                     Notes on Configuration and Preferences

Pine in Function Key Mode

   The standard Pine uses alphabetic keys for most commands, and control
   keys in the composer. Despite possible appearances, the current
   bindings are the result of much discussion and thought. All the
   commands in the composer are single control characters. This keeps
   things very neat and simple for users. Two character commands in the
   composer are a possibility, but we're trying to avoid them because of
   the added complexity for the user.

   Pine can also operate in a function-key mode. To go into this mode
   invoke pine -k or (on some UNIX systems) pinef. On a UNIX system, you
   can link or copy the Pine executable to pinef to install pinef.
   Alternatively, users and systems administrators can set the
   use-function-keys feature in the personal or system-wide Pine
   configuration file. The command menus at the bottom of the screen will
   show F1-F12 instead of the alphabetic commands. In addition, the help
   screens will be written in terms of function keys and not alphabetic
   keys.

   One of the results of using Pine in function-key mode is that users can
   only choose from twelve commands at any given time. In alphabetic-key
   mode, a user can press a key for a command (say, q to quit) and that
   command can be fulfilled. In function-key mode, the command must be
   visible on the bottom key-menu in order to be used. There are some
   screens where four screens of commands are operational; function-key
   users can get to all of them, just not all at once.
     __________________________________________________________________

Domain Settings

   Pine uses the default domain for a few different tasks. First, it is
   tacked onto the user-id for outgoing email. Second, it is tacked onto
   all "local" (unqualified) addresses in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields of
   messages being composed (unless they are found in the address book or
   on an LDAP server). The domain name is also used to generate message-id
   lines for each outgoing message and to allow Pine to check if an
   address is that of the current Pine user.

   Pine determines the domain name according to whichever of these it
   finds. The list here is in decreasing order of precedence.
    1. Value of the variable user-domain in the system fixed configuration
       file
    2. Value of the variable user-domain in the personal configuration
       file
    3. Value of the variable user-domain in the system-wide configuration
       file
    4. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
       by a system fixed configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to
       yes
    5. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
       by a personal configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to yes
    6. Value from an external database (DNS, /etc/hosts, NIS) as modified
       by a system configuration file if use-only-domain-name set to yes
    7. Unmodified value (host name) from an external database

   The easiest way for this system to work is for PC-Pine users and UNIX
   Pine system administrators to set the user-domain variable. The
   variable use-only-domain-name is helpful if your site supports/requires
   hostless addressing, but for some reason you don't want to use the
   user-domain variable.
     __________________________________________________________________

Syntax for Collections

   In many environments, it is quite common to have collections of
   archived mail on various hosts around the network. Using the folder
   collections facility in Pine, access to these archives is just as
   simple as access to folders on Pine's local disk.

   "Collection" is the word we use in Pine to describe a set of folders. A
   collection corresponds loosely to a "directory" containing mail
   folders. Folders within a defined collection can be manipulated
   (opened, saved-to, etc) using just their simple name. Any number of
   folder collections can be defined, and Pine will adjust its menus and
   prompts to help navigate them.

   The way collections are defined in Pine is with the folder-collections
   variable in the Pine configuration file. Folder-collections takes a
   list of one or more collections, each (optionally) preceded by a
   user-defined logical name (label). Once collections are defined, Pine
   adjusts its menus and behavior to allow choosing files by their simple
   name within the collection.

   Consider the following:
   folder-collections=  Local-Mail      C:\MAIL\[],
                        Remote-Mail     {imap.u.example.edu}mail/[]

   The example shows two collections defined (a comma separated list;
   newlines in the list are OK if there's one or more spaces before the
   next entry), one local and one remote. Each collection is a
   space-delimited pair of elements-first an optional logical-name and
   second the collection specifier. The logical-name can have spaces if it
   has quotes around it (but keeping the logical name short and
   descriptive works best). Pine will use the logical-name (if provided)
   to reference all folders in the collection, so the user never has to
   see the ugliness of the collection specifier.

   The collection specifier can be thought of as an extended IMAP format
   (see the Remote Folders section for a description of IMAP format
   names). Basically, a pair of square-brackets are placed in the fully
   qualified IMAP path where the simple folder name (the part without the
   host name and path) would appear. Like IMAP, the path can be either
   fully qualified (i.e., with a leading '/') or relative to your home
   directory.

   An advanced feature of this notation is that a pattern within the
   square brackets allows the user to define a collection to be a subset
   of a directory. For example, a collection defined with the specifier:
        M-Mail          C:MAIL/[m*]


   will provide a view in the folder lister of all folders in the PC's
   "C:MAIL" directory that start with the letter 'm' (case insensitive
   under DOS, of course). Further, the wildcard matching will honor
   characters trailing the '*' in the pattern.

   From within Pine, the "Folder List" display will be adjusted to allow
   browsing of the folders in any defined collection. Even more, you'll
   notice in the Goto and Save commands a pair of sub-commands to rotate
   through the list of logical collection names, so only a simple name
   need be input in order to operate on a folder in any collection.

   The first collection specified in the folder-collections has special
   significance. That folder is the "default collection for saves". By
   default, in cases where the user does not specify which collection
   should be used to Save a message, the default collection for saves will
   be used. Also, if the default-fcc is a relative file name, then it is
   relative to the default collection for saves. (See also
   saved-msg-name-rule.

   The notion of collections encompasses both email folders and news
   reading. The variable news-collections uses nearly the same format as
   folder-collections. Newsgroups can be defined for convenient access via
   either IMAP or NNTP. There are advantages and disadvantages to both
   access methods. In the IMAP case, your news environment state is
   maintained on the server and, thus, will be seen by any client. The
   downside is that, at the moment, you must have an account on the
   server. In the NNTP case, server access is mostly anonymous and no
   state/accounting need be maintained on it. The downside is that each
   client, for now, must individually maintain news environment state.

