mailx(1) User Commands mailx(1)NAMEmailx - interactive message processing system
SYNOPSISmailx [-BdeHiInNURvV~] [ -f
[file | +folder] ] [-T file] [-u user]
mailx [-BdFintUv~] [-b bcc] [-c cc] [-h number] [-r address] [-s sub‐
ject] recipient...
/usr/ucb/mail ...
/usr/ucb/Mail ...
DESCRIPTION
The mail utilities listed above provide a comfortable, flexible envi‐
ronment for sending and receiving mail messages electronically.
When reading mail, the mail utilities provide commands to facilitate
saving, deleting, and responding to messages. When sending mail, the
mail utilities allow editing, reviewing and other modification of the
message as it is entered.
Incoming mail is stored in a standard file for each user, called the
mailbox for that user. When the mail utilities are called to read mes‐
sages, the mailbox is the default place to find them. As messages are
read, they are marked to be moved to a secondary file for storage,
unless specific action is taken, so that the messages need not be seen
again.This secondary file is called the mbox and is normally located in
the user's HOME directory (see MBOX in ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for a
description of this file). Messages can be saved in other secondary
files named by the user. Messages remain in a secondary file until
forcibly removed.
The user can access a secondary file by using the -f option. Messages
in the secondary file can then be read or otherwise processed using the
same Commands as in the primary mailbox. This gives rise within these
pages to the notion of a current mailbox.
OPTIONS
On the command line options start with a dash (−). Any other arguments
are taken to be destinations (recipients). If no recipients are speci‐
fied, mailx attempts to read messages from the mailbox.
-B Do not buffer standard input or standard output.
-b bcc Set the blind carbon copy list to bcc. bcc should be
enclosed in quotes if it contains more than one name.
-c cc Set the carbon copy list to cc. cc should be enclosed
in quotes if it contains more than one name.
-d Turn on debugging output. (Neither particularly inter‐
esting nor recommended.)
-e Test for the presence of mail. mailx prints nothing and
exits with a successful return code if there is mail to
read.
-F Record the message in a file named after the first
recipient. Overrides the record variable, if set (see
Internal Variables).
-f [file] Read messages from file instead of mailbox. If no file
is specified, the mbox is used.
-f [ +folder] Use the file folder in the folder directory (same as
the folder command). The name of this directory is
listed in the folder variable.
-H Print header summary only.
-h number The number of network "hops" made so far. This is pro‐
vided for network software to avoid infinite delivery
loops. This option and its argument are passed to the
delivery program.
-I Include the newsgroup and article-id header lines when
printing mail messages. This option requires the -f
option to be specified.
-i Ignore interrupts. See also ignore in Internal Vari‐
ables.
-N Do not print initial header summary.
-n Do not initialize from the system default mailx.rc or
Mail.rc file. See USAGE.
-r address Use address as the return address when invoking the
delivery program. All tilde commands are disabled. This
option and its argument is passed to the delivery pro‐
gram.
-s subject Set the Subject header field to subject. subject should
be enclosed in quotes if it contains embedded white
space.
-T file Message-id and article-id header lines are recorded in
file after the message is read. This option also sets
the -I option.
-t Scan the input for To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields. Any
recipients on the command line will be ignored.
-U Convert UUCP-style addresses to internet standards.
Overrides the conv environment variable.
-u user Read user's mailbox. This is only effective if user's
mailbox is not read protected.
-V Print the mailx version number and exit.
-v Pass the -v flag to sendmail(1M).
-~ Interpret tilde escapes in the input even if not read‐
ing from a tty.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
recipient Addressee of message.
USAGE
Starting Mail
At startup time, mailx executes the system startup file
/etc/mail/mailx.rc. If invoked as mail or Mail, the system startup file
/etc/mail/Mail.rc is used instead.
The system startup file sets up initial display options and alias
lists and assigns values to some internal variables. These variables
are flags and valued parameters which are set and cleared using the set
and unset commands. See Internal Variables.
