mailx(1) General Commands Manual mailx(1)
NAME
mailx, Mail - Sends and receives mail
SYNOPSIS
Sending Mail
mailx [-dinvF] [-h number] [-r address] [-s subject] user...
Mail [-dinvF] [-h number] [-r address] [-s subject] user...
Handling Mail
mailx [-dinNveH] -f [file]
Mail [-dinNveH] -f [file]
mailx [-dinNveH] [-u user]
Mail [-dinNveH] [-u user]
The mailx and Mail commands allow you to read, write, send, receive, store, and discard mail messages.
[Tru64 UNIX] See the section Internationalization under the DESCRIPTION section for more information about the internationalization fea-
tures of the mailx command.
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:
mailx(): XCU4.2
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.
OPTIONS
Causes the mailx command to display debugging information. Messages are not sent while in debug mode. Tests for the presence of mail. The
mailx command prints nothing and exits with a successful return code if there is mail to read. Reads in the contents of your mbox or the
specified file for processing. When you quit, mailx writes undeleted messages back to this file. Records the message in a file named
after the first recipient. Overrides the record option, if set. Specifies the number of network "hops" made so far. This is provided for
network software to avoid infinite loops. Prints header summary only. Ignores tty Interrupt signals. Useful when using mailx on noisy
phone lines. Inhibits the reading of the /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc file. Suppresses the initial printing of headers. Changes sender's
address to address. The original sender must be a trusted user. See sendmail(8) for more information on trusted users. Specifies a subject
for a message to be created. Activates mailx for a specified users mailbox; short way of doing mailx -f /var/spool/mail/user. You must
have access permission to the specified user's mailbox. Puts mailx into verbose mode. Details of delivery are displayed on the user's
terminal.
DESCRIPTION
The mailx and Mail commands allow you to do the following: Compose a message and send it. Receive a message and look at it. Store
received messages in your mailbox or in folders. Discard messages.
The mailx command uses two types of mailboxes: the system mailbox and the personal mailbox. The system mailbox is a file assigned to a
particular user. The file is created when mail arrives for a user ID, and it is deleted when all the messages are removed from the file.
It is not deleted if you have specified the keep option in your file, or if the /var/spool/mail directory has no write permissions for
other. A separate system mailbox can exist for each user ID on the system. The mailx command keeps all system mailboxes in the directory
/var/spool/mail. Each system mailbox is named by the user ID associated with it. For example, if your user ID is jeanne, then your system
mailbox is /var/spool/mail/jeanne.
The personal mailbox is a file assigned to a particular user. The mailx command creates a file with the name $HOME/mbox when you receive
mail from the system mailbox. For example, if your home directory is /u/lance, the mailx command creates the file /u/lance/mbox as your
personal mailbox. The system deletes this file when all messages are removed from the personal mailbox. When you use the mailx command to
view mail in your system mailbox, the mailx command automatically puts all messages that you have read but did not delete into your per-
sonal mailbox. The messages remain in your personal mailbox until you move them to a folder or delete them.
Folders provide a way to save messages in an organized fashion. You can create as many folders as you need. Name each folder according to
the subject matter of the messages that it contains. Using the mailx command, you can put a message into a folder from your system mail-
box, from your personal mailbox, from the dead.letter file, or from another folder.
To send a message to one or more persons, enter mailx on the command line with arguments that are the network addresses of the people you
want to receive the message. When mailx starts, you can type the message using an editor such as ed. When you are finished with the mes-
sage, press <Return> at the end of a line, and use an End-of-File key sequence at the beginning of the next line to exit the editor and
send the message.
When mail arrives for you from another user, the mail system puts the mail in your system mailbox (/var/spool/mail/user). The command
shell will notify you that mail has arrived before displaying its next prompt (that is, notification is synchronous), provided that the
MAIL environment variable is set and the interval specified by MAILCHECK (mail for csh) has elapsed since the shell last checked for mail.
If you are logged in, the shell sends a message to your terminal to tell you that new mail has arrived. If you are not logged in, a mes-
sage is sent to your terminal the next time you log in. The notification message is the value of the MAILMSG environment variable. The
default message is as follows: [YOU HAVE NEW MAIL]
To look at the contents of your mailbox, enter the mailx command without options on the command line. The program displays a listing of
the messages in your mailbox and allows you to look at them, reply to them, save them, dispose of them, and so on.
