v7 man page for mail

MAIL(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   MAIL(1)

NAME
       mail  -	send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS
       mail person ...
       mail [ -r ] [ -q ] [ -p ] [ -f file ]

DESCRIPTION
       Mail  with  no  argument  prints  a user's mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument -r causes first-in,
       first-out order.  If the -p flag is given, the mail is printed with no questions asked; otherwise, for each message, mail 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.

       x      Exit, without changing the mailbox file.

       !command
	      Escape to the Shell to do command.

       ?      Print a command summary.

       An  interrupt stops the printing of the current letter.	The optional argument -q causes mail to exit after interrupts without changing the
       mailbox.

       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(1)).

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

       Each  user owns his own mailbox, which is by default generally readable but not writable.  The command does not delete an empty mailbox nor
       change its mode, so a user may make it unreadable if desired.

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

FILES
       /usr/spool/mail/*   mailboxes
       /etc/passwd    to identify sender and locate persons
       mbox	 saved mail
       /tmp/ma*  temp file
       dead.letter    unmailable text
       uux(1)

SEE ALSO
       xsend(1), write(1), uucp(1)

BUGS
       There is a locking mechanism intended to prevent two senders from accessing the same mailbox, but it is not perfect and races are possible.

																	   MAIL(1)