4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat8/comsat.0

COMSAT(8C)                                                          COMSAT(8C)


NAME
       comsat - biff server

SYNOPSIS
       /etc/comsat

DESCRIPTION
       Comsat  is  the  server process which receives reports of incoming mail
       and notifies  users  if  they  have  requested  this  service.   Comsat
       receives  messages on a datagram port associated with the ‘‘biff’’ ser‐
       vice specification (see services(5) and inetd(8)).  The one  line  mes‐
       sages are of the form

            user@mailbox-offset

       If  the  user  specified  is logged in to the system and the associated
       terminal has the owner execute bit turned on (by  a  ‘‘biff  y’’),  the
       offset  is  used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
       the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed  on  the
       user’s  terminal.   Lines which appear to be part of the message header
       other than the ‘‘From’’, ‘‘To’’, ‘‘Date’’, or ‘‘Subject’’ lines are not
       included in the displayed message.

FILES
       /etc/utmp to find out who’s logged on and on what terminals

SEE ALSO
       biff(1), inetd(8)

BUGS
       The  message  header  filtering  is prone to error.  The density of the
       information presented is near the theoretical minimum.

       Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other  machines  than
       the one to which they are currently logged in.

       The notification should appear in a separate window so it does not mess
       up the screen.


4.2 Berkeley Distribution        May 20, 1986                       COMSAT(8C)