetd.conf for the alternate service.
- * An entry in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf, /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed or
- ~/.pinerc.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-MIME.Types file
-
- _Alpine_'s MIME-TYPE support is based on code contributed by Hans Drexler
- &LT;drexler@mpi.nl&GT;. _Alpine_ assigns MIME Content-Types according to
- file name extensions found in the system-wide files
- /usr/local/lib/mime.types and /etc/mime.types, and a user specific
- ~/.mime.types file.
-
- In Windows, _Alpine_ looks in the same directory as the PINERC file and the
- same dir as ALPINE.EXE. This is similar to the UNIX situation with personal
- config info coming before potentially shared config data. An alternate
- search path can be specified by setting the mimetype-search-path variable in
- the user or system-wide configuration or by setting the MIMETYPES
- environment variable.
-
- These files specify file extensions that will be connected to a mime type.
- Lines beginning with a '#' character are treated as comments and ignored.
- All other lines are treated as a mime type definition. The first word is a
- _type/subtype_ specification. All following words are file _extensions_
- belonging to that type/subtype. Words are separated by whitespace
- characters. If a file extension occurs more than once, then the first
- definition determines the file type and subtype. A couple sample lines from
- a mime.types file follow:
-
-image/gif gif
-text/html html htm
-video/mpeg mpeg mpg mpe
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Color Details
-
- UNIX _Alpine_ may display color if the terminal or terminal emulator you are
- using is capable of displaying colors. If the terminal supports ANSI color
- escape sequences you will be able to turn color on using the color-style
- option and setting it to the value _force-ansi-8color_ or
- _force-ansi-16color_. If instead you'd like _Alpine_ to automatically detect
- whether or not you are on a color terminal, set _color-style_ to
- _use-termdef_ _and_ configure the termcap entry to describe your terminal's
- color capabilities.
-
- If the _color-style_ option is set to _use-termdef_, _Alpine_ looks in the
- terminal capabilities database, TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on how
- _Alpine_ was compiled, to decide whether or not your terminal is capable of
- color. For TERMINFO compiled _Alpine_s, the capabilities that are used for
- color are "colors", "setaf", "setab", "op", and "bce". If you have a
- terminal with color capabilities described by the "scp" capability, _Alpine_
- does not support it. The capabilities "setf" and "setb" may be used instead
- of "setaf" and "setab". The capability "bce" is optional and is used as an
- optimization, the other capabilities are required. For TERMCAP compiled
- _Alpine_s, the capabilities that are used for color are "Co", "AF", "AB",
- "op", and "ut". The capabilities "Sf" and "Sb" may be used instead of "AF"
- and "AB", though this isn't a useful feature.
-
- Here are some short descriptions of the capabilities listed above. The
- TERMINFO name is listed, followed by the TERMCAP name in parentheses.
- _colors_ (_Co_)
- The number of different colors.
- _setaf_ (_AF_)
- Set ANSI foreground color.
- _setab_ (_AB_)
- Set ANSI background color.
- _setf_ (_Sf_)
- Set foreground color. Alternate form of _setaf_.
- _setb_ (_Sb_)
- Set background color. Alternate form of _setab_.
- _op_ (_op_)
- Set default pair to its original value.
- _bce_ (_ut_)
- Screen is erased with current background color instead of default
- background.
-
- A standard ANSI terminal which supports color will have a TERMINFO entry
- which contains:
- colors#8
- setaf=\E[3%p1%dm
- setab=\E[4%p1%dm
- op=\E[39;49m
- bce
-
- or the TERMCAP equivalent:
- Co#8
- AF=\E[3%dm
- AB=\E[4%dm
- op=\E[39;49m
- ut
-
- If there are eight colors, the program uses colors 0, 1, ..., 7. For an ANSI
- terminal, the foreground color is set by sending the escape sequence "Escape
- LeftBracket 3 color_number m" to the terminal. The background color is set
- by sending the sequence "Escape LeftBracket 4 color_number m". ANSI colors
- zero through seven are defined to be "black", "red", "green", "yellow",
- "blue", "magenta", "cyan", and "white". Some terminal emulators will swap
- blue and red and swap yellow and cyan. The capabilities "setf" and "setb"
- are usually designed for those terminals so that they will flip the color
- numbers 1 and 4 and the numbers 3 and 6 to compensate for this. _Alpine_
- will use the ANSI versions of the capabilities if they exist, and will use
- the non-ANSI versions (setf and setb) if the ANSI versions don't exist.
- Here's a version which does the flipping. This can only be used with
- TERMINFO _Alpine_s, because of the arithmetic, which is not supported by
- TERMCAP.
- colors#8
- setf=\E[3%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
- setb=\E[4%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
- op=\E[39;49m
- bce
-
- Some terminal emulators are capable of displaying eight more colors when the
- foreground colors 30-37 are replaced with 90-97 and the background colors
- 40-47 are replaced with 100-107. These terminals require a fancy termcap
- entry which can take foreground colors 0, 1, ..., 15 and map that into 30,
- 31, ..., 37, 90, 91, ..., 97, and similarly for the background colors. Here
- is a terminfo entry which will do just that:
- colors#16
- setaf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
- setab=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
- op=\E[39;49m
- bce
-
- and here is the termcap equivalent:
- Co#16
- AF=\E[%i%i%>\001\034%>\045\064%dm
- AB=\E[%i%i%>\001\046%>\057\064%dm
- op=\E[39;49m
- ut
-
- This is a terminfo entry for 16 colors that also does the color flipping:
- colors#16
- setf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%
-{4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
- setb=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%
-{4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
- op=\E[39;49m
- bce
-
- If you are always using the same display it probably won't matter to you if
- the color pairs red/blue and cyan/yellow are flipped, since you'll always be
- seeing them flipped. You will get different defaults than on a display with
- them not flipped, but that's about all. If you are trying to use the same
- pinerc file from displays with different color characteristics, or from
- _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_, you will have to be more careful. The colors
- numbered 0 through 7 may be used portably between different systems if you
- are careful to make them correspond to the ANSI order mentioned above. You
- can check this by looking at a color configuration screen for one of the
- colors. The first eight colors should be in the order above. If they aren't,
- you could fix that by modifying your termcap entry on the UNIX system. This
- is not possible if your system uses TERMCAP instead of TERMINFO.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-S/MIME Overview
-
- UNIX _Alpine_ only.
