pine

character-based email and news client

TLDR

Start Pine mail client

$ pine

Compose a message to a specific address

$ pine [user@example.com]

Open a specific folder instead of INBOX

$ pine -f [folder]

Start in the folder index instead of the main menu

$ pine -i

Output a fresh configuration to a file

$ pine -conf > [pinerc.new]

SYNOPSIS

pine [options] [address ...]

DESCRIPTION

pine (Program for Internet News and Email) is a character-based email and news client. Developed at University of Washington, it was widely used for its user-friendly interface.

PARAMETERS

-f folder

Open folder instead of INBOX.

-i

Start in the folder index screen instead of the main menu.

-I keystrokes

Execute comma-separated initial keystrokes on startup (e.g., CR, SPACE, ^C).

-conf

Output a fresh pinerc configuration to stdout.

-p file

Use file as the personal configuration file instead of ~/.pinerc.

-P file

Use file as the system-wide configuration file instead of /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.

-r

Open first folder in read-only mode.

-attach file

Send mail with file as an attachment.

-d level

Set debug level (0-9) for diagnostic output.

-h

Display help listing valid command-line options.

CONFIGURATION

Configuration stored in ~/.pinerc. Use S (Setup) from main menu for interactive configuration. System-wide configuration in /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.

MAIN MENU

$ ?  HELP
C  COMPOSE MESSAGE
I  MESSAGE INDEX
L  FOLDER LIST
A  ADDRESS BOOK
S  SETUP
Q  QUIT

CAVEATS

Pine is obsolete; use Alpine instead. Not all features work with modern mail servers. License issues led to Alpine fork.

HISTORY

Pine was developed at the University of Washington starting in 1989 by Mark Crispin and later superseded by Alpine under Apache license.