1.\" $NetBSD: mail.1,v 1.12 1997/11/11 14:40:14 mrg Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)mail.1 8.8 (Berkeley) 4/28/95 35.\" 36.Dd April 28, 1995 37.Dt MAIL 1 38.Os BSD 4 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm mail , 41.Nm mailx , 42.Nm Mail 43.Nd send and receive mail 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Nm 46.Op Fl iInv 47.Op Fl s Ar subject 48.Op Fl c Ar cc-addr 49.Op Fl b Ar bcc-addr 50.Ar to-addr... 51.Nm "" 52.Op Fl iInNv 53.Fl f 54.Op Ar name 55.Nm "" 56.Op Fl iInNv 57.Op Fl u Ar user 58.Sh INTRODUCTION 59.Nm 60is an intelligent mail processing system, which has 61a command syntax reminiscent of 62.Xr \&ed 1 63with lines replaced by messages. 64.Pp 65.Bl -tag -width flag 66.It Fl v 67Verbose mode. 68The details of 69delivery are displayed on the user's terminal. 70.It Fl i 71Ignore tty interrupt signals. 72This is 73particularly useful when using 74.Nm 75on noisy phone lines. 76.It Fl I 77Forces mail to run in interactive mode even when 78input isn't a terminal. 79In particular, the 80.Sq Ic \&~ 81special 82character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode. 83.It Fl n 84Inhibits reading 85.Pa /etc/mail.rc 86upon startup. 87.It Fl N 88Inhibits the initial display of message headers 89when reading mail or editing a mail folder. 90.It Fl s 91Specify subject on command line 92(only the first argument after the 93.Fl s 94flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects 95containing spaces.) 96.It Fl c 97Send carbon copies to 98.Ar list 99of users. 100.It Fl b 101Send blind carbon copies to 102.Ar list . 103List should be a comma-separated list of names. 104.It Fl f 105Read in the contents of your 106.Ar mbox 107(or the specified file) 108for processing; when you 109.Ar quit , 110.Nm 111writes undeleted messages back to this file. 112.It Fl u 113Is equivalent to: 114.Pp 115.Dl mail -f /var/mail/user 116.El 117.Ss Sending mail 118To send a message to one or more people, 119.Nm 120can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to 121whom the mail will be sent. 122You are then expected to type in 123your message, followed 124by an 125.Sq Li control\-D 126at the beginning of a line. 127The section below 128.Ar Replying to or originating mail , 129describes some features of 130.Nm 131available to help you compose your letter. 132.Pp 133.Ss Reading mail 134In normal usage 135.Nm 136is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the 137post office, then 138prints out a one line header of each message found. 139The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1) 140and can be printed using the 141.Ic print 142command (which can be abbreviated 143.Ql Ic p ) . 144You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in 145.Xr \&ed 1 , 146with the commands 147.Ql Ic \&+ 148and 149.Ql Ic \&\- 150moving backwards and forwards, and 151simple numbers. 152.Pp 153.Ss Disposing of mail. 154After examining a message you can 155.Ic delete 156.Pq Ql Ic d 157the message or 158.Ic reply 159.Pq Ql Ic r 160to it. 161Deletion causes the 162.Nm 163program to forget about the message. 164This is not irreversible; the message can be 165.Ic undeleted 166.Pq Ql Ic u 167by giving its number, or the 168.Nm 169session can be aborted by giving the 170.Ic exit 171.Pq Ql Ic x 172command. 173Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again. 174.Pp 175.Ss Specifying messages 176Commands such as 177.Ic print 178and 179.Ic delete 180can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply 181to a number of messages at once. 182Thus 183.Dq Li delete 1 2 184deletes messages 1 and 2, while 185.Dq Li delete 1\-5 186deletes messages 1 through 5. 187The special name 188.Ql Li \&* 189addresses all messages, and 190.Ql Li \&$ 191addresses 192the last message; thus the command 193.Ic top 194which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in 195.Dq Li top \&* 196to print the first few lines of all messages. 197.Pp 198.Ss Replying to or originating mail. 199You can use the 200.Ic reply 201command to 202set up a response to a message, sending it back to the 203person who it was from. 204Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file, 205defines the contents of the message. 206While you are composing a message, 207.Nm 208treats lines beginning with the character 209.Ql Ic \&~ 210specially. 211For instance, typing 212.Ql Ic \&~m 213(alone on a line) will place a copy 214of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop 215(see 216.Em indentprefix 217variable, below). 218Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients 219to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the 220message or to a shell to run some commands. 221(These options 222are given in the summary below.) 223.Pp 224.Ss Ending a mail processing session. 225You can end a 226.Nm 227session with the 228.Ic quit 229.Pq Ql Ic q 230command. 231Messages which have been examined go to your 232.Ar mbox 233file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded. 234Unexamined messages go back to the post office. 235(See the 236.Fl f 237option above). 238.Pp 239.Ss Personal and systemwide distribution lists. 240It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that, 241for instance, you can send mail to 242.Dq Li cohorts 243and have it go 244to a group of people. 245Such lists can be defined by placing a line like 246.Pp 247.Dl alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory 248.Pp 249in the file 250.Pa \&.mailrc 251in your home directory. 252The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the 253.Ic alias 254command in 255.Nm "" . 256System wide distribution lists can be created by editing 257.Pa /etc/aliases , 258see 259.Xr aliases 5 260and 261.Xr sendmail 8 ; 262these are kept in a different syntax. 263In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent 264to others so that they will be able to 265.Ic reply 266to the recipients. 267System wide 268.Ic aliases 269are not expanded when the mail is sent, 270but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide 271alias expanded as all mail goes through 272.Xr sendmail . 273.Pp 274.Ss Network mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet) 275See 276.Xr mailaddr 7 277for a description of network addresses. 278.Pp 279.Nm 280has a number of options which can be set in the 281.Pa .mailrc 282file to alter its behavior; thus 283.Dq Li set askcc 284enables the 285.Ar askcc 286feature. 287(These options are summarized below.) 288.Sh SUMMARY 289(Adapted from the `Mail Reference Manual') 290.Pp 291Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments 292following the command word. 293The command need not be typed in its 294entirety \- the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. 295For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message 296list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the 297command's requirements is used. 298If there are no messages forward of 299the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no 300good messages at all, 301.Nm 302types 303.Dq Li No applicable messages 304and 305aborts the command. 306.Bl -tag -width delete 307.It Ic \&\- 308Print out the preceding message. 309If given a numeric 310argument 311.Ar n , 312goes to the 313.Ar n Ns 'th 314previous message and prints it. 315.It Ic \&? 316Prints a brief summary of commands. 317.It Ic \&! 318Executes the shell 319(see 320.Xr sh 1 321and 322.Xr csh 1 ) 323command which follows. 324.It Ic Print 325.Pq Ic P 326Like 327.Ic print 328but also prints out ignored header fields. 329See also 330.Ic print , 331.Ic ignore 332and 333.Ic retain . 334.It Ic Reply 335.Pq Ic R 336Reply to originator. 337Does not reply to other 338recipients of the original message. 339.It Ic Type 340.Pq Ic T 341Identical to the 342.Ic Print 343command. 344.It Ic alias 345.Pq Ic a 346With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases. 347With one 348argument, prints out that alias. 349With more than one argument, creates 350a new alias or changes an old one. 351.It Ic alternates 352.Pq Ic alt 353The 354.Ic alternates 355command is useful if you have accounts on several machines. 356It can be used to inform 357.Nm 358that the listed addresses are really you. 359When you 360.Ic reply 361to messages, 362.Nm 363will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses 364listed on the 365.Ic alternates 366list. 367If the 368.Ic alternates 369command is given with no argument, the current set of alternative 370names is displayed. 371.It Ic chdir 372.Pq Ic c 373Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given. 374If 375no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory. 376.It Ic copy 377.Pq Ic co 378The 379.Ic copy 380command does the same thing that 381.Ic save 382does, except that it does not mark the messages it 383is used on for deletion when you quit. 384.It Ic delete 385.Pq Ic d 386Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted. 387Deleted messages will not be saved in 388.Ar mbox , 389nor will they be available for most other commands. 390.It Ic dp 391(also 392.Ic dt ) 393Deletes the current message and prints the next message. 