aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/usr.bin/mail/mail.1
blob: 45d5cdce5317213a7eca58d43f18a06d015de14d (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)mail.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
.\"	$Id$
.\"
.Dd December 30, 1993
.Dt MAIL 1
.Os BSD 4
.Sh NAME
.Nm mail
.Nd send and receive mail
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm mail
.Op Fl iInv
.Op Fl s Ar subject
.Op Fl c Ar cc-addr
.Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr
.Ar to-addr...
.Nm mail
.Op Fl iInNv
.Fl f
.Op Ar name
.Nm mail
.Op Fl iInNv
.Op Fl u Ar user
.Sh INTRODUCTION
.Nm Mail
is an intelligent mail processing system, which has
a command syntax reminiscent of
.Xr \&ed 1
with lines replaced by messages.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width flag
.It Fl v
Verbose mode.
The details of
delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.
.It Fl i
Ignore tty interrupt signals.
This is
particularly useful when using
.Nm mail
on noisy phone lines.
.It Fl I
Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when
input isn't a terminal.
In particular, the
.Sq Ic \&~
special
character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode.
.It Fl n
Inhibits reading the system-wide
.Pa mail.rc
files upon startup.
.It Fl N
Inhibits the initial display of message headers
when reading mail or editing a mail folder.
.It Fl s
Specify subject on command line
(only the first argument after the
.Fl s
flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
containing spaces.)
.It Fl c
Send carbon copies to
.Ar list
of users.
.It Fl b
Send blind carbon copies to
.Ar list .
List should be a comma-separated list of names.
.It Fl f
Read in the contents of your
.Ar mbox
(or the specified file)
for processing; when you
.Ar quit  ,
.Nm mail
writes undeleted messages back to this file.
.It Fl u
Is equivalent to:
.Pp
.Dl mail -f /var/mail/user
.El
.Ss Sending mail
To send a message to one or more people,
.Nm mail
can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to
whom the mail will be sent.
You are then expected to type in
your message, followed
by an
.Sq Li control\-D
at the beginning of a line.
The section below
.Ar Replying to or originating mail ,
describes some features of
.Nm mail
available to help you compose your letter.
.Pp
.Ss Reading mail
In normal usage
.Nm mail
is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the
post office, then
prints out a one line header of each message found.
The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1)
and can be printed using the
.Ic print
command (which can be abbreviated
.Ql Ic p ) .
You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in
.Xr \&ed 1 ,
with the commands
.Ql Ic \&+
and
.Ql Ic \&\-
moving backwards and forwards, and
simple numbers.
.Pp
.Ss Disposing of mail.
After examining a message you can
.Ic delete
.Ql Ic d )
the message or
.Ic reply
.Ql Ic r )
to it.
Deletion causes the
.Nm mail
program to forget about the message.
This is not irreversible; the message can be
.Ic undeleted
.Ql Ic u )
by giving its number, or the
.Nm mail
session can be aborted by giving the
.Ic exit
.Ql Ic x )
command.
Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again.
.Pp
.Ss Specifying messages
Commands such as
.Ic print
and
.Ic delete
can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply
to a number of messages at once.
Thus
.Dq Li delete 1 2
deletes messages 1 and 2, while
.Dq Li delete 1\-5
deletes messages 1 through 5.
The special name
.Ql Li \&*
addresses all messages, and
.Ql Li \&$
addresses
the last message; thus the command
.Ic top
which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
.Dq Li top \&*
to print the first few lines of all messages.
.Pp
.Ss Replying to or originating mail.
You can use the
.Ic reply
command to
set up a response to a message, sending it back to the
person who it was from.
Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file,
defines the contents of the message.
While you are composing a message,
.Nm mail
treats lines beginning with the character
.Ql Ic \&~
specially.
For instance, typing
.Ql Ic \&~m
(alone on a line) will place a copy
of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop
(see
.Em indentprefix
variable, below).
Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients
to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the
message or to a shell to run some commands.
(These options
are given in the summary below.)
.Pp
.Ss Ending a mail processing session.
You can end a
.Nm mail
session with the
.Ic quit
.Ql Ic q )
command.
Messages which have been examined go to your
.Ar mbox
file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
Unexamined messages go back to the post office.
(See the
.Fl f
option above).
.Pp
.Ss Personal and system wide distribution lists.
It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
for instance, you can send mail to
.Dq Li cohorts
and have it go
to a group of people.
Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
.Pp
.Dl alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
.Pp
in the file
.Pa \&.mailrc
in your home directory.
The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the
.Ic alias
command in
.Nm mail  .
System wide distribution lists can be created by editing
.Pa /etc/aliases ,
see
.Xr aliases  5
and
.Xr sendmail  8  ;
these are kept in a different syntax.
