mailx(1) UNIX System V(Essential Utilities) mailx(1)
NAME
mailx - interactive message processing system
SYNOPSIS
mailx [ options ] [ name... ]
DESCRIPTION
The command mailx provides a comfortable, flexible environment for
sending and receiving messages electronically. When reading mail, mailx
provides commands to facilitate saving, deleting, and responding to
messages. When sending mail, mailx allows editing, reviewing and other
modification of the message as it is entered.
Many of the remote features of mailx work only if the Basic Networking
Utilities are installed on your system.
Incoming mail is stored in a standard file for each user, called the
mailbox for that user. When mailx is called to read messages, the
mailbox is the default place to find them. As messages are read, they
are marked to be moved to a secondary file for storage, unless specific
action is taken, so that the messages need not be seen again. This
secondary file is called the mbox and is normally located in the user's
HOME directory [see MBOX (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of
this file]. Messages can be saved in other secondary files named by the
user. Messages remain in a secondary file until forcibly removed.
The user can access a secondary file by using the -f option of the mailx
command. Messages in the secondary file can then be read or otherwise
processed using the same COMMANDS as in the primary mailbox. This gives
rise within these pages to the notion of a current mailbox.
On the command line, options start with a dash (-) and any other
arguments are taken to be destinations (recipients). If no recipients
are specified, mailx attempts to read messages from the mailbox.
Command-line options are:
-b Dont' allow printing/displaying of messages with
binary characters as part of their contents. This
can be a problem with some (dumb) smart terminals.
This option merely sets the showbin variable to zero
(see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
-d Turn on debugging output.
-e Test for presence of mail. mailx prints nothing and
exits with a successful return code if there is mail
to read.
-f [filename] Read messages from filename instead of mailbox. If
no filename is specified, the mbox is used.
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-F Record the message in a file named after the first
recipient. Overrides the record variable, if set
(see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
-h number The number of network ``hops'' made so far. This is
provided for network software to avoid infinite
delivery loops. This option and its argument is
passed to the delivery program.
-H Print header summary only.
-i Ignore interrupts. See also ignore (ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES).
-I Include the newsgroup and article-id header lines
when printing mail messages. This option requires
the -f option to be specified.
-n Do not initialize from the system default mailx.rc
file.
-N Do not print initial header summary.
-r address Use address as the return address when invoking the
delivery program. All tilde commands are disabled.
This option and its argument is passed to the
delivery program.
-s subject Set the Subject header field to subject.
-T file Message-id and article-id header lines are recorded
in file after the message is read. This option will
also set the -I option.
-u user Read user's mailbox. This is only effective if
user's mailbox is not read protected.
-U Convert uucp style addresses to internet standards.
Overrides the conv environment variable.
-V Print the mailx version number and exit.
When reading mail, mailx is in command mode. A header summary of the
first several messages is displayed, followed by a prompt indicating
mailx can accept regular commands (see COMMANDS below). When sending
mail, mailx is in input mode. If no subject is specified on the command
line, a prompt for the subject is printed. (A subject longer than 1024
characters causes mailx to print the message mail: ERROR signal 10; the
mail will not be delivered.) As the message is typed, mailx reads the
message and store it in a temporary file. Commands may be entered by
beginning a line with the tilde (~) escape character followed by a single
command letter and optional arguments. See TILDE ESCAPES for a summary
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mailx(1) UNIX System V(Essential Utilities) mailx(1)
of these commands.
At any time, the behavior of mailx is governed by a set of environment
variables. These are flags and valued parameters which are set and
cleared via the set and unset commands. See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below
for a summary of these parameters.
Recipients listed on the command line may be of three types: login
names, shell commands, or alias groups. Login names may be any network
address, including mixed network addressing. If mail is found to be
undeliverable, an attempt is made to return it to the sender's mailbox.
If the recipient name begins with a pipe symbol ( | ), the rest of the
name is taken to be a shell command to pipe the message through. This
provides an automatic interface with any program that reads the standard
input, such as lp(1) for recording outgoing mail on paper. Alias groups
are set by the alias command (see COMMANDS below) and are lists of
recipients of any type.
Regular commands are of the form
[ command ] [ msglist ] [ arguments ]
If no command is specified in command mode, print is assumed. In input
mode, commands are recognized by the escape character, and lines not
treated as commands are taken as input for the message.
Each message is assigned a sequential number, and there is at any time
the notion of a current message, marked by a right angle bracket (>) in
the header summary. Many commands take an optional list of messages
(msglist) to operate on. The default for msglist is the current message.
A msglist is a list of message identifiers separated by spaces, which may
include:
n Message number n.
. The current message.
^ The first undeleted message.
$ The last message.
* All messages.
n-m An inclusive range of message numbers.
user All messages from user.
/string All messages with string in the subject line (case
ignored).
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:c All messages of type c, where c is one of:
d deleted messages
n new messages
o old messages
r read messages
u unread messages
Note that the context of the command determines whether this type
of message specification makes sense.
Other arguments are usually arbitrary strings whose usage depends on the
command involved. File names, where expected, are expanded via the normal
shell conventions [see sh(1)]. Special characters are recognized by certain
commands and are documented with the commands below.
At start-up time, mailx tries to execute commands from the optional system-wide
file (/etc/mail/mailx.rc) to initialize certain parameters, then from a private
start-up file ($HOME/.mailrc) for personalized variables. With the exceptions
noted below, regular commands are legal inside start-up files. The most common
use of a start-up file is to set up initial display options and alias lists.
The following commands are not legal in the start-up file: !, Copy, edit,
followup, Followup, hold, mail, preserve, reply, Reply, shell, and visual. An
error in the start-up file causes the remaining lines in the file to be
ignored. The .mailrc file is optional, and must be constructed locally.
COMMANDS
The following is a complete list of mailx commands:
!shell-command
Escape to the shell. See SHELL (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
# comment
Null command (comment). This may be useful in .mailrc files.
= Print the current message number.
? Prints a summary of commands.
alias alias name ...
group alias name ...
Declare an alias for the given names. The names are substituted
when alias is used as a recipient. Useful in the .mailrc file.
alternates name ...
Declares a list of alternate names for your login. When responding
to a message, these names are removed from the list of recipients
for the response. With no arguments, alternates prints the current
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list of alternate names. See also allnet (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
cd [directory]
chdir [directory]
Change directory. If directory is not specified, $HOME is used.
copy [filename]
copy [msglist] filename
Copy messages to the file without marking the messages as saved.
Otherwise equivalent to the save command.
Copy [msglist]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from
the author of the message to be saved, without marking the messages
as saved. Otherwise equivalent to the Save command.
delete [msglist]
Delete messages from the mailbox. If autoprint is set, the next
message after the last one deleted is printed (see ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES).
discard [header-field ...]
ignore [header-field ...]
Suppresses printing of the specified header fields when displaying
messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are
status and cc. The fields are included when the message is saved.
The Print and Type commands override this command. If no header is
specified, the current list of header fields being ignored will be
printed. See also the undiscard and unignore commands.
dp [msglist]
dt [msglist]
Delete the specified messages from the mailbox and print the next
message after the last one deleted. Roughly equivalent to a delete
command followed by a print command.
echo string ...
Echo the given strings [like echo(1)].
edit [msglist]
Edit the given messages. The messages are placed in a temporary
file and the EDITOR variable is used to get the name of the editor
(see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). Default editor is ed(1).
exit
xit Exit from mailx, without changing the mailbox. No messages are
saved in the mbox (see also quit).
file [filename]
folder [filename]
Quit from the current file of messages and read in the specified
file. Several special characters are recognized when used as file
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names, with the following substitutions:
% the current mailbox.
%user the mailbox for user.
# the previous file.
& the current mbox.
Default file is the current mailbox.
folders
Print the names of the files in the directory set by the folder
variable (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
followup [message]
Respond to a message, recording the response in a file whose name
is derived from the author of the message. Overrides the record
variable, if set. See also the Followup, Save, and Copy commands
and outfolder (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
Followup [msglist]
Respond to the first message in the msglist, sending the message to
the author of each message in the msglist. The subject line is
taken from the first message and the response is recorded in a file
whose name is derived from the author of the first message. See
also the followup, Save, and Copy commands and outfolder
(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
from [msglist]
Prints the header summary for the specified messages.
group alias name ...
alias alias name ...