[Tru64 UNIX] Tru64 UNIX provides locking for the mailbox files. The style of locking used depends on how it is set in the rc.config.com-
mon file. For more information, see the Network Administration manual.
Reading Incoming Mail
To receive and read incoming mail, enter mailx with no arguments: mailx
The mailx command then checks your system mailbox (/var/spool/mail/user) and displays a one-line entry for each message in the system mail-
box similar to the following: "/var/spool/mail/geo": 2 messages 2 new >N 1 amy Thu Sep 17 14:36 13/359 "Dept Meeting"
N 2 amy Thu Sep 17 16:28 13/416 "Dept Meeting Delayed" ?
The > (right angle bracket) indicates the current message, or the message that subcommands act on if you do not specify a message number or
list of message numbers. The first field for each message contains a one-letter indicator of the status of the message. Possible indica-
tors are as follows: The message is stored in your personal mailbox. The message is new. The message is held (preserved) in your system
mailbox. You have read the message. The message is unread. The message was listed in the mailbox before, but you have not looked at the
contents of the message. You have saved or written the message to a file or folder. The message was read, but was not deleted or saved.
The other fields in the listing (in order) represent: The number that mailbox subcommands use to refer to the message. User address of the
sender. Date the message was received, including day of the week, month, day, and time. Size of the message in number of lines and char-
acters, including header information. The contents of the subject field of the message, if the message has one.
From the mailbox prompt (?), you can enter subcommands to look at, reply to, save, discard, or otherwise manage the contents of the mail-
box. To display a summary of some of the subcommands that you can use to handle mail in your mailbox, enter a ? (question mark) at the
mailbox prompt. Note that the behavior of the <Return> key has changed for XCU4.2 compliance. Using this key with no following argument
now causes the current message to be displayed, and not the next message.
Many mailbox subcommands allow you to specify groups of messages upon which to perform the subcommand. Subcommands that allow groups of
messages use the argument message_list in the command format. For example, the format of the from (or f) subcommand (display information
about messages) appears as:
? from [message_list]
In this format, message_list can be one of the following: One or more message numbers separated by spaces. For example:
? f 1 2 4 7 A range of message numbers indicated by the first and last numbers in the range separated by a dash. For example, the
following subcommand:
? f 2-5
is the same as:
? f 2 3 4 5 An example of one or more addresses separated by spaces to apply the subcommand to messages received from those
addresses follows:
? f amy geo@zeus
The characters entered for an address need not match the address exactly. They must only be contained in the address field of the
messages in either uppercase or lowercase letters. Therefore, the request for address amy matches all of the following addresses
(and many others): amy AmY amy@zeus hamy A string, preceded by a / (slash), to match against the Subject: field of the messages fol-
lows:
? f /meet
This applies the subcommand to all messages whose Subject: field contains the letters meet in uppercase or lowercase. The characters
entered for a match pattern do not have to match the Subject: field exactly. They must only be contained in the Subject: field of
the messages in either uppercase or lowercase. Therefore, the request for subject meet matches all of the following subjects (and
many others): Meeting on Thursday Come to meeting tomorrow MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
The special character (dot) addresses the current message, * (asterisk) addresses all messages, ^ (circumflex) addresses the first
undeleted message, and $ (dollar sign) addresses the last message. The character sequence :c addresses all messages of type c, where c is
one of the following: Deleted messages New messages Old messages Read messages Unread messages
All commands that take a message list will default to the current message number if no list is specified.
