By default, Pine automatically checks for new mail every 2.5 minutes. (You can change this time interval with the mail-check-interval option in the SETUP CONFIGURATION screen.) Some system administrators may have globally modified this interval.
When viewing the FOLDER INDEX, you can force Pine to check for new mail by pressing "^L", or if on the last item in the Index, by pressing "N". The "X eXpunge" command will also force a new-mail check. If you would like to have some visual indication of when Pine is checking for new mail, set the enable-mail-check-cue feature and watch for an asterisk to flash in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen. (Two asterisks mean that Pine is check-pointing --saving state changes in-- your INBOX.)
Or "How do I use Pine's aggregate operations?"
Aggregate operations were introduced in Pine 3.90. They give you the ability to select all of the messages in the current folder that match some specified criteria, and then to apply any of Pine's message operations (i.e. Save, Export, Print, Forward, Reply, TakeAddr, Pipe, Flag, Delete, Undelete) to the entire set of selected messages.
The following commands constitute the "aggregate-command-set":
"; Select" - to select a set of messages
"Z Zoom" - to change the Index to show only selected messages
"A Apply" - to apply a command (e.g. Save) to all selected msgs
As is the case with most advanced Pine features, aggregate operations are not enabled by default so that the basic "out of the box" Pine configuration may remain as simple as possible. To use this particular capability, set the enable-aggregate-command-set feature via SETUP CONFIGURATION screen (From the [M]ain Menu choose [S]etup, then [C]onfig).
Message selection can be based on message numbers (as shown in the Folder Index), dates, status (e.g. New, Answered), or any part of the message text (headers or body). Selected messages are denoted by an "X" in the first column of their FOLDER INDEX entry, unless the show-selected-in-boldface feature has been chosen via the Setup/Config screen.
Multiple selections are possible. In this case, Select will prompt you to either Broaden or Narrow the selection, and then ask for the match criteria to do that.
In addition, when aggregate operations are enabled, the WhereIs command in the FOLDER INDEX screen will have a new "^X Select Matches" sub-command. When you enter a match string at the WhereIs prompt and press ^X instead of RETURN, every message in the folder whose Index listing includes the match string will be selected.
Finally, Pine has built-in context-senstive help with information on all of the aggregate operations. Keep an eye out for it when you get confused or stuck while trying to use them.