SEND

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Send sends messages to a user-specified list of recipients. When invoked without arguments, it prompts for the following information:

To:
cc:
Subject:

1)

To the "To:" and "cc:" prompts, a list of valid user names (see below).

2)

To the "Subject:" prompt, a brief description of the subject of the message.

Copies of the message are delivered to recipients on the "To:" and "cc:" lists. A response to the "To:" prompt is required, unless blind carbon copies (bcc) are specified. A field may be left empty by typing a carriage return <CR>.

If the user's input for any of the above fields will require more than one line, then when typing the input the user should precede carriage returns with a backslash (\). In any case, the user's input for any one of these fields must not exceed 512 characters.

Arguments

Send may be invoked with arguments. If they are specified, then the contents of any resulting fields are displayed, before the user is prompted for additional input. Unless switches (a character preceded by a dash) are used, the arguments are taken to be addresses for the "To:" field.

-a

causes the next argument to be added to the header of the message. For example, ``-a Reply-To:dcrocker''. Enclose the argument in quotes if it contains spaces.

-b

causes following arguments to be added to the "BCC:" field.

-h

causes the next argument to be used as the default host reference, for addresses not explicitly containing a hostname. When not specified, the default is the local host.

-c

causes following arguments to be added to the "cc:" field.

-s

causes the next argument to be used as the "Subject:" field's contents.

-t

causes following arguments to be added to the "To:" field.

-d

causes the state of the directedit option to be changed (see "directedit" below). Alone, "-d" disables the directedit option. "-de" causes the directedit option to use the line editor, and "-dv" causes the directedit option to use the visual (screen) editor.

-n

prevents send from prompting for message text either directly or via direct edit. The user is immediately given the command prompt after entering the header data. Prompting for header data can be prevented by giving null header arguments to send without contents. For example:

      send -t "" -c "" -s "" -n

Valid User Addresses

A valid address name takes one of the following forms:

1)

A local Unix user's login name, such as "crocker."

2)

A name which has been designated as a local alias, such as "support." This usually will not look any different from a login name, except that it may be longer than the standard 8-character limit.

3)

The two-part "mailbox @ domain" address for a user on another machine.

Validation of names is done at posting time, and is performed by the message delivery system, rather than by send. All addresses are made to have a domain reference. If the user does not specify a domain for an address, then the default host is assumed.

When the "To:", "cc:" and "Subject:" fields have been completed, send will prompt for the body of the message, with:

Type message; end with CTRL-D...

The user now enters the text of the message. When the message is completed, or when the user wishes to insert a file or make changes, s/he types a control-D at the beginning of a new line. Send then prompts the user for its next action.

User Options and Environmental Tailoring

The user may define a file in his home directory called ".sendrc". If such a file exists, send will open the file and set options as specified, otherwise the defaults will be used. Below are listed the options available for user modification along with their default values.

aliases

Allows the user to declare his own set of aliases for use with send and resend. Unless this file name begins with a '/', send will look for this file in the user's home directory. The format for this file is:

aliasname user1@domain,user2@domain,user3@domain...

Note that each entry must be on a single line but each line may be up to 511 characters long.

checker

This will be the user's spelling checker while using send. The default for this option is spell.

copyfile

This is the file in which copies of messages will be stored if requested by the user. Unless the first character of the supplied filename is '/', the file will be created in the user's home directory. The default for the copyfile is a file called ".sent" in the users home directory. See also "file, nofile, fileonquery" below.

directedit

If this option is specified, the send program will immediately enter the editor after the "To:", "cc:" and "Subject:" fields have been supplied. The directedit option expects an argument which specifies which editor to use. "directedit v" causes the visual editor to be used (see "veditor" below). "directedit e" causes the line editor to be used (see "editor" below).

draftdir

If supplied, draft files will be created in this directory. Otherwise, they will be created in the user's home directory. Draftdir should be a complete path name.

editor

This will be the user's line editor while using send. The default for this option is system dependent, but normally set to ed. If the environment variable ``EDITOR'' is set, it will be taken as the default instead of the system default.

file, nofile, fileonquery

The presence of one of these options allows the users to control the keeping of file copies. ``File'' will result in a copy being kept of every message sent by the user. ``Nofile'' will turn off the file copy option and no copies will ever be kept. ``Fileonquery'' will cause send to query the user as to whether a copy should be kept or not.

header

This option allows user-defined header lines to be added to the message being sent. The first argument is the field name (e.g. Organization). The second argument is the contents of the field (e.g. West Podunk College). A separate header line will be added for each "header" command in the .sendrc file.

paging

Having this in your .sendrc will cause your message to be displayed a screenful at a time when using the "review message" command.

signature, nosignature

Send will automatically fill in the ``From:'' field with your address. The form of the contents is either:

login@host or Full Name <login@host>

where ``login'' is your Unix login name, and ``host'' is the name of the Unix machine you are using. The second form is the default on some systems. On these systems, ``Full Name'' is derived from the system password file. The ``nosignature'' command forces send to use the form:

login@host

You may personalize your messages by including a signature. If your .sendrc file contains a signature line, its contents will be used in the ``From:'' field, ahead of the address information. The signature cannot contain any of the following characters unless it is quoted with double quotes: `( ) < > @ , ; :   " . [ ]' and it cannot be blank. The program will verify the signature line for correctness at startup and will complain if your signature is illegal. The ``From:'' field then will appear as follows:

signature <login@host>

subargs

Allows the user to specify additional flags for the submit program ('v' and 'm' are always passed). Probably not for general use.

veditor

This is the visual editor (screen editor) for use with send. The default for this editor is site dependent, but is usually some version of vi or emacs. If the environment variable ``VISUAL'' is set, it will be taken as the default instead of the system default.