When the mailx command is processing a mailbox, the mailbox prompt (?) is displayed to indicate that it is waiting for input. When this
prompt is displayed, you can enter any of the following mailbox subcommands. The subcommand abbreviation in parentheses can be used
instead of the full subcommand name. Echoes the number of the current message. Allows you to write comments in mail script files. Goes
to the previous message and displays it. If given a number argument of n, goes to the nth previous message and displays it. Displays a
brief summary of mailbox subcommands. Executes shell_command. Displays all currently defined aliases. With the argument of a previously
defined alias, displays the expansion of the alias. With at least two arguments, alias and address_list (a space-separated list of
addresses), creates a new alias or changes an old alias. Identical to the group subcommand. Informs mailx that the addresses listed in
alternate_list all refer to you. The alternates subcommand is useful if you have accounts on several machines. Then, when you reply to mes-
sages, mailx does not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses given in alternate_list. If you enter the alternate subcommand
with no argument, mailx displays the current set of alternate names. Changes your working directory to directory. If no directory is
given, it changes to your login directory. Appends each message in message_list in turn to the end of file. Displays the filename in
quotes, followed by the line count and character count, on your terminal. Does not mark the appended messages for deletion when you quit.
Saves the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from the author of the message to be saved, without marking the messages as
saved. Otherwise equivalent to the Save subcommand. Marks the messages in message_list to be deleted when you quit mailx. Deleted mes-
sages are not saved in mbox, nor are they available for most other subcommands. However, you can restore messages that you have deleted
while in the same mailbox session (see the undelete subcommand). If you delete a message and either change to another mailbox or quit the
mailbox with the quit subcommand, the deleted message cannot be recalled. Identical to the ignore subcommand. Deletes the current message
and displays the next message. If there is no next message, mailx displays the message, at EOF. Identical to the dp subcommand. Displays
the character string string on the command line. Invokes the alternate editor that you can define with the set EDITOR= statement and loads
message_list into the editor. When you exit the editor, any changes made during the editing session are saved in the messages in mes-
sage_list. The default editor is /usr/bin/ex. Exits to the shell without changing the mailbox being processed. The mailbox returns to the
condition that it was in when mailx was started. Messages marked to be deleted are not deleted. Identical to the xit subcommand. Identi-
cal to the folder subcommand. Switches to a new mail file or folder. With no arguments, displays the name of the mailbox that you are
currently reading. If an argument is included, it stores the current mailbox with changes (such as messages deleted) and reads in the new
mailbox specified by the name argument. Identical to the file subcommand.
Some special conventions are recognized for the name: Refers to the previous file. Refers to the system mailbox
(/var/spool/mail/user). Refers to your personal mailbox ($HOME/mbox). Refers to a file in your folder directory (determined by the
value of the folder option; see Enabling and Disabling Options). Lists the names of the folders in your folder directory (see the
folder option in Enabling and Disabling Options). Responds to a message, recording the response in a file whose name is derived
from the author of the message. Overrides the record option, if set. (See also the Followup, Save, and Copy subcommands and the
outfolder option.) Responds to the first message in message_list, sending the message to the author of each message in mes-
sage_list. The subject line is taken from the first message and the response is recorded in a file whose name is derived from the
author of the first message. (See also the followup, Save, and Copy commands and the outfolder option.) Displays the headers of
messages in message_list. Identical to the alias subcommand. Lists the headers in the current group of messages (each group of
messages contains 20 messages by default; change this with the set screen= statement). If the mailbox contains more messages than
can be displayed on the screen at one time, information about only the first group of messages is displayed. To see information
about the rest of the messages, use the h subcommand with a message number that is in the next range of messages, or use the z sub-
command to change the current message group. Displays a brief summary of mailbox subcommands. Identical to the ? (question mark)
subcommand. Marks each message in message_list to be saved in your system mailbox (/var/spool/mail/user) instead of in $HOME/mbox.
Does not override the delete subcommand. Identical to the preserve subcommand. Construction for conditional execution of mailx sub-
commands. Subcommands following if are executed if condition is TRUE. Subcommands following else are executed if condition is not
TRUE. The else is not required. The endif subcommand ends the construction and is required. The condition can be receive (receiving
mail) or send (sending mail). Adds the header fields in field_list to the list of fields to be ignored. Ignored fields are not
displayed when you look at a message with the type or print subcommands. Use this subcommand to suppress machine-generated header
fields. Use the Type and Print subcommands 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. Identical to the discard subcommand. Displays a list of valid mailx
subcommands. Lists other names for the local host. Activates the mail editor to allow you to create and send a message to people
specified in address_list. The newly created message is independent from any received messages. Indicates that the messages in mes-
sage_list be sent to your personal mailbox when you quit. This operation is the default action for messages that you have looked at
if you are looking at your system mailbox and the hold option is not set. Displays the messages inmessage_list using the defined
pager program to control the display to the screen. Identical to the page subcommand. Like more, but also displays ignored header
fields. (See more and ignore.) Marks each message in message_list as not having been read. Identical to the New, unread, and
Unread subcommands. Marks each message in message_list as not having been read. Identical to the new, unread, and Unread subcom-
mands. Makes the next message in the mailbox the current message, and displays that message. With an argument list, it displays the
next matching message. Displays the messages in message_list using the defined pager program to control the display to the screen.
