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32 .\" @(#)mail5.nr 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/8/93
33 .\" $FreeBSD$
34 .\"
35 .bp
36 .sh 1 "Additional features"
37 .pp
38 This section describes some additional commands useful for
39 reading your mail, setting options, and handling lists of messages.
40 .sh 2 "Message lists"
41 .pp
42 Several
43 .i Mail
44 commands accept a list of messages as an argument.
45 Along with
46 .b type
47 and
48 .b delete ,
49 described in section 2,
50 there is the
51 .b from
52 command, which prints the message headers associated with the
53 message list passed to it.
54 The
55 .b from
56 command is particularly useful in conjunction with some of the
57 message list features described below.
58 .pp
59 A
60 .i "message list"
61 consists of a list of message numbers, ranges, and names,
62 separated by spaces or tabs. Message numbers may be either
63 decimal numbers, which directly specify messages, or one of the
64 special characters
65 .q \(ua
66 .q "."
67 or
68 .q "$"
69 to specify the first relevant, current, or last
70 relevant message, respectively.
71 .i Relevant
72 here means, for most commands
73 .q "not deleted"
74 and
75 .q "deleted"
76 for the
77 .b undelete
78 command.
79 .pp
80 A range of messages consists of two message numbers (of the form
81 described in the previous paragraph) separated by a dash.
82 Thus, to print the first four messages, use
83 .(l
84 type 1\-4
85 .)l
86 and to print all the messages from the current message to the last
87 message, use
88 .(l
89 type .\-$
90 .)l
91 .pp
92 A
93 .i name
94 is a user name. The user names given in the message list are
95 collected together and each message selected by other means
96 is checked to make sure it was sent by one of the named users.
97 If the message consists entirely of user names, then every
98 message sent by one of those users that is
99 .i relevant
100 (in the sense described earlier)
101 is selected. Thus, to print every message sent to you by
102 .q root,
103 do
104 .(l
105 type root
106 .)l
107 .pp
108 As a shorthand notation, you can specify simply
109 .q *
110 to get every
111 .i relevant
112 (same sense)
113 message. Thus,
114 .(l
115 type *
116 .)l
117 prints all undeleted messages,
118 .(l
119 delete *
120 .)l
121 deletes all undeleted messages, and
122 .(l
123 undelete *
124 .)l
125 undeletes all deleted messages.
126 .pp
127 You can search for the presence of a word in subject lines with
128 .b / .
129 For example, to print the headers of all messages that contain the
130 word
131 .q PASCAL,
132 do:
133 .(l
134 from /pascal
135 .)l
136 Note that subject searching ignores upper/lower case differences.
137 .sh 2 "List of commands"
138 .pp
139 This section describes all the
140 .i Mail
141 commands available when
142 receiving mail.
143 .ip "\fB\-\fP\ \ "
144 The
145 .rb \-
146 command goes to the previous message and prints it. The
147 .rb \-
148 command may be given a decimal number
149 .i n
150 as an argument, in which case the
151 .i n th
152 previous message is gone to and printed.
153 .ip "\fB?\fP\ \ "
154 Prints a brief summary of commands.
155 .ip "\fB!\fP\ \ "
156 Used to preface a command to be executed by the shell.
157 .ip "\fBPrint\fP\ \ "
158 Like
159 .b print ,
160 but also print out ignored header fields. See also
161 \fBprint\fP, \fBignore\fP and \fBretain\fP.
162 \fBPrint\fP can be abbreviated to \fBP\fP.
163 .ip "\fBReply\fP or \fBRespond\fP\ \ "
164 Note the capital \fBR\fP in the name.
165 Frame a reply to a one or more messages.
166 The reply (or replies if you are using this on multiple messages)
167 will be sent ONLY to the person who sent you the message
168 (respectively, the set of people who sent the messages you are
169 replying to).
170 You can
171 add people using the \fB~t\fP, \fB~c\fP and \fB~b\fP
172 tilde escapes. The subject in your reply is formed by prefacing the
173 subject in the original message with
174 .q "Re:"
175 unless it already began thus.
