/usr.bin/mail/mail.1
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- .\" @(#)mail.1 8.8 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
- .\" $FreeBSD$
- .\"
- .Dd January 5, 2006
- .Dt MAIL 1
- .Os
- .Sh NAME
- .Nm mail ,
- .Nm Mail ,
- .Nm mailx
- .Nd send and receive mail
- .Sh SYNOPSIS
- .Nm
- .Op Fl dEiInv
- .Op Fl s Ar subject
- .Op Fl c Ar cc-addr
- .Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr
- .Op Fl F
- .Ar to-addr ...
- .Op Fl Ar sendmail-option ...
- .Nm
- .Op Fl dEHiInNv
- .Op Fl F
- .Fl f
- .Op Ar name
- .Nm
- .Op Fl dEHiInNv
- .Op Fl F
- .Op Fl u Ar user
- .Nm
- .Op Fl d
- .Fl e
- .Op Fl f Ar name
- .Sh INTRODUCTION
- The
- .Nm
- utility is an intelligent mail processing system, which has
- a command syntax reminiscent of
- .Xr ed 1
- with lines replaced by messages.
- .Pp
- The following options are available:
- .Bl -tag -width indent
- .It Fl v
- Verbose mode.
- The details of
- delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.
- .It Fl d
- Debugging mode.
- See the
- .Va debug
- mail option for details.
- .It Fl e
- Test for the presence of mail in the (by default, system)
- mailbox.
- An exit status of 0 is returned if
- it has mail; otherwise, an exit status
- of 1 is returned.
- .It Fl H
- Write a header summary only, then exit.
- .It Fl E
- Do not send messages with an empty body.
- This is useful for piping errors from
- .Xr cron 8
- scripts.
- .It Fl i
- Ignore tty interrupt signals.
- This is
- particularly useful when using
- .Nm
- on noisy phone lines.
- .It Fl I
- Force
- .Nm
- to run in interactive mode even when
- input is not a terminal.
- In particular, the
- .Ql ~
- special
- character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode.
- .It Fl n
- Inhibit reading the system-wide
- .Pa mail.rc
- files upon startup.
- .It Fl N
- Inhibit the initial display of message headers
- when reading mail or editing a mail folder.
- .It Fl s Ar subject
- Specify
- .Ar subject
- on command line.
- (Only the first argument after the
- .Fl s
- flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
- containing spaces.)
- .It Fl c Ar cc-addr
- Send carbon copies to
- .Ar cc-addr
- list of users.
- The
- .Ar cc-addr
- argument should be a comma-separated list of names.
- .It Fl b Ar bcc-addr
- Send blind carbon copies to
- .Ar bcc-addr
- list of users.
- The
- .Ar bcc-addr
- argument should be a comma-separated list of names.
- .It Fl f Op Ar mbox
- Read in the contents of your
- .Pa mbox
- (or the specified file)
- for processing; when you
- .Ic quit ,
- .Nm
- writes undeleted messages back to this file.
- .It Fl F
- Record the message in a file named after the first
- recipient.
- The name is the login-name portion of the
- address found first on the
- .Dq Li To:
- line in the mail header.
- Overrides the
- .Va record
- variable, if set.
- .It Fl u Ar user
- Is equivalent to:
- .Pp
- .Dl "mail -f /var/mail/user"
- .El
- .Ss "Startup Actions"
- At startup time
- .Nm
- will execute commands in the system command files
- .Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.rc ,
- .Pa /usr/local/etc/mail.rc
- and
- .Pa /etc/mail.rc
- in order, unless explicitly told not to by the use of the
- .Fl n
- option.
- Next, the commands in the user's personal command file
- .Pa ~/.mailrc
- are executed.
- The
- .Nm
- utility then examines its command line options to determine whether a
- new message is to be sent, or whether an existing mailbox is to
- be read.
- .Ss "Sending Mail"
- To send a message to one or more people,
- .Nm
- 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 a
- .Aq Li control-D
- at the beginning of a line.
- The section below
- .Sx "Replying To or Originating Mail" ,
- describes some features of
- .Nm
- available to help you compose your letter.
- .Ss "Reading Mail"
- In normal usage
- .Nm
- 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
- .Ic print
- command (which can be abbreviated
- .Ic p ) .