Identical to the more subcommand. Like the page subcommand, but also displays ignored header fields. Identical to the More subcom-
mand. Pipes the message through shell_command. The message is treated as if it were read. If no arguments are given, the current
message is piped through the command specified by the value of the cmd option. If the page option is set, a formfeed character is
inserted after each message. Identical to the hold subcommand. Displays the messages in message_list. Identical to the type sub-
command, or simply pressing the <Return> key with no argument. Like print, but also displays ignored header fields. (See print and
ignore.) Identical to the Type subcommand. Ends the session and returns to the shell. All messages that were not deleted or saved
are stored in your personal mailbox ($HOME/mbox). All messages marked with hold or preserve and those messages that you did not
look at are saved in the system mailbox (/var/spool/mail/user). If the quit subcommand is given while editing a mailbox file with
the -f option, then the edit file is saved with the changes. If the edit file cannot be saved, mailx does not exit. Use the exit
subcommand to exit without saving the changes. Allows you to reply to the sender of message and to all others who received copies
of message. Identical to the respond subcommand. Allows you to reply only to the sender of message. Identical to the Respond sub-
command. Allows you to reply to the sender of message and to all others who received copies of message. Identical to the reply sub-
command. Allows you to reply only to the sender of message. Identical to the Reply subcommand. Adds the header fields in
field_list to the list of fields to be retained. Retained fields are displayed when you look at a message with the type or print
subcommands. Use this subcommand to define which header fields you want displayed. Use the Type and Print subcommands to print a
message in its entirety, including fields that are not retained. If retain is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set
of retained fields. Saves message_list, including header information, to file (or to a folder). If file already exists, mes-
sage_list is appended to file. Displays the filename and the size of the file when the operation is complete. If you save a message
to a file, that message is not returned to the system mailbox nor saved in your personal mailbox when you quit the mailx command. If
a filename is not specified, the mailx command saves the messages in your personal mailbox. Saves the specified messages in a file
whose name is derived from the author of the first message. The name of the file is taken to be the author's name with all network
addressing stripped off. (See also the Copy, followup, and Followup subcommands, and the outfolder option.) Displays the options
that are currently enabled. If arguments are specified, sets options in option_list (a list of binary options, those that are either
set or not set); or sets an option that must be assigned a value. (See Enabling and Disabling Options for a description of valid
options.) Invokes an interactive version of the shell. Displays the sizes in lines and characters of the messages in message_list.
Reads and executes the mailx commands from file. Displays the top few lines of the messages specified by message_list. The number
of lines displayed is determined by the valued option toplines and defaults to 5. Marks the messages in message_list to be moved
from your system mailbox to your personal mailbox when you quit the mailx command, even though you have not read the listed mes-
sages. The messages appear in your personal mailbox as unread messages. When you use touch, the last message in message_list
becomes the current message. Displays the messages in message_list. Identical to the print subcommand. Like type, but also dis-
plays ignored header fields. (See type and ignore.) Identical to the Print subcommand. Deletes the specified alias names. If a
specified alias does not exist, the results are unspecified. Removes the messages in message_list from the list of messages to be
deleted when you quit mailx. Without a message_list, undelete recalls the last deleted message. Marks each message in message_list
as not having been read. Identical to the new, New, and Unread subcommands. Marks each message in message_list as not having been
read. Identical to the new, New, and unread subcommands. Discards the values of the options specified in option_list. This action
is the inverse of the set subcommand. Displays the version banner for the mailx command. Invokes the visual editor and loads mes-
sage_list into the editor. (This editor can be defined with the set VISUAL= statement.) When you exit the editor, any changes made
during the editing session are saved back to the messages in message_list. Appends the messages specified in message_list to file.