176 If the original message included a
177 .q "reply-to"
178 header field, the reply will go
179 .i only
180 to the recipient named by
181 .q "reply-to."
182 You type in your message using the same conventions available to you
183 through the
184 .b mail
185 command.
186 The
187 .b Reply
188 command is especially useful for replying to messages that were sent
189 to enormous distribution groups when you really just want to
190 send a message to the originator. Use it often.
191 \fBReply\fP (and \fBRespond\fP) can be abbreviated to \fBR\fP.
192 .ip "\fBType\fP\ \ "
193 Identical to the
194 .b Print
195 command.
196 \fBType\fP can be abbreviated to \fBT\fP.
197 .ip "\fBalias\fP\ \ "
198 Define a name to stand for a set of other names.
199 This is used when you want to send messages to a certain
200 group of people and want to avoid retyping their names.
201 For example
202 .(l
203 alias project john sue willie kathryn
204 .)l
205 creates an alias
206 .i project
207 which expands to the four people John, Sue, Willie, and Kathryn.
208 If no arguments are given, all currently-defined aliases are printed.
209 If one argument is given, that alias is printed (if it exists).
210 \fBAlias\fP can be abbreviated to \fBa\fP.
211 .ip "\fBalternates\fP\ \ "
212 If you have accounts on several machines, you may find it convenient
213 to use the /usr/lib/aliases on all the machines except one to direct
214 your mail to a single account.
215 The
216 .b alternates
217 command is used to inform
218 .i Mail
219 that each of these other addresses is really
220 .i you .
221 .i Alternates
222 takes a list of user names and remembers that they are all actually you.
223 When you
224 .b reply
225 to messages that were sent to one of these alternate names,
226 .i Mail
227 will not bother to send a copy of the message to this other address (which
228 would simply be directed back to you by the alias mechanism).
229 If
230 .i alternates
231 is given no argument, it lists the current set of alternate names.
232 .b Alternates
233 is usually used in the .mailrc file.
234 \fBAlternates\fP can be abbreviated to \fBalt\fP.
235 .ip "\fBchdir\fP\ \ "
236 The
237 .b chdir
238 command allows you to change your current directory.
239 .b Chdir
240 takes a single argument, which is taken to be the pathname of
241 the directory to change to. If no argument is given,
242 .b chdir
243 changes to your home directory.
244 \fBChdir\fP can be abbreviated to \fBc\fP.
245 .ip "\fBcopy\fP\ \ "
246 The
247 .b copy
248 command does the same thing that
249 .b save
250 does, except that it does not mark the messages it is used on
251 for deletion when you quit.
252 \fBCopy\fP can be abbreviated to \fBco\fP.
253 .ip "\fBdelete\fP\ \ "
254 Deletes a list of messages. Deleted messages can be reclaimed
255 with the
256 .b undelete
257 command.
258 \fBDelete\fP can be abbreviated to \fBd\fP.
259 .ip "\fBdp\fP or \fBdt\fP\ \ "
260 These
261 commands delete the current message and print the next message.
262 They are useful for quickly reading and disposing of mail.
263 If there is no next message, \fImail\fP says ``at EOF.''
264 .ip "\fBedit\fP\ \ "
265 To edit individual messages using the text editor, the
266 .b edit
267 command is provided. The
268 .b edit
269 command takes a list of messages as described under the
270 .b type
271 command and processes each by writing it into the file
272 Message\c
273 .i x
274 where
275 .i x
276 is the message number being edited and executing the text editor on it.
277 When you have edited the message to your satisfaction, write the message
278 out and quit, upon which
279 .i Mail
280 will read the message back and remove the file.
281 .b Edit
282 can be abbreviated to
283 .b e .
284 .ip "\fBelse\fP\ \ "
285 Marks the end of the then-part of an
286 .b if
287 statement and the beginning of the
288 part to take effect if the condition of the
289 .b if
290 statement is false.
