ECE Sysadmin Wiki

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==== Using Pine & Alpine with the ECE Mail Server ====

 
Pine (and Alpine and re-alpine, which are the names of modern versions) is a character-based email client program, and versions exist for most computer platforms.  It has both extensive configurable processing capabilities and good usability for beginners, as available commands are listed, menu-style and depending on context, at the bottom of the screen.  For convenience, the client program will be called PINE in this web page.

 On The Tier 1 computer systems the global PINE configuration file,  managed by the computer system admins, sets the basic variables such as the SMTP server and IMAP server.
These variables and others can be also set in the users configuration file  (~/.pinerc in unix).

=== Basic Configuration ===

The configuration file can be changed either via PINE's menus or by manual editing of the config file (~/.pinerc in *nix) with a text editor.  Using PINE's menus is much safer and provides extensive help for each option.  From PINE's main screen (if necessary, you can usually hit "M" to see this), hit "S" (Setup) and "C" (Config) to get to the top of the many many screens of possible settings.  But notice the highlighted help, navigation (including WhereIs, a.k.a. search), and entry menu keys listed at the bottom, which make the set-up considerably easier.

The two critical settings are for the SMTP Server and Inbox Path (the IMAP Server).

  * SMTP Server (for sending) = mail.ece.utoronto.ca:465/ssl

  * Inbox Path = {mail.ece.utoronto.ca:993/ssl/user=<username>}INBOX

 Sample **.pinerc** entry for user **david**:

  smtp-server=mail.ece.utoronto.ca:465/ssl
  inbox-path={mail.ece.utoronto.ca:993/ssl/user=david}INBOX

Notice the brace brackets for the Inbox Path: this is how PINE specifies the use of IMAP.

=== IMAP Folder Navigation ===

You can see all of your available IMAP folders on mail.ece.utoronto.ca by setting up a new "collectionList".  From the main PINE screen, hit "S" (Setup) and then "L" (collectionList) - this may be on a lower page and require scrolling down via the space key to make the option visible - and then "A" to Add a new collection.  On this new page, set the Nickname to something like "ECE IMAP Folders", then specify the Server as before:

  *  Server    : {mail.ece.utoronto.ca:993/ssl/user=<username>}

and leave the "Path" specifiction blank.  Control-X will save the configuration and exit this screen after you hit "Y" to confirm.  Now hit "E" (Exit) to the Main screen, and "L" to get to the folder selection screen.  Move the highlight with the cursor keys and hit "Enter" when "ECE IMAP Folders" is highlighted in order to see all your IMAP folders: there will be a few default ones even if you haven't used mail.ece previously.  Mail client programs, including PINE, and the procmail incoming message filter program can create new IMAP folders as necessary.

When looking at your ECE IMAP folder collection, you will notice that there is a "[.]" at the end of each folder name, and the cursor can be moved to both the folder name and to the trailing "[.]".  Since mail.ece uses a separate file to store each email message, PINE can't tell, without opening it for examination, whether each folder is a container for email messages or a container for more folders (or it could conceivably be both).  Selecting a folder name will treat it as a folder for email messages, and selecting the trailing "[.]" will treat it as a subdirectory for folders.  An inapplicable choice causes no harm: you'll just get a message about being in an empty directory or in a folder with zero messages, and you can use "<" to go back to the previous directory level.

To keep your email consistent, particularly if you use multiple different devices and/or programs to access it, folders for saved and sorted messages should be kept on the IMAP server.  IMAP folders are specified almost exactly the same as the Inbox Path above, but with a specific folder name instead of "INBOX".  For instance,

  * Default Fcc (File carbon copy) = {mail.ece.utoronto.ca:993/ssl/user=<username>}Sent

would configure PINE to use the same folder as Thunderbird for copies of outgoing messages.  (Though note that it's possible to change Thunderbird's defaults too.)  You should similarly use IMAP folders for:

  * Default Fcc (File carbon copy) (though this can be left blank if you don't want default copies of sent messages)
  * Default Saved Message Folder
  * Postponed Folder
  * Trash Folder

Other folder locations (such as "Read Message Folder") aren't necessary unless you have enabled some of PINE's other features (such as automatically moving read messages to the specified folder).

== Saving Messages ==

When saving messages, the initial default is taken from the "Devault Saved Message Folder" value mentioned above, though it's usualy to supply a specific folder name, and the folder will be created if necessary in the current collection.  But you can also switch to a different collection - see below about setting up additional collections - and save your message to a new or pre-existing folder there.  As usual, the bottom of the screen shows all the options, but one of the simplest is to use the "Control-N" to rotate among your different folder collections and then type a folder name, or "Control-T" will let you use the cursor keys to select both the appropriate collection and a pre-existing folder.

=== Other Collections ===

You may create additional folder collections as you please, whether purely for saving messages manually or for managing incoming messages which are sorted using a procmail filter, on the "collectionLists" PINE configuration screen ("S" and then "L" from the main screen).  Aside from the special Incoming collection, the group of folders will be on a single IMAP server and will include all folders found at the specified path.

== IMAP Folders from Other Accounts ==

You are not limited to accessing folders from a single IMAP server.  You can, by following the same steps as above, set up a collection of folders from another email service or a previous group email server.  For instance, you might follow the same procedure above (as for adding your ECE IMAP folders) but instead specify:

  *  Nickname  : EECG pinemail
  *  Server    : {picton.eecg.utoronto.ca:993/ssl/novalidate-cert/user=<username>}
  *  Path      : pinemail

in order to be able to work with messages saved in folders within ~/pinemail on the old EECG email system.  Each collection added this way becomes a new choice on the Collection List selection page ("L" from the main menu).

=== Multiple Incoming Folders ===

The INBOX is PINE's special folder for incoming messages.  If you actively use multiple email accounts and/or if you presort your incoming messages with procmail, you may want to have an Incoming-Folders collection containing multiple folders.  To do this, you first have to toggle the "enable-incoming-folders" feature in PINE's configuration screen (remember that the "W" command is the easy way to locate the setting) and then restart the program.  "Incoming-Folders" will then appear as an option when you choose "L" ("FOLDER LIST") on the main menu, and the "Incoming Message Folders" screen has an "A" option for adding other folders in addition to the INBOX from mail.ece.

Any ECE mail folder can be added to the Incoming collection, though you have to enter the folder name manually.  (You probably already have all your ECE folders set up as a separate collection, as described in "IMAP Folder Navigation" above, if you need to check the names.)  Notice the short cut for specifying the new Incoming folder's server name: "Control-X" duplicates the INBOX server name, which is what you want for other ECE IMAP folders.  And you probably want to duplicate the new folder name as the nickname, although this can be modified  at a later time.