NAME

mailx − interactive message processing system

SYNOPSIS

mailx [options] [name...]

DESCRIPTION

The command mailx provides a comfortable, flexible environment for sending and receiving messages electronically.  When reading mail, mailx provides commands to facilitate saving, deleting, and responding to messages.  When sending mail, mailx allows editing, reviewing, and other modification of the message as it is entered. 

Many of the remote features of mailx will only work if the Basic Networking Utilities are installed on your system. 

Incoming mail is stored in a standard file for each user, called the mailbox for that user.  When mailx is called to read messages, the mailbox is the default place to find them.  As messages are read, they are marked to be moved to a secondary file for storage, unless specific action is taken, so that the messages need not be seen again.  This secondary file is called the mbox and is normally located in the user’s HOME directory [see MBOX (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of this file].  Messages can be saved in other secondary files named by the user.  Messages remain in a secondary file until forcibly removed. 

The user can access a secondary file by using the −f option of the mailx command.  Messages in the secondary file can then be read or otherwise processed using the same COMMANDS as in the primary mailbox.  This gives rise within these pages to the notion of a current mailbox. 

On the command line, options start with a dash (−) and any other arguments are taken to be destinations (recipients).  If no recipients are specified, mailx will attempt to read messages from the mailbox.  Command line options are:

−e Test for presence of mail.  mailx prints nothing and exits with a successful return code if there is mail to read. 

−f [filename] Read messages from filename instead of mailbox.  If no filename is specified, the mbox is used. 

−F Record the message in a file named after the first recipient.  Overrides the "record" variable, if set (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

−h number The number of network "hops" made so far.  This is provided for network software to avoid infinite delivery loops.  (See addsopt under ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

−H Print header summary only. 

−i Ignore interrupts.  See also ignore (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

−n Do not initialize from the system default mailx.rc file. 

−N Do not print initial header summary. 

−r address Pass address to network delivery software.  All tilde commands are disabled.  (See addsopt under ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

−s subject Set the Subject header field to subject.

−u user Read user’s mailbox.  This is only effective if user’s mailbox is not read protected. 

−U Convert uucp style addresses to internet standards.  Overrides the conv environment variable.  (See addsopt under ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

When reading mail, mailx is in command mode.  A header summary of the first several messages is displayed, followed by a prompt indicating mailx can accept regular commands (see COMMANDS below).  When sending mail, mailx is in input mode.  If no subject is specified on the command line, a prompt for the subject is printed.  (A "subject" longer than 1024 characters will cause mailx to dump core.)  As the message is typed, mailx will read the message and store it in a temporary file.  Commands may be entered by beginning a line with the tilde (~) escape character followed by a single command letter and optional arguments.  See TILDE ESCAPES for a summary of these commands. 

At any time, the behavior of mailx is governed by a set of environment variables.  These are flags and valued parameters which are set and cleared via the set and unset commands.  See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below for a summary of these parameters. 

Recipients listed on the command line may be of three types: login names, shell commands, or alias groups.  Login names may be any network address, including mixed network addressing.  If mail is found to to undeliverable, an attempt is made to return it to the sender’s mailbox.  If the recipient name begins with a pipe symbol ( | ), the rest of the name is taken to be a shell command to pipe the message through.  This provides an automatic interface with any program that reads the standard input, such as lp(1), for recording outgoing mail on paper. Alias groups are set by the alias command (see COMMANDS below) and are lists of recipients of any type. 

Regular commands are of the form

[ command ] [ msglist ] [ arguments ]

If no command is specified in command mode, print is assumed.  In input mode, commands are recognized by the escape character, and lines not treated as commands are taken as input for the message. 

Each message is assigned a sequential number, and there is at any time the notion of a current message, marked by a right angle bracket (>) in the header summary.  Many commands take an optional list of messages (msglist) to operate on.  The default for msglist is the current message.  A msglist is a list of message identifiers separated by spaces, which may include:

n Message number n. 

.  The current message. 

^ The first undeleted message. 

$ The last message. 

* All messages. 

n−m An inclusive range of message numbers. 

user All messages from user.

