MAIL(1) - General Commands Manual #
MAIL(1) - General Commands Manual
NAME #
mail, mailx, Mail - send and receive mail
SYNOPSIS #
mail
[-dEIinv]
[-b list]
[-c list]
[-r from-addr]
[-s subject]
to-addr …
mail
[-dEIiNnv]
-f
[file]
mail
[-dEIiNnv]
[-u user]
DESCRIPTION #
mail is an intelligent mail processing system which has a command syntax reminiscent of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages.
The options are as follows:
-b list
Send blind carbon copies to list.
-c list
Send carbon copies to list of users. list should be a comma separated list of names.
-d
Causes mail to output all sorts of information useful for debugging mail.
-E
Don’t send messages with an empty body.
-f
Use an alternate mailbox. Defaults to the user’s mbox if no file is specified. When quit, mail writes undeleted messages back to this file.
-I
Forces mail to run in interactive mode, even when input is not a terminal. In particular, the special ~ command character, used when sending mail, is only available interactively.
-i
Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is particularly useful when using mail on noisy phone lines.
-N
Inhibits initial display of message headers when reading mail or editing a mail folder.
-n
Inhibits reading /etc/mail.rc upon startup.
-r from-addr
Use from-addr as the from address in the message and envelope. Overrides any from options in the startup files.
-s subject
Specify subject on command line (only the first argument after the -s flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects containing spaces).
-u user
Equivalent to:
$ mail -f /var/mail/user
except that locking is done.
-v
Verbose mode. The details of delivery are displayed on the user’s terminal.
Startup actions #
At startup time, mail will execute commands in the system command file, /etc/mail.rc, unless explicitly told not to by using the -n option. Next, the commands in the user’s personal command file ~/.mailrc are executed. mail then examines its command line options to determine whether the user requested a new message to be sent or existing messages in a mailbox to be examined.
Sending mail #
To send a message to one or more people, mail can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent. You are then expected to type in your message, followed by a control-D (’^D’) at the beginning of a line. The section below, Replying to or originating mail, describes some features of mail available to help you compose your letter.
Reading mail #
In normal usage, mail is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the post office, then prints out a one line header of each message found. The current message is initially set to the first message (numbered 1) and can be printed using the print command (which can be abbreviated p). Moving among the messages is much like moving between lines in ed(1); you may use + and - to shift forwards and backwards, or simply enter a message number to move directly.
Disposing of mail #
After examining a message, you can delete (d) or reply (r) to it. Deletion causes the mail program to forget about the message. This is not irreversible; the message can be undeleted (u) by giving its number, or the mail session can be aborted by giving the exit (x) command. Deleted messages, however, will usually disappear, never to be seen again.
Specifying messages #
Commands such as print and delete can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number of messages at once. Thus delete 1 2 deletes messages 1 and 2, while delete 1-5 deletes messages 1 through 5.
Messages may also be selected using one of the following categories:
*
all messages
$
last message
:d
deleted messages
:n
new messages
:o
old messages
:r
read messages
:u
unread messages
Thus the command top, which prints the first few lines of a message, could be used in top * to print the first few lines of all messages.
Replying to or originating mail #
You can use the reply command to set up a response to a message, sending it back to the person who it was from. Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file, defines the contents of the message. While you are composing a message, mail treats lines beginning with the tilde (’~’) character specially. For instance, typing ~m (alone on a line) will place a copy of the current message into the response, right shifting it by a single tab-stop (see the indentprefix variable, below). Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients to the message, and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the message or to a shell to run some commands. (These options are given in the summary below.)
Ending a mail processing session #
You can end a mail session with the quit (q) command. Messages which have been examined go to your mbox file unless they have been deleted, in which case they are discarded. Unexamined messages go back to the post office (see the -f option above).
Personal and system wide distribution lists #
It is also possible to create personal distribution lists so that,
for instance, you can send mail to
“cohorts
”
and have it go
to a group of people.
Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
in the file .mailrc in your home directory. The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the alias command in mail. System wide distribution lists can be created by editing /etc/mail/aliases (see aliases(5)); these are kept in a different syntax. In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent to others so that they will be able to reply to the recipients. System wide aliases are not expanded when the mail is sent, but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide alias expanded as all mail goes through an MTA.
Recipient address specifications #
Recipient addresses (any of the “To”, “Cc” or “Bcc” header fields) are subject to expansion when the expandaddr option is set.