291 .ip "\fBendif\fP\ \ "
292 Marks the end of an
293 .b if
294 statement.
295 .ip "\fBexit\fP or \fBxit\fP\ \ "
296 Leave
297 .i Mail
298 without updating the system mailbox or the file your were reading.
299 Thus, if you accidentally delete several messages, you can use
300 .b exit
301 to avoid scrambling your mailbox.
302 \fBExit\fP can be abbreviated to \fBex\fP or \fBx\fP.
303 .ip "\fBfile\fP\ \ "
304 The same as
305 .b folder .
306 \fBFile\fP can be abbreviated to \fBfi\fP.
307 .ip "\fBfolders\fP\ \ "
308 List the names of the folders in your folder directory.
309 .ip "\fBfolder\fP\ \ "
310 The
311 .b folder
312 command switches to a new mail file or folder. With no arguments, it
313 tells you which file you are currently reading. If you give
314 it an argument, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
315 you have made in the current file and read the new file.
316 Some special conventions are recognized for the name:
317 .(b
318 .TS
319 center;
320 c c
321 l a.
322 Name Meaning
323 _
324 # Previous file read
325 % Your system mailbox
326 %name \fIName\fP's system mailbox
327 & Your ~/mbox file
328 +folder A file in your folder directory
329 .TE
330 .)b
331 \fBFolder\fP can be abbreviated to \fBfo\fP.
332 .ip "\fBfrom\fP\ \ "
333 The
334 .b from
335 command takes a list of messages and prints out the header lines for each one;
336 hence
337 .(l
338 from joe
339 .)l
340 is the easy way to display all the message headers from \*(lqjoe.\*(rq
341 \fBFrom\fP can be abbreviated to \fBf\fP.
342 .ip "\fBheaders\fP\ \ "
343 When you start up
344 .i Mail
345 to read your mail, it lists the message headers that you have.
346 These headers tell you who each message is from, when they were
347 received, how many lines and characters each message is, and the
348 .q "Subject:"
349 header field of each message, if present. In addition,
350 .i Mail
351 tags the message header of each message that has been the object
352 of the
353 .b preserve
354 command with a
355 .q P.
356 Messages that have been
357 .b saved
358 or
359 .b written
360 are flagged with a
361 .q *.
362 Finally,
363 .b deleted
364 messages are not printed at all. If you wish to reprint the current
365 list of message headers, you can do so with the
366 .b headers
367 command. The
368 .b headers
369 command (and thus the initial header listing)
370 only lists the first so many message headers.
371 The number of headers listed depends on the speed of your
372 terminal.
373 This can be overridden by specifying the number of headers you
374 want with the
375 .i window
376 option.
377 .i Mail
378 maintains a notion of the current
379 .q window
380 into your messages for the purposes of printing headers.
381 Use the
382 .b z
383 command to move forward and back a window.
384 You can move
385 .i Mail's
386 notion of the current window directly to a particular message by
387 using, for example,
388 .(l
389 headers 40
390 .)l
391 to move
392 .i Mail's
393 attention to the messages around message 40.
394 If a ``+'' argument is given, then the next screenful of message headers is
395 printed, and if a ``\-'' argument is given, the previous screenful of message
396 headers is printed.
397 \fBHeaders\fP can be abbreviated to \fBh\fP.
398 .ip "\fBhelp\fP\ \ "
399 Print a brief and usually out of date help message about the commands
400 in
401 .i Mail .
402 The
403 .i man
404 page for
405 .i mail
406 is usually more up-to-date than either the help message or this manual.
407 It is also a synonym for \fB?\fP.
408 .ip "\fBhold\fP\ \ "
409 Arrange to hold a list of messages in the system mailbox, instead
410 of moving them to the file
411 .i mbox
412 in your home directory. If you set the binary option
413 .i hold ,
414 this will happen by default.
415 It does not override the \fBdelete\fP command.
416 \fBHold\fP can be abbreviated to \fBho\fP.