/string All messages with string in the subject line (case ignored). 

:c All messages of type c, where c is one of:

d deleted messages

n new messages

o old messages

r read messages

u unread messages

Note that the context of the command determines whether this type of message specification makes sense. 

Other arguments are usually arbitrary strings whose usage depends on the command involved.  File names, where expected, are expanded via the normal shell conventions [see sh(1)]. Special characters are recognized by certain commands and are documented with the commands below.

At start-up time, mailx tries to execute commands from the optional system-wide file (/usr/lib/mailx/mailx.rc) to initialize certain parameters, then from a private start-up file ($HOME/.mailrc) for personalized variables.  With the exceptions noted below, regular commands are legal inside start-up files.  The most common use of a start-up file is to set up initial display options and alias lists.  The following commands are not legal in the start-up file: !, Copy, edit, followup, Followup, hold, mail, preserve, reply, Reply, shell, and visual.  An error in the start-up file causes the remaining lines in the file to be ignored.  The .mailrc file is optional and must be constructed locally. 

COMMANDS

The following is a complete list of mailx commands:

!shell-command
Escape to the shell. See SHELL (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

# comment
Null command (comment). This may be useful in .mailrc files. 

=
Print the current message number.

?
Prints a summary of commands.

alias alias name ... 

group alias name ... 
Declare an alias for the given names. The names will be substituted when alias is used as a recipient.  Useful in the .mailrc file. 

alternates name ... 
Declares a list of alternate names for your login. When responding to a message, these names are removed from the list of recipients for the response. With no arguments, alternates prints the current list of alternate names. See also allnet (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

cd [directory]

chdir [directory]
Change directory. If directory is not specified, $HOME is used. 

copy [filename]

copy [msglist] filename
Copy messages to the file without marking the messages as saved. Otherwise equivalent to the save command. 

Copy [msglist]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from the author of the message to be saved, without marking the messages as saved. Otherwise equivalent to the Save command. 

delete [msglist]
Delete messages from the mailbox.  If autoprint is set, the next message after the last one deleted is printed (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

discard [header-field ...]

ignore [header-field ...]
Suppresses printing of the specified header fields when displaying messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are "status" and "cc." The fields are included when the message is saved. The Print and Type commands override this command. 

dp [msglist]

dt [msglist]
Delete the specified messages from the mailbox and print the next message after the last one deleted.  Roughly equivalent to a delete command followed by a print command. 

echo string ... 
Echo the given strings [like echo(1)].

edit [msglist]
Edit the given messages. The messages are placed in a temporary file and the EDITOR variable is used to get the name of the editor (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).  Default editor is ed(1).

exit

xit
Exit from mailx without changing the mailbox.  No messages are saved in the mbox (see also quit). 

file [filename]

folder [filename]
Quit from the current file of messages and read in the specified file. Several special characters are recognized when used as file names, with the following substitutions:

% the current mailbox. 

%user the mailbox for user. 

# the previous file. 

& the current mbox. 

Default file is the current mailbox. 

folders
Print the names of the files in the directory set by the folder variable (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

followup [message]
Respond to a message, recording the response in a file whose name is derived from the author of the message. Overrides the record variable, if set.  See also the Followup, Save, and Copy commands and outfolder (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

Followup [msglist]
Respond to the first message in the msglist, sending the message to the author of each message in the msglist.  The subject line is taken from the first message and the response is recorded in a file whose name is derived from the author of the first message.  See also the followup, Save, and Copy commands and "outfolder" (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

from [msglist]
Prints the header summary for the specified messages.

group alias name ... 

alias alias name ... 
Declare an alias for the given names. The names will be substituted when alias is used as a recipient.  Useful in the .mailrc file. 

headers [message]
Prints the page of headers which includes the message specified. The screen variable sets the number of headers per page (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).  See also the z command. 

help
Prints a summary of commands.

hold [msglist]

preserve [msglist]
Holds the specified messages in the mailbox. 

if s | r

s

else

s

endif
Conditional execution, where s will execute following s, up to an else or endif, if the program is in send mode, and r causes the s to be executed only in receive mode.  Useful in the .mailrc file. 

ignore header-field ... 

discard header-field ... 
Suppresses printing of the specified header fields when displaying messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are "status" and "cc." All fields are included when the message is saved. The Print and Type commands override this command. 

list
Prints all commands available. No explanation is given.

mail name ... 
Mail a message to the specified users.