   An example pinerc entry might be:
     news-collections=  Remote-State    {news.u.example.edu}#news.[],
                        Local-State     {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[]

   Only newsgroups to which you are subscribed are included in the
   collection.

   The pattern matching facility can be applied so as to define a news
   collection which is a subset of all the newsgroups you subscribe to.
   For example, this could be a valid collection:
                        Newsfeed-News   {news.u.example.edu/nntp}#news.[clari.*]

   Collection handling is a tough problem to solve in a general way, and
   the explanation of the syntax is a bit ugly. The upside is, hopefully,
   that for a little complexity in the Pine configuration file you get
   simple management of multiple folders in diverse locations.

   As of Pine 4.00, collection setup is handled by the
   Setup/collectionList screen instead of requiring hand editing of the
   configuration file.
     __________________________________________________________________

Syntax for Folder Names

   Remote folders are distinguished from local folders by a leading host
   name bracketed by '{' and '}'. The path and folder name immediately
   following the closing bracket, '}', is interpreted by the remote server
   and is in a form compatible with that server (i.e., path delimiters and
   naming syntax relative to that server).

   The full syntax for a Pine folder name looks like

      [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>]<namespace-specific-part>

   The square brackets ([]) mean that the part is optional.

   If there is no remote-specification, then the folder name is
   interpreted locally on the computer running Pine. Local folder names
   depend on the operating system used by the computer running Pine, as
   well as the configuration of that system. For example,
   "C:\PINE\FOLDERS\OCT-94" might exist on a PC, and
   "~/mail/september-1994" might be a reasonable folder name on a system
   running Unix.

   Pine users have the option of using folders which are stored on some
   other computer. Pine accesses remote folders via IMAP (the Internet
   Message Access Protocol), or in the case of news, via NNTP (the Network
   News Transport Protocol). To be able to access remote folders in Pine,
   the remote host must be running the appropriate server software (imapd
   or nntpd) and you must correctly specify the name of the folder to
   Pine, including the domain name of the remote machine. For example,

                        {monet.art.example.com}INBOX

   could be a remote folder specification, and so could

               {unixhost.art.example.com}~/mail/september-1994

   and

                   {winhost.art.example.com}\mymail\SEP-94

   Note that in the case of remote folders, the directory/file path in the
   specification is determined by the operating system of the remote
   computer, not by the operating system of the computer on which you are
   running Pine.

   As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed
   immediately by the name of the folder. (In each of these cases the
   optional namespace is missing.) If, as in these examples, there is no
   remote access protocol specified, then IMAP is assumed. Check Server
   Name Syntax for a more detailed look at what options can be placed
   between the brackets. If there are no brackets at all, then the folder
   name is interpreted locally on the computer on which you are running
   Pine.

   To the right of the brackets when a server name is present, or at the
   start of the foldername if no server is present, the sharp sign, "#",
   holds special meaning. It indicates a folder name outside the area
   reserved for your personal folders. In fact, it's used to indicate both
   the name of the folder, and a special phrase telling Pine how to
   interpret the name that follows.

   So, for example, Pine can be used to access a newsgroup that might be
   available on your computer using:

                            #news.comp.mail.pine

   The sharp sign indicates the folder name is outside your personal
   folder area. The "news." phrase after it tells Pine to interpret the
   remainder of the name as a newsgroup.

   Similarly, to access a newsgroup on your IMAP server, you might use
   something like:

                {wharhol.art.example.com}#news.comp.mail.misc

   There are a number of such special phrases (or "namespaces") available.
   For a more detailed explanation read about Namespaces.

   Note that "INBOX" has special meaning in both local and remote folder
   names. The name INBOX refers to your "principal incoming message
   folder" and will be mapped to the actual file name used for your INBOX
   on any given host. Therefore, a name like "{xxx.art.example.com}INBOX"
   refers to whatever file is used to store incoming mail for you on that
   particular host.
     __________________________________________________________________

Server Name Syntax

   This section describes the syntax which may be used for server names
   which may be associated with remote folders or SMTP servers.

   A server name is the hostname of the server. It's a good idea to use
   the host's fully-qualified network name.

                               foo.example.com

   However, IP addresses are allowed if surrounded with square-brackets.

                                 [127.0.0.1]

   An optional network port number may be supplied by appending a colon
   (:) followed by the port number to the server name. By default, the
   IMAP port number, 143, is used.

                            foo.example.com:port

   Besides server name and optional port number, various other optional
   parameters may be supplied that alter Pine's interaction with the
   server. A parameter is supplied by appending a slash (/) character
   followed by the parameter's name and, depending on the particular
   parameter, the value assigned to that name, to the server name (and
   optional port number). Parameter names are not case sensitive.
   Currently supported parameters include:

   User
          This parameter requires an associated value, and is intended to
          provide the username identifier with which to establish the
          server connection. If your SMTP server offers SMTP AUTH
          authentication, adding this parameter to the SMTP-Server option
          will cause Pine to attempt to authenticate to the server using
          the supplied username. Similarly, if your NNTP server offers
          NNTP "AUTHINFO SASL" or "AUTHINFO USER" authentication, adding
          this parameter to the NNTP-Server option (or to the server name
          for any folder collection using NNTP) will cause Pine to attempt
          to authenticate to the server using the supplied username. An
          example might be:

                                 /user=katie

   TLS
          Normally, when a new connection is made an attempt is made to
          negotiate a secure (encrypted) session using Transport Layer
          Security (TLS). If that fails then a non-encrypted connection
          will be attempted instead. This is a unary parameter indicating
          communication with the server must take place over a TLS
          connection. If the attempt to use TLS fails then this parameter
          will cause the connection to fail instead of falling back to an
          unsecure connection.

