Configuration of Pine to Use SIMAP

Historically, users at Jefferson Lab (JLab) have been able to use Pine on all central login servers and Commong User Environment (CUE ), Level 1 Linux machines.  This usage of Pine required local disk access to the incoming mail spool.  This method of using Pine no longer works at Jlab (due to no user accessible machine having direct disk access to the mail spool).  The solution is to configure pine to be an SIMAP client and connect to the mail servers.

These instructions are to configure Pine when run from a Linux machine that has access to your home directory (i.e. /home/username).  Only JLab-CUE, Level 1 Linux machines will have access to /home.  All central Linux machines, jlabl1, jlabl2, jlabl3 fall into this category.

Here are the steps to configure Pine to use SIMAP.  (Pine is not a Jlab written application, there is a lot of information on Pine configuration on the web, try Google)

  1. Start Pine.
  2. 's' for setup
  3. 'c' for configuration
  4. Set the following options:
    • user-domain = jlab.org
    • inbox-path = {mail.jlab.org/ssl}INBOX    [note:braces and caps are requried]
    • smtp-server = smtpmail.jlab.org
  5. Type 'e' to exit the config screen and save the changes.

These changes  tell Pine to get your inbox from the SIMAP server, rather than the local file system.  The machine you are running Pine from still has access direct access to your folders in /home/username/mail, so there is no further configuration required.

Your Pine is now setup as a standard SIMAP client.  It has access to your inbox and your imap folders without access to the local file system.

Once again, pine is widely used.  There are tons of configuration options.  There are loads of resources on the web for help usage of pine.

The above instructions are to setup Pine to use SIMAP to get mail into your inbox.  Once you have that configured, follow the instructions below to setup Pine to see SIMAP folders.

 

Pine Configuration to See IMAP Folders

JLab staff and users that use the pine program to read their email need to make the following configuration change in order to be able to see their saved folders.

  • Log into pine and go to setup (Press S)
  • Go to Configuration (Press C)
  • Under Folder Preferences, select enable-lame-list-mode
  • Exit the configuration screen (Press E) and go back into setup (Press S)
  • Go to Collection List (Press L)
  • Go to Add Collection (Press A)

This should bring up a screen asking for a Nickname, Server, Path, and View for the collection. Choose any nickname for the collection you want, such as JLab IMAP folders. The Server name must be mail.jlab.org/ssl. The Path entry is the path of where your mail folders were in your home directory. Usually, this is something similar to mail/. You can leave the View entry blank.

Now save the collection and go back into pine and you should be able to see all of your email folders as well as your INBOX.

If you need additional help with setting this up, please contact the IT Division Help Desk.

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