MAIL(1) – General Commands Manual

NAME

mail,
mailx – send and receive mail

SYNOPSIS

mail
[-EiInv]
[-s subject]
[-c cc-addr]
[-b bcc-addr]
[-F]
to-addr ...
mail
[-EHiInNv]
[-F]
-f
[name]
mail
[-EHiInNv]
[-F]
[-u user]
mail
-e
[-f name]
mail
[-H]

INTRODUCTION

The
mail
utility is an intelligent mail processing system, which has
a command syntax reminiscent of
ed(1)
with lines replaced by messages.

The following options are available:

-v

Verbose mode.
The details of
delivery are displayed on the user's terminal.

-e

Test for the presence of mail in the (by default, system)
mailbox.
An exit status of 0 is returned if
it has mail; otherwise, an exit status
of 1 is returned.

-H

Write a header summary only.

-E

Do not send messages with an empty body.
This is useful for piping errors from
cron(8)
scripts.

-i

Ignore tty interrupt signals.
This is
particularly useful when using
mail
on noisy phone lines.

-I

Force
mail
to run in interactive mode even when
input is not a terminal.
In particular, the
'~'
special
character when sending mail is only active in interactive mode.

-n

Inhibit reading the system-wide
mail.rc
files upon startup.

-N

Inhibit the initial display of message headers
when reading mail or editing a mail folder.

-s subject

Specify
subject
on command line.
(Only the first argument after the
-s
flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
containing spaces.)

-c cc-addr

Send carbon copies to
cc-addr
list of users.
The
cc-addr
argument should be a comma-separated list of names.

-b bcc-addr

Send blind carbon copies to
bcc-addr
list of users.
The
bcc-addr
argument should be a comma-separated list of names.

-f

Use an alternate mailbox.
Defaults to the user's
mbox
if no
file
is specified.
When quit,
mail
writes undeleted messages back to this file.

-F

Record the message in a file named after the first
recipient.
The name is the login-name portion of the
address found first on the
“To:“
line in the mail header.
Overrides the
record
variable, if set.

-u

Is equivalent to:

> mail -f /var/mail/user

Startup Actions

At startup time
mail
will execute commands in the system command files
/usr/share/misc/mail.rc,
/usr/local/etc/mail.rc
and
/etc/mail.rc
in order, unless explicitly told not to by the use of the
-n
option.
Next, the commands in the user's personal command file
~/.mailrc
are executed.
The
mail
utility then examines its command line options to determine whether a
new message is to be sent, or whether an existing mailbox is to
be read.

Sending Mail

To send a message to one or more people,
mail
can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to
whom the mail will be sent.
You are then expected to type in
your message, followed
by a
<control-D>
at the beginning of a line.
The section below
Replying To or Originating Mail,
describes some features of
mail
available to help you compose your letter.

Reading Mail

In normal usage
mail
is given no arguments and checks your mail out of the
post office, then
prints out a one line header of each message found.
The current message is initially the first message (numbered 1)
and can be printed using the
print
command (which can be abbreviated
p).
You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in
ed(1),
with the commands
+
and
-
moving backwards and forwards, and
simple numbers.

Disposing of Mail

After examining a message you can
delete
(d)
the message or
reply
(r)
to it.
Deletion causes the
mail
program to forget about the message.
This is not irreversible; the message can be
undeleted
(u)
by giving its number, or the
mail
session can be aborted by giving the
exit
(x)
command.
Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen again.

Specifying Messages

Commands such as
print
and
delete
can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply
to a number of messages at once.
Thus
“delete 1 2“
deletes messages 1 and 2, while
“delete 1-5“
deletes messages 1 through 5.
The special name
'*'
addresses all messages, and
'$'
addresses
the last message; thus the command
top
which prints the first few lines of a message could be used in
“top *“
to print the first few lines of all messages.

Replying To or Originating Mail

You can use the
reply
command to
set up a response to a message, sending it back to the
person who it was from.
Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file,
defines the contents of the message.
While you are composing a message,
mail
treats lines beginning with the character
'~'
specially.
For instance, typing
~m
(alone on a line) will place a copy
of the current message into the response right shifting it by a tabstop
(see
indentprefix
variable, below).
Other escapes will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients
to the message and allow you to escape to an editor to revise the
message or to a shell to run some commands.
(These options
are given in the summary below.)

Ending a Mail Processing Session

You can end a
mail
session with the
quit
(q)
command.
Messages which have been examined go to your
mbox
file unless they have been deleted in which case they are discarded.
Unexamined messages go back to the post office.
(See the
-f
option above).

