Annotation of src/usr.bin/mail/mail.1, Revision 1.20
1.20 ! millert 1: .\" $OpenBSD: mail.1,v 1.19 1998/09/26 19:55:05 aaron Exp $
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1.5 millert 34: .\" @(#)mail.1 8.8 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
1.1 deraadt 35: .\"
1.5 millert 36: .Dd April 28, 1995
1.1 deraadt 37: .Dt MAIL 1
38: .Os BSD 4
39: .Sh NAME
1.7 millert 40: .Nm mail ,
41: .Nm mailx ,
42: .Nm Mail
1.1 deraadt 43: .Nd send and receive mail
44: .Sh SYNOPSIS
45: .Nm mail
46: .Op Fl iInv
47: .Op Fl s Ar subject
48: .Op Fl c Ar cc-addr
49: .Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr
1.19 aaron 50: .Ar to-addr Op Ar ...
51: .Op Fl Ar sendmail-options Op Ar ...
1.1 deraadt 52: .Nm mail
53: .Op Fl iInNv
54: .Fl f
55: .Op Ar name
56: .Nm mail
57: .Op Fl iInNv
58: .Op Fl u Ar user
59: .Sh INTRODUCTION
1.19 aaron 60: .Nm mail
1.18 aaron 61: is an intelligent mail processing system which has
1.1 deraadt 62: a command syntax reminiscent of
63: .Xr \&ed 1
64: with lines replaced by messages.
65: .Pp
66: .Bl -tag -width flag
67: .It Fl v
68: Verbose mode.
69: The details of
70: delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.
71: .It Fl i
72: Ignore tty interrupt signals.
73: This is
74: particularly useful when using
75: .Nm mail
76: on noisy phone lines.
77: .It Fl I
78: Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when
79: input isn't a terminal.
80: In particular, the
81: .Sq Ic \&~
82: special
83: character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode.
84: .It Fl n
85: Inhibits reading
86: .Pa /etc/mail.rc
87: upon startup.
88: .It Fl N
89: Inhibits the initial display of message headers
90: when reading mail or editing a mail folder.
1.8 deraadt 91: .It Fl s Ar subject
1.1 deraadt 92: Specify subject on command line
93: (only the first argument after the
94: .Fl s
95: flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
96: containing spaces.)
1.8 deraadt 97: .It Fl c Ar cc-addr
1.1 deraadt 98: Send carbon copies to
99: .Ar list
100: of users.
1.8 deraadt 101: .It Fl b Ar bcc-addr
1.1 deraadt 102: Send blind carbon copies to
103: .Ar list .
104: List should be a comma-separated list of names.
105: .It Fl f
106: Read in the contents of your
107: .Ar mbox
108: (or the specified file)
109: for processing; when you
110: .Ar quit ,
111: .Nm mail
112: writes undeleted messages back to this file.
1.8 deraadt 113: .It Fl u Ar user
1.1 deraadt 114: Is equivalent to:
115: .Pp
116: .Dl mail -f /var/mail/user
1.20 ! millert 117: Except that locking is done.
1.1 deraadt 118: .El
1.10 deraadt 119: .Ss Startup actions
120: At startup time
121: .Nm mail
122: will execute commands in the system command files
123: .Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.rc ,
124: .Pa /usr/local/etc/mail.rc ,
125: and
126: .Pa /etc/mail.rc
127: in order unless explicitly told not to by using the
128: .Fl n
1.15 aaron 129: option. Next, the commands in the user's personal command file
1.10 deraadt 130: .Pa ~/.mailrc
131: are executed.
132: .Nm mail
133: then examines its command line options to determine whether the user
134: requested a new message to be sent or existing messages in a mailbox
135: to be examined.
1.1 deraadt 136: .Ss Sending mail
137: To send a message to one or more people,
138: .Nm mail
139: can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to
140: whom the mail will be sent.
141: You are then expected to type in
142: your message, followed
143: by an
144: .Sq Li control\-D
145: at the beginning of a line.
1.18 aaron 146: The section below,
1.1 deraadt 147: .Ar Replying to or originating mail ,
148: describes some features of
149: .Nm mail
150: available to help you compose your letter.
