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Annotation of 43BSDReno/share/doc/usd/07.Mail/mail2.nr, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
        !             2: .\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
        !             3: .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
        !             4: .\"
        !             5: .\"    @(#)mail2.nr    6.1 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
        !             6: .\"
        !             7: .bp
        !             8: .sh 1 "Common usage"
        !             9: .pp
        !            10: The
        !            11: .i Mail
        !            12: command has two distinct usages, according to whether one
        !            13: wants to send or receive mail.  Sending mail is simple:  to send a
        !            14: message to a user whose login name is, say,
        !            15: \*(lqroot,\*(rq
        !            16: use the shell
        !            17: command:
        !            18: .(l
        !            19: % Mail root
        !            20: .)l
        !            21: then type your message.  When you reach the end of the message, type
        !            22: an EOT (control\-d) at the beginning of a line, which will cause
        !            23: .i Mail
        !            24: to echo \*(lqEOT\*(rq and return you to the Shell.  When the user you sent mail
        !            25: to next logs in, he will receive the message:
        !            26: .(l
        !            27: You have mail.
        !            28: .)l
        !            29: to alert him to the existence of your message.
        !            30: .pp
        !            31: If, while you are composing the message
        !            32: you decide that you do not wish to send it after all, you can
        !            33: abort the letter with a \s-2RUBOUT\s0.  Typing a single \s-2RUBOUT\s0
        !            34: causes
        !            35: .i Mail
        !            36: to print
        !            37: .(l
        !            38: (Interrupt -- one more to kill letter)
        !            39: .)l
        !            40: Typing a second
        !            41: \s-2RUBOUT\s0 causes
        !            42: .i Mail
        !            43: to save your partial letter on the file
        !            44: .q dead.letter
        !            45: in your home directory and abort the letter.
        !            46: Once you have
        !            47: sent mail to someone, there is no way to undo the act, so be
        !            48: careful.
        !            49: .pp
        !            50: The message your recipient reads will consist of the message you
        !            51: typed, preceded by a line telling who sent the message (your login name)
        !            52: and the date and time it
        !            53: was sent.
        !            54: .pp
        !            55: If you want to send the same message to several other people, you can list
        !            56: their login names on the command line.
        !            57: Thus,
        !            58: .(l
        !            59: % Mail sam bob john
        !            60: Tuition fees are due next Friday.  Don't forget!!
        !            61: <Control\-d>
        !            62: EOT
        !            63: %
        !            64: .)l
        !            65: will send the reminder to sam, bob, and john.
        !            66: .pp
        !            67: If, when you log in, you see the message,
        !            68: .(l
        !            69: You have mail.
        !            70: .)l
        !            71: you can read the mail by typing simply:
        !            72: .(l
        !            73: % Mail
        !            74: .)l
        !            75: .i Mail
        !            76: will respond by typing its version number and date and then listing
        !            77: the messages you have waiting.  Then it will type a prompt and await
        !            78: your command.  The messages are assigned numbers starting with 1 \*- you
        !            79: refer to the messages with these numbers.
        !            80: .i Mail
        !            81: keeps track of which messages are
        !            82: .i new
        !            83: (have been sent since you last read your mail) and
        !            84: .i read
        !            85: (have been read by you).  New messages have an
        !            86: .b N
        !            87: next to them in the header listing and old, but unread messages have
        !            88: a
        !            89: .b U
        !            90: next to them.
        !            91: .i Mail
        !            92: keeps track of new/old and read/unread messages by putting a
        !            93: header field called
        !            94: .q Status
        !            95: into your messages.
        !            96: .pp
        !            97: To look at a specific message, use the
        !            98: .b type
        !            99: command, which may be abbreviated to simply
        !           100: .b t .
        !           101: For example, if you had the following messages:
        !           102: .(l
        !           103: N 1 root     Wed Sep 21 09:21  "Tuition fees"
        !           104: N 2 sam      Tue Sep 20 22:55
        !           105: .)l
        !           106: you could examine the first message by giving the command:
        !           107: .(l
        !           108: type 1
        !           109: .)l
        !           110: which might cause
        !           111: .i Mail
        !           112: to respond with, for example:
        !           113: .(l
        !           114: Message  1:
        !           115: From root  Wed Sep 21 09:21:45 1978
        !           116: Subject: Tuition fees
        !           117: Status: R
        !           118: 
        !           119: Tuition fees are due next Wednesday.  Don't forget!!