Personal and System Wide Distribution Lists

It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
for instance, you can send mail to
“cohorts“
and have it go
to a group of people.
Such lists can be defined by placing a line like

alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory

in the file
.mailrc
in your home directory.
The current list of such aliases can be displayed with the
alias
command in
mail.
System wide distribution lists can be created by editing
/etc/mail/aliases,
see
aliases(5)
and
sendmail(8);
these are kept in a different syntax.
In mail you send, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent
to others so that they will be able to
reply
to the recipients.
System wide
aliases
are not expanded when the mail is sent,
but any reply returned to the machine will have the system wide
alias expanded as all mail goes through
sendmail(8).

Recipient address specifications

Recipient addresses (any of the
“To”,
“Cc”
or
“Bcc”
header fields) are subject to expansion when the
expandaddr
option is set.

An address may be expanded as follows:

• An address that starts with a pipe
  ('|')
  character is treated as a command to run.
  The command immediately following the
  '|'
  is executed with the message as its standard input.

• An address that starts with a
  '+'
  character is treated as a folder.

• An address that contains a
  '/'
  character but no
  '!',
  '%',
  or
  '@'
  characters is also treated as a folder.

• If none of the above apply, the recipient is treated as
  a local or network mail address.

If the
expandaddr
option is not set (the default), no expansion is performed and
the recipient is treated as a local or network mail address.

Network Mail (ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)

See
mailaddr(7)
for a description of network addresses.

The
mail
utility has a number of options which can be set in the
.mailrc
file to alter its behavior; thus
“set askcc“
enables the
askcc
feature.
(These options are summarized below.)

SUMMARY

(Adapted from the
Mail Reference Manual.)

Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments
following the command word.
The command need not be typed in its
entirety — the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
For commands which take message lists as arguments, if no message
list is given, then the next message forward which satisfies the
command's requirements is used.
If there are no messages forward of
the current message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no
good messages at all,
mail
types
“No applicable messages“
and
aborts the command.

-

Print out the preceding message.
If given a numeric
argument
n,
goes to the
n'th
previous message and prints it.

#

ignore the remainder of the line as a comment.

?

Prints a brief summary of commands.

!

Executes the shell
(see
sh(1)
and
csh(1))
command which follows.

Print

(P)
Like
print
but also prints out ignored header fields.
See also
print, ignore
and
retain.

Reply

(R)
Reply to originator.
Does not reply to other
recipients of the original message.

Type

(T)
Identical to the
Print
command.

alias

(a)
With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
With one
argument, prints out that alias.
With more than one argument, creates
a new alias or changes an old one.

alternates

(alt)
The
alternates
command is useful if you have accounts on several machines.
It can be used to inform
mail
that the listed addresses are really you.
When you
reply
to messages,
mail
will not send a copy of the message to any of the addresses
listed on the
alternates
list.
If the
alternates
command is given with no argument, the current set of alternative
names is displayed.

chdir

(c)
Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if given.
If
no directory is given, then changes to the user's login directory.

copy

(co)
The
copy
command does the same thing that
save
does, except that it does not mark the messages it
is used on for deletion when you
quit.

delete

(d)
Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
Deleted messages will not be saved in
mbox,
nor will they be available for most other commands.

dp

(also
dt)
Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
If there is no next message,
mail
says
“at EOF”.

edit

(e)
Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each one in
turn.
On return from the editor, the message is read back in.

exit

(ex
or
x)
Effects an immediate return to the shell without
modifying the user's system mailbox, his
mbox
file, or his edit file in
-f.

file

(fi)
The same as
folder.

folders

List the names of the folders in your folder directory.

folder

(fo)
The
folder
command switches to a new mail file or folder.
With no
arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading.
If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such
as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in
the new file.
Some special conventions are recognized for
the name.
'#'
means the previous file,
'%'
means your system mailbox,
“%user“
means user's system mailbox,
'&'
means your
mbox
file, and
“+folder“
means a file in your folder
directory.

from

(f)
Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.

headers

(h)
Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18-message group.
If
a
'+'
argument is given, then the next 18-message group is printed, and if
a
'-'
argument is given, the previous 18-message group is printed.

help

A synonym for
?.

hold

(ho,
also
preserve)
Takes a message list and marks each
message therein to be saved in the
user's system mailbox instead of in
mbox.
Does not override the
delete
command.

ignore

Add the list of header fields named to the
ignored list.
Header fields in the ignore list are not printed
on your terminal when you print a message.
This
command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
header fields.
The
Type
and
Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
ignored fields.
If
ignore
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
ignored fields.

inc

Incorporate any new messages that have arrived while mail
is being read.
The new messages are added to the end of the message list,
and the current message is reset to be the first new mail message.
This does not renumber the existing message list, nor
does it cause any changes made so far to be saved.

mail

(m)
Takes as argument login names and distribution group names and sends
mail to those people.

mbox

Indicate that a list of messages be sent to
mbox
in your home directory when you quit.
This is the default
action for messages if you do
not
have the
hold
option set.