Displays the filename and the size of the file when the operation is complete. Does not include message headers in the file. Iden-
tical to the exit subcommand. Changes the current message group (group of 20 messages) and displays the headers of the messages in
that group. If a + or no argument is given, then headers in the next group are shown. If a - argument is given, the headers in the
previous group are shown.
Sending Mail
You can use the mailx command in one of two ways to send information. You can use the mailx command's built-in editor to both compose and
send a short message. You can also use the mailx command to send any text file to another user. The file can be a letter you have written
using your favorite editor, a source file for a program you have written, or any other file in text format.
The mailx command provides a line-oriented editor for composing messages. This editor allows you to enter each line of the message and then
press <Return> to get a new line to enter more text. You cannot change the text after you press <Return>. However, before you press
<Return>, you can change text on the current line by using <Backspace> and <Delete> to erase the text and then enter the replacement text.
Although you cannot change text on a line once you have pressed <Return>, you can change the contents of your message before sending it by
using the visual or edit subcommand to edit the message.
By default, mailx treats lines beginning with the ~ (tilde) character as special while you are composing a message. For instance, entering
~m on a line by itself places a copy of the current message into the response, shifting it to the right by one tab stop.
Other escapes set up subject fields, add and delete recipients of the message, and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the message,
or to a shell to run other commands. You can change the Escape character to something other than a tilde with the set escape= statement.
To view a summary of many useful commands, enter ~? on a line by itself while in the mail editor.
The following list provides a summary of the mail editor commands. Use these commands only while in the mail editor. The editor recog-
nizes commands only if you enter them at the beginning of a new line. Escapes to command mode. Displays a summary of the mailx subcom-
mands. Executes the shell command and returns to the message. Simulates End-of-File (terminates message input). Performs the command-
level request. Valid only when sending a message while reading mail. Inserts the autograph string from the sign= option into the message.
Inserts the autograph string from the Sign= option into the message. Adds names in address_list to the list of people to receive blind
copies of the message. Can only be used to add to (not to change or delete) the contents of the Bcc: list. Adds names in address_list to
the list of people to receive copies of the message. Can only be used to add to (not to change or delete) the contents of the Cc: list.
Dumps core. Appends the file dead.letter from your home directory to the current end of the message. Invokes the alternate editor using
the text of the current message as input. (This editor can be defined with the set EDITOR= statement.) When you exit that editor, you
return to the mail editor, where you can continue appending text to the message, or you can send the message by quitting the mailx command.
Includes one or more additional messages in the current message to forward to another user. This subcommand reads each message in mes-
sage_list and appends it to the end of the current message, but it does not indent the appended messages. This subcommand is also used to
append messages for reference when the margins are too wide to imbed with the ~m subcommand. The ~f subcommand works only if you entered
the mail editor from the mailbox prompt using the mail subcommand, the reply subcommand, or the Reply subcommand. Performs the same opera-
tion as the ~f command escape, except that all headers are included in the message, regardless of previous discard, ignore, and retain com-
mands. Allows you to add or to change information in all of the header fields. The system displays each of the four header fields, one at
a time. You can view the contents of each field and delete or add information to that field. Press <Return> to save any changes to that
field and to display the next field and its contents. Inserts the value of the named option into the text of the message. For example, ~A
is equivalent to ~i Sign. Reads message_list into the current messagefor reference purposes. This subcommand reads each message in mes-
sage_list and appends it to the current message. The included message is indented one tab character from the normal left margin of the
message. This subcommand works only if you entered the mail editor from the mailbox prompt using the mail subcommand, the reply subcom-
mand, or the Reply subcommand. If no messages are specified, it reads the current message. Performs the same operation as the ~m command
escape, except that all headers are included in the message, regardless of previous discard, ignore, and retain commands. Displays the
message as it currently exists, prefaced by the message header fields. Quits the editor, aborting the message being created without send-
ing it. Saves the message in the dead.letter file in your home directory, unless the nosave option is set. The previous contents of the
dead.letter file are overwritten by the partially completed message.