        !           120: 
        !           121: .)l
        !           122: Many
        !           123: .i Mail
        !           124: commands that operate on messages take a message number as an
        !           125: argument like the
        !           126: .b type
        !           127: command.  For these commands, there is a notion of a current
        !           128: message.  When you enter the
        !           129: .i Mail
        !           130: program, the current message is initially the first one.  Thus,
        !           131: you can often omit the message number and use, for example,
        !           132: .(l
        !           133: t
        !           134: .)l
        !           135: to type the current message.  As a further shorthand, you can type a message
        !           136: by simply giving its message number.  Hence,
        !           137: .(l
        !           138: 1
        !           139: .)l
        !           140: would type the first message.
        !           141: .pp
        !           142: Frequently, it is useful to read the messages in your mailbox in order,
        !           143: one after another.  You can read the next message in
        !           144: .i Mail
        !           145: by simply typing a newline.  As a special case, you can type a newline
        !           146: as your first command to
        !           147: .i Mail
        !           148: to type the first message.
        !           149: .pp
        !           150: If, after typing a message, you wish to immediately send a reply,
        !           151: you can do so with the
        !           152: .b reply
        !           153: command.
        !           154: .b Reply ,
        !           155: like
        !           156: .b type ,
        !           157: takes a message number as an argument.
        !           158: .i Mail
        !           159: then begins a message addressed to the user who sent you the message.
        !           160: You may then type in your letter in reply, followed by a <control-d>
        !           161: at the beginning of a line, as before.
        !           162: .i Mail
        !           163: will type EOT, then type the ampersand prompt to indicate its readiness
        !           164: to accept another command.  In our example, if, after typing the
        !           165: first message, you wished to reply to it, you might give the command:
        !           166: .(l
        !           167: reply
        !           168: .)l
        !           169: .i Mail
        !           170: responds by typing:
        !           171: .(l
        !           172: To: root
        !           173: Subject: Re: Tuition fees
        !           174: .)l
        !           175: and waiting for you to enter your letter.
        !           176: You are now in the message collection mode described at the beginning
        !           177: of this section and
        !           178: .i Mail
        !           179: will gather up your message up to a control\-d.
        !           180: Note that it copies the subject
        !           181: header from the original message.  This is useful in that correspondence
        !           182: about a particular matter will tend to retain the same subject heading,
        !           183: making it easy to recognize.  If there are other header fields in
        !           184: the message, the information found will also be used.
        !           185: For example, if the letter had a
        !           186: .q "To:"
        !           187: header listing several recipients,
        !           188: .i Mail
        !           189: would arrange to send your replay to the same people as well.
        !           190: Similarly, if the original message contained a
        !           191: .q "Cc:"
        !           192: (carbon copies to) field,
        !           193: .i Mail
        !           194: would send your reply to
        !           195: .i those
        !           196: users, too.
        !           197: .i Mail
        !           198: is careful, though, not too send the message to
        !           199: .i you ,
        !           200: even if you appear in the
        !           201: .q "To:"
        !           202: or
        !           203: .q "Cc:"
        !           204: field, unless you ask to be included explicitly.  See section 4 for more
        !           205: details.
        !           206: .pp
        !           207: After typing in your letter, the dialog with
        !           208: .i Mail
        !           209: might look like the following:
        !           210: .(l
        !           211: reply
        !           212: To: root
        !           213: Subject: Tuition fees
        !           214: 
        !           215: Thanks for the reminder
        !           216: EOT
        !           217: &
        !           218: .)l
        !           219: .pp
        !           220: The
        !           221: .b reply
        !           222: command is especially useful for sustaining extended conversations
        !           223: over the message system, with other
        !           224: .q listening
        !           225: users receiving copies of the conversation.  The
        !           226: .b reply
        !           227: command can be abbreviated to
        !           228: .b r .
