COMSAT(8C-BSD)      RISC/os Reference Manual       COMSAT(8C-BSD)



NAME
     comsat - biff server

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/comsat

DESCRIPTION
     comsat is the server process which receives reports of
     incoming mail and notifies users if they have requested this
     service.  comsat receives messages on a datagram port asso-
     ciated with the ``biff'' service specification (see ser-
     vices(5) and inetd(1M)).  The one line messages are 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 char-
     acters of the message are printed on the user's terminal.
     Lines which appear to be part of the message header other
     than the ``From'', ``To'', ``Date'', or ``Subject'' lines
     are not included in the displayed message.

FILES
     /etc/utmp           to find out who's logged on and on what
                         terminals

SEE ALSO
     inetd(1M).
     biff(1) in the User's Reference Manual.

BUGS
     The message header filtering is prone to error.  The density
     of the information presented is near the theoretical
     minimum.

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

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












                        Printed 11/19/92                   Page 1