With the following exceptions, regular commands are legal inside
startup files: !, Copy, edit, followup, Followup, hold, mail, preserve,
reply, Reply, shell, and visual. An error in the startup file causes
the remaining lines in the file to be ignored.
After executing the system startup file, the mail utilities execute
the optional personal startup file $HOME/.mailrc, wherein the user can
override the values of the internal variables as set by the system
startup file.
If the -n option is specified, however, the mail utilities do not exe‐
cute the system startup file.
Many system administrators include the commands
set appenddeadletter
unset replyall
unset pipeignore
in the system startup files (to be compatible with past Solaris behav‐
ior), but this does not meet standards requirements for mailx. To get
standard behavior for mailx, users should use the -n option or include
the following commands in a personal startup file:
unset appenddeadletter
set replyall
set pipeignore
When reading mail, the mail utilities are in command mode. A header
summary of the first several messages is displayed, followed by a
prompt indicating the mail utilities can accept regular commands (see
Commands below). When sending mail, the mail utilities are in input
mode. If no subject is specified on the command line, and the asksub
variable is set, a prompt for the subject is printed.
As the message is typed, the mail utilities read the message and store
it in a temporary file. Commands may be entered by beginning a line
with the tilde (~) escape character followed by a single command letter
and optional arguments. See Tilde Escapes for a summary of these com‐
mands.
Reading Mail
Each message is assigned a sequential number, and there is at any time
the notion of a current message, marked by a right angle bracket (>) in
the header summary. Many commands take an optional list of messages
(message-list) to operate on. In most cases, the current message is
set to the highest-numbered message in the list after the command is
finished executing.
The default for message-list is the current message. A message-list is
a list of message identifiers separated by spaces, which may include:
n Message number n.
. The current message.
^ The first undeleted message.
$ The last message.
* All messages.
+ The next undeleted message.
− The previous undeleted message.
n−m An inclusive range of message numbers.
user All messages from user.
/string All messages with string in the Subject line (case
ignored).
:c All messages of type c, where c is one of:
d deleted messages
n new messages
o old messages
r read messages
u unread messages
Notice that the context of the command determines
whether this type of message specification makes sense.
Other arguments are usually arbitrary strings whose usage depends on
the command involved. Filenames, where expected, are expanded using the
normal shell conventions (see sh(1)). Special characters are recognized
by certain commands and are documented with the commands below.
Sending Mail
Recipients listed on the command line may be of three types: login
names, shell commands, or alias groups. Login names may be any network
address, including mixed network addressing. If mail is found to be
undeliverable, an attempt is made to return it to the sender's mailbox.
If the recipient name begins with a pipe symbol ( | ), the rest of the
name is taken to be a shell command to pipe the message through. This
provides an automatic interface with any program that reads the stan‐
dard input, such as lp(1) for recording outgoing mail on paper. Alias
groups are set by the alias command (see Commands below) or in a system
startup file (for example, $HOME/.mailrc). Aliases are lists of recipi‐
ents of any type.
Forwarding Mail
To forward a specific message, include it in a message to the desired
recipients with the ~f or ~m tilde escapes. See Tilde Escapes below. To
forward mail automatically, add a comma-separated list of addresses for
additional recipients to the .forward file in your home directory. This
is different from the format of the alias command, which takes a space-
separated list instead. Note: Forwarding addresses must be valid, or
the messages will "bounce." You cannot, for instance, reroute your mail
to a new host by forwarding it to your new address if it is not yet
listed in the NIS aliases domain.
Commands
Regular commands are of the form
[ command ] [ message-list ] [ arguments ]
In input mode, commands are recognized by the escape character,
tilde(~), and lines not treated as commands are taken as input for the
message. If no command is specified in command mode, next is assumed.
The following is a complete list of mailx commands:
!shell-command
Escape to the shell. See SHELL in ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
# comment
NULL command (comment). Useful in mailrc files.
=
Print the current message number.
?
Prints a summary of commands.
alias alias name ...
group alias name ...