Mail name
Mail a message to the specified user and record a copy of it in a file named after that user.

mbox [msglist]
Arrange for the given messages to end up in the standard mbox save file when mailx terminates normally.  See MBOX (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of this file.  See also the exit and quit commands. 

next [message]
Go to next message matching message.  A msglist may be specified, but in this case the first valid message in the list is the only one used.  This is useful for jumping to the next message from a specific user, since the name would be taken as a command in the absence of a real command.  See the discussion of msglists above for a description of possible message specifications. 

pipe [msglist] [shell-command]

| [msglist] [shell-command]
Pipe the message through the given shell-command.  The message is treated as if it were read.  If no arguments are given, the current message is piped through the command specified by the value of the cmd variable.  If the page variable is set, a form feed character is inserted after each message (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

preserve [msglist]

hold [msglist]
Preserve the specified messages in the mailbox. 

Print [msglist]

Type [msglist]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command. 

print [msglist]

type [msglist]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged through the command specified by the PAGER variable.  The default command is pg(1) (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

quit
Exit from mailx, storing messages that were read in mbox and unread messages in the mailbox.  Messages that have been explicitly saved in a file are deleted. 

Reply [msglist]

Respond [msglist]
Send a response to the author of each message in the msglist.  The subject line is taken from the first message.  If record is set to a file name, the response is saved at the end of that file (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

reply [message]

respond [message]
Reply to the specified message, including all other recipients of the message. If record is set to a file name, the response is saved at the end of that file (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

Save [msglist]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from the author of the first message. The name of the file is taken to be the author’s name with all network addressing stripped off. See also the Copy, followup, and Followup commands and outfolder (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

save [filename]

save [msglist] filename
Save the specified messages in the given file. The file is created if it does not exist. The message is deleted from the mailbox when mailx terminates unless keepsave is set (see also ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES and the exit and quit commands). 

set

set name

set name=string

set name=number
Define a variable called name.  The variable may be given a null, string, or numeric value.  Set by itself prints all defined variables and their values.  See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for detailed descriptions of the mailx variables. 

shell
Invoke an interactive shell [see also SHELL (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)]. 

size [msglist]
Print the size in characters of the specified messages.

source filename
Read commands from the given file and return to command mode.

top [msglist]
Print the top few lines of the specified messages. If the toplines variable is set, it is taken as the number of lines to print (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).  The default is 5. 

touch [msglist]
Touch the specified messages. If any message in msglist is not specifically saved in a file, it will be placed in the mbox, or the file specified in the MBOX environment variable, upon normal termination.  See exit and quit. 

Type [msglist]

Print [msglist]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command. 

type [msglist]

print [msglist]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged through the command specified by the PAGER variable.  The default command is pg(1) (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

undelete [msglist]
Restore the specified deleted messages. Will only restore messages deleted in the current mail session. If autoprint is set, the last message of those restored is printed (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

unset name ... 
Causes the specified variables to be erased. If the variable was imported from the execution environment (i.e., a shell variable), then it cannot be erased.

version
Prints the current version and release date.

visual [msglist]
Edit the given messages with a screen editor. The messages are placed in a temporary file and the VISUAL variable is used to get the name of the editor (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

write [msglist] filename
Write the given messages on the specified file, minus the header and trailing blank line. Otherwise equivalent to the save command. 

xit

exit
Exit from mailx, without changing the mailbox.  No messages are saved in the mbox (see also quit). 

z[+ | −]
Scroll the header display forward or backward one full screen. The number of headers displayed is set by the screen variable (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

TILDE ESCAPES

The following commands may be entered only from input mode, by beginning a line with the tilde escape character (~).  See escape (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for changing this special character. 