In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent
to others so that they will be able to
.Ic reply
to the recipients.
System wide
.Ic aliases
are not expanded when the mail is sent,
but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide
alias expanded as all mail goes through
.Xr sendmail  .
.Pp
.Ss Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
See
.Xr mailaddr 7
for a description of network addresses.
.Pp
.Nm Mail
has a number of options which can be set in the
.Pa .mailrc
file to alter its behavior; thus
.Dq Li set askcc
enables the
.Ar askcc
feature.
(These options are summarized below.)
.Sh SUMMARY
(Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual')
.Pp
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
following the command word.
The command need not be typed in its
entirety \- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message
list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
command's requirements is used.
If there are no messages forward of
the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
good messages at all,
.Nm mail
types
.Dq Li No applicable messages
and
aborts the command.
.Bl -tag -width delete
.It Ic \&\-
Print out the preceding message.
If given a numeric
argument
.Ar n  ,
goes to the
.Ar n Ns 'th
previous message and prints it.
.It Ic \&#
ignore the remainder of the line as a comment.
.It Ic \&?
Prints a brief summary of commands.
.It Ic \&!
Executes the shell
(see
.Xr sh 1
and
.Xr csh 1 )
command which follows.
.It Ic Print
.Pq Ic P
Like
.Ic print
but also prints out ignored header fields.
See also
.Ic print ,
.Ic ignore
and
.Ic retain .
.It Ic Reply
.Pq Ic R
Reply to originator.
Does not reply to other
recipients of the original message.
.It Ic Type
.Pq Ic T
Identical to the
.Ic Print
command.
.It Ic alias
.Pq Ic a
With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
With one
argument, prints out that alias.
With more than one argument, creates
a new alias or changes an old one.
.It Ic alternates
.Pq Ic alt
The
.Ic alternates
command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
It can be used to inform
.Nm mail
that the listed addresses are really you.
When you
.Ic reply
to messages,
.Nm mail
will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
listed on the
.Ic alternates
list.
If the
.Ic alternates
command is given with no argument, the current set of alternate
names is displayed.
.It Ic chdir
.Pq Ic c
Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given.
If
no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory.
.It Ic copy
.Pq Ic co
The
.Ic copy
command does the same thing that
.Ic save
does, except that it does not mark the messages it
is used on for deletion when you quit.
.It Ic delete
.Pq Ic d
Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
Deleted messages will not be saved in
.Ar mbox  ,
nor will they be available for most other commands.
.It Ic dp
(also
.Ic dt )
Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
If there is no next message,
.Nm mail
says
.Dq Li "at EOF" .
.It Ic edit
.Pq Ic e
Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in
turn.
On return from the editor, the message is read back in.
.It Ic exit
.Pf ( Ic ex
or
.Ic x )
Effects an immediate return to the Shell without
modifying the user's system mailbox, his
.Ar mbox
file, or his edit file in
.Fl f  .
.It Ic file
.Pq Ic fi
The same as
.Ic folder  .
.It Ic folders
List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
.It Ic folder
.Pq Ic fo
The
.Ic folder
command switches to a new mail file or folder.
With no
arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading.
If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such
as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in
the new file.
Some special conventions are recognized for
the name.
# means the previous file, % means your system
mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means
your
.Ar mbox
file, and
\&+\&folder means a file in your folder
directory.
.It Ic from
.Pq Ic f
Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
.It Ic headers
.Pq Ic h
Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18\-message group.
If
a
.Ql \&+
argument is given, then the next 18\-message group is printed, and if
a
.Ql \&\-
argument is given, the previous 18\-message group is printed.
.It Ic help
A synonym for
.Ic \&?
.It Ic hold
.Pf ( Ic ho ,
also
.Ic preserve )
Takes a message list and marks each
message therein to be saved in the
user's system mailbox instead of in
.Ar mbox  .
Does not override the
.Ic delete
command.
.It Ic ignore
Add the list of header fields named to the
.Ar ignored list .
Header fields in the ignore list are not printed
on your terminal when you print a message.
This
command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
header fields.
The
.Ic Type
and
.Ic Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
ignored fields.
If
.Ic ignore
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
ignored fields.
.It Ic mail
.Pq Ic m
Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
mail to those people.
.It Ic more
.Pq Ic \mo
Takes a list of messages and invokes the pager on that list.
.It Ic mbox
Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
.Ic mbox
in your home directory when you quit.
This is the default
action for messages if you do
.Em not
have the
.Ic hold
option set.
.It Ic next
.Pq Ic n
like
.Ic \&+
or
.Tn CR )
Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
With an argument list, types the next matching message.
.It Ic preserve
.Pq Ic pre
A synonym for
.Ic hold  .
