MAIL(I)                      2/21/75                      MAIL(I)







NAME

     mail  -  send mail to designated users



SYNOPSIS

     mail [ -yn ] [ person ... ]



DESCRIPTION

     Mail with no argument searches  for  a  file  called  .mail,

     prints  it  if  it  is  nonempty,  then asks if it should be

     saved.  If the answer is y,  the  mail  is  added  to  mbox.

     Finally  .mail  is  truncated  to zero length.  To leave the

     mailbox  untouched,  hit  `delete.'   The  question  can  be

     answered on the command line with the argument `-y' or `-n'.



     When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up  to

     an end of file and adds it to each person's .mail file.  The

     message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.



     A person is either a user name recognized by login  (I),  in

     which case the mail is sent to the default working directory

     of that user; or the path name of a directory, in which case

     .mail in that directory is used.



     When a user logs in he is informed of the presence of  mail.

     No  mail  will  be  received  from a sender to whom .mail is

     inaccessible or unwritable.



FILES

     /etc/passwd     to identify sender and locate persons

     /etc/utmp       to identify sender

     .mail           input mail

     mbox            saved mail

     /tmp/m# temp file



SEE ALSO

     write (I)



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