Subject: Reading octet-stream attachments

From: Elizabeth Von Halle <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 16:54:46 -0700

Der Pine People,

At work, I used to get my email from a UNIX-based system, then
management switched me to Pine.  I am having a steep learning curve,
because 
(1) I am a slow learner when it comes to computer "stuff"
(2) I was not given instructions as to how to attach files (I do not
have PPP and FTP/IP access).
(3) I often get attachments in octet-stream which I can save to some
file, but no instructions as to how to get to that file.
(4) when I forward those email messages with octet-stream attachments to
my present ISP, I still cannot read the attachments.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Elizabeth S. Von Halle
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

---

From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 00:08:30 +0200 (CEST)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

  >Der Pine People,

Nicht die? Oder das?

  >At work, I used to get my email from a UNIX-based system, then management
  >switched me to Pine. 

Unless you're working with PC pine, pine *is* u*ix based. =8-0
  
  >I am having a steep learning curve, because

Get the Pine FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) from the usual place:

	Pine Information Center:  http://www.washington.edu/pine

  >file, but no instructions as to how to get to that file.

Well, pine tells you where it puts them:

	Copy attachment to file in home directory: foo.bar

So they go to your home directory. You can get there by saying:

 	cd ~/

and view the contents of the dir by saying:

	ls -alF 	

To copy those to disk, you need either the mtool-kit (try saying mdir to
check if you have them --- if so, you can use mdir, mcopy, mdelete and so
on, like in a Dos environment) or a permission to mount a floppy.

As an alternative (and if your local support people can get the prog
running, you can try using the Unix Commander which has a similar
functionality afaik.

  >my present ISP, I still cannot read the attachments.

You probably need an external program to "read" them. In pine, when you're
reading the message, say:

	V ViewAttch
	V [View] 		# if that doesn't work, say:
	S Save

Provided your /etc/mailcap is set up correctly, an application will be
launched that is capable of displaying the attachment, like, say, Notscape
for HTML etc. However, you normally won't be able to display e.g. Word
"documents", because there aren't too many programs around that can read
them (which is a Good Thing (tm) ).

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Robin

- -- 
Robin S. Socha, M.A., Political Science Dept., Bonn University, Bonn
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