Annotation of src/usr.bin/mail/mail.1, Revision 1.2
1.2 ! deraadt 1: .\" $OpenBSD: mail.1,v 1.5 1994/06/29 05:09:32 deraadt Exp $
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33: .\" from: @(#)mail.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
34: .\"
35: .Dd December 30, 1993
36: .Dt MAIL 1
37: .Os BSD 4
38: .Sh NAME
39: .Nm mail
40: .Nd send and receive mail
41: .Sh SYNOPSIS
42: .Nm mail
43: .Op Fl iInv
44: .Op Fl s Ar subject
45: .Op Fl c Ar cc-addr
46: .Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr
47: .Ar to-addr...
48: .Nm mail
49: .Op Fl iInNv
50: .Fl f
51: .Op Ar name
52: .Nm mail
53: .Op Fl iInNv
54: .Op Fl u Ar user
55: .Sh INTRODUCTION
56: .Nm Mail
57: is an intelligent mail processing system, which has
58: a command syntax reminiscent of
59: .Xr \&ed 1
60: with lines replaced by messages.
61: .Pp
62: .Bl -tag -width flag
63: .It Fl v
64: Verbose mode.
65: The details of
66: delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.
67: .It Fl i
68: Ignore tty interrupt signals.
69: This is
70: particularly useful when using
71: .Nm mail
72: on noisy phone lines.
73: .It Fl I
74: Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when
75: input isn't a terminal.
76: In particular, the
77: .Sq Ic \&~
78: special
79: character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode.
80: .It Fl n
81: Inhibits reading
82: .Pa /etc/mail.rc
83: upon startup.
84: .It Fl N
85: Inhibits the initial display of message headers
86: when reading mail or editing a mail folder.
87: .It Fl s
88: Specify subject on command line
89: (only the first argument after the
90: .Fl s
91: flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
92: containing spaces.)
93: .It Fl c
94: Send carbon copies to
95: .Ar list
96: of users.
97: .It Fl b
98: Send blind carbon copies to
99: .Ar list .
100: List should be a comma-separated list of names.
101: .It Fl f
102: Read in the contents of your
103: .Ar mbox
104: (or the specified file)
105: for processing; when you
106: .Ar quit ,
107: .Nm mail
108: writes undeleted messages back to this file.
109: .It Fl u
110: Is equivalent to:
111: .Pp
112: .Dl mail -f /var/mail/user
113: .El
114: .Ss Sending mail
115: To send a message to one or more people,
116: .Nm mail
117: can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to
118: whom the mail will be sent.
119: You are then expected to type in
120: your message, followed
121: by an
122: .Sq Li control\-D
123: at the beginning of a line.
124: The section below
125: .Ar Replying to or originating mail ,
126: describes some features of
127: .Nm mail
128: available to help you compose your letter.
129: .Pp
130: .Ss Reading mail
131: In normal usage
132: .Nm mail
133: is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the
134: post office, then
135: prints out a one line header of each message found.
136: The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1)
137: and can be printed using the
138: .Ic print
139: command (which can be abbreviated
140: .Ql Ic p ) .
141: You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in
142: .Xr \&ed 1 ,
143: with the commands
144: .Ql Ic \&+
145: and
146: .Ql Ic \&\-
147: moving backwards and forwards, and
148: simple numbers.
149: .Pp
150: .Ss Disposing of mail.
151: After examining a message you can
152: .Ic delete
153: .Ql Ic d )
154: the message or
155: .Ic reply
156: .Ql Ic r )
157: to it.
158: Deletion causes the
159: .Nm mail
160: program to forget about the message.
161: This is not irreversible; the message can be
162: .Ic undeleted
163: .Ql Ic u )
164: by giving its number, or the
165: .Nm mail
166: session can be aborted by giving the
167: .Ic exit
168: .Ql Ic x )
169: command.
170: Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again.
171: .Pp
172: .Ss Specifying messages
173: Commands such as
174: .Ic print
175: and
176: .Ic delete
177: can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply
178: to a number of messages at once.