- You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in
- .Xr ed 1 ,
- with the commands
- .Ic +
- and
- .Ic \-
- moving backwards and forwards, and
- simple numbers.
- .Ss "Disposing of Mail"
- After examining a message you can
- .Ic delete
- .Pq Ic d
- the message or
- .Ic reply
- .Pq Ic r
- to it.
- Deletion causes the
- .Nm
- program to forget about the message.
- This is not irreversible; the message can be
- .Ic undeleted
- .Pq Ic u
- by giving its number, or the
- .Nm
- session can be aborted by giving the
- .Ic exit
- .Pq Ic x
- command.
- Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again.
- .Ss "Specifying Messages"
- Commands such as
- .Ic print
- and
- .Ic delete
- can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply
- to a number of messages at once.
- Thus
- .Dq Li "delete 1 2"
- deletes messages 1 and 2, while
- .Dq Li "delete 1\-5"
- deletes messages 1 through 5.
- The special name
- .Ql *
- addresses all messages, and
- .Ql $
- addresses
- the last message; thus the command
- .Ic top
- which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
- .Dq Li "top *"
- to print the first few lines of all messages.
- .Ss "Replying To or Originating Mail"
- You can use the
- .Ic 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,
- .Nm
- treats lines beginning with the character
- .Ql ~
- specially.
- For instance, typing
- .Ic ~m
- (alone on a line) will place a copy
- of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop
- (see
- .Va 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.)
- .Ss "Ending a Mail Processing Session"
- You can end a
- .Nm
- session with the
- .Ic quit
- .Pq Ic q
- command.
- Messages which have been examined go to your
- .Pa mbox
- file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
- Unexamined messages go back to the post office.
- (See the
- .Fl f
- option above).
- .Ss "Personal and System Wide Distribution Lists"
- It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
- for instance, you can send mail to
- .Dq Li cohorts
- and have it go
- to a group of people.
- Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
- .Pp
- .Dl "alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory"
- .Pp
- in the file
- .Pa .mailrc
- in your home directory.
- The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the
- .Ic alias
- command in
- .Nm .
- System wide distribution lists can be created by editing
- .Pa /etc/mail/aliases ,
- see
- .Xr aliases 5
- and
- .Xr 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
- .Ic 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
- .Xr sendmail 8 .
- .Ss "Network Mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)"
- See
- .Xr mailaddr 7
- for a description of network addresses.
- .Pp
- The
- .Nm
- utility has a number of options which can be set in the
- .Pa .mailrc
- file to alter its behavior; thus
- .Dq Li "set askcc"
- enables the
- .Va askcc
- feature.
- (These options are summarized below.)
- .Sh SUMMARY
- (Adapted from the
- .%T "Mail Reference Manual" . )
- .Pp
- Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
- following the command word.
- The command need not be typed in its
- entirety \(em the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
- For commands which take message lists as arguments, 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 message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
- good messages at all,
- .Nm
- types
- .Dq Li "No applicable messages"
- and
- aborts the command.
- .Bl -tag -width indent
- .It Ic \-
- Print out the preceding message.
- If given a numeric
- argument
- .Ar n ,
- goes to the
- .Ar n Ns 'th
- previous message and prints it.
- .It Ic #
- ignore the remainder of the line as a comment.
- .It Ic \&?
- Prints a brief summary of commands.
- .It Ic \&!
- Executes the shell
- (see
- .Xr sh 1
- and
- .Xr csh 1 )
- command which follows.
- .It Ic Print
- .Pq Ic P
- Like
- .Ic print
- but also prints out ignored header fields.
- See also
- .Ic print , ignore
- and
- .Ic retain .
- .It Ic Reply
- .Pq Ic R
- Reply to originator.
- Does not reply to other
- recipients of the original message.
- .It Ic Type
- .Pq Ic T
- Identical to the
- .Ic Print
- command.
- .It Ic alias
- .Pq Ic 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.
- .It Ic alternates
- .Pq Ic alt
- The
- .Ic alternates
- command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
- It can be used to inform
- .Nm
- that the listed addresses are really you.
- When you
- .Ic reply
- to messages,
- .Nm
- will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
- listed on the
- .Ic alternates
- list.
- If the
- .Ic alternates
- command is given with no argument, the current set of alternative
- names is displayed.
- .It Ic chdir
- .Pq Ic 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.
