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COMSAT(8)                                BSD System Manager's Manual                               COMSAT(8)

NAME
     comsat -- biff server

SYNOPSIS
     comsat [-l]

DESCRIPTION
     comsat is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail and notifies users if they have
     requested this service.  comsat receives messages on a datagram port associated with the ``biff'' ser-vice service
     vice specification (see services(5) and inetd(8)).  The one line messages are of the form:

           user@mailbox-offset

     If the user specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has the owner execute bit
     turned on (by a ``biff y''), the offset is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
     the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed on the user's terminal.  Lines which
     appear to be part of the message header other than the ``From'', ``To'', ``Date'', or ``Subject'' lines
     are not included in the displayed message.

OPTIONS
     The comsat program supports this option:

     -l     The -l option turns on syslogd(8) log messages.

FILES
     /var/run/utmpx  to find out who's logged on and on what terminals

SEE ALSO
     biff(1), inetd(8), syslogd(8).

BUGS
     The message header filtering is prone to error.  The density of the information presented is near the
     theoretical minimum.

     Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other machines than the one to which they are cur-rently currently
     rently logged in.

     The notification should appear in a separate window so it does not mess up the screen.

     comsat runs as root so that it can open the users maildrop.

HISTORY
     The comsat command appeared in 4.2BSD.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution                       June 4, 1993                       4.2 Berkeley Distribution

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