435 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
435 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
.\" $NetBSD: mail4.nr,v 1.4 2003/08/07 11:14:44 agc Exp $
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.\"
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.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1993
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.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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.\"
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.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\" are met:
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.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
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.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
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.\" without specific prior written permission.
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.\"
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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.\"
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.\" @(#)mail4.nr 8.2 (Berkeley) 5/16/94
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.\"
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.sh 1 "More about sending mail"
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.sh 2 "Tilde escapes"
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.pp
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While typing in a message to be sent to others, it is often
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useful to be able to invoke the text editor on the partial message,
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print the message, execute a shell command, or do some other
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auxiliary function.
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.i Mail
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provides these capabilities through
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.i "tilde escapes" ,
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which consist of a tilde (~) at the beginning of a line, followed by
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a single character which indicates the function to be performed. For
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example, to print the text of the message so far, use:
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.(l
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~p
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.)l
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which will print a line of dashes, the recipients of your message, and
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the text of the message so far.
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Since
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.i Mail
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requires two consecutive \s-2RUBOUT\s0's to abort a letter, you
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can use a single \s-2RUBOUT\s0 to abort the output of ~p or any other
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~ escape without killing your letter.
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.pp
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If you are dissatisfied with the message as
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it stands, you can invoke the text editor on it using the escape
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.(l
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~e
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.)l
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which causes the message to be copied into a temporary file and an
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instance of the editor to be spawned. After modifying the message to
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your satisfaction, write it out and quit the editor.
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.i Mail
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will respond
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by typing
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.(l
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(continue)
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.)l
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after which you may continue typing text which will be appended to your
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message, or type <control-d> to end the message.
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A standard text editor is provided by
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.i Mail .
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You can override this default by setting the valued option
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.q EDITOR
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to something else. For example, you might prefer:
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.(l
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set EDITOR=/usr/ucb/ex
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.)l
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.pp
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Many systems offer a screen editor as an alternative to the standard
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text editor, such as the
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.i vi
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editor from UC Berkeley.
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To use the screen, or
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.i visual
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editor, on your current message, you can use the escape,
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.(l
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~v
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.)l
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~v works like ~e, except that the screen editor is invoked instead.
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A default screen editor is defined by
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.i Mail .
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If it does not suit you, you can set the valued option
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.q VISUAL
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to the path name of a different editor.
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.pp
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It is often useful to be able to include the contents of some
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file in your message; the escape
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.(l
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~r filename
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.)l
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is provided for this purpose, and causes the named file to be appended
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to your current message.
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.i Mail
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complains if the file doesn't exist
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or can't be read. If the read is successful, the number of lines and
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characters appended to your message is printed, after which you may continue
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appending text. The filename may contain shell metacharacters like * and ?
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which are expanded according to the conventions of your shell.
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.pp
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As a special case of ~r, the escape
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.(l
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~d
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.)l
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reads in the file
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.q dead.letter
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in your home directory. This is often useful since
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.i Mail
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copies the text
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of your message there when you abort a message with \s-2RUBOUT\s0.
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.pp
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To save the current text of your message on a file you may use the
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.(l
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~w filename
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.)l
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escape.
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.i Mail
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will print out the number of lines and characters written
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to the file, after which you may continue appending text to your message.
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Shell metacharacters may be used in the filename, as in ~r and are expanded
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with the conventions of your shell.
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.pp
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If you are sending mail from within
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.i Mail's
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command mode
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you can read a message sent to you into the message
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you are constructing with the escape:
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.(l
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~m 4
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.)l
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which will read message 4 into the current message, shifted right by
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one tab stop. You can name any non-deleted message, or list of messages.
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Messages can also be forwarded without shifting by a tab stop with ~f.
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This is the usual way to forward a message.
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.pp
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If, in the process of composing a message, you decide to add additional
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people to the list of message recipients, you can do so with the escape
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.(l
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~t name1 name2 ...
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.)l
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You may name as few or many additional recipients as you wish. Note
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that the users originally on the recipient list will still receive
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the message; you cannot remove someone from the recipient
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list with ~t.