The format for a typical .sendrc profile is shown below:

copyfile sent_mail
draftdir .drafts
signature Joe Foobar
subargs w
veditor emacs
fileonquery
aliases joes_aliases
header Organization "West Podunk College"

Commands

Send commands must be followed by a carriage return. Only enough of a command to make it unique need be typed. The following are valid commands:

?

displays a list of send's commands.

bcc

prompts for addresses for the ``BCC:'' Blind carbon copies field. If any addresses are specified for Blind carbon copies, they receive a slightly different message than those listed in ``To:'' or ``cc:''. Their copy has a header component named ``BCC:''; its contents are the string ``(Private)''. If the message had no ``To:'' addresses, then the ``To:'' field will contain the string ``list:'' and there will be no BCC field. In addition, the ``To:'' and ``cc:'' fieldnames are modified to prevent recipients from automatically replying to anyone in the ``To:'' or ``cc:'' fields.

NOTE: If a message has normal and BCC recipients and there is an error with a BCC address, the normal addresses will have been processed, and the copy of their message sent, before the BCC address error is detected.

bye

exits the send program. If the user has not yet sent the message, the user is asked to confirm the action. A ``yes'' (or 'y') is required, followed by a <CR>, or the command will be aborted and the user returned to the ``Command or ?:'' prompt.

check spelling

will invoke the spelling checker with the draft filename as the argument to the checker program. (See ``checker'' user option above.)

delete body

permits the user to abort send without saving the draft body. If send is aborted without giving the ``delete body'' command, a copy of the draft will be kept as drft.nnnnn in the draft directory specified by the ``draftdir'' option above. This command can also be given at any time to erase the current draft before inputing more text. It requires confirmation for obvious reasons.

edit

will invoke the user's line editor (usually the Unix editor ed(1)) and read in the user's message body for editing. (See ``editor'' user option above.)

file

indicates the user wishes to append a file to the end of the message body. Send will prompt for file name.

header edit

allows the user to change the contents of the header fields (``To:'', ``cc:'', and ``Subject:''). The ``BCC:'' field is included, if not empty. For each header field, send shows the current field contents and then repeats the prompt. The user may type in new input which will then become the contents of that header field. To leave the contents of the field unchanged, the user types only a carriage return. To delete a specific entry, the user types a minus sign followed by the address to be deleted (e.g. ``-dcrocker@udel''). To simply delete the first entry of a list, the user can type a minus sign (-) followed by a carriage return. To delete the entire line, the user types a pound sign (#) followed by a carriage return. To add to the field, the user types a plus sign (+), followed by the text to be added, followed by a carriage return. For example, to add a name to a field, one would type the command ``+user@domain''. More than one address can be added at a time by listing several addresses separated by commas (e.g. +u1,u2). To begin a line with one of these special editting characters (i.e. -, +, or #), the user can precede it with a space.

input more body

this command allows the user to type more text onto the end of the message body, ending with a control-d on a new line (as before).

post

same as ``send''.

quit

same as ``bye''.

review message

retypes message in its current form.

send

posts the message to the message delivery system. The message is delivered immediately to local users and queued for later delivery to non-local users. The sender is informed of the posting disposition of the message. Each address is listed and followed by its status, indicating that the address is ok, or that there was a problem.

If all addresses are valid, the sender is then informed that the message has successfully been posted for delivery. If any addresses are found to be invalid, the remaining addresses are still checked, but submission is aborted. The user is returned to command input, so that he may change the addresses and make them legal.

set

allows the user to check the current values of option variables. If followed by arguments, allows the user to change the current setting of variables. The changed value lasts only for the current invocation of send. Option values are those listed above under ``User Options and Environmental Tailoring''. For example, the command ``set editor ex'' would change the ``editor'' option to ``ex'' for the duration of the current send session.

vedit

will invoke the screen editor as specified by the ``veditor'' option and read in the user's message body, for editing. (See ``veditor'' user option above.)

program run

allows the user to give a shell command. Send prompts for program. The user's response is passed to the shell. Control is returned to send when the command has been executed.

CTRL-D

same as ``bye''

FILES

<login directory>/.sendrc

user options

<login directory>/aliases

user-supplied alias file

<login directory>/.sent

sent messages

<login directory>/drft.XXXXXX

body of current message

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Arguments

Valid User Addresses

User Options and Environmental Tailoring

Commands

FILES

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS