1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)mail.1 6.16 (Berkeley) 07/24/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt MAIL 1 10.Os BSD 4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm mail 13.Nd send and receive mail 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm mail 16.Op Fl iInv 17.Op Fl s Ar subject 18.Op Fl c Ar cc-addr 19.Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr 20.Ar to-addr... 21.br 22.Nm mail 23.Op Fl iInNv 24.Fl f 25.Op Ar name 26.br 27.Nm mail 28.Op Fl iInNv 29.Op Fl u Ar user 30.Sh INTRODUCTION 31.Nm Mail 32is a intelligent mail processing system, which has 33a command syntax reminiscent of 34.Xr ed 1 35with lines replaced by messages. 36.Pp 37.Tw Ds 38.Tp Fl v 39Verbose mode. The details of 40delivery are displayed on the users terminal. 41.Tp Fl i 42Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is 43particularly useful when using 44.Nm mail 45on noisy phone lines. 46.Tp Fl I 47Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when 48input isn't a terminal. In particular, the 49.Sq Ic \&~ 50special 51character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode. 52.Tp Fl n 53Inhibits reading 54.Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.rc 55upon startup. 56.Tp Fl N 57Inhibits the initial display of message headers 58when reading mail or editing a mail folder. 59.Tp Fl s 60Specify subject on command line 61(only the first argument after the 62.Fl s 63flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects 64containing spaces.) 65.Tp Fl c 66Send carbon copies to 67.Ar list 68of users. 69.Tp Fl b 70Send blind carbon copies to 71.Ar list . 72List should be a comma-separated list of names. 73.Tp Fl f 74Read in the contents of your 75.Ar mbox 76(or the specified file) 77for processing; when you 78.Ar quit , 79.Nm mail 80writes undeleted messages back to this file. 81.Tp Fl u 82Is equivalent to: 83.Dl mail -f /var/spool/mail/user 84.Tp 85.Ss Sending mail 86To send a message to one or more people, 87.Nm mail 88can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to 89whom the mail will be sent. You are then expected to type in 90your message, followed 91by an 92.Sq Li control\-D 93at the beginning of a line. 94The section below 95.Ar Replying to or originating mail , 96describes some features of 97.Nm mail 98available to help you compose your letter. 99.Pp 100.Ss Reading mail 101In normal usage 102.Nm mail 103is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the 104post office, then 105prints out a one line header of each message found. 106The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1) 107and can be printed using the 108.Ic print 109command (which can be abbreviated 110.Cx \&( 111.Ic p 112.Cx \&)). 113.Cx 114You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in 115.Xr ed 1 , 116with the commands 117.Sq Ic \&+ 118and 119.Sq Ic \&\- 120moving backwards and forwards, and 121simple numbers. 122.Pp 123.Ss Disposing of mail. 124After examining a message you can 125.Ic delete 126.Cx \&( 127.Ic d 128.Cx \&) 129.Cx 130the message or 131.Ic reply 132.Cx \&( 133.Ic r 134.Cx \&) 135.Cx 136to it. 137Deletion causes the 138.Nm mail 139program to forget about the message. 140This is not irreversible; the message can be 141.Ic undeleted 142.Cx \&( 143.Ic u 144.Cx \&) 145.Cx 146by giving its number, or the 147.Nm mail 148session can be aborted by giving the 149.Ic exit 150.Cx \&( 151.Ic x 152.Cx \&) 153.Cx 154command. 155Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again. 156.Pp 157.Ss Specifying messages 158Commands such as 159.Ic print 160and 161.Ic delete 162can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply 163to a number of messages at once. 164Thus 165.Dq Li delete 1 2 166deletes messages 1 and 2, while 167.Dq Li delete 1\-5 168deletes messages 1 through 5. 169The special name 170.Sq Li \&* 171addresses all messages, and 172.Sq Li \&$ 173addresses 174the last message; thus the command 175.Ic top 176which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in 177.Dq Li top \&* 178to print the first few lines of all messages. 179.Pp 180.Ss Replying to or originating mail. 181You can use the 182.Ic reply 183command to 184set up a response to a message, sending it back to the 185person who it was from. 186Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file, 187defines the contents of the message. 188While you are composing a message, 189.Nm mail 190treats lines beginning with the character 191.Sq Ic \&~ 192specially. 