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.pp
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If you wish, you can associate a subject with your message by using the
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escape
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.(l
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~s Arbitrary string of text
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.)l
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which replaces any previous subject with
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.q "Arbitrary string of text."
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The subject, if given, is sent near the
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top of the message prefixed with
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.q "Subject:"
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You can see what the message will look like by using ~p.
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.pp
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For political reasons, one occasionally prefers to list certain
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people as recipients of carbon copies of a message rather than
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direct recipients. The escape
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.(l
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~c name1 name2 ...
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.)l
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adds the named people to the
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.q "Cc:"
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list, similar to ~t.
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Again, you can execute ~p to see what the message will look like.
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.pp
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The escape
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.(l
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~b name1 name2 ...
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.)l
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adds the named people to the
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.q "Cc:"
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list, but does not make the names visible in the
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.q "Cc:"
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line ("blind" carbon copy).
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.pp
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The recipients of the message together constitute the
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.q "To:"
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field, the subject the
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.q "Subject:"
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field, and the carbon copies the
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.q "Cc:"
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field. If you wish to edit these in ways impossible with the ~t, ~s, ~c
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and ~b escapes, you can use the escape
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.(l
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~h
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.)l
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which prints
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.q "To:"
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followed by the current list of recipients and leaves the cursor
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(or printhead) at the end of the line. If you type in ordinary
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characters, they are appended to the end of the current list of
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recipients. You can also use your erase character to erase back into
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the list of recipients, or your kill character to erase them altogether.
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Thus, for example, if your erase and kill characters are the standard
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(on printing terminals) # and @ symbols,
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.(l
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~h
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To: root kurt####bill
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.)l
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would change the initial recipients
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.q "root kurt"
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to
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.q "root bill."
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When you type a newline,
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.i Mail
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advances to the
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.q "Subject:"
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field, where the same rules apply. Another newline brings you to
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the
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.q "Cc:"
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field, which may be edited in the same fashion. Another newline
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brings you to the
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.q "Bcc:"
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("blind" carbon copy) field, which follows the same rules as the "Cc:"
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field. Another newline
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leaves you appending text to the end of your message. You can use
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~p to print the current text of the header fields and the body
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of the message.
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.pp
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To effect a temporary escape to the shell, the escape
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.(l
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~!command
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.)l
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is used, which executes
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.i command
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and returns you to mailing mode without altering the text of
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your message. If you wish, instead, to filter the body of your
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message through a shell command, then you can use
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.(l
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~|command
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.)l
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which pipes your message through the command and uses the output
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as the new text of your message. If the command produces no output,
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.i Mail
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assumes that something is amiss and retains the old version
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of your message. A frequently-used filter is the command
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.i fmt ,
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designed to format outgoing mail.
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.pp
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To effect a temporary escape to
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.i Mail
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command mode instead, you can use the
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.(l
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~:\fIMail command\fP
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.)l
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escape. This is especially useful for retyping the message you are
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replying to, using, for example:
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.(l
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~:t
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.)l
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It is also useful for setting options and modifying aliases.
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.pp
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If you wish abort the current message, you can use the escape
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.(l
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~q
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.)l
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This will terminate the current message and return you to the
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shell (or \fIMail\fP if you were using the \fBmail\fP command).
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If the \fBsave\fP option is set, the message will be copied
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to the file
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.q dead.letter
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in your home directory.
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.pp
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If you wish (for some reason) to send a message that contains
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a line beginning with a tilde, you must double it. Thus, for example,
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.(l
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~~This line begins with a tilde.
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.)l
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sends the line
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.(l
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~This line begins with a tilde.
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.)l
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.pp
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Finally, the escape
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.(l
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~?
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.)l
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prints out a brief summary of the available tilde escapes.
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.pp
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On some terminals (particularly ones with no lower case)
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tilde's are difficult to type.
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.i Mail
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allows you to change the escape character with the
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.q escape
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option. For example, I set
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.(l
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set escape=]
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.)l
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and use a right bracket instead of a tilde. If I ever need to
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send a line beginning with right bracket, I double it, just as for ~.
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Changing the escape character removes the special meaning of ~.
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.sh 2 "Network access"
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.pp
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This section describes how to send mail to people on other machines.