417 .ip "\fBif\fP\ \ "
418 Commands in your
419 .q .mailrc
420 file can be executed conditionally depending on whether you are
421 sending or receiving mail with the
422 .b if
423 command. For example, you can do:
424 .(l
425 if receive
426 \fIcommands\fP...
427 endif
428 .)l
429 An
430 .b else
431 form is also available:
432 .(l
433 if send
434 \fIcommands\fP...
435 else
436 \fIcommands\fP...
437 endif
438 .)l
439 Note that the only allowed conditions are
440 .b receive
441 and
442 .b send .
443 .ip "\fBignore\fP \ \ "
444 .b N.B.:
445 .i Ignore
446 has been superseded by
447 .i retain.
448 .br
449 Add the list of header fields named to the
450 .i "ignore list" .
451 Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on your
452 terminal when you print a message. This allows you to suppress
453 printing of certain machine-generated header fields, such as
454 .i Via
455 which are not usually of interest. The
456 .b Type
457 and
458 .b Print
459 commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
460 ignored fields.
461 If
462 .b ignore
463 is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of ignored fields.
464 .ip "\fBlist\fP\ \ "
465 List the valid
466 .i Mail
467 commands.
468 \fBList\fP can be abbreviated to \fBl\fP.
469 .\".ip \fBlocal\fP
470 .\"Define a list of local names for this host. This command is useful
471 .\"when the host is known by more than one name. Names in the list
472 .\"may be qualified be the domain of the host. The first name on the local
473 .\"list is the
474 .\".i distinguished
475 .\"name of the host.
476 .\"The names on the local list are used by
477 .\".i Mail
478 .\"to decide which addresses are local to the host.
479 .\"For example:
480 .\".(l
481 .\"local ucbarpa.BERKELEY.ARPA arpa.BERKELEY.ARPA \\
482 .\" arpavax.BERKELEY.ARPA r.BERKELEY.ARPA \\
483 .\" ucb-arpa.ARPA
484 .\".)l
485 .\"From this list we see that
486 .\".i "fred@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.ARPA",
487 .\".i "harold@arpa.BERKELEY",
488 .\"and
489 .\".i "larry@r"
490 .\"are all addresses of users on the local host.
491 .\"The
492 .\".b local
493 .\"command is usually not used be general users since it is designed for
494 .\"local configuration; it is usually found in the file /etc/mail.rc.
495 .ip "\fBmail\fP\ \ "
496 Send mail to one or more people. If you have the
497 .i ask
498 option set,
499 .i Mail
500 will prompt you for a subject to your message. Then you
501 can type in your message, using tilde escapes as described in
502 section 4 to edit, print, or modify your message. To signal your
503 satisfaction with the message and send it, type control-d at the
504 beginning of a line, or a . alone on a line if you set the option
505 .i dot .
506 To abort the message, type two interrupt characters (\s-2RUBOUT\s0
507 by default) in a row or use the
508 .b ~q
509 escape.
510 The \fBmail\fP command can be abbreviated to \fBm\fP.
511 .ip "\fBmbox\fP\ \ "
512 Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
513 .i mbox
514 in your home directory when you quit. This is the default
515 action for messages if you do
516 .i not
517 have the
518 .i hold
519 option set.
520 .ip "\fBnext\fP or \fB+\fP\ \ "
521 The
522 .b next
523 command goes to the next message and types it. If given a message list,
524 .b next
525 goes to the first such message and types it. Thus,
526 .(l
527 next root
528 .)l
529 goes to the next message sent by
530 .q root
531 and types it. The
532 .b next
533 command can be abbreviated to simply a newline, which means that one
534 can go to and type a message by simply giving its message number or
535 one of the magic characters
536 .q "^"
537 .q "."
538 or
539 .q "$".
540 Thus,
541 .(l
542 \&.
543 .)l
544 prints the current message and
545 .(l
546 4
547 .)l
548 prints message 4, as described previously.