- .It Ic copy
- .Pq Ic co
- The
- .Ic copy
- command does the same thing that
- .Ic save
- does, except that it does not mark the messages it
- is used on for deletion when you
- .Ic quit .
- .It Ic delete
- .Pq Ic d
- Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
- Deleted messages will not be saved in
- .Pa mbox ,
- nor will they be available for most other commands.
- .It Ic dp
- (also
- .Ic dt )
- Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
- If there is no next message,
- .Nm
- says
- .Dq Li "at EOF" .
- .It Ic edit
- .Pq Ic 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.
- .It Ic exit
- .Ic ( ex
- or
- .Ic x )
- Effects an immediate return to the shell without
- modifying the user's system mailbox, his
- .Pa mbox
- file, or his edit file in
- .Fl f .
- .It Ic file
- .Pq Ic fi
- The same as
- .Ic folder .
- .It Ic folders
- List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
- .It Ic folder
- .Pq Ic fo
- The
- .Ic folder
- command switches to a new mail file or folder.
- With no
- arguments, 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 recognized for
- the name.
- .Ql #
- means the previous file,
- .Ql %
- means your system mailbox,
- .Dq Li % Ns Ar user
- means user's system mailbox,
- .Ql &
- means your
- .Pa mbox
- file, and
- .Dq Li + Ns Ar folder
- means a file in your folder
- directory.
- .It Ic from
- .Pq Ic f
- Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
- .It Ic headers
- .Pq Ic h
- Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18-message group.
- If
- a
- .Ql +
- argument is given, then the next 18-message group is printed, and if
- a
- .Ql \-
- argument is given, the previous 18-message group is printed.
- .It Ic help
- A synonym for
- .Ic \&? .
- .It Ic hold
- .Ic ( ho ,
- also
- .Ic preserve )
- Takes a message list and marks each
- message therein to be saved in the
- user's system mailbox instead of in
- .Pa mbox .
- Does not override the
- .Ic delete
- command.
- .It Ic ignore
- Add the list of header fields named to the
- .Ar 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
- .Ic Type
- and
- .Ic Print
- commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
- ignored fields.
- If
- .Ic ignore
- is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
- ignored fields.
- .It Ic inc
- Incorporate any new messages that have arrived while mail
- is being read.
- The new messages are added to the end of the message list,
- and the current message is reset to be the first new mail message.
- This does not renumber the existing message list, nor
- does it cause any changes made so far to be saved.
- .It Ic mail
- .Pq Ic m
- Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
- mail to those people.
- .It Ic mbox
- Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
- .Pa mbox
- in your home directory when you quit.
- This is the default
- action for messages if you do
- .Em not
- have the
- .Ic hold
- option set.
- .It Ic more
- .Pq Ic mo
- Takes a list of messages and invokes the pager on that list.
- .It Ic next
- .Ic ( n ,
- like
- .Ic +
- or
- .Tn CR )
- Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
- With an argument list, types the next matching message.
- .It Ic preserve
- .Pq Ic pre
- A synonym for
- .Ic hold .
- .It Ic print
- .Pq Ic p
- Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
- .It Ic quit
- .Pq Ic q
- Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
- the user's
- .Pa mbox
- file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with
- .Ic hold
- or
- .Ic 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
- .Dq Li "You have new mail"
- is given.
- If given while editing a
- mailbox file with the
- .Fl 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
- .Ic exit
- command.
- .It Ic reply
- .Pq Ic 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.
- .It Ic respond
- A synonym for
- .Ic reply .
- .It Ic retain
- Add the list of header fields named to the
- .Em "retained list" .
- Only the header fields in the retained list
- are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
- All other header fields are suppressed.
- The
- .Ic type
- and
- .Ic print
- commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
- If
- .Ic retain
- is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
- retained fields.
- .It Ic save
- .Pq Ic 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.
- .It Ic set
- .Pq Ic se
- With no arguments, prints all variable values.
- Otherwise, sets
- option.
- Arguments are of the form
- .Ar option Ns Li = Ns Ar value
- (no space before or after
- .Ql = )
- or
- .Ar option .
- Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
- quote blanks or tabs, i.e.\&
- .Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q"
- .It Ic saveignore
- .Ic Saveignore
- is to
- .Ic save
- what
- .Ic ignore
- is to
- .Ic print
- and
- .Ic type .
- Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
- saving a message by
- .Ic save
- or when automatically saving to
- .Pa mbox .