394If there is no next message, 395.Nm 396says 397.Dq Li "at EOF" . 398.It Ic edit 399.Pq Ic e 400Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in 401turn. 402On return from the editor, the message is read back in. 403.It Ic exit 404.Pf ( Ic ex 405or 406.Ic x ) 407Effects an immediate return to the Shell without 408modifying the user's system mailbox, his 409.Ar mbox 410file, or his edit file in 411.Fl f . 412.It Ic file 413.Pq Ic fi 414The same as 415.Ic folder . 416.It Ic folders 417List the names of the folders in your folder directory. 418.It Ic folder 419.Pq Ic fo 420The 421.Ic folder 422command switches to a new mail file or folder. 423With no 424arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading. 425If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such 426as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in 427the new file. 428Some special conventions are recognized for 429the name. 430# means the previous file, % means your system 431mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means 432your 433.Ar mbox 434file, and 435\&+\&folder means a file in your folder 436directory. 437.It Ic from 438.Pq Ic f 439Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers. 440.It Ic headers 441.Pq Ic h 442Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18\-message group. 443If 444a 445.Ql \&+ 446argument is given, then the next 18\-message group is printed, and if 447a 448.Ql \&\- 449argument is given, the previous 18\-message group is printed. 450.It Ic help 451A synonym for 452.Ic \&? 453.ne li 454.It Ic hold 455.Pf ( Ic ho , 456also 457.Ic preserve ) 458Takes a message list and marks each 459message therein to be saved in the 460user's system mailbox instead of in 461.Ar mbox . 462Does not override the 463.Ic delete 464command. 465.It Ic ignore 466Add the list of header fields named to the 467.Ar ignored list . 468Header fields in the ignore list are not printed 469on your terminal when you print a message. 470This 471command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated 472header fields. 473The 474.Ic Type 475and 476.Ic Print 477commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including 478ignored fields. 479.It Ic inc 480Incorporate any new messages that have arrived while mail 481is being read. 482The new messages are added to the end of the message list, 483and the current message is reset to be the first new mail message. 484This does not renumber the existing message list, nor does 485does it cause any changes made so far to be saved. 486If 487.Ic ignore 488is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of 489ignored fields. 490.It Ic mail 491.Pq Ic m 492Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends 493mail to those people. 494.It Ic mbox 495Indicate that a list of messages be sent to 496.Ic mbox 497in your home directory when you quit. 498This is the default 499action for messages if you do 500.Em not 501have the 502.Ic hold 503option set. 504.It Ic more 505.Pq Ic \mo 506Takes a message list and invokes the pager on that list. 507.It Ic next 508.Pf ( Ic n , 509like 510.Ic \&+ 511or 512.Tn CR ) 513Goes to the next message in sequence and types it. 514With an argument list, types the next matching message. 515.It Ic preserve 516.Pq Ic pre 517A synonym for 518.Ic hold . 519.It Ic print 520.Pq Ic p 521Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal. 522.It Ic quit 523.Pq Ic q 524Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in 525the user's 526.Ar mbox 527file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with 528.Ic hold 529or 530.Ic preserve 531or never referenced 532in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system 533mailbox. 534If new mail has arrived during the session, the message 535.Dq Li "You have new mail" 536is given. 537If given while editing a 538mailbox file with the 539.Fl f 540flag, then the edit file is rewritten. 541A return to the Shell is 542effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user 543can escape with the 544.Ic exit 545command. 546.It Ic reply 547.Pq Ic r 548Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all 549recipients of the specified message. 550The default message must not be deleted. 551.It Ic respond 552A synonym for 553.Ic reply . 554.It Ic retain 555Add the list of header fields named to the 556.Ar retained list . 557Only the header fields in the retained list 558are shown on your terminal when you print a message. 559All other header fields are suppressed. 560The 561.Ic type 562and 563.Ic print 564commands can be used to print a message in its entirety. 