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28 .\" @(#)mail2.nr 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/8/93
35 command has two distinct usages, according to whether one
36 wants to send or receive mail. Sending mail is simple: to send a
37 message to a user whose login name is, say,
44 then type your message. When you reach the end of the message, type
45 an EOT (control\-d) at the beginning of a line, which will cause
47 to echo \*(lqEOT\*(rq and return you to the Shell. When the user you sent mail
48 to next logs in, he will receive the message:
52 to alert him to the existence of your message.
54 If, while you are composing the message
55 you decide that you do not wish to send it after all, you can
56 abort the letter with a \s-2RUBOUT\s0. Typing a single \s-2RUBOUT\s0
61 (Interrupt -- one more to kill letter)
66 to save your partial letter on the file
68 in your home directory and abort the letter.
70 sent mail to someone, there is no way to undo the act, so be
73 The message your recipient reads will consist of the message you
74 typed, preceded by a line telling who sent the message (your login name)
75 and the date and time it
78 If you want to send the same message to several other people, you can list
79 their login names on the command line.
83 Tuition fees are due next Friday. Don't forget!!
88 will send the reminder to sam, bob, and john.
90 If, when you log in, you see the message,
94 you can read the mail by typing simply:
99 will respond by typing its version number and date and then listing
100 the messages you have waiting. Then it will type a prompt and await
101 your command. The messages are assigned numbers starting with 1 \*- you
102 refer to the messages with these numbers.
104 keeps track of which messages are
106 (have been sent since you last read your mail) and
108 (have been read by you). New messages have an
110 next to them in the header listing and old, but unread messages have
115 keeps track of new/old and read/unread messages by putting a
120 To look at a specific message, use the
122 command, which may be abbreviated to simply
124 For example, if you had the following messages:
126 N 1 root Wed Sep 21 09:21 "Tuition fees"
127 N 2 sam Tue Sep 20 22:55
129 you could examine the first message by giving the command:
135 to respond with, for example:
138 From root Wed Sep 21 09:21:45 1978
139 Subject: Tuition fees
142 Tuition fees are due next Wednesday. Don't forget!!
147 commands that operate on messages take a message number as an
150 command. For these commands, there is a notion of a current
151 message. When you enter the
153 program, the current message is initially the first one. Thus,
154 you can often omit the message number and use, for example,
158 to type the current message. As a further shorthand, you can type a message
159 by simply giving its message number. Hence,
163 would type the first message.
165 Frequently, it is useful to read the messages in your mailbox in order,
166 one after another. You can read the next message in
168 by simply typing a newline. As a special case, you can type a newline
169 as your first command to
171 to type the first message.
173 If, after typing a message, you wish to immediately send a reply,
174 you can do so with the
180 takes a message number as an argument.
182 then begins a message addressed to the user who sent you the message.
183 You may then type in your letter in reply, followed by a <control-d>
184 at the beginning of a line, as before.
186 will type EOT, then type the ampersand prompt to indicate its readiness
187 to accept another command. In our example, if, after typing the
188 first message, you wished to reply to it, you might give the command:
196 Subject: Re: Tuition fees
198 and waiting for you to enter your letter.
199 You are now in the message collection mode described at the beginning
202 will gather up your message up to a control\-d.
203 Note that it copies the subject
204 header from the original message. This is useful in that correspondence
205 about a particular matter will tend to retain the same subject heading,
206 making it easy to recognize. If there are other header fields in
207 the message, the information found will also be used.
208 For example, if the letter had a
210 header listing several recipients,
212 would arrange to send your replay to the same people as well.
213 Similarly, if the original message contained a
215 (carbon copies to) field,
217 would send your reply to
221 is careful, though, not too send the message to
223 even if you appear in the
227 field, unless you ask to be included explicitly. See section 4 for more
230 After typing in your letter, the dialog with
232 might look like the following:
236 Subject: Tuition fees
238 Thanks for the reminder
245 command is especially useful for sustaining extended conversations
246 over the message system, with other
248 users receiving copies of the conversation. The
250 command can be abbreviated to
253 Sometimes you will receive a message that has been sent to
254 several people and wish to reply
256 to the person who sent it.
260 replies to a message, but sends a copy to the sender only.
262 If you wish, while reading your mail, to send a message to someone,
263 but not as a reply to one of your messages, you can send the message
266 command, which takes as arguments the names of the recipients you wish
267 to send to. For example, to send a message to
272 This is to confirm our meeting next Friday at 4.
278 command can be abbreviated to
281 Normally, each message you receive is saved in the file
283 in your login directory at the time you leave
286 however, you will not want to save a particular message you
287 have received because it is only of passing interest. To avoid
290 you can delete it using the
292 command. In our example,
298 from saving message 1 (from root) in
300 In addition to not saving deleted messages,
303 you type them, either. The effect is to make the message disappear
304 altogether, along with its number. The
306 command can be abbreviated to simply
311 can be tailored to your liking with the
315 command has two forms, depending on whether you are setting
321 Binary options are either on or off. For example, the
325 that each time you send a message, you want it to prompt you for
326 a subject header, to be included in the message.