-
- S/MIME is a standard for the public key encryption and signing of email.
- UNIX _Alpine_ contains a basic implementation of S/MIME based on the OpenSSL
- libraries.
-
- Some limitations:
- * There is no _PC-Alpine_ implementation.
- * There is no provision for checking for CRLs (Certificate Revocation
- Lists) in _Alpine_.
- * This built-in S/MIME implementation is not compatible with and does not
- help with PGP.
- * There is no mechanism available for feeding either an entire incoming or
- an entire outgoing message to an external filter and using that external
- filter to do S/MIME or PGP processing.
- * Because the implementation currently uses OpenSSL, there is only a very
- limited integration with the Mac OS Keychain (the storing and access of
- public certificates).
- * There is no way to view or manipulate the lists of certificates from
- within _Alpine_.
-
- The S/MIME configuration screen is reached by going to the Main Menu and
- typing the "S Setup" command followed by "M S/MIME".
-
- S/MIME BASICS
-
- In order to digitally sign messages you send you must have a public/private
- key-pair. This may be obtained from a public Certificate Authority (CA) such
- as Thawte, Verisign, Comodo, or GoDaddy; or from a smaller CA such as a
- university which provides certificates for its users or a company which
- provides certificates for its workers. These certificates are bound to an
- email address, so the identity being verified is the email address not a
- person's name.
-
- Mail is signed by using the sender's private key, which only the owner of
- the private key has access to. The signature is verified using the signer's
- public key, which anyone can have access to. With _Alpine_, the first time
- you receive a signed message the public key of the sender will be stored for
- future use.
-
- Mail is encrypted using the recipient's public key and decrypted by the
- recipient with their private key.
-
- You need a key of your own in order to sign outgoing messages and to have
- others encrypt messages sent to you. You do not need a key of your own to
- verify signed messages sent by others or to encrypt messages sent to others.
-
- ALPINE S/MIME CERTIFICATE STORAGE
-
- By default UNIX _Alpine_ stores the certificates it uses in a directory in
- your home directory. The directory name is
-
- .alpine-smime
-
- Within that directory are three subdirectories. Each of the three
- subdirectories contains files with PEM-encoded contents, the default format
- for OpenSSL. The "public" directory contains public certificates. The files
- within that directory have names that are email addresses with the suffix
- ".crt" appended. An example filename is
-
- user@example.com.crt
-
- The "private" directory contains private keys, probably just one for your
- private key. These are also email addresses but with the suffix ".key"
- instead. The third directory is "ca" and it contains certificates for any
- Certificate Authorities that you want to trust but that aren't contained in
- the set of system CAs. Those files may have arbitrary names as long as they
- end with the suffix ".crt".
-
- HOW TO SIGN AND ENCRYPT
-
- If you have a certificate you may sign outgoing messages. After typing the
- Ctrl-X command to send a message you will see the prompt
-
- Send message?
-
- Available subcommands include "G Sign" and "E Encrypt". Typing the "G"
- command will change the prompt to
-
- Send message (Signed)?
-
- Typing the "E" command will change the prompt to
-
- Send message (Encrypted)?
-
- You may even type both to get
-
- Send message (Encrypted, Signed)?
-
- HOW TO READ SIGNED OR ENCRYPTED MESSAGES
-
- The reading of a signed message should not require any special action on
- your part. There should be an editorial addition at the start of the message
- which says either
-
- This message was cryptographically signed.
-
- or
-
- This message was cryptographically signed but the signature could not be
- verified.
-
- If an encrypted message is sent to you the encrypted text will not be shown.
- You will have to type the "Ctrl-D Decrypt" command (from the screen where
- you are viewing the message) and supply your passphrase when asked.
-
- For a signed or encrypted message there is also a "Ctrl-E Security" command
- which gives you some information about the certificate used to sign or
- encrypt the message.
-
- MISCELLANEOUS
-
- You may have access to a private certificate in the PKCS12 format, which
- would sometimes be in a file with a ".p12" suffix. The UNIX shell command
-
- openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
-
- may work to convert that from the PKCS12 format to the PEM format. Then that
- file could be placed in the "private" directory with a filename of your
- email address followed by the suffix ".key".
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Additional Notes on PC-Alpine
-
- Below are a few odds and ends worth mentioning about _PC-Alpine_. They have
- to do with DOS-specific behavior that is either necessary or useful (and
- sometimes both!).
-
- As _PC-Alpine_ runs in an environment with limited access control,
- accounting or auditing, an additional line is automatically inserted into
- the header of mail messages generated by _PC-Alpine_:
- X-Sender: <userid>@<imap.host>
-
- By popular demand of system administrators, _PC-Alpine_ has been modified to
- prevent sending messages until the user has successfully logged into a
- remote mail server. Even though _PC-Alpine_ cannot prevent users from
- changing the apparent identity of the sender of a message, the IMAP server
- login name and host name included in the _X-Sender_ line provide some level
- of traceability by the recipient. However, this should not be considered a
- rigorous form of authentication. It is extremely lightweight, and is not a
- replacement for true authentication.
-
- Hand in hand with authentication and accounting is user information. Since
- _PC-Alpine_ has no user database to consult for _user-id_, _personal-name_,
- etc., necessary information must be provided by the user/installer before
- _PC-Alpine_ can properly construct the "From" address required for outbound
- messages. _PC-Alpine_ will, by default, prompt for the requisite pieces as
- they are needed. This information corresponds to the _PINERC_ variables
- user-id, personal-name, user-domain, and smtp-server.
-
- The user is then asked whether or not this information should automatically
- be saved to the _PINERC_. This is useful behavior in general, but can lead
- to problems in a lab or other shared environment. Hence, these prompts and
- automatic saving of configuration can be turned off on an entry by entry
- basis by setting any of the above values in the _PINERC_ to the null string
- (i.e., a pair of double quotes). This means that the user will be prompted
- for the information once during each _Alpine_ session, and no opportunity to
- save them in the _PINERC_ will be offered.
