Pine-Exchange mini-HOWTO
Prev |  | Next

# 6. Example Configuration

This example should help carify the syntax of the settings defined in the previous section, with a set of artificial data.

## 6.1. Gather your information

Let us assume the following default information (You may provide your own if you have it available):

      Printed Name = "Foo Foo"
      Account/User Name = "foofoo"
      Domain Name = "foofoo.org"
      Exchange/IMAP/LDAP Server = "192.168.1.25"

NOTE: In order for the transition to be seamless, you have to make sure you match the information precisely as it is stored on the Exchange Server. (ie if your name on the Exchange server is "John B. Doe", make sure you set your printed name to the exact value)

Let us also assume, you have been using Outlook up to this point, and you have accumulated some messages in your "INBOX", "Sent Items", and "Drafts". Not too mention a couple of personal folders you created in your "INBOX" on the server to categorize your mail: "TODO", "DONE", and "Personal".

## 6.2. Setting up a local ~/.pinerc configuration file

Here are the settings you should find in your ~/.pinerc file. In most cases, each setting will be empty (ie "key=" with no value specified). Here is what they would look like plugging in the default information.

      user-domain=foofoo.org
      smtp-server=192.168.1.25
      inbox-path={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}INBOX
      folder-collections="INBOX Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}inbox/[],
                         "Mailbox Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}[]
      default-fcc="{192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Sent Items"
      postponed-folder={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Drafts
      customized-hdrs=From: Foo Foo <foofoo@foofoo.org>
      ldap-servers=192.168.1.100 "/base=/impl=1/rhs=0/ref=0/nosub=0/type=
                 /srch=contains/time=/size=/cust=/nick=/matr=/catr=/satr=/gatr="
      rsh-open-timeout=0

NOTE: If you want to try SMTP Authentication with the above configuration, you would replace:

    smtp-server=192.168.1.25

with:

    smtp-server=192.168.1.25/user=foofoo

## 6.3. Setting up a site-wide Pine configuration

This configuration affects all the users on the system and requires a bit more work to setup. Only a UNIX SysAdmin should attempt this configuration.

NOTE: In order for this configuration to work properly, the Microsoft domain account information must be synced up with the Unix account information (ie. usernames and full names must match).

Looking at the default provided information you should notice that "Printed Name", and "Account/User Name" now have to be generalized. For "Printed Name", in removing it from the configuration file, Pine will default to the personal name found in the /etc/passwd file. For "Account/User Name", you can use "${USER}", which points to the environment variable which holds the users login name. So with that you get the following configuration:

      user-domain=foofoo.org
      smtp-server=192.168.1.25
      inbox-path={192.168.1.25/user=${USER}}INBOX
      folder-collections="INBOX Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=${USER}}inbox/[],
                         "Mailbox Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=${USER}}[]
      default-fcc="{192.168.1.25/user=${USER}}Sent Items"
      postponed-folder={192.168.1.25/user=${USER}}Drafts
      #customized-hdrs=From: Foo Foo <foofoo@foofoo.org>
      ldap-servers=192.168.1.100 "/base=/impl=1/rhs=0/ref=0/nosub=0/type=
                 /srch=contains/time=/size=/cust=/nick=/matr=/catr=/satr=/gatr="
      rsh-open-timeout=0

NOTE: In this configuration we want to comment out the "customized-hdrs" setting since we want the user information to be retrieved from the system /etc/passwd file.

The last step in this configuration is determining whether to put the settings in /etc/pine.conf or /etc/pine.conf.fixed. That choice is yours, and depends on how much control you need to give to the users. If your company only uses Exchange, maybe all the settings should go in fixed, but then users couldn't use Pine for anything else. Remember, if you put a setting in pine.conf.fixed, the user does not have the option to change it.

## 6.4. Logging into the Exchange/IMAP server

When you first start up Pine, with your new configuration file (You can use the command 'pine -p .pinerc.new-config' if you have multiple), Pine will automatically try to connect to your Exchange/IMAP Server. After establishing a connection, using the provided username from the configuration file, it will prompt you for your password. This will be your network logon password on the Microsoft domain. Once you get authenticated, you should be ready to go.

## 6.5. Accessing your Folders with IMAP

When you first open your folder list, you should see three folder collections. Incoming Folders(INBOX), INBOX Folders(personal folders), and Mailbox Folders specialized folders).

Even though this is not a Pine HOWTO, there is one thing I want to point out about navigating the folders. When viewing the contents of a folder, if you want to view the list of messages in the folder, hit the "ENTER" key, if you want to view the list of folders(subdirectories) in the folder, hit the ">" key. If you need more information on using Pine, check out their website (see Resources).

## 6.6. Accessing your Global Address List with LDAP

Using the default configuration provided in this example, when you compose a new message, and type in a name in the "To:" box. Pine will first check your local addressbook for the nickname. If it doesn't find it, it will then run an LDAP query by default, using the default name you typed as the search string. Depending on the speed of the LDAP server, you should get a response relatively quickly. From the results you can choose the entry you were looking for, and continue writing your email.

NOTE: If you type in an email address in the "To:" box, it will NOT do an LDAP search or any other addressbook search (ie. user@smtp.email.org).

If you just want to do a search, without actually composing a new message, you can go directly to your addressbook, select the LDAP server, and type the search string from there (ie (M)ain, (A)ddressbook).

In case you do not want Pine to do an automatic LDAP lookup everytime you compose a new message, you can change the parameter "/impl=1" in the "ldap-server" setting to "/impl=0". This will allow you to do a manual LDAP query if you wish.

## 6.7. Sending an email with SMTP

This procedure does not change from normal Pine usage. You can start composing your message right away. When you send the message it will get sent through the provided SMTP server.

Prev | Home | Next
Pine Configuration |  | Resources