PMDF User's Guide
OpenVMS Edition


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7.6.2 Available Configuration Options

The available options are shown below.

address-book

Specifies the file name for your Pine address book. The default is PINE.ADDRESSBOOK. This file always resides in the PMDF_INIT: directory. Note that this option is not presented as such from within Pine. Though you can set the option manually by editing your Pine resource file, more commonly the option is controlled by using the A ddressbook menu from under the SETUP menu.

addrbook-sort-rule

Specifies the ordering rule by which an address book will be presented. The choices are: dont-sort , fullname-with-lists-last , fullname , nickname-with-lists-last , and nickname . The default is fullname-with-lists-last .

addressbook-formats

This option allows you to specify the format to use when displaying the addressbook.

alt-addresses

This option provides a place for you to list alternative email addresses you might have. If set, the option affects the behavior of the Reply command and the + symbol in the MESSAGE INDEX , which denotes that a message has been addressed specifically to you. With respect to Reply, the reply-to-all option will exclude addresses listed here.

bugs-address

This option is normally not settable by user, being set in the PINE.CONF-FIXED file by the PMDF system manager.

bugs-fullname

This option is normally not settable by user, being set in the PINE.CONF-FIXED file by the PMDF system manager.

character-set

Specifies the character set which you are using for eight bit characters when composing your messages. Note that if your message includes only seven bit characters, it will be labelled as US-ASCII ; the character-set option is only consulted if your message contains eight bit characters. If eight bit characters are used in your message, this value will be used to label your character set. The default, if this option is not set in your personal Pine resource file, will be the value, typically DEC-MCS , selected in the system-wide PINE.CONF file by the PMDF system manager.

composer-wrap-column

This value specifies the maximum columns the auto-wrapped lines will have in the Pine Composer. The normal default is 74 .

customized-hdrs

You can add your own custom headers to all outgoing messages. Each header you specify here must include the header tag (Reply-To:, Approved:, etc.) and can optionally include a value for that header. If you want to see these custom headers each time you compose a message, you must add them to your default composer headers list (see below), otherwise they become part of the rich header set which you only see when you press the rich header (Ctrl/R) command.

default-composer-hdrs

Specifies a list of header lines to appear by default when you are in the composer. If you use this option, then only the header lines listed here will appear in the composer unless the CTRL/R, rich header, command is invoked. So, remember to always put To , From , Subject header lines here. For example,


default-composer-hdrs=To,Cc,Attchmnt,Subject,Reply-to 

default-fcc

"Fcc" stands for Folder Carbon Copy. This option specifies a folder in which to automatically file copies of messages you send. The default is "" which disables this option. To enable automatically saving copies of your sent messages, explicitly set


default-fcc=foldername
where foldername is the name of the folder in which you want to save copies of sent messages, e.g.,


default-fcc=SENTMAIL 
Or to save copies of only specified sent messages, do not set default-fcc and instead use the CTRL/R, Rich header command, while composing your message and fill in the Fcc: header line with the name of a folder. If your VMS MAIL profile has COPY_SELF on send or reply, Pine will automatically put your own address on the Cc: line. That is not the same as Fcc:, however, because the Cc: copy is sent to you as regular new mail, whereas, Fcc: puts a copy directly into a folder.

default-saved-msg-folder

This option determines the default folder name for "save message" operations, which can be overriden by the saved-msg-name-rule option. If not explicitly set, the default value MAIL is assumed on OpenVMS, to correspond to the normal VMS MAIL behavior of saving read messages to the OpenVMS MAIL folder named MAIL. Any valid folder collection, local or IMAP, can be specified.

display-filters

This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs or scripts) that can be used to filter text portions of received messages and then cause some desired action (e.g. , presentation in the MESSAGE TEXT display screen, exporting to a text file, etc.). For security reasons, the full path name of the filter command must be specified.

download-command

This option has no effect in PMDF Pine.

download-command-prefix

This option has no effect in PMDF Pine.

editor

Specifies a DCL command to use to invoke your editor; e.g.,


editor=EDIT/EDT 
The system-wide default alternate editor is EDIT/TPU.

empty-header-message

If all of the To:, Cc: and Newsgroups: fields are empty when sending a message, Pine will put the value of this option in the To: address, so as to avoid problems with some mailers which mishandle empty headers.

fcc-name-rule

Determines the default folder name for Fcc: copies. Use one of the following: default-fcc , by-recipient , last-fcc-used , by-nickname , by-nick-then-recip ,
or current-folder . The default is default-fcc which specifies that the folder name specified with the default-fcc option is used.

literal-signature

With this option your actual signature, as opposed to the name of a file containing your signature, is stored in the Pine configuration file. If this is defined it takes precedence over the signature-file option. This is simply a different way to store the signature. The signature is stored inside your Pine configuration file instead of in a separate file.

feature-list

Specifies a list of features to enable. The default system-wide features are:


feature-list=enable-aggregate-command-set, 
 enable-alternate-editor-cmd, 
 enable-bounce-cmd, 
 enable-flag-cmd, 
 enable-full-header-cmd, 
 enable-jump-shortcut, 
 enable-suspend, 
 enable-tab-completion 
feature-list is additive: first the system-wide features are established and then your settings are established on top of the system-wide settings. To disable a feature set by the system-wide defaults, specify the feature name to be disabled with no- prepended to its name. For example


feature-list=no-enable-jump-shortcut, 
 no-enable-suspend 
The available features and their usages are shown in Table 7-1.

Table 7-1 Available Pine feature-list Features
Composer Preferences
alternate-compose-menu This feature controls the menu that is displayed when Compose is selected. If set, a list of options will be presented, with each option representing the type of composition that could be used. This feature is most useful for users who want to avoid being prompted with each option separately, or who want to avoid the checking of remote postponed or form letter folders.
compose-cut-from-cursor This feature controls the behavior of the Ctrl/K command in the composer. If set, Ctrl/K will cut from the current cursor position to the end of the line, rather than cutting the entire line.
compose-maps-delete-key-to-ctrl-d This feature affects the behavior of the DELETE key. If set, Delete will be equivalent to Ctrl/D, and delete the current character. Normally Pine defines the Delete key to be equivalent to Ctrl/H, which deletes the previous character.
compose-rejects-unqualified-addrs If set, addresses without an @ host part will be rejected unless they match an addressbook nickname.
compose-send-offers-first-filter If you have sending-filters configured, setting this feature will cause the first filter in the sending-filters list to be offered as the default instead of unfiltered, the usual default.
enable-alternate-editor-cmd Enables the CTRL/_ command which invokes the alternate editor.
enable-alternate-editor-implicitly When set, the alternate editor will be automatically invoked when composing messages.
enable-search-and-replace This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's composer. Setting this feature causes Pine to offer the "Ctrl/R Replace" subcommand, which allows you to search and replace text strings in a message you are composing, inside the "Ctrl/W Where is" command.
enable-sigdashes This feature enables support for the common USENET news convention of preceding a message signature with the special line consisting of the three characters " -- " ( i.e., dash, dash, and space).

When enabled and a signature-file exists, Pine will insert the special line before including the file's text (unless the special line already exists somewhere in the file's text).

In addition, when you Reply or Followup to a message containing one of these special lines and choose to include its text, Pine will observe the convention of not including text beyond the special line in your reply.

See also strip-from-sigdashes-on-reply for a related feature.

quell-dead-letter-on-cancel This feature affects Pine's behavior when you cancel a message being composed. Pine's usual behavior is to write the canceled message to a file named DEAD.LETTER in your home directory. Under some conditions (some routine), this can introduce a noticeable delay. Setting this feature will cause Pine NOT to write canceled compositions into the file.

NOTE: Enabling this feature means no record of canceled messages is maintained.

quell-user-lookup-in-passwd-file Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
Reply Preferences
enable-reply-indent-string-editing This feature affects the Reply command's "Include original message in Reply?" prompt. When enabled, it causes the "Edit Indent String" sub-command to appear which allows you to edit the string Pine would otherwise use to denote included text from the message being replied to. Thus, you can change Pine's default message quote character (usually an angle bracket) on a per message basis.

Note that the configuration option reply-indent-string can be used to change what appears as the default string to be edited.

include-attachments-in-reply If set, MIME attachments from a message being replied to will automatically be included in the reply.
include-header-in-reply If set, header lines from a message being replied to will be included in the reply.
include-text-in-reply If set, the content of a message being replied to will automatically be included in the reply.
reply-always-uses-reply This feature controls an aspect of Pine's Reply command. If set, Pine will not prompt when a message being replied to contains a Reply-To: header value, but will simply use its value (as opposed to using the From: field's value).

Using the Reply-To: address is usually the preferred behavior; however, some mailing list managers choose to place the list's address in the Reply-To: field of any message sent out to the list. In such cases, this feature makes it all too easy for personal replies to be inadvertently sent to the entire mail list, so be careful!

signature-at-bottom Insert your signature at the bottom of the message instead of at the top in a reply or new message.
strip-from-sigdashes-on-reply This feature doesn't do anything if the feature enable-sigdashes is turned on. However, if the enable-sigdashes feature is not turned on, then turning on this feature enables support for the convention of not including text beyond the sigdashes line when Replying or Following up to a message and including the text of that message.

In other words, this is a way to turn on the signature stripping behavior without also turning on the dashes-adding behavior.

Sending Preferences
enable-8bit-esmtp-negotiation Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
enable-delivery-status-notification This feature affects the behavior of Pine's mail sending. If set, this feature enables a subcommand in the composer's "Send?" confirmation prompt. The subcommand allows you to tell Pine to request the type of Delivery Status Notification (DSN) which you would like. You can request a delivery receipt upon successful delivery of your message, control whether you are notified regarding delays or failure in delivering the message, and control whether the entire contents of your message or just the headers will be returned in any failure notification.

If you don't enable the DSN feature or if you don't turn it on for a particular message, the default is that you will be notified about failures, you might be notified about delays, and you won't be notified about successes. You will usually receive the full message back when there is a failure.

If you turn on the DSNOpts the default is to return as much information as possible to you. That is, by default, the Success and Delay options are turned on and the full message will be returned on failure.

enable-verbose-smtp-posting Has no effect in PMDF Pine
fcc-on-bounce This feature controls an aspect of Pine's behavior when bouncing a message. If set, normal FCC ("File Carbon Copy") processing will be done, just as if you had composed a message to the address you are bouncing to. If not set, no FCC of the message will be saved.
fcc-only-without-confirm This features controls an aspect of Pine's composer. The only time this feature will be used is if you attempt to send mail which has no recipients but does have an Fcc. Normally, Pine will ask if you really mean to copy the message only to the Fcc. That is, it asks if you really meant to have no recipients. If this feature is set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent to make only a copy of a message with no recipients.
fcc-without-attachments This features controls the way FCC's (File Carbon Copies) are made of the messages you send. Normally, Pine saves an exact copy of your message as it was sent. When this feature is enabled, the "body" of the message you send (the text you type in the composer) is preserved in the copy as before; however all attachments are replaced with text explaining what had been sent rather than the attachments themselves.