- .It Ic saveretain
- .Ic Saveretain
- is to
- .Ic save
- what
- .Ic retain
- is to
- .Ic print
- and
- .Ic type .
- Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
- with a message when saving by
- .Ic save
- or when automatically saving to
- .Pa mbox .
- .Ic Saveretain
- overrides
- .Ic saveignore .
- .It Ic shell
- .Pq Ic sh
- Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
- .It Ic size
- Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
- message.
- .It Ic source
- The
- .Ic source
- command reads
- commands from a file.
- .It Ic top
- Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
- The number of
- lines printed is controlled by the variable
- .Va toplines
- and defaults to 5.
- .It Ic type
- .Pq Ic t
- A synonym for
- .Ic print .
- .It Ic unalias
- Takes a list of names defined by
- .Ic alias
- commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
- The group names
- no longer have any significance.
- .It Ic undelete
- .Pq Ic u
- Takes a message list and marks each message as
- .Em not
- being deleted.
- .It Ic unread
- .Pq Ic U
- Takes a message list and marks each message as
- .Em not
- having been read.
- .It Ic unset
- Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
- the inverse of
- .Ic set .
- .It Ic visual
- .Pq Ic v
- Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
- .It Ic write
- .Pq Ic w
- Similar to
- .Ic save ,
- except that
- .Em only
- the message body
- .Em ( without
- the header) is saved.
- Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
- program text over the message system.
- .It Ic xit
- .Pq Ic x
- A synonym for
- .Ic exit .
- .It Ic z
- The
- .Nm
- utility presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
- .Ic headers
- command.
- You can move
- .Nm Ns 's
- attention forward to the next window with the
- .Ic z
- command.
- Also, you can move to the previous window by using
- .Ic z\- .
- .El
- .Ss 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
- .Dq "tilde escape"
- is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
- by the option
- .Va escape .
- .Bl -tag -width indent
- .It Ic ~a
- Inserts the autograph string from the sign= option into the message.
- .It Ic ~A
- Inserts the autograph string from the Sign= option into the message.
- .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
- Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
- the names visible in the Cc: line
- .Dq ( blind
- carbon copy).
- .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
- Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
- .It Ic ~d
- Read the file
- .Pa dead.letter
- from your home directory into the message.
- .It Ic ~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.
- .It Ic ~f Ar messages
- 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
- .Ic ignore
- or
- .Ic retain
- command) are not included.
- .It Ic ~F Ar messages
- Identical to
- .Ic ~f ,
- except all message headers are included.
- .It Ic ~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 terminal erase and kill characters.
- .It Ic ~i Ar string
- Inserts the value of the named option into the text of the message.
- .It Ic ~m Ar messages
- Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
- tab or by the value of
- .Va indentprefix .
- If no messages are specified,
- read the current message.
- Message headers currently being ignored (by the
- .Ic ignore
- or
- .Ic retain
- command) are not included.
- .It Ic ~M Ar messages
- Identical to
- .Ic ~m ,
- except all message headers are included.
- .It Ic ~p
- Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
- fields.
- .It Ic ~q
- Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
- .Pa dead.letter
- in your home directory if
- .Va save
- is set.
- .It Ic ~r Ar filename , Ic ~r Li \&! Ns Ar command
- .It Ic ~< Ar filename , Ic ~< Li \&! Ns Ar command
- Read the named file into the message.
- If the argument begins with a
- .Ql \&! ,
- the rest of the string is taken as an arbitrary system command and is
- executed, with the standard output inserted into the message.
- .It Ic ~R Ar string
- Use
- .Ar string
- as the Reply-To field.
- .It Ic ~s Ar string
- Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
- .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
- Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
- .It Ic ~v
- Invoke an alternative editor (defined by the
- .Ev VISUAL
- environment variable) on the
- message collected so far.
- Usually, the alternative editor will be a
- screen editor.
- After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
- text to the end of your message.
- .It Ic ~w Ar filename
- Write the message onto the named file.
- .It Ic ~x
- Exits as with
- .Ic ~q ,
- except the message is not saved in
- .Pa dead.letter .
- .It Ic ~! Ar command
- Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
- .It Ic ~| Ar command , Ic ~^ Ar 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
- .Xr fmt 1
- is often used as
- .Ar command
- to rejustify the message.