549 \fBNext\fP can be abbreviated to \fBn\fP.
550 .ip "\fBpreserve\fP\ \ "
551 Same as
552 .b hold .
553 Cause a list of messages to be held in your system mailbox when you quit.
554 \fBPreserve\fP can be abbreviated to \fBpre\fP.
555 .ip "\fBprint\fP\ \ "
556 Print the specified messages. If the
557 .b crt
558 variable is set, messages longer than the number of lines it indicates
559 are paged through the command specified by the \fBPAGER\fP variable.
560 The \fBprint\fP command can be abbreviated to \fBp\fP.
561 .ip "\fBquit\fP\ \ "
562 Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved and unwritten messages
563 in the user's \fImbox\fP file in their login directory
564 (messages marked as having been read), preserving all
565 messages marked with \fBhold\fP or \fBpreserve\fP or never referenced
566 in their system mailbox.
567 Any messages that were deleted, saved, written or saved to \fImbox\fP are
568 removed from their system mailbox.
569 If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
570 ``You have new mail'' is given. If given while editing a mailbox file
571 with the \fB\-f\fP flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
572 A return to the Shell is effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
573 in which case the user can escape with the \fBexit\fP command.
574 \fBQuit\fP can be abbreviated to \fBq\fP.
575 .ip "\fBreply\fP or \fBrespond\fP\ \ "
576 Frame a reply to a single message.
577 The reply will be sent to the
578 person who sent you the message (to which you are replying), plus all
579 the people who received the original message, except you. You can
580 add people using the \fB~t\fP, \fB~c\fP and \fB~b\fP
581 tilde escapes. The subject in your reply is formed by prefacing the
582 subject in the original message with
583 .q "Re:"
584 unless it already began thus.
585 If the original message included a
586 .q "reply-to"
587 header field, the reply will go
588 .i only
589 to the recipient named by
590 .q "reply-to."
591 You type in your message using the same conventions available to you
592 through the
593 .b mail
594 command.
595 The \fBreply\fP (and \fBrespond\fP) command can be abbreviated to \fBr\fP.
596 .ip "\fBretain\fP\ \ "
597 Add the list of header fields named to the \fIretained list\fP.
598 Only the header fields in the retain list
599 are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
600 All other header fields are suppressed.
601 The
602 .b Type
603 and
604 .b Print
605 commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
606 If
607 .b retain
608 is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
609 retained fields.
610 .ip "\fBsave\fP\ \ "
611 It is often useful to be able to save messages on related topics
612 in a file. The
613 .b save
614 command gives you the ability to do this. The
615 .b save
616 command takes as an argument a list of message numbers, followed by
617 the name of the file in which to save the messages. The messages
618 are appended to the named file, thus allowing one to keep several
619 messages in the file, stored in the order they were put there.
620 The filename in quotes, followed by the line
621 count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
622 An example of the
623 .b save
624 command relative to our running example is:
625 .(l
626 s 1 2 tuitionmail
627 .)l
628 .b Saved
629 messages are not automatically saved in
630 .i mbox
631 at quit time, nor are they selected by the
632 .b next
633 command described above, unless explicitly specified.
634 \fBSave\fP can be abbreviated to \fBs\fP.
635 .ip "\fBset\fP\ \ "
636 Set an option or give an option a value. Used to customize
637 .i Mail .
638 Section 5.3 contains a list of the options. Options can be
639 .i binary ,
640 in which case they are
641 .i on
642 or
643 .i off ,
644 or
645 .i valued .
646 To set a binary option
647 .i option
648 .i on ,
649 do
650 .(l
651 set option
652 .)l
653 To give the valued option
654 .i option
655 the value
656 .i value ,
657 do
658 .(l
659 set option=value
660 .)l
661 There must be no space before or after the ``='' sign.
662 If no arguments are given, all variable values are printed.
663 Several options can be specified in a single
664 .b set
665 command.
666 \fBSet\fP can be abbreviated to \fBse\fP.
