mail(1-ucb) mail(1-ucb)
NAME
mail - send and receive mail
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/mail [-iInv] [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr]
to-addr ...
/usr/ucb/mail [-iInNv] -f [name]
/usr/ucb/mail [-iInNv] [-u user]
DESCRIPTION
/usr/ucb/mail is a intelligent mail processing system, which has a
command syntax reminiscent of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages.
OPTIONS
-i Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is particularly useful when
using mail on noisy phone lines.
-I Force mail to run in interactive mode even when input isn't a
terminal. In particular, the ~ special character when sending
mail is only active in interactive mode.
-n Inhibit reading /etc/Mail.rc upon startup.
-N Inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail
or editing a mail folder.
-v Verbose mode. The details of delivery are displayed on the user's
terminal.
-s subject
Specify the subject on command line (only the first argument
after the -s option is used, therefore be careful to quote sub-
jects containing spaces.)
-c cc-addr
Send carbon copies to list of users. List should be a comma-
separated list of names.
-b bcc-addr
Send blind carbon copies to list of users. List should be a
comma-separated list of names.
-f [name]
Read in the contents of your mbox (or the file specified as name)
for processing; when you quit, mail writes undeleted messages
back to this file.
-u user
Is equivalent to: mail -f /var/spool/mail/user.
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Sending Mail
To send a message to one or more people, mail can be invoked with
arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent.
You are then expected to type in your message, followed by a CTRL-D at
the beginning of a line. The section below Replying to or Originating
Mail, describes some features of mail available to help you compose
your letter.
Reading Mail
In normal usage mail is given no arguments and checks your mail out of
the post office, then prints out a one line header of each message
found. The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1)
and can be printed using the print command [which can be abbreviated
(p)]. You can move among the messages much as you move between lines
in ed, with the commands + and - moving backwards and forwards, and
with simple numbers.
Disposing of Mail
After examining a message you can delete (d) the message or reply (r)
to it. Deletion causes mail to forget about the message. This is not
irreversible; You can undelete (u) the message by giving its number,
or the mail session can be aborted by giving the exit (x) command.
Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen
again.
Specifying Messages
Commands such as print and delete can be given a list of message
numbers as arguments to apply to a number of messages at once. Thus
delete 1 2 deletes messages 1 and 2, while delete 1-5 deletes messages
1 through 5. The special name * addresses all messages, and $
addresses the last message; thus the command top which prints the
first few lines of a message could be used in top * to print the first
few lines of all messages.
Replying to or Originating Mail
You can use the reply command to set up a response to a message, send-
ing it back to the person that it was from. Text you then type in, up
to an end-of-file, defines the contents of the message. While you are
composing a message, mail treats lines beginning with the character ~
specially. For instance, typing ~m (alone on a line) will place a copy
of the current message into the response, right shifting it by a
tabstop (see indentprefix variable, below). Other escapes will set up
subject fields, add and delete recipients to the message and allow you
to escape to an editor to revise the message or to a shell to run some
commands. (These options are given in the summary below.)
Ending a Mail Processing Session
You can end a mail session with the quit (q) command. Messages which
have been examined go to your mbox file unless they have been deleted,
in which case they are discarded. Unexamined messages go back to the
post office. (See the -f option above).
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Personal and Systemwide Distribution Lists
It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
for instance, you can send mail to cohorts and have it go to a group
of people. Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
in the file .mailrc in your home directory. The current list of such
aliases can be displayed with the alias command in mail. System wide
distribution lists can be created by editing /etc/aliases [see
aliases(4) and sendmail(1M)], and have a different syntax. Personal
aliases will be expanded in mail sent to others so that they will be
able to reply to the recipients. Systemwide aliases are not expanded
when the mail is sent, but any reply returned to the machine will have
the systemwide alias expanded, as all mail goes through sendmail.
Mail has a number of options which can be set in the .mailrc file to
alter its behavior; thus Set askcc enables the askcc feature. These
options are summarized below.
Mail Commands
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments fol-
lowing the command word. The command need not be typed in its entirety
- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. For com-
mands which take message lists as arguments, if no message list is
given, then the next message which satisfies the command's require-
ments is used. If there are no messages forward of the current mes-
sage, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no good messages
at all, mail types: No applicable messages and aborts the command.
- Print out the preceding message. If given a numeric argument n,
goes to the nth previous message and prints it.
? Print a brief summary of commands.
! Execute the shell [see sh(1) and csh(1)] command which follows.
Print or P
Like print but also prints out ignored header fields. See also
print, ignore and retain.
Reply or R
Reply to originator. Do not reply to other recipients of the ori-
ginal message.
Type or T
Identical to the Print command.