An address may be expanded as follows:
- An address that starts with a pipe
(’
|
’) character is treated as a command to run. The command immediately following the ‘|
’ is executed with the message as its standard input. - An address that starts with a
‘
+
’ character is treated as a folder. - An address that contains a
‘
/
’ character but no ‘!
’, ‘%
’, or ‘@
’ characters is also treated as a folder. - If none of the above apply, the recipient is treated as
a local or network mail address.
If the expandaddr option is not set (the default), no expansion is performed and the recipient is treated as a local or network mail address.
SUMMARY #
(Adapted from the
“Mail Reference Manual”.)
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
following the command word.
The command need not be typed in its
entirety – the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message
list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
command’s requirements is used.
If there are no messages forward of
the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
good messages at all,
mail
types
“No applicable messages”
and
aborts the command.
-
Print out the preceding message.
If given a numeric
argument
n,
goes to the
nth
previous message and prints it.
=
Prints the currently selected message number.
?
Prints a brief summary of commands.
!
Executes the shell
(see
sh(1)
and
csh(1))
command which follows.
alias
(a)
With no arguments, prints out all currently defined aliases.
With one
argument, prints out that alias.
With more than one argument, creates
a new alias or changes an old one.
alternates
(alt)
The
alternates
command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
It can be used to inform
mail
that the listed addresses are really you.
When you
reply
to messages,
mail
will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
listed on the
alternates
list.
If the
alternates
command is given with no argument, the current set of alternate
names is displayed.
chdir
(cd
or
ch)
Changes the user’s working directory to that specified, if given.
If
no directory is given, then changes to the user’s login directory.
copy
(c)
The
copy
command does the same thing that
save
does, except that it does not mark the messages it
is used on for deletion when you quit.
delete
(d)
Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
Deleted messages will not be saved in
mbox,
nor will they be available for most other commands.
dp
(also
dt)
Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
If there is no next message,
mail
says
“No more messages.
”
edit
(e)
Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in
turn.
On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
exit
(ex
or
x)
Effects an immediate return to the shell without
modifying the user’s system mailbox,
mbox
file, or edit file in
-f.
file
(fi)
The same as
folder.
folder
(fo)
The
folder
command switches to a new mail file or folder.
With no
arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading.
If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such
as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in
the new file.
Some special conventions are recognized for
the name.
# means the previous file, % means your system
mailbox, %user means user’s system mailbox, & means
your
mbox
file, and
+folder means a file in your folder
directory.
folders
List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
from
(f)
Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
headers
(h)
Lists the current windowful of headers.
To view the next or previous group of headers, see the
z
command.
help
A synonym for
?.
hold
(ho,
also
preserve)
Takes a message list and marks each
message therein to be saved in the
user’s system mailbox instead of in
mbox.
Does not override the
delete
command.
ignore
Add the list of header fields named to the
ignored list.
Header fields in the ignore list are not printed
on your terminal when you print a message.
This
command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
header fields.
The
Type
and
Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
ignored fields.
If
ignore
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
ignored fields.
inc
Incorporate any new messages that have arrived while mail
is being read.
The new messages are added to the end of the message list,
and the current message is reset to be the first new mail message.
This does not renumber the existing message list, nor
does it cause any changes made so far to be saved.
list
(l)
List the valid
mail
commands.
mail
(m)
Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
mail to those people.
mbox
Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
mbox
in your home directory when you quit.
This is the default
action for messages if you do
not
have the
hold
option set.
more
(mo)
Takes a message list and invokes the pager on that list.
next
(n)
(like
+
or CR)
Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
With an argument list, types the next matching message.
preserve
(pre)
A synonym for
hold.
Print
(P)
Like
print
but also prints out ignored header fields.
See also
print,
ignore,
and
retain.
print
(p)
Takes a message list and types out each message on the user’s terminal.
quit
(q)
Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in the
mbox
file in the user’s login directory, preserving all messages marked with
hold
or
preserve
or never referenced in the user’s system mailbox,
and removing all other messages from the user’s system mailbox.
If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
“You have new mail
”
is given.
If given while editing a
mailbox file with the
-f
flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
A return to the shell is
effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user
can escape with the
exit
command.
Reply
(R)
Reply to originator.
Does not reply to other
recipients of the original message.
reply
(r)
Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
recipients of the specified message.
The default message must not be deleted.
respond
A synonym for
reply.
retain
Add the list of header fields named to the
retained list.