                                    /tls

   SSL
          This is a unary parameter indicating communication with the
          server should take place over a Secure Socket Layer connection.
          The server must support this method, and be prepared to accept
          connections on the appropriate port (993 by default). Pine must
          be linked with an SSL library for this option to be operational.

                                    /ssl

   NoValidate-Cert
          Do not validate certificates (for TLS or SSL connections) from
          the server. This is needed if the server uses self-signed
          certificates or if Pine cannot validate the certificate for some
          other known reason.

   Anonymous
          This is a unary parameter (that means it does not have a value)
          indicating that the connection be logged in as "anonymous"
          rather than a specific user. Not all servers offer anonymous
          access; those which do generally only offer read-only access to
          certain "public" folders.

                                 /anonymous

   Secure
          This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection use the
          most secure authentication method mutually supported by Pine and
          the server. Pine is capable of authenticating connections to the
          server using several methods. By default, Pine will attempt each
          method until either a connection is established or the list of
          methods is exhausted. This parameter causes Pine to instead fail
          the connection if the first (generally most "secure") method
          fails.

                                   /secure

   Submit
          This is a unary parameter for use with the "SMTP-Server" option.
          It indicates that the connection should be made to the Submit
          server (RFC 3676) (port 587) instead of the SMTP port (25). At
          the time this help was written the submit option was equivalent
          to specifying port 587.

                                   /submit

          or

                                  host:587

   Debug
          This is a unary parameter indicating that the connection be
          established in a verbose mode. Basically, it causes Pine to log
          the communication with the server in Pine's debug file.
          Normally, the pine -d command-line flag would be used instead.

   NoRsh
          By default, Pine attempts to login using "rsh", the UNIX remote
          shell program. Including "NoRsh" will cause connections to this
          server to skip the "rsh" attempt. This might be useful to avoid
          long timeouts caused by rsh firewalls, for example.

   Service
          This parameter requires an associated value. The default value
          is "IMAP" which indicates communication with the server based on
          the IMAP4rev1 protocol (defined in RFC 3501 -- see
          http://www.imap.org/docs/rfc3501.html). Other service values
          include:

        NNTP
                This value indicates communication with the server takes
                place via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Use this to
                define a collection of newsgroups on a remote news server.
                So

                                /service=NNTP

                or just

                                    /NNTP

                is the way to specify NNTP access.

        POP3
                This value indicates communication with the server takes
                place via the Post Office Protocol 3 protocol.

                                /service=POP3

                or just

                                    /POP3

                Note that there are several important issues to consider
                when selecting this option:

              1. POP3 provides access to only your INBOX. In other words,
                 secondary folders such as your "saved-messages" are
                 inaccessible.
              2. Pine's implementation of POP3 does not follow the
                 traditional POP model and will leave your mail on the
                 server. Refer to the Mail Drop functionality for a
                 possible way around this problem.
              3. See the discussion about new-mail checking in
                 Folder-Reopen-Rule.

   Loser
          This is intended for use with defective servers that do not
          implement the protocol specification correctly. It should be
          used only as a last resort since it is likely that it will
          seriously degrade performance. Setting this parameter will cause
          Pine to disable various protocol features and perform
          client-side workarounds instead. For example, it disables the
          IMAP SEARCH, SORT, and THREAD commands and does client-side
          searching, sorting, and threading instead. If set for the
          "SMTP-Server" option, it causes Pine to not use the EHLO command
          and so not to attempt to use any SMTP extensions. The precise
          measures taken when "loser" is set depend on the protocol and
          are subject to change over time.

                                   /loser

   Note that it is possible to include more than one parameter in a server
   specification by concatenating the parameters. For example:

            foo.example.com:port/user=katie/novalidate-cert/debug
     __________________________________________________________________

Folder Namespaces

   A Pine folder name looks like

     [{<remote-specification>}][#<namespace>][<namespace-specific-part>]

   The local part of a folder name has an optional "Namespace" which tells
   Pine how to interpret the rest of the name.

   By default the folder name is interpreted as defining a section of your
   personal folder area. This area and how you specify it are defined by
   the server, if one is specified, or, typically, the home directory, if
   no server is defined.

   If a namespace is specified, it begins with the sharp, "#", character
   followed by the name of the namespace and then the namespace's
   path-element-delimiter. Aside from the path's format, namespaces can
   also imply access rights, content policy, audience, location, and,
   occasionally, access methods.

   Each server exports its own set (possibly of size one) of namespaces.
   Hence, it's likely communication with your server's administrator will
   be required for specific configurations. Some of the more common
   namespaces, however, include:

   #news.
          This specifies a set of folders in the newsgroup namespace.
          Newsgroup names are hierarchically defined with each level
          delimited by a period.

                            #news.comp.mail.pine

   #public/
          This specifies a folder area that the server may export to the
          general public.

   #shared/
          This specifies a folder area that the folder may export to
          groups of users.

   #ftp/
          This specifies a folder area that is the same as that it may
          have exported via the "File Transfer Protocol".

   #mh/
          This specifies the personal folder area associated with folders
          and directories that were created using the MH message handling
          system.

   #move/
          This namespace is interpreted locally by Pine. It has an unusual
          interpretation and format.

           #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>

          The #move namespace is followed by two folder names separated by
          a delimiter character. The delimiter character may be any
          character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name. The
          meaning of #move is that mail will be copied from the
          MailDropFolder to the DestinationFolder and then deleted (if
          possible) from the MailDropFolder. Periodic checks at frequency
          Mail-Check-Interval, but with a minimum time between checks set
          by MailDrop-Check-Minimum, are made for new mail arriving in the
          MailDropFolder. An example which copies mail from a POP inbox to
          a local folder follows

          #move+{popserver.example.com/pop3/ssl}inbox+local folder

          To you it appears that mail is being delivered to the local
          folder when it is copied from the MailDropFolder, and you read
          mail from the local folder.