~! shell-command
Escape to the shell.

~.
Simulate end of file (terminate message input).

~:

~_ 
Perform the command-level request. Valid only when sending a message while reading mail.

~?
Print a summary of tilde escapes.

~A
Insert the autograph string Sign into the message (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

~a
Insert the autograph string sign into the message (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

~b name ... 
Add the names to the blind carbon copy (Bcc) list. 

~c name ... 
Add the names to the carbon copy (Cc) list. 

~d
Read in the dead.letter file.  See DEAD (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of this file. 

~e
Invoke the editor on the partial message. See also EDITOR (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

~f [msglist]
Forward the specified messages. The messages are inserted into the message without alteration.

~h
Prompt for Subject line and To, Cc, and Bcc lists. If the field is displayed with an initial value, it may be edited as if you had just typed it.

~i string
Insert the value of the named variable into the text of the message. For example, ~A is equivalent to ’~i Sign.’ Environment variables set and exported in the shell are also accessible by ~i. 

~m [msglist]
Insert the specified messages into the letter, shifting the new text to the right one tab stop. Valid only when sending a message while reading mail.

~p
Print the message being entered.

~q
Quit from input mode by simulating an interrupt. If the body of the message is not null, the partial message is saved in dead.letter.  See DEAD (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of this file. 

~r filename

~~<  filename

~~<  !shell-command
Read in the specified file. If the argument begins with an exclamation point (!), the rest of the string is taken as an arbitrary shell command and is executed, with the standard output inserted into the message.

~s string ... 
Set the subject line to string. 

~t name ... 
Add the given names to the To list. 

~v
Invoke a preferred screen editor on the partial message. See also VISUAL (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). 

~w filename
Write the partial message onto the given file, without the header.

~x
Exit as with ~q except the message is not saved in dead.letter. 

~| shell-command
Pipe the body of the message through the given shell-command.  If the shell-command returns a successful exit status, the output of the command replaces the message. 

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following are environment variables taken from the execution environment and are not alterable within mailx. 

HOME=directory
The user’s base of operations.

MAILRC=filename
The name of the start-up file. Default is $HOME/.mailrc.

The following variables are internal mailx variables.  They may be imported from the execution environment or set via the set command at any time.  The unset command may be used to erase variables. 

addsopt
Enabled by default. If /bin/mail is not being used as the deliverer, noaddsopt should be specified.  (See WARNINGS below)

allnet
All network names whose last component (login name) match are treated as identical. This causes the msglist message specifications to behave similarly.  Default is noallnet.  See also the alternates command and the metoo variable. 

append
Upon termination, append messages to the end of the mbox file instead of prepending them.  Default is noappend. 

askcc
Prompt for the Cc list after message is entered. Default is noaskcc. 

asksub
Prompt for subject if it is not specified on the command line with the −s option.  Enabled by default. 

autoprint
Enable automatic printing of messages after delete and undelete commands.  Default is noautoprint. 

bang
Enable the special-casing of exclamation points (!) in shell escape command lines as in vi(1). Default is nobang. 

cmd=shell-command
Set the default command for the pipe command.  No default value. 

conv=conversion
Convert uucp addresses to the specified address style. The only valid conversion now is internet, which requires a mail delivery program conforming to the RFC822 standard for electronic mail addressing. Conversion is disabled by default. See also sendmail and the −U command line option. 

crt=number
Pipe messages having more than number lines through the command specified by the value of the PAGER variable [pg(1) by default]. Disabled by default.

DEAD=filename
The name of the file in which to save partial letters in case of untimely interrupt. Default is $HOME/dead.letter.

debug
Enable verbose diagnostics for debugging. Messages are not delivered. Default is nodebug. 

dot
Take a period on a line by itself during input from a terminal as end-of-file. Default is nodot. 

EDITOR=shell-command
The command to run when the edit or ~e command is used.  Default is ed(1).

escape=c
Substitute c for the ~ escape character.  Takes effect with next message sent. 

folder=directory
The directory for saving standard mail files. User-specified file names beginning with a plus (+) are expanded by preceding the file name with this directory name to obtain the real file name. If directory does not start with a slash (/), $HOME is prepended to it.  In order to use the plus (+) construct on a mailx command line, folder must be an exported sh environment variable.  There is no default for the folder variable.  See also outfolder below. 

header
Enable printing of the header summary when entering mailx.  Enabled by default. 

hold
Preserve all messages that are read in the mailbox instead of putting them in the standard mbox save file.  Default is nohold. 

ignore
Ignore interrupts while entering messages. Handy for noisy dial-up lines. Default is noignore. 

ignoreeof
Ignore end-of-file during message input. Input must be terminated by a period (.) on a line by itself or by the ~.  command.  Default is noignoreeof.  See also dot above. 

keep
When the mailbox is empty, truncate it to zero length instead of removing it.  Disabled by default. 

keepsave
Keep messages that have been saved in other files in the mailbox instead of deleting them.  Default is nokeepsave. 

MBOX=filename
The name of the file to save messages which have been read. The xit command overrides this function, as does saving the message explicitly in another file.  Default is $HOME/mbox. 

metoo
If your login appears as a recipient, do not delete it from the list. Default is nometoo. 

LISTER=shell-command
The command (and options) to use when listing the contents of the folder directory.  The default is ls(1).

onehop
When responding to a message that was originally sent to several recipients, the other recipient addresses are normally forced to be relative to the originating author’s machine for the response. This flag disables alteration of the recipients’ addresses, improving efficiency in a network where all machines can send directly to all other machines (i.e., one hop away).

outfolder
Causes the files used to record outgoing messages to be located in the directory specified by the folder variable unless the path name is absolute.  Default is nooutfolder.  See folder above and the Save, Copy, followup, and Followup commands. 

page
Used with the pipe command to insert a form feed after each message sent through the pipe.  Default is nopage. 

PAGER=shell-command
The command to use as a filter for paginating output. This can also be used to specify the options to be used. Default is pg(1).

prompt=string
Set the command mode prompt to string.  Default is ? . 

quiet
Refrain from printing the opening message and version when entering mailx.  Default is noquiet. 

record=filename
Record all outgoing mail in filename.  Disabled by default.  See also outfolder above. 

save
Enable saving of messages in dead.letter on interrupt or delivery error.  See DEAD for a description of this file.  Enabled by default. 

screen=number
Sets the number of lines in a full screen of headers for the headers command. 

sendmail=shell-command
Alternate command for delivering messages. Default is /bin/rmail(1).

sendwait
Wait for background mailer to finish before returning. Default is nosendwait. 

SHELL=shell-command
The name of a preferred command interpreter. Default is sh(1).

showto
When displaying the header summary and the message is from you, print the recipient’s name instead of the author’s name.

sign=string
The variable inserted into the text of a message when the ~a (autograph) command is given.  No default [see also ~i (TILDE ESCAPES)]. 

Sign=string
The variable inserted into the text of a message when the ~A command is given.  No default [see also ~i (TILDE ESCAPES)]. 

toplines=number
The number of lines of header to print with the top command.  Default is 5. 

VISUAL=shell-command
The name of a preferred screen editor. Default is vi(1).

FILES

$HOME/.mailrcpersonal start-up file
$HOME/mboxsecondary storage file
/usr/mail/*post office directory
/usr/lib/mailx/mailx.help* help message files
/usr/lib/mailx/mailx.rcoptional global start-up file
/tmp/R[emqsx]*temporary files

SEE ALSO

ls(1), mail(1), pg(1). 

WARNINGS

The −h, −r and −U options can be used only if mailx is built with a delivery program other than /bin/mail.

BUGS

Where shell-command is shown as valid, arguments are not always allowed.  Experimentation is recommended. 

Internal variables imported from the execution environment cannot be unset. 

The full internet addressing is not fully supported by mailx.  The new standards need some time to settle down. 

Attempts to send a message having a line consisting only of a “.” are treated as the end of the message by mail(1) (the standard mail delivery program). 

\*U  —  Version 1.0