BINMAIL(1)

NAME
binmail - send or receive mail among users

SYNOPSIS
/bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] [ person ] ...
/bin/mail [ + ] [ -i ] -f file

DESCRIPTION
Note: This is the old version 7 UNIX system mail program. The default mail command is described in Mail(1), and its binary is in the directory /usr/ucb.

mail with no argument prints a user's mail, message-by-message, in last-in, first-out order; the optional argument + displays the mail messages in first-in, first-out order. For each message, it reads a line from the standard input to direct disposition of the message.

newline
    Go on to next message.

d   Delete message and go on to the next.

p   Print message again.

-   Go back to previous message.

s [ file ] ...
    Save the message in the named files (`mbox' default).

w [ file ] ...
    Save the message, without a header, in the named files (`mbox' default).

m [ person ] ...
    Mail the message to the named persons (yourself is default).

EOT (control-D)
    Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.

q   Same as EOT.

!command
    Escape to the Shell to do command.

*   Print a command summary.

An interrupt normally terminates the mail command; the mail file is unchanged. The optional argument -i tells mail to continue after interrupts.

When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up to an end-of-file (or a line with just `.') and adds it to each person's `mail' file. The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark. Lines that look like postmarks are prepended with `>'. A person is usually a user name recognized by login(1). To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix person by the system name and exclamation mark (see uucp(1C)).

The -f option causes the named file, for example, `mbox', to be printed as if it were the mail file.

When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of mail.

FILES
/etc/passwd    to identify sender and locate persons
/usr/spool/mail/*    incoming mail for user *
mbox    saved mail
/tmp/ma*    temp file
/usr/spool/mail/*.lock    lock for mail directory
dead.letter    unmailable text

SEE ALSO
Mail(1), write(1), uucp(1C), uux(1C), xsend(1), sendmail(8)

BUGS
Race conditions sometimes result in a failure to remove a lock file.

Normally anybody can read your mail, unless it is sent by xsend(1). An installation can overcome this by making mail a set-user-id command that owns the mail directory.