path: root/doc/alpine.1

.TH alpine 1 "Version 2.19.991"
.SH NAME
alpine \- an Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email
.SH SYNTAX 

.B alpine
[
.I options
] [
.I address
,
.I address
] 

.B alpinef
[
.I options
] [
.I address
,
.I address
]
.SH DESCRIPTION

Alpine is a screen-oriented message-handling tool.  In its default 
configuration, Alpine offers an intentionally limited set of 
functions geared toward the novice user, but it also has a large
list of optional "power-user" and personal-preference features.
.I alpinef 
is a variant of Alpine that uses function keys rather than mnemonic 
single-letter commands.
Alpine's basic feature set includes:
.IP
View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.
.IP
Compose messages in a simple editor (Pico) with word-wrap and a spelling
checker.  Messages may be postponed for later completion.
.IP
Full-screen selection and management of message folders.
.IP
Address book to keep a list of long or frequently-used addresses.
Personal distribution lists may be defined.
Addresses may be taken into the address book from
incoming mail without retyping them. 
.IP
New mail checking and notification occurs automatically every 2.5 minutes
and after certain commands, e.g. refresh-screen (Ctrl-L).
.IP
On-line, context-sensitive help screens.
.PP
Alpine supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), an Internet
Standard for representing multipart and multimedia data in email.
Alpine allows you to save MIME objects to files, and in some 
cases, can also initiate the correct program for viewing the object.
It uses the system's
.I mailcap 
configuration file to determine what program can process a particular MIME
object type. 
Alpine's message composer does not have integral multimedia capability, but
any type of data file --including multimedia-- can be attached to a text
message and sent using MIME's encoding rules.  This allows any group of
individuals with MIME-capable mail software (e.g. Alpine, PC-Alpine, or many
other programs) to exchange formatted documents, spread-sheets, image
files, etc, via Internet email. 
.PP
Alpine uses the 
.I c-client
messaging API to access local and remote mail folders. This
library provides a variety of low-level message-handling functions, 
including drivers
for a variety of different mail file formats, as well as routines
to access remote mail and news servers, using IMAP (Internet Message
Access Protocol) and NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol).  Outgoing mail
is usually posted directly via SMTP 
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
.SH OPTIONS
.if n .ta 2.8i
.if t .ta 2.1i

The command line options/arguments are:
.IP \fIaddress\fR 20
Send mail to 
.I address.
This will cause Alpine to go directly into the message composer.
.IP \fB-attach\ \fIfile\fR 20
Send mail with the listed
.I file
as an attachment.
.IP \fB-attachlist\ \fIfile-list\fR 20
Send mail with the listed
.I file-list
as an attachments.
.IP \fB-attach_and_delete\ \fIfile\fR 20
Send mail with the listed
.I file
as an attachment, and remove the file
after the message is sent.
.IP \fB-aux\ \fIlocal_directory\fR 20
PC-Alpine only. When using a remote configuration (-p <remote_config>) this tells
PC-Alpine the local directory to use for storing auxiliary files, like debug
files, address books, and signature files.
.IP \fB-bail\fR 20
Exit if the pinerc file does not exist. This might be useful if the config
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.
.IP \fB-c\ \fIcontext-number\fR 20
context-number is the number corresponding to the 
folder-collection to which the
.I -f
command line argument should be applied.  By default the
.I -f
argument is applied to the first defined folder-collection.
.IP \fB-conf\fR 20
Produce a sample/fresh copy of the 
system-wide configuration file,
.I pine.conf,
on the standard output. This is distinct from the per-user
.I .pinerc
file.
.IP \fB-convert_sigs\ \fI-p\ pinerc\fR 20
Convert signature files into literal signatures.
.IP \fB-copy_abook\ <\fIlocal_abook\fR>\ <\fIremote_abook\fR> 20
Copy the local address book file to a remote address book folder.
.IP \fB-copy_pinerc\ <\fIlocal_pinerc\fR>\ <\fIremote_pinerc\fR> 20
Copy the local pinerc file to a remote pinerc folder.
.IP \fB-d\ \fIdebug-level\fR 20
Output diagnostic info at
.I debug-level
(0-9) to the current
.I .pine-debug[1-4]
file.  A value of 0 turns debugging off and suppresses the
.I .pine-debug
file.
.IP \fB-d\ \fIkey[=val]\fR 20
Fine tuned output of diagnostic messages where "flush" causes
debug file writing without buffering, "timestamp" appends
each message with a timestamp, "imap=n" where n is between
0 and 4 representing none to verbose IMAP telemetry reporting,
"numfiles=n" where n is between 0 and 31 corresponding to the
number of debug files to maintain, and "verbose=n" where n is
between 0 and 9 indicating an inverse threshold for message
output.
.IP \fB-f\ \fIfolder\fR 20
Open 
.I folder 
(in first defined folder collection, use 
.I -c n
to specify another collection) instead of INBOX.
.IP \fB-F\ \fIfile\fR 20
Open named text file and view with Alpine's browser.
.IP \fB-h\fR 20
Help: list valid command-line options.
.IP \fB-i\fR 20
Start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen.
.IP \fB-I\ \fIkeystrokes\fR 20
Initial (comma separated list of) keystrokes which Alpine should execute
on startup.
.IP \fB-install\fR 20
For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to prompt for some basic
setup information, then exits.
.IP \fB-k\fR 20
Use function keys for commands. This is the same as running the command
.IR alpinef .
.IP \fB-n\ \fInumber\fR 20
Start up with current message-number set to 
.I number.
.IP \fB-o\fR 20
Open first folder read-only.
.IP \fB-p\ \fIconfig-file\fR 20
Use 
.I config-file
as the personal configuration file instead of the default 
.IR .pinerc .
.IP \fB-P\ \fIconfig-file\fR 20
Use 
.I config-file
as the configuration file instead of default
system-wide configuration file 
.IR pine.conf .
.IP \fB-pinerc\ \fIfile\fR 20
Output fresh pinerc configuration to 
.I file, preserving the settings of variables that the user has made.
Use \fIfile\fR set to ``-'' to make output go to standard out.
<IP> \fB-registry\ \fIcmd\fR 20
For PC-Alpine only, this option affects the values of 
Alpine's registry entries.
Possible values for \fIcmd\fR are set, clear, and dump.
\fISet\fR will always reset Alpine's registry 
entries according to its current settings.
\fIClear\fR will clear the registry values.
\fIClearsilent\fR will silently clear the registry values.
\fIDump\fR 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.
.IP \fB-r\fR 20
Use restricted/demo mode.
.I Alpine
will only send mail to itself
and functions like save and export are restricted.
.IP \fB-sort\ \fIorder\fR
Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the following orders: 
.I arrival, date, subject, orderedsubj, thread, from, size, score, to, cc,
or
.I reverse. Arrival 
order is the default. 
The OrderedSubj choice simulates a threaded sort.
Any sort may be reversed by adding 
.I /reverse
to it.
.I Reverse
by itself is the same as
.IR arrival/reverse .
.IP \fB-supported\fR 20
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.
.IP \fB-uninstall\fR 20
For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to remove references to
Alpine in Windows settings.
.IP \fB-url\ \fIurl\fR 20
Open the given
.I url.
Cannot be used with 
.I -f
or
.I -F
options.
.IP \fB-v\fR 20
Version: Print version information.
.IP \fB-version\fR 20
Version: Print version information.
.IP \fB-x\ \fIconfig\fR 20
Use configuration exceptions in
.I config.
Exceptions are used to override your default pinerc
settings for a particular platform, can be a local file or
a remote folder.
.IP \fB-z\fR 20
Enable ^Z and SIGTSTP so alpine may be suspended.
.IP \fI-option\=\fIvalue\fR 20
Assign 
.I value
to the config option 
.I option
e.g. -signature-file=sig1 or -feature-list=signature-at-bottom 
(Note: feature-list values are additive) 
.SH CONFIGURATION

