PWB1/usr/man/man1/mail.1

.th MAIL I 5/31/77
.sh NAME
mail  \*-  send mail to designated users
.sh SYNOPSIS
.bd mail
[\c
.bd \*-yn\c
]
[ person ... ]
.br
.bd mail
.bd \*-f
file
.sh DESCRIPTION
.it Mail
with no argument
searches for a file
called
.bd .mail,
prints it in reverse chronological order if it is nonempty,
then asks if it should be saved.
If the answer
is
.bd y,
the mail is added to
.bd mbox.
In either case,
.bd .mail
is truncated to zero length.
To leave
.bd .mail
untouched,
hit `delete.'\ 
The question can be answered on the command line
with the argument \fB\*-y\fP or \fB\*-n\fP.
.s3
.it Mail
tries to use
.bd .mail
and
.bd mbox
in the current directory.
But if
.bd .mail
doesn't exist,
.it mail
uses
.bd .mail
and
.bd mbox
in your
.it login
directory instead.
.s3
When
.it persons
are named,
.it mail
takes the standard input up to an end-of-file
(or a line with just `.')
and adds it to each
.it person's
.bd .mail
file.
The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.
A
.it person
is a user name recognized by
.it login\^\c
(I).
Mail
is sent to the
.it login
directory of that user.
.s3
The
.bd \*-f
option causes the named file to be printed as if it were mail.
.s3
When a user logs in he is informed of the presence
of mail.
.s3
To receive mail, a
.bd .mail
file must exist in your
.it login
directory, and it must be writable by everyone.
However, it need not be readable by everyone.
.sh FILES
/etc/passwd		to identify sender and locate persons
.br
.li
.mail			input mail
.br
mbox			saved mail
.br
/tmp/m?????	temp file
.sh "SEE ALSO"
write\^\c
(I)