NAME

binmail − send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS

/bin/mail [ options ] [ person ] ... 
/bin/mail [ options ] file

DESCRIPTION

Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program.  The default mail command is described in Mail(1), and its binary is in the directory /usr/ucb . 

mail with no argument prints a user’s mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order.  The optional argument + displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order.  For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message. 

Once you’ve invoked mail, you can use these commands:

newline
Go on to next message.

d Delete message and go on to the next. 

p Print message again. 

− Go back to previous message. 

s [ file ] ...
Save the message in the named files (‘mbox’ default). 

w [ file ] ...
Save the message, without a header, in the named files (‘mbox’ default). 

m [ person ] ...
Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default). 

EOT (control-D)
Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.

q Same as EOT. 

!command
Escape to the Shell to execute command.

∗ Print a command summary. 

An interrupt normally terminates the mail command and leaves the mail file unchanged.  The optional argument −i tells mail to continue after interrupts. 

When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just ‘.’) and adds it to each person’s ‘mail’ file.  The sender’s name and a postmark precede each message.  Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with ‘>’.  Usually person is a user name recognized by login(1).  To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1C)). 

When a user logs in, mail tells him if he has received any messages. 

OPTIONS

−f Prints the named file, as if it were the mail file.  For example, /bin/mail -f mbox prints the file mbox as the mail file. 

−i Tells mail to continue after interrupts. 

+ Displays mail messages in first-in, first-out order. 

FILES

/etc/passwdto identify sender and locate persons
/usr/spool/mail/∗incoming mail for user ∗
mboxsaved mail
/tmp/ma∗temp file
/usr/spool/mail/∗.locklock for mail directory
dead.letterunmailable text

SEE ALSO

Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8)

BUGS

Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file. 

Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1). An installation can overcome this by making mail a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory. 

INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS 4.3 BSD  —  April 29, 1985