NAME

binmail − send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS

/bin/mail [ + ] [ −i ] [ code-option ] [ person ] ... 
/bin/mail [ + ] [ −i ] [ code-option ] −f file

DESCRIPTION

Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program.  The default mail command is described in Mail(1), and its binary is in the directory /usr/ucb. 

mail with no argument prints a user’s mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument + displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order.  For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message. 

mail converts send-messages to 7-bit mail code by default.  And receive-messages are automatically converted to the user’s code. 

newline
Go on to next message.

d Delete message and go on to the next. 

p Print message again. 

− Go back to previous message. 

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

S [ file ] ... 
Save the message in the named files (mbox default).  Code coversion doesn’t occur. 

w [ file ] ... 
Save the message, without a header, in the named files (mbox default). 

W [ file ] ... 
Save the message, without a header, in the named files (mbox default).  Code coversion doesn’t occur. 

m [ person ] ... 
Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default). 

EOT (control-D)
Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.

q Same as EOT. 

!command
Escape to the Shell to do command.

∗ Print a command summary. 

An interrupt normally terminates the mail command; the mail file is unchanged.  The optional argument −i tells mail to continue after interrupts. 

When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just ‘.’) and adds it to each person’s ‘mail’ file.  The message is preceded by the sender’s name and a postmark.  Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with ‘>’. 
 A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1).  To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1C)). 

The −f option causes the named file, for example, ‘mbox’, to be printed as if it were the mail file. 

The following code-option may be specified. 

−U Both send and receive-messages are not converted. 

−C or −J
Send-messages are converted to 7-bit mail code.

−Jx[y[z[w]]] or −Jz[w]
Send-messages are converted to JIS code.

x A final character of an escape sequence ESC $ x to designate Kanji.  B or @ (default is B). 

y A final character of an escape sequence ESC ( y to designate Alphanumeric.  B or J (default is B in EUC, J in Shift-JIS). 

z How to convert Kana. 
7: JIS 7 bit code using SO/SI. 
8: JIS 8 bit code using 0xa1 - 0xdf. 
I: A final character of an escape sequence ESC ( I to designate Kana (This is default). 

w A final character of an escape sequence ESC $ ( w for code set 3 of EUC or 0xf040 to 0xfcfc in Shift-JIS.  0 to ~ (default is D). 

−S Send-messages are converted to Shift-JIS code. 

−E Send-messages are converted to EUC. 

When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail. 

FILES

/etc/passwdto identify sender and locate persons
/usr/spool/mail/∗incoming mail for user ∗
mboxsaved mail
/tmp/ma∗temp file
/usr/spool/mail/∗.lock lock for mail directory
dead.letterunmailable text

SEE ALSO

Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8)

BUGS

Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file. 

Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1).  An installation can overcome this by making mail a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory. 

NEWS-OSRelease 4.2.1R