.TH MAIL 1 .SH NAME mail \- send or receive mail among users .SH SYNOPSIS .B mail person ... .br .B mail [ .B \-r ] [ .B \-q ] [ .B \-p ] [ .B \-f file ] .LP .SH DESCRIPTION .I Mail with no argument prints a user's mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument .B \-r causes first-in, first-out order. If the .B \-p flag is given, the mail is printed with no questions asked; otherwise, for each message, .I mail reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message. .TP newline Go on to next message. .TP d Delete message and go on to the next. .TP p Print message again. .TP \- Go back to previous message. .TP .RI "s [" " file " "] ..." Save the message in the named .I files (`mbox' default). .TP .RI "w [" " file " "] ..." Save the message, without a header, in the named .I files (`mbox' default). .TP .RI "m [" " person " "] ..." Mail the message to the named .I persons (yourself is default). .TP EOT (control-D) Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop. .TP q Same as EOT. .TP x Exit, without changing the mailbox file. .TP !command Escape to the Shell to do command. .TP ? Print a command summary. .PP An interrupt stops the printing of the current letter. The optional argument .B \(miq causes .I mail to exit after interrupts without changing the mailbox. .PP When .I persons are named, .I mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just `.') and adds it to each .I person's `mail' file. The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark. Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with `>'. A .I person is usually a user name recognized by .IR login (1). To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix .I person by the system name and exclamation mark (see .IR uucp (1)). .PP The .B \-f option causes the named file, e.g. `mbox', to be printed as if it were the mail file. .PP Each user owns his own mailbox, which is by default generally readable but not writable. The command does not delete an empty mailbox nor change its mode, so a user may make it unreadable if desired. .PP When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail. .SH FILES /usr/spool/mail/* mailboxes .br /etc/passwd to identify sender and locate persons .br mbox saved mail .br /tmp/ma* temp file .br dead.letter unmailable text .br uux(1) .SH "SEE ALSO" xsend(1), write(1), uucp(1) .SH BUGS There is a locking mechanism intended to prevent two senders from accessing the same mailbox, but it is not perfect and races are possible.