179: Thus
180: .Dq Li delete 1 2
181: deletes messages 1 and 2, while
182: .Dq Li delete 1\-5
183: deletes messages 1 through 5.
184: The special name
185: .Ql Li \&*
186: addresses all messages, and
187: .Ql Li \&$
188: addresses
189: the last message; thus the command
190: .Ic top
191: which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
192: .Dq Li top \&*
193: to print the first few lines of all messages.
194: .Pp
195: .Ss Replying to or originating mail.
196: You can use the
197: .Ic reply
198: command to
199: set up a response to a message, sending it back to the
200: person who it was from.
201: Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file,
202: defines the contents of the message.
203: While you are composing a message,
204: .Nm mail
205: treats lines beginning with the character
206: .Ql Ic \&~
207: specially.
208: For instance, typing
209: .Ql Ic \&~m
210: (alone on a line) will place a copy
211: of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop
212: (see
213: .Em indentprefix
214: variable, below).
215: Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients
216: to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the
217: message or to a shell to run some commands.
218: (These options
219: are given in the summary below.)
220: .Pp
221: .Ss Ending a mail processing session.
222: You can end a
223: .Nm mail
224: session with the
225: .Ic quit
226: .Ql Ic q )
227: command.
228: Messages which have been examined go to your
229: .Ar mbox
230: file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
231: Unexamined messages go back to the post office.
232: (See the
233: .Fl f
234: option above).
235: .Pp
236: .Ss Personal and systemwide distribution lists.
237: It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
238: for instance, you can send mail to
239: .Dq Li cohorts
240: and have it go
241: to a group of people.
242: Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
243: .Pp
244: .Dl alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
245: .Pp
246: in the file
247: .Pa \&.mailrc
248: in your home directory.
249: The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the
250: .Ic alias
251: command in
252: .Nm mail .
253: System wide distribution lists can be created by editing
254: .Pa /etc/aliases ,
255: see
256: .Xr aliases 5
257: and
258: .Xr sendmail 8 ;
259: these are kept in a different syntax.
260: In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent
261: to others so that they will be able to
262: .Ic reply
263: to the recipients.
264: System wide
265: .Ic aliases
266: are not expanded when the mail is sent,
267: but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide
268: alias expanded as all mail goes through
269: .Xr sendmail .
270: .Pp
271: .Ss Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
272: See
273: .Xr mailaddr 7
274: for a description of network addresses.
275: .Pp
276: .Nm Mail
277: has a number of options which can be set in the
278: .Pa .mailrc
279: file to alter its behavior; thus
280: .Dq Li set askcc
281: enables the
282: .Ar askcc
283: feature.
284: (These options are summarized below.)
285: .Sh SUMMARY
286: (Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual')
287: .Pp
288: Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
289: following the command word.
290: The command need not be typed in its
291: entirety \- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
292: For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message
293: list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
294: command's requirements is used.
295: If there are no messages forward of
296: the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
297: good messages at all,
298: .Nm mail
299: types
300: .Dq Li No applicable messages
301: and
302: aborts the command.
303: .Bl -tag -width delete
304: .It Ic \&\-
305: Print out the preceding message.
306: If given a numeric
307: argument
308: .Ar n ,
309: goes to the
310: .Ar n Ns 'th
311: previous message and prints it.
312: .It Ic \&?
313: Prints a brief summary of commands.
314: .It Ic \&!
315: Executes the shell
316: (see
317: .Xr sh 1
318: and
319: .Xr csh 1 )
320: command which follows.
321: .It Ic Print
322: .Pq Ic P
323: Like
324: .Ic print
325: but also prints out ignored header fields.
326: See also
327: .Ic print ,
328: .Ic ignore
329: and
330: .Ic retain .
331: .It Ic Reply
332: .Pq Ic R
333: Reply to originator.
334: Does not reply to other
335: recipients of the original message.
336: .It Ic Type
337: .Pq Ic T
338: Identical to the
339: .Ic Print
340: command.
341: .It Ic alias
342: .Pq Ic a
343: With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
344: With one
345: argument, prints out that alias.
346: With more than one argument, creates
347: a new alias or changes an old one.
