xref: /netbsd-src/libexec/comsat/comsat.8 (revision ca3357623e2b014246186ff3694c4371e21264bf)
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30.\"     from: @(#)comsat.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
31.\"
32.Dd May 29, 2010
33.Dt COMSAT 8
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm comsat
37.Nd biff server
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Op Fl l
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42.Nm
43is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail
44and notifies users if they have requested this service.
45.Nm
46receives messages on a datagram port associated with the
47.Dq biff
48service
49specification (see
50.Xr services 5
51and
52.Xr inetd 8 ) .
53The one line messages are of the form:
54.Pp
55.Dl user@mailbox-offset
56.Pp
57If the
58.Em user
59specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has
60the owner execute bit turned on (by a
61.Dq Li biff y ) ,
62the
63.Em offset
64is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
65the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed
66on the user's terminal.
67Lines which appear to be part of the message header other than the
68.Dq From
69or
70.Dq Subject
71lines are not included in the displayed message.
72.Sh OPTIONS
73The
74.Nm
75program supports this option:
76.Bl -tag -width 12345
77.It Fl l
78The
79.Fl l
80option turns on
81.Xr syslogd 8
82log messages.
83.El
84.Sh FILES
85To find out who's logged on and on what terminals
86.Nm
87consults:
88.Pp
89.Bl -tag -width /var/run/utmpx -compact
90.It Pa /var/run/utmp
91.It Pa /var/run/utmpx
92.El
93.Sh SEE ALSO
94.Xr biff 1 ,
95.Xr services 5 ,
96.Xr inetd 8 ,
97.Xr syslogd 8
98.Sh HISTORY
99The
100.Nm
101command appeared in
102.Bx 4.2 .
103.Sh BUGS
104The message header filtering is prone to error.
105The density of the information presented is near the theoretical minimum.
106.Pp
107Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other
108machines than the one to which they are currently logged in.
109.Pp
110The notification should appear in a separate window so it
111does not mess up the screen.
112.Pp
113.Nm
114runs as root so that it can open the user's maildrop.
115