Using alpine with microsoft exchange

Getting ALPINE to work with Microsoft's Mail Server when Evolution isn't an option

Rational:  I had to work on my Linux box for a long term project and needed to be able to watch for new mail.  Evolution wasn't an option because the Exchange servers didn't allow Evolution to read certain settings and I couldn't find a (quick) work around to manually configure.  So I decided to run the Office Communicator in Google Chrome and to start-up Alpine to watch my mailbox via IMAP.  Here are the relevant settings to get that to work

1. Find a valid SMTP server for your organization Hint:    dig example.com mx
2. Configure   .pinerc
   

user-domain=example.com
smtp-server=mailserv.example.com/novalidate-cert
default-saved-msg-folder={exchange.example.com/user=myid}Sent Items
feature-list=enable-suspend,
        quell-dead-letter-on-cancel,
        enable-sigdashes,
        signature-at-bottom,
        enable-mail-check-cue,
        enable-newmail-in-xterm-icon,
        enable-newmail-short-text-in-icon,
        show-cursor,
        show-sort,
        thread-sorts-by-arrival
sort-key=tHread
mail-check-interval=59
folder-collections=Mail mail/[],
        myid@example.com        {exchange.example.com/user=myid}[]
color-style=force-xterm-256color
current-indexline-style=flip-colors
normal-foreground-color=cyan
normal-background-color=black
title-foreground-color=yellow
title-background-color=blue
status-foreground-color=white
status-background-color=blue
keylabel-foreground-color=yellow
keylabel-background-color=black
keyname-foreground-color=black
keyname-background-color=yellow
selectable-item-foreground-color=magenta
selectable-item-background-color=black
quote1-foreground-color=red
quote1-background-color=black
quote2-foreground-color=green
quote2-background-color=black
quote3-foreground-color=blue
quote3-background-color=black
index-to-me-foreground-color=magenta
index-to-me-background-color=black
index-important-foreground-color=yellow
index-important-background-color=black
index-deleted-foreground-color=red
index-deleted-background-color=black
index-answered-foreground-color=white
index-answered-background-color=black
index-new-foreground-color=green
index-new-background-color=black

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New company same sh*tty mail server Exchange.  I don't even have a Microsoft box so I use OWA exclusively.  That makes archiving mail a problem since the webui doesn't give any convenient tools.  Solution?  Run Alpine against the server.  This particular microsoft server is configured to require Kerberos authentication, so set that up first and let alpine take it from there.

cat /etc/krb5.conf
[logging]
 default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
 kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
 admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log
[libdefaults]
 dns_lookup_realm = false
 ticket_lifetime = 24h
 renew_lifetime = 7d
 forwardable = true
 rdns = false
 default_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
[realms]
# EXAMPLE.COM = {
#  kdc = kerberos.example.com
#  admin_server = kerberos.example.com
# }
EXAMPLE.COM = {
  kdc = VICTORY.EXAMPLE.COM
  admin_server = VICTORY.EXAMPLE.COM
  default_domain = EXAMPLE.COM
}
[domain_realm]
# .example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
# example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
.kerberos.server = EXAMPLE.COM
.EXAMPLE.com = EXAMPLE.COM
EXAMPLE.com = EXAMPLE.COM
EXAMPLE = EXAMPLE.COM

Configure .pinerc to reference the exchange server

folder-collections=Mail mail/[],        me@example  {exchange/ssl/user=myid}[],        me@example  {exchange/novalidate-cert/ssl/user=myid}[]

Now run kinit to get a credential file

kinit

Now run alpine

alpine