193For instance, typing 194.Sq Ic \&~m 195(alone on a line) will place a copy 196of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop 197(see 198.Em indentprefix 199variable, below). 200Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients 201to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the 202message or to a shell to run some commands. (These options 203are given in the summary below.) 204.Pp 205.Ss Ending a mail processing session. 206You can end a 207.Nm mail 208session with the 209.Ic quit 210.Cx \&( 211.Ic q 212.Cx \&) 213.Cx 214command. 215Messages which have been examined go to your 216.Ar mbox 217file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded. 218Unexamined messages go back to the post office. (See the 219.Fl f 220option above). 221.Pp 222.Ss Personal and systemwide distribution lists. 223It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that, 224for instance, you can send mail to 225.Dq Li cohorts 226and have it go 227to a group of people. 228Such lists can be defined by placing a line like 229.Pp 230.Dl alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory 231.Pp 232in the file 233.Pa \&.mailrc 234in your home directory. 235The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the 236.Ic alias 237command in 238.Nm mail . 239System wide distribution lists can be created by editing 240.Pa /etc/aliases , 241see 242.Xr aliases 5 243and 244.Xr sendmail 8 ; 245these are kept in a different syntax. 246In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent 247to others so that they will be able to 248.Ic reply 249to the recipients. 250System wide 251.Ic aliases 252are not expanded when the mail is sent, 253but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide 254alias expanded as all mail goes through 255.Xr sendmail . 256.Pp 257.Ss Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet) 258See 259.Xr mailaddr 7 260for a description of network addresses. 261.Pp 262.Nm Mail 263has a number of options which can be set in the 264.Pa \& .mailrc 265file to alter its behavior; thus 266.Dq Li set askcc 267enables the 268.Ar askcc 269feature. (These options are summarized below.) 270.Sh SUMMARY 271(Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual') 272.Pp 273Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments 274following the command word. The command need not be typed in its 275entirety \- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. 276For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message 277list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the 278command's requirements is used. If there are no messages forward of 279the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no 280good messages at all, 281.Nm mail 282types 283.Dq Li No applicable messages 284and 285aborts the command. 286.Tp Ic \&\- 287Print out the preceding message. If given a numeric 288argument 289.Ar n , 290goes to the 291.Cx Ar n 292.Cx \'th 293.Cx 294previous message and prints it. 295.Tp Ic \&? 296Prints a brief summary of commands. 297.Tp Ic \&! 298Executes the shell 299(see 300.Xr sh 1 301and 302.Xr csh 1 ) 303command which follows. 304.Tp Ic Print 305.Cx \&( 306.Ic P 307.Cx \&) 308.Cx 309Like 310.Ic print 311but also prints out ignored header fields. See also 312.Ic print , 313.Ic ignore 314and 315.Ic retain . 316.Tp Ic Reply 317.Cx \&( 318.Ic R 319.Cx \&) 320.Cx 321Reply to originator. Does not reply to other 322recipients of the original message. 323.Tp Ic Type 324.Cx \&( 325.Ic T 326.Cx \&) 327.Cx 328Identical to the 329.Ic Print 330command. 331.Tp Ic alias 332.Cx \&( 333.Ic a 334.Cx \&) 335.Cx 336With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases. With one 337argument, prints out that alias. With more than one argument, creates 338a new alias or changes an old one. 339.Tp Ic alternates 340.Cx \&( 341.Ic alt 342.Cx \&) 343.Cx 344The 345.Ic alternates 346command is useful if you have accounts on several machines. 347It can be used to inform 348.Nm mail 349that the listed addresses are really you. When you 350.Ic reply 351to messages, 352.Nm mail 353will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses 354listed on the 355.Ic alternates 356list. If the 357.Ic alternates 358command is given with no argument, the current set of alternate 359names is displayed. 