Using Pine For E-mail

The most popular use of UMM's central Unix system is for sending and receiving electronic mail (email). Using email, you can communicate with any student or faculty member at UMM, or with any of the millions of people connected to the Internet.

This handout teaches you how to work with electronic mail using a software package called pine on UMM's central Unix system (cda). The Unix system is accessible from all computers on the UMM campus network, including lab computers and any computers connected to ResNet.

Beginning Pine

Each time you log on, the system will tell you if you have new mail. Enter the command pine at the cda.morris.umn.edu> prompt.

The first time you use Pine, you will see an introductory screen. Near the bottom of the screen will be a dark bar with a flashing cursor and the question:

Request document?

Press N for No. Do not press the Enter key. This question will not appear next time you use Pine. Whenever Pine asks you a question in this bottom area of the screen, you must answer it before you can go on.

Pine's Main Menu

? - HELP

C - COMPOSE MESSAGE

I - FOLDER INDEX

L - FOLDER LIST

A - ADDRESS BOOK

S - SETUP

Q - QUIT

You'll also see two lines of command options at the bottom of the screen.

Reading Mail

To read mail that's waiting, select the Folder Index option on the main menu. You can either move the highlighted cursor bar with the arrow keys and press Enter (Return on Macintosh keyboards), or press the I key.

Now you'll see your "Inbox" folder list, including all new mail. Press Enter to see the first message.

If the message is more than one screen long, press the space bar to go on to the next screen.

Replying to a Message

When you're reading a message, you'll have two lines of command options at the bottom of the screen. One of these is Reply. To reply to the message you're reading, press the R key. Pine asks you:

Include original message in reply? 

Press Y to include the text of the original message in your reply, or N to leave it out.

Now you'll see a new editing screen for your reply message. Pine uses the editor pico for composing messages. Your cursor will be in a part of the screen labeled ---Message Text---. Type in your mail message here.

Send is ^X on this screen's command options. The ^ character stands for the ctrl key (control on Mac keyboards). So when you're done typing your message and are ready to send it, hold down the ctrl key and press X.

Pine responds: Send message?

Press Y for Yes. Pine will tell you Message sent and will return you to the message you were reading.

Deleting or Saving Mail Messages

Your mail messages are always kept in your Pine "Inbox" until you delete or save them. Remember to delete any messages you don't need to keep. Your allotment of disk space on cda is limited. The more messages you save, the closer you will come to filling your disk quota. If you fill your quota with mail, you must delete messages until you have disk space available again.

To delete the message on the screen, press D.

To save a message (moving it out of the Inbox into another folder), press S. Pine responds:

SAVE to folder [saved-messages]:

This prompt means that when you press Y or Enter, the message will be saved to a folder called saved-messages in your directory.

To re-read a saved message, go to the Pine Main Menu, select L (FOLDER LIST), and then select the saved-messages folder.

Printing a Message

To print the current message (the message you are reading): first to to the Chooser (on a Mac) or Print Setup/Page Setup (on a PC) to choose the printer where your message will be sent. Then, in pine, press Y.

Your Internet Address

Internet addresses are always in this format:

username@computername

Your Internet address is your cda username followed by @morris.umn.edu.

username@morris.umn.edu

 To send mail to any other UMM user, address your message to username@morris.umn.edu. You can find username information in the "Directories" listing on the UMM Web site.

Sending New Mail

To send mail to a person without using reply, you must first know the recipient's address (either a UMM username or any full Internet address).

From the Pine Main Menu, press C (for Compose Message). You will now see an editing screen for a new message.

Your cursor will be at the To: line. Type in the UMM or Internet address and press Enter.

If you want to send a Cc: (carbon copy) or an Attachment: (an extra file enclosed with mail message), fill in those lines. You may also give your message a Subject: line.

Now type in your message. Editing options are available on the menu lines. ^G (ctrl-G) is the Get Help key.

When you're ready to send the message, press ^X (ctrl-X), then press Y to respond to Pine's Send message? prompt.

If you decide not to send the message, you can press ^C (ctrl-C) to cancel.

Quitting Pine and Logging Off

When you're done using Pine, press Q. Pine will respond: Really quit pine?

Press Y for Yes. If you saved or deleted mail while you were online, Pine will confirm with a message like this:

Press Y again. Now you will be returned to the system prompt, cda.morris.umn.edu>.

To log off the system entirely, type logout or exit. It's very important to log off before you leave the computer!

Computing Services keeps a copy of a more extensive manual, "Getting Started with Pine," available to use in 10 Behmler. For more information and answers to questions, call the UMM Computing Services Helpline at 589-6391, or contact the UMM Help Desk.