          Note that if the DestinationFolder does not exist then the
          messages are not copied from the MailDropFolder. A #move folder
          may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When you are
          in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning on
          the enable-incoming-folders option) the Add command has a
          subcommand "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the
          folder in your Pine configuration. The same is true when you
          edit the Inbox-Path option in Setup/Config. Each of these
          configuration methods will also create the DestinationFolder if
          it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure
          the DestinationFolder exists.

   In addition, the server may support access to other user's folders,
   provided you have suitable permissions. Common methods use a prefix of
   either "~user/", or "/user/" to indicate the root of the other user's
   folder area.
     __________________________________________________________________

What is a Mail Drop?

   In some situaions it may make sense to have your mail delivered to one
   folder (the Mail Drop) and then when you want to read mail that has
   been delivered to the Mail Drop folder Pine will move it to another
   destination folder. Often the Mail Drop will be a remote folder and
   messages will be moved from there to a local destination folder.

   One example where this might make sense is if the Mail Drop folder is
   accessible only with the POP protocol. You could designate your POP
   inbox as the Mail Drop folder and have Pine move mail from there to a
   local (on the same machine Pine is running on) destination folder,
   where you'll read it.

   A Mail Drop may only be used as your Inbox or as an Incoming folder.

   There is no attempt to synchronize the contents of the destination
   folder with the contents of the Mail Drop folder. All that happens is
   that all of the messages in the Mail Drop folder are copied to the
   destination folder and then they are deleted and expunged (if possible)
   from the Mail Drop folder. The next time a check for new mail is made,
   any messages in the Mail Drop folder are once again copied to the
   destination folder and deleted and expunged from the Mail Drop folder.
   (If the Mail Drop folder is a news group, then the messages can't be
   expunged from the newsgroup. Instead, only Recent messages are copied
   from the newsgroup to the destination folder.)

   Configuration of a Mail Drop is a little different from configuration
   of a folder which does not use a Mail Drop because you have to specify
   two folder names instead of one. The two folders may be any types of
   folders that Pine can normally use. They don't have to be a remote
   folder and a local folder, that is simply the most common usage. When
   you use a Mail Drop folder Pine will periodically re-open the Mail Drop
   to check for new mail. The new-mail checks will happen at the frequency
   set with the Mail-Check-Interval option, but with a minimum time
   (MailDrop-Check-Minimum) between checks. Because of this minimum you
   may notice that new mail does not appear promptly when you expect it.
   The reason for this is to protect the server from over-zealous opening
   and closing of the Mail Drop folder. If the user initiates the check by
   typing ^L (Ctrl-L) or the Next command when at the end of the folder
   index, then the check will happen, regardless of how long it has been
   since the previous check.

   If there is new mail, that mail will be copied to the destination
   folder and then will be deleted from the Mail Drop. Note that using a
   Mail Drop with a local destination folder does not make sense if you
   read mail from more than one machine, because the mail is downloaded to
   the destination folder (which is accessible from only one machine) and
   deleted from the Mail Drop.

   The feature Maildrops-Preserve-State modifies the operation of Mail
   Drops.

   The actual syntax used by Pine for a folder that uses a Mail Drop is:

           #move<DELIM><MailDropFolder><DELIM><DestinationFolder>

   The brackets are not literal.

                                   <DELIM>

   is a single character which does not appear in the MailDropFolder name.
   If the name doesn't contain spaces then it can be a space character.
   The two folder names are full technical folder names as used by Pine.
   Here are a couple examples to give you an idea what is being talked
   about:

             #move {popserver.example.com/pop3}inbox localfolder

    #move+{nntpserver.example.com/nntp}#news.comp.mail.pine+local folder

   A #move folder may only be used as an Incoming folder or an Inbox. When
   you are in the FOLDER LIST of Incoming Message Folders (after turning
   on the Enable-Incoming-Folders option) the Add command has a subcommand
   "Use Mail Drop" which may be helpful for defining the folder in your
   Pine configuration. The same is true when you edit the Inbox-Path
   option in Setup/Config.
   if it doesn't already exist. If you are having problems, make sure the
   DestinationFolder exists.
     __________________________________________________________________

Sorting a Folder

   The mail index may be sorted by arrival, date, subject, from, size,
   score, to, or cc order. Each sort order can also be reversed. The $
   command will prompt the user for the sort order. The sort order can
   also be specified on the command line with the -sort flag or
   (equivalently) with the sort-key variable in the pinerc file. When a
   user changes folders, the sort order will go back to the original sort
   order. The command line (-sort) or configuration file sort
   specification (sort-key) changes the original sort order.

   When a folder is sorted and new mail arrives in the folder it will be
   inserted in its properly sorted place. This can be a little odd when
   the folder is sorted by something like the subject. It can also be a
   little slow if you are viewing a large, sorted INBOX, since the INBOX
   will have to be re-sorted whenever new mail arrives.

   The sorts are all independent of case and ignore leading or trailing
   white space. There are actually two forms of subject sort. One called
   Subject and the other called OrderedSubj. They both ignore "Re:" at the
   beginning and "(fwd)" at the end of the subjects. Subject sorts all the
   subjects alphabetically. OrderedSubj sorts by subjects alphabetically,
   groups messages with the same subject (pseudo-threads), then sorts the
   groups by the date of the first message of the group. Sorting by Thread
   was added after OrderedSubj and is usually a better method. Thread
   sorting uses information in the message headers References, Message-ID,
   and Subject. It is possible the sort will be slightly slower with a
   Thread sort than with an OrderedSubj sort. The sort by sender sorts by
   the user-id (part before the "@"), not the full name. The arrival sort
   is no sort at all and the date sort depends on the format of the date.
   Some dates are in strange formats and are unparsable. The time zone is
   also taken into account.

   Sorting large mail folders can be very slow since it requires fetching
   all the headers of the mail messages. With UNIX Pine, only the first
   sort is slow since Pine keeps a copy of all the headers. One exception
   is sorting in reverse arrival order. This is fast because no headers
   have to be examined. Pine will show progress as it is sorting.
     __________________________________________________________________

Alternate Editor

   In the Pine composer you can use any text editor, such as vi or emacs,
   for composing the message text. The addresses and subject still must be
   edited using the standard Pine composer. If you include the feature
   enable-alternate-editor-cmd in your pinerc you can type ^_ while in the
   body of the message in the composer and be prompted for the editor. If
   you also set the editor variable in your pinerc then ^_ will invoke the
   configured editor when you type it.

   Turning on the feature enable-alternate-editor-implicitly will
   automatically invoke the editor you have defined with the editor
   variable whenever you enter the body of a message you are composing.
   For example, when you move out of the last header line and into the
   body of the message, the alternate editor will be automatically
   invoked.

   We know that many people would like to use the alternate editor to edit
   the mail header as well. We considered several designs for this and
   didn't come up with one that we liked and that was easy to implement.
   One of the main problems is that you lose access to the address book.
     __________________________________________________________________

Signatures and Signature Placement

   If the file ~/.signature (UNIX) or <PINERCdirectory>\PINE.SIG (PC)
   exists, it will be included in all outgoing messages. It is included
   before composition starts so that the user has a chance to edit it out
   if he or she likes. The file name for the signature can be changed by
   setting the signature-file variable in the pinerc. If the feature
   enable-sigdashes is turned on then the line consisting of the three
   characters "-- " is prepended to the signature file. When Replying or
   Forwarding a message different signatures my be automatically included
   by configuring them in the Roles setup screen. It's easy to include
   different signatures by hand, by having multiple signature files
   (.sig1, .sig2, .sig3, etc) and choosing to include (^R in the composer)
   the correct one for the message being sent.

   Pine's default behavior encourages a user to put his or her
   contribution before the inclusion of the original text of the message
   being forwarded or replied to, This is contrary to some conventions,
   but makes the conversation more readable when a long original message
   is included in a reply for context. The reader doesn't have to scroll
   through the original text that he or she has probably already seen to
   find the new text. If the reader wishes to see the old message(s), the
   reader can scroll further into the message. Users who prefer to add
   their input at the end of a message should set the signature-at-bottom
   feature. The signature will then be appended to the end of the message
   after any included text. This feature applies when Replying, not when
   Forwarding.
     __________________________________________________________________

Feature List Variable

   Pine used to have feature levels for users with different amounts of
   experience. We found that this was too restrictive. Pine now has a
   feature-list instead. Each user may pick and choose which features they
   would like enabled (simple to do in the Setup/Config screen). There is
   a short description of each in Configuration Features. There is also a
   short on-line help explaining the effect of each of the features in the
   Setup/Config screen. When the cursor is highlighting a feature, the ?
   command will show the help text for that feature. Features don't have
   values, they are just turned on or off. They are all off by default.

   The feature-list variable is different from all other configuration
   variables in that its value is additive. That is, the system-wide
   configuration file can have some features turned on by default. The
   user can select other features in their personal configuration file and
   those features will be added to the set of features turned on in the
   system-wide configuration file. (With all other configuration
   variables, the user's values replace the system-wide values.) Likewise,
   additional features may be set on the command-line with the argument
   "-feature-list=". These will be added to the others.

   The treatment of feature-list in the system-wide fixed configuration
   file is also different from other variables. The system management can
   fix the value of individual features by placing them in the fixed
   configuration file. Users will not be able to alter those features, but
   will still be able to set the other non-restricted features the way
   they like.

   Because feature-list is additive, there is a way to turn features off
   as well as on. Prepending the prefix "no-" to any feature sets it to
   off. This is useful for over-riding the system-wide default in the
   personal configuration file or for over-riding the system-wide default
   or the personal configuration value on the command line. For example,
   if the system-wide default configuration has the quit-without-confirm
   feature set, the user can over-ride that (and turn it off) by including
   no-quit-without-confirm in the personal configuration file or by giving
   the command line argument -feature-list=no-quit-without-confirm. More
   features (options) will no doubt continue to be added.
     __________________________________________________________________

Configuration Inheritance

   We start with an explanation of how configuration works in hopes of
   making it easier to describe how inheritance works.

   Pine uses a hierarchy of configuration values from different locations.
   There are five ways in which each configuration option (configuration
   variable) can be set. In increasing order of precedence they are:

    1. the system-wide configuration file.
    2. the personal configuration file
    3. the personal exceptions file
    4. a command line argument
    5. the system-wide fixed configuration file (Unix Pine only)

   The fixed configuration file is normally /etc/pine.conf.fixed.

   The system-wide configuration file is normally /etc/pine.conf for Unix
   Pine and is normally not set for PC-Pine. For PC-Pine, if the
   environment variable $PINECONF is set, that is used for the system-wide
   configuration. This location can be set or changed on the command line
   with the -P flag. The system-wide configuration file can be either a
   local file or a remote configuration folder.

   For Unix Pine, the personal configuration file is normally the file
   .pinerc in the user's home directory. This can be changed with the -p
   command line flag. For PC-Pine, the personal configuration file is in
   $PINERC or <PineRC registry value> or ${HOME}\PINE\PINERC or <PINE.EXE
   dir>\PINERC. This can be changed with the -p command line flag. If -p
   or $PINERC is used, the configuration data may be in a local file or a
   remote config folder.