This feature also affects Pine's "Send ?" confirmation prompt in that a new "^F Fcc Attchmnts" option becomes available which allows you to interactively set whether or not attachments are saved to the Fcc'd copy.

use-sender-not-x-sender Normally Pine adds a header line labeled X-Sender:, if the sender is different from the From: line. The standard specifies that this header line should be labeled Sender, not X-Sender:. Setting this feature causes Sender to be used instead of X-Sender:.
Folder Preferences
combined-subdirectory-display This feature affects the Folder List screen when the combined-folder-display feature is enabled. Normally, selecting a directory from the Folder List takes you into a new screen displaying only the contents of that directory. Enabling this feature will cause the contents of the selected directory to be displayed within the boundaries of the collection it is a part of. All previously displayed collections will remain in the screen.
combined-folder-display This feature affects the folder list display screens. Normally, each folder list is viewed within its collection only. This command allows folder lists to be viewed within a single screen that combines the contents of all collections.

When this feature is set, the setting of the feature expanded-view-of-folders has an effect.

enable-dot-folders When this feature is set, folders beginning with dot or period ( .) can be added and viewed.
enable-incoming-folders If set, this feature defines a pseudo-folder collection name "INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS". Initially, the only folder included in this collection will be your INBOX, which will no longer show up in your default saved-message folder collection. You can add more folders to the "INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS" collection by using the Add command of the FOLDER LIST menu.
enable-good-list-mode This option is always enabled, whether marked or not, in PMDF Pine, as it causes Pine to adhere to the IMAP standard.
expanded-view-of-folders Have folder lists pre-expanded in FOLDER LIST menu.
quell-empty-directories This feature causes Pine to remove from the display any directories that do not contain at least one file or directory. This can be useful to prevent overly cluttered folder lists when a collection is stored on a server that treats all names as both a folder and a directory.
separate-folder-and-directory-entries This feature affects folder collections wherein a folder and directory can have the same name. By default, Pine displays them only once, denoting that it is both a folder and directory by appending the folder name with the hierarchy character enclosed in square brackets. Enabling this feature will cause Pine to display such names separately marking the name representing a directory with a trailing hierarchy delimiter (typically the slash, /, character).

The feature also alters the command set slightly. By default, the right-arrow descends into the directory, while hitting the Return key will cause the folder by that name to be opened. With this feature set, the Return key will open the highlighted folder, or enter the highlighted directory.

single-column-folder-list This feature controls an aspect of Pine's FOLDER LIST screen. If set, the folders will be listed one per line instead of several per line in the FOLDER LIST display.
vertical-folder-list This feature controls an aspect of Pine's FOLDER LIST screen. If set, the folders will be listed alphabetically down the columns rather than across the columns as is the default.
Address Book Preferences
combined-addrbook-display This feature affects the address book display screens. Normally, expanding an address book from the ADDRESS BOOK LIST screen will cause the remaining address books and directory servers to disappear from the screen, leaving only the entries of the expanded address book. If this feature is set, then the other address books will remain on the screen, so that all of the address books can be present at once.

When this feature is set, the setting of the feature expanded-view-of-addressbooks has an effect.

expanded-view-of-addressbooks Have multiple address books expanded when entering the ADDRESS BOOK menu.
expanded-view-of-distribution-lists If this feature is set, then distribution lists in the address book screen will always be expanded automatically.
ldap-result-to-addrbook-add If both the Directory option use-implicitly-from-composer and this feature are set, then when an implicit directory lookup is done from the composer you will automatically be prompted to add the result of the directory lookup to your address book.
Message Index Preferences
auto-open-next-unread Automatically opens the next folder in the incoming-folders or news-collections collections which contain unread mail.
continue-tab-without-confirm Normally, when you use the TAB NextNew command and there is a problem checking a folder, you are asked whether you want to continue with the search in the following folder or not. This question gives you a chance to stop the NextNew processing. (The checking problem might be caused by the fact that the folder does not exist, or by an authentication problem, or by a server problem of some sort.)

If this feature is set you will not be asked. It will be assumed that you do want to continue.

delete-skips-deleted When set, the Delete command will skip to the next undeleted message.
enable-cruise-mode This feature affects Pine's behavior when you hit the space bar at the end of a displayed message. Typically, Pine complains that the end of the text has already been reached. Setting this feature causes such keystrokes to be interpreted as if the TAB key had been hit, thus taking you to the next "interesting" message, or scanning ahead to the next incoming folder with "interesting" messages.
enable-cruise-mode-delete This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's enable-cruise-mode feature. Setting this feature causes Pine to implicitly delete read messages when it moves on to display the next "interesting" message.

