




Command:   mail - send and receive electronic mail
Syntax:    mail [-dpqrv] [-f file] [user]
Flags:     -d  Force use of the shell variable MAILER
           -f  Use file instead of /usr/spool/mail/user as mailbox
           -p  Print all mail and then exit
           -q  Quit program if SIGINT received
           -r  Reverse print order, i.e., print oldest first
           -v  Verbose mode
Examples:  mail ast                 # Send a message to ast
           mail                     # Read your mail

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

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


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


     To send mail, the program is called with the name of the  recipient
as an argument.  The mail is sent, along with a postmark line containing
the date.  For local delivery, a file named after the recipient  in  the
directory /usr/spool/mail must be writable.

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

















                                                                        