   For Unix Pine, the personal exceptions configuration file is specified
   with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument.
   "Exceptions_config" may be either a local file or a remote
   configuration folder. If there is no "-x" command line option, Pine
   will look for the file ".pinercex" in the same local directory that the
   regular config file is located in. If the regular config file is remote
   then Unix Pine looks in the home directory for ".pinercex".

   For PC-Pine, the personal exceptions configuration file is specified
   with the "-x exceptions_config" command line argument. If there is no
   "-x" command line argument the environment variable $PINERCEX may be
   set to the name of the "exceptions_config" instead. "Exceptions_config"
   may be either a local file or a remote configuration folder. If there
   is no "-x" command line option and $PINERCEX is not set, PC-Pine will
   look for the file "PINERCEX" in the same local directory that the
   regular config file is located in. If the regular config file is remote
   then PC-Pine looks in the local directory specified by the "-aux
   local_directory" command line argument, or the directory ${HOME}\PINE,
   or in <PINE.EXE directory> for a file named "PINERCEX".

   To reiterate, the value of a configuration option is taken from the
   last location in the list above in which it is set. Or, thinking about
   it slightly differently, a default value for an option is established
   in the system-wide configuration file (or in the source code if there
   is no value in the system-wide file). That default remains in effect
   until and unless it is overridden by a value in a location further down
   the list, in which case a new "default" value is established. As we
   continue down the list of locations we either retain the value at each
   step or establish a new value. The value that is still set after going
   through the whole list of configuration locations is the one that is
   used.

   So, for example, if an option is set in the system-wide configuration
   file and in the personal configuration file, but is not set in the
   exceptions, on the command line, or in the fixed file; then the value
   from the personal configuration file is the one that is used. Or, if it
   is set in the system-wide config, in the personal config, not in the
   exceptions, but is set on the command line; then the value on the
   command line is used.

   Finally we get to inheritance. For configuration options which are
   lists, like "smtp-server" or "incoming-folders", the inheritance
   mechanism makes it possible to combine the values from different
   locations instead of replacing the value. This is true of all
   configuration lists other than the "feature-list", for which you may
   already set whatever you want at any configuration location (by using
   the "no-" prefix if necessary).

   To use inheritance, set the first item in a configuration list to the
   token "INHERIT". If the first item is "INHERIT", then instead of
   replacing the default value established so far, the rest of the list is
   appended to the default value established so far and that is the new
   value.

   Here is an example which may make it clearer. Suppose we have:

 System-wide config :   smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
 Personal config    :   smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
 Exceptions config  :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Command line       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Fixed config       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>

   This would result in an effective smtp-server option of

 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home

   The "INHERIT" token can be used in any of the configuration files and
   the effect cascades. For example, if we change the above example to:

 System-wide config :   smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
 Personal config    :   smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.home
 Exceptions config  :   smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
 Command line       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Fixed config       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>

   This would result in:

 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, mysmtp.home, yoursmtp.org

   Unset variables are skipped over (the default value is carried forward)
   so that, for example:

 System-wide config :   smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
 Personal config    :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Exceptions config  :   smtp-server = INHERIT, yoursmtp.org
 Command line       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Fixed config       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>

   produces:

 smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com, yoursmtp.org

   If any later configuration location has a value set (for a particular
   list option) which does not begin with "INHERIT", then that value
   replaces whatever value has been defined up to that point. In other
   words, that cancels out any previous inheritance.

 System-wide config :   smtp-server = smtp1.corp.com, smtp2.corp.com
 Personal config    :   smtp-server = INHERIT, mysmtp.org
 Exceptions config  :   smtp-server = yoursmtp.org
 Command line       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>
 Fixed config       :   smtp-server = <No Value Set>

   results in:

 smtp-server = yoursmtp.org

   For some configuration options, like "viewer-hdr-colors" or
   "patterns-roles", it is difficult to insert the value "INHERIT" into
   the list of values for the option using the normal Setup tools. In
   other words, the color setting screen (for example) does not provide a
   way to input the text "INHERIT" as the first item in the
   viewer-hdr-colors option. The way to do this is to either edit the
   pinerc file directly and manually insert it, or turn on the
   "expose-hidden-config" feature and insert it using the Setup/Config
   screen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Using Environment Variables

   The values of Pine configuration options may include environment
   variables which are replaced by the value of the variable at the time
   Pine is run (and also at the time the config option is changed). The
   syntax to use environment variables is a subset of the common Unix
   shell dollar-syntax. For example, if

                                    $VAR

   appears in the value of a Pine configuration option it is looked up in
   the environent (using getenv("VAR")) and its looked-up value replaces
   the $VAR part of the option value. To include a literal dollar sign you
   may precede the dollar sign with another dollar sign. In other words,
   if the text

                                   $$text

   is the value of a configuration option, it will be expanded to

                                    $text

   and no environment lookup will be done. For Unix Pine it will also work
   to use a backslash character to escape the special meaning of the
   dollar sign, but $$ is preferable since it works for both PC-Pine and
   Unix Pine, allowing the configuration option to be in a shared
   configuration file.

   This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. An example may
   make it clearer. Unfortunately, the way in which environment variables
   are set is OS-dependent and command shell-dependent. In some Unix
   command shells you may use

                         PERSNAME="Fred Flintstone"

                               export PERSNAME

   Now, if you use Pine's Setup/Config screen to set

                           personal-name=$PERSNAME

   the $PERSNAME would be replaced by Fred Flintstone so that this would
   be equivalent to

                        personal-name=Fred Flintstone

   Note, environment variable substitution happens after configuration
   options which are lists are split into the separate elements of the
   list, so a single environment variable can't contain a list of values.

   The environment variable doesn't have to be the only thing after the
   equal sign. However, if the name of the variable is not at the end of
   the line or followed by a space (so that you can tell where the
   variable name ends), it must be enclosed in curly braces like

                                   ${VAR}

   It is always ok to use the braces even if you don't need to.