348: .It Ic alternates
349: .Pq Ic alt
350: The
351: .Ic alternates
352: command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
353: It can be used to inform
354: .Nm mail
355: that the listed addresses are really you.
356: When you
357: .Ic reply
358: to messages,
359: .Nm mail
360: will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
361: listed on the
362: .Ic alternates
363: list.
364: If the
365: .Ic alternates
366: command is given with no argument, the current set of alternate
367: names is displayed.
368: .It Ic chdir
369: .Pq Ic c
370: Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given.
371: If
372: no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory.
373: .It Ic copy
374: .Pq Ic co
375: The
376: .Ic copy
377: command does the same thing that
378: .Ic save
379: does, except that it does not mark the messages it
380: is used on for deletion when you quit.
381: .It Ic delete
382: .Pq Ic d
383: Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
384: Deleted messages will not be saved in
385: .Ar mbox ,
386: nor will they be available for most other commands.
387: .It Ic dp
388: (also
389: .Ic dt )
390: Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
391: If there is no next message,
392: .Nm mail
393: says
394: .Dq Li "at EOF" .
395: .It Ic edit
396: .Pq Ic e
397: Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in
398: turn.
399: On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
400: .It Ic exit
401: .Pf ( Ic ex
402: or
403: .Ic x )
404: Effects an immediate return to the Shell without
405: modifying the user's system mailbox, his
406: .Ar mbox
407: file, or his edit file in
408: .Fl f .
409: .It Ic file
410: .Pq Ic fi
411: The same as
412: .Ic folder .
413: .It Ic folders
414: List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
415: .It Ic folder
416: .Pq Ic fo
417: The
418: .Ic folder
419: command switches to a new mail file or folder.
420: With no
421: arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading.
422: If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such
423: as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in
424: the new file.
425: Some special conventions are recognized for
426: the name.
427: # means the previous file, % means your system
428: mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means
429: your
430: .Ar mbox
431: file, and
432: \&+\&folder means a file in your folder
433: directory.
434: .It Ic from
435: .Pq Ic f
436: Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
437: .It Ic headers
438: .Pq Ic h
439: Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18\-message group.
440: If
441: a
442: .Ql \&+
443: argument is given, then the next 18\-message group is printed, and if
444: a
445: .Ql \&\-
446: argument is given, the previous 18\-message group is printed.
447: .It Ic help
448: A synonym for
449: .Ic \&?
450: .It Ic hold
451: .Pf ( Ic ho ,
452: also
453: .Ic preserve )
454: Takes a message list and marks each
455: message therein to be saved in the
456: user's system mailbox instead of in
457: .Ar mbox .
458: Does not override the
459: .Ic delete
460: command.
461: .It Ic ignore
462: Add the list of header fields named to the
463: .Ar ignored list .
464: Header fields in the ignore list are not printed
465: on your terminal when you print a message.
466: This
467: command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
468: header fields.
469: The
470: .Ic Type
471: and
472: .Ic Print
473: commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
474: ignored fields.
475: If
476: .Ic ignore
477: is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
478: ignored fields.
479: .It Ic mail
480: .Pq Ic m
481: Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
482: mail to those people.
483: .It Ic mbox
484: Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
485: .Ic mbox
486: in your home directory when you quit.
487: This is the default
488: action for messages if you do
489: .Em not
490: have the
491: .Ic hold
492: option set.
493: .It Ic next
494: .Pq Ic n
495: like
496: .Ic \&+
497: or
498: .Tn CR )
499: Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
500: With an argument list, types the next matching message.
501: .It Ic preserve
502: .Pq Ic pre
503: A synonym for
504: .Ic hold .
505: .It Ic print
506: .Pq Ic p
507: Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
508: .It Ic quit
509: .Pq Ic q
510: Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
511: the user's
512: .Ar mbox
513: file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with
514: .Ic hold
515: or
516: .Ic preserve
517: or never referenced
518: in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
519: mailbox.
520: If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
521: .Dq Li "You have new mail"
522: is given.
523: If given while editing a
524: mailbox file with the
525: .Fl f
526: flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
527: A return to the Shell is
528: effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user
529: can escape with the
530: .Ic exit
531: command.