        !           229: .pp
        !           230: Sometimes you will receive a message that has been sent to
        !           231: several people and wish to reply
        !           232: .i only
        !           233: to the person who sent it.
        !           234: .b Reply
        !           235: with a capital
        !           236: .b R
        !           237: replies to a message, but sends a copy to the sender only.
        !           238: .pp
        !           239: If you wish, while reading your mail, to send a message to someone,
        !           240: but not as a reply to one of your messages, you can send the message
        !           241: directly with the
        !           242: .b mail
        !           243: command, which takes as arguments the names of the recipients you wish
        !           244: to send to.  For example, to send a message to
        !           245: .q frank,
        !           246: you would do:
        !           247: .(l
        !           248: mail frank
        !           249: This is to confirm our meeting next Friday at 4.
        !           250: EOT
        !           251: &
        !           252: .)l
        !           253: The
        !           254: .b mail
        !           255: command can be abbreviated to
        !           256: .b m .
        !           257: .pp
        !           258: Normally, each message you receive is saved in the file
        !           259: .i mbox
        !           260: in your login directory at the time you leave
        !           261: .i Mail .
        !           262: Often,
        !           263: however, you will not want to save a particular message you
        !           264: have received because it is only of passing interest.  To avoid
        !           265: saving a message in
        !           266: .i mbox
        !           267: you can delete it using the
        !           268: .b delete
        !           269: command.  In our example,
        !           270: .(l
        !           271: delete 1
        !           272: .)l
        !           273: will prevent
        !           274: .i Mail
        !           275: from saving message 1 (from root) in
        !           276: .i mbox .
        !           277: In addition to not saving deleted messages,
        !           278: .i Mail
        !           279: will not let
        !           280: you type them, either.  The effect is to make the message disappear
        !           281: altogether, along with its number.  The
        !           282: .b delete
        !           283: command can be abbreviated to simply
        !           284: .b d .
        !           285: .pp
        !           286: Many features of
        !           287: .i Mail
        !           288: can be tailored to your liking with the
        !           289: .b set
        !           290: command.  The
        !           291: .b set
        !           292: command has two forms, depending on whether you are setting
        !           293: a
        !           294: .i binary
        !           295: option or a
        !           296: .i valued
        !           297: option.
        !           298: Binary options are either on or off.  For example, the
        !           299: .q ask
        !           300: option informs
        !           301: .i Mail
        !           302: that each time you send a message, you want it to prompt you for
        !           303: a subject header, to be included in the message.
        !           304: To set the
        !           305: .q ask
        !           306: option, you would type
        !           307: .(l
        !           308: set ask
        !           309: .)l
        !           310: .pp
        !           311: Another useful
        !           312: .i Mail
        !           313: option is
        !           314: .q hold.
        !           315: Unless told otherwise,
        !           316: .i Mail
        !           317: moves the messages from your system mailbox to the file
        !           318: .i mbox
        !           319: in your home directory when you leave
        !           320: .i Mail .
        !           321: If you want
        !           322: .i Mail
        !           323: to keep your letters in the system mailbox instead, you can set the
        !           324: .q hold
        !           325: option.
        !           326: .pp
        !           327: Valued options are values which
        !           328: .i Mail
        !           329: uses to adapt to your tastes.  For example, the
        !           330: .q SHELL
        !           331: option tells
        !           332: .i Mail
        !           333: which shell you like to use, and is specified by
        !           334: .(l
        !           335: set SHELL=/bin/csh
        !           336: .)l
        !           337: for example.  Note that no spaces are allowed in
        !           338: .q "SHELL=/bin/csh."
        !           339: A complete list of the
        !           340: .i Mail
        !           341: options appears in section 5.
        !           342: .pp
        !           343: Another important valued option is
        !           344: .q crt.
        !           345: If you use a fast video terminal, you will find that when you
        !           346: print long messages, they fly by too quickly for you to read them.
        !           347: With the
        !           348: .q crt
        !           349: option, you can make
        !           350: .i Mail
        !           351: print any message larger than a given number of lines by sending
        !           352: it through a paging program. This program is specified by the
        !           353: valued option \fBPAGER\fP.