   It is also possible to set a default value for an environment variable.
   This default value will be used if the environment variable is not set
   (that is, if getenv("VAR") returns NULL). The syntax used to set a
   default value is

                            ${VAR:-default value}

   If the config file contains

                    personal-name=${VAR:-Fred Flintstone}

   then when Pine is run VAR will be looked up in the environment. If VAR
   is found then personal-name will have the value that VAR was set to,
   otherwise, personal-name will be set to Fred Flintstone, the default
   value.

   An example where an environment variable might be useful is the
   variable inbox-path in the global configuration file. Suppose most
   users used the server

                           imapserver.example.com

   but that there were some exceptions who used

                          altimapserver.example.com

   In this case, the system manager might include the following line in
   the systemwide default Pine configuration file

              inbox-path=${IMAPSERVER:-imapserver.example.com}

   For the exceptional users adding

                    IMAPSERVER=altimapserver.example.com

   to their environment should work.

   Another example might be the case where a user has to use a different
   SMTP server from work and from home. The setup might be something as
   simple as

                              smtp-server=$SMTP

   or perhaps a default value could be given. Note that, as mentioned
   above, the variable SMTP cannot contain a list of SMTP servers.
     __________________________________________________________________

SMTP Servers

   It is sometimes desirable to set smtp-server=localhost instead of
   setting sendmail-path to overcome the inability to negotiate ESMTP
   options when sendmail is invoked with the -t option. Sendmail can also
   be subject to unacceptable delays due to slow DNS lookups and other
   problems.

   It is sometimes desirable to configure an SMTP server on a port other
   than the default port 25. This may be used to provide an alternate
   service that is optimized for a particular environment or provides
   different features from the port 25 server. An example would be a
   program that negotiates ESMTP options and queues a message, but does
   not attempt to deliver messages. This would avoid delays frequently
   encountered when invoking sendmail directly.

   A typical configuration would consist of
     * A program that implements the SMTP or ESMTP protocol via stdio.
     * An entry in /etc/services for the alternate service.
     * An entry in /etc/inetd.conf for the alternate service.
     * An entry in /etc/pine.conf, /etc/pine.conf.fixed or ~/.pinerc.
     __________________________________________________________________

MIME.Types file

   Pine's MIME-TYPE support is based on code contributed by Hans Drexler
   &LT;drexler@mpi.nl&GT;. Pine assigns MIME Content-Types according to
   file name extensions found in the system-wide files
   /usr/local/lib/mime.types and /etc/mime.types, and a user specific
   ~/.mime.types file.

   In DOS and OS/2, Pine looks in the same directory as the PINERC file
   and the same dir as PINE.EXE. This is similar to the UNIX situation
   with personal config info coming before potentially shared config data.
   An alternate search path can be specified by setting the
   mimetype-search-path variable in the user or system-wide configuration
   or by setting the MIMETYPES environment variable.

   These files specify file extensions that will be connected to a mime
   type. Lines beginning with a '#' character are treated as comments and
   ignored. All other lines are treated as a mime type definition. The
   first word is a type/subtype specification. All following words are
   file extensions belonging to that type/subtype. Words are separated by
   whitespace characters. If a file extension occurs more than once, then
   the first definition determines the file type and subtype. A couple
   sample lines from a mime.types file follow:

image/gif         gif
text/html         html htm
video/mpeg        mpeg mpg mpe

     __________________________________________________________________

Color Details

   UNIX Pine may display color if the terminal or terminal emulator you
   are using is capable of displaying colors. If the terminal supports
   ANSI color escape sequences you will be able to turn color on using the
   color-style option and setting it to the value force-ansi-8color or
   force-ansi-16color. If instead you'd like Pine to automatically detect
   whether or not you are on a color terminal, set color-style to
   use-termdef and configure the termcap entry to describe your terminal's
   color capabilities.

   If the color-style option is set to use-termdef, Pine looks in the
   terminal capabilities database, TERMINFO or TERMCAP, depending on how
   Pine was compiled, to decide whether or not your terminal is capable of
   color. For TERMINFO compiled Pines, the capabilities that are used for
   color are "colors", "setaf", "setab", "op", and "bce". If you have a
   terminal with color capabilities described by the "scp" capability,
   Pine does not support it. The capabilities "setf" and "setb" may be
   used instead of "setaf" and "setab". The capability "bce" is optional
   and is used as an optimization, the other capabilities are required.
   For TERMCAP compiled Pines, the capabilities that are used for color
   are "Co", "AF", "AB", "op", and "ut". The capabilities "Sf" and "Sb"
   may be used instead of "AF" and "AB", though this isn't a useful
   feature.

   Here are some short descriptions of the capabilities listed above. The
   TERMINFO name is listed, followed by the TERMCAP name in parentheses.
   colors (Co)
          The number of different colors.
   setaf (AF)
          Set ANSI foreground color.
   setab (AB)
          Set ANSI background color.
   setf (Sf)
          Set foreground color. Alternate form of setaf.
   setb (Sb)
          Set background color. Alternate form of setab.
   op (op)
          Set default pair to its original value.
   bce (ut)
          Screen is erased with current background color instead of
          default background.