151: .Pp
152: .Ss Reading mail
153: In normal usage
154: .Nm mail
155: is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the
156: post office, then
157: prints out a one line header of each message found.
158: The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1)
159: and can be printed using the
160: .Ic print
161: command (which can be abbreviated
1.6 deraadt 162: .Ic p ) .
1.1 deraadt 163: You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in
164: .Xr \&ed 1 ,
165: with the commands
166: .Ql Ic \&+
167: and
168: .Ql Ic \&\-
169: moving backwards and forwards, and
170: simple numbers.
171: .Pp
172: .Ss Disposing of mail.
173: After examining a message you can
174: .Ic delete
1.6 deraadt 175: .Pq Ic d
1.1 deraadt 176: the message or
177: .Ic reply
1.6 deraadt 178: .Pq Ic r
1.1 deraadt 179: to it.
180: Deletion causes the
181: .Nm mail
182: program to forget about the message.
183: This is not irreversible; the message can be
184: .Ic undeleted
1.6 deraadt 185: .Pq Ic u
1.1 deraadt 186: by giving its number, or the
187: .Nm mail
188: session can be aborted by giving the
189: .Ic exit
1.6 deraadt 190: .Pq Ic x
1.1 deraadt 191: command.
192: Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again.
193: .Pp
194: .Ss Specifying messages
195: Commands such as
196: .Ic print
197: and
198: .Ic delete
199: can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply
200: to a number of messages at once.
201: Thus
202: .Dq Li delete 1 2
203: deletes messages 1 and 2, while
204: .Dq Li delete 1\-5
205: deletes messages 1 through 5.
206: The special name
207: .Ql Li \&*
208: addresses all messages, and
209: .Ql Li \&$
210: addresses
211: the last message; thus the command
212: .Ic top
213: which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
214: .Dq Li top \&*
215: to print the first few lines of all messages.
216: .Pp
217: .Ss Replying to or originating mail.
218: You can use the
219: .Ic reply
220: command to
221: set up a response to a message, sending it back to the
222: person who it was from.
223: Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file,
224: defines the contents of the message.
225: While you are composing a message,
226: .Nm mail
227: treats lines beginning with the character
228: .Ql Ic \&~
229: specially.
230: For instance, typing
231: .Ql Ic \&~m
232: (alone on a line) will place a copy
233: of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop
234: (see
235: .Em indentprefix
236: variable, below).
237: Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients
238: to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the
239: message or to a shell to run some commands.
240: (These options
241: are given in the summary below.)
242: .Pp
243: .Ss Ending a mail processing session.
244: You can end a
245: .Nm mail
246: session with the
247: .Ic quit
1.6 deraadt 248: .Pq Ic q
1.1 deraadt 249: command.
250: Messages which have been examined go to your
251: .Ar mbox
252: file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
253: Unexamined messages go back to the post office.
254: (See the
255: .Fl f
256: option above).
257: .Pp
258: .Ss Personal and systemwide distribution lists.
1.15 aaron 259: It is also possible to create personal distribution lists so that,
1.1 deraadt 260: for instance, you can send mail to
261: .Dq Li cohorts
262: and have it go
263: to a group of people.
264: Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
265: .Pp
266: .Dl alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
267: .Pp
268: in the file
269: .Pa \&.mailrc
270: in your home directory.
271: The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the
272: .Ic alias
273: command in
274: .Nm mail .
275: System wide distribution lists can be created by editing
276: .Pa /etc/aliases ,
277: see
278: .Xr aliases 5
279: and
280: .Xr sendmail 8 ;
281: these are kept in a different syntax.
282: In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent
283: to others so that they will be able to
284: .Ic reply
285: to the recipients.
286: System wide
287: .Ic aliases
288: are not expanded when the mail is sent,
289: but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide
290: alias expanded as all mail goes through
291: .Xr sendmail .
292: .Pp
293: .Ss Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
294: See
295: .Xr mailaddr 7
296: for a description of network addresses.
297: .Pp
1.19 aaron 298: .Nm mail
1.1 deraadt 299: has a number of options which can be set in the
300: .Pa .mailrc
301: file to alter its behavior; thus
302: .Dq Li set askcc
303: enables the
304: .Ar askcc
305: feature.