more

(mo)
Takes a list of messages and invokes the pager on that list.

next

(n,
like
+
or
CR)
Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
With an argument list, types the next matching message.

preserve

(pre)
A synonym for
hold.

print

(p)
Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.

quit

(q)
Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
the user's
mbox
file in his login directory, preserving all messages marked with
hold
or
preserve
or never referenced
in his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his system
mailbox.
If new mail has arrived during the session, the message
“You have new mail“
is given.
If given while editing a
mailbox file with the
-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
exit
command.

reply

(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.

respond

A synonym for
reply.

retain

Add the list of header fields named to the
retained list.
Only the header fields in the retained list
are shown on your terminal when you print a message.
All other header fields are suppressed.
The
type
and
print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
If
retain
is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of
retained fields.

save

(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.

set

(se)
With no arguments, prints all variable values.
Otherwise, sets
option.
Arguments are of the form
option=value
(no space before or after
'=')
or
option.
Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment statement to
quote blanks or tabs, i.e.
“set indentprefix="->"“

saveignore

Saveignore
is to
save
what
ignore
is to
print
and
type.
Header fields thus marked are filtered out when
saving a message by
save
or when automatically saving to
mbox.

saveretain

Saveretain
is to
save
what
retain
is to
print
and
type.
Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved
with a message when saving by
save
or when automatically saving to
mbox.
Saveretain
overrides
saveignore.

shell

(sh)
Invokes an interactive version of the shell.

size

Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each
message.

source

The
source
command reads
commands from a file.

top

Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
The number of
lines printed is controlled by the variable
toplines
and defaults to 5.

type

(t)
A synonym for
print.

unalias

Takes a list of names defined by
alias
commands and discards the remembered groups of users.
The group names
no longer have any significance.

undelete

(u)
Takes a message list and marks each message as
not
being deleted.

unread

(U)
Takes a message list and marks each message as
not
having been read.

unset

Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
the inverse of
set.

visual

(v)
Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.

write

(w)
Similar to
save,
except that
only
the message body
(without
the header) is saved.
Extremely useful for such tasks as sending and receiving source
program text over the message system.

xit

(x)
A synonym for
exit.

z

The
mail
utility presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
headers
command.
You can move
mail's
attention forward to the next window with the
z
command.
Also, you can move to the previous window by using
z-.

Tilde/Escapes

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
“tilde escape”
is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set
by the option
escape.

~a

Inserts the autograph string from the sign= option into the message.

~A

Inserts the autograph string from the Sign= option into the message.

~b 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).

~c name ...

Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.

~d

Read the file
dead.letter
from your home directory into the message.

~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.

~f 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
ignore
or
retain
command) are not included.

~F messages

Identical to
~f,
except all message headers are included.

~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.

~i string

Inserts the value of the named option into the text of the message.

~m messages

Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by a
tab or by the value of
indentprefix.
If no messages are specified,
read the current message.
Message headers currently being ignored (by the
ignore
or
retain
command) are not included.

~M messages

Identical to
~m,
except all message headers are included.

~p

Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message header
fields.

~q

Abort the message being sent, copying the message to
dead.letter
in your home directory if
save
is set.

~r filename, ~r !command

~< filename, ~< !command

Read the named file into the message.
If the argument begins with a
'!',
the rest of the string is taken as an arbitrary system command and is
executed, with the standard output inserted into the message.

~R string

Use
string
as the Reply-To field.

~s string

Cause the named string to become the current subject field.

~t name ...

Add the given names to the direct recipient list.

~v

Invoke an alternative editor (defined by the
VISUAL
environment variable) on the
message collected so far.
Usually, the alternative editor will be a
screen editor.
After you quit the editor, you may resume appending
text to the end of your message.

~w filename

Write the message onto the named file.

~x

Exits as with
~q,
except the message is not saved in
dead.letter.

~! command

Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.

~| command, ~^ 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
fmt(1)
is often used as
command
to rejustify the message.

~: mail-command, ~_ mail-command

Execute the given
mail
command.
Not all commands, however, are allowed.

~.

Simulate end-of-file on input.

~?

Print a summary of the available command escapes.

~~ 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.

Mail Options

Options can be set with the
set
command
and can be disabled with the
unset
or
set noname
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.
If an option is not set,
mail
will look for an environment variable of the same name.
The available options include the following:

append

Causes messages saved in
mbox
to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
This should always be set (preferably in one of the system-wide
mail.rc
files).
Default is
noappend.

ask, asksub

Causes
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.
Default is
asksub.

askbcc

Causes you to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy recipients at the
end of each message.
Responding with a newline indicates your
satisfaction with the current list.
Default is
noaskbcc.

