3.4.1 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 section 3.1.2 Mailbox.

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.

`-f[file]'

`--file[=file]'

Operate on mailbox file. If this option is not specified, the default is user's system mailbox. If it is specified without argument, the default is `$HOME/mbox'. Please note, that there should be no whitespace between the short variant of the option (`-f'), and its parameter. Similarly, when using long option (`--file'), its argument must be preceded by equal sign.

`-F'

`--byname'

Save messages according to sender. Currently this option is not implemented.

`-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 section 3.4.7 Personal and System-wide Configuration Files.

`-N'

`--nosum'

Do not display initial header summary.

`-p'

`--print'

`-r'

`--read'

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

print * quit

`-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.