565If 566.Ic retain 567is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of 568retained fields. 569.It Ic save 570.Pq Ic s 571Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in 572turn to the end of the file. 573The filename in quotes, followed by the line 574count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal. 575.It Ic set 576.Pq Ic se 577With no arguments, prints all variable values. 578Otherwise, sets 579option. 580Arguments are of the form 581.Ar option=value 582(no space before or after =) or 583.Ar option . 584Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to 585quote blanks or tabs, i.e. 586.Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q" 587.It Ic saveignore 588.Ic Saveignore 589is to 590.Ic save 591what 592.Ic ignore 593is to 594.Ic print 595and 596.Ic type . 597Header fields thus marked are filtered out when 598saving a message by 599.Ic save 600or when automatically saving to 601.Ar mbox . 602.pl +1 603.It Ic saveretain 604.Ic Saveretain 605is to 606.Ic save 607what 608.Ic retain 609is to 610.Ic print 611and 612.Ic type . 613Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved 614with a message when saving by 615.Ic save 616or when automatically saving to 617.Ar mbox . 618.Ic Saveretain 619overrides 620.Ic saveignore . 621.It Ic shell 622.Pq Ic sh 623Invokes an interactive version of the shell. 624.It Ic size 625Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each 626message. 627.It Ic source 628The 629.Ic source 630command reads 631commands from a file. 632.It Ic top 633Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each. 634The number of 635lines printed is controlled by the variable 636.Ic toplines 637and defaults to five. 638.It Ic type 639.Pq Ic t 640A synonym for 641.Ic print . 642.It Ic unalias 643Takes a list of names defined by 644.Ic alias 645commands and discards the remembered groups of users. 646The group names 647no longer have any significance. 648.It Ic undelete 649.Pq Ic u 650Takes a message list and marks each message as 651.Ic not 652being deleted. 653.It Ic unread 654.Pq Ic U 655Takes a message list and marks each message as 656.Em not 657having been read. 658.It Ic unset 659Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values; 660the inverse of 661.Ic set . 662.It Ic visual 663.Pq Ic v 664Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message. 665.It Ic write 666.Pq Ic w 667Similar to 668.Ic save , 669except that 670.Em only 671the message body 672.Pf ( Em without 673the header) is saved. 674Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source 675program text over the message system. 676.It Ic xit 677.Pq Ic x 678A synonym for 679.Ic exit . 680.It Ic z 681.Nm 682presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the 683.Ic headers 684command. 685You can move 686.Nm "" Ns 's 687attention forward to the next window with the 688.Ic \&z 689command. 690Also, you can move to the previous window by using 691.Ic \&z\&\- . 692.El 693.Ss Tilde/Escapes 694.Pp 695Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, 696which are used when composing messages to perform 697special functions. 698Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning 699of lines. 700The name 701.Dq Em tilde\ escape 702is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set 703by the option 704.Ic escape . 705.Bl -tag -width Ds 706.It Ic \&~! Ns Ar command 707Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message. 708.It Ic \&~b Ns Ar name ... 709Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make 710the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy). 711.It Ic \&~c Ns Ar name ... 712Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients. 713.It Ic \&~d 714Read the file 715.Dq Pa dead.letter 716from your home directory into the message. 717.It Ic \&~e 718Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far. 719After the 720editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the 721message. 722.It Ic \&~f Ns Ar messages 723Read the named messages into the message being sent. 724If no messages are specified, read in the current message. 725Message headers currently being ignored (by the 726.Ic ignore 727or 728.Ic retain 729command) are not included. 730.ne li 731.It Ic \&~F Ns Ar messages 732Identical to 733.Ic \&~f , 734except all message headers are included. 735.It Ic \&~h 736Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing 737the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the 738current terminal erase and kill characters. 