Notes on Pine - my favourite email client

written by A. Ernst (, August 18, 2005)

The main advantage of Pine is the fact, that it is a console-based
email client. Using Pine, you can access your email account
from anywhere in the world using telnet or ssh.

Access your INBOX using the IMAP protocol

Here you can find some information about the IMAP protocol. It is basically an alternative protocol to POP3, which supports message flags and lots of other stuff. In order to use IMAP, edit your Pine runtime configuration file named ".pinerc": Change your inbox-path to something like

inbox-path={instmail.uni-heidelberg.de/imap/user="ari-aernst"}

inbox-path={imapsrv.fz-juelich.de/ssl/novalidate-cert/user=a.ernst}INBOX

inbox-path={popix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de/imap/user="aernst"}

Plug in your IMAP server (not POP3!) and change your user name appropriately.

Move many emails to another folder

In the Folder list press a to create the new folder in which you want to save the messages. If you would like to move messages to an existing folder, skip this point.
In the Config screen search (you can use the w command) for enable-aggregate-command-set and make sure an X appears beside it.
Put your cursor on the first message you want to include in the group.
Press the semicolon key ; At the bottom of the screen you'll see a menu titled "SELECT criteria" with the following options:

A Select All
N number
T text * see below
C select cur[rent]
D date
S status
Say you want to select 10 posts and they have no text in common, not any other feature in common. You'll need to use the c command on each entry. With the cursor on the first message press c. Move the cursor to each message and press ;c Now you have all 10 messages marked with an X (the X appears after you enter the ;c commands). In case you want to mark messages 1-1000, type n and then a number range, for example 1-1000.
Press z to zoom in on the selected messages. You should now see only those messages marked with an X.
Press a to "apply" the following command. You *must* remember to use the apply command or else the subsequent command will affect only the first one.
You'll see a menu appear at the bottom of the screen with the following options:

D delete
U undelete
R reply
F forward
Y print
T take addr
S save
E export
(the T take addr can be used to take addresses form several posts and place them in a Distribution List for mass mailings.)
Press S to save these marked messages Follow the prompt to name the folder in which you want to save them and then you'll see them all marked with D for deleted.
Press z to zoom back to your original mailbox.

Delete Attachments while Composing a Message

Once you have added an Attachment file to your message, you might ask yourself how to delete it, in case you do not want to have this attachment anymore: Simply move the cursor to the Attachment line and press CTRL-K to delete the Attachment line.

Searching Pine screens

Just press the w Button to search for terms or keywords in any of Pine's screens. You can search your Inbox or any other folder, the setup screen, the address book, anything you like.

Sync your Mac OS X address book with pine's address book