-
- Another feature of DOS is the lack of standard scratch area for temporary
- files. During the course of a session, _PC-Alpine_ may require numerous
- temporary files (large message texts, various caches, etc.). Where to create
- them can be a problem, particularly when running under certain network
- operating systems. _PC-Alpine_ observes the _TMPDIR_, _TMP_, and _TEMP_
- environment variables, and creates temporary files in the directory
- specified by either. In their absence, _PC-Alpine_ creates these files in
- the root of the current working drive. Some temporary files have to be
- created in the same directory as the file they are a temporary copy of. For
- example, a pinerc file or a address book file.
-
- Behind the Scenes
-
- Many people ask how certain _Alpine_ features are implemented. This section
- outlines some of the details.
-
-Address Books
-
- There are two types of address book storage. There are _local_ address
- books, which are the address books that are stored in a local file; and
- there are _remote_ address books, which are stored on an IMAP server.
-
- Information About Remote Address Books
-
- NOTE: The remote address book capability does not allow you to access an
- existing local address book from a remote system! That is, you can't set
- the remote address book to something like {remote.host}.addressbook and
- expect to access the existing .addressbook _file_ on remote.host. Instead,
- you need to create a new remote address book in a new, previously unused
- remote mail _folder_. Then you can use the _Select_ and _Apply Save_
- commands in the address book screen to _Save_ all of the entries from an
- existing local address book to the new remote address book.
-
- A remote address book is stored in a mail folder on an IMAP server. An
- _Alpine_ remote address book is just like an _Alpine_ local address book in
- that it is not interoperable with other email clients. The folder is a
- regular folder containing mail messages but those messages are special. The
- first message must be an alpine remote address book header message which
- contains the header _x-pine-addrbook_. The last message in the folder
- contains the address book data. In between the first and the last message
- are old versions of the address book data. The address book data is simply
- stored in the message as it would be on disk, with no MIME encoding. When it
- is used the data from the last message in the folder is copied to a local
- file and then that file is used exactly like a local address book file is
- used. When a change is made the modified local file is appended to the
- remote folder in a new message. In other words, the local file is just a
- cache copy of the data in the remote folder. Each client which uses the
- remote address book will have its own cache copy of the data. Whenever a
- copy is done the entire address book is copied, not just the entries which
- have changed.
-
- _Alpine_ can tell that the remote data has changed by one of several
- methods. If the date contained in the Date header of the last message has
- changed then it knows it has changed. If the UID of the last message has
- changed, or the number of messages in the folder has changed, it knows that
- it has changed. When _Alpine_ discovers the folder has changed it gets a new
- copy and puts it in the local cache file.
-
- There is a configuration file variable for remote address books called
- remote-abook-metafile. The variable is the name of a file in which
- information about remote address books is stored. There is one line in the
- metafile for each remote address book. The information stored there is the
- name of the cache file and information to help figure out when the remote
- folder was last changed. If the metafile or any of the cache files is
- deleted then _Alpine_ will rebuild them the next time it runs.
-
- Remote address books have names that look just like regular remote mail
- folder names. For example:
-
- {host.domain}foldername
-
- _Alpine_ decides whether or not an address book is remote simply by looking
- at the first character of the address book name and comparing it to '{'.
-
- Information About All Address Books
-
- The address book is named, by default, .addressbook in the user's Unix home
- directory, or in the case of _PC-Alpine_, ADDRBOOK, in the same directory as
- the PINERC file. There may be more than one address book, and the default
- name can be overridden via an entry in any of the _Alpine_ configuration
- files. The two configuration variables address-book and global-address-book
- are used to specify the names of the address books. Each of these variables
- is a list variable. The total set of address books for a user is the
- combination of all the address books specified in these two lists. Each
- entry in the list is an optional nickname followed by an address book name.
- The nickname is everything up to the last space before the file name. The
- _global-address-book_ list will typically be configured in the system-wide
- configuration file, though a user may override it like most other variables.
- Address books which are listed in the _global-address-book_ variable are
- forced read-only, and are typically shared among multiple users.
-
- Local address books (or local cache files for remote address books) are
- simple text files with lines in the format:
-
- <nickname>TAB<fullname>TAB<address>TAB<fcc>TAB<comments>
-
- The last two fields are optional. A "line" may be made up of multiple actual
- lines in the file by using continuation lines, which are lines beginning
- with SPACE characters. The line breaks may be after TABs or in between
- addresses in a distribution list. Each _actual_ line in the file must be
- less than 1000 characters in length.
-
- Nicknames (the first field) are short names that the user types instead of
- typing in the full address. There are several characters which aren't
- allowed in nicknames in order to avoid ambiguity when parsing the address
- (SPACE, COMMA, @, ", ;, :, (, ), [, ], <, >, \). Nicknames aren't required.
- In fact, none of the fields is required.
-
- The _fullname_ field is usually stored as Last_name, First_name, in order
- that a sort on the fullname field comes out sorted by Last_name. If there is
- an unquoted comma in the fullname, _Alpine_ will flip the first and last
- name around and get rid of the comma when using the entry in a composition.
- It isn't required that there be a comma, that's only useful if the user
- wants the entries to sort on last names.
-
- The _address_ field takes one of two forms, depending on whether the entry
- is a single (simple) address or a distribution list. For a simple entry, the
- address field is an RFC 2822 address. This could be either the email-address
- part of the address, i.e., the part that goes inside the brackets (<>), or
- it could be a full RFC 2822 address. The phrase part of the address (the
- fullname) is used unless there is a fullname present in the fullname field
- of the address book entry. In that case, the fullname of the address book
- entry replaces the fullname of the address. For a distribution list, the
- <address> is in the format:
-
- "(" <address>, <address>, <address>, ... ")"
-
- The only purpose for the parentheses around the list of addresses is to make
- it easier for the parsing routines to tell that it is a simple entry instead
- of a list. The two are displayed differently and treated slightly
- differently in some cases, though most of the distinction has disappeared.
- Each of the addresses in a list can be a full RFC 2822 address with fullname
- included, or it may be just the simple email-address part of the address.
