MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
NAME
mail - send and receive mail
SYNOPSIS
mail [ -v ] [ -i ] [ -n ] [ -s subject ] [ user ... ]
mail [ -v ] [ -i ] [ -n ] -f [ name ]
mail [ -v ] [ -i ] [ -n ] -u user
INTRODUCTION
Mail is a intelligent mail processing system, which has a command syn-
tax reminiscent of ed with lines replaced by messages.
The -v flag puts mail into verbose mode; the details of delivery are
displayed on the users terminal. The -i flag causes tty interrupt sig-
nals to be ignored. This is particularly useful when using mail on
noisy phone lines. The -n flag inhibits the reading of
/usr/lib/Mail.rc.
Sending mail. To send a message to one or more other people, mail can
be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to send to.
You are then expected to type in your message, followed by an EOT (con-
trol-D) at the beginning of a line. A subject may be specified on the
command line by using the -s flag. (Only the first argument after the
-s flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects containing
spaces.) The section below, labeled Replying to or originating mail,
describes some features of mail available to help you compose your let-
ter.
Reading mail. In normal usage mail is given no arguments and checks
your mail out of the post office, then prints out a one line header of
each message there. The current message is initially the first message
(numbered 1) and can be printed using the print command (which can be
abbreviated p). You can move among the messages much as you move
between lines in ed, with the commands `+' and `-' moving backwards and
forwards, and simple numbers.
Disposing of mail. After examining a message you can delete (d) the
message or reply (r) to it. Deletion causes the mail program to forget
about the message. This is not irreversible; the message can be
undeleted (u) by giving its number, or the mail session can be aborted
by giving the exit (x) command. Deleted messages will, however, usu-
ally disappear never to be seen again.
Specifying messages. Commands such as print and delete can be given a
list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number of messages
at once. Thus ``delete 1 2'' deletes messages 1 and 2, while ``delete
1-5'' deletes messages 1 through 5. The special name ``*'' addresses
all messages, and ``$'' addresses the last message; thus the command
top which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
``top *'' to print the first few lines of all messages.
Replying to or originating mail. You can use the reply command to set
up a response to a message, sending it back to the person who it was
from. Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file, defines the con-
tents of the message. While you are composing a message, mail treats
lines beginning with the character `~' specially. For instance, typing
``~m'' (alone on a line) will place a copy of the current message into
the response right shifting it by a tabstop. Other escapes will set up
subject fields, add and delete recipients to the message and allow you
to escape to an editor to revise the message or to a shell to run some
commands. (These options are given in the summary below.)
Ending a mail processing session. You can end a mail session with the
quit (q) command. Messages which have been examined go to your mbox
file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
Unexamined messages go back to the post office. The -f option causes
mail to read in the contents of your mbox (or the specified file) for
processing; when you quit, mail writes undeleted messages back to this
file. The -u flag is a short way of doing "mail -f
/usr/spool/mail/user".
Personal and systemwide distribution lists. It is also possible to
create a personal distribution lists so that, for instance, you can
send mail to ``cohorts'' and have it go to a group of people. Such
lists can be defined by placing a line like
alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
in the file .mailrc in your home directory. The current list of such
aliases can be displayed with the alias (a) command in mail. System
wide distribution lists can be created by editing /usr/lib/aliases, see
aliases(5) and sendmail(8); these are kept in a different syntax. In
mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent to others
so that they will be able to reply to the recipients. System wide
aliases are not expanded when the mail is sent, but any reply returned
to the machine will have the system wide alias expanded as all mail
goes through sendmail.
Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet) See mailaddr(7) for a description
of network addresses.
Mail has a number of options which can be set in the .mailrc file to
alter its behavior; thus ``set askcc'' enables the ``askcc'' feature.
(These options are summarized below.)
SUMMARY
(Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual')
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments fol-
lowing the command word. The command need not be typed in its entirety
- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. For com-
mands which take message lists as arguments, if no message list is
given, then the next message forward which satisfies the command's
requirements is used. If there are no messages forward of the current
message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no good mes-
sages at all, mail types ``No applicable messages'' and aborts the com-
mand.
- Goes to the previous message and prints it out. If given a
numeric argument n, goes to the n-th previous message and
prints it.
