NAME
   mail - send and receive mail

SYNOPSIS
   mail [-iInv] [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr] to-addr...
   mail [-iInNv] -f [name]
   mail [-iInNv] [-u user]

INTRODUCTION
   Mail is an intelligent mail processing system, which has a command syntax
   reminiscent of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages.

   -v   Verbose mode. The details of delivery are displayed on the user's
   terminal.

   -i   Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is particularly useful when
   using mail on noisy phone lines.

   -I   Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when input isn't a ter-
   minal. In particular, the '~' special character when sending mail
   is only active in interactive mode.

   -n   Inhibits reading /etc/mail.rc upon startup.

   -N   Inhibits the initial display of message headers when reading mail
   or editing a mail folder.

   -s   Specify subject on command line (only the first argument after the
   -s flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects contain-
   ing spaces.)

   -c   Send carbon copies to list of users.

   -b   Send blind carbon copies to list. List should be a comma-separated
   list of names.

   -f   Read in the contents of your mbox (or the specified file) for pro-
   cessing; when you quit, mail writes undeleted messages back to this
   file.

   -u   Is equivalent to:

   mail -f /var/spool/mail/user

 Sending mail
   To send a message to one or more people, mail can be invoked with argu-
   ments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent.  You
   are then expected to type in your message, followed by an 'control-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 the first message (numbered 1) and can
   be printed using the print command (which can be abbreviated 'p').  You
   can move among the messages much as you move between lines in ed(1), with
   the commands '+' and '-' moving backwards and forwards, and simple num-
   bers.

  Disposing of mail.
   After examining a message you can delete 'd') the message 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') com-
   mand. Deleted messages will, however, 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.  The special name '*' addresses all messages, and '$'
   addresses the last message; 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 compos-
   ing a message, mail treats lines beginning with the character '~' spe-
   cially. For instance, typing '~m' (alone on a line) will place a copy of
   the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop (see
   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 systemwide distribution lists.
   It is also possible to create a 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/aliases, see aliases(5)
   and sendmail(8); 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
   sendmail.

  Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
   See mailaddr(7) for a description of network addresses.

   Mail has a number of options which can be set in the .mailrc file to
   alter its behavior; thus ``set askcc'' enables the askcc feature. (These
   options are summarized below.)

SUMMARY
   (Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual')

   Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments follow-
   ing 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 ``applicable messages'' and aborts the command.

   -    Print out the preceding message. If given a numeric argument n,
    goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.

   ?    Prints a brief summary of commands.

   !    Executes the shell (see sh(1) and csh(1)) command which follows.

   Print  (P) Like print but also prints out ignored header fields. See
    also print, ignore and retain.

   Reply  (R) Reply to originator. Does not reply to other recipients of
    the original message.

   Type  (T) Identical to the Print command.

   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  (c) 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  (co) 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 mes-
    sage. If there is no next message, mail says ``at EOF''.

   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 modi-
    fying the user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his edit file
    in -f.

   file  (fi) The same as folder.

   folders
    List the names of the folders in your folder directory.

   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.

   from  (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.

   headers
    (h) Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18-message
    group. If a '+' argument is given, then the next 18-message
    group is printed, and if a '-' argument is given, the previous
    18-message group is printed.

   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, includ-
    ing ignored fields. If ignore is executed with no arguments, it
    lists the current set of ignored fields.

   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.

   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) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
    terminal.

   quit  (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved mes-
    sages in the user's mbox file in his login directory, preserving
    all messages marked with hold or preserve or never referenced in
    his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his sys-
    tem 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 com-
    mand.

   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.

   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="->"''

   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.

   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) 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 val-
    ues; 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.

   ~!command
    Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.

   ~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
    Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no mes-
    sages are specified, read in the current message. Message head-
    ers currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are
    not included.

   ~Fmessages
    Identical to ~f, except all message headers are 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
    Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by
    a tab or by the value of indentprefix. If no messages are speci-
    fied, read the current message. Message headers currently being
    ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not included.

   ~Mmessages
    Identical to ~m, except all message headers are 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
    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.

   ~|command
    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
    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.

 Mail Options
   Options are controlled via 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.

   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.

   askbcc Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recip-
    ients at the end of each message. Responding with a newline
    indicates your satisfaction with the current list.

   autoprint
    Causes the delete command to behave like dp - thus, after delet-
    ing 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 informa-
    tion 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.

   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.

   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 RUBOUT (erase or
    delete) mail copies the partial letter to the file
    ``dead.letter'' in your home directory. Setting the binary
    option nosave prevents this.

   Replyall
    Reverses the sense of reply and Reply commands.

   quiet  Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.

   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.

   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, then a default editor is used.

   LISTER   Pathname of the directory lister to use in the folders com-
    mand. Default is /bin/ls.

   PAGER   Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when
    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.

   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 ter-
    minal 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 direc-
    tory is found relative to your home directory.

   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.

   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.

   indentprefix String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting mes-
    sages, in place of the normal tab character (^I). Be sure
    to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.

   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, USER, SHELL, DEAD, PAGER, LISTER, EDITOR, VISUAL
   and MBOX environment variables.

FILES
   /var/spool/mail/*  Post office.
   ~/mbox   User's old mail.
   ~/.mailrc   File giving initial mail commands. Only used if the
    owner of the file is the user running this copy of
    mail.
   /tmp/R*   Temporary files.
   /usr/lib/mail.*help Help files.
   /etc/mail.rc  System initialization file.

SEE ALSO
  fmt(1), newaliases(1), vacation(1), aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8)
   and

   The Mail Reference Manual..

HISTORY
   A mail command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. This man page is derived
   from The Mail Reference Manual originally written by Kurt Shoens.

BUGS
   There are some flags that are not documented here.  Most are not useful
   to the general user.