Declare an alias for the given names. The names are substituted
when alias is used as a recipient. Useful in the mailrc file. With
no arguments, the command displays the list of defined aliases.
alternates name ...
Declare a list of alternate names for your login. When responding
to a message, these names are removed from the list of recipients
for the response. With no arguments, print the current list of
alternate names. See also allnet in Internal Variables.
cd [directory]
chdir [directory]
Change directory. If directory is not specified, $HOME is used.
copy [file]
copy [message-list] file
Copy messages to the file without marking the messages as saved.
Otherwise equivalent to the save command.
Copy [message-list]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from
the author of the message to be saved, without marking the messages
as saved. Otherwise equivalent to the Save command.
delete [message-list]
Delete messages from the mailbox. If autoprint is set, the next
message after the last one deleted is printed (see Internal Vari‐
ables).
discard [header-field...]
ignore [header-field...]
Suppress printing of the specified header fields when displaying
messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are
Status and Received. The fields are included when the message is
saved, unless the alwaysignore variable is set. The More, Page,
Print, and Type commands override this command. If no header is
specified, the current list of header fields being ignored is
printed. See also the undiscard and unignore commands.
dp [message-list]
dt [message-list]
Delete the specified messages from the mailbox and print the next
message after the last one deleted. Roughly equivalent to a delete
command followed by a print command.
echo string ...
Echo the given strings (like echo(1)).
edit [message-list]
Edit the given messages. Each message is placed in a temporary file
and the program named by the EDITOR variable is invoked to edit it
(see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). Default editor is ed(1).
exit
xit
Exit from mailx, without changing the mailbox. No messages are
saved in the mbox (see also quit).
field [message-list] header-file
Display the value of the header field in the specified message.
file [file]
folder [file]
Quit from the current file of messages and read in the specified
file. Several special characters are recognized when used as file
names:
% the current mailbox.
%user the mailbox for user.
# the previous mail file.
& the current mbox.
+file The named file in the folder directory (listed in the
folder variable).
With no arguments, print the name of the current mail file, and the
number of messages and characters it contains.
folders
Print the names of the files in the directory set by the folder
variable (see Internal Variables).
Followup [message]
Respond to a message, recording the response in a file whose name
is derived from the author of the message. Overrides the record
variable, if set. If the replyall variable is set, the actions of
Followup and followup are reversed. See also the followup, Save,
and Copy commands and outfolder in Internal Variables, and the
Starting Mail section in USAGE above.
followup [message-list]
Respond to the first message in the message-list, sending the mes‐
sage to the author of each message in the message-list. The subject
line is taken from the first message and the response is recorded
in a file whose name is derived from the author of the first mes‐
sage. If the replyall variable is set, the actions of followup and
Followup are reversed. See also the Followup, Save, and Copy com‐
mands and outfolder in Internal Variables, and the Starting Mail
section in USAGE above.
from [message-list]
Print the header summary for the specified messages. If no messages
are specified, print the header summary for the current message.
group alias name ...
alias alias name ...
Declare an alias for the given names. The names are substituted
when alias is used as a recipient. Useful in the mailrc file.
headers [message]
Print the page of headers which includes the message specified. The
screen variable sets the number of headers per page (see Internal
Variables). See also the z command.
help
Print a summary of commands.
hold [message-list]
preserve [message-list]
Hold the specified messages in the mailbox.
if s | r | t
mail-commands
else
mail-commands
endif
Conditional execution, where s executes following mail-commands, up
to an else or endif, if the program is in send mode, r causes the
mail-commands to be executed only in receive mode, and t causes the
mail-commands to be executed only if mailx is being run from a ter‐
minal. Useful in the mailrc file.
inc
Incorporate messages that arrive while you are reading the system
mailbox. The new messages are added to the message list in the cur‐
rent mail session. This command does not commit changes made during
the session, and prior messages are not renumbered.
ignore [header-field ...]
discard [header-field ...]
Suppress printing of the specified header fields when displaying
messages on the screen. Examples of header fields to ignore are
Status and Cc. All fields are included when the message is saved.
The More, Page, Print and Type commands override this command. If
no header is specified, the current list of header fields being
ignored is printed. See also the undiscard and unignore commands.
list
Print all commands available. No explanation is given.
load
[message] file The specified message is replaced by the message in
the named file. file should contain a single mail message including
mail headers (as saved by the save command).
mail recipient ...
Mail a message to the specified recipients.
Mail recipient
Mail a message to the specified recipients, and record it in a file
whose name is derived from the author of the message. Overrides the
record variable, if set. See also the Save and Copy commands and
outfolder in Internal Variables.
mbox [message-list]
Arrange for the given messages to end up in the standard mbox save
file when mailx terminates normally. See MBOX in ENVIRONMENT VARI‐
ABLES for a description of this file. See also the exit and quit
commands.
more [message-list]
page [message-list]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer
than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged
through the command specified by the PAGER variable. The default
command is pg(1) or if the bsdcompat variable is set, the default
is more(1). See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES. Same as the print and type
commands.
More [message-list]
Page [message-list]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header
fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command. Same
as the Print and Type commands.
new [message-list]
New [message-list]
unread [message-list]
Unread
[message-list] Take a message list and mark each message as not
having been read.
next [message]
Go to the next message matching message. If message is not sup‐
plied, this command finds the next message that was not deleted or
saved. A message-list may be specified, but in this case the first
valid message in the list is the only one used. This is useful for
jumping to the next message from a specific user, since the name
would be taken as a command in the absence of a real command. See
the discussion of message-list above for a description of possible
message specifications.
pipe [message-list] [shell-command]
| [message-list] [shell-command]
Pipe the message through the given shell-command. The message is
treated as if it were read. If no arguments are given, the current
message is piped through the command specified by the value of the
cmd variable. If the page variable is set, a form feed character is
inserted after each message (see Internal Variables).
preserve [message-list]
hold [message-list]
Preserve the specified messages in the mailbox.
print [message-list]
type [message-list]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer
than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged
through the command specified by the PAGER variable. The default
command is pg(1) or if the bsdcompat variable is set, the default
is more(1). See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES. Same as the more and page
commands.
Print [message-list]
Type [message-list]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header
fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command.
Same as the More and Page commands.
put [file]
put [message-list] file
Save the specified message in the given file. Use the same conven‐
tions as the print command for which header fields are ignored.
Put [file]
Put [message-list] file
Save the specified message in the given file. Overrides suppression
of fields by the ignore command.
quit
Exit from mailx, storing messages that were read in mbox and unread
messages in the mailbox. Messages that have been explicitly saved
in a file are deleted unless the keepsave variable is set.
reply [message-list]
respond [message-list]
replysender [message-list]
Send a response to the author of each message in the message-list.
The subject line is taken from the first message. If record is set
to a file, a copy of the reply is added to that file. If the
replyall variable is set, the actions of Reply/Respond and
reply/respond are reversed. The replysender command is not affected
by the replyall variable, but sends each reply only to the sender
of each message. See the Starting Mail section in USAGE above.
Reply [message]
Respond [message]
replyall [message]
Reply to the specified message, including all other recipients of
that message. If the variable record is set to a file, a copy of
the reply added to that file. If the replyall variable is set, the
actions of Reply/Respond and reply/respond are reversed. The
replyall command is not affected by the replyall variable, but
always sends the reply to all recipients of the message. See the
Starting Mail section in USAGE above.
retain
Add the list of header fields named to the retained list. Only the
header fields in the retain list are shown on your terminal when
you print a message. All other header fields are suppressed. The
set of retained fields specified by the retain command overrides
any list of ignored fields specified by the ignore command. The
Type and Print commands can be used to print a message in its
entirety. If retain is executed with no arguments, it lists the
current set of retained fields.
Save [message-list]
Save the specified messages in a file whose name is derived from
the author of the first message. The name of the file is taken to
be the author's name with all network addressing stripped off. See
also the Copy, followup, and Followup commands and outfolder in
Internal Variables.
save [file]
save [message-list] file
Save the specified messages in the given file. The file is created
if it does not exist. The file defaults to mbox. The message is
deleted from the mailbox when mailx terminates unless keepsave is
set (see also Internal Variables and the exit and quit commands).
set
set variable
set variable=string
set variable=number
Define a variable. To assign a value to variable, separate the
variable name from the value by an `=' (there must be no space
before or after the `='). A variable may be given a null, string,
or numeric value. To embed SPACE characters within a value, enclose
it in quotes.
With no arguments, set displays all defined variables and any val‐
ues they might have. See Internal Variables for a description of
all predefined mail variables.
shell
Invoke an interactive shell. See also SHELL in ENVIRONMENT VARI‐
ABLES.
size [message-list]
Print the size in characters of the specified messages.
source file
Read commands from the given file and return to command mode.
top [message-list]
Print the top few lines of the specified messages. If the toplines
variable is set, it is taken as the number of lines to print (see
Internal Variables). The default is 5.
touch [message-list]
Touch the specified messages. If any message in message-list is not
specifically saved in a file, it is placed in the mbox, or the file
specified in the MBOX environment variable, upon normal termina‐
tion. See exit and quit.
Type [message-list]
Print [message-list]
Print the specified messages on the screen, including all header
fields. Overrides suppression of fields by the ignore command.
type [message-list]
print [message-list]
Print the specified messages. If crt is set, the messages longer
than the number of lines specified by the crt variable are paged
through the command specified by the PAGER variable. The default
command is pg(1). See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
unalias [alias] ...
ungroup [alias] ...
Remove the definitions of the specified aliases.
undelete [message-list]
Restore the specified deleted messages. Will only restore messages
deleted in the current mail session. If autoprint is set, the last
message of those restored is printed (see Internal Variables).
undiscard [header-field...]
unignore [header-field...]
Remove the specified header fields from the list being ignored. If
no header fields are specified, all header fields are removed from
the list being ignored.
unretain [header-field...]
Remove the specified header fields from the list being retained. If
no header fields are specified, all header fields are removed from
the list being retained.
unread [message-list]
Unread [message-list] Same as the new command.
unset variable...
Erase the specified variables. If the variable was imported from
the environment (that is, an environment variable or exported shell
variable), it cannot be unset from within mailx.
version
Print the current version and release date of the mailx utility.
visual [message-list]
Edit the given messages with a screen editor. Each messages is
placed in a temporary file and the program named by the VISUAL
variable is invoked to edit it (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES). Notice
that the default visual editor is vi.
write [message-list] file
Write the given messages on the specified file, minus the header
and trailing blank line. Otherwise equivalent to the save command.
xit
exit
Exit from mailx, without changing the mailbox. No messages are
saved in the mbox (see also quit).
z[+|−]
Scroll the header display forward or backward one screen−full. The
number of headers displayed is set by the screen variable (see
Internal Variables).
Tilde Escapes
The following tilde escape commands can be used when composing mail to
send. These may be entered only from input mode, by beginning a line
with the tilde escape character (~). See escape in Internal Variables
for changing this special character. The escape character can be
entered as text by typing it twice.
~!shell-command Escape to the shell. If present, run shell-com‐
mand.
~. Simulate end of file (terminate message input).
~:mail-command Perform the command-level request. Valid only
~_mail-command when sending a message while reading mail.
~? Print a summary of tilde escapes.
~A Insert the autograph string Sign into the mes‐
sage (see Internal Variables).
~a Insert the autograph string sign into the mes‐
sage (see Internal Variables).
~b name ... Add the names to the blind carbon copy (Bcc)
list. This is like the carbon copy (Cc) list,
except that the names in the Bcc list are not
shown in the header of the mail message.
~c name ... Add the names to the carbon copy (Cc) list.