.It Ic print
.Pq Ic p
Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
.It Ic quit
.Pq Ic q
Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
the user's
.Ar mbox
file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with
.Ic hold
or
.Ic preserve
or never referenced
in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
mailbox.
If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
.Dq Li "You have new mail"
is given.
If given while editing a
mailbox file with the
.Fl f
flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
A return to the Shell is
effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user
can escape with the
.Ic exit
command.
.It Ic reply
.Pq Ic r
Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
recipients of the specified message.
The default message must not be deleted.
.It Ic respond
A synonym for
.Ic reply  .
.It Ic retain
Add the list of header fields named to the
.Ar retained list
Only the header fields in the retain list
are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
All other header fields are suppressed.
The
.Ic Type
and
.Ic Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
If
.Ic retain
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
retained fields.
.It Ic save
.Pq Ic s
Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in
turn to the end of the file.
The filename in quotes, followed by the line
count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
.It Ic set
.Pq Ic se
With no arguments, prints all variable values.
Otherwise, sets
option.
Arguments are of the form
.Ar option=value
(no space before or after =) or
.Ar option .
Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
quote blanks or tabs, i.e.
.Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q"
.It Ic saveignore
.Ic Saveignore
is to
.Ic save
what
.Ic ignore
is to
.Ic print
and
.Ic type  .
Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
saving a message by
.Ic save
or when automatically saving to
.Ar mbox  .
.It Ic saveretain
.Ic Saveretain
is to
.Ic save
what
.Ic retain
is to
.Ic print
and
.Ic type  .
Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
with a message when saving by
.Ic save
or when automatically saving to
.Ar mbox  .
.Ic Saveretain
overrides
.Ic saveignore  .
.It Ic shell
.Pq Ic sh
Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
.It Ic size
Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
message.
.It Ic source
The
.Ic source
command reads
commands from a file.
.It Ic top
Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
The number of
lines printed is controlled by the variable
.Ic toplines
and defaults to five.
.It Ic type
.Pq Ic t
A synonym for
.Ic print  .
.It Ic unalias
Takes a list of names defined by
.Ic alias
commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
The group names
no longer have any significance.
.It Ic undelete
.Pq Ic u
Takes a message list and marks each message as
.Ic not
being deleted.
.It Ic unread
.Pq Ic U
Takes a message list and marks each message as
.Ic not
having been read.
.It Ic unset
Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
the inverse of
.Ic set  .
.It Ic visual
.Pq Ic v
Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
.It Ic write
.Pq Ic w
Similar to
.Ic save  ,
except that
.Ic only
the message body
.Pq Ar without
the header) is saved.
Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
program text over the message system.
.It Ic xit
.Pq Ic x
A synonym for
.Ic exit  .
.It Ic z
.Nm Mail
presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
.Ic headers
command.
You can move
.Nm mail Ns 's
attention forward to the next window with the
.Ic \&z
command.
Also, you can move to the previous window by using
.Ic \&z\&\-  .
.El
.Ss Tilde/Escapes
.Pp
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
which are used when composing messages to perform
special functions.
Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning
of lines.
The name
.Dq Em tilde\ escape
is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
by the option
.Ic escape .
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Ic \&~! Ns Ar command
Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
.It Ic \&~b Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy).
.It Ic \&~c Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
.It Ic \&~d
Read the file
.Dq Pa dead.letter
from your home directory into the message.
.It Ic \&~e
Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
After the
editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the
message.
.It Ic \&~f Ns Ar messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent.
If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
.Ic ignore
or
.Ic retain
command) are not included.
.It Ic \&~F Ns Ar messages
Identical to
.Ic \&~f ,
except all message headers are included.
.It Ic \&~h
Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing
the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the
current terminal erase and kill characters.
.It Ic \&~m Ns Ar messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
tab or by the value of
.Ar indentprefix  .
If no messages are specified,
read the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
.Ic ignore
or
.Ic retain
command) are not included.
.It Ic \&~M Ns Ar messages
Identical to
.Ic \&~m ,
except all message headers are included.
.It Ic \&~p
Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
fields.
.It Ic \&~q
Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
.Dq Pa dead.letter
in your home directory if
.Ic save
is set.
.It Ic \&~r Ns Ar filename
Read the named file into the message.
.It Ic \&~s Ns Ar string
Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
.It Ic \&~\&t Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
.It Ic \&~\&v
Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
.Ev VISUAL
option) on the
message collected so far.
Usually, the alternate editor will be a
screen editor.
After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
text to the end of your message.
.It Ic \&~w Ns Ar filename
Write the message onto the named file.
.It Ic \&~\&| Ns Ar command
Pipe the message through the command as a filter.
If the command gives
no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
message.
The command
.Xr fmt 1
is often used as
.Ic command
to rejustify the message.
.It Ic \&~: Ns Ar mail-command
Execute the given mail command.
Not all commands, however, are allowed.
