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PC-alpine configuration
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Helmut Richter
Apr 16, 2012, 5:31:21 AM4/16/12
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Yesterday I tried out PC-alpine and it worked just fine. It took a while
to enter all names of SMTP and IMAP servers and the usernames there but
then I could use it.
Today, everything is forgotten and I have to start over with a virgin pine
not knowing where to go. I am aware of the (somewhat mystical) sentence in
the documentation which says:
The user is then asked whether or not this information should
automatically be saved to the PINERC. This is useful behavior in
general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be turned
off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above values in the
PINERC to the null string (i.e., a pair of double quotes). This means
that the user will be prompted for the information once during each
Alpine session, and no opportunity to save them in the PINERC will be
offered.
I agree that "this is useful behavior" as I am the sole user of the PC.
However: "The user is then asked whether or not this information should
automatically be saved to the PINERC." is not true -- I was never asked.
Instead, pine has decided to use the option "no opportunity to save them
in the PINERC will be offered". Can I change that?
The pine installation was done under an administrator account with the
Windows-like installaton procedure. Attempted usage of pine is from a
non-administrator account.
(This message was sent from a Linux pine. It has no such problems.)
--
Helmut Richter
to enter all names of SMTP and IMAP servers and the usernames there but
then I could use it.
Today, everything is forgotten and I have to start over with a virgin pine
not knowing where to go. I am aware of the (somewhat mystical) sentence in
the documentation which says:
The user is then asked whether or not this information should
automatically be saved to the PINERC. This is useful behavior in
general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be turned
off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above values in the
PINERC to the null string (i.e., a pair of double quotes). This means
that the user will be prompted for the information once during each
Alpine session, and no opportunity to save them in the PINERC will be
offered.
I agree that "this is useful behavior" as I am the sole user of the PC.
However: "The user is then asked whether or not this information should
automatically be saved to the PINERC." is not true -- I was never asked.
Instead, pine has decided to use the option "no opportunity to save them
in the PINERC will be offered". Can I change that?
The pine installation was done under an administrator account with the
Windows-like installaton procedure. Attempted usage of pine is from a
non-administrator account.
(This message was sent from a Linux pine. It has no such problems.)
--
Helmut Richter
Helmut Richter
Apr 16, 2012, 5:45:45 AM4/16/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012, Helmut Richter wrote:
> not knowing where to go. I am aware of the (somewhat mystical) sentence in
> the documentation which says:
Perhaps I should add *what* I find mystical:
> not knowing where to go. I am aware of the (somewhat mystical) sentence in
> the documentation which says:
> The user is then asked whether or not this information should
> automatically be saved to the PINERC. This is useful behavior in
> general, but can lead to problems in a lab or other shared environment.
> Hence, these prompts and automatic saving of configuration can be turned
> off on an entry by entry basis by setting any of the above values in the
> PINERC to the null string (i.e., a pair of double quotes).
it may have been created -- has to be modified manually by either the
person installing pine or by the user? I took it for granted that the
PINERC file is not to be modified manually but rather by the setup options
within pine. And there configuring the server names and the user's names
is just the process of overwriting the default null strings by something
useful.
--
Helmut Richter
mechanic
Apr 16, 2012, 7:53:23 AM4/16/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:31:21 +0200, Helmut Richter wrote:
> The pine installation was done under an administrator account with
> the Windows-like installaton procedure. Attempted usage of pine
> is from a non-administrator account.
Well that won't work will it - the pinerc file you've created won't
> The pine installation was done under an administrator account with
> the Windows-like installaton procedure. Attempted usage of pine
> is from a non-administrator account.
be in C:\Users\<your user name>\ it will be somewhere in the root
account. Set up PC-Alpine again from your user account and the
server details will stick.
Helmut Richter
Apr 16, 2012, 8:04:58 AM4/16/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012, mechanic wrote:
> Well that won't work will it - the pinerc file you've created won't
> be in C:\Users\<your user name>\ it will be somewhere in the root
> account. Set up PC-Alpine again from your user account and the
> server details will stick.
So it is not possible to have one PC-Alpine installation for more than one
> Well that won't work will it - the pinerc file you've created won't
> be in C:\Users\<your user name>\ it will be somewhere in the root
> account. Set up PC-Alpine again from your user account and the
> server details will stick.
user, each user having his own pinerc file?
And: Will the installation .exe run from a user account? At least it tries
to install PC-Alpine where all software belongs, which is not writable by
ordinary users.
The two users are the same person (me) but I prefer not to use the
administrator's account except when installing software.
--
Helmut Richter
Andreas Prilop
Apr 16, 2012, 12:39:34 PM4/16/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012, Helmut Richter wrote:
> So it is not possible to have one PC-Alpine installation for more
> than one user, each user having his own pinerc file?
