98 lines
3.7 KiB
Groff
98 lines
3.7 KiB
Groff
.TH MAIL 1
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.SH NAME
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mail \- send and receive electronic mail
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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\fBmail\fR [\fB\-epqr\fR] [\fB\-f\fR \fIfile\fR]
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.br
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\fBmail\fR [\fB\-dtv\fR] [\fB\-s\fR \fIsubject\fR] \fIuser\fR [...]
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.br
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.de FL
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.TP
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\\fB\\$1\\fR
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\\$2
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..
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.de EX
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.TP 20
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\\fB\\$1\\fR
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# \\$2
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..
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.SH OPTIONS
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.FL "\-e" "Exit with status TRUE or FALSE to indicate if there is mail in mailbox"
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.FL "\-p" "Print all mail and then exit"
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.FL "\-q" "Quit program if SIGINT received"
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.FL "\-r" "Reverse print order, i.e., print oldest first"
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.FL "\-f" "Use \fIfile\fR instead of \fI/usr/spool/mail/user\fR as mailbox"
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.PP
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.FL "\-d" "Force use of the shell variable \fIMAILER\fR"
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.FL "\-t" "Show distribution list as Dist: header in message"
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.FL "\-v" "Verbose mode (passed on to \fIMAILER\fR)"
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.FL "\-s" "Use Subject: \fIsubject\fR"
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.SH EXAMPLES
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.EX "mail ast" "Send a message to \fIast\fR"
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.EX "mail" "Read your mail"
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.EX "cat mail.cdiff | mail -s ''Here's the diff!'' asw " "Pipe program output to mail with a subject line"
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.EX "mail -f /usr/spool/mail/asw" "How root can read asw's mail"
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.PP
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\fIMail\fR is an extremely simple electronic mail program. It can be used
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to send or receive email on a single
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\s-1MINIX 3\s-1
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system, in which case it functions
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as user agent and local delivery agent.
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If the flag \fIMAILER\fR is defined in \fImail.c\fR,
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it can also call a trans\%port agent to handle remote mail as well.
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No such agent is supplied with
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\s-1MINIX 3\s-1.
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.PP
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When called by \fIuser\fR with no arguments, it examines the mailbox
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\fI/usr/spool/mail/user\fR, prints one message (depending on the \fB\-r\fR
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flag), and waits for one of the following commands:
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.PP
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.nf
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.ta 0.25i 1.25i
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<newline> Go to the next message
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\- Print the previous message
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!command Fork off a shell and execute \fIcommand\fR
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CTRL-D Update the mailbox and quit (same as q)
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d Delete the current message and go to the next one
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q Update the mailbox and quit (same as CTRL-D)
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p Print the current message again
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s [\fIfile\fR] Save message in the named file
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x Exit without updating the mailbox
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.PP
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.PP
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To send mail, the program is called with the name of one or more recipients as
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arguments. The mail is sent, along with a postmark line containing the date.
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For local delivery, a file named after each recipient in the directory
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\fI/usr/spool/mail\fR must be writable. If a spool file does not exist for
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a recipient it will be created.
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.PP
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If the directory \fI/usr/spool/mail\fR does not exist then the mail is
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dumped on the console, so that system programs have a way to notify
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a user on a system that does not have a mail spool.
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.PP
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The received mail contains a To: header showing the recipient. If there
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are multiple recipients and the \fB\-t\fR option is specified each recipient
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will also see a Dist: header line showing the other recipients.
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.PP
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The \fB\-s\fR option allows a subject to be specified. The subject must be
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quoted if it contains spaces. If no subject is specified the mail
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will be delivered with Subject: No subject.
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.SH NOTES
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The \fB\-s\fR option was added to make this simple mail program
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consistent with mail programs found in other *nix variants. Many
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programs, including the version of cron distributed with MINIX 3 releases
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2.0.3 and later, report their outcome by piping output to the mail
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program in order to send a mail message to root in lieu of writing a
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log file. Such programs often expect the mail program to accept a
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subject line using this option.
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.SH BUGS
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If an external \fIMAILER\fR is used it is likely the conditional code
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supporting this will need some editing to be made to work correctly.
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.SH AUTHOR
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The original mail program for MINIX 3 was written by Peter B. Housel.
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The -e and -t options were added by C. W. Rose. The -s option was added
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by A. S. Woodhull. This man page revised by ASW 2003-07-18.
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