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alpine(1)                                                            alpine(1)




NAME

       alpine - an Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email


SYNTAX

       alpine [ options ] [ address , address ]

       alpinef [ options ] [ address , address ]


DESCRIPTION

       Alpine is a screen-oriented message-handling tool.  In its default con-
       figuration, 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.  alpinef is a variant of
       Alpine  that uses function keys rather than mnemonic single-letter com-
       mands.  Alpine's basic feature set includes:

              View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.

              Compose messages in a simple editor (Pico) with word-wrap and  a
              spelling  checker.   Messages may be postponed for later comple-
              tion.

              Full-screen selection and management of message folders.

              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.

              New  mail  checking  and notification occurs automatically every
              2.5 minutes and  after  certain  commands,  e.g.  refresh-screen
              (Ctrl-L).

              On-line, context-sensitive help screens.

       Alpine supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), an Inter-
       net 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  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  pro-
       grams)  to  exchange  formatted  documents, spread-sheets, image files,
       etc, via Internet email.

       Alpine uses the 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  for-
       mats, as well as routines to access remote mail and news servers, using
       IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and NNTP (Network  News  Trans-
       port  Protocol).   Outgoing  mail  is  usually posted directly via SMTP
       (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).


OPTIONS

       The command line options/arguments are:

       address             Send mail to address.  This will cause Alpine to go
                           directly into the message composer.

       -attach file        Send mail with the listed file as an attachment.

       -attachlist file-list
                           Send  mail  with the listed file-list as an attach-
                           ments.

       -attach_and_delete file
                           Send mail with the listed file  as  an  attachment,
                           and remove the file after the message is sent.

       -aux local_directory
                           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.

       -bail               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.

       -c context-number   context-number is the number corresponding  to  the
                           folder-collection  to  which  the  -f  command line
                           argument should be  applied.   By  default  the  -f
                           argument  is  applied  to the first defined folder-
                           collection.

       -conf               Produce a sample/fresh copy of the system-wide con-
                           figuration file, pine.conf, on the standard output.
                           This is distinct from the per-user .pinerc file.

       -convert_sigs -p pinerc
                           Convert signature files into literal signatures.

       -copy_abook <local_abook> <remote_abook>
                           Copy the  local  address  book  file  to  a  remote
                           address book folder.

       -copy_pinerc <local_pinerc> <remote_pinerc>
                           Copy  the  local  pinerc  file  to  a remote pinerc
                           folder.

       -d debug-level      Output diagnostic info at debug-level (0-9) to  the
                           current  .pine-debug[1-4] file.  A value of 0 turns
                           debugging off and suppresses the .pine-debug  file.

       -d key[=val]        Fine  tuned  output  of  diagnostic  messages where
                           "flush" causes debug file writing  without  buffer-
                           ing,  "timestamp" appends each message with a time-
                           stamp, "imap=n" where n is between 0 and  4  repre-
                           senting  none  to verbose IMAP telemetry reporting,
                           "numfiles=n" where n is between  0  and  31  corre-
                           sponding  to the number of debug files to maintain,
                           and "verbose=n" where n is between 0 and 9 indicat-
                           ing an inverse threshold for message output.

       -f folder           Open  folder  (in  first defined folder collection,
                           use -c n to specify another collection) instead  of
                           INBOX.

       -F file             Open   named  text  file  and  view  with  Alpine's
                           browser.

       -h                  Help: list valid command-line options.

       -i                  Start up in the FOLDER INDEX screen.

       -I keystrokes       Initial (comma separated list of) keystrokes  which
                           Alpine should execute on startup.

       -install            For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
                           prompt  for  some  basic  setup  information,  then
                           exits.

       -k                  Use function keys for commands. This is the same as
                           running the command alpinef.

       -n number           Start up with current message-number set to number.

       -o                  Open first folder read-only.

       -p config-file      Use  config-file as the personal configuration file
                           instead of the default .pinerc.

       -P config-file      Use config-file as the configuration  file  instead
                           of    default    system-wide   configuration   file
                           pine.conf.

       -pinerc file        Output fresh pinerc configuration to file, preserv-
                           ing  the  settings  of  variables that the user has
                           made.  Use file set to ``-'' to make output  go  to
                           standard  out.  <IP> -registry cmd 20 For PC-Alpine
                           only, this option affects the  values  of  Alpine's
                           registry entries.  Possible values for cmd are set,
                           clear, and dump.  Set will  always  reset  Alpine's
                           registry entries according to its current settings.
                           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.

       -r                  Use restricted/demo mode.  Alpine  will  only  send
                           mail  to  itself and functions like save and export
                           are restricted.

       -sort order         Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the follow-
                           ing  orders:  arrival,  date, subject, orderedsubj,
                           thread, from, size,  score,  to,  cc,  or  reverse.
                           Arrival  order  is  the  default.   The OrderedSubj
                           choice simulates a threaded sort.  Any sort may  be
                           reversed  by  adding  /reverse  to  it.  Reverse by
                           itself is the same as arrival/reverse.

       -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  par-
                           ticular copy of Alpine you are using.

       -uninstall          For PC-Alpine only, this option causes PC-Alpine to
                           remove references to Alpine in Windows settings.

       -url url            Open the given url.  Cannot be used with -f  or  -F
                           options.

       -v                  Version: Print version information.

       -version            Version: Print version information.

       -x config           Use configuration exceptions in config.  Exceptions
                           are used to override your default  pinerc  settings
                           for a particular platform, can be a local file or a
                           remote folder.

       -z                  Enable ^Z and SIGTSTP so alpine may be suspended.

       -option=value       Assign value to the config option option e.g. -sig-
                           nature-file=sig1 or -feature-list=signature-at-bot-
                           tom (Note: feature-list values are additive)


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.
        o system-wide pine.conf file.
        o personal .pinerc file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)
        o command-line options.
        o system-wide 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
         DISPLAY     (determines if Alpine can display IMAGE attachments.)
         SHELL       (if not set, default is /bin/sh )
         MAILCAPS    (semicolon delimited list of path names to mailcap files)


FILES

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


SEE ALSO

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

       Newsgroup:  comp.mail.pine
       Alpine Information Center:  http://www.washington.edu/alpine
       Source distribution:  ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/alpine/alpine.tar.gz
       Alpine Technical Notes, included in the source distribution.
       C-Client messaging API library, included in the source distribution.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       The University of Washington Alpine development team (part of the UW Office
       of Computing & Communications) includes:

        Project Leader:           Mike Seibel
        Principal authors:        Mike Seibel, Steve Hubert, Jeff Franklin
        C-Client library & IMAPd: Mark Crispin
        Documentation:            Many people!
        Project oversight:        Terry Gray, Lori Stevens
        Principal Patrons:        Ron Johnson, Mike Bryant
        Initial Alpine code base: Pine - by the University of Washington,
                                  Elm - by Dave Taylor & USENET Community Trust
        Initial Pico code base:   MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy
        User Interface design:    Inspired by UCLA's "Ben" mailer for MVS
        Suggestions/fixes/ports:  Folks from all over!

       $Date: 2008-08-22 13:40:16 -0700 (Fri, 22 Aug 2008) $



                                 Version 2.00                        alpine(1)

alpine 2.00 - Generated Sun Sep 28 09:52:17 CDT 2008
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