mail.1

早期freebsd实现

in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
mailbox.
If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
.Dq Li "You have new mail"
is given.
If given while editing a
mailbox file with the
.Fl f
flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
A return to the Shell is
effected, unless the rewrite of edit file fails, in which case the user
can escape with the
.Ic exit
command.
.It Ic reply
.Pq Ic r
Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
recipients of the specified message.
The default message must not be deleted.
.It Ic respond
A synonym for
.Ic reply  .
.It Ic retain
Add the list of header fields named to the
.Ar retained list
Only the header fields in the retain list
are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
All other header fields are suppressed.
The
.Ic Type
and
.Ic Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
If
.Ic retain
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
retained fields.
.It Ic save
.Pq Ic s
Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in
turn to the end of the file.
The filename in quotes, followed by the line
count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal.
.It Ic set
.Pq Ic se
With no arguments, prints all variable values.
Otherwise, sets
option.
Arguments are of the form
.Ar option=value
(no space before or after =) or
.Ar option .
Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
quote blanks or tabs, i.e.
.Dq Li "set indentprefix=\*q->\*q"
.It Ic saveignore
.Ic Saveignore
is to
.Ic save
what
.Ic ignore
is to
.Ic print
and
.Ic type  .
Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
saving a message by
.Ic save
or when automatically saving to
.Ar mbox  .
.It Ic saveretain
.Ic Saveretain
is to
.Ic save
what
.Ic retain
is to
.Ic print
and
.Ic type  .
Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
with a message when saving by
.Ic save
or when automatically saving to
.Ar mbox  .
.Ic Saveretain
overrides
.Ic saveignore  .
.It Ic shell
.Pq Ic sh
Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
.It Ic size
Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
message.
.It Ic source
The
.Ic source
command reads
commands from a file.
.It Ic top
Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
The number of
lines printed is controlled by the variable
.Ic toplines
and defaults to five.
.It Ic type
.Pq Ic t
A synonym for
.Ic print  .
.It Ic unalias
Takes a list of names defined by
.Ic alias
commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
The group names
no longer have any significance.
.It Ic undelete
.Pq Ic u
Takes a message list and marks each message as
.Ic not
being deleted.
.It Ic unread
.Pq Ic U
Takes a message list and marks each message as
.Ic not
having been read.
.It Ic unset
Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
the inverse of
.Ic set  .
.It Ic visual
.Pq Ic v
Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
.It Ic write
.Pq Ic w
Similar to
.Ic save  ,
except that
.Ic only
the message body
.Pq Ar without
the header) is saved.
Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
program text over the message system.
.It Ic xit
.Pq Ic x
A synonym for
.Ic exit  .
.It Ic z
.Nm Mail
presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
.Ic headers
command.
You can move
.Nm mail Ns 's
attention forward to the next window with the
.Ic \&z
command.
Also, you can move to the previous window by using
.Ic \&z\&\-  .
.El
.Ss Tilde/Escapes
.Pp
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
which are used when composing messages to perform
special functions.
Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning
of lines.
The name
.Dq Em tilde\ escape
is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
by the option
.Ic escape .
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Ic \&~! Ns Ar command
Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
.It Ic \&~b Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do not make
the names visible in the Cc: line ("blind" carbon copy).
.It Ic \&~c Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
.It Ic \&~d
Read the file
.Dq Pa dead.letter
from your home directory into the message.
.It Ic \&~e
Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
After the
editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the
message.
.It Ic \&~f Ns Ar messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent.
If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
.Ic ignore
or
.Ic retain
command) are not included.
.It Ic \&~F Ns Ar messages
Identical to
.Ic \&~f ,
except all message headers are included.
.It Ic \&~h
Edit the message header fields by typing each one in turn and allowing
the user to append text to the end or modify the field by using the
current terminal erase and kill characters.
.It Ic \&~m Ns Ar messages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
tab or by the value of
.Ar indentprefix  .
If no messages are specified,
read the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
.Ic ignore
or
.Ic retain
command) are not included.
.It Ic \&~M Ns Ar messages
Identical to
.Ic \&~m ,
except all message headers are included.
.It Ic \&~p
Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
fields.
.It Ic \&~q
Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
.Dq Pa dead.letter
in your home directory if
.Ic save
is set.
.It Ic \&~r Ns Ar filename
Read the named file into the message.
.It Ic \&~s Ns Ar string
Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
.It Ic \&~\&t Ns Ar name ...
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
.It Ic \&~\&v
Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
.Ev VISUAL
option) on the
message collected so far.
Usually, the alternate editor will be a
screen editor.
After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
text to the end of your message.
.It Ic \&~w Ns Ar filename
Write the message onto the named file.
.It Ic \&~\&| Ns Ar command
Pipe the message through the command as a filter.
If the command gives
no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original text of the
message.
The command
.Xr fmt 1
is often used as
.Ic command
to rejustify the message.
.It Ic \&~: Ns Ar mail-command
Execute the given mail command.
Not all commands, however, are allowed.
.It Ic \&~~ Ns Ar string
Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
If
you have changed the escape character, then you should double
that character in order to send it.
.El
.Ss Mail Options
Options are controlled via
.Ic set
and
.Ic unset
commands.
Options may be either binary, in which case it is only
significant to see whether they are set or not; or string, in which
case the actual value is of interest.
The binary options include the following:
.Bl -tag -width append
.It Ar append
Causes messages saved in
.Ar mbox
to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
This should always be set (perhaps in
.Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.rc ) .
.It Ar ask
Causes
.Nm mail
to prompt you for the subject of each message you send.
If
you respond with simply a newline, no subject field will be sent.
.It Ar askcc
Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message.
Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
.It Ar autoprint
Causes the
.Ic delete
command to behave like
.Ic dp
\- thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
automatically.
.It Ar debug
Setting the binary option
.Ar debug
is the same as specifying
.Fl d
on the command line and causes
.Nm mail
to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
.Nm mail  .
.It Ar dot
The binary option
.Ar dot
causes
.Nm mail
to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
of a message you are sending.
.It Ar hold
This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
by default.
.It Ar ignore
Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
@'s.
.It Ar ignoreeof
An option related to
.Ar dot
is
.Ar ignoreeof
which makes
.Nm mail
refuse to accept a control-d as the end of a message.
.Ar Ignoreeof
also applies to
.Nm mail
command mode.
.It Ar metoo
Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the sender
is removed from the expansion.
Setting this option causes the sender
to be included in the group.
.It Ar noheader
Setting the option
.Ar noheader
is the same as giving the
.Fl N
flag on the command line.
.It Ar nosave
Normally, when you abort a message with two
.Tn RUBOUT
(erase or delete)
.Nm mail
copies the partial letter to the file
.Dq Pa dead.letter
in your home directory.
Setting the binary option
.Ar nosave
prevents this.
.It Ar Replyall
Reverses the sense of
.Ic reply
and
.Ic Reply
commands.
.It Ar quiet
Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
.It Ar searchheaders
If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form ``/x:y''
will expand to all messages containing the substring ``y'' in the header
field ``x''.  The string search is case insensitive.
.It Ar verbose
Setting the option
.Ar verbose
is the same as using the
.Fl v
flag on the command line.
When mail runs in verbose mode,
the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
terminal.
.El
.Ss Option String Values
.Bl -tag -width Va
.It Ev EDITOR
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
.Ic edit
command and
.Ic \&~e
escape.
If not defined, then a default editor is used.
.It Ev LISTER
Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
.Ic folders
command.
Default is
.Pa /bin/ls .
.It Ev PAGER
Pathname of the program to use in the
.Ic more
command or when
.Ic crt
variable is set.
The default paginator
.Xr more 1
is used if this option is not defined.
.It Ev SHELL
Pathname of the shell to use in the
.Ic \&!
command and the
.Ic \&~!
escape.
A default shell is used if this option is
not defined.
.It Ev VISUAL
Pathname of the text editor to use in the
.Ic visual
command and
.Ic \&~v
escape.
.It Va crt
The valued option
.Va crt
is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
be before
.Ev PAGER
is used to read it.
If
.Va crt
is set without a value,
then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
is used to compute the threshold (see
.Xr stty 1 ) .
.It Ar escape
If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
.It Ar folder
The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
messages.
If this name begins with a `/',
.Nm mail
considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
folder directory is found relative to your home directory.
.It Ev MBOX
The name of the
.Ar mbox
file.
It can be the name of a folder.
The default is
.Dq Li mbox
in the user's home directory.
.It Ar record
If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
mail.
If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.
.It Ar indentprefix
String used by the ``~m'' tilde escape for indenting messages, in place of
the normal tab character (^I).
Be sure to quote the value if it contains
spaces or tabs.
.It Ar toplines
If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
with the
.Ic top
command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Nm Mail
utilizes the
.Ev HOME
and
.Ev USER
environment variables.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/Mail.help* -compact
.It Pa /var/spool/mail/*
Post office.
.It ~/mbox
User's old mail.
.It ~/.mailrc
File giving initial mail commands.
.It Pa /tmp/R*
Temporary files.
.It Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.help*
Help files.
.It Pa /usr/share/misc/Mail.rc
System initialization file.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr fmt 1 ,
.Xr newaliases 1 ,
.Xr vacation 1 ,
.Xr aliases 5 ,
.Xr mailaddr 7 ,
.Xr sendmail 8
and
.Rs
.%T "The Mail Reference Manual" .
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm mail
command
appeared in
.At v6 .
This man page is derived from
.%T "The Mail Reference Manual"
originally written by Kurt Shoens.
.Sh BUGS
There are some flags that are not documented here.
Most are
not useful to the general user.
.Pp
Usually,
.Nm mail
is just a link to
.Nm Mail  ,
which can be confusing.