NAME

mail, rmail − send mail to users or read mail

SYNOPSIS

mail [ −epqr ] [ −f file ]

mail [ −t ] persons

rmail [ −t ] persons

DESCRIPTION

Mail without arguments prints a user’s mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order.  For each message, the user is prompted with a ?, and a line is read from the standard input to determine the disposition of the message:

<new-line> Go on to next message. 

+ Same as <new-line>. 

d Delete message and go on to next message. 

p Print message again. 

− Go back to previous message. 

s [files] Save message in the named files (mbox is default). 

w [files] Save message, without its header, in the named files (mbox is default). 

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

q Put undeleted mail back in the mailfile and stop. 

EOT (control-d) Same as q. 

x Put all mail back in the mailfile unchanged and stop. 

!command Escape to the shell to do command.

∗ Print a command summary. 

The optional arguments alter the printing of the mail:

−e causes mail not to be printed.  An exit value of 0 is returned if the user has mail; otherwise, an exit value of 1 is returned. 

−p causes all mail to be printed without prompting for disposition. 

−q causes mail to terminate after interrupts.  Normally an interrupt only causes the termination of the message being printed. 

−r causes messages to be printed in first-in, first-out order. 

−ffile causes mail to use file (e.g., mbox) instead of the default mailfile.

When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or up to a line consisting of just a .) and adds it to each person’s mailfile. The message is preceded by the sender’s name and a postmark. Lines that look like postmarks in the message, (i.e., "From ...") are preceded with a >.  The −t option causes the message to be preceded by all persons the mail is sent to.  A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1). If a person being sent mail is not recognized, or if mail is interrupted during input, the file dead.letter will be saved to allow editing and resending. 

To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1C)). Everything after the first exclamation mark in persons is interpreted by the remote system.  In particular, if persons contains additional exclamation marks, it can denote a sequence of machines through which the message is to be sent on the way to its ultimate destination.  For example, specifying a!b!cde as a recipient’s name causes the message to be sent to user b!cde on system a.  System a will interpret that destination as a request to send the message to user cde on system b.  This might be useful, for instance, if the sending system can access system a but not system b, and system a has access to system b. 

The mailfile may be manipulated in two ways to alter the function of mail. The other permissions of the file may be read-write, read-only, or neither read nor write to allow different levels of privacy.  If changed to other than the default, the file will be preserved even when empty to perpetuate the desired permissions.  The file may also contain the first line:

Forward to person

which will cause all mail sent to the owner of the mailfile to be forwarded to person. This is especially useful to forward all of a person’s mail to one machine in a multiple machine environment.

Rmail only permits the sending of mail; uucp(1C) uses rmail as a security precaution. 

When a user logs in, the presence of mail, if any, is indicated. Also, notification is made if new mail arrives while using mail.

EXAMPLE

mail carolyn

accepts whatever message is typed up to an EOF.  Carolyn will be notified that she has mail the next time she logs in. 

If you want to read mail that has been sent to you, simply type

mail

FILES

/etc/passwd to identify sender and locate persons

/usr/mail/user incoming mail for user; i.e., the mailfile

$HOME/mbox saved mail

$MAIL variable containing path name of mailfile

/tmp/ma∗ temporary file

/usr/mail/∗.lock lock for mail directory

dead.letter unmailable text

/bin/rmail remote mailer for uucp (linked to Mail for alias expansion)

/bin/rrmail invoked by rmail to do actual mail (linked to mail)

SEE ALSO

Mail(1), login(1), uucp(1C), write(1). 

BUGS

Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file. 
After an interrupt, the next message may not be printed; printing may be forced by typing a p. 

Version 2.3  —  July 04, 1985