Have you read
> So it is not possible to have one PC-Alpine installation for more
> than one user, each user having his own pinerc file?
http://www.washington.edu/alpine/tech-notes/config-notes.html#config-inheritance
?
mechanic
Apr 17, 2012, 7:52:39 AM4/17/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:04:58 +0200, Helmut Richter wrote:
> So it is not possible to have one PC-Alpine installation for more
> than one user, each user having his own pinerc file?
Yes, just start Alpine from a new user and the new config should be
> So it is not possible to have one PC-Alpine installation for more
> than one user, each user having his own pinerc file?
stored in the new user's home folder.
Helmut Richter
Apr 17, 2012, 9:37:33 AM4/17/12
to
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012, Andreas Prilop wrote:
> Have you read
> http://www.washington.edu/alpine/tech-notes/config-notes.html#config-inheritance
Not until now. But I admit I do not understand it:
> Have you read
> http://www.washington.edu/alpine/tech-notes/config-notes.html#config-inheritance
| Alpine uses a hierarchy of configuration values from different locations.
| There are five ways in which each configuration option (configuration
| variable) can be set. In increasing order of precedence they are:
|
| the system-wide configuration file.
| the personal configuration file
| the personal exceptions file
| a command line argument
| the system-wide fixed configuration file (Unix Alpine only)
| [...]
| The system-wide configuration file is normally /usr/local/lib/pine.conf
| for Unix Alpine and is normally not set for PC-Alpine.
| [...]
Okay, this is clear, but much more interesting would be a personal
configuration file. I am not so much interested in a deep hierarchy of
conigurations but much more so in at least *one* configuration file which
is kept from one session to the next.
| For Unix Alpine, [...]
not applicable
| For Unix Alpine, [...]
not applicable
| For PC-Alpine, the personal exceptions configuration file [...]
I must somehow have skipped the paragraph explaining where the personal
configuration file is -- the only one I'm really interested in.
(Moreover, I have no idea of how to set an environment variable in Windows
that has an effect on subsequent clicks.)
Here is what I did:
1. Got the PC-Alpine setup program
from ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/alpine/setup_alpine_2.00.exe
2. Run it under administrator's account. Result:
A number of files in C:\Programme\Alpine, to wit:
16.04.2012 00:04 <DIR> .
16.04.2012 00:04 <DIR> ..
26.08.2008 13:55 7.290.880 alpine.exe
16.04.2012 00:04 59 alpine.url
25.08.2008 18:49 552 install.txt
16.12.1998 14:58 138.752 ldap32.dll
30.08.2006 16:40 11.359 legal.txt
16.12.1998 14:58 454 mailcap.sam
16.12.1998 14:58 2.043 mimetype.sam
26.08.2008 13:54 1.146.880 pico.exe
16.12.1998 14:58 11.761 pinerc.adv
16.04.2012 00:04 <DIR> uninst_alpine
3. Login under user account. Alpine is found among the programs installed,
so I could run it. A window is opened with a virgin Alpine knowing
nothing about the intended configuration -- no surprise. With the
setup options of Alpine, I was able to set the names of the SMTP and
IMAP server and other parameters. After that, it worked fine for both
sending and receiving email.
I would have expected that these parameters are stored in a personal
configuration file (the one where there is no hint whether it exists at
all for PC-Alpine, and if so, where).
4. Logged in later under the same user account. Alpine has returned to
virgin state; all configuration data entered the last time is lost.
All I want is to modify the setup so that configuration data will not be
deleted between steps 3 and 4.
--
Helmut Richter
Helmut Richter
Apr 17, 2012, 9:38:28 AM4/17/12
to
other contribution of today in this thread.
--
Helmut Richter
mechanic
Apr 17, 2012, 11:18:14 AM4/17/12
to
program is not able to write such a file when you set options on the
M-S-C screen. You could try running 'alpine -p
C:\Users\<username>\pinerc' with a suitable file copied from the
working account, just to see if that works. Also it might be a good
idea to see where Alpine is holding its customisation info from the
first (working) account.
Also check you are entering the right info at the first screen that
comes up in a new account.
Maybe worth clearing the registry before starting the new account up
again - see
http://www.washington.edu/alpine/tech-notes/cmd-line.html
for command line options to PC-Alpine. (e.g. run 'alpine -install'
to clear registry).
This might also be useful:
http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#config
Andreas Prilop
Apr 17, 2012, 11:41:11 AM4/17/12
to
On Tue, 17 Apr 2012, Helmut Richter wrote:
> I must somehow have skipped the paragraph explaining where the personal
> configuration file is -- the only one I'm really interested in.
> (Moreover, I have no idea of how to set an environment variable in
> Windows that has an effect on subsequent clicks.)
The location of your pinerc file is stored in the Windows Registry:
> I must somehow have skipped the paragraph explaining where the personal
> configuration file is -- the only one I'm really interested in.
> (Moreover, I have no idea of how to set an environment variable in
> Windows that has an effect on subsequent clicks.)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\University of Washington\Alpine...
http://www.washington.edu/alpine/tech-notes/installation.html
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