- This allows the user to have a list which includes the fullnames of all the
- list members. In both the simple and list cases, addresses may also be other
- nicknames which appear in this address book or in one of the other address
- books. (Those nicknames are searched for by looking through the address
- books in the order they appear in the address book screen, with the first
- match winning.) Lists may be nested. If addresses refer to each other in a
- loop (for example, list A includes list B which includes list A again) this
- is detected and flagged. In that case, the address will be changed to "****
- address loop ****".
-
- The optional _fcc_ field is a folder name, just like the fcc field in the
- composer headers. If the first address in the To field of a composition
- comes from an address book entry with an fcc field, then that fcc is placed
- in the fcc header in the composer.
-
- The _comments_ field is just a free text field for storing comments about an
- entry. By default, neither the fcc nor the comments field is shown on the
- screen in the address book screen. You may make those fields visible by
- configuring the variable addressbook-formats. They are also searched when
- you use the _WhereIs_ command in the address book screen and are visible
- when you _View_ or _Update_ an entry.
-
- The address book is displayed in the order that it is stored. When the user
- chooses a different sorting criterion, the data is actually sorted and
- stored, as opposed to showing a sorted view of the data.
-
- When the address book is written out, it is first written to a temporary
- file and if that write is successful it is renamed. This guards against
- errors writing the file that might destroy the whole address book. The
- address book is re-written after each change. If the address book is a
- remote address book, the file is then appended to the remote mail folder
- using IMAP.
-
- The end-of-line character(s) in the address book file are those native to
- the system writing it. So it is <LF> on Unix and <CR><LF> on PC's. However,
- both Unix and PC versions of _Alpine_ can read either format, so it should
- be possible to share a read-only address book among the two populations
- (using NFS, for example).
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Address Book Lookup File
-
- _Pine_ used an additional file for each address book, called the LookUp
- file. It had the same name as the address book file with the suffix ".lu"
- appended. _Alpine_ no longer uses a lookup file.
-
- Validity Checking of Address Books
-
- There is no file locking done on _Alpine_ address books, however, there is
- considerable validity checking done to make sure that the address book
- hasn't changed unexpectedly. Whenever the address book is about to be
- changed, a check is made to see if the file is newer than when we read it or
- the remote address book folder has changed since we last copied it. If
- either of these is true, the change is aborted.
-
- There is an automatic, behind-the-scene check that happens every so often,
- also. For example, if someone else changes one of the address books that you
- have configured, your _Alpine_'s copy of the address book will usually be
- updated automatically without you noticing. This checking happens at the
- same time as new mail checking takes place, unless you are actively using
- the address book, in which case it happens more frequently.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Remote Configuration
-
- Configuration information may be stored remotely. Remote configuration
- information is stored in a folder on an IMAP server. This should be a folder
- which is used only for storing the configuration information. In other
- words, it should be a folder which didn't exist before.
-
- Remote configuration folders are very similar to remote address book
- folders. They both consist of a header message, which serves to identify the
- type of folder; the last message, which contains the data; and intermediate
- messages, which contain old versions of the data. The first message must
- contain the header _x-pine-pinerc_.
-
- When a remote configuration is being used, the folder is checked to make
- sure it is a remote configuration folder, then the data contained in the
- last message is copied to a temporary file. That file is treated just like
- any regular local configuration file from that point on. Whenever a
- configuration change is made, the entire file is copied back to the IMAP
- server and is appended to the folder as a new message.
-
- Because remote configuration folders are so similar to remote address books,
- the configuration variable remote-abook-metafile is used by both.
-
- Remote configuration folders have names that look just like regular remote
- mail folder names. For example:
-
- {host.domain}mypinerc
-
- _Alpine_ decides whether or not a configuration file is remote simply by
- looking at the first character of the name and comparing it to '{'.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Checkpointing
-
- Periodically _Alpine_ will save the whole mail folder to disk to prevent
- loss of any mail or mail status in the case that it gets interrupted,
- disconnected, or crashes. The period of time _Alpine_ waits to do the
- checkpoint is calculated to be minimally intrusive. The timing can be
- changed (but usually isn't) at compile time. Folder checkpointing happens
- for both local folders and those being accessed with IMAP. The delays are
- divided into three categories:
-
- The exact algorithm given below is no longer correct. It has gotten more
- complicated over time. However, this gives the general idea _Alpine_ uses
- when deciding whether or not to do a checkpoint.
-
- Good Time:
- This occurs when _Alpine_ has been idle for more than 30 seconds. In
- this case _Alpine_ will checkpoint if 12 changes to the file have
- been made or at least one change has been made and a checkpoint
- hasn't been done for five minutes.
- Bad Time:
- This occurs just after _Alpine_ has executed some command. _Alpine_
- will checkpoint if there are 36 outstanding changes to the mail file
- or at least one change and no checkpoint for ten minutes.
- Very Bad Time:
- Done when composing a message. In this case, _Alpine_ will only
- checkpoint if at least 48 changes have been made or at least one
- change has been made in the last twenty minutes with no checkpoint.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Debug Files
-
- If UNIX _Alpine_ is compiled with the compiler _DEBUG_ option on (the
- default), then _Alpine_ will produce debugging output to a file. This can be
- disabled at compile-time with the --disable-debug configure option, or at
- run-time with the command line flag -d0. The file is normally .pine-debugX
- in the user's home directory where _X_ goes from 1 to 4. Number 1 is always
- the most recent session and 4 the oldest. Four are saved because often the
- user has gone in and out of _Alpine_ a few times after a problem has
- occurred before the expert actually gets to look at it. The amount of output
- in the debug files varies with the debug level set when _Alpine_ is compiled
- and/or as a command line flag. The default is level 2. This shows very
- general things and records errors. Level 9 produces copious amounts of
- output for each keystroke.
-
- Similarly, _PC-Alpine_ creates debug files named pinedebg.txtX in the same
- directory as the PINERC file.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-INBOX and Special Folders
-
- The _INBOX_ folder is treated specially. It is normally kept open constantly
- so that the arrival of new mail can be detected. The name _INBOX_ refers to
- wherever new mail is retrieved on the system. If the inbox-path variable is
- set, then _INBOX_ refers to that. IMAP servers understand the concept of
- _INBOX_, so specifying the folder _{imap.u.example.edu}INBOX_ is meaningful.
