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Reading Mail

The mail program offers a clumsy way of reading mail. If you type mail without any parameter, you'll see the following:

I'm going to send myself some mail so I can play around with the mailreader:

The prompt inside the mail program is an ampersand (`` &''). It allows a couple of simple commands, and will give a short help screen if you type ? and then [Enter].

The basic commands for mail are:

  • [ t message-list] Show (or type) the messages on the screen.
  • [ d message-list] Delete the messages.
  • [ s message-list file] Save the messages into file.
  • [ r message-list] Reply to the messages---that is, start composing a new message to whoever sent you the listed messages.
  • [ q] Quit and save any messages you didn't delete into a file called mbox in your home directory.

  • What's a message-list? It consists of a list of integers separated by spaces, or even a range, such as 2-4 (which is identical to `` 2 3 4''). You can also enter the username of the sender, so the command t sam would type all the mail from Sam. If a message list is omitted, it is assumed to be the last message displayed (or typed).

    There are several problems with the mail program's reading facilities. First of all, if a message is longer than your screen, the mail program doesn't stop! You'll have to save it and use more on it later. Second of all, it doesn't have a very good interface for old mail---if you wanted to save mail and read it later.

    Emacs also has a facility for reading mail, called rmail, but it is not covered in this book. Additionally, most Linux systems have several other mailreaders available, such as elm  or pine  .



    next up previous contents
    Next: More than Enough Up: Electronic Mail Previous: Sending Mail



    Ross Biro
    Thu May 25 10:45:54 PDT 1995