1.\" $OpenBSD: biff.1,v 1.18 2013/08/12 14:19:53 jmc Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: biff.1,v 1.3 1995/03/26 02:34:21 glass Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 5.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" @(#)biff.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 32.\" 33.Dd $Mdocdate: August 12 2013 $ 34.Dt BIFF 1 35.Os 36.Sh NAME 37.Nm biff 38.Nd be notified if mail arrives and who it is from 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40.Nm biff 41.Op Cm n | y 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43.Nm 44informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives 45during the current terminal session. 46.Pp 47The options are as follows: 48.Bl -tag -width Ds 49.It Cm n 50Disables notification. 51.It Cm y 52Enables notification. 53.El 54.Pp 55When mail notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of 56the message will be printed on your screen whenever mail arrives. 57A 58.Dq Li biff y 59command is often included in the file 60.Pa \&.login 61or 62.Pa \&.profile 63to be executed at each login. 64.Pp 65.Nm 66operates asynchronously. 67For synchronous notification use the 68.Ev MAIL 69variable of 70.Xr sh 1 71or the 72.Ev mail 73variable of 74.Xr csh 1 . 75.Sh EXIT STATUS 76The 77.Nm 78utility exits with one of the following values: 79.Bl -tag -width indent 80.It 0 81Notification was enabled at the time of invocation. 82.It 1 83Notification was disabled at the time of invocation. 84.It >1 85An error occurred. 86.El 87.Sh SEE ALSO 88.Xr csh 1 , 89.Xr mail 1 , 90.Xr sh 1 , 91.Xr comsat 8 92.Sh HISTORY 93The 94.Nm 95command appeared in 96.Bx 4.0 . 97.Qq Biff 98was Heidi Stettner's dog. 99He died in August 1993, at 15. 100