mail(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   mail(1)

NAME

       mail, rmail - send mail to users or read mail

SYNOPSIS

       file]

       person ...

       person ...

   Remarks:
       See mailx(1) and elm(1) for an enhanced user mail interface.

DESCRIPTION

       The command, when used without arguments, prints the user's mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order.

       For  each  message,  prints  a  prompt and reads a line from the standard input to determine the disposition of the message.  Commands that
       automatically proceed to the next message exit from if already on the last message.

   Commands
       supports the following commands:

	      <new-line>     Go on to next message.  Exit if already on last message.

	      Same as <new-line>.

	      Same as <new-line>.

	      Delete message and go on to next message.

	      Print message again.

	      Go back to previous message.

	      Save message in the named
			     files (default is mark the message for deletion from the user's mailfile, and proceed to next message.

	      Same	     as

	      Save message without its header (the ``From ...'' line),
			     in the named files (default is mark the message for deletion, and go on to next message.

	      Mail the message to each named
			     person, mark the message for deletion, and go on to next message.

	      Put undeleted mail back in the
			     and stop.

	      Same as

	      Abort.	     Leave original unchanged and stop.

	      Escape to the command interpreter and execute
			     command.

	      Print a command summary.

	      Same as

   Command-Line Options
       The following command-line options alter printing of the mail:

	      Cause messages to be printed in first-in, first-out order.

	      Suppresses printing of mail and returns the exit value:

				  0 = Mail present
				  1 = No mail
				  2 = Other error

	      Prints all mail without prompting for disposition.

	      Causes	     to terminate if an interrupt is received.	Normally an interrupt only causes the termination of the printing  of  the
			     current message.

	      Same as

	      Causes	     to use file (for example, instead of the default mailfile.

	      Causes the outbound message to be preceded by each
			     person  the  mail	is sent to.  A person is usually a user name recognized by (see login(1)).  If a person being sent
			     mail is not recognized, or if is interrupted during input, the file will be saved to  allow  editing  and	resending.
			     Note that is regarded as a temporary file in that it is recreated every time needed, erasing the previous contents of

	      Causes	     to  deliver mail directly.  This isolates from making routing decisions, and allows it to be used as a local delivery
			     agent.  Typically this option is used by auto-routing facilities when they deliver mail locally.

       When persons are named, takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or up to a line consisting of just a and adds it	to  each  person's
       mailfile.  The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.

       To  denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1)).	Everything after the first
       exclamation mark in person is interpreted by the remote system.	In particular, if person contains additional  exclamation  marks,  it  can
       denote a sequence of machines through which the message is to be sent on the way to its ultimate destination.  For example, specifying as a
       recipient's name causes the message to be sent to user on system System then interprets that destination as a request to send  the  message
       to  user  on  system  This might be useful, for instance, if the sending system can access system but not system does not use if the remote
       system is the local system name (i.e., localsystem!user).

       The can be manipulated in two ways to alter the function of The other permissions of the file can be read-write, read-only, or neither read
       nor  write to allow different levels of privacy.  If changed to other than the default, the file is preserved, even when empty, to perpetu-
       ate the desired permissions.  The file can also contain the first line:

	      person

       which causes all mail sent to the owner of the to be forwarded to person.  This is especially useful for forwarding all of a person's  mail
       to a given machine in a multiple-machine environment.  In order for forwarding to work properly the should have "mail" as group ID, and the
       group permission should be read-write.

       only permits the sending of mail.  uses as a security precaution.

       When a user logs in, the command can be used to detect the presence of mail, if any, and so indicate.  When terminating, produces a notifi-
       cation message if new mail arrived while was running.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

   Environment Variables
       determines the format and contents of the displayed date and time strings.

       If is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of is used as a default for each unspecified or empty vari-
       able.  If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead  of  If  any  internationalization
       variable contains an invalid setting, behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See environ(5).

       When set, the environment variable specifies a directory to be used for temporary files, overriding the default directory

   International Code Set Support
       Between	HP-UX  systems,  single-  and multi-byte character code sets are supported within mail text.  Headers are restricted to characters
       from the 7-bit USASCII code set (see ascii(5)).

WARNINGS

       Conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file.

       After an interrupt, the next message may not be printed.  To force printing, type a

       Lines that look like postmarks in the message (that is, ``From ...'')  are preceded by

       treats a line consisting solely of a dot as the end of the message, except when the command is used.

       The maximum allowable line length in mail messages is 8 times that of bytes as defined in If line length exceeds this limit, truncates  the
       line starting at beginning-of-line, and uses only the trailing 8 * characters.

       Using  two  separate  mail programs to access the same mail file simultaneously (usually inadvertently from two separate windows) can cause
       unpredictable results.

       Some sites that have programs that adhere strictly to RFC-822 will fail to deliver a message if any of the recipient fields below is  miss-
       ing.

       You can add the RFC-822 commands into the mail program buffer/editor. For instance:

FILES

       Lock for mail directory
       Unmailable text
       Temporary file
       Variable containing path name of
       Saved mail
       To identify sender and locate persons
       Directory for incoming mail
				(mode group ID
       Incoming mail for	user; that is, the mailfile (mode group ID

SEE ALSO

       login(1), mailx(1), uucp(1), write(1).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	   mail(1)