COHERENT manpages
This page displays the COHERENT manpage for mail [Send or read mail].
List of available manpages
Index
mail -- Command Send or read mail mail [-mpqrv] [-f file] [user ...] mail allows you to exchange electronic mail with other COHERENT system users, either on your own system or on other systems via UUCP. Depending upon its form, this command can be used either to send mail to other users or to read the mail that other users have sent to you. Sending Mail If you name one or more users, mail assumes that you wish to send a mail message to each user. mail first prints the prompt Subject: on the screen, requesting that you give the message a title. mail then reads what you type on the standard input. A message is terminated by <ctrl-D>, by a line that contains only the character `.', or by a line that contains only the character `?'. Ending with a question mark prompts mail to feed the message into an editor for further editing. The editor used is the one named in the environmental variable EDITOR. If this variable is not defined, mail uses ed. If you have defined environmental variable ASKCC to YES, mail asks you, after a message is ended, for a list of users to whom you wish to send a copy of the message. Finally, mail prepends the date and the sender's name, and sends the result to each user named either on the command line or on the carbon-copy list with the rmail command. Each user who has received mail is greeted by the message ``You have mail.'' when she logs in. mail normally changes the contents of the mailbox as the user works with them; however, mail has options that allow the contents of the mailbox to remain unchanged if the user desires. Reading Mail If no user is named on its command line, mail reads and displays the user's mail, message by message. If environmental variable PAGER is defined, mail will ``pipe'' each message through the command it names. For example, the .profile command line: export PAGER="exec /bin/scat -1" invokes /bin/scat for each mail message with the command-line argument -1 (the digit one). While reading mail, the user can use any of the following commands to save, delete, or send each message to another user interactively. d Delete the current message and print the next message. m [user ...] Mail the current message to each user given (default: yourself). p Print the current message again. q Quit, and update mailbox file to reflect changes. r Reverse the direction in which the mailbox is being scanned. s [file ...] Save the current mail message with the usual header in each file (default: $HOME/mbox). t [user ...] Send a message read from the standard input, terminated by an end-of- file character or by a line containing only `.' or `?', to each user (default: yourself). w [file ...] Write the current message without the usual header in each file (default: $HOME/mbox). x Exit without updating the mailbox file. <newline> Print the next message. - Print the previous message. EOF Quit, updating mailbox; same as q. ? Print a summary of available commands. !command Pass command to the shell for execution. The following command line options control the sending and reading of mail. -f file Read mail from file instead of from the default, /usr/spool/mail/user. -m Send a message to the terminal of user if he is logged into the system when mail is sent. -p Print all mail without interaction. -q Quit without changing the mailbox if an interrupt character is typed. Normally, an interrupt character stops printing of the current message. -r Reverse the order of printing messages. Normally, mail prints messages in the order in which they were received. -v Verbose mode. Show the version number of the mail program, and display expanded aliases. If you wish, you can create a signature file, .signature, in your home directory. mail appends the contents of the signature file to the end of every mail message you send, as a signature. A signature can be your system's path name (for uucp messages), your telephone number, an amusing bon mot, or what you will. Files $HOME/dead.letter -- Message that mail could not send $HOME/mbox -- Default saved mail $HOME/.signature -- Signature file /etc/domain -- Name of your system's domain /etc/uucpname -- Name of your system /tmp/mail* -- Temporary and lock files /usr/spool/mail -- Mailbox directory, filed by user name See Also aliases, ASKCC, commands, EDITOR, .forward, mkfnames, msg, nptx, PAGER, paths, rmail, smail, uux Notes Note that before you can send mail, either locally or to a remote site, you must run the program uuinstall and use its `S' option to set the name of your local site and domain. Your local system must, of course, also have permission to log into any remote site to which you wish to send mail. See the tutorial and Lexicon articles on UUCP for details on using UUCP to exchange mail and files with remote sites.