306: (These options are summarized below.)
307: .Sh SUMMARY
308: (Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual')
309: .Pp
310: Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
311: following the command word.
312: The command need not be typed in its
313: entirety \- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
314: For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message
315: list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
316: command's requirements is used.
317: If there are no messages forward of
318: the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
319: good messages at all,
320: .Nm mail
321: types
1.18 aaron 322: .Dq Li \&No applicable messages
1.1 deraadt 323: and
324: aborts the command.
325: .Bl -tag -width delete
326: .It Ic \&\-
327: Print out the preceding message.
328: If given a numeric
329: argument
330: .Ar n ,
331: goes to the
332: .Ar n Ns 'th
333: previous message and prints it.
334: .It Ic \&?
335: Prints a brief summary of commands.
336: .It Ic \&!
337: Executes the shell
338: (see
339: .Xr sh 1
340: and
341: .Xr csh 1 )
342: command which follows.
343: .It Ic Print
344: .Pq Ic P
345: Like
346: .Ic print
347: but also prints out ignored header fields.
348: See also
349: .Ic print ,
350: .Ic ignore
351: and
352: .Ic retain .
353: .It Ic Reply
354: .Pq Ic R
355: Reply to originator.
356: Does not reply to other
357: recipients of the original message.
358: .It Ic Type
359: .Pq Ic T
360: Identical to the
361: .Ic Print
362: command.
363: .It Ic alias
364: .Pq Ic a
365: With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
366: With one
367: argument, prints out that alias.
368: With more than one argument, creates
369: a new alias or changes an old one.
370: .It Ic alternates
371: .Pq Ic alt
372: The
373: .Ic alternates
374: command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
375: It can be used to inform
376: .Nm mail
377: that the listed addresses are really you.
378: When you
379: .Ic reply
380: to messages,
381: .Nm mail
382: will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
383: listed on the
384: .Ic alternates
385: list.
386: If the
387: .Ic alternates
388: command is given with no argument, the current set of alternate
389: names is displayed.
390: .It Ic chdir
391: .Pq Ic c
392: Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given.
393: If
394: no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory.
395: .It Ic copy
396: .Pq Ic co
397: The
398: .Ic copy
399: command does the same thing that
400: .Ic save
401: does, except that it does not mark the messages it
402: is used on for deletion when you quit.
403: .It Ic delete
404: .Pq Ic d
405: Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
406: Deleted messages will not be saved in
407: .Ar mbox ,
408: nor will they be available for most other commands.
409: .It Ic dp
410: (also
411: .Ic dt )
412: Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
413: If there is no next message,
414: .Nm mail
415: says
416: .Dq Li "at EOF" .
417: .It Ic edit
418: .Pq Ic e
419: Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in
420: turn.
421: On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
422: .It Ic exit
423: .Pf ( Ic ex
424: or
425: .Ic x )
1.15 aaron 426: Effects an immediate return to the shell without
1.1 deraadt 427: modifying the user's system mailbox, his
428: .Ar mbox
429: file, or his edit file in
430: .Fl f .
431: .It Ic file
432: .Pq Ic fi
433: The same as
434: .Ic folder .
435: .It Ic folders
436: List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
437: .It Ic folder
438: .Pq Ic fo
439: The
440: .Ic folder
441: command switches to a new mail file or folder.
442: With no
443: arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading.
444: If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such
445: as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in
446: the new file.
447: Some special conventions are recognized for
448: the name.
449: # means the previous file, % means your system
450: mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means
451: your
452: .Ar mbox
453: file, and
454: \&+\&folder means a file in your folder
455: directory.
456: .It Ic from
457: .Pq Ic f
458: Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
459: .It Ic headers
460: .Pq Ic h
461: Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18\-message group.
462: If
463: a
464: .Ql \&+
465: argument is given, then the next 18\-message group is printed, and if
466: a
467: .Ql \&\-
468: argument is given, the previous 18\-message group is printed.
469: .It Ic help
470: A synonym for
1.15 aaron 471: .Ic \&? .
