MAIL(1)                              SysV                              MAIL(1)



NAME
     mail, rmail - send mail to users or read mail

SYNOPSIS
     Sending mail:

     mail [ -oswt ] persons

     rmail [ -oswt ] persons

     Reading mail:

     mail [ -ehpqr ] [ -f file ] [ -F persons ]

DESCRIPTION
     Sending mail:

     A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1).  When persons are
     named, mail assumes a message is being sent (except in the case of the -F
     option).  It reads from the standard input up to an end-of-file (CTRL/D),
     or until it reads a line consisting of just a period. When either of
     those signals is received, mail adds the letter to the mailfile for each
     person.  A letter is a message preceded by a postmark.  The message is
     preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.  A postmark consists of one
     or more 'From' lines followed by a blank line (unless the -s argument was
     used).

     If a letter is found to be undeliverable, it is returned to the sender
     with diagnostics that indicate the location and nature of the failure.
     If mail is interrupted during input, the file dead.letter is saved to
     allow editing and resending.  The dead.letter file is recreated every
     time it is needed, erasing any previous contents.

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

     If the local system has the Basic Networking Utilities installed, mail
     may be sent to a recipient on a remote system. Prefix person by the
     system name and exclamation point.  A series of system names separated by
     exclamation points can be used to direct a letter through an extended
     network.

     Reading Mail:

     The mail program, unless otherwise influenced by command-line arguments,
     prints a user's mail messages in last-in, first-out order.  For each
     message, the user is prompted with a question mark (?), and a line is
     read from the standard input.  The following commands are available to
     determine the disposition of the message:

     <newline>, +, or n    Go on to next message.

     d, or dp              Delete message and go on to next message.

     d #                   Delete message number #.  Do not go on to next
                           message.

     dq                    Delete message and quit mail.

     h                     Display a window of headers around current message.

     h #                   Display header of message number #.

     h a                   Display headers of all messages in the user's
                           mailfile.

     h d                   Display headers of messages scheduled for deletion.

     p                     Print current message again.

     -                     Print previous message.

     a                     Print message that arrived during the mail session.

     #                     Print message number #.

     r [ users ]           Reply to the sender, and other user(s), then delete
                           the message.

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

     y                     Same as save.

     u [ # ]               Undelete message number # (default is last read).

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

     m [ persons ]         Mail the message to the named persons.

     q, or ctl-d           Put undeleted mail back in the mailfile and quit
                           mail.

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

     !command              Escape to the shell to do command.

     ?                     Print a command summary.

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

     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.  A "Forwarded by..." message is added to the header.
     This is especially useful in a multi-machine environment to forward all
     of a person's mail to a single machine, and to keep the recipient
     informed if the mail has been forwarded.  Installation and removal of
     forwarding is done with the -F option.

     To forward all of one's mail to systema!user enter the following:

          mail -Fsystema!user

     To forward to more than one user, enter this command line:

          mail -F"user1,systema!user2,systema!systemb!user3"

     Note that when more than one user is specified, the whole list should be
     enclosed in double quotes so that it may all be interpreted as the
     operand of the -F option.  The list can be up to 1024 bytes; either
     commas or white space can be used to separate users.

     To remove forwarding, enter the following:

          mail -F ""

     The pair of double quotes is mandatory to set a NULL argument for the -F
     option.

     In order for forwarding to work properly, the mailfile should have "mail"
     as group ID and the group permission should be read-write.

OPTIONS
     Sending mail:

     -o   Suppresses the address optimization facility.

     -s   Suppresses the addition of a <newline> at the top of the letter
          being sent.  See WARNINGS below.

     -w   Causes a letter to be sent to a remote user without waiting for the
          completion of the remote transfer program.

     -t   Causes a To: line to be added to the letter, showing the intended
          recipients.

     Reading 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.

     -h   Causes a window of headers to be displayed rather than the latest
          message.  The display is followed by the '?' prompt.

     -p   Causes all messages to be printed without prompting for disposition.

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

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

     -ffile
          Causes BI mail to use file (e.g., mbox) instead of the default
          mailfile.

     -Fpersons
          Entered into an empty mailbox, causes all incoming mail to be
          forwarded to persons.

WARNING
     The "Forward to person" feature may result in a loop, if sys1!userb
     forwards to sys2!userb and sys2!userb forwards to sys1!userb.  The
     symptom is a message saying "unbounded...saved mail in dead.letter."

     The -s option should be used with caution.  It allows the text of a
     message to be interpreted as part of the postmark of the letter, possibly
     causing confusion to other mail programs.  To allow compatibility with
     mailx(1), if the first line of the message is "Subject:...", the addition
     of a <newline> is suppressed whether or not the -s option is used.

BUGS
     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.

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

SEE ALSO
     login(1), mailx(1), write(1).