667 .ip "\fBshell\fP\ \ "
668 The
669 .b shell
670 command allows you to
671 escape to the shell.
672 .b Shell
673 invokes an interactive shell and allows you to type commands to it.
674 When you leave the shell, you will return to
675 .i Mail .
676 The shell used is a default assumed by
677 .i Mail ;
678 you can override this default by setting the valued option
679 .q SHELL,
680 eg:
681 .(l
682 set SHELL=/bin/csh
683 .)l
684 \fBShell\fP can be abbreviated to \fBsh\fP.
685 .ip "\fBsize\fP\ \ "
686 Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
687 message.
688 .ip "\fBsource\fP\ \ "
689 The
690 .b source
691 command reads
692 .i mail
693 commands from a file. It is useful when you are trying to fix your
694 .q .mailrc
695 file and you need to re-read it.
696 \fBSource\fP can be abbreviated to \fBso\fP.
697 .ip "\fBtop\fP\ \ "
698 The
699 .b top
700 command takes a message list and prints the first five lines
701 of each addressed message.
702 If you wish, you can change the number of lines that
703 .b top
704 prints out by setting the valued option
705 .q "toplines."
706 On a CRT terminal,
707 .(l
708 set toplines=10
709 .)l
710 might be preferred.
711 \fBTop\fP can be abbreviated to \fBto\fP.
712 .ip "\fBtype\fP\ \ "
713 Same as \fBprint\fP.
714 Takes a message list and types out each message on the terminal.
715 The \fBtype\fP command can be abbreviated to \fBt\fP.
716 .ip "\fBundelete\fP \ \"
717 Takes a message list and marks each message as \fInot\fP
718 being deleted.
719 \fBUndelete\fP can be abbreviated to \fBu\fP.
720 .ip "\fBunread\fP\ \ "
721 Takes a message list and marks each message as
722 .i not
723 having been read.
724 \fBUnread\fP can be abbreviated to \fBU\fP.
725 .ip "\fBunset\fP\ \ "
726 Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
727 the inverse of \fBset\fP .
728 .ip "\fBvisual\fP\ \ "
729 It is often useful to be able to invoke one of two editors,
730 based on the type of terminal one is using. To invoke
731 a display oriented editor, you can use the
732 .b visual
733 command. The operation of the
734 .b visual
735 command is otherwise identical to that of the
736 .b edit
737 command.
738 .ne 2v+\n(psu
739 .sp \n(psu
740 Both the
741 .b edit
742 and
743 .b visual
744 commands assume some default text editors. These default editors
745 can be overridden by the valued options
746 .q EDITOR
747 and
748 .q VISUAL
749 for the standard and screen editors. You might want to do:
750 .(l
751 set EDITOR=/usr/bin/ex VISUAL=/usr/bin/vi
752 .)l
753 \fBVisual\fP can be abbreviated to \fBv\fP.
754 .ip "\fBwrite\fP\ \ "
755 The
756 .b save
757 command always writes the entire message, including the headers,
758 into the file. If you want to write just the message itself, you
759 can use the
760 .b write
761 command. The
762 .b write
763 command has the same syntax as the
764 .b save
765 command, and can be abbreviated to simply
766 .b w .
767 Thus, we could write the second message by doing:
768 .(l
769 w 2 file.c
770 .)l
771 As suggested by this example, the
772 .b write
773 command is useful for such tasks as sending and receiving
774 source program text over the message system.
775 The filename in quotes, followed by the line
776 count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
777 .ip "\fBz\fP\ \ "
778 .i Mail
779 presents message headers in windowfuls as described under
780 the
781 .b headers
782 command.
783 You can move
784 .i Mail's
785 attention forward to the next window by giving the
786 .(l
787 z+
788 .)l
789 command. Analogously, you can move to the previous window with:
790 .(l
791 z\-
792 .)l
793 .sh 2 "Custom options"
794 .pp
795 Throughout this manual, we have seen examples of binary and valued options.
796 This section describes each of the options in alphabetical order, including
797 some that you have not seen yet.