1.5 millert 472: .ne li
1.1 deraadt 473: .It Ic hold
474: .Pf ( Ic ho ,
475: also
476: .Ic preserve )
477: Takes a message list and marks each
478: message therein to be saved in the
479: user's system mailbox instead of in
480: .Ar mbox .
481: Does not override the
482: .Ic delete
483: command.
484: .It Ic ignore
485: Add the list of header fields named to the
486: .Ar ignored list .
487: Header fields in the ignore list are not printed
488: on your terminal when you print a message.
489: This
490: command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
491: header fields.
492: The
493: .Ic Type
494: and
495: .Ic Print
496: commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
497: ignored fields.
1.5 millert 498: .It Ic inc
499: Incorporate any new messages that have arrived while mail
500: is being read.
501: The new messages are added to the end of the message list,
502: and the current message is reset to be the first new mail message.
1.14 aaron 503: This does not renumber the existing message list, nor
1.5 millert 504: does it cause any changes made so far to be saved.
1.1 deraadt 505: If
506: .Ic ignore
507: is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
508: ignored fields.
509: .It Ic mail
510: .Pq Ic m
511: Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
512: mail to those people.
513: .It Ic mbox
514: Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
515: .Ic mbox
516: in your home directory when you quit.
517: This is the default
518: action for messages if you do
519: .Em not
520: have the
521: .Ic hold
522: option set.
1.4 deraadt 523: .It Ic more
524: .Pq Ic \mo
525: Takes a message list and invokes the pager on that list.
1.1 deraadt 526: .It Ic next
527: .Pq Ic n
1.15 aaron 528: (like
1.1 deraadt 529: .Ic \&+
530: or
531: .Tn CR )
532: Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
533: With an argument list, types the next matching message.
534: .It Ic preserve
535: .Pq Ic pre
536: A synonym for
537: .Ic hold .
538: .It Ic print
539: .Pq Ic p
540: Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
541: .It Ic quit
542: .Pq Ic q
543: Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
544: the user's
545: .Ar mbox
546: file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with
547: .Ic hold
548: or
549: .Ic preserve
550: or never referenced
551: in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
552: mailbox.
553: If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
554: .Dq Li "You have new mail"
555: is given.
556: If given while editing a
557: mailbox file with the
558: .Fl f
559: flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
1.15 aaron 560: A return to the shell is
1.18 aaron 561: effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user
1.1 deraadt 562: can escape with the
563: .Ic exit
564: command.
565: .It Ic reply
566: .Pq Ic r
567: Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
568: recipients of the specified message.
569: The default message must not be deleted.
570: .It Ic respond
571: A synonym for
572: .Ic reply .
573: .It Ic retain
574: Add the list of header fields named to the
1.15 aaron 575: .Ar retained list .
1.1 deraadt 576: Only the header fields in the retain list
577: are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
578: All other header fields are suppressed.
579: The
580: .Ic Type
581: and
582: .Ic Print
583: commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
584: If
585: .Ic retain
586: is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
587: retained fields.
588: .It Ic save
589: .Pq Ic s
590: Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in
591: turn to the end of the file.
592: The filename in quotes, followed by the line
593: count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
594: .It Ic set
595: .Pq Ic se
596: With no arguments, prints all variable values.
597: Otherwise, sets
598: option.
599: Arguments are of the form
600: .Ar option=value
601: (no space before or after =) or
602: .Ar option .
603: Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
604: quote blanks or tabs, i.e.
605: .Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q"
606: .It Ic saveignore
607: .Ic Saveignore
608: is to
609: .Ic save
610: what
611: .Ic ignore
612: is to
613: .Ic print
614: and
615: .Ic type .
616: Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
617: saving a message by
618: .Ic save
619: or when automatically saving to
620: .Ar mbox .
1.5 millert 621: .pl +1
1.1 deraadt 622: .It Ic saveretain
623: .Ic Saveretain
624: is to
625: .Ic save
626: what
627: .Ic retain
628: is to
629: .Ic print
630: and
631: .Ic type .
632: Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
633: with a message when saving by
634: .Ic save
635: or when automatically saving to
636: .Ar mbox .
637: .Ic Saveretain
638: overrides
639: .Ic saveignore .
