2.1 Configuring pads1 Pine with IMAP

Note:

To correctly get Pine working on pads1 follow the instructions in this section carefully.

Pine has the ability to co-exist with IMAP (and thus remote e-mail clients). To get this functionality working you must do several things to your file structure and Pine itself.

2.1.1 Setting up your filesystem

The main directory in your home directory that stores email is the ``mail'' folder. This folder must be the main folder for all e-mail. If you would like other UNIX email clients to access your mail and they use a different directory, create a symbolic link from the directory it uses to ``mail''. For instance, dtmail stores files in the ``Mail'' directory; you would create a symbolic link like this:

cd

ln -s ./mail Mail

Note:

The e-mail client must store e-mail in the standard UNIX e-mail file format for this to work.

You also must create an mbox file in your home directory with permissions 600. It is safer for this file to physically reside in the ``mail'' directory - thus create a symbolic link to it there. Do this with the following commands:

cd ~/mail

touch mbox

chmod 600 mbox

cd

ln -s ./mail/mbox .

Now your filesystem is ready for Pine and IMAP!

2.1.2 Setting up Pine

There are two simple configuration settings to change in Pine so that it works better with IMAP. If you are new to Pine and have never started it before, then these will already be set for you from the system defaults. If not then keep reading...

One default is to not move mail out of the /var/mail/<user> file into your home directory. But we need Pine to move mail to your mbox. Do this my selecting S or Setup from the Pine main menu, then select C for config. Change the fifth item, inbox-path, to read inbox (as shown in the image below):

Highlight the inbox-path and press C for Change Value. Type in inbox and press enter.

Another default is not to display multiple INBOX folders (ie for remote hosts). In the same configuration screen as above, scroll down a few pages and mark the enable-incoming-folders option (using the spacebar) as shown below:

Then press E to Exit Setup, save and restart Pine.