.It Ic \&~~ Ns Ar string
Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
If
you have changed the escape character, then you should double
that character in order to send it.
.El
.Ss Mail Options
Options are controlled via
.Ic set
and
.Ic unset
commands.
Options may be either binary, in which case it is only
significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which
case the actual value is of interest.
The binary options include the following:
.Bl -tag -width append
.It Ar append
Causes messages saved in
.Ar mbox
to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
This should always be set (preferably in one of the system-wide
.Pa mail.rc
files).
.It Ar ask
Causes
.Nm mail
to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
If
you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
.It Ar askcc
Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message.
Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
.It Ar autoprint
Causes the
.Ic delete
command to behave like
.Ic dp
\- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
automatically.
.It Ar debug
Setting the binary option
.Ar debug
is the same as specifying
.Fl d
on the command line and causes
.Nm mail
to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
.Nm mail  .
.It Ar dot
The binary option
.Ar dot
causes
.Nm mail
to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
of a message you are sending.
.It Ar hold
This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
by default.
.It Ar ignore
Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
@'s.
.It Ar ignoreeof
An option related to
.Ar dot
is
.Ar ignoreeof
which makes
.Nm mail
refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message.
.Ar Ignoreeof
also applies to
.Nm mail
command mode.
.It Ar metoo
Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender
is removed from the expansion.
Setting this option causes the sender
to be included in the group.
.It Ar noheader
Setting the option
.Ar noheader
is the same as giving the
.Fl N
flag on the command line.
.It Ar nosave
Normally, when you abort a message with two
.Tn RUBOUT
(erase or delete)
.Nm mail
copies the partial letter to the file
.Dq Pa dead.letter
in your home directory.
Setting the binary option
.Ar nosave
prevents this.
.It Ar Replyall
Reverses the sense of
.Ic reply
and
.Ic Reply
commands.
.It Ar quiet
Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
.It Ar searchheaders
If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ``/x:y''
will expand to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the header
field ``x''.  The string search is case insensitive.
.It Ar verbose
Setting the option
.Ar verbose
is the same as using the
.Fl v
flag on the command line.
When mail runs in verbose mode,
the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
terminal.
.El
.Ss Option String Values
.Bl -tag -width Va
.It Ev EDITOR
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
.Ic edit
command and
.Ic \&~e
escape.
If not defined, then a default editor is used.
.It Ev LISTER
Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
.Ic folders
command.
Default is
.Pa /bin/ls .
.It Ev PAGER
Pathname of the program to use in the
.Ic more
command or when
.Ic crt
variable is set.
The default paginator
.Xr more 1
is used if this option is not defined.
.It Ev SHELL
Pathname of the shell to use in the
.Ic \&!
command and the
.Ic \&~!
escape.
A default shell is used if this option is
not defined.
.It Ev VISUAL
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
.Ic visual
command and
.Ic \&~v
escape.
.It Va crt
The valued option
.Va crt
is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
be before
.Ev PAGER
is used to read it.
If
.Va crt
is set without a value,
then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
is used to compute the threshold (see
.Xr stty 1 ) .
.It Ar escape
If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
.It Ar folder
The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
messages.
If this name begins with a `/',
.Nm mail
considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
.It Ev MBOX
The name of the
.Ar mbox
file.
It can be the name of a folder.
The default is
.Dq Li mbox
in the user's home directory.
.It Ar record
If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
mail.
If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.
.It Ar indentprefix
String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of
the normal tab character (^I).
Be sure to quote the value if it contains
spaces or tabs.
.It Ar toplines
If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
with the
.Ic top
command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Nm Mail
utilizes the
.Ev HOME
and
.Ev USER
environment variables.  Also, if the
.Ev MAIL
environment variable is set, it is used as the
location of the user's mailbox instead of the
default in /var/mail.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/mail.*help -compact
.It Pa /var/mail/*
Post office.
.It ~/mbox
User's old mail.
.It ~/.mailrc
File giving initial mail commands.
.It Pa /tmp/R*
Temporary files.
.It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help
Help files.
.sp
.It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.rc
.It Pa /usr/local/etc/mail.rc
.It Pa /etc/mail.rc
System-wide initialization files. Each file will be sourced, in order,
if it exists.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr fmt 1 ,
.Xr newaliases 1 ,
.Xr vacation 1 ,
.Xr aliases 5 ,
.Xr mailaddr 7 ,
.Xr sendmail 8
and
.Rs
.%T "The Mail Reference Manual" .
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command
appeared in
.At v1 .
This man page is derived from
.%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
originally written by Kurt Shoens.
.Sh BUGS
There are some flags that are not documented here.
Most are
not useful to the general user.
.Pp
Usually,
.Nm mail
is just a link to
.Nm Mail  ,
which can be confusing.