532: .It Ic reply
533: .Pq Ic r
534: Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
535: recipients of the specified message.
536: The default message must not be deleted.
537: .It Ic respond
538: A synonym for
539: .Ic reply .
540: .It Ic retain
541: Add the list of header fields named to the
542: .Ar retained list
543: Only the header fields in the retain list
544: are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
545: All other header fields are suppressed.
546: The
547: .Ic Type
548: and
549: .Ic Print
550: commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
551: If
552: .Ic retain
553: is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
554: retained fields.
555: .It Ic save
556: .Pq Ic s
557: Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in
558: turn to the end of the file.
559: The filename in quotes, followed by the line
560: count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
561: .It Ic set
562: .Pq Ic se
563: With no arguments, prints all variable values.
564: Otherwise, sets
565: option.
566: Arguments are of the form
567: .Ar option=value
568: (no space before or after =) or
569: .Ar option .
570: Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
571: quote blanks or tabs, i.e.
572: .Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q"
573: .It Ic saveignore
574: .Ic Saveignore
575: is to
576: .Ic save
577: what
578: .Ic ignore
579: is to
580: .Ic print
581: and
582: .Ic type .
583: Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
584: saving a message by
585: .Ic save
586: or when automatically saving to
587: .Ar mbox .
588: .It Ic saveretain
589: .Ic Saveretain
590: is to
591: .Ic save
592: what
593: .Ic retain
594: is to
595: .Ic print
596: and
597: .Ic type .
598: Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
599: with a message when saving by
600: .Ic save
601: or when automatically saving to
602: .Ar mbox .
603: .Ic Saveretain
604: overrides
605: .Ic saveignore .
606: .It Ic shell
607: .Pq Ic sh
608: Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
609: .It Ic size
610: Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
611: message.
612: .It Ic source
613: The
614: .Ic source
615: command reads
616: commands from a file.
617: .It Ic top
618: Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
619: The number of
620: lines printed is controlled by the variable
621: .Ic toplines
622: and defaults to five.
623: .It Ic type
624: .Pq Ic t
625: A synonym for
626: .Ic print .
627: .It Ic unalias
628: Takes a list of names defined by
629: .Ic alias
630: commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
631: The group names
632: no longer have any significance.
633: .It Ic undelete
634: .Pq Ic u
635: Takes a message list and marks each message as
636: .Ic not
637: being deleted.
638: .It Ic unread
639: .Pq Ic U
640: Takes a message list and marks each message as
641: .Ic not
642: having been read.
643: .It Ic unset
644: Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
645: the inverse of
646: .Ic set .
647: .It Ic visual
648: .Pq Ic v
649: Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
650: .It Ic write
651: .Pq Ic w
652: Similar to
653: .Ic save ,
654: except that
655: .Ic only
656: the message body
657: .Pq Ar without
658: the header) is saved.
659: Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
660: program text over the message system.
661: .It Ic xit
662: .Pq Ic x
663: A synonym for
664: .Ic exit .
665: .It Ic z
666: .Nm Mail
667: presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
668: .Ic headers
669: command.
670: You can move
671: .Nm mail Ns 's
672: attention forward to the next window with the
673: .Ic \&z
674: command.
675: Also, you can move to the previous window by using
676: .Ic \&z\&\- .
677: .El
678: .Ss Tilde/Escapes
679: .Pp
680: Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
681: which are used when composing messages to perform
682: special functions.
683: Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning
684: of lines.
685: The name
686: .Dq Em tilde\ escape
687: is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
688: by the option
689: .Ic escape .
690: .Bl -tag -width Ds
691: .It Ic \&~! Ns Ar command
692: Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
693: .It Ic \&~b Ns Ar name ...
694: Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
695: the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy).
696: .It Ic \&~c Ns Ar name ...
697: Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
698: .It Ic \&~d
699: Read the file
700: .Dq Pa dead.letter
701: from your home directory into the message.
702: .It Ic \&~e
703: Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
704: After the
705: editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the
706: message.
707: .It Ic \&~f Ns Ar messages
708: Read the named messages into the message being sent.