Beware when enabling this feature and the expunge-without-confirm feature!

mark-for-cc This feature affects Pine's MESSAGE INDEX display. By default, a '+' is displayed in the first column if the message is addressed directly to you. When this feature is set and the message is not addressed to you, then a '-' character is displayed if the message is instead Cc'd directly to you.
tab-visits-next-new-message-only This feature affects Pine's behavior when using the TAB key to move from one message to the next. Pine's usual behavior is to select the next unread message or message flagged as "Important". Setting this feature causes Pine to skip the messages flagged as important, and select unread messages exclusively. Tab behavior when there are no new messages left to select remains unchanged.
Viewer Preferences
enable-msg-view-attachments This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's MESSAGE TEXT screen. Setting this feature causes Pine to present attachments in boldface. The first available attachment is displayed in inverse. This is the "selected" attachment. Pressing RETURN will cause Pine to display the selected attachment. Use the arrow keys to change which of the attachments displayed in boldface is the current selection.
enable-msg-view-urls This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's MESSAGE TEXT screen. Setting this feature causes Pine to select possible URLs from the displayed text and display them in boldface for selection.
enable-msg-view-web-hostnames This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's MESSAGE TEXT screen. Setting this feature causes Pine to select possible web hostnames from the displayed text and display them in boldface for selection. This can be useful when you receive messages referencing World Wide Web sites without the use of complete URLs; for example, specifying only "www.washington.edu/pine/" (which will not become a selectable item by setting the enable-msg-view-urls option) rather than explicitly specifying "http://www.washington.edu/pine/".
enable-msg-view-addresses This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's MESSAGE TEXT screen. Setting this feature causes Pine to select possible email addresses from the displayed text and display them in boldface for selection.
enable-msg-view-forced-arrows This feature modifies Up and Down arrow key behavior in Pine's MESSAGE TEXT screen when selectable Attachments, URL's, or web-hostnames are presented. Pine's usual behavior is to move to the next or previous selectable item if currently displayed or simply to adjust the screen view by one line.

Setting this feature causes the UP and Down arrow key to behave as if no selectable items were present in the message.

pass-control-characters-as-is This feature controls how certain characters contained in messages are displayed. If set, all characters in a message will be sent to the screen. Normally, control characters are automatically suppressed in order to avoid inadvertently changing terminal setup parameters.
prefer-plain-text A message being viewed may contain alternate versions of the same content. Those alternate versions are ordered by the sending software such that the first alternative is the least preferred and the last alternative is the most preferred. Pine will normally display the most-preferred version that it knows how to display. This is most often encountered where the two alternate versions are a plain text version and an HTML version, with the HTML version listed last as the most preferred.

If this option is set, then any plain text version will be preferred to all other versions.

News Preferences
compose-sets-newsgroup-without-confirm When set, if you enter the composer while reading a news group, you will not be prompted as to whether you intend the message to be posted to the current newsgroup or not: it will be posted.
enable-8bit-nntp-posting This feature affects Pine's behavior when posting news.

The Internet standard for exchanging USENET news messages (RFC 1036) specifies that USENET messages should conform to Internet mail standards and contain only 7bit characters, but much of the news transport software in use today is capable of successfully sending messages containing 8bit characters. Hence, many people believe that it is appropriate to send 8bit news messages without any MIME encoding. Moreover, there is no Internet standard for explicitly negotiating 8bit transfer, as there is for Internet email. Therefore, Pine provides the option of posting unencoded 8bit news messages, though not as the default. Setting this feature will turn OFF Pine's MIME encoding of newsgroup postings that contain 8bit characters.

Note that articles can cross a path or pass through news transport software that is unsafe or even hostile to 8bit characters. At best this will only cause the posting to become garbled. The safest way to transmit 8bit characters is to leave Pine's MIME encoding turned on, but recipients who lack MIME-aware tools are often annoyed when they receive MIME-encoded messages.

news-approximates-new-status If set, all messages after the last deleted message will show up as new messages in a news group.
news-deletes-across-groups This feature controls what Pine does when you delete a message in a newsgroup that appears in more than one newsgroup. Such a message is sometimes termed a "crossposting" in that it was posted across several newsgroups.

Pine's default behavior when you delete such a message is to remove only the copy in the current newsgroup from view when you use the "Exclude" command or the next time you visit the newsgroup. Enabling this feature causes Pine to remove every occurrence of the message from all newsgroups it appears in and to which you are subscribed.

Note that as currently implemented, enabling this feature can increase the time it takes the Expunge command and newsgroup closing to complete.

news-offers-catchup-on-close This feature controls what Pine does as it closes a newsgroup. When set, Pine will offer to delete all messages from the newsgroup as you are quitting Pine or opening a new folder.
news-post-without-validation NNTP server is not queried as news groups are entered for posting. Validation can cause long delays on a slow link.
news-read-in-newsrc-order The presentation order of the news groups will be what is in the NEWSRC. file.
quell-extra-post-prompt By default, when you post a message to a newsgroup you are asked to confirm that you want to post with the question

"Posted message may go to thousands of readers. Really post?"

If this feature is set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent to post to a newsgroup and your message will be posted.

