+.sh 1 "Tilde escapes"
+.pp
+While typing in a message to be sent to others, it is often
+useful to be able to invoke the text editor on the partial message,
+print the message, execute a shell command, or perform some other
+auxiliary function. Mail provides these capabilities through
+.i "tilde escapes" ,
+which consist of a tilde (~) at the beginning of a line, followed by
+a single character which indicates the function to be performed. For
+example, to print the text of the message so far, use:
+.(l
+~p
+.)l
+which will print a line of dashes, the recipients of your message, and
+the text of the message so far. If you are dissatisfied with the message as
+it stands, you can invoke the text editor on it using the escape
+.(l
+~e
+.)l
+which causes the message to be copied into a temporary file and an
+instance of the editor to be spawned. After modifying the message to
+your satisfaction, write it out and quit the editor. Mail will respond
+by typing
+.(l
+(continue)
+.)l
+after which you may continue typing text which will be appended to your
+message, or type <control-d> to end the message.
+.pp
+It is often useful to be able to include the contents of some
+file in your message; the escape
+.(l
+~r filename
+.)l
+is provided for this purpose, and causes the named file to be appended
+to your current message. Mail complains if the file doesn't exist
+or can't be read. If the read is successful, the number of lines and
+characters appended to your message is printed, after which you may continue
+appending text.
+.pp
+As a special case of ~r, the escape
+.(l
+~d
+.)l
+reads in the file
+.q dead.letter
+in your home directory. This is often useful since Mail copies the text
+of your message there when you abort a message with \s-2RUBOUT\s0.
+.pp
+In order to save the current text of your message on a file you may use the
+.(l
+~w filename
+.)l
+escape. Mail will print out the number of lines and characters written
+to the file, after which you may continue appending text to your message.
+.pp
+If you are sending mail from within Mail's command mode (read about the
+.b reply
+and
+.b mail
+commands, section six), you can read a message sent to you into the message
+you are constructing with the escape:
+.(l
+~m 4
+.)l
+which will read message 4 into the current message, shifted right by
+one tab stop. You can name any non-deleted message, or list of messages.
+This is the usual way to forward a message.
+.pp
+If, in the process of composing a message, you decide to add additional
+people to the list of message recipients, you can do so with the escape
+.(l
+~t name1 name2 ...
+.)l
+You may name as few or many additional recipients as you wish. Note
+that the users originally on the recipient list will still receive
+the message; in fact, you cannot remove someone from the recipient
+list with ~t.
+.pp
+If you wish, you can associate a subject with your message by using the
+escape
+.(l
+~s Arbitrary string of text
+.)l
+which replaces any previous subject with
+.q "Arbitrary string of text."
+The subject, if given, is sent near the
+top of the message prefixed with
+.q "Subj:"
+You can see what the message will look like by using ~p.
+.pp
+For political reasons, one occasionally prefers to list certain
+people as recipients of carbon copies of a message rather than
+direct recipients. The escape
+.(l
+~c name1 name2 ...
+.)l
+adds the named people to the
+.q "Cc:"
+list, similar to ~t.
+Again, you can execute ~p to see what the message will look like.
+.pp
+The recipients of the message together constitute the
+.q "To:"
+field, the subject the
+.q "Subj:"
+field, and the carbon copies the
+.q "Cc:"
+field. If you wish to edit these in ways impossible with the ~t, ~s,
+and ~c escapes, you can use the escape
+.(l
+~h
+.)l
+which prints
+.q "To:"
+followed by the current list of recipients and leaves the cursor
+(or printhead) at the end of the line. If you type in ordinary
+characters, they are appended to the end of the current list of
+recipients. You can also use your erase character to erase back into
+the list of recipients, or your kill character to erase them altogether.
+Thus, for example, if your erase and kill characters are the standard
+# and @ symbols,
+.(l
+~h
+To: root kurt####bill
+.)l
+would change the initial recipients
+.q "root kurt"
+to
+.q "root bill."
+When you type a newline, Mail advances to the
+.q "Subj:"
+field, where the same rules apply. Another newline brings you to
+the
+.q "Cc:"
+field, which may be edited in the same fashion. Another newline
+leaves you appending text to the end of your message. You can use
+~p to print the current text of the header fields and the body
+of the message.
+.pp
+To effect a temporary escape to the shell, the escape
+.(l
+~!command
+.)l
+is used, which executes
+.i command
+and returns you to mailing mode without altering the text of
+your message. If you wish, instead, to filter the body of your
+message through a shell command, then you can use
+.(l
+~|command
+.)l
+which pipes your message through the command and uses the output
+as the new text of your message. If the command produces no output,
+Mail assumes that something is amiss and retains the old version
+of your message. A frequently-used filter is the command
+.i fmt
+which is designed to format outgoing mail.
+.pp
+If you wish (for some reason) to send a message which contains
+a line beginning with a tilde, you must double it. Thus, for example,
+.(l
+~~This line begins with a tilde.
+.)l
+sends the line
+.(l
+~This line begins with a tilde.
+.)l
+.pp
+Finally, the escape
+.(l
+~?
+.)l
+prints out a brief summary of the available tilde escapes.
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