~d Read in the dead-letter file. See DEAD in ENVI‐
RONMENT VARIABLES for a description of this
file.
~e Invoke the editor on the partial message. See
also EDITOR in ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
~f [message-list] Forward the specified message, or the current
message being read. Valid only when sending a
message while reading mail. The messages are
inserted into the message without alteration
(as opposed to the ~m escape).
~F [message-list] Forward the specified message, or the current
message being read, including all header
fields. Overrides the suppression of fields by
the ignore command.
~h Prompt for Subject line and To, Cc, and Bcc
lists. If the field is displayed with an ini‐
tial value, it may be edited as if you had just
typed it.
~i variable Insert the value of the named variable into the
text of the message. For example, ~A is equiva‐
lent to `~i Sign.' Environment variables set
and exported in the shell are also accessible
by ~i.
~m [message-list] Insert the listed messages, or the current mes‐
sage being read into the letter. Valid only
when sending a message while reading mail. The
text of the message is shifted to the right,
and the string contained in the indentprefix
variable is inserted as the leftmost characters
of each line. If indentprefix is not set, a TAB
character is inserted into each line.
~M [message-list] Insert the listed messages, or the current mes‐
sage being read, including the header fields,
into the letter. Valid only when sending a mes‐
sage while reading mail. The text of the mes‐
sage is shifted to the right, and the string
contained in the indentprefix variable is
inserted as the leftmost characters of each
line. If indentprefix is not set, a TAB charac‐
ter is inserted into each line. Overrides the
suppression of fields by the ignore command.
~p Print the message being entered.
~q Quit from input mode by simulating an inter‐
rupt. If the body of the message is not null,
the partial message is saved in dead-letter.
See DEAD in ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for a
description of this file.
~R Mark message for return receipt.
~r file Read in the specified file. If the argument
~< file begins with an exclamation point (!), the rest
~< ! shell-command of the string is taken as an arbitrary shell
command and is executed, with the standard out‐
put inserted into the message.
~s string ... Set the subject line to string.
~t name ... Add the given names to the To list.
~v Invoke a preferred screen editor on the partial
message. The default visual editor is vi(1).
See also VISUAL in ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
~w file Write the message into the given file, without
the header.
~x Exit as with ~q except the message is not saved
in dead-letter.
~| shell-command Pipe the body of the message through the given
shell-command. If the shell-command returns a
successful exit status, the output of the com‐
mand replaces the message.
Internal Variables
The following variables are internal variables. They may be imported
from the execution environment or set using the set command at any
time. The unset command may be used to erase variables.
allnet All network names whose last component (login
name) match are treated as identical. This
causes the message-list message specifications
to behave similarly. Disabled by default. See
also the alternates command and the metoo and
fuzzymatch variables.
alwaysignore Ignore header fields with ignore everywhere,
not just during print or type. Affects the
save, Save, copy, Copy, top, pipe, and write
commands, and the ~m and ~f tilde escapes.
Enabled by default.
append Upon termination, append messages to the end of
the mbox file instead of prepending them.
Although disabled by default, append is set in
the system startup file (which can be sup‐
pressed with the -n command line option).
appenddeadletter Append to the deadletter file rather than over‐
write it. Although disabled by default,
appenddeadletter is frequently set in the sys‐
tem startup file. See Starting Mail in USAGE
above.
askbcc Prompt for the Bcc list after the Subject is
entered if it is not specified on the command
line with the -b option. Disabled by default.
askcc Prompt for the Cc list after the Subject is
entered if it is not specified on the command
line with the -c option. Disabled by default.
asksub Prompt for subject if it is not specified on
the command line with the -s option. Enabled by
default.
autoinc Automatically incorporate new messages into the
current session as they arrive. This has an
affect similar to issuing the inc command every
time the command prompt is displayed. Disabled
by default, but autoinc is set in the default
system startup file for mailx; it is not set
for /usr/ucb/mail or /usr/ucb/Mail.
autoprint Enable automatic printing of messages after
delete and undelete commands. Disabled by
default.
bang Enable the special-casing of exclamation points
(!) in shell escape command lines as in vi(1).
