MAIL(1)			 HP-UX 5.0		       MAIL(1)

     NAME
	  mail, rmail - send mail to users or read mail

     SYNOPSIS
	  mail [ -epqr ] [ -f file ]

	  mail [ -t ] persons

	  rmail [ -t ] persons

     HP-UX COMPATIBILITY
	  Level:    HP-UX/STANDARD

	  Origin:   System III

	  Native Language Support:
		    8-bit and 16-bit data.

     DESCRIPTION
	  Note:	 An enhanced  user  mail  interface  is	 presented  in
	  mailx(1).

	  Mail without arguments prints	 a  user's  mail,  message-by-
	  message, in last-in, first-out order.	 For each message, the
	  user is prompted with a ?, and  a  line  is  read  from  the
	  standard input to determine the disposition of the message:

	       <new-line>      Go on to next message.
	       +	       Same as <new-line>.
	       d	       Delete  message	and  go	 on  to	  next
			       message.
	       p	       Print message again.
	       -	       Go back to previous message.
	       s [ files ]     Save message in the named  files	 (mbox
			       is default).
	       w [ files ]     Save message, without  its  header,  in
			       the named files (mbox is default).
	       m [ persons ]   Mail the message to the	named  persons
			       (yourself is default).
	       q	       Put undeleted mail back in the mailfile
			       and stop.
	       EOT (control-d) Same as q.
	       x	       Put  all	 mail  back  in	 the  mailfile
			       unchanged and stop.
	       !command	       Escape to the shell to do command.
	       *	       Print a command summary.

	  The optional arguments alter the printing of the mail:

	  -e   causes mail not	to  be	printed.   An  exit  value  is
	       returned:
	       0 = mail present
	       1 = no mail
	       2 = other error
	  -p   causes all mail to be  printed  without	prompting  for
	       disposition.
	  -q   causes mail to terminate after interrupts.  Normally an
	       interrupt  only	causes the termination of the printing
	       of the current message.
	  -r   causes messages to be printed  in  first-in,  first-out
	       order.
	  -ffile
	       causes mail to use file (e.g.,  mbox)  instead  of  the
	       default mailfile.

	  When persons are named, mail takes the standard input up  to
	  an  end-of-file (or up to a line consisting of just a .) and
	  adds it to each person's mailfile.  The message is  preceded
	  by  the  sender's name and a postmark.  Lines that look like
	  postmarks in the message, (i.e., ``From ...'') are  preceded
	  with	a  >.  The -t option causes the message to be preceded
	  by all persons the mail is sent to.  A person is  usually  a
	  user	name  recognized  by login(1).	If a person being sent
	  mail is not recognized, or if	 mail  is  interrupted	during
	  input,  the  file dead.letter will be saved to allow editing
	  and resending.  Note that this is regarded  as  a  temporary
	  file	in that it is recreated every time needed, erasing the
	  previous contents of dead.letter.

	  To denote a recipient on a remote system, prefix  person  by
	  the	system	name  and  exclamation	mark  (see  uucp(1C)).
	  Everything after the first exclamation mark  in  persons  is
	  interpreted by the remote system.  In particular, if persons
	  contains additional  exclamation  marks,  it	can  denote  a
	  sequence of machines through which the message is to be sent
	  on the  way  to  its	ultimate  destination.	 For  example,
	  specifying  a!b!cde as a recipient's name causes the message
	  to be sent to	 user  b!cde  on  system  a.   System  a  will
	  interpret  that destination as a request to send the message
	  to user  cde	on  system  b.	 This  might  be  useful,  for
	  instance,  if the sending system can access system a but not
	  system b, and system a has access to system  b.   Mail  will
	  not  use  uucp if the remote system is the local system name
	  (i.e., localsystem!user).

	  The mailfile may be manipulated in two  ways	to  alter  the
	  function  of mail.  The other permissions of the file may be
	  read-write, read-only, or neither read nor  write  to	 allow
	  different  levels  of privacy.  If changed to other than the
	  default, the file will  be  preserved	 even  when  empty  to
	  perpetuate  the  desired  permissions.   The	file  may also
	  contain the first line:

	       Forward to person
	  which will cause all mail sent to the owner of the  mailfile
	  to  be  forwarded  to	 person.  This is especially useful to
	  forward all of a person's mail to one machine in a  multiple
	  machine  environment.	  In  order  for  forwarding  to  work
	  properly the mailfile should have "mail" as  group  ID,  and
	  the group permission should be read-write.

	  Rmail only permits the sending of mail; uucp(1C) uses	 rmail
	  as a security precaution.

	  When a user logs in,	the  presence  of  mail,  if  any,  is
	  indicated.  Also,  notification  is made if new mail arrives
	  while using mail.

     FILES
	  /etc/passwd	    to identify sender and locate persons
	  /usr/mail/user    incoming mail for user; i.e., the mailfile
	  $HOME/mbox	    saved mail
	  $MAIL		    variable containing path name of mailfile
	  /tmp/ma*	    temporary file
	  /usr/mail/*.lock  lock for mail directory
	  dead.letter	    unmailable text

     SEE ALSO
	  login(1), mailx(1), uucp(1C), write(1).

     BUGS
	  Conditions sometimes result in a failure to  remove  a  lock
	  file.
	  After an interrupt, the next message	may  not  be  printed;
	  printing may be forced by typing a p.