comsat(1M)                       (TCP/IP)                        comsat(1M)


   NAME
         comsat, in.comsat - biff server

   SYNOPSIS
         in.comsat

   DESCRIPTION
         comsat is the server process which listens for reports of incoming
         mail and notifies users who have requested to be told when mail
         arrives.  It is invoked as needed by inetd(1M), and times out if
         inactive for a few minutes.

         comsat listens on a datagram port associated with the biff service
         specification [see services(4)] for one line messages of the form

               user@mailbox-offset

         If the user specified is logged in to the system and the associated
         terminal has the owner execute bit turned on (by a biff y), the
         offset is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
         the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed on the
         user's terminal.  Lines which appear to be part of the message header
         other than the From, To, Date, or Subject lines are not printed when
         displaying the message.

   FILES
         /var/adm/utmp       who's logged on and on what terminals

   SEE ALSO
         services(4), inetd(1M).

   NOTES
         The message header filtering is prone to error.




















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