360.Tp Ic chdir 361.Cx \&( 362.Ic c 363.Cx \&) 364.Cx 365Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given. If 366no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory. 367.Tp Ic copy 368.Cx \&( 369.Ic co 370.Cx \&) 371.Cx 372The 373.Ic copy 374command does the same thing that 375.Ic save 376does, except that it does not mark the messages it 377is used on for deletion when you quit. 378.Tp Ic delete 379.Cx \&( 380.Ic d 381.Cx \&) 382.Cx 383Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted. 384Deleted messages will not be saved in 385.Ar mbox , 386nor will they be available for most other commands. 387.Tp Ic dp 388(also 389.Ic dt ) 390Deletes the current message and prints the next message. 391If there is no next message, 392.Nm mail 393says 394.Dq Li at EOF. 395.Tp Ic edit 396.Cx \&( 397.Ic e 398.Cx \&) 399.Cx 400Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in 401turn. On return from the editor, the message is read back in. 402.Tp Ic exit 403.Cx \&( 404.Ic ex 405.Cx 406or 407.Ic x ) 408Effects an immediate return to the Shell without 409modifying the user's system mailbox, his 410.Ar mbox 411file, or his edit file in 412.Fl f . 413.Tp Ic file 414.Cx \&( 415.Ic fi 416.Cx ) 417.Cx 418The same as 419.Ic folder . 420.Tp Ic folders 421List the names of the folders in your folder directory. 422.Tp Ic folder 423.Cx \&( 424.Ic fo 425.Cx \&) 426.Cx 427The 428.Ic folder 429command switches to a new mail file or folder. With no 430arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading. 431If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such 432as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in 433the new file. Some special conventions are recognized for 434the name. # means the previous file, % means your system 435mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means 436your 437.Ar mbox 438file, and +folder means a file in your folder 439directory. 440.Tp Ic from 441.Cx \&( 442.Ic f 443.Cx \&) 444.Cx 445Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers. 446.Tp Ic headers 447.Cx \&( 448.Ic h 449.Cx \&) 450.Cx 451Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18\-message group. If 452a 453.Sq Li \&+ 454argument is given, then the next 18\-message group is printed, and if 455a 456.Sq Li \&\- 457argument is given, the previous 18\-message group is printed. 458.Tp Ic help 459A synonym for 460.Ic \&? 461.Tp Ic hold 462.Cx \&( 463.Ic ho , 464.Cx 465also 466.Ic preserve ) 467Takes a message list and marks each 468message therein to be saved in the 469user's system mailbox instead of in 470.Ar mbox . 471Does not override the 472.Ic delete 473command. 474.Tp Ic ignore 475.Sy N.B.: 476.Ic Ignore 477has been superseded by 478.Ic retain . 479.br 480Add the list of header fields named to the 481.Ar ignored list 482Header fields in the ignore list are not printed 483on your terminal when you print a message. This 484command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated 485header fields. The 486.Ic Type 487and 488.Ic Print 489commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including 490ignored fields. If 491.Ic ignore 492is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of 493ignored fields. 494.Tp Ic mail 495.Cx \&( 496.Ic m 497.Cx \&) 498.Cx 499Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends 500mail to those people. 501.Tp Ic mbox 502Indicate that a list of messages be sent to 503.Ic mbox 504in your home directory when you quit. This is the default 505action for messages if you do 506.Em not 507have the 508.Ic hold 509option set. 510.Tp Ic next 511.Cx \&( 512.Ic n 513.Cx 514like 515.Ic \&+ 516or CR) Goes to the next message in sequence and types it. 517With an argument list, types the next matching message. 518.Tp Ic preserve 519.Cx \&( 520.Ic pre 521.Cx \&) 522.Cx 523A synonym for 524.Ic hold . 525.Tp Ic print 526.Cx \&( 527.Ic p 528.Cx \&) 529.Cx 530Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal. 531.Tp Ic quit 532.Cx \&( 533.Ic q 534.Cx \&) 535.Cx 536Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in 537the user's 538.Ar mbox 539file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with 540.Ic hold 541or 542.Ic preserve 543or never referenced 544in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system 545mailbox. If new mail has arrived during the session, the message 546.Dq Li You have new mail 547is given. If given while editing a 548mailbox file with the 549.Fl f 550flag, then the edit file is rewritten. A return to the Shell is 551effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user 552can escape with the 553.Ic exit 554command. 