739.It Ic \&~m Ns Ar messages 740Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a 741tab or by the value of 742.Ar indentprefix . 743If no messages are specified, 744read the current message. 745Message headers currently being ignored (by the 746.Ic ignore 747or 748.Ic retain 749command) are not included. 750.It Ic \&~M Ns Ar messages 751Identical to 752.Ic \&~m , 753except all message headers are included. 754.It Ic \&~p 755Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header 756fields. 757.It Ic \&~q 758Abort the message being sent, copying the message to 759.Dq Pa dead.letter 760in your home directory if 761.Ic save 762is set. 763.It Ic \&~r Ns Ar filename 764Read the named file into the message. 765.It Ic \&~s Ns Ar string 766Cause the named string to become the current subject field. 767.It Ic \&~\&t Ns Ar name ... 768Add the given names to the direct recipient list. 769.It Ic \&~\&v 770Invoke an alternative editor (defined by the 771.Ev VISUAL 772option) on the 773message collected so far. 774Usually, the alternative editor will be a 775screen editor. 776After you quit the editor, you may resume appending 777text to the end of your message. 778.It Ic \&~w Ns Ar filename 779Write the message onto the named file. 780.It Ic \&~\&| Ns Ar command 781Pipe the message through the command as a filter. 782If the command gives 783no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the 784message. 785The command 786.Xr fmt 1 787is often used as 788.Ic command 789to rejustify the message. 790.It Ic \&~: Ns Ar mail-command 791Execute the given mail command. 792Not all commands, however, are allowed. 793.It Ic \&~~ Ns Ar string 794Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~. 795If 796you have changed the escape character, then you should double 797that character in order to send it. 798.El 799.Ss Mail Options 800Options are controlled via 801.Ic set 802and 803.Ic unset 804commands. 805Options may be either binary, in which case it is only 806significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which 807case the actual value is of interest. 808The binary options include the following: 809.Bl -tag -width append 810.It Ar append 811Causes messages saved in 812.Ar mbox 813to be appended to the end rather than prepended. 814This should always be set (perhaps in 815.Pa /etc/mail.rc ) . 816.It Ar ask , Ar asksub 817Causes 818.Nm 819to prompt you for the subject of each message you send. 820If 821you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent. 822.ne li 823.It Ar askcc 824Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the 825end of each message. 826Responding with a newline indicates your 827satisfaction with the current list. 828.It Ar autoinc 829Causes new mail to be automatically incorporated when it arrives. 830Setting this is similar to issuing the 831.Ic inc 832command at each prompt, except that the current message is not 833reset when new mail arrives. 834.It Ar askbcc 835Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the 836end of each message. 837Responding with a newline indicates your 838satisfaction with the current list. 839.It Ar autoprint 840Causes the 841.Ic delete 842command to behave like 843.Ic dp 844\- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed 845automatically. 846.It Ar debug 847Setting the binary option 848.Ar debug 849is the same as specifying 850.Fl d 851on the command line and causes 852.Nm 853to output all sorts of information useful for debugging 854.Nm "" . 855.It Ar dot 856The binary option 857.Ar dot 858causes 859.Nm 860to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator 861of a message you are sending. 862.It Ar hold 863This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox 864by default. 865.It Ar ignore 866Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as 867@'s. 868.It Ar ignoreeof 869An option related to 870.Ar dot 871is 872.Ar ignoreeof 873which makes 874.Nm 875refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message. 876.Ar Ignoreeof 877also applies to 878.Nm 879command mode. 880.It Ar metoo 881Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender 882is removed from the expansion. 883Setting this option causes the sender 884to be included in the group. 885.It Ar noheader 886Setting the option 887.Ar noheader 888is the same as giving the 889.Fl N 890flag on the command line. 891.It Ar nosave 892Normally, when you abort a message with two 893.Tn RUBOUT 894(erase or delete) 895.Nm 896copies the partial letter to the file 897.Dq Pa dead.letter 898in your home directory. 