Synopsis:
Pine: How to configure pine for Princeton e-mail

Solution:
Pine is a Unix based e-mail client with a text-only interface. Although this limits its usability for a first time user, it has the great advantages of being extremely robust, widely available, and amazingly fast due to those same characteristics.

All settings for pine on the unix servers on the Princeton network are stored as .pinerc files in home folders for all Princeton affiliates with a unix account. For advanced users, editing this file may be as convenient as following the directions for setup listed below:

Setting up pine to access your OIT e-mail account
The steps below are for IMAP users; if you are an Exchange user, the server setting is "exchangeimap.princeton.edu" in place of "imap.princeton.edu."

1. Login to arizona or hats and start up pine.
2. Once logged in, type S for setup, and then C to go into the configuration menu.
3. For the setting listed as "smtp-server", make sure it is either blank or has the text "". If it has anything else, press Enter, delete all the text, and press Enter to activate the new blank value.
4. The setting entry "inbox-path" should be set to "{imap.princeton.edu/ssl}INBOX". If the value of that setting is anything else (such as {imap} or {imap.princeton.edu}), it should be changed to the text listed above.
5. For "default-fcc", the value should be set to "{imap.princeton.edu/ssl}sent-mail", for "default-saved-msg-folder", it should be "{imap.princeton.edu/ssl}saved-messages", and for "postponed-folder" it should be "{imap.princeton.edu/ssl}postponed-msgs".
6. At this point, the sections of the .pinerc file (if you were editing it, rather than going along with the setup process here) edited by you should look like the following:

   smtp-server=
   

   inbox-path={imap.princeton.edu/ssl}INBOX
   

   default-fcc={imap.princeton.edu/ssl}sent-mail
   

   default-saved-msg-folder={imap.princeton.edu/ssl}saved-messages
   

   postponed-folder={imap.princeton.edu/ssl}postponed-msgs
   
   

7. Type E to exit setup and, if asked, Y to confirm changes. At this point, you should be back in the main menu.

Setting up collection lists on pine
Pine can be used to collect e-mail from multiple e-mail accounts using the same program. This feature is incorporated into pine as "Collection lists" and can be configured in Setup as well. The following are directions to make sure that OIT e-mail is being collected by pine:

1. Launch pine.
2. Once logged in, type S for setup, and then L to go into the collection list setup.
3. In there, if you followed the directions above (or your pine configuration is correct), you should already see at least two entries, probably entitled "local mail" and "imap mail".
4. If you do not have a "local mail" entry, press A to add it and enter "local mail" in the "Nickname" field and "mail/" in the "Path" field. Leave the other fields blank and hit ^X (Control-X) to save changed and exit the dialog. You will now be able to create local unix folders which will be saved under the directory called "mail".
5. If you do not have an "imap mail" entry, press A to add it and enter "imap mail" in the "Nickname" field and "imap.princeton.edu/ssl" in the "Server" field. Leave the other fields blank and hit ^X (Control-X) to save changed and exit the dialog.
6. At this point, the sections of the .pinerc file (if you were editing it, rather than going along with the setup process here) edited by you should look like the following:

   folder-collections="localmail" mail/[],
   

   "imap mail" {imap.princeton.edu/ssl}[]
   

Problems with viewing sub-folders

1. Launch pine.
2. Once logged in, type S for setup, and then C to go into configuration.
3. Check the "enable-lame-list-mode" option under "Folder Preferences". Do the same for "separate-folder-and-directory-entries" option as well.
4. At this point, you should have no problems with viewing sub-folders of your e-mail accounts in Pine.

For more information regarding Pine at Princeton University, please see Solution 4930.