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MAIL(1) BSD General Commands Manual MAIL(1)
NAME
mail - send and receive mail
SYNOPSIS
mail [-iInv] [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr] to-addr...
[-- sendmail-options...]
mail [-iInNv] -f [name]
mail [-iInNv] [-u user]
INTRODUCTION
Mail is an intelligent mail processing system, which has a command syntax reminiscent
of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages.
-v Verbose mode. The details of delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.
-i Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is particularly useful when using mail on
noisy phone lines.
-I Forces 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 Inhibits reading /etc/mail.rc upon startup.
-N Inhibits the initial display of message headers when reading mail or editing a
mail folder.
-s Specify subject on command line (only the first argument after the -s flag is
used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects containing spaces.)
-c Send carbon copies to list of users.
-b Send blind carbon copies to list. List should be a comma-separated list of
names.
-f Read in the contents of your mbox (or the specified file) for processing; when
you quit, mail writes undeleted messages back to this file.
-u Is equivalent to:
mail -f /var/spool/mail/user
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 an 'control-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 com-
mand (which can be abbreviated 'p'). You can move among the messages much as you
move between lines in ed(1), with the commands '+' and '-' moving backwards and for-
wards, and simple numbers.
Disposing of mail.
After examining a message you can delete 'd') the message or reply 'r') to it. Dele-
tion causes the mail program to forget about the message. This is not irreversible;
the message can be undeleted 'u') 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, sending it back to
the person who 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 begin-
ning 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).
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 cre-
ated by editing /etc/aliases, see aliases(5) and sendmail(8); these are kept in a
different syntax. In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent
to others so that they will be able to reply to the recipients. System wide aliases
are not expanded when the mail is sent, but any reply returned to the machine will
have the system wide alias expanded as all mail goes through sendmail.
Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
See mailaddr(7) for a description of network addresses.
Mail has a number of options which can be set in the .mailrc file to alter its behav-
ior; thus "set askcc" enables the askcc feature. (These options are summarized
below.)
SUMMARY
(Adapted from the 'Mail Reference Manual')
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments following the com-
mand word. The command need not be typed in its entirety - the first command which
matches the typed prefix is used. For commands which take message lists as argu-
ments, if no message list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
command's requirements 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
n'th previous message and prints it.
? Prints a brief summary of commands.
! Executes the shell (see sh(1) and csh(1)) command which follows.
Print (P) Like print but also prints out ignored header fields. See also print,
ignore and retain.
Reply (R) Reply to originator. Does not reply to other recipients of the original
message.
Type (T) Identical to the Print command.
alias (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases. With one
argument, prints out that alias. With more than one argument, creates a new
alias or changes an old one.
alternates
(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 alternates list. If the alternates com-
mand is given with no argument, the current set of alternate names is dis-
played.
chdir (c) Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given. If no
directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory.
copy (co) The copy command does the same thing that save does, except that it does
not mark the messages it is used on for deletion when you quit.
delete (d) Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
Deleted messages will not be saved in mbox, nor will they be available for
most other commands.
dp (also dt) Deletes the current message and prints the next message. If there
is no next message, mail says "at EOF".
edit (e) Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in turn.
On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
exit (ex or x) Effects an immediate return to the Shell without modifying the
user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his edit file in -f.
file (fi) The same as folder.
folders
List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
folder (fo) The folder command switches to a new mail file or folder. With no argu-
ments, it tells you which file you are currently reading. If you give it an
argument, it will write out changes (such as deletions) you have made in the
current file and read in the new file. Some special conventions are recog-
nized 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 (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
headers
(h) Lists 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, also preserve) Takes a message list and marks 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 ignore 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, including ignored fields. If ignore is executed with no argu-
ments, it lists the current set of ignored fields.
mail (m) Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends 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 (n) like + or CR) Goes to the next message in sequence and types it. With an
argument list, types the next matching message.
preserve
(pre) A synonym for hold.
print (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
quit (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in the
user's mbox file in his login directory, preserving all messages 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 flag, 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 (r) Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all recipients 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 retain list are shown on your terminal when you print a mes-
sage. 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 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends 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 terminal.
set (se) With no arguments, prints all variable values. Otherwise, sets 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, i.e. "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.
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 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
size Takes a message list and prints 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 (t) A synonym for print.
unalias
Takes a list of names defined by alias commands and discards the remembered
groups of users. The group names no longer have any significance.
undelete
(u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
unread (U) Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
unset Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values; the
inverse of set.
visual (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
write (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 (x) A synonym for exit.
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 previous 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 recognized 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.
~bname ...
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).
~cname ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
~d Read the file "dead.letter" from your home directory into the message.
~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.
~fmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no messages are
specified, read in the current message. Message headers currently being
ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not included.
~Fmessages
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 ter-
minal erase and kill characters.
~mmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a tab or by
the value of indentprefix. If no messages are specified, read the current
message. Message headers currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain
command) are not included.
~Mmessages
Identical to ~m, except all message headers are included.
~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.
~rfilename
Read the named file into the message.
~sstring
Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
~tname ...
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
~v Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the VISUAL option) on the message col-
lected so far. Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor. After
you quit the editor, you may resume appending text to the end of your mes-
sage.
~wfilename
Write the message onto the named file.
~|command
Pipe the message through the command as a filter. If the 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. The binary options include the follow-
ing:
append Causes messages saved in mbox to be appended to the end rather than
prepended. This should always be set (perhaps in /etc/mail.rc).
ask, asksub
Causes 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 Causes 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.
askbcc Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message. Responding with a newline indicates your satisfaction
with the current list.
autoprint
Causes 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 information useful for debugging
mail.
dot The binary option dot causes mail to interpret a period alone on a line as
the terminator of a message you are sending.
hold This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.
ignore Causes 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
control-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 flag on the command
line.
nosave Normally, when you abort a message with two RUBOUT (erase or delete) mail
copies the partial letter to the file "dead.letter" in your home directory.
Setting the binary option nosave prevents this.
Replyall
Reverses the sense of reply and Reply commands.
quiet Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
searchheaders
If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ''/x:y''
will expand to all messages containing the substring ''y'' in the header
field ''x''. The string search is case insensitive.
verbose
Setting the option verbose is the same as using the -v flag on the command
line. When mail runs in verbose mode, the actual delivery of messages is
displayed on the user's terminal.
Option 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 valued 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 character 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 path-
name; 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 so saved.
indentprefix String used by the ''~m'' tilde 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.
ENVIRONMENT
Mail utilizes the HOME, USER, SHELL, DEAD, PAGER, LISTER, EDITOR, VISUAL and MBOX
environment variables.
FILES
/var/spool/mail/* Post office.
~/mbox User's old mail.
~/.mailrc File giving initial mail commands. Only used if the owner of
the file is the user running this copy of mail.
/tmp/R* Temporary files.
/usr/lib/mail.*help Help files.
/etc/mail.rc System initialization file.
SEE ALSO
fmt(1), newaliases(1), vacation(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8) and
The Mail Reference Manual..
HISTORY
A mail command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. This man page is derived from The
Mail Reference Manual originally written by Kurt Shoens.
BUGS
There are some flags that are not documented here. Most are not useful to the gen-
eral user.
4th Berkeley Distribution December 30, 1993 4th Berkeley Distribution
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