Printer Preferences
enable-print-via-y-command This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's Print command. By default, Pine's print command is available by pressing the % key. (This command is a substantial change from Pine versions before 4.00 -- where the print command was Y---based on numerous complaints about printing being invoked inadvertently, since Y also means "Yes".) This feature is provided for compatibility with the prior behavior of Pine; enabling this feature will cause Pine to recognize both the old command, Y for "Prynt", as well the new % method for invoking printing. Note that key menu labels are not changed as a result of enabling this feature.
print-offers-custom-cmd-prompt When this feature is set, the print command will have an additional subcommand called "C CustomPrint". If selected, you will have the opportunity to enter any system print command --instead of being restricted to using those that have been previously configured in the printer setup menu.
print-includes-from-line Has no effect in PMDF Pine
print-index-enabled This feature controls the behavior of the Print command when in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If set, the print command will give you a prompt asking if you want to print the message index, or the currently highlighted message. If not set, the message will be printed.
print-formfeed-between-messages Setting this feature causes a formfeed to be printed between messages when printing multiple messages (via the "Apply Print" command).
Advanced Command Preferences
enable-aggregate-command-set Enables the following aggregate commands: ; (Select), Apply, and Zoom.
enable-arrow-navigation This feature controls the behavior of the left and right arrow keys. If set, the left and right arrow keys will operate like the usual navigation keys < and >.

If you set this feature, and do not like the changed behavior of the up/down arrow keys when navigating through the FOLDER LIST screen -- first from column to column, if more than one folder is displayed per row, and then from row to row---you can either also want to set the feature enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed, single-column-folder-list, or use the Ctrl/P and Ctrl/N commands (instead of up/down arrow) keys to move up/down the list of folders in each column.

enable-arrow-navigation-relaxed This feature controls the behavior of the left, right, up and down arrow keys in the FOLDER LIST screen when the enable-arrow-navigation feature is enabled.

Normally, when the enable-arrow-navigation feature is set, the left and right arrow keys in the Folder List screen strictly track the commands bound to the < and > keys, and the up and down arrow keys move the highlight bar to the previous and next folder or directory name. When enabled, this feature returns the left, right, up and down arrow keys' functionality in the FOLDER LIST screen to what it was before enabling enable-arrow-navigation. In other words, left and right arrows move the highlight bar to the left or right, and the up and down arrows move it up or down.

enable-bounce-cmd Enables the Bounce command.
enable-exit-via-lessthan-command If this feature is set, then on screens where there is an "Exit" command but no < command, the < key will perform the same function as the Exit command.
enable-flag-cmd Enables you to set the status flags associated with a message. You can flag a message as being new (unread), deleted, answered, or important (marked in VMS MAIL).
enable-flag-screen-implicitly The feature modifies the behavior of the "* Flag" command (provided it too is enabled). By default, when the "* Flag" command is selected, Pine offers a prompt to set one of several flags and also offers the option of entering the detailed flag manipulation screen via the Ctrl/T key. Enabling this feature causes Pine to immediately enter the detailed flag screen rather than first offer the simple prompt.
enable-full-header-cmd Enables the HdrMode command which allows you to see a message in its entirety.
enable-goto-in-file-browser This feature modifies the behavior of Pine's file browser. Setting this feature causes Pine to offer the "G Goto" command in the file browser. This command allows you to explicitly set the displayed directory. Pine's default behavior requires you to visit each intermediate directory when moving between two distant directories.
enable-jump-shortcut When set, allows you to type just a message number to jump to that message.
enable-partial-match-lists This feature affects the subcommands available when Saving, or when Opening a new folder. If set, the subcommand Ctrl/X ListMatches will be available. This command allows you to type in a substring of the folder you are looking for and when you type Ctrl/X it will display all folders which contain that substring in their names.
enable-tab-completion Enables TAB completion for folder opening and saving.
enable-unix-pipe-cmd Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
Advanced User Preferences
allow-talk By default, permission for others to "talk" to your terminal is turned off when you are running Pine. When this feature is set, permission is instead turned on. If enabled, you might see unexpected messages in the middle of your Pine screen from someone attempting to contact you via the "talk" program.

If you do enable this feature and see a "talk" message, you must suspend or quit Pine before you can respond.

assume-slow-link If set, use screen optimizations to reduce the time taken to update the screen.
auto-move-read-msgs If set Pine will automatically move all read messages to the read-message-folder when you quit. Moved messages are marked for deletion. This feature has no effect if no read-message-folder is set.
auto-unzoom-after-apply This feature affects the behavior of the Apply command. If set, and if you are currently looking at a Zoomed Index view of selected messages, the Apply command will do the operation you specify, but then will implicitly do an "UnZoom", so that you will automatically be back in the normal Index view after the Apply.
auto-zoom-after-select This feature affects the behavior of the Select command. If set, the select command will automatically perform a zoom after the select is complete.
confirm-role-even-for-default If you have roles, when you Reply to or Forward a message, or Compose a new message, Pine will search through your roles for one which matches. Normally, if no matches are found you will be placed into the composer with no opportunity to select a role. If this feature is set, then you will be asked to confirm that you don't want a role.
disable-keymenu If this feature is set the command key menu that normally appears on the bottom two lines of the screen will not usually be there.
disable-take-last-comma-first Normally, when TakeAddr is used to copy an address from a message into an address book entry, Pine will attempt to rewrite the full name of the address in the form
Last, First

instead of

First Last

It does this because many people find it useful to sort by Last name instead of First name. If this feature is set, then the TakeAddr command will not attempt to reverse the name in this manner.

enable-dot-files When this feature is set, files beginning with a dot or period ( .) will be visible in the file browser. For example, you'll be able to select them when using the browser to add an attachment to a message.
enable-fast-recent-test This feature controls the behavior of the TAB key when traversing folders in the optional incoming-folders collection or in optional news-collections.

When the TAB (Next New) key is pressed, the default behavior is to explicitly examine the status of the folder for the number of recent messages (messages delivered since the last time it was viewed). Depending on the size and number of messages in the folder, this test can be time consuming.