709: If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
710: Message headers currently being ignored (by the
711: .Ic ignore
712: or
713: .Ic retain
714: command) are not included.
715: .It Ic \&~F Ns Ar messages
716: Identical to
717: .Ic \&~f ,
718: except all message headers are included.
719: .It Ic \&~h
720: Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing
721: the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the
722: current terminal erase and kill characters.
723: .It Ic \&~m Ns Ar messages
724: Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
725: tab or by the value of
726: .Ar indentprefix .
727: If no messages are specified,
728: read the current message.
729: Message headers currently being ignored (by the
730: .Ic ignore
731: or
732: .Ic retain
733: command) are not included.
734: .It Ic \&~M Ns Ar messages
735: Identical to
736: .Ic \&~m ,
737: except all message headers are included.
738: .It Ic \&~p
739: Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
740: fields.
741: .It Ic \&~q
742: Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
743: .Dq Pa dead.letter
744: in your home directory if
745: .Ic save
746: is set.
747: .It Ic \&~r Ns Ar filename
748: Read the named file into the message.
749: .It Ic \&~s Ns Ar string
750: Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
751: .It Ic \&~\&t Ns Ar name ...
752: Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
753: .It Ic \&~\&v
754: Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
755: .Ev VISUAL
756: option) on the
757: message collected so far.
758: Usually, the alternate editor will be a
759: screen editor.
760: After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
761: text to the end of your message.
762: .It Ic \&~w Ns Ar filename
763: Write the message onto the named file.
764: .It Ic \&~\&| Ns Ar command
765: Pipe the message through the command as a filter.
766: If the command gives
767: no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
768: message.
769: The command
770: .Xr fmt 1
771: is often used as
772: .Ic command
773: to rejustify the message.
774: .It Ic \&~: Ns Ar mail-command
775: Execute the given mail command.
776: Not all commands, however, are allowed.
777: .It Ic \&~~ Ns Ar string
778: Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
779: If
780: you have changed the escape character, then you should double
781: that character in order to send it.
782: .El
783: .Ss Mail Options
784: Options are controlled via
785: .Ic set
786: and
787: .Ic unset
788: commands.
789: Options may be either binary, in which case it is only
790: significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which
791: case the actual value is of interest.
792: The binary options include the following:
793: .Bl -tag -width append
794: .It Ar append
795: Causes messages saved in
796: .Ar mbox
797: to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
798: This should always be set (perhaps in
799: .Pa /etc/mail.rc ) .
800: .It Ar ask, asksub
801: Causes
802: .Nm mail
803: to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
804: If
805: you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
806: .It Ar askcc
807: Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
808: end of each message.
809: Responding with a newline indicates your
810: satisfaction with the current list.
811: .It Ar askbcc
812: Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the
813: end of each message.
814: Responding with a newline indicates your
815: satisfaction with the current list.
816: .It Ar autoprint
817: Causes the
818: .Ic delete
819: command to behave like
820: .Ic dp
821: \- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
822: automatically.
823: .It Ar debug
824: Setting the binary option
825: .Ar debug
826: is the same as specifying
827: .Fl d
828: on the command line and causes
829: .Nm mail
830: to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
831: .Nm mail .
832: .It Ar dot
833: The binary option
834: .Ar dot
835: causes
836: .Nm mail
837: to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
838: of a message you are sending.
839: .It Ar hold
840: This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
841: by default.
842: .It Ar ignore
843: Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
844: @'s.
845: .It Ar ignoreeof
846: An option related to
847: .Ar dot
848: is
849: .Ar ignoreeof
850: which makes
851: .Nm mail
852: refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message.
853: .Ar Ignoreeof
854: also applies to
855: .Nm mail
856: command mode.
857: .It Ar metoo
858: Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender
859: is removed from the expansion.
860: Setting this option causes the sender
861: to be included in the group.
862: .It Ar noheader
863: Setting the option
864: .Ar noheader
865: is the same as giving the
866: .Fl N
867: flag on the command line.
