FAQ for comp.mail.pine

This page is intended to be an FAQ for people wanting to post questions to the Pine newsgroup comp.mail.pine. Please read this page to see if your query has been answered previously, before posting to the newsgroup.

Reading comp.mail.pine can be educational, but can also be tiresome. The number of FAQs that keep popping up is appalling. I'm beginning to understand the need for the Nancyboys. I post a periodic informational post on the 1st and 15th of every month that answers several FAQs and points people to further information. I hope this will reduce the number of FAQs being asked.

Other Resources for Pine

Frequently asked questions, and answers

Occasionally, you will see me write stuff like (M)ain (S)etup Collection(L)ist . That means that you should type in M S L, or in other words, go to the Main screen, choose Setup, and then Collection Lists. That convention is used throughout this FAQ list.

Finally, this is NOT a general Pine FAQ. This is collection of answers to questions that are seen frequently in comp.mail.pine.

Reading mail/news messages

  1. Can I read mail from a POP3 server using Pine?
  2. I have multiple email addresses. How do I read them all using Pine?
  3. How do I stop Pine from downloading messages to a local mbox in my home directory?
  4. How do I stop Pine from moving messages from my INBOX after I read them?
  5. My login id on my local machine is different from the one on my mail server. How do I read my email?
  6. Can I sort my mail differently from the way I sort news?
  7. What is this DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA message all about How do I get rid of it?
  8. How do I delete an attachment from a message?
  9. When I post to newsgroups, my messages show up as "To: some.newsgroup" instead of "From: My Name". How do I fix this?
  10. I changed my From: header. Now my sent-mail index shows the From: name instead of the recipient's. How do I fix it?
  11. I used to use procmail to strip .signatures from my messages. Can Pine do that for me?
  12. How do I make Pine show me the X-Priority: or any other header for a message?
  13. How do I read rot13 encrypted messages?

Composing, Replying options

  1. When I send out email, my From address is user@machine.domain.com instead of user@domain.com. How do I correct it?
  2. When I typed in a local username in the To: field, I got an error message that it wasn't in my addressbook. What's wrong?
  3. I want to run a mailing list. Can I do it using Pine?
  4. How do I send email to many people without everyone knowing who else it's going to?
  5. Can I send email from the command-line using Pine without using the composer?
  6. How do I set my Reply-To: header?
  7. How do I change my From: header?
  8. When I try to reply to messages, I get prompted, Reply to all recipients? and it includes my own address. How do I make it exclude my addresses from the reply?
  9. How do I add a tag-line or .signature to my emails?
  10. I have a collection of .sig files in a directory/file. Can Pine use them to generate random signatures?
  11. Can I use a different set of signatures for certain email than others?
  12. Can I send messages with attachments and save just the message, and not the attachment in my sent-mail folder?
  13. I don't like the default editor that Pine provides. Can I use a different one like vi or emacs?
  14. I have a dial-up connection to the Internet. Usually, I compose all my messages offline. Can Pine automatically send all my postponed messages when I connect to the Internet?
  15. Can Pine authenticate me to my SMTP server before sending mail?

Roles, Rules and Filters

  1. My roles work fine when replying. How do I use one when composing a new message?
  2. My role doesn't work when I am Cc'd a message. Do I have to setup a separate role for the To: and Cc: patterns?
  3. I use a role to change my From: header. Now my sent-mail doesn't show my messages correctly and says that the messages are From: my role address instead of To: the recipients. What's wrong?
  4. Can I change my role after I've started composing?
  5. I used to use procmail to filter my messages into various folders. Can Pine do that?
  6. Does Pine support killfiles?
  7. Can I setup a rule to be used when something is NOT matched?
  8. How can I make Pine show me the score for a message?
  9. I setup my PC-Pine colors in (M)ain (S)etup (K)olor. But after the main screen, when I get to my message index, the colors are all gone. What's wrong?
  10. Can I use time-based filters to, say, move all messages older than a month to an archive mailbox?

Miscellaneous Questions

  1. How do I get new-mail notification from Pine?
  2. I filter messages into various folders. Can Pine tell me which folders have new mail in them?
  3. Can I search through all messages in a folder for a text string?
  4. Can I search through all folders for messages that contain a text string?
  5. How do I convert my addressbook into a remote addressbook?
  6. Every month, Pine asks me if I want to rename my old sent-mail and delete the old ones. How do I stop/change this behavior?
  7. How do I cancel a message I posted to a newsgroup?
  8. Can I have my deleted messages go to a trash folder instead of being deleted?

Infrequently Asked Questions

  1. Can I use display-filters on the message index?
  2. I have a text file full of email addresses. How do I make a Pine distribution list out of it?
  3. How do I change the content-type when composing new mail?
  4. Can I change the naming convention for the Fcc folder?
  5. How can I get self-signed certificates to work with Pine?