        !           354: If \fBPAGER\fP is not set, a default paginator is used.
        !           355: For example, most CRT users with 24-line screens should do:
        !           356: .(l
        !           357: set crt=24
        !           358: .)l
        !           359: to paginate messages that will not fit on their screens.
        !           360: In the default state, \fImore\fP (default paginator) prints a screenful of
        !           361: information, then types --More--.  Type a space to see the next screenful.
        !           362: .pp
        !           363: Another adaptation to user needs that
        !           364: .i Mail
        !           365: provides is that of
        !           366: .i aliases .
        !           367: An alias is simply a name which stands for one or more
        !           368: real user names.
        !           369: .i Mail
        !           370: sent to an alias is really sent to the list of real users
        !           371: associated with it.  For example, an alias can be defined for the
        !           372: members of a project, so that you can send mail to the whole project
        !           373: by sending mail to just a single name.  The
        !           374: .b alias
        !           375: command in
        !           376: .i Mail
        !           377: defines an alias.  Suppose that the users in a project are
        !           378: named Sam, Sally, Steve, and Susan.  To define an alias called
        !           379: .q project
        !           380: for them, you would use the
        !           381: .i Mail
        !           382: command:
        !           383: .(l
        !           384: alias project sam sally steve susan
        !           385: .)l
        !           386: The
        !           387: .b alias
        !           388: command can also be used to provide a convenient name for someone
        !           389: whose user name is inconvenient.  For example, if a user named
        !           390: .q "Bob Anderson"
        !           391: had the login name
        !           392: .q anderson,"
        !           393: you might want to use:
        !           394: .(l
        !           395: alias bob anderson
        !           396: .)l
        !           397: so that you could send mail to the shorter name,
        !           398: .q bob.
        !           399: .pp
        !           400: While the
        !           401: .b alias
        !           402: and
        !           403: .b set
        !           404: commands allow you to customize
        !           405: .i Mail ,
        !           406: they have the drawback that they must be retyped each time you enter
        !           407: .i Mail .
        !           408: To make them more convenient to use,
        !           409: .i Mail
        !           410: always looks for two files when it is invoked.  It first reads
        !           411: a system wide file
        !           412: .q /usr/lib/Mail.rc,
        !           413: then a user specific file,
        !           414: .q .mailrc,
        !           415: which is found in the user's home directory.
        !           416: The system wide file
        !           417: is maintained by the system administrator and
        !           418: contains
        !           419: .b set
        !           420: commands that are applicable to all users of the system.
        !           421: The
        !           422: .q .mailrc
        !           423: file is usually used by each user to set options the way he likes
        !           424: and define individual aliases.
        !           425: For example, my .mailrc file looks like this:
        !           426: .(l
        !           427: set ask nosave SHELL=/bin/csh
        !           428: .)l
        !           429: As you can see, it is possible to set many options in the
        !           430: same
        !           431: .b set
        !           432: command.  The
        !           433: .q nosave
        !           434: option is described in section 5.
        !           435: .pp
        !           436: Mail aliasing is implemented
        !           437: at the system-wide level
        !           438: by the mail delivery
        !           439: system
        !           440: .i sendmail .
        !           441: These aliases are stored in the file /usr/lib/aliases and are
        !           442: accessible to all users of the system.
        !           443: The lines in /usr/lib/aliases are of
        !           444: the form:
        !           445: .(l
        !           446: alias: name\*<1\*>, name\*<2\*>, name\*<3\*>
        !           447: .)l
        !           448: where
        !           449: .i alias
        !           450: is the mailing list name and the
        !           451: .i name\*<i\*>
        !           452: are the members of the list.  Long lists can be continued onto the next
        !           453: line by starting the next line with a space or tab.  Remember that you
        !           454: must execute the shell command
        !           455: .i newaliases
        !           456: after editing /usr/lib/aliases since the delivery system
        !           457: uses an indexed file created by
        !           458: .i newaliases .
        !           459: .pp
        !           460: We have seen that
        !           461: .i Mail
        !           462: can be invoked with command line arguments which are people
        !           463: to send the message to, or with no arguments to read mail.
