comsat(1M)                                             comsat(1M)



NAME
     comsat - invokes the server for biff

SYNOPSIS
     comsat

DESCRIPTION
     comsat receives reports of incoming mail and, if you have
     requested this service, notifies you of incoming mail.

     The inetd daemon runs comsat when a message is received on
     the datagram port associated with the biff service, as
     specified in /etc/services.  For comsat to handle the
     message, it must have this form:

        user@number

     If the user specified by user is logged in to the system and
     the associated terminal has the owner-execute bit turned on
     (do this by entering biff y), comsat uses the value
     specified by number as a seek offset into the user's mail
     file in /usr/mail and displays the first 7 lines or 560
     characters of the mail on the user's terminal. Other than
     the From, To, Date, or Subject lines, lines that are part of
     the mail header are not displayed.

LIMITATIONS
     The mail header filtering is prone to error.  The density of
     the information presented is near the theoretical minimum.

     Users should be notified when mail arrives on systems other
     than the one to which they are currently logged in.  The
     notification should appear in a separate window so it does
     not interfere with the screen.

FILES
     /etc/utmp
          File that comsat uses to find out if you are logged in
     /etc/comsat
          Executable file

SEE ALSO
     inetd(1M)

     biff(1) in A/UX Command Reference

     services(4N) in A/UX Programmer's Reference








January 1992                                                    1