bsd man page for binmail

BINMAIL(1)						      General Commands Manual							BINMAIL(1)

NAME
       binmail - send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS
       /bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] [ person ] ...
       /bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] -f file

DESCRIPTION
       Note:  This  is	the  old  version  7 UNIX system mail program.	The default mail command is described in Mail(1), and its binary is in the
       directory /usr/ucb.

       mail with no argument prints a user's mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument + displays the mail mes-
       sages in first-in, first-out order.  For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message.

       newline
	      Go on to next message.

       d      Delete message and go on to the next.

       p      Print message again.

       -      Go back to previous message.

       s [ file ] ...
	      Save the message in the named files (`mbox' default).

       w [ file ] ...
	      Save the message, without a header, in the named files (`mbox' default).

       m [ person ] ...
	      Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default).

       EOT (control-D)
	      Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.

       q      Same as EOT.

       !command
	      Escape to the Shell to do command.

       *      Print a command summary.

       An  interrupt  normally	terminates  the  mail  command; the mail file is unchanged.  The optional argument -i tells mail to continue after
       interrupts.

       When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just `.')  and adds it to each  person's  `mail'
       file.   The  message  is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.  Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with `>'.  A person is
       usually a user name recognized by login(1).  To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the  system  name  and  exclamation
       mark (see uucp(1C)).

       The -f option causes the named file, for example, `mbox', to be printed as if it were the mail file.

       When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail.

FILES
       /etc/passwd	      to identify sender and locate persons
       /usr/spool/mail/*      incoming mail for user *
       mbox		      saved mail
       /tmp/ma* 	      temp file
       /usr/spool/mail/*.lock lock for mail directory
       dead.letter	      unmailable text

SEE ALSO
       Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8)

BUGS
       Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file.

       Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1).  An installation can overcome this by making mail a set-user-id command
       that owns the mail directory.

7th Edition							  April 29, 1985							BINMAIL(1)