640: .It Ic shell
641: .Pq Ic sh
642: Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
643: .It Ic size
644: Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
645: message.
646: .It Ic source
647: The
648: .Ic source
649: command reads
650: commands from a file.
651: .It Ic top
652: Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
653: The number of
654: lines printed is controlled by the variable
655: .Ic toplines
656: and defaults to five.
657: .It Ic type
658: .Pq Ic t
659: A synonym for
660: .Ic print .
661: .It Ic unalias
662: Takes a list of names defined by
663: .Ic alias
664: commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
665: The group names
666: no longer have any significance.
667: .It Ic undelete
668: .Pq Ic u
669: Takes a message list and marks each message as
670: .Ic not
671: being deleted.
672: .It Ic unread
673: .Pq Ic U
674: Takes a message list and marks each message as
675: .Ic not
676: having been read.
677: .It Ic unset
678: Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
679: the inverse of
680: .Ic set .
681: .It Ic visual
682: .Pq Ic v
683: Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
684: .It Ic write
685: .Pq Ic w
686: Similar to
687: .Ic save ,
688: except that
689: .Ic only
690: the message body
1.16 millert 691: .Po Ar without\
692: the header
693: .Pc
694: is saved.
1.1 deraadt 695: Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
696: program text over the message system.
697: .It Ic xit
698: .Pq Ic x
699: A synonym for
700: .Ic exit .
701: .It Ic z
1.19 aaron 702: .Nm mail
1.1 deraadt 703: presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
704: .Ic headers
705: command.
706: You can move
707: .Nm mail Ns 's
708: attention forward to the next window with the
709: .Ic \&z
710: command.
711: Also, you can move to the previous window by using
712: .Ic \&z\&\- .
713: .El
714: .Ss Tilde/Escapes
715: .Pp
716: Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
717: which are used when composing messages to perform
718: special functions.
719: Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning
720: of lines.
721: The name
722: .Dq Em tilde\ escape
723: is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
724: by the option
725: .Ic escape .
726: .Bl -tag -width Ds
727: .It Ic \&~! Ns Ar command
728: Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
729: .It Ic \&~b Ns Ar name ...
730: Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
731: the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy).
732: .It Ic \&~c Ns Ar name ...
733: Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
734: .It Ic \&~d
735: Read the file
736: .Dq Pa dead.letter
737: from your home directory into the message.
738: .It Ic \&~e
739: Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
740: After the
741: editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the
742: message.
743: .It Ic \&~f Ns Ar messages
744: Read the named messages into the message being sent.
745: If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
746: Message headers currently being ignored (by the
747: .Ic ignore
748: or
749: .Ic retain
750: command) are not included.
1.5 millert 751: .ne li
1.1 deraadt 752: .It Ic \&~F Ns Ar messages
753: Identical to
754: .Ic \&~f ,
755: except all message headers are included.
756: .It Ic \&~h
757: Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing
758: the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the
759: current terminal erase and kill characters.
760: .It Ic \&~m Ns Ar messages
761: Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
762: tab or by the value of
763: .Ar indentprefix .
764: If no messages are specified,
765: read the current message.
766: Message headers currently being ignored (by the
767: .Ic ignore
768: or
769: .Ic retain
770: command) are not included.
771: .It Ic \&~M Ns Ar messages
772: Identical to
773: .Ic \&~m ,
774: except all message headers are included.
775: .It Ic \&~p
776: Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
777: fields.
778: .It Ic \&~q
779: Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
780: .Dq Pa dead.letter
781: in your home directory if
782: .Ic save
783: is set.
784: .It Ic \&~r Ns Ar filename
785: Read the named file into the message.
786: .It Ic \&~s Ns Ar string
787: Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
788: .It Ic \&~\&t Ns Ar name ...
789: Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
790: .It Ic \&~\&v
791: Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
792: .Ev VISUAL
793: option) on the
794: message collected so far.
795: Usually, the alternate editor will be a
796: screen editor.
797: After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
798: text to the end of your message.
799: .It Ic \&~w Ns Ar filename
800: Write the message onto the named file.
801: .It Ic \&~\&| Ns Ar command
802: Pipe the message through the command as a filter.
