使用 Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, zypper 安装 alpine

项目链接

• 主页
• 仓库
• 上游文档
• 软件包管理器页面

命令和别名

• pico
• pilot
• rpdump
• rpload

项目历史

The official repository README credits the University of Washington for 2006-2009 copyright and Eduardo Chappa for 2013-2026 copyright. The same README describes the distribution as Alpine/Pico/Pilot/Web Alpine/Imapd and says user-level documentation is contained in the programs themselves as context-sensitive help.

Alpine retained Pine compatibility in visible ways. The official UW FAQ says Unix Alpine still uses `.pinerc` as the personal configuration file because that was the file name used by Pine and Alpine is an upgrade of Pine. The current homepage continues to publish source and Windows binaries and states that the site is for releases and extra documentation, while the binary contains the configuration documentation needed to run Alpine.

采用历史

Alpine's adoption comes from institutional Unix email culture, long-time Pine users, terminal users, and administrators who value keyboard-driven IMAP, NNTP, local folders, and remote configuration support. The official UW FAQ's explanation that Alpine is an upgrade of Pine captures the continuity that kept Pine users' configuration and habits relevant.

The current project is maintained outside the old UW release channel by Eduardo Chappa, with official releases at alpineapp.email and source at repo.or.cz. Package-manager adoption is broad across Unix-like systems because Alpine remains a compact terminal mail/news client with familiar companion tools such as Pico and Pilot.

使用方式

Users run `alpine` for interactive mail and news. The distribution also builds `pico`, `pilot`, `rpload`, `rpdump`, `mailutil`, IMAP test/server tools, and Web Alpine components, though package formulas may expose only some executables.

On Unix, Alpine uses a personal `~/.pinerc`, plus optional system files `/usr/local/lib/pine.conf` and `/usr/local/lib/pine.info`. Official documentation says Alpine can generate a blank personal configuration with `alpine -pinerc` and system-wide config output with `alpine -conf`.

For credentials, modern Alpine can be built with password-file support. Official release notes for Alpine 2.20 and 2.21 mention RPM builds with default password file `~/.alpine.pwd`, and the 2.26 homepage notes Unix builds with password-file support by default when built with SMIME support.

为什么软件包爱好者会关心

Alpine is historically important because it carries Pine-era terminal email conventions into modern package sets while preserving small Unix tools around the mailer. Its config paths still say `pine`, which is exactly the kind of legacy detail package metadata needs to avoid 'fixing'.

It is also a licensing and stewardship story: old UW Pine/Alpine heritage, Apache-licensed current releases, and a modern maintainer publishing signed tarballs and Windows binaries from alpineapp.email. Package maintainers care because source releases, repo.or.cz Git, and bundled companion tools do not map one-to-one to a single executable.

时间线

• 2006-2009: Repository README credits University of Washington copyright for Alpine.
• 2013-2026: Repository README credits Eduardo Chappa copyright for ongoing Alpine maintenance.
• 2014: Official Alpine 2.20 release notes mention RPM builds with default password file `~/.alpine.pwd`.
• 2026: Homepage lists Alpine 2.26 as the latest release and publishes source, signatures, Windows binaries, and release notes.

Related projects

• Pine is Alpine's predecessor and explains the retained `.pinerc`, `pine.conf`, and `pine.info` names.
• Pico and Pilot are companion text editor and file navigator tools included in the Alpine distribution.
• UW IMAP Toolkit/C-Client, Web Alpine, `rpload`, `rpdump`, and `mailutil` are distributed with the source tree.

来源

• https://alpineapp.email/
• https://alpineapp.email/alpine/UW/faq/config.html
• https://alpineapp.email/alpine/release/alpine-2.20.html
• https://alpineapp.email/alpine/release/alpine-2.21.html
• https://repo.or.cz/alpine.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/README