899Setting the binary option 900.Ar nosave 901prevents this. 902.It Ar Replyall 903Reverses the sense of 904.Ic reply 905and 906.Ic Reply 907commands. 908.It Ar quiet 909Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked. 910.It Ar searchheaders 911If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ``/x:y'' 912will expand to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the header 913field ``x''. The string search is case insensitive. 914If ``x'' is ommitted, it will default to the ``Subject'' header field. 915The form ``/to:y'' is a special case, and will expand 916to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the ``To'', ``Cc'' 917or ``Bcc'' header fields. 918The check for "to" is case sensitive, so that 919``/To:y'' can be used to limit the search for ``y'' to just 920the ``To:'' field. 921.It Ar verbose 922Setting the option 923.Ar verbose 924is the same as using the 925.Fl v 926flag on the command line. 927When mail runs in verbose mode, 928the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's 929terminal. 930.El 931.Ss Option String Values 932.Bl -tag -width Va 933.It Ev EDITOR 934Pathname of the text editor to use in the 935.Ic edit 936command and 937.Ic \&~e 938escape. 939If not defined, then a default editor is used. 940.It Ev LISTER 941Pathname of the directory lister to use in the 942.Ic folders 943command. 944Default is 945.Pa /bin/ls . 946.It Ev PAGER 947Pathname of the program to use in the 948.Ic more 949command or when 950.Ic crt 951variable is set. 952The default paginator 953.Xr more 1 954is used if this option is not defined. 955.It Ev SHELL 956Pathname of the shell to use in the 957.Ic \&! 958command and the 959.Ic \&~! 960escape. 961A default shell is used if this option is 962not defined. 963.It Ev VISUAL 964Pathname of the text editor to use in the 965.Ic visual 966command and 967.Ic \&~v 968escape. 969.ne li 970.It Va crt 971The valued option 972.Va crt 973is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must 974be before 975.Ev PAGER 976is used to read it. 977If 978.Va crt 979is set without a value, 980then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system 981is used to compute the threshold (see 982.Xr stty 1 ) . 983.It Ar escape 984If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to 985use in the place of ~ to denote escapes. 986.It Ar folder 987The name of the directory to use for storing folders of 988messages. 989If this name begins with a `/', 990.Nm 991considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the 992folder directory is found relative to your home directory. 993.It Ev MBOX 994The name of the 995.Ar mbox 996file. 997It can be the name of a folder. 998The default is 999.Dq Li mbox 1000in the user's home directory. 1001.It Ar record 1002If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing 1003mail. 1004If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved. 1005.It Ar indentprefix 1006String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of 1007the normal tab character (^I). 1008Be sure to quote the value if it contains 1009spaces or tabs. 1010.It Ar toplines 1011If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out 1012with the 1013.Ic top 1014command; normally, the first five lines are printed. 1015.El 1016.Sh ENVIRONMENT 1017.Nm 1018utilizes the 1019.Ev HOME 1020and 1021.Ev USER 1022environment variables. 1023.Sh FILES 1024.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/mail.*help -compact 1025.It Pa /var/mail/* 1026Post office. 1027.It ~/mbox 1028User's old mail. 1029.It ~/.mailrc 1030File giving initial mail commands. 1031This can be overridden by setting the 1032.Ev MAILRC 1033environment variable. 1034.It Pa /tmp/R* 1035Temporary files. 1036.It Pa /usr/share/misc/mail.*help 1037Help files. 1038.It Pa /etc/mail.rc 1039System initialization file. 1040.El 1041.Sh SEE ALSO 1042.Xr fmt 1 , 1043.Xr newaliases 1 , 1044.Xr vacation 1 , 1045.Xr aliases 5 , 1046.Xr mailaddr 7 , 1047.Xr sendmail 8 1048and 1049.Rs 1050.%T "The Mail Reference Manual" 1051.Re 1052.Sh HISTORY 1053A 1054.Nm 1055command 1056appeared in 1057.At v6 . 1058This man page is derived from 1059.%T "The Mail Reference Manual" 1060originally written by Kurt Shoens. 1061.Sh BUGS 1062There are some flags that are not documented here. 1063Most are 1064not useful to the general user. 1065.Pp 1066Usually, 1067.Nm 1068is just a link to 1069.Nm Mail , 1070which can be confusing. 1071.Pp 1072The name of the 1073.Ic alternates 1074list is incorrect English (it should be 1075.Dq alternatives ) , 1076but is retained for compatibility. 1077