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