How to configure Pine
for IMAP in SCS

To configure the Pine text-based email client to access your SCS email account using the IMAP protocoll, take the following steps:

Note: These instructions will be most useful for advanced users who are familiar with UNIX-based operating systems. If you are mainly a Windows or Macintosh user, you may find more practical email options here.

• When you run pine for the first time, it will ask you a series of questions and store your answers in ~/.pinerc, a file that pine creates in your home directory. To reconfigure pine with different settings, simply rename or remove ~/.pinerc and run pine again, entering the new settings when prompted.

Q&A

Below are the questions that pine will ask when it is run for the first time, along with the answers that should be entered in order to use pine to read SCS email using the IMAP protocol.

Pine - Questions and Answers

Setting	Value
Import MH settings	no
Access method	IMAP
Mail server host	imap.srv.cs.cmu.edu (default)
User on mail server	your CS account name (default)
Mailbox on mail server	INBOX (default)
Set up MH folders	no
Set up Andrew bboards	no

Modifying your ~/.pinerc file to read subfolders

Pine only displays your inbox by default. In order to see subfolders (such as your Junk folder) you must manually edit the .pinerc file in your home directory.

• Using your favorite text editor, open ~/.pinerc and find the folder-collections line, which should look like this by default:

  folder-collections=

• In order for pine to display all subfolders, that line should be edited to look like this:

  folder-collections={imap.srv.cs.cmu.edu/imap/user=USERNEAME}INBOX.[*]
  
  Note: Replace USERNAME in the above example with your actual SCS username.

  That's it!

  Congratulations! You've successfully configured Pine to read your SCS email using the IMAP protocol. If you encounter any errors or if you have any further questions, contact the SCS Help Desk at help@cs.cmu.edu or on the phone at 8-4231.