Declare an alias for the given names. The names are substituted
when alias is used as a recipient. Useful in the .mailrc file.
headers [message]
Prints the page of headers which includes the message specified.
The screen variable sets the number of headers per page (see
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). See also the z command.
help Prints a summary of commands.
hold [msglist]
preserve [msglist]
Holds the specified messages in the mailbox.
if s | r
mail-commands
else
mail-commands
endif Conditional execution, where s executes following mail-commands, up
to an else or endif, if the program is in send mode, and r causes
the mail-commands to be executed only in receive mode. Useful in
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the .mailrc file.
ignore [header-field ...]
discard [header-field ...]
Suppresses printing of the specified header fields when displaying
messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are
status and cc. All fields are included when the message is saved.
The Print and Type commands override this command. If no header is
specified, the current list of header fields being ignored will be
printed. See also the undiscard and unignore commands.
list Prints all commands available. No explanation is given.
mail name ...
Mail a message to the specified users.
Mail name
Mail a message to the specified user and record a copy of it in a
file named after that user.
mbox [msglist]
Arrange for the given messages to end up in the standard mbox save
file when mailx terminates normally. See MBOX (ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES) for a description of this file. See also the exit and
quit commands.
next [message]
Go to next message matching message. A msglist may be specified,
but in this case the first valid message in the list is the only
one used. This is useful for jumping to the next message from a
specific user, since the name would be taken as a command in the
absence of a real command. See the discussion of msglists above
for a description of possible message specifications.
pipe [msglist] [shell-command]
| [msglist] [shell-command]
Pipe the message through the given shell-command. The message is
treated as if it were read. If no arguments are given, the current
message is piped through the command specified by the value of the
cmd variable. If the page variable is set, a form feed character
is inserted after each message (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
preserve [msglist]
hold [msglist]
Preserve the specified messages in the mailbox.
Print [msglist]
Type [msglist]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header
fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command.
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print [msglist]
type [msglist]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer
than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged
through the command specified by the PAGER variable. The default
command is pg(1) (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
quit Exit from mailx, storing messages that were read in mbox and unread
messages in the mailbox. Messages that have been explicitly saved
in a file are deleted.
Reply [msglist]
Respond [msglist]
Send a response to the author of each message in the msglist. The
subject line is taken from the first message. If record is set to
a file name, the response is saved at the end of that file (see
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
reply [message]
respond [message]
Reply to the specified message, including all other recipients of
the message. If record is set to a file name, the response is
saved at the end of that file (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
Save [msglist]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from
the author of the first message. The name of the file is taken to
be the author's name with all network addressing stripped off. See
also the Copy, followup, and Followup commands and outfolder
(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
save [filename]
save [msglist] filename
Save the specified messages in the given file. The file is created
if it does not exist. The file defaults to mbox. The message is
deleted from the mailbox when mailx terminates unless keepsave is
set (see also ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES and the exit and quit
commands).
set
set name
set name=string
set name=number
Define a variable called name. The variable may be given a null,
string, or numeric value. Set by itself prints all defined
variables and their values.
See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for detailed descriptions of the mailx
variables.
shell Invoke an interactive shell [see also SHELL (ENVIRONMENT
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VARIABLES)].
size [msglist]
Print the size in characters of the specified messages.
source filename
Read commands from the given file and return to command mode.
top [msglist]
Print the top few lines of the specified messages. If the toplines
variable is set, it is taken as the number of lines to print (see
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). The default is 5.
touch [msglist]
Touch the specified messages. If any message in msglist is not
specifically saved in a file, it is placed in the mbox, or the file
specified in the MBOX environment variable, upon normal
termination. See exit and quit.
Type [msglist]
Print [msglist]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header
fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command.
type [msglist]
print [msglist]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer
than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged
through the command specified by the PAGER variable. The default
command is pg(1) (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
undelete [msglist]
Restore the specified deleted messages. Will only restore messages
deleted in the current mail session. If autoprint is set, the last
message of those restored is printed (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
undiscard header-field ...
unignore header-field ...