803: If the command gives
804: no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
805: message.
806: The command
807: .Xr fmt 1
808: is often used as
809: .Ic command
810: to rejustify the message.
811: .It Ic \&~: Ns Ar mail-command
812: Execute the given mail command.
813: Not all commands, however, are allowed.
814: .It Ic \&~~ Ns Ar string
815: Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
816: If
817: you have changed the escape character, then you should double
818: that character in order to send it.
819: .El
820: .Ss Mail Options
821: Options are controlled via
822: .Ic set
823: and
824: .Ic unset
825: commands.
826: Options may be either binary, in which case it is only
827: significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which
828: case the actual value is of interest.
829: The binary options include the following:
830: .Bl -tag -width append
831: .It Ar append
832: Causes messages saved in
833: .Ar mbox
834: to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
835: This should always be set (perhaps in
836: .Pa /etc/mail.rc ) .
837: .It Ar ask, asksub
838: Causes
839: .Nm mail
840: to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
841: If
842: you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
1.5 millert 843: .ne li
1.1 deraadt 844: .It Ar askcc
845: Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
846: end of each message.
847: Responding with a newline indicates your
848: satisfaction with the current list.
1.5 millert 849: .It Ar autoinc
850: Causes new mail to be automatically incorporated when it arrives.
851: Setting this is similar to issuing the
852: .Ic inc
853: command at each prompt, except that the current message is not
854: reset when new mail arrives.
1.1 deraadt 855: .It Ar askbcc
856: Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the
857: end of each message.
858: Responding with a newline indicates your
859: satisfaction with the current list.
860: .It Ar autoprint
861: Causes the
862: .Ic delete
863: command to behave like
864: .Ic dp
865: \- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
866: automatically.
867: .It Ar debug
868: Setting the binary option
869: .Ar debug
870: is the same as specifying
871: .Fl d
872: on the command line and causes
873: .Nm mail
874: to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
875: .Nm mail .
876: .It Ar dot
877: The binary option
878: .Ar dot
879: causes
880: .Nm mail
881: to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
882: of a message you are sending.
883: .It Ar hold
884: This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
885: by default.
886: .It Ar ignore
887: Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
888: @'s.
889: .It Ar ignoreeof
890: An option related to
891: .Ar dot
892: is
893: .Ar ignoreeof
894: which makes
895: .Nm mail
896: refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message.
897: .Ar Ignoreeof
898: also applies to
899: .Nm mail
900: command mode.
901: .It Ar metoo
902: Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender
903: is removed from the expansion.
904: Setting this option causes the sender
905: to be included in the group.
906: .It Ar noheader
907: Setting the option
908: .Ar noheader
909: is the same as giving the
910: .Fl N
911: flag on the command line.
912: .It Ar nosave
913: Normally, when you abort a message with two
914: .Tn RUBOUT
915: (erase or delete)
916: .Nm mail
917: copies the partial letter to the file
918: .Dq Pa dead.letter
919: in your home directory.
920: Setting the binary option
921: .Ar nosave
922: prevents this.
923: .It Ar Replyall
924: Reverses the sense of
925: .Ic reply
926: and
927: .Ic Reply
928: commands.
929: .It Ar quiet
930: Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
931: .It Ar searchheaders
932: If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ``/x:y''
933: will expand to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the header
934: field ``x''. The string search is case insensitive.
1.13 deraadt 935: If ``x'' is omitted, it will default to the ``Subject'' header field.
1.5 millert 936: The form ``/to:y'' is a special case, and will expand
937: to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the ``To'', ``Cc''
938: or ``Bcc'' header fields.
939: The check for "to" is case sensitive, so that
940: ``/To:y'' can be used to limit the search for ``y'' to just
941: the ``To:'' field.
1.1 deraadt 942: .It Ar verbose
943: Setting the option
944: .Ar verbose
945: is the same as using the
946: .Fl v
947: flag on the command line.
948: When mail runs in verbose mode,
949: the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
950: terminal.
951: .El
952: .Ss Option String Values
953: .Bl -tag -width Va
954: .It Ev EDITOR
955: Pathname of the text editor to use in the
956: .Ic edit
957: command and
958: .Ic \&~e
959: escape.