Enabling this feature will cause Pine to only test for the existence of any recent messages rather than the obtain the count. This is much faster in many cases. The downside is that you're not given the number of recent messages when prompted to view the next folder.

enable-mail-check-cue This feature causes an asterisk to appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen whenever Pine checks for new mail, and two asterisks whenever Pine saves (checkpoints) the state of the current mailbox to disk.
enable-mouse-in-xterm Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
enable-newmail-in-xterm-icon Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
enable-rules-under-take Normally, the Take command takes addresses from a message and helps you put them into your Address Book. If you use Rules for Indexcolors, Roles, Filtering, or Scoring; you might find it useful to be able to Take information from a message's headers and put it into a new Rule. When this feature is set, you will be given an extra prompt which gives you the choice to Take into the Address Book or Take into a rule.
enable-suspend Enables CTRL/Z as a command to spawn a subprocess.
expose-hidden-config If set, this causes configuration options and features which are normally hidden from view to be editable in the Setup/Config screen.

The purpose of this feature is to allow you to change configuration features and variables which are normally hidden. This is particularly useful if you are using a remote configuration, where it is difficult to edit the contents manually, but it may also be used on a local pinerc configuration file.

If set, several configuration variables and features which are normally hidden from view will show up in the Setup/Configuration screen. They will be at the bottom of the configuration screen. You can find them by searching for the words "hidden configuration".

Note that this is an advanced feature which should be used with care. The reason that this part of the configuration is normally hidden is because there is a significant potential for causing problems if you change these variables. If something breaks after a change try changing it back to see if that is what is causing the problem. There are also some variables which are normally hidden because they are manipulated through Pine in other ways.

expunge-only-manually Normally, when you close a folder which contains deleted messages you are asked if you want to expunge those messages from the folder permanently. If this feature is set, you won't be asked and the deleted messages will remain in the folder. If you choose to set this feature you will have to expunge the messages manually using the eXpunge command, which you can use while in the MESSAGE INDEX screen. If you do not expunge deleted messages the size of your folder will continue to increase until you are out of disk space.
expunge-without-confirm Will not ask for confirmation when expunging.
expunge-without-confirm-everywhere This features controls an aspect of Pine's eXpunge command. If set, you will not be prompted to confirm your intent before the expunge takes place. This feature sets this behavior for all folders, unlike the expunge-without-confirm feature which works only for incoming folders.
preserve-start-stop-characters Controls how CTRL/S and CTRL/Q are interpreted when input to Pine.
quell-folder-internal-msg Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
quell-lock-failure-warnings Has no effect in PMDF Pine.
quell-status-message-beeping This feature affects Pine's behavior when it displays status message ( e.g., Error complaints, New mail warnings, etc.). Setting this feature will not affect the display of such messages, but will cause those that emit a beep to become silent.
quit-without-confirm Disables Pine's exit confirmation prompt.
save-will-not-delete If set, the Save command will not mark the message as deleted after it is copied to the destination folder.
save-will-advance If set, the Save command will advance you to the next message.
save-will-quote-leading-froms If set, the Save command will add a leading > character in front of message lines beginning with From. This is not useful when saving to a VMS MAIL folder.
select-without-confirm If this option is set, then for the Save, Export, and Goto commands (for which you can use CTRL/T to get a list of folders) the selected folder name will be used without confirmation.
show-cursor This feature controls an aspect of Pine's displays. If set, the system cursor will move to convenient locations in the displays. For example, to the beginning of the status field of the highlighted index line, or to the highlighted word after a successful WhereIs command. It is intended to draw your attention to an "interesting" spot on the screen.
show-plain-text-internally This feature modifies the method Pine uses to display Text/Plain MIME attachments from the Attachment Index screen. Normally, the "View" command searches for any externally defined (usually via the mailcap file) viewer, and displays the selected text within that viewer. Enabling this feature causes Pine to ignore any external viewer settings and always display text with Pine's internal viewer.
show-selected-in-boldface Aggregate selected messages will be shown in bold face instead of having an "X" in the first column of the index.
try-alternative-authentication-driver-first This feature controls how Pine provides authentication credentials to the IMAP server you are connecting to. Normally, Pine and the server negotiate the most secure method to exchange such information.

However, some methods aren't available for negotiation, and thus require pre-configuration (typically, per server) on Pine's part. This feature allows Pine to implicitly try an alternative to the default methods that might have been added to Pine when it was built.

use-current-dir Use the current directory instead of the home directory for Export, Attachment Save, CTRL/R Include File, and CTRL/J Attach File.
use-subshell-for-suspend This feature affects Pine's behavior when process suspension is enabled and then activated via the Ctrl/Z key. Pine suspension allows one to temporarily interact with the operating system command shell without quitting Pine, and then subsequently resume the still-active Pine session.

When the enable-suspend feature is set and subsequently the Ctrl/Z key is pressed, Pine will normally suspend itself and return temporary control to Pine's parent shell process. However, if this feature is set, Pine will instead create an inferior subshell process. This is useful when the parent process is not intended to be used interactively.