You can also quit the editor by using the Interrupt key sequence. Reads the named file into the message. If the argument begins
with !, the rest of the string is taken as an arbitrary system command and is executed, with the standard output inserted into the
message. Changes the Subject: field to the phrase specified in string. Adds the addresses in address_list to the To: field of the
message. Can only be used to add to (not to change or delete) the contents of the To: list. Invokes the visual editor using the
text of the current message as the input file. (This editor can be defined using the set VISUAL= statement.) When you exit that
editor, you return to the mail editor, where you can continue appending text to the message, or you can send the message by quitting
the mailx command. Writes the message to the named file. Exits as with ~q, except the message is not saved in dead.letter. Pipes
the message through command as a filter. If command gives no output or terminates abnormally, it retains the original text of the
message. Otherwise, the output of command replaces the current message. The fmt command is often used as command to format the
message. Allows you to use the ~ (tilde) character in a message without it being interpreted as a command prefix. The sequence ~~
(two tildes) results in only one ~ being sent in the message.
Customizing the Mail Program
The system manager uses the /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc file to define the initial configuration for the mailx command. The subcommands in this
file override the default characteristics of the mailx command for all users on the system. Although the initial configuration can meet
the needs of most users, you can alter it by creating the $HOME/.mailrc file. Subcommands in this file override similar subcommands in
/usr/share/lib/Mail.rc when you run the mailx command. The following subcommands are not legal in the start-up file: !, Copy, edit, fol-
lowup, Followup, hold, mail, preserve, reply, Reply, shell, and visual.
There are four mail subcommands that are most commonly used to alter the characteristics of the mailx session: set, unset, alias, and
ignore. The set and unset subcommands enable and disable mail options, the alias subcommand shortens how you address mail, and the ignore
subcommand suppresses message header fields.
Enabling and Disabling Options
The following are environment variables taken from the execution environment and are not alterable within mailx: The name of the locale for
performing character conversions on outgoing messages. The pathname of the user's home directory. The name of the locale for displaying
mail messages. The name of the start-up file. The default is $HOME/.mailrc.
Use the set subcommand to enable options and the unset subcommand to disable options. Options can be either binary or valued. Binary
options are either set or unset, while valued options can be set to a specific value. You can set options by placing set subcommand lines
in your $HOME/.mailrc file.
The syntax for enabling options using the set subcommand is as follows: set [option_list | option=value]
The syntax for disabling options using the unset subcommand is as follows: unset [option_list]
The following is a list of binary options (those that can be set or unset): Off by default; all network names with the same login name are
treated as being the same. Causes messages saved in mbox to be appended (added to the end) rather than prepended (added to the beginning).
Causes mailx to prompt you for the subject of each message you send. If you respond with a newline (carriage return), no subject field is
set. This option is enabled by default. Causes mailx to prompt you for the address of people to receive blind carbon copies of the mes-
sage. Responding with a newline indicates satisfaction with the current list. The default is noaskbcc. Causes you to be prompted for the
addresses of people to receive copies of the message. Responding with a newline indicates your satisfaction with the current list. Prompts
for subject if it is not specified on the command line with the -s option. Identical to ask. Causes the delete subcommand to behave like
dp. Thus, after deleting a message, the next one is typed automatically. Enables the special-case treatment of ! (exclamation points) in
escape command lines as in vi. The default is nobang. Causes mailx to display debugging information. The mailx command does not send
mail while in debug mode. Same as specifying -d on the command line. Causes mailx to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
of a message you are sending. Reverses the meaning of the R and r commands. The default is noflipr. Enables printing of the header sum-
mary when entering mailx. This option is enabled by default. Holds messages in the system mailbox by default. Causes Interrupt signals
from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as @'s. Makes mailx refuse to accept End-of-File key sequence as the end of a message or as
the quit subcommand. Related to the dot subcommand. Truncates the mailbox to zero length when it is empty, instead of removing it. This
option is disabled by default. Keeps messages that have been saved in other files in the mailbox, instead of deleting them. The default
is nokeepsave. Causes the sender to be included in the alias expansion, and thus receives copies of messages. Usually, when an alias con-
taining the sender is expanded, the sender is removed from the expansion. Used when replying to a message sent to several users and pre-
vents the addresses of the recipients from being made relative to the address of the original author. You can use this variable only on a
network where all systems can connect to one another directly. Prevents mailx from copying the partial letter to the file dead.letter in
your home directory when a message is terminated with two Interrupt key sequences. Causes the files used to record outgoing messages to be
located in the directory specified by the folder option unless the pathname is absolute. The default is nooutfolder. (See the folder
option and the Save, Copy, followup, and Followup subcommands.) Inserts a formfeed after each message sent through the pipe when used with
the pipe command. The default is nopage. Suppresses the printing of the program banner when mailx starts. (The banner is the line that
shows the name of the mail program.) Reverses the sense of the reply and Reply mailbox subcommands. Enables saving of messages in
dead.letter on interrupt or delivery error. (See DEAD= for a description of this file. This option is enabled by default.) Waits for the
background mailer to finish before returning. The default is nosendwait. Prints the recipient's name instead of the author's name when
displaying the header summary and the message is from the user. Runs mailx in verbose mode; the actual delivery of messages is displayed
on the user's terminal. Same as using the -v option on the command line.
