xref: /dragonfly/libexec/comsat/comsat.8 (revision dc71b7ab)
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28.\"     @(#)comsat.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/libexec/comsat/comsat.8,v 1.14 2005/02/13 23:45:48 ru Exp $
30.\" $DragonFly: src/libexec/comsat/comsat.8,v 1.3 2006/02/17 19:33:31 swildner Exp $
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32.Dd August 9, 2002
33.Dt COMSAT 8
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm comsat
37.Nd biff server
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The
42.Nm
43utility is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail
44and notifies users if they have requested this service.
45The
46.Nm
47utility receives messages on a datagram port associated with the
48.Dq biff
49service
50specification (see
51.Xr services 5
52and
53.Xr inetd 8 ) .
54The one line messages are of the form:
55.Pp
56.D1 Ar user Ns @ Ns Ar mailbox Ns - Ns Ar offset Ns Op : Ns Ar mailbox-name
57.Pp
58If the
59.Ar user
60specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has
61the owner execute bit turned on (by a
62.Dq Nm biff Cm y ) ,
63the
64.Ar offset
65is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
66the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed
67on the user's terminal.
68Lines which appear to be part of
69the message header other than the
70.Dq Li From ,
71.Dq Li \&To ,
72.Dq Li Date ,
73or
74.Dq Li Subject
75lines are not included in the displayed message.
76.Pp
77If the
78.Ar user
79specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has
80the group execute bit turned on (by a
81.Dq Nm biff Cm b ) ,
82two bell characters
83.Tn ( ASCII
84\\007) are printed on the user's terminal.
85.Pp
86If
87.Ar mailbox-name
88omitted, standard mailbox assumed.
89.Sh FILES
90.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /var/mail/user" -compact
91.It Pa /var/run/utmp
92to find out who is logged on and on what terminals
93.It Pa /var/mail/user
94standard mailbox
95.El
96.Sh SEE ALSO
97.Xr biff 1 ,
98.Xr inetd 8
99.Sh HISTORY
100The
101.Nm
102utility appeared in
103.Bx 4.2 .
104.Sh BUGS
105The message header filtering is prone to error.
106The density of the information presented is near the theoretical minimum.
107.Pp
108Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other
109machines than the one to which they are currently logged in.
110.Pp
111The notification should appear in a separate window so it
112does not mess up the screen.
113