BINMAIL(1) BINMAIL(1) NAME binmail - send or receive mail among users SYNOPSIS /bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] [ person ] ... /bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] -f file DESCRIPTION Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program. The default mail command is described in Mail(1), and its binary is in the direc‐ tory /usr/ucb. mail with no argument prints a user’s mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument + displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order. For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message. newline Go on to next message. d Delete message and go on to the next. p Print message again. - Go back to previous message. s [ file ] ... Save the message in the named files (‘mbox’ default). w [ file ] ... Save the message, without a header, in the named files (‘mbox’ default). m [ person ] ... Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default). EOT (control-D) Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop. q Same as EOT. !command Escape to the Shell to do command. * Print a command summary. An interrupt normally terminates the mail command; the mail file is unchanged. The optional argument −−i tells mail to continue after interrupts. When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of- file (or a line with just ‘.’) and adds it to each persons ‘mail’ file. The message is preceded by the sender’s name and a postmark. Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with ‘>’. A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1). To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1C)). The -f option causes the named file, for example, ‘mbox’, to be printed as if it were the mail file. When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail. FILES /etc/passwd to identify sender and locate persons /usr/spool/mail/* incoming mail for user * mbox saved mail /tmp/ma* temp file /usr/spool/mail/*.lock lock for mail directory dead.letter unmailable text SEE ALSO Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8) BUGS Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file. Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1). An installation can overcome this by making mail a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory. 7th Edition April 29, 1985 BINMAIL(1)