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.
Default is
noaskcc.

autoinc

Causes new mail to be automatically incorporated when it arrives.
Setting this is similar to issuing the
inc
command at each prompt, except that the current message is not
reset when new mail arrives.
Default is
noautoinc.

autoprint

Causes the
delete
command to behave like
dp;
thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed
automatically.
Default is
noautoprint.

crt

The valued option
crt
is used as a threshold to determine how long a message must
be before
PAGER
is used to read it.
If
crt
is set without a value,
then the height of the terminal screen stored in the system
is used to compute the threshold (see
stty(1)).
Default is
nocrt.

debug

Setting the binary option
debug
is the same as specifying
-d
on the command line and causes
mail
to output all sorts of information useful for debugging
mail.
Default is
nodebug.

dot

The binary option
dot
causes
mail
to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator
of a message you are sending.
Default is
nodot.

escape

If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
use in place of
'~'
to denote escapes.

expandaddr

Causes
mail
to expand message recipient addresses, as explained in the section
Recipient address specifications.

flipr

Reverses the sense of
reply
and
Reply
commands.
Default is
noflipr.

folder

The name of the directory to use for storing folders of
messages.
If this name begins with a
'/',
mail
considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
folder directory is found relative to your home directory.

header

If defined, initially display message headers when reading mail or
editing a mail folder.
Default is
header.
This option can be disabled by giving the
-N
flag on the command line.

hold

This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox
by default.
Default is
nohold.

ignore

Causes interrupt signals from your terminal to be ignored and echoed as
@'s.
Default is
noignore.

ignoreeof

An option related to
dot
is
ignoreeof
which makes
mail
refuse to accept a
<control-D>
as the end of a message.
Ignoreeof
also applies to
mail
command mode.
Default is
noignoreeof.

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.

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.
Default is
nometoo.

quiet

Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
Default is
noquiet.

record

If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing
mail.
If not defined, outgoing mail is not saved.
Default is
norecord.

Replyall

Reverses the sense of
reply
and
Reply
commands.
Default is
noReplyall.

save

If this option is set, and you abort a message with two
RUBOUT
(erase or delete),
mail
will copy the partial letter to the file
dead.letter
in your home directory.
Default is
save.

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.
If
x
is omitted, it will default to the
“Subject“
header field.
The form
“/to:y“
is a special case, and will expand
to all messages containing the substring
y
in the
“To”,
“Cc“
or
“Bcc“
header fields.
The check for
“to“
is case sensitive, so that
“/To:y“
can be used to limit the search for
y
to just the
“To:“
field.
Default is
nosearchheaders.

toplines

If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
with the
top
command; normally, the first five lines are printed.

verbose

Setting the option
verbose
is the same as using the
-v
flag on the command line.
When
mail
runs in verbose mode,
the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's
terminal.
Default is
noverbose.

ENVIRONMENT

DEAD

Pathname of the file to save partial messages to in case of interrupts
or delivery errors.
Default is
~/dead.letter.

EDITOR

Pathname of the text editor to use in the
edit
command and
~e
escape.
If not defined, then a default editor is used.

HOME

Pathname of the user's home directory.

LISTER

Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
folders
command.
Default is
/bin/ls.

MAIL

Location of the user's mailbox.
Default is
/var/mail.

MAILRC

Pathname of file containing initial
mail
commands.
Default is
~/.mailrc.

MBOX

The name of the mailbox file.
It can be the name of a folder.
The default is
mbox
in the user's home directory.

PAGER

Pathname of the program to use in the
more
command or when
crt
variable is set.
The default paginator
more(1)
is used if this option is not defined.

REPLYTO

If set, will be used to initialize the Reply-To field for outgoing
messages.

SHELL

Pathname of the shell to use in the
!
command and the
~!
escape.
A default shell is used if this option is
not defined.

VISUAL

Pathname of the text editor to use in the
visual
command and
~v
escape.

USER

Login name of the user executing mail.

FILES

*/var/mail/**

Post office.

~/mbox

User's old mail.

~/.mailrc

File giving initial
mail
commands.
This can be overridden by setting the
MAILRC
environment variable.

*/tmp/R**

Temporary files.

/usr/share/misc/mail.help*

Help files.

/usr/share/misc/mail.rc

/usr/local/etc/mail.rc

/etc/mail.rc

System-wide initialization files.
Each file will be sourced, in order,
if it exists.

SEE ALSO

fmt(1),
newaliases(1),
vacation(1),
aliases(5),
mailaddr(7),
sendmail(8)

The Mail Reference Manual.

HISTORY

A
mail
command
appeared in
Version1 AT&T UNIX.
This man page is derived from
The Mail Reference Manual
originally written by
Kurt Shoens.

BUGS

Usually,
mail
is just a link to
Mail
and
mailx,
which can be confusing.

The name of the
alternates
list is incorrect English (it should be
“alternatives”),
but is retained for compatibility.

macOS 12.7 – February 29, 2004