? Prints a brief summary of commands.
! Executes the UNIX shell command which follows.
Print (P) Like print but also prints out ignored header fields.
See also print and ignore.
Reply (R) Reply to originator. Does not reply to other recipients
of the original message.
Type (T) Identical to the Print command.
alias (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined
aliases. With one argument, prints out that alias. With
more than one argument, creates an new or changes an on old
alias.
alternates (alt) The alternates command is useful if you have accounts
on several machines. It can be used to inform mail that
the listed addresses are really you. When you reply to mes-
sages, mail will not send a copy of the message to any of
the addresses listed on the alternates list. If the alter-
nates command is given with no argument, the current set of
alternate names is displayed.
chdir (c) Changes the user's working directory to that specified,
if given. If no directory is given, then changes to the
user's login directory.
copy (co) The copy command does the same thing that save does,
except that it does not mark the messages it is used on for
deletion when you quit.
delete (d) Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all
as deleted. Deleted messages will not be saved in mbox,
nor will they be available for most other commands.
dp (also dt) Deletes the current message and prints the next
message. If there is no next message, mail says ``at
EOF.''
edit (e) Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at
each one in turn. On return from the editor, the message
is read back in.
exit (ex or x) Effects an immediate return to the Shell without
modifying the user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his
edit file in -f.
file (fi) The same as folder.
folders List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
folder (fo) The folder command switches to a new mail file or
folder. With no arguments, it tells you which file you are
currently reading. If you give it an argument, it will
write out changes (such as deletions) you have made in the
current file and read in the new file. Some special conven-
tions are recognized for the name. # means the previous
file, % means your system mailbox, %user means user's sys-
tem mailbox, & means your /mbox file, and +folder means a
file in your folder directory.
from (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message head-
ers.
headers (h) Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18 mes-
sage group. If a ``+'' argument is given, then the next 18
message group is printed, and if a ``-'' argument is given,
the previous 18 message group is printed.
help A synonym for ?
hold (ho, also preserve) Takes a message list and marks each
message therein to be saved in the user's system mailbox
instead of in mbox. Does not override the delete command.
ignore Add the list of header fields named to the ignored list.
Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on your
terminal when you print a message. This command is very
handy for suppression of certain machine-generated header
fields. The Type and Print commands can be used to print a
message in its entirety, including ignored fields. If
ignore is executed with no arguments, it lists the current
set of ignored fields.
mail (m) Takes as argument login names and distribution group
names and sends mail to those people.
mbox Indicate that a list of messages be sent to mbox in your
home directory when you quit. This is the default action
for messages if you do not have the hold option set.
next (n like + or CR) Goes to the next message in sequence and
types it. With an argument list, types the next matching
message.
preserve (pre) A synonym for hold.
print (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the
user's terminal.
quit (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved
messages in the user's mbox file in his login directory,
preserving all messages marked with hold or preserve or
never referenced in his system mailbox, and removing all
other messages from his system mailbox. If new mail has
arrived during the session, the message ``You have new
mail'' is given. If given while editing a mailbox file
with the -f flag, then the edit file is rewritten. A
return to the Shell is effected, unless the rewrite of edit
file fails, in which case the user can escape with the exit
command.
reply (r) Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and
all recipients of the specified message. The default mes-
sage must not be deleted.
respond A synonym for reply.
save (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each
message in turn to the end of the file. The filename in
quotes, followed by the line count and character count is
echoed on the user's terminal.
set (se) With no arguments, prints all variable values. Other-
wise, sets option. Arguments are of the form
``option=value'' or ``option.''
shell (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
size Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters
of each message.
source (so) The source command reads mail commands from a file.
top Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
The number of lines printed is controlled by the variable
toplines and defaults to five.
type (t) A synonym for print.
unalias Takes a list of names defined by alias commands and dis-
cards the remembered groups of users. The group names no
longer have any significance.
undelete (u) Takes a message list and marks each one as not being
deleted.
unset Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered
values; the inverse of set.
visual (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on
each message.
write (w) A synonym for save.
xit (x) A synonym for exit.
z Mail presents message headers in windowfuls as described
under the headers command. You can move mail's attention
forward to the next window with the z command. Also, you
can move to the previous window by using z-.