- .It Ic ~: Ar mail-command , Ic ~_ Ar mail-command
- Execute the given
- .Nm
- command.
- Not all commands, however, are allowed.
- .It Ic ~.
- Simulate end-of-file on input.
- .It Ic ~?
- Print a summary of the available command escapes.
- .It Ic ~~ Ar string
- Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
- .Ql ~ .
- If
- you have changed the escape character, then you should double
- that character in order to send it.
- .El
- .Ss "Mail Options"
- Options can be set with the
- .Ic set
- command
- and can be disabled with the
- .Ic unset
- or
- .Ic set Cm no Ns Ar name
- 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.
- If an option is not set,
- .Nm
- will look for an environment variable of the same name.
- The available options include the following:
- .Bl -tag -width indent
- .It Va append
- Causes messages saved in
- .Pa mbox
- to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
- This should always be set (preferably in one of the system-wide
- .Pa mail.rc
- files).
- Default is
- .Va noappend .
- .It Va ask , asksub
- Causes
- .Nm
- to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
- If
- you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
- Default is
- .Va asksub .
- .It Va 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.
- Default is
- .Va noaskbcc .
- .It Va 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.
- Default is
- .Va noaskcc .
- .It Va autoinc
- Causes new mail to be automatically incorporated when it arrives.
- Setting this is similar to issuing the
- .Ic inc
- command at each prompt, except that the current message is not
- reset when new mail arrives.
- Default is
- .Va noautoinc .
- .It Va autoprint
- Causes the
- .Ic delete
- command to behave like
- .Ic dp ;
- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
- automatically.
- Default is
- .Va noautoprint .
- .It Va crt
- The valued option
- .Va crt
- is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
- be before
- .Ev PAGER
- is used to read it.
- If
- .Va crt
- is set without a value,
- then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
- is used to compute the threshold (see
- .Xr stty 1 ) .
- Default is
- .Va nocrt .
- .It Va debug
- Setting the binary option
- .Va debug
- is the same as specifying
- .Fl d
- on the command line and causes
- .Nm
- to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
- .Nm .
- In case
- .Nm
- is invoked in this mode to send mail, all preparations
- will be performed and reported about, but the mail will
- not be actually sent.
- Default is
- .Va nodebug .
- .It Va dot
- The binary option
- .Va dot
- causes
- .Nm
- to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
- of a message you are sending.
- Default is
- .Va nodot .
- .It Va escape
- If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
- use in place of
- .Ql ~
- to denote escapes.
- .It Va flipr
- Reverses the sense of
- .Ic reply
- and
- .Ic Reply
- commands.
- Default is
- .Va noflipr .
- .It Va folder
- The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
- messages.
- If this name begins with a
- .Ql / ,
- .Nm
- considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
- folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
- .It Va header
- If defined, initially display message headers when reading mail or
- editing a mail folder.
- Default is
- .Va header .
- This option can be disabled by giving the
- .Fl N
- flag on the command line.
- .It Va hold
- This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
- by default.
- Default is
- .Va nohold .
- .It Va ignore
- Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
- .Li @ Ns 's.
- Default is
- .Va noignore .
- .It Va ignoreeof
- An option related to
- .Va dot
- is
- .Va ignoreeof
- which makes
- .Nm
- refuse to accept a
- .Aq Li control-D
- as the end of a message.
- .Ar Ignoreeof
- also applies to
- .Nm
- command mode.
- Default is
- .Va noignoreeof .
- .It Va indentprefix
- String used by the
- .Ic ~m
- tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of
- the normal tab character
- .Pq Li ^I .
- Be sure to quote the value if it contains
- spaces or tabs.
- .It Va 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.
- Default is
- .Va nometoo .
- .It Va quiet
- Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
- Default is
- .Va noquiet .
- .It Va record
- If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
- mail.
- If not defined, outgoing mail is not saved.
- Default is
- .Va norecord .
- .It Va Replyall
- Reverses the sense of
- .Ic reply
- and
- .Ic Reply
- commands.
- Default is
- .Va noReplyall .
- .It Va save
- If this option is set, and you abort a message with two
- .Tn RUBOUT
- (erase or delete),
- .Nm
- will copy the partial letter to the file
- .Pa dead.letter
- in your home directory.
- Default is
- .Va save .