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Recall that sending to a plain login name sends mail to that person
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on your machine. If your machine is directly (or sometimes, even,
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indirectly) connected to the Arpanet, you can send messages to people
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on the Arpanet using a name of the form
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.(l
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name@host.domain
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.)l
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where
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.i name
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is the login name of the person you're trying to reach,
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.i host
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is the name of the machine on the Arpanet,
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and
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.i domain
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is the higher-level scope within which the hostname is known, e.g. EDU (for educational
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institutions), COM (for commercial entities), GOV (for governmental agencies),
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ARPA for many other things, BITNET or CSNET for those networks.
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.pp
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If your recipient logs in on a machine connected to yours by
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UUCP (the Bell Laboratories supplied network that communicates
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over telephone lines), sending mail can be a bit more complicated.
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You must know the list of machines through which your message must
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travel to arrive at his site. So, if his machine is directly connected
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to yours, you can send mail to him using the syntax:
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.(l
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host!name
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.)l
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where, again,
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.i host
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is the name of the machine and
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.i name
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is the login name.
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If your message must go through an intermediary machine first, you
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must use the syntax:
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.(l
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intermediary!host!name
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.)l
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and so on. It is actually a feature of UUCP that the map of all
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the systems in the network is not known anywhere (except where people
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decide to write it down for convenience). Talk to your system administrator
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about good ways to get places; the
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.i uuname
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command will tell you systems whose names are recognized, but not which
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ones are frequently called or well-connected.
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.pp
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When you use the
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.b reply
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command to respond to a letter, there is a problem of figuring out the
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names of the users in the
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.q "To:"
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and
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.q "Cc:"
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lists
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.i "relative to the current machine" .
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If the original letter was sent to you by someone on the local machine,
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then this problem does not exist, but if the message came from a remote
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machine, the problem must be dealt with.
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.i Mail
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uses a heuristic to build the correct name for each user relative
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to the local machine. So, when you
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.b reply
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to remote mail, the names in the
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.q "To:"
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and
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.q "Cc:"
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lists may change somewhat.
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.sh 2 "Special recipients"
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.pp
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As described previously, you can send mail to either user names or
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.b alias
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names. It is also possible to send messages directly to files or to
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programs, using special conventions. If a recipient name has a
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`/' in it or begins with a `+', it is assumed to be the
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path name of a file into which
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to send the message. If the file already exists, the message is
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appended to the end of the file. If you want to name a file in
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your current directory (ie, one for which a `/' would not usually
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be needed) you can precede the name with `./'
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So, to send mail to the file
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.q memo
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in the current directory, you can give the command:
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.(l
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% Mail ./memo
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.)l
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If the name begins with a `+,' it is expanded into the full path name
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of the folder name in your folder directory.
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This ability to send mail to files can be used for a variety of
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purposes, such as maintaining a journal and keeping a record of
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mail sent to a certain group of users. The second example can be
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done automatically by including the full pathname of the record
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file in the
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.b alias
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command for the group. Using our previous
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.b alias
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example, you might give the command:
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.(l
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alias project sam sally steve susan /usr/project/mail_record
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.)l
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Then, all mail sent to "project" would be saved on the file
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.q /usr/project/mail_record
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as well as being sent to the members of the project. This file
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can be examined using
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.i "Mail \-f" .
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.pp
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It is sometimes useful to send mail directly to a program, for
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example one might write a project billboard program and want to access
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it using
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.i Mail .
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To send messages to the billboard program, one can send mail
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to the special name `|billboard' for example.
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.i Mail
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treats recipient names that begin with a `|' as a program to send
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the mail to. An
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.b alias
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can be set up to reference a `|' prefaced name if desired.
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.i Caveats :
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the shell treats `|' specially, so it must be quoted on the command
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line. Also, the `| program' must be presented as a single argument to
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mail. The safest course is to surround the entire name with double
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quotes. This also applies to usage in the
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.b alias
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command. For example, if we wanted to alias `rmsgs' to `rmsgs \-s'
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we would need to say:
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.(l
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alias rmsgs "| rmsgs -s"
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.)l
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