- The case of the word _INBOX_ is not important, but _Alpine_ tends to display
- it in all capital letters.
-
- The folders for sent mail and saved messages folders are also somewhat
- special. They are automatically created if they are absent and recreated if
- they are deleted.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Internal Help Files
-
- The file pine.hlp in the alpine subdirectory of the distribution contains
- all the help text for _Alpine_. It is compiled right into the _Alpine_
- binary as strings. This is done to simplify installation and configuration.
- The pine.hlp file is in a special format that is documented at the beginning
- of the file. It is divided into sections, each with a name that winds up
- being referenced as a global variable. This file is processed during the
- build process and turned into a C file that is compiled into _Alpine_.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-International Character Sets
-
- _Alpine_ uses Unicode characters internally and it is a goal for _Alpine_ to
- handle email in many different languages. _Alpine_ will properly display
- only left-to-right character sets in a fixed-width font. Specifically,
- _Alpine_ assumes that a fixed-width font is in use, in the sense that
- characters are assumed to take up zero, one, or two character cell widths
- from left to right on the screen. This is true even in _PC-Alpine_.
-
- _Alpine_ recognizes some local character sets which are right-to-left
- (Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai) or not representable in a fixed-width font
- (Arabic) and properly converts texts in these character sets to/from
- Unicode; however, there are known display bugs with these character sets.
-
- There are three possible configuration character settings and some
- environment variable settings which can affect how _Alpine_ handles
- international characters. The first two of these are only available in UNIX
- _Alpine_. The three configuration options are _display-character-set_,
- _keyboard-character-set_, and _posting-character-set_. The
- _keyboard-character-set_ defaults to being the same value as the
- _display-character-set_, and that is usually correct, because the keyboard
- almost always produces characters in the same character set as the display
- displays. The _display-character-set_ is the character set that _Alpine_
- will attempt to use when sending characters to the display.
-
- Besides those variables there is also use-system-translation which can be
- used instead of these. That usage is only lightly tested and is not
- recommended.
-
- By default, the _display-character-set_ variable is not set and UNIX _Alpine_
- will attempt to get this information from the environment. In particular,
- the nl_langinfo(CODESET) call is used. This usually depends on the setting
- of the environment variables LANG or LC_CTYPE. An explicit configuration
- setting for _display-character-set_ will, of course, override any default
- setting.
-
- For _PC-Alpine_ the _display-character-set_ and the _keyboard-character-set_
- are always equivalent to UTF-8 and this is not settable.
-
- It is probably best to use UNIX _Alpine_ in a terminal emulator capable of
- displaying UTF-8 characters, since that will allow you to view just about
- any received text that is correctly formatted (note, however, the above
- comments about known index display bugs with certain character sets). You'll
- need to have an emulator which uses a UTF-8 font and you'll need to set up
- your environment to use a UTF-8 charmap. For example, on a Linux system you
- might include
-
- setenv LANG en_US.UTF-8
-
- or something similar in your UNIX startup files. You'd also have to select a
- UTF-8 font in your terminal emulator.
-
- The types of values that the character set variables may be set to are
- UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, or EUC-JP. The ISO-2022 character sets are not supported
- for input or for display, but as a special case, ISO-2022-JP is supported
- for use only as a _posting-character-set_. In the Setup/Config screen you
- may choose from a list of all the character sets _Alpine_ knows about by
- using the "T" ToCharsets command. Here is a list of many of the possible
- character sets:
-
- UTF-8 Unicode
- US-ASCII 7 bit American English characters
- ISO-8859-1 8 bit European "Latin 1" character set
- ISO-8859-2 8 bit European "Latin 2" character set
- ISO-8859-3 8 bit European "Latin 3" character set
- ISO-8859-4 8 bit European "Latin 4" character set
- ISO-8859-5 8 bit Latin and Cyrillic
- ISO-8859-6 8 bit Latin and Arabic
- ISO-8859-7 8 bit Latin and Greek
- ISO-8859-8 8 bit Latin and Hebrew
- ISO-8859-9 8 bit European "Latin 5" character set
- ISO-8859-10 8 bit European "Latin 6" character set
- ISO-8859-11 Latin and Thai
- ISO-8859-12 Reserved
- ISO-8859-13 8 bit European "Latin 7" character set
- ISO-8859-14 8 bit European "Latin 8" character set
- ISO-8859-15 8 bit European "Latin 9" character set
- ISO-8859-16 8 bit European "Latin 10" character set
- KOI8-R 8 bit Latin and Russian
- KOI8-U 8 bit Latin and Ukranian
- WINDOWS-1251 8 bit Latin and Russian
- TIS-620 8 bit Latin and Thai
- VISCII 8 bit Latin and Vietnamese
- GBK Latin and Chinese Simplified
- GB2312 Latin and Chinese Simplified
- CN-GB Latin and Chinese Simplified
- BIG5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
- BIG-5 Latin and Chinese Traditional
- EUC-JP Latin and Japanese
- SHIFT-JIS Latin and Japanese
- EUC-KR Latin and Korean
- KSC5601 Latin and Korean
-
- When reading incoming email, _Alpine_ understands many different character
- sets and is able to convert the incoming mail into Unicode. The Unicode will
- be converted to the _display-character-set_ for display on your terminal.
- Characters typed at the keyboard will be converted from the
- _keyboard-character-set_ to Unicode for _Alpine_'s internal use. You may find
- that you can read some malformed messages that do not contain a character
- set label by setting the option unknown-character-set.
-
- The _posting-character-set_ is used when sending messages. The default
- behavior obtained by leaving this variable unset is usually what is wanted.
- In that default case, _Alpine_ will attempt to label the message with the
- most specific character set from the rather arbitrary set
-
- US-ASCII, ISO-8859-15, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, VISCII, KOI8-R, KOI8-U,
- ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-8, TIS-620, ISO-2022-JP, GB2312, BIG5,
- EUC-KR, and UTF-8.
-
- For example, if the message is made up of only US-ASCII characters, it will
- be labeled US-ASCII. Otherwise, if it is all ISO-8859-15 characters, that
- will be the label. If that doesn't work the same is tried for the remaining
- members of the list.
