mail(1)

NAME
     mail - send and receive electronic mail

SYNOPSIS
     mail [-epqr] [-f file]
     mail [-dtv] [-s subject] user [...]

OPTIONS

     -e   Exit with status TRUE or FALSE to  indicate  if  there  is  mail  in
          mailbox

     -p   Print all mail and then exit

     -q   Quit program if SIGINT received

     -r   Reverse print order, i.e., print oldest first

     -f   Use file instead of /usr/spool/mail/user as mailbox

     -d   Force use of the shell variable MAILER

     -t   Show distribution list as Dist: header in message

     -v   Verbose mode (passed on to MAILER)

     -s   Use Subject: subject

EXAMPLES

     mail ast            # Send a message to ast

     mail                # Read your mail

     cat mail.cdiff | mail -s ''Here's the diff!'' asw
                         # Pipe program output to mail with a subject line

     mail -f /usr/spool/mail/asw
                         # How root can read asw's mail

DESCRIPTION

     Mail is an extremely simple electronic mail program.  It can be  used  to
     send  or  receive  email  on  a  single  MINIX  system,  in which case it
     functions as user agent and local delivery agent. If the flag  MAILER  is
     defined  in  mail.c,  it can also call a transport agent to handle remote
     mail as well.  No such agent is supplied with MINIX.



     When  called  by  user  with  no  arguments,  it  examines  the   mailbox
     /usr/spool/mail/user,  prints one message (depending on the -r flag), and
     waits for one of the following commands:

        <newline>   Go to the next message
        -           Print the previous message
        !command    Fork off a shell and execute command
        CTRL-D      Update the mailbox and quit (same as q)
        d           Delete the current message and go to the next one
        q           Update the mailbox and quit (same as CTRL-D)
        p           Print the current message again
        s [file]    Save message in the named file
        x           Exit without updating the mailbox

     To send mail, the program  is  called  with  the  name  of  one  or  more
     recipients  as  arguments.   The mail is sent, along with a postmark line
     containing the date.   For  local  delivery,  a  file  named  after  each
     recipient  in  the directory /usr/spool/mail must be writable. If a spool
     file does not exist for a recipient it will be created.

     If the directory /usr/spool/mail does not exist then the mail  is  dumped
     on  the console, so that system programs have a way to notify a user on a
     system that does not have a mail spool.

     The received mail contains a To: header showing the recipient.  If  there
     are  multiple  recipients  and  the -t option is specified each recipient
     will also see a Dist: header line showing the other recipients.

     The -s option allows a subject to  be  specified.  The  subject  must  be
     quoted if it contains spaces. If no subject is specified the mail will be
     delivered with Subject: No subject.

NOTES
     The -s option was added to make this simple mail program consistent  with
     mail programs found in other *nix variants.  Many programs, including the
     version of cron distributed with Minix releases 2.0.3 and  later,  report
     their  outcome  by  piping  output to the mail program in order to send a
     mail message to root in lieu of writing a log file.  Such programs  often
     expect the mail program to accept a subject line using this option.

BUGS
     If an  external  MAILER  is  used  it  is  likely  the  conditional  code
     supporting this will need some editing to be made to work correctly.

AUTHOR
     The original mail program for Minix was written by Peter B. Housel.   The
     -e and -t options were added by C. W. Rose. The -s option was added by A.
     S. Woodhull. This man page revised by ASW 2003-07-18.