Remove the specified header fields from the list being ignored.
unset name ...
Causes the specified variables to be erased. If the variable was
imported from the execution environment (i.e., a shell variable)
then it cannot be erased.
version
Prints the current version.
visual [msglist]
Edit the given messages with a screen editor. The messages are
placed in
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a temporary file and the VISUAL variable is used to get the name of
the editor (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
write [msglist] filename
Write the given messages on the specified file, minus the header
and trailing blank line. Otherwise equivalent to the save command.
xit
exit Exit from mailx, without changing the mailbox. No messages are
saved in the mbox (see also quit).
z[+ | -]
Scroll the header display forward or backward one screen-full. The
number of headers displayed is set by the screen variable (see
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
TILDE ESCAPES
The following commands may be entered only from input mode, by beginning
a line with the tilde escape character (~). See escape (ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES) for changing this special character.
~! shell-command
Escape to the shell.
~. Simulate end of file (terminate message input).
~: mail-command
~ mail-command
Perform the command-level request. Valid only when sending a
message while reading mail.
~? Print a summary of tilde escapes.
~A Insert the autograph string Sign into the message (see ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES).
~a Insert the autograph string sign into the message (see ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES).
~b names ...
Add the names to the blind carbon copy (Bcc) list.
~c names ...
Add the names to the carbon copy (Cc) list.
~d Read in the dead.letter file. See DEAD (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for
a description of this file.
~e Invoke the editor on the partial message. See also EDITOR
(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
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~f [msglist]
Forward the specified messages. The messages are inserted into the
message without alteration.
~h Prompt for Subject line and To, Cc, and Bcc lists. If the field is
displayed with an initial value, it may be edited as if you had
just typed it.
~i string
Insert the value of the named variable into the text of the
message. For example, ~A is equivalent to Environment variables
set and exported in the shell are also accessible by ~i.
~m [msglist]
Insert the specified messages into the letter, shifting the new
text to the right one tab stop. Valid only when sending a message
while reading mail.
~p Print the message being entered.
~q Quit from input mode by simulating an interrupt. If the body of
the message is not null, the partial message is saved in
dead.letter. See DEAD (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) for a description of
this file.
~r filename
~< filename
~< !shell-command
Read in the specified file. If the argument begins with an
exclamation point (!), the rest of the string is taken as an
arbitrary shell command and is executed, with the standard output
inserted into the message.
~s string ...
Set the subject line to string.
~t names ...
Add the given names to the To list.
~v Invoke a preferred screen editor on the partial message. See also
VISUAL (ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
~w filename
Write the message into the given file, without the header.
~x Exit as with ~q except the message is not saved in dead.letter.
~| shell-command
Pipe the body of the message through the given shell-command. If
the shell-command returns a successful exit status, the output of
the command replaces the message.
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ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following are environment variables taken from the execution
environment and are not alterable within mailx.
HOME=directory
The user's base of operations.
MAILRC=filename
The name of the start-up file. Default is $HOME/.mailrc.
The following variables are internal mailx variables. They may be
imported from the execution environment or set via the set command at any
time. The unset command may be used to erase variables.
allnet
All network names whose last component (login name) match are
treated as identical. This causes the msglist message
specifications to behave similarly. Default is noallnet. See also
the alternates command and the metoo variable.
append
Upon termination, append messages to the end of the mbox file
instead of prepending them. Default is noappend.
askcc Prompt for the Cc list after the Subject is entered. Default is
noaskcc.
askbcc
Prompt for the Bcc list after the Subject is entered. Default is
noaskbcc.
asksub
Prompt for subject if it is not specified on the command line with
the -s option. Enabled by default.
autoprint
Enable automatic printing of messages after delete and undelete
commands. Default is noautoprint.
bang Enable the special-casing of exclamation points (!) in shell escape
command lines as in vi(1). Default is nobang.
cmd=shell-command
Set the default command for the pipe command. No default value.
conv=conversion
Convert uucp addresses to the specified address style. The only
valid conversion now is internet, which uses domain-style
addressing. Conversion is disabled by default. See also the -U
command-line option.