555.Tp Ic reply 556.Cx \&( 557.Ic r 558.Cx \&) 559.Cx 560Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all 561recipients of the specified message. 562The default message must not be deleted. 563.Tp Ic respond 564A synonym for 565.Ic reply . 566.Tp Ic retain 567Add the list of header fields named to the 568.Ar retained list 569Only the header fields in the retain list 570are shown on your terminal when you print a message. 571All other header fields are suppressed. 572The 573.Ic Type 574and 575.Ic Print 576commands can be used to print a message in its entirety. 577If 578.Ic retain 579is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of 580retained fields. 581.Tp Ic save 582.Cx \&( 583.Ic s 584.Cx \&) 585.Cx 586Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in 587turn to the end of the file. The filename in quotes, followed by the line 588count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal. 589.Tp Ic set 590.Cx \&( 591.Ic se 592.Cx \&) 593.Cx 594With no arguments, prints all variable values. Otherwise, sets 595option. Arguments are of the form 596.Ar option=value 597(no space before or after =) or 598.Ar option . 599Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to 600quote blanks or tabs, i.e. 601.Dq Li set indentprefix="->" 602.Tp Ic saveignore 603.Ic Saveignore 604is to 605.Ic save 606what 607.Ic ignore 608is to 609.Ic print 610and 611.Ic type . 612Header fields thus marked are filtered out when 613saving a message by 614.Ic save 615or when automatically saving to 616.Ar mbox . 617.Tp Ic saveretain 618.Ic Saveretain 619is to 620.Ic save 621what 622.Ic retain 623is to 624.Ic print 625and 626.Ic type . 627Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved 628with a message when saving by 629.Ic save 630or when automatically saving to 631.Ar mbox . 632.Ic Saveretain 633overrides 634.Ic saveignore . 635.Tp Ic shell 636.Cx \&( 637.Ic sh 638.Cx \&) 639.Cx 640Invokes an interactive version of the shell. 641.Tp Ic size 642Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each 643message. 644.Tp Ic source 645.Cx \&( 646.Ic so 647.Cx \&) 648The 649.Ic source 650command reads 651.Nm mail 652commands from a file. 653.Tp Ic top 654Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each. The number of 655lines printed is controlled by the variable 656.Ic toplines 657and defaults to five. 658.Tp Ic type 659.Cx \&( 660.Ic t 661.Cx \&) 662.Cx 663A synonym for 664.Ic print . 665.Tp Ic unalias 666Takes a list of names defined by 667.Ic alias 668commands and discards the remembered groups of users. The group names 669no longer have any significance. 670.Tp Ic undelete 671.Cx \&( 672.Ic u 673.Cx \&) 674.Cx 675Takes a message list and marks each message as 676.Ic not 677being deleted. 678.Tp Ic unread 679.Cx \&( 680.Ic U 681.Cx \&) 682.Cx 683Takes a message list and marks each message as 684.Ic not 685having been read. 686.Tp Ic unset 687Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values; 688the inverse of 689.Ic set . 690.Tp Ic visual 691.Cx \&( 692.Ic v 693.Cx \&) 694.Cx 695Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message. 696.Tp Ic write 697.Cx \&( 698.Ic w 699.Cx \&) 700.Cx 701Similar to 702.Ic save , 703except that 704.Ic only 705the message body 706.Cx \&( 707.Ar without 708.Cx 709the header) is saved. 710Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source 711program text over the message system. 712.Tp Ic xit 713.Cx \&( 714.Ic x 715.Cx \&) 716.Cx 717A synonym for 718.Ic exit . 719.Tp Ic z 720.Nm Mail 721presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the 722.Ic headers 723command. You can move 724.Cx Nm mail 725.Cx 's 726.Cx 727attention forward to the next window with the 728.Ic \&z 729command. Also, you can move to the previous window by using 730.Ic \&z\&\- . 731.Tp 732.Ss Tilde/Escapes 733.Pp 734Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, 735which are used when composing messages to perform 736special functions. Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning 737of lines. The name 738.Dq Em tilde\ escape 739is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set 740by the option 741.Ic escape . 742.Tw Ds 743.Tp Cx Ic \&~! 744.Ar command 745.Cx 746Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message. 747.Tp Cx Ic \&~b 748.Ar name ... 749.Cx 750Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make 751the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy). 752.Tp Cx Ic \&~c 753.Ar name ... 