329 option, you would type
338 Unless told otherwise,
340 moves the messages from your system mailbox to the file
342 in your home directory when you leave
346 to keep your letters in the system mailbox instead, you can set the
350 Valued options are values which
352 uses to adapt to your tastes. For example, the
356 which shell you like to use, and is specified by
360 for example. Note that no spaces are allowed in
362 A complete list of the
364 options appears in section 5.
366 Another important valued option is
368 If you use a fast video terminal, you will find that when you
369 print long messages, they fly by too quickly for you to read them.
374 print any message larger than a given number of lines by sending
375 it through a paging program. This program is specified by the
376 valued option \fBPAGER\fP.
377 If \fBPAGER\fP is not set, a default paginator is used.
378 For example, most CRT users with 24-line screens should do:
382 to paginate messages that will not fit on their screens.
383 In the default state, \fImore\fP (default paginator) prints a screenful of
384 information, then types --More--. Type a space to see the next screenful.
386 Another adaptation to user needs that
390 An alias is simply a name which stands for one or more
393 sent to an alias is really sent to the list of real users
394 associated with it. For example, an alias can be defined for the
395 members of a project, so that you can send mail to the whole project
396 by sending mail to just a single name. The
400 defines an alias. Suppose that the users in a project are
401 named Sam, Sally, Steve, and Susan. To define an alias called
403 for them, you would use the
407 alias project sam sally steve susan
411 command can also be used to provide a convenient name for someone
412 whose user name is inconvenient. For example, if a user named
416 you might want to use:
420 so that you could send mail to the shorter name,
427 commands allow you to customize
429 they have the drawback that they must be retyped each time you enter
431 To make them more convenient to use,
433 always looks for two files when it is invoked. It first reads
436 then a user specific file,
438 which is found in the user's home directory.
440 is maintained by the system administrator and
443 commands that are applicable to all users of the system.
446 file is usually used by each user to set options the way he likes
447 and define individual aliases.
448 For example, my .mailrc file looks like this:
450 set ask nosave SHELL=/bin/csh
452 As you can see, it is possible to set many options in the
457 option is described in section 5.
459 Mail aliasing is implemented
460 at the system-wide level
464 These aliases are stored in the file /usr/lib/aliases and are
465 accessible to all users of the system.
466 The lines in /usr/lib/aliases are of
469 alias: name\*<1\*>, name\*<2\*>, name\*<3\*>
473 is the mailing list name and the
475 are the members of the list. Long lists can be continued onto the next
476 line by starting the next line with a space or tab. Remember that you
477 must execute the shell command
479 after editing /usr/lib/aliases since the delivery system
480 uses an indexed file created by
485 can be invoked with command line arguments which are people
486 to send the message to, or with no arguments to read mail.
489 flag on the command line causes
491 to read messages from a file other than your system mailbox.
492 For example, if you have a collection of messages in
504 commands described in this document to examine, modify, or delete
507 file, which will be rewritten when you leave
511 command described below.
513 Since mail that you read is saved in the file
515 in your home directory by default, you can read
517 in your home directory by using simply
522 Normally, messages that you examine using the
524 command are saved in the file
526 in your home directory if you leave
530 command described below.
531 If you wish to retain a message in your system mailbox
539 command accepts a list of message numbers, just like
541 and may be abbreviated to
544 Messages in your system mailbox that you do not examine are
545 normally retained in your system mailbox automatically.
546 If you wish to have such a message saved in
548 without reading it, you may use the
550 command to have them so saved. For example,
554 in our example would cause the second message (from sam)
561 is also the way to direct messages to your
563 file if you have set the
565 option described above.
567 can be abbreviated to
570 When you have perused all the messages of interest, you can leave
574 command, which saves the messages you have typed but not
577 in your login directory. Deleted messages are discarded irretrievably,
578 and messages left untouched are preserved in your system mailbox so
579 that you will see them the next time you type:
585 command can be abbreviated to simply
588 If you wish for some reason to leave
590 quickly without altering either your system mailbox or
596 which will immediately return you to the Shell without changing anything.
598 If, instead, you want to execute a Shell command without leaving
601 can type the command preceded by an exclamation point, just as in the
602 text editor. Thus, for instance:
606 will print the current date without leaving
611 command is available to print out a brief summary of the
613 commands, using only the single character command abbreviations.