-
- It might make sense to set _posting-character-set_ to an explicit value
- instead. For example, if you usually send messages in Greek, setting this
- option to ISO-8859-7 will result in messages being labeled as US-ASCII if
- there are no non-ascii characters, ISO-8859-7 if there are only Greek
- characters, or UTF-8 if there are some characters which aren't representable
- in ISO-8859-7. Another possibility is to set this option explicitly to
- UTF-8. In that case _Alpine_ labels only ascii messages as US-ASCII and all
- other messages as UTF-8.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Interrupted and Postponed Messages
-
- If the user is composing mail and is interrupted by being disconnected
- (SIGHUP, SIGTERM or end of file on the standard input), _Alpine_ will save
- the interrupted composition and allow the user to continue it when he or she
- resumes _Alpine_. As the next _Alpine_ session starts, a message will be
- given that an interrupted message can be continued. To continue the
- interrupted message, simply go into the composer. To get rid of the
- interrupted message, go into the composer and then cancel the message with
- _^C._
-
- Composition of half-done messages may be postponed to a later time by giving
- the _^O_ command. Other messages can be composed while postponed messages
- wait. All of the postponed messages are kept in a single folder. Postponing
- is a good way to quickly reference other messages while composing.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Message Status
-
- The c-client library allows for several flags or status marks to be set for
- each message. _Alpine_ uses four of these flags: UNSEEN, DELETED, ANSWERED,
- and FLAGGED. The N in _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that a message is
- unseen-it has not been read from this folder yet. The D means that a message
- is marked for deletion. Messages marked with D are removed when the user
- _Expunges_ the folder (which usually happens when the folder is closed or the
- user quits _Alpine_). The A in _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that the
- message has been replied-to. The * in _Alpine_'s FOLDER INDEX means that the
- message has been ``flagged'' as important. That is, the user used the _Flag_
- command to turn the FLAGGED flag on. This flag can mean whatever the user
- wants it to mean. It is just a way to mark some messages as being different
- from others. It will usually probably be used to mark a message as somehow
- being ``important''. For Berkeley format folders, the message status is
- written into the email folder itself on the header lines marked Status: and
- X-Status.
-
- It is also possible for a user to define their own flags in addition to the
- standard system flags above. In _Alpine_ these user defined flags are called
- Keywords.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-MIME: Reading a Message
-
- _Alpine_ should be able to handle just about any MIME message. When a MIME
- message is received, _Alpine_ will display a list of all the parts, their
- types and sizes. It will display the attachments when possible and
- appropriate and allow users to _Save_ all other attachments.
-
- _Alpine_ honors the "mailcap" configuration system for specifying external
- programs for handling attachments. The mailcap file maps MIME attachment
- types to the external programs loaded on your system which can display
- and/or print the file. A sample mailcap file comes bundled with the _Alpine_
- distribution. It includes comments which explain the syntax you need to use
- for mailcap. With the mailcap file, any program (mail readers, newsreaders,
- WWW clients) can use the same configuration for handling MIME-encoded data.
-
- If a MAILCAPS environment variable is defined, _Alpine_ will use that to
- look for one or more mailcap files, which are combined. In the absence of
- MAILCAPS, Unix _Alpine_ will look for a personal mailcap file in ~/.mailcap
- and combine that with a system-wide file in /etc/mailcap. _PC-Alpine_ will
- look for a file named MAILCAP in the same directory as the PINERC file,
- and/or the directory containing the ALPINE.EXE executable.
-
- Messages which include _rich text_ or _enriched text_ in the main body will
- be displayed in a very limited way (it will show bold and underlining).
-
- If _Alpine_ sees a MIME message part tagged as type IMAGE, and _Alpine_'s
- image-viewer configuration variable is set, _Alpine_ will attempt to send
- that attachment to the named image viewing program. In the case of UNIX
- _Alpine_, the DISPLAY environment variable is checked to see if an X-terminal
- is being used (which can handle the images). If the _image-viewer_ variable
- is not set, _Alpine_ uses the _mailcap_ system to determine what to do with
- IMAGE types, just as it does for any other non-TEXT type, e.g. type
- APPLICATION. For MIME's generic "catch all" type, APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM,
- the _mailcap_ file will probably not specify any action, but _Alpine_ users
- may always _Save_ any MIME attachment to a file.
-
- MIME type "text/plain" is handled a little bit differently than the other
- types. If you are viewing the main body part in the MESSAGE TEXT viewing
- screen, then _Alpine_ will use its internal viewer to display it. This
- happens even if there is a mailcap description which matches this particular
- type. However, if you view a part of type "text/plain" from the ATTACHMENT
- INDEX screen, then _Alpine_ will check the mailcap database for a matching
- entry and use it in preference to its internal viewer.
-
- Some text attachments, specifically those which are just other email
- messages forwarded as MIME messages, are displayed as part of the main body
- of the message. This distinction allows easy display when possible (the
- forward as MIME case) and use of an attachment viewer when that is desirable
- (the plain text file attachment case).
-
- If the parts of a multipart message are alternate versions of the same thing
- _Alpine_ will select and display the one best suited. For parts of type
- "message/external-body", the parameters showing the retrieval method will be
- displayed, and the retrieval process is automated. Messages of type
- "message/partial" are not supported.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-MIME: Sending a Message
-
- There are two important factors when trying to include an attachment in a
- message: encoding and labeling. _Alpine_ has rules for both of these which
- try to assure that the message goes out in a form that is robust and can be
- handled by other MIME mail readers.
-
- MIME has two ways of encoding data-Quoted-Printable and Base64.
- Quoted-Printable leaves the ASCII text alone and only changes 8-bit
- characters to "=" followed by the hex digits. For example, "=09" is a tab.
- It has the advantage that it is mostly readable and that it allows for end
- of line conversions between unlike systems. Base64 encoding is similar to
- _uuencode_ or _btoa_ and just encodes a raw bit stream. This encoding is
- designed to get text and binary files through even the most improperly
- implemented and configured gateways intact, even those that distort
- uuencoded data.