754.Cx 755Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients. 756.Tp Ic \&~d 757Read the file 758.Dq Pa dead.letter 759from your home directory into the message. 760.Tp Ic \&~e 761Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far. After the 762editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the 763message. 764.Tp Cx Ic \&~f 765.Ar messages 766.Cx 767Read the named messages into the message being sent. 768If no messages are specified, read in the current message. 769Message headers currently being ignored (by the 770.Ic ignore 771or 772.Ic retain 773command) are not included. 774.Tp Cx Ic \&~F 775.Ar messages 776.Cx 777Identical to 778.Ic \&~f , 779except all message headers are included. 780.Tp Ic \&~h 781Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing 782the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the 783current terminal erase and kill characters. 784.Tp Cx Ic \&~m 785.Ar messages 786.Cx 787Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a 788tab or by the value of 789.Ar indentprefix . 790If no messages are specified, 791read the current message. 792Message headers currently being ignored (by the 793.Ic ignore 794or 795.Ic retain 796command) are not included. 797.Tp Cx Ic \&~M 798.Ar messages 799.Cx 800Identical to 801.Ic \&~m , 802except all message headers are included. 803.Tp Ic \&~p 804Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header 805fields. 806.Tp Ic \&~q 807Abort the message being sent, copying the message to 808.Dq Pa dead.letter 809in your home directory if 810.Ic save 811is set. 812.Tp Cx Ic \&~r 813.Ar filename 814.Cx 815Read the named file into the message. 816.Tp Cx Ic \&~s 817.Ar string 818.Cx 819Cause the named string to become the current subject field. 820.Tp Cx Ic \&~\&t 821.Ar name ... 822.Cx 823Add the given names to the direct recipient list. 824.\" This .br should have to be here 825.br 826.Tp Ic \&~\&v 827Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the VISUAL option) on the 828message collected so far. Usually, the alternate editor will be a 829screen editor. After you quit the editor, you may resume appending 830text to the end of your message. 831.Tp Cx Ic \&~w 832.Ar filename 833.Cx 834Write the message onto the named file. 835.Tp Cx Ic \&~\&| 836.Ar command 837.Cx 838Pipe the message through the command as a filter. If the command gives 839no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the 840message. The command 841.Xr fmt 1 842is often used as 843.Ic command 844to rejustify the message. 845.Tp Cx Ic \&~: 846.Ar mail-command 847.Cx 848Execute the given mail command. Not all commands, however, are allowed. 849.Tp Cx Ic \&~~ 850.Ar string 851.Cx 852Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~. If 853you have changed the escape character, then you should double 854that character in order to send it. 855.Tp 856.Ss Mail Options 857Options are controlled via 858.Ic set 859and 860.Ic unset 861commands. Options may be either binary, in which case it is only 862significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which 863case the actual value is of interest. 864The binary options include the following: 865.Tp Ar append 866Causes messages saved in 867.Ar mbox 868to be appended to the end rather than prepended. 869This should always be set (perhaps in 870.Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.rc ) . 871.Tp Ar ask 872Causes 873.Nm mail 874to prompt you for the subject of each message you send. If 875you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent. 876.Tp Ar askcc 877Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the 878end of each message. Responding with a newline indicates your 879satisfaction with the current list. 880.Tp Ar autoprint 881Causes the 882.Ic delete 883command to behave like 884.Ic dp 885\- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed 886automatically. 887.Tp Ar debug 888Setting the binary option 889.Ar debug 890is the same as specifying 891.Fl d 892on the command line and causes 893.Nm mail 894to output all sorts of information useful for debugging 895.Nm mail . 896.Tp Ar dot 897The binary option 898.Ar dot 899causes 900.Nm mail 901to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator 902of a message you are sending. 903.Tp Ar hold 904This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox 905by default. 906.Tp Ar ignore 907Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as 908@'s. 909.Tp Ar ignoreeof 910An option related to 911.Ar dot 912is 913.Ar ignoreeof 914which makes 915.Nm mail 916refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message. 