Research V3 development

[unix-history] / man / man1 / mail.1

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.he 'MAIL (I)'10/25/72'MAIL (I)'
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NAME		mail  --  send mail to another user
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SYNOPSIS	mail\b\b\b\b____ [ -yn\b\b\b___ ]
.br
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mail
letter person ...
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mail\b\b\b\b____ person
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DESCRIPTION	mail\b\b\b\b____
without an argument searches for a file called mailbox\b\b\b\b\b\b\b_______, prints
it if present, and asks if it should be saved.  If the answer
is "y", the mail is renamed mbox\b\b\b\b____, otherwise it is deleted.
Mail\b\b\b\b____ with a -yn\b\b\b___ argument works the same way, except
that the answer to the question is supplied by the argument.
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When followed by the names of a letter
and one or more people,
the letter is appended to
each person's mailbox\b\b\b\b\b\b\b_______.
When a person\b\b\b\b\b\b______ is specified without a letter\b\b\b\b\b\b______,
the letter is taken from the sender's standard input up to an EOT.
Each letter is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.

A person\b\b\b\b\b\b______ is either
a user name recognized by login\b\b\b\b\b_____, in which case the mail
is sent to the default working directory of that user,
or the path name of a directory,
in which case mailbox\b\b\b\b\b\b\b_______ in that directory is used.
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When a user logs in he is informed of the presence
of mail.
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FILES		/etc/passwd	to identify sender
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		to locate persons
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mailbox		input mail
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mbox		saved mail
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SEE ALSO	login(I)
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DIAGNOSTICS	"Who are you?"
if the user cannot be identified for some reason (a bug).
"Cannot send to user" if mailbox\b\b\b\b\b\b\b_______ cannot be opened.
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BUGS		--