+Not settable from the SETUP menu

folder-collections

Specifies a list of one or more collections where mail is stored and can be read with Pine. The first collection in the list is the default collection for Save operations. The system-wide default is


folder-collections=[] 
which specifies the default mail file on your local system. See Section 7.4.1 for further details on the use of this option. Note that this option is not presented as such from within Pine. Though you can set the option manually by editing your Pine resource file, more commonly the option is controlled by using the L (collectionList) option from under the SETUP menu.

folder-sort-rule

This option controls the order in which folder list entries will be presented in the FOLDER LIST screen. The default is alphabetical .

form-letter-folder

You can specify a folder in which you will be storing form letters: messages that you have composed that are intended to be sent in their original form repeatedly.

global-address-book

You can specify the name of one or more files containing readonly global address books, which can be shared by several or all users. OpenVMS file protections are honored and can be used to limit access. Note that this option is not presented as such from within Pine. Though you can set the option manually by editing your Pine resource file, more commonly the option is controlled by using the A ddressbook menu from under the SETUP menu.

goto-default-rule

This value affects Pine's behavior when you use the Goto command. The default is inbox-or-folder-in-recent-collection .

image-viewer

Any value set with this option is ignored. Your mailcap file is used instead.

inbox-path

Normally no value should be specified for this option. The default is INBOX which is interpreted as the VMS MAIL NEWMAIL folder. Unexpected results can occur if any folder other than INBOX is specified. However, one sort of setting which is allowable, (though seldom used), is to point this option at a remote POP3 server. In this case, POP3 access to the new messages on the remote system will be used. The syntax is


inbox-path={pop3servername/POP3}INBOX 
to log in under the same username, or


inbox-path={pop3servername/POP3/USER=username}INBOX 
to log in to the remote POP3 server under a different username. When logging in under a different username, you might be prompted to enter a password upon accessing the folder. Note that new mail broadcast notifications are not performed while doing POP access; you must exit and reenter Pine in order to receive such new mail notifications.

incoming-archive-folders

This is a generalization of read-message-folder .

incoming-startup-rule

This value affects Pine's behavior when opening the INBOX folder or one of the INCOMING MESSAGE FOLDERS folders. By default the value is first-unseen , which means that when the INBOX folder or another incoming folder is first opened, the current message is set to the first unseen message which has not been marked deleted, or the last message if all of the messages have been seen previously.

index-format

This option specifies the format in which the folder index is displayed. The display format can be specified by listing special tokens in the order you want them displayed. The tokens available include STATUS, FULLSTATUS, MSGNO, DATE, SIZE, DESCRIPSIZE, SUBJECT, FROMORTO, FROM, and TO. The tokens are separated by spaces.

initial-keystroke-list

Specifies a comma-separated list of commands (keystrokes) which Pine executes on startup. Items in this list are usually just characters. Special values include:
SPACE, CR Space character and carriage return key
F1--F12 Function keys F1 through F12
UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT Up, down, left, and right cursor keys
Function and character keys cannot be mixed in the list despite the fact that you can, in some cases, mix them while interactively running Pine. You can always use all character keys in the startup list even if you are using function keys normally, or vice versa.

last-time-prune-questioned

This option is used to record the year and month when you were last asked by Pine whether to automatically prune those folders specified with the pruned-folders option. The recording format is YYY.MM as an offset from 1900; e.g., 100.6 specifies June, 2000. Note that if you manually set this option to a time in the future, then Pine will leave your messages alone and not ask you again about pruning your folders until one month past the specified time is reached. No value for this option should be set in the system-wide configuration file. Note that this option is not presented from within Pine, for instance, from within the SETUP menu's C onfig screen, since it is normally an internal option automatically updated by Pine. So if you want to set this option explicitly, you must do so by manually editing your Pine resource file.

last-version-used

This option is controlled by Pine and is used to track the version of Pine last used. Whenever Pine detects a difference between the recorded version number and that of the currently running version, it outputs a new version message. This option should not be set in the system-wide configuration file. Note that this option is not presented from within Pine, for instance, from within the SETUP menu's C onfig screen, since it is normally an internal option automatically updated by Pine.

mail-check-interval

This option specifies how often, in seconds, Pine should check for new mail. The default is 150 seconds. Specify a 0 value if you don't want Pine to check for new mail automatically.

mailcap-search-path

This variable is used to replace Pine's default mailcap file search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be specified) in which to look for mail capability data. The default for PMDF Pine if this variable is not specified is PMDF_INIT:MAILCAP.

mimetype-search-path

This variable is used to replace Pine's default MIME.TYPES file search path. It takes one or more file names (full paths must be specified) in which to look for file-name-extension to MIME type mapping data. The default for PMDF Pine if this variable is not specified is PMDF_INIT:MIME.TYPES.

news-active-file-path

Has no effect in PMDF Pine.

news-collections

This option has a format very similar to the folder-collections option. With it, you can specify a collection label as well as the name of the NNTP system; e.g.,


news-collections=Good-news *{news.host/nntp}[] 
As a target of the GotoFldr command, you can specify a news address in the format of


*{news.host:port/nntp}newsgroup.foo.bar 
However, the port number can not be specified with the news-collections option. Note that this option is not presented as such from within Pine. Though you can set the option manually by editing your Pine resource file, more commonly the option is controlled by using the L (collectionList) option from under the SETUP menu.

news-spool-directory

Has no effect in PMDF Pine.

newsrc-path

This option overrides the default name Pine uses for your "newsrc" news status and subscription file. If set, Pine will take this value as the full pathname for the desired newsrc file. If this option is not set, PMDF Pine looks for the file NEWSRC. in the PMDF_INIT: directory. (By default, PMDF_INIT is a logical which translates to SYS$LOGIN. Users wanting to keep their Pine and other PMDF initialization files elsewhere can redefine the PMDF_INIT logical.)