917.Ar Ignoreeof 918also applies to 919.Nm mail 920command mode. 921.Tp Ar metoo 922Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender 923is removed from the expansion. Setting this option causes the sender 924to be included in the group. 925.Tp Ar noheader 926Setting the option 927.Ar noheader 928is the same as giving the 929.Fl N 930flag on the command line. 931.Tp Ar nosave 932Normally, when you abort a message with two 933.Li RUBOUT 934(erase or delete) 935.Nm mail 936copies the partial letter to the file 937.Dq Pa dead.letter 938in your home directory. Setting the binary option 939.Ar nosave 940prevents this. 941.Tp Ar Replyall 942Reverses the sense of 943.Ic reply 944and 945.Ic Reply 946commands. 947.Tp Ar quiet 948Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked. 949.Tp Ar verbose 950Setting the option 951.Ar verbose 952is the same as using the 953.Fl v 954flag on the command line. When mail runs in verbose mode, 955the actual delivery of messages is displayed on he users 956terminal. 957.Tp 958.Ss Option String Values 959.Tw Va 960.Tp Va EDITOR 961Pathname of the text editor to use in the 962.Ic edit 963command and 964.Ic \&~e 965escape. If not defined, then a default editor is used. 966.Tp Va LISTER 967Pathname of the directory lister to use in the 968.Ic folders 969command. Default is 970.Pa /bin/ls . 971.Tp Va PAGER 972Pathname of the program to use in the 973.Ic more 974command or when 975.Ic crt 976variable is set. The default paginator 977.Xr more 1 978is used if this option is not defined. 979.Tp Va SHELL 980Pathname of the shell to use in the 981.Ic \&! 982command and the 983.Ic \&~! 984escape. A default shell is used if this option is 985not defined. 986.Tp Va VISUAL 987Pathname of the text editor to use in the 988.Ic visual 989command and 990.Ic \&~v 991escape. 992.Tp Va crt 993The valued option 994.Va crt 995is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must 996be before 997.Va PAGER 998is used to read it. If 999.Va crt 1000is set without a value, 1001then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system 1002is used to compute the threshold (see 1003.Xr stty 1 ) . 1004.Tp Ar escape 1005If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to 1006use in the place of ~ to denote escapes. 1007.Tp Ar folder 1008The name of the directory to use for storing folders of 1009messages. If this name begins with a `/', 1010.Nm mail 1011considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the 1012folder directory is found relative to your home directory. 1013.Tp Ar MBOX 1014The name of the 1015.Ar mbox 1016file. It can be the name of a folder. 1017The default is 1018.Dq Li mbox 1019in the user's home directory. 1020.Tp Ar record 1021If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing 1022mail. If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved. 1023.Tp Ar indentprefix 1024String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of 1025the normal tab character (^I). Be sure to quote the value if it contains 1026spaces or tabs. 1027.Tp Ar toplines 1028If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out 1029with the 1030.Ic top 1031command; normally, the first five lines are printed. 1032.Tp 1033.Sh ENVIRONMENT 1034.Nm Mail 1035utilizes the 1036.Ev HOME 1037and 1038.Ev USER 1039environment variables. 1040.Sh FILES 1041.Dw /usr/share/misc/Mail.help* 1042.Di L 1043.Dp Pa /var/spool/mail/* 1044post office 1045.Dp ~/mbox 1046your old mail 1047.Dp ~/.mailrc 1048file giving initial mail commands 1049.Dp Pa /tmp/R* 1050temporary files 1051.Dp Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.help* 1052help files 1053.Dp Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.rc 1054system initialization file 1055.Dp 1056.Sh SEE ALSO 1057.Xr binmail 1 , 1058.Xr fmt 1 , 1059.Xr newaliases 1 , 1060.Xr vacation 1 , 1061.Xr aliases 5 , 1062.Xr mailaddr 7 , 1063.Xr sendmail 8 1064and 1065.Em The Mail Reference Manual . 1066.Sh HISTORY 1067A 1068.Nm mail 1069command 1070appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. 1071This man page is derived from 1072.Em The Mail Reference Manual 1073originally written by Kurt Shoens. 1074.Sh BUGS 1075There are some flags that are not documented here. Most are 1076not useful to the general user. 1077.Pp 1078Usually, 1079.Nm mail 1080is just a link to 1081.Nm Mail , 1082which can be confusing. 1083