868: .It Ar nosave
869: Normally, when you abort a message with two
870: .Tn RUBOUT
871: (erase or delete)
872: .Nm mail
873: copies the partial letter to the file
874: .Dq Pa dead.letter
875: in your home directory.
876: Setting the binary option
877: .Ar nosave
878: prevents this.
879: .It Ar Replyall
880: Reverses the sense of
881: .Ic reply
882: and
883: .Ic Reply
884: commands.
885: .It Ar quiet
886: Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
887: .It Ar searchheaders
888: If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ``/x:y''
889: will expand to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the header
890: field ``x''. The string search is case insensitive.
891: .It Ar verbose
892: Setting the option
893: .Ar verbose
894: is the same as using the
895: .Fl v
896: flag on the command line.
897: When mail runs in verbose mode,
898: the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
899: terminal.
900: .El
901: .Ss Option String Values
902: .Bl -tag -width Va
903: .It Ev EDITOR
904: Pathname of the text editor to use in the
905: .Ic edit
906: command and
907: .Ic \&~e
908: escape.
909: If not defined, then a default editor is used.
910: .It Ev LISTER
911: Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
912: .Ic folders
913: command.
914: Default is
915: .Pa /bin/ls .
916: .It Ev PAGER
917: Pathname of the program to use in the
918: .Ic more
919: command or when
920: .Ic crt
921: variable is set.
922: The default paginator
923: .Xr more 1
924: is used if this option is not defined.
925: .It Ev SHELL
926: Pathname of the shell to use in the
927: .Ic \&!
928: command and the
929: .Ic \&~!
930: escape.
931: A default shell is used if this option is
932: not defined.
933: .It Ev VISUAL
934: Pathname of the text editor to use in the
935: .Ic visual
936: command and
937: .Ic \&~v
938: escape.
939: .It Va crt
940: The valued option
941: .Va crt
942: is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
943: be before
944: .Ev PAGER
945: is used to read it.
946: If
947: .Va crt
948: is set without a value,
949: then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
950: is used to compute the threshold (see
951: .Xr stty 1 ) .
952: .It Ar escape
953: If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
954: use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
955: .It Ar folder
956: The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
957: messages.
958: If this name begins with a `/',
959: .Nm mail
960: considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
961: folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
962: .It Ev MBOX
963: The name of the
964: .Ar mbox
965: file.
966: It can be the name of a folder.
967: The default is
968: .Dq Li mbox
969: in the user's home directory.
970: .It Ar record
971: If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
972: mail.
973: If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.
974: .It Ar indentprefix
975: String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of
976: the normal tab character (^I).
977: Be sure to quote the value if it contains
978: spaces or tabs.
979: .It Ar toplines
980: If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
981: with the
982: .Ic top
983: command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
984: .El
985: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
986: .Nm Mail
987: utilizes the
988: .Ev HOME
989: and
990: .Ev USER
991: environment variables.
992: .Sh FILES
993: .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/mail.*help -compact
994: .It Pa /var/mail/*
995: Post office.
996: .It ~/mbox
997: User's old mail.
998: .It ~/.mailrc
999: File giving initial mail commands.
1000: .It Pa /tmp/R*
1001: Temporary files.
1002: .It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help
1003: Help files.
1004: .It Pa /etc/mail.rc
1005: System initialization file.
1006: .El
1007: .Sh SEE ALSO
1008: .Xr fmt 1 ,
1009: .Xr newaliases 1 ,
1010: .Xr vacation 1 ,
1011: .Xr aliases 5 ,
1012: .Xr mailaddr 7 ,
1013: .Xr sendmail 8
1014: and
1015: .Rs
1016: .%T "The Mail Reference Manual" .
1017: .Re
1018: .Sh HISTORY
1019: A
1020: .Nm mail
1021: command
1022: appeared in
1023: .At v6 .
1024: This man page is derived from
1025: .%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
1026: originally written by Kurt Shoens.
1027: .Sh BUGS
1028: There are some flags that are not documented here.
1029: Most are
1030: not useful to the general user.
1031: .Pp
1032: Usually,
1033: .Nm mail
1034: is just a link to
1035: .Nm Mail ,
1036: which can be confusing.
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