Setting up the Alpine MUA

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 display first?

alias pine='alpine'
pine
ENTER
Q
mv -i .pinerc .pinerc.dist
sed '/^#/d; /^$/d' .pinerc.dist > .pinerc
vi .pinerc

personal-name=YOUR-NAME
user-domain=YOUR-DOMAIN
feature-list=vertical-folder-list,
    combined-folder-display,
    enable-incoming-folders,
    enable-incoming-folders-checking,
    single-column-folder-list,
    combined-subdirectory-display,
    expanded-view-of-folders
initial-keystroke-list=L
sort-key=Arrival/Reverse
mail-check-interval=15
incoming-folders=mail/BCC, mail/CRON

in case the UNIX user-name differs

customized-hdrs=From: YOUR-NAME <YOUR@EMAIL>

in case there’s more addresses you don’t want to reply to (yourself)

alt-addresses=email1, email2

in case this is not a mail host

smtp-server=SMARTHOST/tls

check and backup

grep -v =$ .pinerc
cp -pi .pinerc .pinerc.`date +%s`

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