NAME

biff − be notified if mail arrives and who it is from

SYNOPSIS

biff [ yn ]

DESCRIPTION

Biff informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives during the current terminal session.  The command

biff y

enables notification; the command

biff n

disables it.  When mail notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of the message will be printed on your screen whenever mail arrives.  A “biff y” command is often included in the file .login or .profile to be executed at each login. 

Biff operates asynchronously.  For synchronous notification use the MAIL variable of sh(1) or the mail variable of csh(1).

X WINDOW SYSTEM

If you are logged in under the X window system, a popup window is used instead of a message to your login window.  To delete the window, click any mouse button with the mouse in the window.  Properties of the window can be controlled with options for biff in your .Xdefaults file.  The following options are recognized:

Background
To determine the background color.

Border To determine the border color. 

BorderWidth
To determine the border width.  Default is 2.

BodyFont
To determine text font.  Default is 8x13.

Foreground
To determine the foreground color.

InternalBorder
To determine the padding around the text.  Default is 2.

Mouse To determine the mouse cursor color. 

Offset To determine the vertical position of the window.  Positive is offset from the top of the screen, negative is from the bottom.  Default is 2.  Window is centered horizontally. 

ReverseVideo
If “on”, the window should be white on black instead of black on white. Default is off.

Timeout
In the event you don’t click in the window, specifies the maximum number of minutes the window should remain on the screen.  Value of zero means infinite. Default is zero.

Volume Controls the volume of the bell.  Default is zero. 

SEE ALSO

csh(1), sh(1), mail(1), X(1), comsat(8C)