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alias or a
With no arguments, print out all currently-defined aliases. With
one argument, print out that alias. With more than one argument,
create a new alias or changes an old one.
alternates or alt
The alternates command is useful if you have accounts on several
machines. It can be used to inform mail that the listed addresses
are really you. When you reply to messages, mail will not send a
copy of the message to any of the addresses listed on the alter-
nates list. If the alternates command is given with no argument,
the current set of alternate names is displayed.
chdir or c
Change the user's working directory to that specified, if given.
If no directory is given, then change to the user's login direc-
tory.
copy or co
The copy command does the same thing that save does, except that
it does not mark the messages for deletion when you quit.
delete or d
Take a list of messages as an argument and mark them all as
deleted. Deleted messages will not be saved in mbox, nor will
they be available for most other commands.
dp or dt
Delete the current message and print the next message. If there
is no next message, mail types: at EOF.
edit or e
Take a list of messages and point the text editor at each one in
turn. On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
exit, ex or x
Effect an immediate return to the shell without modifying the
user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his edit file in -f.
file or fi
The same as folder.
folders
List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
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folder or fo
The folder command switches to a new mail file or folder. With no
arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading. If
you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such as dele-
tions) you have made in the current file and read in the new
file. Some special conventions are recognized for the name: #
means the previous file, % means your system mailbox, %user means
user's system mailbox, & means your mbox file, and +folder means
a file in your folder directory.
from or f
Take a list of messages and print their message headers.
headers or h
List the current range of headers, which is an 18-message group.
If a + argument is given, then the next 18-message group is
printed, and if a - argument is given, the previous 18-message
group is printed.
help A synonym for ?.
hold, ho or preserve
Take a message list and mark each message therein to be saved in
the user's system mailbox instead of in mbox. Does not override
the delete command.
ignore
Add the list of header fields named to the ignored list. Header
fields in the ignored list are not printed on your terminal when
you print a message. This command is very handy for suppression
of certain machine-generated header fields. The Type and Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, includ-
ing ignored fields. If ignore is executed with no arguments, it
lists the current set of ignored fields.
mail or m
Take as argument login names and distribution group names and
send mail to those people.
mbox Indicate that a list of messages be sent to mbox in your home
directory when you quit. This is the default action for messages
if you do not have the hold option set.
next or n
Like + or RETURN. Go to the next message in sequence and type it.
With an argument list, type the next matching message.
preserve or pre
A synonym for hold.
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print or p
Take a message list and type out each message on the user's ter-
minal.
quit or q
Terminate the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
the user's mbox file in his login directory, preserving all mes-
sages marked with hold or preserve or never referenced in his
system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
mailbox. If new mail has arrived during the session, the message:
You have new mail is given. If given while editing a mailbox file
with the -f option, then the edit file is rewritten. A return to
the shell is effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in
which case the user can escape with the exit command.
reply or r
Take a message list and send mail to the sender and all reci-
pients of the specified message. The default message must not be
deleted.
respond
A synonym for reply.
retain
Add the list of header fields named to the retained list. Only
the header fields in the retained list are shown on your terminal
when you print a message. All other header fields are suppressed.
The Type and Print commands can be used to print a message in its
entirety. If retain is executed with no arguments, it lists the
current set of retained fields.
save or s
Take a message list and a filename and append each message in
turn to the end of the file. The filename in quotes, followed by
the line count and character count is echoed on the user's termi-
nal.
set or se
With no arguments, print all variable values. Otherwise, set
option. Arguments are of the form option=value (no space before
or after =) or option. Quotation marks may be placed around any
part of the assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs, for
example, "set indentprefix=->".
saveignore
saveignore is to save what ignore is to print and type. Header
fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by save
or when automatically saving to mbox.
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saveretain
saveretain is to save what retain is to print and type. Header
fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
saving by save or when automatically saving to mbox. saveretain
overrides saveignore.
shell or sh
Invoke an interactive version of the shell.
size Take a message list and print out the size in characters of each
message.
source
The source command reads commands from a file.
top Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each. The
number of lines printed is controlled by the variable toplines
and defaults to five.
type or t
A synonym for print.
unalias
Take a list of names defined by alias commands and discards the
remembered groups of users. The group names no longer have any
significance.
undelete or u
Take a message list and mark each message as not being deleted.
unread or U
Take a message list and mark each message as not having been
read.
unset
Take a list of option names and discard their remembered values;
the inverse of set.
visual or v
Take a message list and invoke the display editor on each mes-
sage.
write or w
Similar to save, except that only the message body (without the
header) is saved. Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and
receiving source program text over the message system.
xit or x
A synonym for exit.
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z mail presents message headers in windowfuls as described under
the headers command. You can move mail's attention forward to the
next window with the z command. Also, you can move to the previ-
ous window by using z-.
Tilde Escapes
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, which are used when composing
messages to perform special functions. Tilde escapes are only recog-
nized at the beginning of lines. The name "tilde escape" is somewhat
of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set by the
option escape.
~! command
Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
~b name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do
not make the names visible in the "Cc:" line ("blind" carbon
copy).
