3.4 mail -- Send and Receive Mail

Mail is an enhanced version of standard /bin/mail program. As well as its predecessor, it can be used either in sending mode or in reading mode. Mail enters sending mode when one or more email addresses were specified in this command line. In this mode the program waits until user finishes composing the message, then attempts to send it to the specified addresses and exits. See 3.4.3 Composing Mail, for a detailed description of this behavior.

If the command line contained no email addresses, mail switches to reading mode. In this mode it allows to read and manipulate the contents of a mailbox. The URL of the mailbox to operate upon is taken from the argument of `--file' command line option. If it is not specified, the user's system mailbox is assumed. For more detail, see 3.4.4 Reading Mail.

3.4.1 Invoking mail		Command Line Options.
3.4.2 How to Specify Message Sets
3.4.3 Composing Mail
3.4.4 Reading Mail
3.4.5 Scripting
3.4.6 How to Alter the Behavior of mail
3.4.7 Personal and System-wide Configuration Files