-
- _All_ attachments are encoded using Base64 encoding. This is so that the
- attachment will arrive at the other end looking exactly like it did when it
- was sent. Since Base64 is completely unreadable except by MIME-capable
- mailers or programs, there is an obvious tradeoff being made here. We chose
- to ensure absolutely reliable transport of attachments at the cost of
- requiring a MIME-capable mailer to read them. If the user doesn't want
- absolute integrity he or she may always _include_ text (with the _^R_
- command) in the body of a message instead of attaching it. With this policy,
- the only time quoted-printable encoding is used is when the main body of a
- message includes special foreign language characters.
-
- When an attachment is to be sent, _Alpine_ sniffs through it to try to set
- the right label (content-type and subtype). An attachment with any lines
- longer than 500 characters in it or more than 10% of the characters are
- 8-bit it will be considered binary data. _Alpine_ will recognize (and
- correctly label) a few special types including GIF, JPEG, PostScript, and
- some audio formats. Another method which can be more robust and flexible for
- determining the content-type and subtype is to base it on the file
- extension. This method uses a MIME.Types File.
-
- If it is not binary data (has only a small proportion of 8-bit characters in
- it,) the attachment is considered 8-bit text. 8-bit text attachments are
- labeled "text/plain" with charset set to the value of the user's
- _keyboard-character-set_ variable. If an attachment is ASCII (no 8-bit
- characters) and contains no control characters then it is considered plain
- ASCII text. Such attachments are given the MIME label "text/plain;
- charset=US-ASCII", regardless of the setting of the user's
- _keyboard-character-set_ variable.
-
- All other attachments are unrecognized and therefore given the generic MIME
- label "application/octet-stream".
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-New Mail Notification
-
- _Alpine_ checks for new mail in the _INBOX_ and in the currently open folder
- every two and a half minutes by default. This default can be changed in the
- system-wide configuration file or at compile-time with the
- --with-mailcheck-interval=VALUE configuration option. A user can change it
- by changing the option mail-check-interval. A new mail check can be manually
- forced by redrawing the screen with a _^L_.
-
- When there is new mail, the message(s) will appear in the index, the screen
- will beep, and a notice showing the sender and subject will be displayed. If
- there has been more than one new message since you last issued a command to
- _Alpine_, the notice will show the count of new messages and the sender of
- the most recent one.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-NFS
-
- It is possible to access mail folders on _NFS_ mounted volumes with
- _Alpine_, but there are some drawbacks to doing this, especially in the case
- of incoming-message folders that may be concurrently updated by _Alpine_ and
- the system's mail delivery agent. One concern is that _Alpine_'s
- user-contention locks don't work because _/tmp_ is usually not shared, and
- even if it was, _flock()_ doesn't work across _NFS._
-
- The implementation of the standard UNIX ".lock" file locking has been
- modified to work with _NFS_ as follows. Standard hitching post locking is
- used so first a uniquely named file is created, usually something like
- _xxxx.host.time.pid._ Then a link to it is created named _xxxx.lock_ where
- the folder being locked is _xxxx._ This file constitutes the lock. This is a
- standard UNIX locking scheme. After the link returns, a _stat(2)_ is done on
- the file. If the file has two links, it is concluded that the lock succeeded
- and it is safe to proceed.
-
- In order to minimize the risks of locking failures via _NFS_, we strongly
- recommend using IMAP rather than _NFS_ to access remote incoming message
- folders, e.g. your _INBOX_. However, it is generally safe to access personal
- saved-message folders via _NFS_ since it is unlikely that more than one
- process will be updating those folders at any given time. Still, some
- problems may occur when two _Alpine_ sessions try to access the same mail
- folder from different hosts without using IMAP. Imagine the scenario:
- _Alpine_-A performs a write that changes the folder. _Alpine_-B then attempts
- to perform a write on the same folder. _Alpine_-B will get upset that the
- file has been changed from underneath it and abort operations on the folder.
- _Alpine_-B will continue to display mail from the folder that it has in its
- internal cache, but it will not read or write any further data. The only
- thing that will be lost out of the _Alpine_-B session when this happens is
- the last few status changes.
-
- If other mail readers besides _Alpine_ are involved, all bets are off.
- Typically, mailers don't take any precautions against a user opening a
- mailbox more than once and no special precautions are taken to prevent _NFS_
- problems.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Printers and Printing
-
- UNIX _Alpine_ can print to the standard UNIX line printers or to generic
- printers attached to ANSI terminals using the escape sequences to turn the
- printer on and off. The user has a choice of three printers in the
- configuration.
-
- The first setting, _attached-to-ansi_, makes use of escape sequences on
- ANSI/VT100 terminals. It uses "<ESC>[5i" to begin directing all output sent
- to the terminal to the printer and then "<ESC>[4i" to return to normal.
- _Alpine_ will send these escape sequences if the printer is set to
- _attached-to-ansi._ This works with most ANSI/VT100 emulators on Macs and PCs
- such as kermit, NCSA telnet, VersaTerm Pro, and WinQVT. Various terminal
- emulators implement the print feature differently. There is also a closely
- related method called _attached-to-ansi-no-formfeed_ which is the same
- except for the lack of formfeed character at the end of the print job.
-
- _Attached-to-wyse_ and _attached-to-wyse-no-formfeed_ are very similar to
- "attached-to-ansi". The only difference is in the control characters sent to
- turn the printer on and off. The Wyse version uses Ctrl-R for on, and Ctrl-T
- for off.
-
- The second selection is the standard UNIX print command. The default is
- _lpr_, but it can be changed on a system basis to anything so desired in
- /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.
-
- The third selection is the user's personal choice for a UNIX print command.
- The text to be printed is piped into the command. _Enscript_ or _lpr_ with
- options are popular choices. The actual command is retained even if one of
- the other print selections is used for a while.
-
- Both the second and third sections are actually lists of possible commands
- rather than single commands.
-
- If you have a PostScript printer attached to a PC or Macintosh, then you
- will need to use a utility called _ansiprt_ to get printouts on your
- printer. _Ansiprt_ source code and details can be found in the ./contrib
- directory of the _Alpine_ distribution.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Save and Export
-
- _Alpine_ users get two options for moving messages in _Alpine_: _Save_ and
- _Export_. _Save_ is used when the message should remain ``in the _Alpine_
- realm.'' Saved messages include the complete header (including header lines
- normally hidden by _Alpine_), are placed in a _Alpine_ folder collection and
- accumulate in a standard folder format which _Alpine_ can read. In contrast,
- the _Export_ command is used to write the contents of a message to a file
- for use outside of _Alpine_. Messages which have been exported are placed in
- the user's home directory (unless the feature use-current-dir is turned on),
- not in a _Alpine_ folder collection. Unless FullHeaderMode is toggled on,
- all delivery-oriented headers are stripped from the message. Even with
- _Export_, _Alpine_ retains message separators so that multiple messages can
- accumulate in a single file and subsequently be accessed as a folder. On
- UNIX systems, the _Export_ command pays attention to the standard _umask_
- for the setting of the file permissions.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Sent Mail
-
- _Alpine_'s default behavior is to keep a copy of each outgoing message in a
- special "sent mail" folder. This folder is also called the fcc for "file
- carbon copy". The existence, location and name of the sent mail folder are
- all configurable. Sent mail archiving can be turned off by setting the
- configuration variable default-fcc="". The sent mail folder is assumed to be
- in the default collection for _Save_s, which is the first collection named
- in folder-collections. The name of the folder can be chosen by entering a
- name in _default-fcc_. With _PC-Alpine_, this can be a bit complicated. If
- the default collection for _Save_s is local (DOS), then the _default-fcc_
- needs to be SENTMAIL, which is syntax for a DOS file. However, if the
- default collection for _Save_s is remote, then the _default-fcc_ needs to be
- sent-mail to match the UNIX syntax.
-
- The configuration variable fcc-name-rule also plays a role in selecting the
- folder to save sent mail in.
-
- A danger here is that the sent mail could grow without bound. For this
- reason, we thought it useful to encourage the users to periodically prune
- their sent mail folder. The first time _Alpine_ is used each month it will
- offer to archive all messages sent from the month before. _Alpine_ also
- offers to delete all the sent mail archive folders which are more than 1
- month old. If the user or system has disabled sent mail archiving (by
- setting the configuration variable _default-fcc=""_) there will be no
- pruning question.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Spell Checker
-
- Both UNIX _Alpine_ and _PC-Alpine_ depend on the system for their spell
- checking and dictionary. _Pico_, the text editor, uses the same spell
- checking scheme as _Alpine_.
-
- Lines beginning with ">" (usually messages included in replies) are not
- checked. The message text to be checked is on the standard input and the
- incorrect words are expected on the standard output.
-
- The default spell checker is UNIX _spell_. You can replace this by setting
- the speller configuration variable. A common choice for a superior
- replacement is _ispell_.
-
- _PC-Alpine_ relies on the aspell library being installed. Aspell is
- independent of Alpine. The Windows version has traditionally been available
- at http://aspell.net/win32/. You'll need to download and install both Aspell
- and a precompiled dictionary. Aspell is provided in an installer package.
- Dictionaries, to be installed after Aspell, are in '.exe' files to download
- and run.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-Terminal Emulation and Key Mapping
-
- UNIX _Alpine_ has been designed to require as little as possible from the
- terminal. At the minimum, _Alpine_ requires cursor positioning, clear to end
- of line, and inverse video. Unfortunately, there are terminals that are
- missing some of these such as a vt52. _Alpine_ makes no assumptions as to
- whether the terminal wraps or doesn't wrap. If the terminal has other
- capabilities it may use some of them. _Alpine_ won't run well on older
- terminals that require a space on the screen to change video attributes,
- such as the Televideo 925. One can get around this on some terminals by
- using "protected field" mode. The terminal can be made to go into protected
- mode for reverse video, and then reverse video is assigned to protected
- mode.
-
- _Alpine_ handles screens of most any size and resizing on the fly. It
- catches SIGWINCH and does the appropriate thing.
-
- On the input side of things, _Alpine_ uses all the standard keys, most of
- the control keys and (in function-key mode) the function keys. _Alpine_
- avoids certain control keys, specifically ^S, ^Q, ^H, and _^\_ because they
- have other meanings outside of _Alpine_ (they control data flow, etc.) _^H_
- is treated the same as the _delete_ key, so the _backspace_ or _delete_ keys
- always work regardless of any configuration. There is a feature
- _compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d_ which makes the delete key behave like ^D
- rather than ^H (deletes current character instead of previous character).
-
- Sometimes a communications program or communications server in between you
- and the other end will eat certain control characters. There is a
- work-around when you need it. If you type two escape characters followed by
- a character that will be interpreted as the character with the control key
- depressed. For example, _ESC ESC T_ is equivalent to _^T_.
-
- When a function key is pressed and _Alpine_ is in regular (non-function key)
- mode, _Alpine_ traps escape sequences for a number of common function keys
- so users don't get an error message or have an unexpected command executed
- for each character in the function key's escape sequence. _Alpine_ expects
- the following escape sequences from terminals defined as VT100:
-
- ANSI/VT100
- F1: <ESC>OP
- F2: <ESC>OQ
- F3: <ESC>OR
- F4: <ESC>OS
- F5: <ESC>Op
- F6: <ESC>Oq
- F7: <ESC>Or
- F8: <ESC>Os
- F9: <ESC>Ot
- F10: <ESC>Ou
- F11: <ESC>Ov
-
- Arrow keys are a special case. _Alpine_ has the escape sequences for a
- number of conventions for arrow keys hard coded and does not use _termcap_
- to discover them. This is because _termcap_ is sometimes incorrect, and
- because many users have PC's running terminal emulators that don't conform
- exactly to what they claim to emulate. There is a feature called
- termdef-takes-precedence which can be set to cause the _termcap_ or
- _terminfo_ definitions to be used instead of the built in definitions. Some
- arrow keys on old terminals send single control characters like _^K_ (one
- even sends _^\_). These arrow keys will not work with _Alpine_. The most
- popular escape sequences for arrow keys are:
-
- Up: <ESC>[A <ESC>?x <ESC>A <ESC>OA
- Down: <ESC>[B <ESC>?r <ESC>B <ESC>OB
- Right: <ESC>[C <ESC>?v <ESC>C <ESC>OC
- Left: <ESC>[D <ESC>?t <ESC>D <ESC>OD