798 To avoid confusion, please note that the options are either
799 all lower case letters or all upper case letters. When I start a sentence
800 such as:
801 .q "Ask"
802 causes
803 .i Mail
804 to prompt you for a subject header,
805 I am only capitalizing
806 .q ask
807 as a courtesy to English.
808 .ip "\fBEDITOR\fP\ \ "
809 The valued option
810 .q EDITOR
811 defines the pathname of the text editor to be used in the
812 .b edit
813 command and ~e. If not defined, a standard editor is used.
814 .ip "\fBPAGER\fP\ \ "
815 Pathname of the program to use for paginating output when
816 it exceeds \fIcrt\fP lines.
817 A default paginator is used if this option is not defined.
818 .ip "\fBSHELL\fP\ \ "
819 The valued option
820 .q SHELL
821 gives the path name of your shell. This shell is used for the
822 .b !
823 command and ~! escape. In addition, this shell expands
824 file names with shell metacharacters like * and ? in them.
825 .ip "\fBVISUAL\fP\ \ "
826 The valued option
827 .q VISUAL
828 defines the pathname of the screen editor to be used in the
829 .b visual
830 command
831 and ~v escape. A standard screen editor is used if you do not define one.
832 .ip "\fBappend\fP\ \ "
833 The
834 .q append
835 option is binary and
836 causes messages saved in
837 .i mbox
838 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
839 Normally, \fIMail\fP will put messages in \fImbox\fP
840 in the same order that the system puts messages in your system mailbox.
841 By setting
842 .q append,
843 you are requesting that
844 .i mbox
845 be appended to regardless. It is in any event quicker to append.
846 .ip "\fBask\fP\ \ "
847 .q "Ask"
848 is a binary option which
849 causes
850 .i Mail
851 to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
852 If you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
853 .ip "\fBaskcc\fP\ \ "
854 .q Askcc
855 is a binary option which
856 causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
857 end of each message. Responding with a newline shows your
858 satisfaction with the current list.
859 .ip "\fBautoprint\fP\ \ "
860 .q Autoprint
861 is a binary option which
862 causes the
863 .b delete
864 command to behave like
865 .b dp
866 \*- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
867 automatically. This is useful when quickly scanning and deleting
868 messages in your mailbox.
869 .ip "\fBcrt\fP \ \ "
870 The valued option
871 .q crt
872 is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
873 be before
874 .b PAGER
875 is used to read it.
876 .ip "\fBdebug\fP \ \ "
877 The binary option
878 .q debug
879 causes debugging information to be displayed. Use of this
880 option is the same as using the \fB\-d\fP command line flag.
881 .ip "\fBdot\fP\ \ "
882 .q Dot
883 is a binary option which, if set, causes
884 .i Mail
885 to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
886 of the message you are sending.
887 .ip "\fBescape\fP\ \ "
888 To allow you to change the escape character used when sending
889 mail, you can set the valued option
890 .q escape.
891 Only the first character of the
892 .q escape
893 option is used, and it must be doubled if it is to appear as
894 the first character of a line of your message. If you change your escape
895 character, then ~ loses all its special meaning, and need no longer be doubled
896 at the beginning of a line.
897 .ip "\fBfolder\fP\ \ "
898 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
899 If this name begins with a `/'
900 .i Mail
901 considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the folder directory
902 is found relative to your home directory.
903 .ip "\fBhold\fP\ \ "
904 The binary option
905 .q hold
906 causes messages that have been read but not manually dealt with
907 to be held in the system mailbox. This prevents such messages from
908 being automatically swept into your \fImbox\fP file.
909 .ip "\fBignore\fP\ \ "
910 The binary option
911 .q ignore
912 causes \s-2RUBOUT\s0 characters from your terminal to be ignored and echoed
913 as @'s while you are sending mail. \s-2RUBOUT\s0 characters retain their
914 original meaning in
915 .i Mail
916 command mode.
