.TH BINMAIL 1 "16 November 1979"
binmail \- send or receive mail among users
Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program. The default
and its binary is in the directory
with no argument prints a user's mail, message-by-message,
in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument
displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order.
For each message, it reads a line from the standard input
to direct disposition of the message.
Delete message and go on to the next.
Go back to previous message.
.RI "s [" " file " "] ..."
Save the message in the named
.RI "w [" " file " "] ..."
Save the message, without a header, in the named
.RI "m [" " person " "] ..."
Mail the message to the named
Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.
Escape to the Shell to do
An interrupt normally terminates the
command; the mail file is unchanged. The optional argument
to continue after interrupts.
takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just `.')
`mail' file. The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.
Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with `>'. A
is usually a user name recognized by
To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix
by the system name and exclamation mark (see
option causes the named file, for example, `mbox',
to be printed as if it were the mail file.
When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail.
.ta \w'/usr/spool/mail/*.lock 'u
/etc/passwd to identify sender and locate persons
/usr/spool/mail/* incoming mail for user *
/usr/spool/mail/*.lock lock for mail directory
dead.letter unmailable text
Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8)
Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file.
Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by
An installation can overcome this by making
a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory.