MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
NAME
mail - send or receive mail
SYNOPSIS
mail [ -mpren ] [ -f file ]
mail [ -# ] person ...
mail
/usr/lib/upas/gone.fishing [ mesg ]
DESCRIPTION
Printing Mail
When persons are not named, mail displays your incoming com-
puter mail. The options are:
-r Print mail in first-in, first-out order.
-p Print all the mail messages without prompting for com-
mands.
-m Use a manual style of interface, i.e., print no mes-
sages unless directed to.
-f file
Use file, e.g. `mbox', as if it were the mailbox.
-e Check silently if there is anything in the mailbox;
return zero (true) if so, non-zero otherwise.
-n Announce mail to the control terminal when it arrives.
Do not print mail now.
Mail prints a user's mail, message by message, prompting
between messages. After printing a prompt mail reads a line
from the standard input to direct disposition of the mes-
sage. Commands, as in ed(1), are of the form `[range]
command [arguments]'. The command is applied to each mes-
sage in the (optional) range addressed by message number
and/or regular expressions in the style of regexp(3). A reg-
ular expression in slashes searches among header (postmark)
lines; an expression in backslashes searches on message con-
tent.
address to indicate a single message header
address,address
to indicate a range of contiguous message headers
g/expression/
to indicate all message headers matching the reg-
ular expression.
The commands are:
b Print the headers for the next ten messages.
d Mark message for deletion on exiting mail.
MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
h Print the disposition, size in characters, and
header line of the message.
m person ...
Mail the message to the named persons.
M person ...
Same as m except that lines typed on the terminal
(terminated by EOT or `.') are prepended to the
message.
p Print message. An interrupt stops the printing.
r Reply to the sender of the message.
R Like `r' but with the message appended to the
reply.
s file (Save) Append the message to the named file
(`mbox' default, in HOME directory if known, see
environ(5)).
q Put undeleted mail back in the mailbox and stop.
EOT (control-D)
Same as `q'.
w file Same as s with the mail header line(s) stripped.
u Remove mark for deletion.
x Exit, without changing the mailbox file.
? Print a command summary.
|command Run the command with the message as standard
input.
!command Escape to the shell to do command.
= Print the number of the current message.
Sending Mail
When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to
an end-of-file, or (if input is from a terminal) to a line
consisting of a single `.' and adds it to each person's
mailbox. The message is automatically postmarked with the
sender's name and date. Lines that look like postmarks are
prefixed with `>'.
Person is a login name on the local system or a network name
for a remote system; see mail(6).
Option -# does not send mail, but reports instead how the
mail would be sent: the sender, the next machine to handle
the mail, and the recipient's address relative to that
machine. The report reflects address translation; see
mail(6) and upas(8).
Sh(1) and vismon(9.1) have mechanisms for timely notifica-
tion of incoming mail.
Mailboxes
Each user owns a mailbox for incoming mail, normally
/usr/spool/mail/person. Mail creates mailboxes as neces-
sary, and never removes them. Mailboxes are created read-
able but not writable by others. For more privacy, a
MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
mailbox's owner may make it unreadable; see chmod(2).
If a mailbox contains the sole line
Forward to name,
mail for that mailbox is sent instead to name. Name may be a
list of names. If the mailbox contains
Pipe to command
the mail is sent to the standard input of command instead of
being appended to the mailbox. The command is run with the
userid and groupid of the mailbox's owner. The command is
sent (see signal(2)) after two minutes. (On System V
machines, the set userid bit must be set.)
Mail checks centralized forwarding lists before looking in
mailboxes. If you have accounts on many machines, but wish
to receive mail on only one, it is usually easier to regis-
ter in forwarding lists than to install `Forward to' in many
mailboxes; see upas(8).
To use mail as an answering machine while you are away,
replace the contents of your mailbox with a single line like
Pipe to /usr/lib/upas/gone.fishing /usr/you/mesg
The mesg file will be sent (just once) to everyone who sends
you mail; arriving messages will be collected in gone.mail
in your home directory. If you do not name a mesg file,
will be used by default.
FILES
mail log file
mailboxes
to identify sender and locate persons
saved mail
unmailable text
the program for editing mail
the program for sending mail
a link to used to receive remote mail
sions.