UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I tried this last year, but I want to try it again. I'd like to learn how to send mail messages in UNIX (BSD on my iMac.) I've tried mail (email address) then the message and control D to send, but it doesn't go anywhere; the cursor just flashes.

I've also tried mail with a local file name, but nothing as well. Can someone tell me how mail is supposed to work, because I can't figure this out.

Do you mean you want to use the mail command or some thing else ?

You need to give the mail with user name

Code:

mail thillaiselvan

Then it will prompt for subject.
You need to give it. Then give ctrl+D.
Then it will ask for message.
You need to enter it and give ctrl+D.
Then it will ask for cc address.
If not required means just give ctrl+D
It will send the mail.

May I know to which address you tried to send mail?

---------- Post updated at 01:18 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:12 PM ----------

If you want to send the file contents you can use like this way
mail user_name < file

I want to send an email message to anyone. I tried to send it to my gmail account, but it didn't go.

Yes, abucker, I want to send an email from the terminal application. I should be able to send it to anyone, right? Even someone out on the net, not necessarily at another unix terminal.

The man pages for mail say to just type mail then the email address you want to send it to, then the message, then cntrl-d to send, which I did. This is what I tried:

mail xxxx@gmail.com(my email address, which is on the gmail server), then return
subject:test, <return>
(then the text here)
then cntrl-d to send.

nothing happens. what am I doing wrong?

May be your mail configuration settings not allowed to send mail to outside.(gmail or whatever it is). You check whether the mail is sending to the users within your organization.

Can you tell me how to configure my mail settings? I've never done it and the book didn't say anything about how to do it.

I'm not working at an organization; I'm just at home. I tried sending a mail to myself; I typed mail then 'christopher' and it send the message fine the first time, but now when I try it I get nothing. I tried mail Christopher (which is the name of the user account) and nothing as well.

Is there somewhere I can go to figure out how to configure my mail? I've been reading something about a Mail Transfer Agent, but I'm not sure what that is.