~c name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
~d Read the file dead.letter from your home directory into the mes-
sage.
~e Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far. After the
editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to
the message.
~f messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no mes-
sages are specified, read in the current message. Message headers
currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not
included.
~F messages
Identical to ~f, except all message headers are included.
~h Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and
allowing the user to append text to the end or modify the field
by using the current terminal erase and kill characters.
~m messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by
a tab or by the value of indentprefix. If no messages are speci-
fied, read the current message. Message headers currently being
ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not included.
~M messages
Identical to ~m, except all message headers are included.
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~p Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message
header fields.
~q Abort the message being sent, copying the message to dead.letter
in your home directory if save is set.
~r filename
Read the named file into the message.
~s string
Cause string to become the current subject field.
~t names ...
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
~v Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the VISUAL option) on the
message collected so far. Usually, the alternate editor will be a
screen editor. After you quit the editor, you may resume append-
ing text to the end of your message.
~w filename
Write the message onto the named file.
~| command
Pipe the message through command as a filter. If command gives no
output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
message. The command fmt(1) is often used as command to rejustify
the message.
~: mail-command
Execute the given mail-command. Not all commands, however, are
allowed.
~~ string
Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
If you have changed the escape character, then you should double
that character in order to send it.
Mail Options
Options are controlled via set and unset commands. Options may be
either binary, in which case it is only significant to see whether
they are set or not; or string, in which case the actual value is of
interest. These options can be set in /etc/Mail.rc for the system, or
locally in the user's .mailrc file.
The binary options include the following:
append
Cause messages saved in mbox to be appended to the end rather
than prepended. This should always be set (perhaps in
/etc/Mail.rc).
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ask Cause mail to prompt you for the subject of each message you
send. If you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will
be sent.
askcc
Cause you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at
the end of each message. Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
autoprint
Cause the delete command to behave like dp - thus, after deleting
a message, the next one will be typed automatically.
debug
Setting the binary option debug is the same as specifying -d on
the command line and causes mail to output all sorts of informa-
tion useful for debugging mail.
dot Cause mail to interpret a period alone on a line as the termina-
tor of a message you are sending.
hold This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by
default.
ignore
Cause interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and
echoed as @'s.
ignoreeof
An option related to dot is ignoreeof which makes mail refuse to
accept a CTRL-D as the end of a message. ignoreeof also applies
to mail command mode.
metoo
Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the
sender is removed from the expansion. Setting this option causes
the sender to be included in the group.
noheader
Setting the option noheader is the same as giving the -N option
on the command line.
nosave
Normally, when you abort a message (by pressing CTRL-C or DEL
twice) mail copies the partial letter to the file dead.letter in
your home directory. Setting the binary option nosave prevents
this.
Replyall
Reverse the sense of reply and Reply commands.
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quiet
Suppress the printing of the version when first invoked.
verbose
Setting the option verbose is the same as using the -v option on
the command line. When mail runs in verbose mode, the actual
delivery of messages is displayed on the user's terminal.
The following options have string values:
EDITOR
Pathname of the text editor to use in the edit command and ~e
escape. If not defined, then a default editor is used.
LISTER
Pathname of the directory lister to use in the folders command.
Default is /bin/ls.
PAGER
Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when crt
variable is set. The default paginator more(1) is used if this
option is not defined.
SHELL
Pathname of the shell to use in the ! command and the ~! escape.
A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
VISUAL
Pathname of the text editor to use in the visual command and ~v
escape.
crt The option crt is used as a threshold to determine how long a
message must be before PAGER is used to read it. If crt is set
without a value, then the height of the terminal screen stored in
the system is used to compute the threshold [see stty(1)].
escape
If defined, the first character of this option gives the charac-
ter to use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
folder
The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
If this name begins with a /, mail considers it to be an absolute
pathname; otherwise, the folder directory is found relative to
your home directory.
MBOX The name of the mbox file. It can be the name of a folder. The
default is mbox in the user's home directory.
record
If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all
outgoing mail. If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
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indentprefix
String used by the ~m escape for indenting messages, in place of
the normal tab character (^I). Be sure to quote the value if it
contains spaces or tabs.
toplines
If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed
out with the top command; normally, the first five lines are
printed.
BUGS
There are some options that are not documented here. Most are not use-
ful to the general user.
Usually, /usr/ucb/mail is just a link to /usr/ucb/Mail, which can be
confusing.
ENVIRONMENT
mail utilizes the HOME and USER environment variables.
FILES
/var/spool/mail/*
Post office
~/mbox
User's old mail
~/.mailrc
File giving initial mail commands
/tmp/R*
Temporary files
/usr/share/lib/mail/Mail.help*
Help files
/etc/Mail.rc
System initialization file
SEE ALSO
fmt(1), vacation(1), newaliases(1M), sendmail(1M), aliases(4).
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