Only the header fields in the retain list
are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
All other header fields are suppressed.
The
Type
and
Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
If
retain
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
retained fields.
save
(s)
Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in
turn to the end of the file.
The filename in quotes, followed by the line
count and character count is echoed on the user’s terminal.
saveignore
saveignore
is to
save
what
ignore
is to
print
and
type.
Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
saving a message by
save
or when automatically saving to
mbox.
saveretain
saveretain
is to
save
what
retain
is to
print
and
type.
Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
with a message when saving by
save
or when automatically saving to
mbox.
saveretain
overrides
saveignore.
set
(se)
With no arguments, prints all variable values.
Otherwise, sets
option.
Arguments are of the form
option=value
(no space before or after =) or
option.
Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
quote blanks or tabs, i.e.,
set indentprefix="->".
shell
(sh)
Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
size
Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
message.
source
The
source
command reads
commands from a file.
top
Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
The number of
lines printed is controlled by the variable
toplines
and defaults to five.
Type
(T)
Identical to the
Print
command.
type
(t)
A synonym for
print.
unalias
Takes a list of names defined by
alias
commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
The group names
no longer have any significance.
undelete
(u)
Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
unread
(U)
Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
unset
Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
the inverse of
set.
visual
(v)
Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
write
(w)
Similar to
save,
except that
only
the message body
(without the header)
is saved.
Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
program text over the message system.
xit
(x)
A synonym for
exit.
z
mail
presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
headers
command.
You can move
mail’s
attention forward to the next window with the
z
command.
Also, you can move to the previous window by using
z-.
Tilde/escapes #
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
which are used when composing messages to perform
special functions.
Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning
of lines.
The name
“tilde escape”
is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
by the option
escape.
~bname …
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
the names visible in the Cc: line (“blind” carbon copy).
~cname …
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
~d
Read the file
dead.letter
from your home directory into the message.
~e
Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
After the
editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the
message.
~Fmessages
Identical to
~f,
except all message headers are included.
~fmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent.
If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
ignore
or
retain
command) are not included.
~h
Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing
the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the
current terminal erase and kill characters.
~Mmessages
Identical to
~m,
except all message headers are included.
~mmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
tab or by the value of
indentprefix.
If no messages are specified,
read the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
ignore
or
retain
command) are not included.
~p
Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
fields.
~q
Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
dead.letter
in your home directory if
save
is set.
~rfilename
~<filename
Read the named file into the message.
~sstring
Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
~tname …
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
~v
Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
VISUAL
option) on the
message collected so far.
Usually, the alternate editor will be a
screen editor.
After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
text to the end of your message.
~wfilename
Write the message onto the named file.
~x
Abort the message being sent.
No message is copied to
~/dead.letter,
even if
save
is set.
~?
Prints a brief summary of tilde escapes.
**!**command|**command
Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
**
Pipe the message through the command as a filter.
If the command gives
no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
message.
The command
fmt(1)
is often used as
command
to rejustify the message.
**:**mail-command_**mail-command
**
Execute the given mail command.
Not all commands, however, are allowed.
**~~string
Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single .
If
you have changed the escape character, then you should double
that character in order to send it..
**
Simulate end of file on input.
Mail options #
A number of options can be set in the
.mailrc
file to alter the behavior of
mail,
controlled via the
set
and
unset
commands.
Options may be either binary, in which case it is only
significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which
case the actual value is of interest.
The binary options include the following:
append
Causes messages saved in
mbox
to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
This should always be set (perhaps in
/etc/mail.rc).
ask, asksub
Causes
mail
to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
If
you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
askbcc
Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message.
Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
askcc
Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message.
Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
autoinc
Causes new mail to be automatically incorporated when it arrives.
Setting this is similar to issuing the
inc
command at each prompt, except that the current message is not
reset when new mail arrives.
autoprint
Causes the
delete
command to behave like
dp;
thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
automatically.
debug
Setting the binary option
debug
is the same as specifying
-d
on the command line and causes
mail
to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
mail.
dot
The binary option
dot
causes
mail
to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
of a message you are sending.
expandaddr
Causes
mail
to expand message recipient addresses, as explained in the section
Recipient address specifications.
from
Causes
mail
to use the specified sender address in the
“From:”
field of the message header.
A stripped down version of the address is also used in the message envelope.
If unset, the message will not include an explicit sender address and
a default value will be added by the MTA, typically
“user@host”.