917 Setting the
918 .q ignore
919 option is equivalent to supplying the
920 .b \-i
921 flag on the command line as described in section 6.
922 .ip "\fBignoreeof\fP\ \ "
923 An option related to
924 .q dot
925 is
926 .q ignoreeof
927 which makes
928 .i Mail
929 refuse to accept a control\-d as the end of a message.
930 .q Ignoreeof
931 also applies to
932 .i Mail
933 command mode.
934 .ip "\fBkeep\fP\ \ "
935 The
936 .q keep
937 option causes
938 .i Mail
939 to truncate your system mailbox instead of deleting it when it
940 is empty. This is useful if you elect to protect your mailbox, which
941 you would do with the shell command:
942 .(l
943 chmod 600 /var/mail/yourname
944 .)l
945 where
946 .i yourname
947 is your login name. If you do not do this, anyone can probably read
948 your mail, although people usually don't.
949 .ip "\fBkeepsave\fP\ \ "
950 When you
951 .b save
952 a message,
953 .i Mail
954 usually discards it when you
955 .b quit .
956 To retain all saved messages, set the
957 .q keepsave
958 option.
959 .ip "\fBmetoo\fP\ \ "
960 When sending mail to an alias,
961 .i Mail
962 makes sure that if you are included in the alias, that mail will not
963 be sent to you. This is useful if a single alias is being used by
964 all members of the group. If however, you wish to receive a copy of
965 all the messages you send to the alias, you can set the binary option
966 .q metoo.
967 .ip "\fBnoheader\fP\ \ "
968 The binary option
969 .q noheader
970 suppresses the printing of the version and headers when
971 .i Mail
972 is first invoked. Setting this option is the same as using
973 .b \-N
974 on the command line.
975 .ip "\fBnosave\fP\ \ "
976 Normally,
977 when you abort a message with two \s-2RUBOUTs\s0,
978 .i Mail
979 copies the partial letter to the file
980 .q dead.letter
981 in your home directory. Setting the binary option
982 .q nosave
983 prevents this.
984 .ip "\fBReplyall\fP\ \ "
985 Reverses the sense of
986 .i reply
987 and
988 .i Reply
989 commands.
990 .ip "\fBquiet\fP\ \ "
991 The binary option
992 .q quiet
993 suppresses the printing of the version when
994 .i Mail
995 is first invoked,
996 as well as printing the for example
997 .q "Message 4:"
998 from the
999 .b type
1000 command.
1001 .ip "\fBrecord\fP\ \ "
1002 If you love to keep records, then the
1003 valued option
1004 .q record
1005 can be set to the name of a file to save your outgoing mail.
1006 Each new message you send is appended to the end of the file.
1007 .ip "\fBscreen\fP\ \ "
1008 When
1009 .i Mail
1010 initially prints the message headers, it determines the number to
1011 print by looking at the speed of your terminal. The faster your
1012 terminal, the more it prints.
1013 The valued option
1014 .q screen
1015 overrides this calculation and
1016 specifies how many message headers you want printed.
1017 This number is also used for scrolling with the
1018 .b z
1019 command.
1020 .ip "\fBsendmail\fP\ \ "
1021 To use an alternate mail delivery system, set the
1022 .q sendmail
1023 option to the full pathname of the program to use. Note: this is not
1024 for everyone! Most people should use the default delivery system.
1025 .ip "\fBtoplines\fP\ \ "
1026 The valued option
1027 .q toplines
1028 defines the number of lines that the
1029 .q top
1030 command will print out instead of the default five lines.
1031 .ip "\fBverbose\fP\ \ "
1032 The binary option "verbose" causes
1033 .i Mail
1034 to invoke sendmail with the
1035 .b \-v
1036 flag, which causes it to go into verbose mode and announce expansion
1037 of aliases, etc. Setting the "verbose" option is equivalent to
1038 invoking
1039 .i Mail
1040 with the
1041 .b \-v
1042 flag as described in section 6.