The following is a list of valued options (those that can be assigned a value). The syntax for assigning values is set option=value. Sets
the default command for the pipe subcommand. There is no default value. Off by default; used to convert uucp addresses for sendmail.
Causes the paging program to automatically be invoked for messages that exceed number lines. Specifies the name of the file in which to
save partial letters in case of untimely interrupt or delivery errors. The default is $HOME/dead.letter. Defines the text editor invoked
by the ~e and edit subcommands. The absolute pathname must be given. The default editor is /usr/bin/ex. Defines a character to use in
the place of ~ (tilde) to denote escapes. Sets the locale for performing character conversion on outgoing messages. The default is None.
Defines the name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages. If this name begins with a / (slash), mailx considers it to be
an absolute pathname; otherwise, the folder directory is found relative to your home directory. Specifies a string that is prefixed to
each line inserted into the message by the ~m command escape. The default string is one <Tab> character. Sets the locale for displaying
mail messages. The default is C. Specifies the command (and arguments) to use when listing the contents of the folder directory. The
default is ls. Specifies the name of the system mailbox, by default /var/spool/mail/username. Specifies the name of the file in which to
save messages that have been read. The exit subcommand overrides this function, as does saving the message explicitly in another file. The
default is $HOME/mbox. Specifies the pathname of the paging program to use for the more subcommand or when the crt option is set. If you
do not specify a value for PAGER, the system uses /usr/bin/pg. Sets the command mode prompt to string. The default is ?. Specifies the
pathname of the file (relative to $HOME) used to record all outgoing mail. A copy of all the messages you send out is saved in this file.
Review this file periodically and delete all unnecessary messages.
The mailx subcommands do not create directories, so any directories included in the pathname must already exist before using this
subcommand. Do not include the home directory as part of the pathname. If record is not defined, then copies of outgoing mail are
not saved. Controls how many lines of the message list are displayed at a time. You can set this option to show a certain number
of lines on the screen. Each message in your mailbox has a one-line header in the message list. If you have more than 24 messages,
the first headers from the message list scroll past the top of your screen whenever you display the list. Specifies an alternative
command for delivering mail. Specifies the pathname of the shell to use in the ! and ~! subcommands. If this option is not
defined, your default shell is used. Specifies the variable inserted into the text of a message when the ~a (autograph) subcommand
is given. (See also the ~i tilde escape.) There is no default value. Specifies the variable inserted into the text of a message
when the ~A subcommand is given. (See also the ~i tilde escape.) There is no default value. Specifies the number of lines of a
message to be displayed with the top subcommand; normally, the first five lines are displayed. Specifies the pathname of the text
editor to use in the visual and ~v subcommands. The default pathname is /usr/bin/vi.
Creating Aliases and Distribution Lists
If you send mail on a large network or often send the same message to a large number of people, entering long addresses for each receiver
can become tedious. To simplify this process, you can create an alias or a distribution list in your $HOME/.mailrc file.