        !           464: Specifying the
        !           465: .rb \-f
        !           466: flag on the command line causes
        !           467: .i Mail
        !           468: to read messages from a file other than your system mailbox.
        !           469: For example, if you have a collection of messages in
        !           470: the file
        !           471: .q letters
        !           472: you can use
        !           473: .i Mail
        !           474: to read them with:
        !           475: .(l
        !           476: % Mail \-f letters
        !           477: .)l
        !           478: You can use all
        !           479: the
        !           480: .i Mail
        !           481: commands described in this document to examine, modify, or delete
        !           482: messages from your
        !           483: .q letters
        !           484: file, which will be rewritten when you leave
        !           485: .i Mail
        !           486: with the
        !           487: .b quit
        !           488: command described below.
        !           489: .pp
        !           490: Since mail that you read is saved in the file
        !           491: .i mbox
        !           492: in your home directory by default, you can read
        !           493: .i mbox
        !           494: in your home directory by using simply
        !           495: .(l
        !           496: % Mail \-f
        !           497: .)l
        !           498: .pp
        !           499: Normally, messages that you examine using the
        !           500: .b type
        !           501: command are saved in the file
        !           502: .q mbox
        !           503: in your home directory if you leave
        !           504: .i Mail
        !           505: with the
        !           506: .b quit
        !           507: command described below.
        !           508: If you wish to retain a message in your system mailbox
        !           509: you can use the
        !           510: .b preserve
        !           511: command to tell
        !           512: .i Mail
        !           513: to leave it there.
        !           514: The
        !           515: .b preserve
        !           516: command accepts a list of message numbers, just like
        !           517: .b type
        !           518: and may be abbreviated to
        !           519: .b pre .
        !           520: .pp
        !           521: Messages in your system mailbox that you do not examine are
        !           522: normally retained in your system mailbox automatically.
        !           523: If you wish to have such a message saved in
        !           524: .i mbox
        !           525: without reading it, you may use the
        !           526: .b mbox
        !           527: command to have them so saved.  For example,
        !           528: .(l
        !           529: mbox 2
        !           530: .)l
        !           531: in our example would cause the second message (from sam)
        !           532: to be saved in
        !           533: .i mbox
        !           534: when the
        !           535: .b quit
        !           536: command is executed.
        !           537: .b Mbox
        !           538: is also the way to direct messages to your
        !           539: .i mbox
        !           540: file if you have set the
        !           541: .q hold
        !           542: option described above.
        !           543: .b Mbox
        !           544: can be abbreviated to
        !           545: .b mb .
        !           546: .pp
        !           547: When you have perused all the messages of interest, you can leave
        !           548: .i Mail
        !           549: with the
        !           550: .b quit
        !           551: command, which saves the messages you have typed but not
        !           552: deleted in the file
        !           553: .i mbox
        !           554: in your login directory.  Deleted messages are discarded irretrievably,
        !           555: and messages left untouched are preserved in your system mailbox so
        !           556: that you will see them the next time you type:
        !           557: .(l
        !           558: % Mail
        !           559: .)l
        !           560: The
        !           561: .b quit
        !           562: command can be abbreviated to simply
        !           563: .b q .
        !           564: .pp
        !           565: If you wish for some reason to leave
        !           566: .i Mail
        !           567: quickly without altering either your system mailbox or
        !           568: .i mbox ,
        !           569: you can type the
        !           570: .b x
        !           571: command (short for
        !           572: .b exit ),
        !           573: which will immediately return you to the Shell without changing anything.
        !           574: .pp
        !           575: If, instead, you want to execute a Shell command without leaving
        !           576: .i Mail ,
        !           577: you
        !           578: can type the command preceded by an exclamation point, just as in the
        !           579: text editor.  Thus, for instance:
        !           580: .(l
        !           581: !date
        !           582: .)l
        !           583: will print the current date without leaving
        !           584: .i Mail .
        !           585: .pp
        !           586: Finally, the
        !           587: .b help
        !           588: command is available to print out a brief summary of the
        !           589: .i Mail
        !           590: commands, using only the single character command abbreviations.

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