Configuration
Mail can be configured by placing commands in the .mailrc
file. For a complete list of everything you can do and
everything you can configure see the man pages for mail.
Useful .mailrc settings (these go in a file called
~/.mailrc):
-
set crt=24
-
This will cause the mail program to send the message to the
PAGER program if the message is longer than 24 lines. The
PAGER program will display the message a screenful at a
time. The default pager is more.
-
-
set PAGER="more -s"
-
This will cause the more program to be used to display the
message when it exceeds the number of lines set in crt
above. This will allow you to do things like back up a
screenful. See the man pages for more to find out all of
its features.
-
-
set record=~/mbox
-
This will log all mail you send to a file. In this case,
the mail would be logged to a file called mbox in your root
directory.
Some
Useful Commands
At the ampersand prompt:
-
?
-
Gives you a list of the commands available at the colon
prompt.
Some useful tilde commands
(type them on a blank line in the message your sending):
-
~e
-
Invokes the editor defined by the EDITOR environment
variable. You can set the EDITOR variable in .mailrc. You
must use the full pathname, for example /usr/ucb/vi.
-
-
~h
-
Allows you to change the header information.
-
-
~r file
-
Reads file into the current message.
-
-
~v
-
Invokes the VISUAL editor on the mail message. You can set
the value of VISUAL in .mailrc to be whatever editor you
prefer (be sure to use the full pathname for the editor
though).
-
-
~?
-
On-line help for the ~commands
To abort a mail message just do CTRL-C CTRL-C. Any text you
have typed up to that point (and pressed return after) will
be deposited in a file called ~/dead.letter.
To end the mail message, just press CTRL-D. This is the end
of file character.
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