960: If not defined, then a default editor is used.
961: .It Ev LISTER
962: Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
963: .Ic folders
964: command.
965: Default is
966: .Pa /bin/ls .
967: .It Ev PAGER
968: Pathname of the program to use in the
969: .Ic more
970: command or when
971: .Ic crt
972: variable is set.
973: The default paginator
974: .Xr more 1
975: is used if this option is not defined.
976: .It Ev SHELL
977: Pathname of the shell to use in the
978: .Ic \&!
979: command and the
980: .Ic \&~!
981: escape.
982: A default shell is used if this option is
983: not defined.
984: .It Ev VISUAL
985: Pathname of the text editor to use in the
986: .Ic visual
987: command and
988: .Ic \&~v
989: escape.
1.5 millert 990: .ne li
1.1 deraadt 991: .It Va crt
992: The valued option
993: .Va crt
994: is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
995: be before
996: .Ev PAGER
997: is used to read it.
998: If
999: .Va crt
1000: is set without a value,
1001: then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
1002: is used to compute the threshold (see
1003: .Xr stty 1 ) .
1004: .It Ar escape
1005: If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
1006: use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
1007: .It Ar folder
1008: The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
1009: messages.
1010: If this name begins with a `/',
1011: .Nm mail
1012: considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
1013: folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
1014: .It Ev MBOX
1015: The name of the
1016: .Ar mbox
1017: file.
1018: It can be the name of a folder.
1019: The default is
1020: .Dq Li mbox
1021: in the user's home directory.
1022: .It Ar record
1023: If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
1024: mail.
1025: If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.
1026: .It Ar indentprefix
1027: String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of
1028: the normal tab character (^I).
1029: Be sure to quote the value if it contains
1030: spaces or tabs.
1031: .It Ar toplines
1032: If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
1033: with the
1034: .Ic top
1035: command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
1036: .El
1037: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
1.19 aaron 1038: .Nm mail
1.1 deraadt 1039: utilizes the
1.3 millert 1040: .Ev HOME ,
1041: .Ev LOGNAME ,
1.1 deraadt 1042: and
1043: .Ev USER
1044: environment variables.
1.12 millert 1045: .Pp
1046: If the
1047: .Ev MAIL
1048: environment variable is set, its value is used as the path to the
1049: user's mail spool.
1.1 deraadt 1050: .Sh FILES
1051: .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/mail.*help -compact
1052: .It Pa /var/mail/*
1.12 millert 1053: Post office (unless overridden by the
1054: .Ev MAIL
1055: environment variable).
1.1 deraadt 1056: .It ~/mbox
1057: User's old mail.
1058: .It ~/.mailrc
1059: File giving initial mail commands.
1.5 millert 1060: This can be overridden by setting the
1061: .Ev MAILRC
1062: environment variable.
1.1 deraadt 1063: .It Pa /tmp/R*
1064: Temporary files.
1065: .It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help
1066: Help files.
1067: .It Pa /etc/mail.rc
1068: System initialization file.
1069: .El
1070: .Sh SEE ALSO
1071: .Xr fmt 1 ,
1.17 millert 1072: .Xr lockspool 1 ,
1.1 deraadt 1073: .Xr newaliases 1 ,
1074: .Xr vacation 1 ,
1075: .Xr aliases 5 ,
1076: .Xr mailaddr 7 ,
1.12 millert 1077: .Xr mail.local 8 ,
1.1 deraadt 1078: .Xr sendmail 8
1079: and
1080: .Rs
1081: .%T "The Mail Reference Manual" .
1082: .Re
1083: .Sh HISTORY
1084: A
1085: .Nm mail
1086: command
1087: appeared in
1088: .At v6 .
1089: This man page is derived from
1090: .%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
1091: originally written by Kurt Shoens.
1092: .Sh BUGS
1093: There are some flags that are not documented here.
1094: Most are
1095: not useful to the general user.
1096: .Pp
1097: Usually,
1098: .Nm mail
1.11 deraadt 1099: and
1100: .Nm mailx
1101: are just links to
1.1 deraadt 1102: .Nm Mail ,
1103: which can be confusing.
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