V7/usr/man/man1/mail.1

.TH MAIL 1 
.SH NAME
mail  \-  send or receive mail among users
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mail
person ...
.br
.B mail
[
.B \-r
] [
.B \-q
] [
.B \-p
] [
.B \-f
file
]
.LP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Mail
with no argument
prints
a user's mail,
message-by-message,
in last-in, first-out order;
the optional argument
.B \-r
causes first-in, first-out order.
If the
.B \-p
flag is given, the mail is printed with no questions asked;
otherwise,
for each message,
.I mail
reads a line from the standard input
to direct disposition of the message.
.TP
newline
Go on to next message.
.TP
d
Delete message and go on to the next.
.TP
p
Print message again.
.TP
\-
Go back to previous message.
.TP
.RI "s [" " file " "] ..."
Save the message in the named
.I files
(`mbox' default).
.TP
.RI "w [" " file " "] ..."
Save the message, without a header, in the named
.I files
(`mbox' default).
.TP
.RI "m [" " person " "] ..."
Mail the message to the named
.I persons
(yourself is default).
.TP
EOT (control-D)
Put unexamined mail back in the mailbox and stop.
.TP
q
Same as EOT.
.TP
x
Exit, without changing the mailbox file.
.TP
!command
Escape to the Shell to do command.
.TP
?
Print a command summary.
.PP
An interrupt stops the printing of the current letter.
The optional argument
.B \(miq
causes
.I mail
to exit after interrupts
without changing the mailbox.
.PP
When
.I persons
are named,
.I mail
takes the standard input up to an end-of-file
(or a line with just `.')
and adds it to each
.I person's
`mail' file.
The message is preceded by the sender's name and a postmark.
Lines that look like postmarks are
prepended with `>'.
A
.I person
is usually a user name recognized by
.IR  login (1).
To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix 
.I person
by the system name and exclamation mark (see
.IR uucp (1)).
.PP
The
.B \-f
option causes the named file, e.g. `mbox',
to be printed as if it were the mail file.
.PP
Each user owns his own mailbox, which is by default generally
readable but not writable.
The command does not delete an empty mailbox nor change its mode,
so a user may make it unreadable if desired.
.PP
When a user logs in he is informed of the presence
of mail.
.SH FILES
/usr/spool/mail/*	mailboxes
.br
/etc/passwd	to identify sender and locate persons
.br
mbox		saved mail
.br
/tmp/ma*	temp file
.br
dead.letter	unmailable text
.br
uux(1)
.SH "SEE ALSO"
xsend(1), write(1), uucp(1)
.SH BUGS
There is a locking mechanism intended to prevent
two senders from accessing the same mailbox, but it
is not perfect and races
are possible.