There are several levels of Alpine configuration.  Configuration values at 
a given level over-ride corresponding values at lower levels.  In order of 
increasing precedence:

 o built-in defaults.
.br
 o system-wide 
.I pine.conf 
file.
.br
 o personal 
.I .pinerc 
file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)
.br
 o command-line options.
.br
 o system-wide 
.I pine.conf.fixed 
file.

There is one exception to the rule that configuration values are replaced
by the value of the same option in a higher-precedence file: the
feature-list variable has values that are additive, but can be negated by
prepending "no-" in front of an individual feature name. Unix Alpine also
uses the following environment variables: 

  TERM
.br
  DISPLAY     (determines if Alpine can display IMAGE attachments.)
.br
  SHELL       (if not set, default is /bin/sh )
.br
  MAILCAPS    (semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files)
.SH FILES
.if n .ta 2.8i
.if t .ta 2.1i

/usr/spool/mail/xxxx	Default folder for incoming mail.
.br
~/mail	Default directory for mail folders.
.br
~/.addressbook	Default address book file.
.br
~/.pine-debug[1-4]	Diagnostic log for debugging.
.br
~/.pinerc	Personal alpine config file.
.br
~/.pine-crash	Debug information useful to debug a crash.
.br
~/.newsrc	News subscription/state file.
.br
~/.mailcap	Personal mail capabilities file.
.br
~/.mime.types	Personal file extension to MIME type mapping
.br
/etc/mailcap	System-wide mail capabilities file.
.br
/etc/mime.types	System-wide file ext. to MIME type mapping
.br
/usr/local/lib/pine.info	Local pointer to system administrator.
.br
/usr/local/lib/pine.conf	System-wide configuration file.
.br
/usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed	 Non-overridable configuration file.
.br
/tmp/.\\usr\\spool\\mail\\xxxx	Per-folder mailbox lock files.
.br
~/.pine-interrupted-mail	Message which was interrupted.
.br
~/mail/postponed-msgs	For postponed messages.
.br
~/mail/sent-mail	Outgoing message archive (FCC).
.br
~/mail/saved-messages	Default destination for Saving messages.
.SH "SEE ALSO"

pico(1), binmail(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8), spell(1), imapd(8)

.br
Newsgroup:  comp.mail.pine

.br
Mailing List:
.br
Alpine-info, at https://www.washington.edu/alpine/alpine-info/

.br
Main Alpine distribution site:  
.br
http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/release/

.br
Alpine Technical Notes, included in the source distribution.

.br
C-Client messaging API library, included in the source distribution.
.SH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
.na 
.nf

This software is the result of the contribution of many individuals 
who have dedicated their time to support, improve and suggest ways 
to improve Alpine through the years. This software would not be 
possible without the support of the University of Washington in 
Seattle, Washington. The Alpine community extends its most sincere 
thanks to all contributors and invites everyone to join in and 
contribute to this project.