This value can be overridden by specifying the
-r
flag on the command line.
hold
This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
by default.
ignore
Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
@’s.
ignoreeof
An option related to
dot
is
ignoreeof
which makes
mail
refuse to accept a control-D as the end of a message.
ignoreeof
also applies to
mail
command mode.
keep
Setting this option causes
mail
to truncate your system mailbox instead of deleting it
when it’s empty.
keepsave
Messages saved with the
save
command are not normally saved in
mbox
at quit time.
Use this option to retain those messages.
metoo
Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender
is removed from the expansion.
Setting this option causes the sender
to be included in the group.
noheader
Setting the option
noheader
is the same as giving the
-N
flag on the command line.
nosave
Normally, when you abort a message with two interrupt characters
(usually control-C),
mail
copies the partial letter to the file
dead.letter
in your home directory.
Setting the binary option
nosave
prevents this.
quiet
Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
Replyall
Reverses the sense of
reply
and
Reply
commands.
searchheaders
If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form
“/x:y”
will expand to all messages containing the substring
‘y’
in the header
field
‘x’.
The string search is case insensitive.
If
‘x’
is omitted, it will default to the
“Subject”
header field.
The form
“/to:y”
is a special case, and will expand
to all messages containing the substring
‘y’
in the
“To”,
“Cc”
or
“Bcc”
header fields.
The check for
“to”
is case sensitive, so that
“/To:y”
can be used to limit the search for
‘y’
to just the
“To:”
field.
skipempty
Don’t send messages with an empty body.
verbose
Setting the option
verbose
is the same as using the
-v
flag on the command line.
When
mail
runs in verbose mode,
the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user’s
terminal.
Option string values #
EDITOR
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
edit
command and
~e
escape.
If not defined,
/usr/bin/ex
is used.LISTER
Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
folders
command.
Default is
/bin/ls.MBOX
The name of the
mbox
file.
It can be the name of a folder.
The default is
“mbox
”
in the user’s home directory.PAGER
Pathname of the program to use in the
more
command or when the
crt
variable is set.
The default paginator
more(1)
is used if this option is not defined.SHELL
Pathname of the shell to use in the
!
command and the
~!
escape.
A default shell is used if this option is
not defined.VISUAL
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
visual
command and
~v
escape.
If not defined,
/usr/bin/vi
is used.
crt
The valued option
crt
is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
be before
PAGER
is used to read it.
If
crt
is set without a value,
then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
is used to compute the threshold (see
stty(1)).
escape
If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
folder
The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
messages.
If this name begins with a
‘/
’,
mail
considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
indentprefix
String used by the
~m
tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of the normal tab character
(’^I’).
Be sure to quote the value if it contains
spaces or tabs.
record
If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
mail.
If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.
screen
Size of window of message headers for
z.
sendmail
Pathname to an alternative mail delivery system.
toplines
If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
with the
top
command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
ENVIRONMENT #
mail
utilizes the
HOME
,
LOGNAME
,
MAIL
,
MAILRC
,
and
USER
environment variables.
If the
MAIL
environment variable is set, its value is used as the path to the
user’s mail spool.
FILES #
/var/mail/*
post office (unless overridden by the
MAIL
environment variable)
~/mbox
user’s old mail
~/.mailrc
file giving initial mail commands; can be overridden by setting the
MAILRC
environment variable
/tmp/R*
temporary files
*/usr/share/misc/mail.help
help files
/etc/mail.rc
system initialization file
EXIT STATUS #
The mail utility exits0 on success, and>0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO #
fmt(1),
lockspool(1),
vacation(1),
aliases(5),
mail.local(8),
newaliases(8),
sendmail(8),
smtpd(8)
Kurt Shoens,
“Mail Reference Manual”,
4.4BSD User’s Supplementary Documents (USD).
STANDARDS #
The
mailx
utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
specification.
The flags
[-iNnu]
are marked by
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
as being optional.
The flags
[-eFH]
are marked by
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
as being optional,
and are not supported by this implementation of
mailx.
The flags
[-bcdEIrv]
are extensions to the specification.
HISTORY #
A mail command appeared in Version1 AT&T UNIX. This man page is derived from the Mail Reference Manual originally written by Kurt Shoens.
BUGS #
Usually,
mail
and
mailx
are just links to
Mail,
which can be confusing.
OpenBSD 7.5 - March 31, 2022