nntp-server

Specifies the TCP/IP host name of your NNTP server for news posting and news collections.

personal-name

Your personal name to appear in outgoing mail; i.e., the personal name field to use in your return address. If not specified, the personal name set in your VMS MAIL profile will be used. This option should not be specified in the system-wide configuration file.

personal-print-command

Specifies a DCL command to use to print messages. This option corresponds to item 3 in the printer menu and can be set from within Pine using the printer setup menu. This option should not be set in the system-wide configuration file. OpenVMS print queues often have a dollar sign, $, in their name. Note that, as described above in Section 7.6.1, the dollar sign is a special character in the Pine resource file and must be quoted with a backslash character, \. So if, for instance, you want to define your personal print command to print to a queue named NEARBY$PRINTER, set the option as


personal-print-command=PRINT/QUEUE=NEARBY\$PRINTER 

postponed-folder

Specifies the name of the folder where postponed message are kept. This folder can be looked at just like any other folder, and you can also delete messages from it. However, when you are continuing a postponed message, the operations are limited to just selecting the message you want to continue. Canceling such a message will result in its deletion from the postponed folder.

printer

Specifies the Pine printer setting and must be one of attached-to-ansi ,
attached-to-ansi-no-formfeed , the value of the personal-print-command option, or PRINT/DELETE (the standard OpenVMS print command). This option should not be set in the system-wide configuration file.

pruned-folders

You can specify a list of folders which Pine will offer to prune for you once a month.

read-message-folder

Specifies a folder to file read messages to upon exiting Pine. If set, then upon exiting Pine you will be prompted as to whether read messages from the INBOX folder should be moved to the read-message-folder . The default value for this option is MAIL.

reply-indent-string

When you reply to a message, and the original message is included in the reply, the text of the original message is indented and prefixed by this character string. Usually set to "> ".

reply-leadin

This option is used to customize the content of the introduction line that is included when replying to a message and including the original message in the reply. The normal default (what you will get if you delete this variable) looks something like:


On Sat, 24 Oct 2012, Fred Flintstone wrote: 
where the day of the week is only included if it is available in the original message.

saved-msg-name-rule

Determines the default folder to save messages to. The value default-folder specifies that saved messages be filed to the MAIL folder. If the value by-sender is specified, then Pine will offer to file the message to a folder with the same name as the message's sender. If the value last-folder-used is specified, then Pine will offer to file the message to whatever folder you used last.

scroll-margin

This option controls when Pine's line-by-line scrolling occurs. Typically, when a selected item is at the top or bottom screen edge and the UP or DOWN (and Ctrl/P or Ctrl/N) keys are struck, the displayed items are scrolled down or up by a single line. This option allows you to tell Pine the number of lines from the top and bottom screen edge that line-by-line paging should occur. For example, setting this value to one (1) will cause Pine to scroll the display vertically when you move to select an item on the display's top or bottom edge. By default, this variable is zero, indicating that scrolling happens when you move up or down to select an item immediately off the display's top or bottom edge.

sending-filters

This option defines a list of text-filtering commands (programs and scripts) that can be selectively invoked to process a message just before it is sent. If set, the Composer's Ctrl/X (Send) command will allow you to select which filter (or none) to apply to the message before it is sent. For security reasons, the full path of the filter program must be specified.

signature-file

Specifies a signature file, the contents of which is to be appended to messages as a signature. It typically contains information such as your name, email address and organizational affiliation. Pine adds the signature into the message as soon as you enter the composer so you can choose to remove it or edit it on a message by message basis. Signature file placement in message replies is controlled by the signature-at-bottom setting in the feature list. The default name for the signature file is PINE.SIGNATURE. This file always resides in your PMDF_INIT: directory.

sort-key

Specifies the ordering to use to sort message directory listings. Any ordering other than the default chronological (arrival ) ordering is likely to be slow.

speller

Instead of invoking the SPELL command, the value of this option will name a different command to be invoked when CTRL/T command is used in the Pine Composer.

status-message-display

If this is set to a positive number, it causes the cursor to move to the status line whenever a status message is printed and pause there for this many seconds. It will probably only be useful if the show-cursor feature is also turned on.

upload-command

This option has no effect in PMDF Pine.

upload-command-prefix

This option has no effect in PMDF Pine.

url-viewers

This option affects Pine's handling of URLs that are found in messages you read. Normally, only URLs Pine can handle directly are automatically offered for selection in the "Message Text" screen. When one or more applications capable of deciphering URLs on their command line are added here, Pine will choose the first available to display URLs it cannot handle directly.

user-domain

This option is not user settable, though system managers can set it on a system wide basis in the PINE.CONF-FIXED file.

viewer-hdrs

You can change the default list of headers that are viewed by listing the headers you want to view here. If the headers listed are present in the message, then they will be shown. The order of the headers you list will be honored. If the special value all-except is included as the first header in the viewer-hdrs list, then all headers in the message except those in the list will be shown. The values are all case insensitive.

viewer-overlap

This option specifies an aspect of Pine's Message Viewing screen. When the space bar is used to page forward in a message, the number of lines specified by the viewer-overlap variable will be repeated from the bottom of the screen. That is, if this was set to two lines, then the bottom two lines of the screen would be repeated on the top of the next screen. The normal default value is 2 .


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