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crt=number
Pipe messages having more than number lines through the command
specified by the value of the PAGER variable [pg(1) by default].
Disabled by default.
DEAD=filename
The name of the file in which to save partial letters in case of
untimely interrupt. Default is $HOME/dead.letter.
debug Enable verbose diagnostics for debugging. Messages are not
delivered. Default is nodebug.
dot Take a period on a line by itself during input from a terminal as
end-of-file. Default is nodot.
EDITOR=shell-command
The command to run when the edit or ~e command is used. Default is
ed(1).
escape=c
Substitute c for the ~ escape character. Takes effect with next
message sent.
folder=directory
The directory for saving standard mail files. User-specified file
names beginning with a plus (+) are expanded by preceding the file
name with this directory name to obtain the real file name. If
directory does not start with a slash (/), $HOME is prepended to
it. In order to use the plus (+) construct on a mailx command
line, folder must be an exported sh environment variable. There is
no default for the folder variable. See also outfolder below.
header
Enable printing of the header summary when entering mailx. Enabled
by default.
hold Preserve all messages that are read in the mailbox instead of
putting them in the standard mbox save file. Default is nohold.
ignore
Ignore interrupts while entering messages. Handy for noisy dial-up
lines. Default is noignore.
ignoreeof
Ignore end-of-file during message input. Input must be terminated
by a period (.) on a line by itself or by the ~. command. Default
is noignoreeof. See also dot above.
keep When the mailbox is empty, truncate it to zero length instead of
removing it. Disabled by default.
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keepsave
Keep messages that have been saved in other files in the mailbox
instead of deleting them. Default is nokeepsave.
MBOX=filename
The name of the file to save messages which have been read. The
xit command overrides this function, as does saving the message
explicitly in another file. Default is $HOME/mbox.
metoo If your login appears as a recipient, do not delete it from the
list. Default is nometoo.
LISTER=shell-command
The command (and options) to use when listing the contents of the
folder directory. The default is ls(1).
onehop
When responding to a message that was originally sent to several
recipients, the other recipient addresses are normally forced to be
relative to the originating author's machine for the response.
This flag disables alteration of the recipients' addresses,
improving efficiency in a network where all machines can send
directly to all other machines (i.e., one hop away).
outfolder
Causes the files used to record outgoing messages to be located in
the directory specified by the folder variable unless the path name
is absolute. Default is nooutfolder. See folder above and the
Save, Copy, followup, and Followup commands.
page Used with the pipe command to insert a form feed after each message
sent through the pipe. Default is nopage.
PAGER=shell-command
The command to use as a filter for paginating output. This can
also be used to specify the options to be used. Default is pg(1).
prompt=string
Set the command mode prompt to string. Default is ``? ''.
quiet Refrain from printing the opening message and version when entering
mailx. Default is noquiet.
record=filename
Record all outgoing mail in filename. Disabled by default. See
also outfolder above. If you have the record and outfolder
variables set but the folder variable not set, messages are saved
in +filename instead of filename.
save Enable saving of messages in dead.letter on interrupt or delivery
error. See DEAD for a description of this file. Enabled by
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default.
screen=number
Sets the number of lines in a screen-full of headers for the
headers command. It must be a positive number.
sendmail=shell-command
Alternate command for delivering messages. Default is
/usr/bin/rmail.
sendwait
Wait for background mailer to finish before returning. Default is
nosendwait.
SHELL=shell-command
The name of a preferred command interpreter. Default is sh(1).
showbin
Enable the displaying/printing of messages with binary contents.
Default is showbin.
showto
When displaying the header summary and the message is from you,
print the recipient's name instead of the author's name.
sign=string
The variable inserted into the text of a message when the ~a
(autograph) command is given. No default [see also ~i (TILDE
ESCAPES)].
Sign=string
The variable inserted into the text of a message when the ~A
command is given. No default [see also ~i (TILDE ESCAPES)].
toplines=number
The number of lines of header to print with the top command.
Default is 5.
VISUAL=shell-command
The name of a preferred screen editor. Default is vi(1).
FILES
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