Files
oldlinux-files/Minix/1.7.5/MANUALS/CAT0/MAIL
2024-02-19 00:21:39 -05:00

66 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext

Command: mail - send and receive electronic mail
Syntax: mail [-dpqrv] [-f file] [user]
Flags: -d Force use of the shell variable MAILER
-f Use file instead of /usr/spool/mail/user as mailbox
-p Print all mail and then exit
-q Quit program if SIGINT received
-r Reverse print order, i.e., print oldest first
-v Verbose mode
Examples: mail ast # Send a message to ast
mail # Read your mail
Mail is an extremely simple electronic mail program. It can be
used to send or receive email on a single MINIX system, in which case it
functions as user agent and local delivery agent. If the flag MAILER is
defined in mail.c, it can also call a transport agent to handle remote
mail as well. No such agent is supplied with MINIX.
When called by user with no arguments, it examines the mailbox
/usr/spool/mail/user, prints one message (depending on the -r flag), and
waits for one of the following commands:
<newline> Go to the next message
- Print the previous message
!command Fork off a shell and execute command
CTRL-D Update the mailbox and quit (same as q)
d Delete the current message and go to the next one
q Update the mailbox and quit (same as CTRL-D)
p Print the current message again
s [file] Save message in the named file
x Exit without updating the mailbox
To send mail, the program is called with the name of the recipient
as an argument. The mail is sent, along with a postmark line containing
the date. For local delivery, a file named after the recipient in the
directory /usr/spool/mail must be writable.
If the directory /usr/spool/mail does not exist then the mail is
dumped on the console, so that system programs have a way to notify a
user on a system that does not have a mail spool.