NAME

comsat − biff server

SYNOPSIS

/etc/comsat

DESCRIPTION

Comsat is the server process which listens for reports of incoming mail and notifies users if they have requested this service.  Comsat operates with two processes.  The parent process simply waits on the child process, in case it dies for some reason.  The child process performs the actual work.  Comsat listens on a datagram port associated with the “biff” service specification (see services(5)) for one line messages of the form

user@mailbox-offset

If the user specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has the owner execute bit turned on (by a “biff y”), the offset is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed on the user’s terminal. 

FILES

/etc/utmpto find out who’s logged on and on what terminals

SEE ALSO

biff(1)

BUGS

Sometimes comsat gets stuck and the child process must be killed off to get things going again. 

Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other machines than the one they are currently logged in to. 

The notification should appear in a separate window so it does not mess up the screen. 

4th Berkeley Distribution  —  4 March 1983