   A standard ANSI terminal which supports color will have a TERMINFO
   entry which contains:
  colors#8
  setaf=\E[3%p1%dm
  setab=\E[4%p1%dm
  op=\E[39;49m
  bce

   or the TERMCAP equivalent:
  Co#8
  AF=\E[3%dm
  AB=\E[4%dm
  op=\E[39;49m
  ut

   If there are eight colors, the program uses colors 0, 1, ..., 7. For an
   ANSI terminal, the foreground color is set by sending the escape
   sequence "Escape LeftBracket 3 color_number m" to the terminal. The
   background color is set by sending the sequence "Escape LeftBracket 4
   color_number m". ANSI colors zero through seven are defined to be
   "black", "red", "green", "yellow", "blue", "magenta", "cyan", and
   "white". Some terminal emulators will swap blue and red and swap yellow
   and cyan. The capabilities "setf" and "setb" are usually designed for
   those terminals so that they will flip the color numbers 1 and 4 and
   the numbers 3 and 6 to compensate for this. Pine will use the ANSI
   versions of the capabilities if they exist, and will use the non-ANSI
   versions (setf and setb) if the ANSI versions don't exist. Here's a
   version which does the flipping. This can only be used with TERMINFO
   Pines, because of the arithmetic, which is not supported by TERMCAP.
  colors#8
  setf=\E[3%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
  setb=\E[4%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m
  op=\E[39;49m
  bce

   Some terminal emulators are capable of displaying eight more colors
   when the foreground colors 30-37 are replaced with 90-97 and the
   background colors 40-47 are replaced with 100-107. These terminals
   require a fancy termcap entry which can take foreground colors 0, 1,
   ..., 15 and map that into 30, 31, ..., 37, 90, 91, ..., 97, and
   similarly for the background colors. Here is a terminfo entry which
   will do just that:
  colors#16
  setaf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
  setab=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%dm
  op=\E[39;49m
  bce

   and here is the termcap equivalent:
  Co#16
  AF=\E[%i%i%>\001\034%>\045\064%dm
  AB=\E[%i%i%>\001\046%>\057\064%dm
  op=\E[39;49m
  ut

   This is a terminfo entry for 16 colors that also does the color
   flipping:
  colors#16
  setf=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{3}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%{
4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
  setb=%p1%{8}%/%{6}%*%{4}%+\E[%d%p1%{8}%m%Pa%?%ga%{1}%=%t4%e%ga%{3}%=%t6%e%ga%{
4}%=%t1%e%ga%{6}%=%t3%e%ga%d%;m
  op=\E[39;49m
  bce

   If you are always using the same display it probably won't matter to
   you if the color pairs red/blue and cyan/yellow are flipped, since
   you'll always be seeing them flipped. You will get different defaults
   than on a display with them not flipped, but that's about all. If you
   are trying to use the same pinerc file from displays with different
   color characteristics, or from Pine and PC-Pine, you will have to be
   more careful. The colors numbered 0 through 7 may be used portably
   between different systems if you are careful to make them correspond to
   the ANSI order mentioned above. You can check this by looking at a
   color configuration screen for one of the colors. The first eight
   colors should be in the order above. If they aren't, you could fix that
   by modifying your termcap entry on the UNIX system. This is not
   possible if your system uses TERMCAP instead of TERMINFO.
     __________________________________________________________________

Additional Notes on PC-Pine

   Below are a few odds and ends worth mentioning about PC-Pine. They have
   to do with DOS-specific behavior that is either necessary or useful
   (and sometimes both!).

   As PC-Pine runs in an environment with limited access control,
   accounting or auditing, an additional line is automatically inserted
   into the header of mail messages generated by PC-Pine:
        X-Sender: <userid>@<imap.host>


   By popular demand of system administrators, PC-Pine has been modified
   to prevent sending messages until the user has successfully logged into
   a remote mail server. Even though PC-Pine cannot prevent users from
   changing the apparent identity of the sender of a message, the IMAP
   server login name and host name included in the X-Sender line provide
   some level of traceability by the recipient. However, this should not
   be considered a rigorous form of authentication. It is extremely
   lightweight, and is not a replacement for true authentication.

   Hand in hand with authentication and accounting is user information.
   Since PC-Pine has no user database to consult for user-id,
   personal-name, etc., necessary information must be provided by the
   user/installer before PC-Pine can properly construct the "From" address
   required for outbound messages. PC-Pine will, by default, prompt for
   the requisite pieces as they are needed. This information corresponds
   to the PINERC variables user-id, personal-name, user-domain, and
   smtp-server.

   The user is then asked whether or not this information should
   automatically be saved to the PINERC. This is useful behavior in
   general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
   Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be
   turned off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above
   values in the PINERC to the null string (i.e., a pair of double
   quotes). This means that the user will be prompted for the information
   once during each Pine session, and no opportunity to save them in the
   PINERC will be offered.

   Along similar lines, a feature allowing automatic login to the
   imap-server containing the user's INBOX has also been requested. This
   feature is not enabled by default, but requires the existence of the
   file named PINE.PWD in the same directory as the PINERC. Even with the
   existence of this file, the user must still acknowledge a prompt before
   the password is saved to the file. If PC-Pine is configured to access
   several different IMAP servers, each password entered will be kept
   (associated with the corresponding host name) in memory during the
   current session, and optionally, in the PINE.PWD file for use in
   subsequent sessions.

   WARNING! Use this feature with caution! It effectively makes the user's
   mail no more secure than the physical security of the machine running
   PC-Pine. What's more, while the password is cloaked by a mild (some
   might say, feeble) encryption scheme, it is nonetheless sitting in a
   file on the PC's disk and subject to cracking by anyone with access to
   it. BEWARE!

   Another feature of DOS is the lack of standard scratch area for
   temporary files. During the course of a session, PC-Pine may require
   numerous temporary files (large message texts, various caches, etc.).
   Where to create them can be a problem, particularly when running under
   certain network operating systems. PC-Pine observes the TMPDIR, TMP,
   and TEMP environment variables, and creates temporary files in the
   directory specified by either. In their absence, PC-Pine creates these
   files in the root of the current working drive. Some temporary files
   have to be created in the same directory as the file they are a
   temporary copy of. For example, a pinerc file or a address book file.
