Setting up the Alpine MUA

Requirements

You might like to have unicode support e.g. on NetBSD with PDKSH

vi /etc/profile

export ENV=/etc/shrc

vi /etc/shrc

    export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
    export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
    export LC_ALL=""

Build

zcat ../fancy.patch.gz | patch -p1
./configure --help | less
./configure --disable-mouse --without-krb5 --without-ldap --without-tcl --without-ntlm --with-ssl-certs-dir=/etc/openssl/certs
make -j8
make install

Install

from scratch

ftp -a http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/release/src/alpine-2.21.tar.xz
md5 alpine-2.21.tar.xz #02dad85c1be80ce020206f222ecf5ac8
tar xJf alpine-2.21.tar.xz
cd alpine-2.21/
./configure --help | less
./configure --with-ssl-dir=/usr/local/ssl --with-ssl-certs-dir=/etc/openssl/certs/ --without-krb5 --without-ldap --without-tcl
make -j8
make install

netbsd

echo $PKG_PATH
pkg_add alpine

slackware

slackpkg search alpine
ls -lF /var/log/packages/alpine-*

ubuntu

apt install alpine

Setup

Make sure there’s a white space after the two dashes

vi ~/.signature

-- 
YOUR-SIGNATURE

Make sure you’re on an UTF-8 capable display

Get ready for spell checks

pkg_info | grep aspell

Get a wiped-out config to start with

alpine

ENTER
Q

mv -i .pinerc .pinerc.dist
sed '/^#/d; /^$/d' .pinerc.dist > .pinerc.clean

Grab my template and define a few things (4 first lines) e.g. don’t reply to yourself by enabling alt-addresses

wget https://pub.nethence.com/dotfiles/dot.pinerc.txt
cp -i dot.pinerc.txt .pinerc
vi .pinerc

change/update those

personal-name=YOUR-NAME
user-domain=DOMAIN.TLD
alt-addresses=contact@DOMAIN.TLD,
    abuse@DOMAIN.TLD

in case the UNIX user-name differs

customized-hdrs=From: YOUR-NAME <YOUR-EMAIL1>

in case this is not a mail host

smtp-server=SMARTHOST/tls

check and backup

grep -vE '^#|^$|=$' .pinerc
mv -f .pinerc .pinerc.tmp
grep -vE '^#|^$|=$' .pinerc.tmp > .pinerc
rm -f .pinerc.tmp
#diff -bu dot.pinerc.txt .pinerc
diff -bu dot.pinerc .pinerc

Unused

    convert-dates-to-localtime,
    thread-sorts-by-arrival,
    slash-collapses-entire-thread

Handy mailboxen

(assuming mbox format)

Thunderbird wants

Sent
Drafts
Trash

iOS Mail wants

    Sent\ Messages
    Saved
    Deleted\ Messages

Alpine provides

sent-mail
postponed-msgs
saved-messages

hence on the email storage itself

    cd ~USER/mail/
    ln -s sent-mail Sent
ln -s sent-mail Sent\ Messages
    ln -s postponed-msgs Drafts
    ln -s postponed-msgs Saved
    ln -s saved-messages Trash
    ln -s saved-messages Deleted\ Messages

and check

ls -lF sent-mail Sent* postpone* Drafts Saved Trash Deleted*

Resources

Patches for Alpine http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/

Why I still love Alpine for email at the Linux terminal https://opensource.com/article/18/8/love-alpine

Configuration and Preferences http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/doc/alpine-doc/tech-notes/config.html

What is a Mail Drop? http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/doc/alpine-doc/tech-notes/config-notes.html#maildrop

Setting up a Maildrop http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/alpine-info/maildrop/

unicode https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/unicode/

patches

Fancy Thread Interface http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/info/fancy.html http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/alpha/info/fancy.html