An alias is a name you define that can be used in place of a user address when you address mail. A distribution list is a name that you
define that can be used in place of a group of user addresses when you address mail.
Aliases and distribution lists are used the same way and defined in similar ways; the only difference is the number of addresses defined
for an alias (one address) and a distribution list (more than one address).
Changing the Information at the Top of a Message
You can use the ignore subcommand to suppress message header fields that are normally displayed when you read a message using the type or
print subcommands. The four message header fields are To, Subject, Cc, and Bcc.
The syntax of the ignore subcommand is as follows: ignore [field_list]
Note that fields are specified without a trailing : (colon). You can include the fields you want to ignore in your $HOME/.mailrc file.
Internationalization
[Tru64 UNIX] The mailx command supports codeset conversion of mail messages between the mail interchange code (specified by the EXCODE
environment variable) used to transmit messages to other hosts and the application code (specified by the LANG environment variable) used
by the user. For example, if the mail interchange code is ISO-2022-JP and the application code is eucJP, the mailx program converts incom-
ing messages from ISO-2022-JP to the Japanese EUC character set when displaying them and converts outgoing mail message from the Japanese
EUC character set to ISO-2022-JP.
To prevent data loss, incoming mail messages are stored in the mail folders as received, without conversion. The conversion takes place
when you display or extract mail messages.
To encode the mail interchange code information, new header lines are added to the outgoing mail messages. For example, if the mail inter-
change code is ISO-2022-JP, the following additional header lines are added:
Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-2022-JP
The charset field of the Content-Type header line provides the mail interchange code information. For non-ISO codesets, the prefix X- is
added to the character set name for identification purposes. For example:
Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-eucJP
For incoming mail messages, the mail interchange to be used is determined by the charset field of the additional header lines, if present.
For outgoing mail messages, the following rules determine the mail interchange code to be used: The EXCODE environment variable. The
excode valued option defined in $HOME/.mailrc or /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc
The application code is determined from the codeset part of the following locale information: The LANG environment variable. The lang val-
ued option defined in $HOME/.mailrc or /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc Defaults to C.
Note that you must specify a mail interchange code to do character conversion. There are no defaults.
All messages associated with conversion are informational only. The mail messages in question are still delivered or received.
The excode and lang options are recognized only within $HOME/.mailrc or /usr/share/lib/Mail.rc. Setting these options within mailx has no
effect.
RESTRICTIONS
The mailx command uses only mailbox files. It does not use POP or IMAP mailboxes.
EXAMPLES
To save a message to a folder, enter the following at the mailbox prompt (?): save 1 +procedures
The following message is displayed: /u/jay/doc/procedures [Appended] 32/947
In this example, message 1 was added to the end of the folder procedures. User jay has the following set folder statement in his
$HOME/.mailrc file so that the folder directory where that folder is kept is already selected:
set folder=/u/jay/doc To look at the contents of a specific mail folder, enter the following at the command-line prompt: mailx -f
+dept
In this example, a listing of the messages in the dept folder is displayed. To prevent the Date, From, and To headers from being
displayed when a message is read with the type or the print subcommand, enter the following statement in your $HOME/.mailrc file:
ignore date from to
When a message is displayed using the type or print subcommand, the date, from, and to headers are not displayed. However, if you
want to display these headers without deleting the ignore statement from your $HOME/.mailrc file, use the Type, Print, or top sub-
commands to display the message. To keep a record of messages you send to others, enter the following statement in your
$HOME/.mailrc file: set record=letters/mailout To create a distribution list for your department, enter the following statement in
your $HOME/.mailrc file: alias dept dee@merlin anne@anchor jerry@zeus bill carl
To send a message to your department after you have added this line to your $HOME/.mailrc file, enter the following at the command
line prompt: mailx dept
The message you now create and send will go to dee on system merlin, anne on system anchor, jerry on system zeus, and to bill and
carl on the local system.
FILES
User mailbox files. Holds saved mail. File containing mailx subcommands to customize mailx for a specific user. File containing mailx
subcommands to change mailx for all users on the system.
SEE ALSO
Commands: mail(1), fmt(1), pg(1), sendmail(8)
Standards: standards(5)
mailx(1)