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2.5.1 Invoking mail

General usage of mail program is:

      mail [option...] [address...]

If [address...] part is present, mail switches to mail sending mode, otherwise it operates in mail reading mode.

The program uses following option groups: See mailbox (Editor’s note: dangling link).

Mail understands following command line options:

-e
--exist

Return true if the mailbox contains some messages. Return false otherwise. This is useful for writing shell scripts.

-E command
--exec=command

Execute command before opening the mailbox. Any number of --exec options can be given. The commands will be executed after sourcing configuration files (see Mail Configuration Files), but before opening the mailbox.

-f
--file

Operate on the mailbox given by the first non-optional command line argument. If there is no such argument, read messages from the user’s mbox file. See Reading Mail, for more details about using this option.

-F
--byname

Record outgoing messages in a file named after the first recipient. The name is the login-name portion of the address found first on the ‘To:’ line in the mail header. This option sets the ‘byname’ variable, which see (see byname).

-H
--headers

Print header summary to stdout and exit.

-i
--ignore

Ignore interrupts.

-m path
--mail-spool=path

Set path to the mailspool directory

-n
--norc

Do not read the system-wide mailrc file. See Mail Configuration Files.

-N
--nosum

Do not display initial header summary.

-p
--print
--read

Print all mail to standard output. It is equivalent to issuing following commands after starting ‘mail -N’:

print *
quit

except that mail --print does not change status of the messages.

-r address
--return-address=address

Sets the return email address for outgoing mail. See return-address.

-q
--quit

Cause interrupts to terminate program.

-s subj
--subject=subj

Send a message with a Subject of subj. Valid only in sending mode.

-t
--to

Switch to sending mode.

-u user
--user=user

Operate on user’s mailbox. This is equivalent to:

mail -f/spool_path/user

with spool_path being the full path to your mailspool directory
(/var/spool/mail or /var/mail on most systems).

-?
--help

Display a help message.

--usage

Display a short usage summary.

-V
--version

Print program version and exit.


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