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, which are used when composing
messages to perform special functions. Tilde escapes are only recog-
nized at the beginning of lines. The name ``tilde escape'' is somewhat
of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set by the
option escape.
~!command Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the
message.
~c name ... Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
~d Read the file ``dead.letter'' from your home directory into
the message.
~e Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
After the editing session is finished, you may continue
appending text to the message.
~f messages Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no
messages are specified, read in the current message.
~h Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn
and allowing the user to append text to the end or modify
the field by using the current terminal erase and kill
characters.
~m messages Read the named messages into the message being sent,
shifted right one tab. If no messages are specified, read
the current message.
~p Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the
message header fields.
~q Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
``dead.letter'' in your home directory if save is set.
~r filename Read the named file into the message.
~s string Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
~t name ... Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
~v Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the VISUAL option)
on the message collected so far. Usually, the alternate
editor will be a screen editor. After you quit the editor,
you may resume appending text to the end of your message.
~w filename Write the message onto the named file.
~|command Pipe the message through the command as a filter. If the
command gives no output or terminates abnormally, retain
the original text of the message. The command fmt(1) is
often used as command to rejustify the message.
~~string Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a sin-
gle ~. If you have changed the escape character, then you
should double that character in order to send it.
Options are controlled via the set and unset commands. Options may be
either binary, in which case it is only significant to see whether they
are set or not, or string, in which case the actual value is of inter-
est. The binary options include the following:
append Causes messages saved in mbox to be appended to the end
rather than prepended. (This is set in /usr/lib/Mail.rc
on version 7 systems.)
ask Causes mail to prompt you for the subject of each mes-
sage you send. If you respond with simply a newline, no
subject field will be sent.
askcc Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy
recipients at the end of each message. Responding with
a newline indicates your satisfaction with the current
list.
autoprint Causes the delete command to behave like dp - thus,
after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
automatically.
debug Setting the binary option debug is the same as specify-
ing -d on the command line and causes mail to output all
sorts of information useful for debugging mail.
dot The binary option dot causes mail to interpret a period
alone on a line as the terminator of a message you are
sending.
hold This option is used to hold messages in the system mail-
box by default.
ignore Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be
ignored and echoed as @'s.
ignoreeof An option related to dot is ignoreeof which makes mail
refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message.
Ignoreeof also applies to mail command mode.
metoo Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the
sender, the sender is removed from the expansion. Set-
ting this option causes the sender to be included in the
group.
nosave Normally, when you abort a message with two RUBOUT, mail
copies the partial letter to the file ``dead.letter'' in
your home directory. Setting the binary option nosave
prevents this.
quiet Suppresses the printing of the version when first
invoked.
verbose Setting the option verbose is the same as using the -v
flag on the command line. When mail runs in verbose
mode, the actual delivery of messages is displayed on he
users terminal.
The following options have string values:
EDITOR Pathname of the text editor to use in the edit command
and ~e escape. If not defined, then a default editor is
used.
SHELL Pathname of the shell to use in the ! command and the
~! escape. A default shell is used if this option is
not defined.
VISUAL Pathname of the text editor to use in the visual command
and ~v escape.
crt The valued option crt is used as a threshold to deter-
mine how long a message must be before more is used to
read it.
escape If defined, the first character of this option gives the
character to use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
folder The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
messages. If this name begins with a `/', mail considers
it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the folder
directory is found relative to your home directory.
record If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to
record all outgoing mail. If not defined, then outgoing
mail is not so saved.
toplines If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be
printed out with the top command; normally, the first
five lines are printed.
FILES
/usr/spool/mail/* post office
~/mbox your old mail
~/.mailrc file giving initial mail commands
/tmp/R# temporary for editor escape
/usr/lib/Mail.help* help files
/usr/lib/Mail.rc system initialization file
Message* temporary for editing messages
SEE ALSO
binmail(1), fmt(1), newaliases(1), aliases(5),
mailaddr(7), sendmail(8)
`The Mail Reference Manual'
BUGS
There are many flags that are not documented here. Most are not useful
to the general user.
Usually, mail is just a link to Mail, which can be confusing.
AUTHOR
Kurt Shoens
4th Berkeley Distribution 1 April 1983 MAIL(1)
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