- .It Va searchheaders
- If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form
- .Dq Li / Ns Ar x Ns Li : Ns Ar y
- will expand to all messages containing the substring
- .Ar y
- in the header field
- .Ar x .
- The string search is case insensitive.
- If
- .Ar x
- is omitted, it will default to the
- .Dq Li Subject
- header field.
- The form
- .Dq Li /to: Ns Ar y
- is a special case, and will expand
- to all messages containing the substring
- .Ar y
- in the
- .Dq Li To ,
- .Dq Li Cc
- or
- .Dq Li Bcc
- header fields.
- The check for
- .Qq Li "to"
- is case sensitive, so that
- .Dq Li /To: Ns Ar y
- can be used to limit the search for
- .Ar y
- to just the
- .Dq Li To:
- field.
- Default is
- .Va nosearchheaders .
- .It Va toplines
- If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
- with the
- .Ic top
- command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
- .It Va verbose
- Setting the option
- .Va verbose
- is the same as using the
- .Fl v
- flag on the command line.
- When
- .Nm
- runs in verbose mode,
- the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
- terminal.
- Default is
- .Va noverbose .
- .El
- .Sh ENVIRONMENT
- .Bl -tag -width ".Ev REPLYTO"
- .It Ev DEAD
- Pathname of the file to save partial messages to in case of interrupts
- or delivery errors.
- Default is
- .Pa ~/dead.letter .
- .It Ev EDITOR
- Pathname of the text editor to use in the
- .Ic edit
- command and
- .Ic ~e
- escape.
- If not defined, then a default editor is used.
- .It Ev HOME
- Pathname of the user's home directory.
- .It Ev LISTER
- Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
- .Ic folders
- command.
- Default is
- .Pa /bin/ls .
- .It Ev MAIL
- Location of the user's mailbox.
- Default is
- .Pa /var/mail .
- .It Ev MAILRC
- Pathname of file containing initial
- .Nm
- commands.
- Default is
- .Pa ~/.mailrc .
- .It Ev MBOX
- The name of the mailbox file.
- It can be the name of a folder.
- The default is
- .Pa mbox
- in the user's home directory.
- .It Ev PAGER
- Pathname of the program to use in the
- .Ic more
- command or when
- .Va crt
- variable is set.
- The default paginator
- .Xr more 1
- is used if this option is not defined.
- .It Ev REPLYTO
- If set, will be used to initialize the Reply-To field for outgoing
- messages.
- .It Ev SHELL
- Pathname of the shell to use in the
- .Ic \&!
- command and the
- .Ic ~!
- escape.
- A default shell is used if this option is
- not defined.
- .It Ev TMPDIR
- Pathname of the directory used for creating temporary files.
- .It Ev VISUAL
- Pathname of the text editor to use in the
- .Ic visual
- command and
- .Ic ~v
- escape.
- .It Ev USER
- Login name of the user executing mail.
- .El
- .Sh FILES
- .Bl -tag -width ".Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help" -compact
- .It Pa /var/mail/*
- Post office.
- .It Pa ~/mbox
- User's old mail.
- .It Pa ~/.mailrc
- File giving initial
- .Nm
- commands.
- This can be overridden by setting the
- .Ev MAILRC
- environment variable.
- .It Pa /tmp/R*
- Temporary files.
- .It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help
- Help files.
- .Pp
- .It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.rc
- .It Pa /usr/local/etc/mail.rc
- .It Pa /etc/mail.rc
- System-wide initialization files.
- Each file will be sourced, in order,
- if it exists.
- .El
- .Sh SEE ALSO
- .Xr fmt 1 ,
- .Xr newaliases 1 ,
- .Xr vacation 1 ,
- .Xr aliases 5 ,
- .Xr mailaddr 7 ,
- .Xr sendmail 8
- .Rs
- .%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
- .Re
- .Sh HISTORY
- A
- .Nm
- command
- appeared in
- .At v1 .
- This man page is derived from
- .%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
- originally written by
- .An Kurt Shoens .
- .Sh BUGS
- There are some flags that are not documented here.
- Most are
- not useful to the general user.
- .Pp
- Usually,
- .Nm
- is just a link to
- .Nm Mail
- and
- .Nm mailx ,
- which can be confusing.
- .Pp
- The name of the
- .Ic alternates
- list is incorrect English (it should be
- .Dq alternatives ) ,
- but is retained for compatibility.