Disabled by default.
bsdcompat Set automatically if mailx is invoked as mail
or Mail. Causes mailx to use /etc/mail/Mail.rc
as the system startup file. Changes the default
pager to more(1).
cmd=shell-command Set the default command for the pipe command.
No default value.
conv=conversion Convert uucp addresses to the specified address
style, which can be either:
internet This requires a mail delivery
program conforming to the
RFC822 standard for electronic
mail addressing.
optimize Remove loops in uucp(1C)
address paths (typically gener‐
ated by the reply command). No
rerouting is performed; mail
has no knowledge of UUCP routes
or connections.
Conversion is disabled by default. See also
sendmail(1M) and the -U command-line option.
crt[=number] Pipe messages having more than number lines
through the command specified by the value of
the PAGER variable ( pg(1) or more(1) by
default). If number is not specified, the cur‐
rent window size is used. Disabled by default.
debug Enable verbose diagnostics for debugging. Mes‐
sages are not delivered. Disabled by default.
dot Take a period on a line by itself, or EOF dur‐
ing input from a terminal as end-of-file. Dis‐
abled by default, but dot is set in the system
startup file (which can be suppressed with the
-n command line option).
fcc By default, mailx will treat any address con‐
taining a slash ("/") character as a local
"send to file" address. By unsetting this
option, this behavior is disabled. Enabled by
default.
flipr Reverse the effect of the followup/Followup and
reply/Reply command pairs. If both flipr and
replyall are set, the effect is as if neither
was set.
from Extract the author listed in the header summary
from the From: header instead of the UNIX From
line. Enabled by default.
fuzzymatch The from command searches for messages from the
indicated sender. By default, the full sender
address must be specified. By setting this
option, only a sub-string of the sender address
need be specified. Disabled by default.
escape=c Substitute c for the ~ escape character. Takes
effect with next message sent.
folder=directory The directory for saving standard mail files.
User-specified file names beginning with a plus
(+) are expanded by preceding the file name
with this directory name to obtain the real
file name. If directory does not start with a
slash (/), $HOME is prepended to it. There is
no default for the folder variable. See also
outfolder below.
header Enable printing of the header summary when
entering mailx. Enabled by default.
hold Preserve all messages that are read in the
mailbox instead of putting them in the standard
mbox save file. Disabled by default.
ignore Ignore interrupts while entering messages.
Handy for noisy dial-up lines. Disabled by
default.
ignoreeof Ignore end-of-file during message input. Input
must be terminated by a period (.) on a line by
itself or by the ~. command. See also dot
above. Disabled by default.
indentprefix=string When indentprefix is set, string is used to
mark indented lines from messages included with
~m. The default is a TAB character.
keep When the mailbox is empty, truncate it to zero
length instead of removing it. Disabled by
default.
iprompt=string The specified prompt string is displayed before
each line on input is requested when sending a
message.
keepsave Keep messages that have been saved in other
files in the mailbox instead of deleting them.
Disabled by default.
makeremote When replying to all recipients of a message,
if an address does not include a machine name,
it is assumed to be relative to the sender of
the message. Normally not needed when dealing
with hosts that support RFC822.
metoo If your login appears as a recipient, do not
delete it from the list. Disabled by default.
mustbang Force all mail addresses to be in bang format.
onehop When responding to a message that was origi‐
nally sent to several recipients, the other
recipient addresses are normally forced to be
relative to the originating author's machine
for the response. This flag disables alteration
of the recipients' addresses, improving effi‐
ciency in a network where all machines can send
directly to all other machines (that is, one
hop away). Disabled by default.
outfolder Locate the files used to record outgoing mes‐
sages in the directory specified by the folder
variable unless the path name is absolute. Dis‐
abled by default. See folder above and the
Save, Copy, followup, and Followup commands.
page Used with the pipe command to insert a form
feed after each message sent through the pipe.
Disabled by default.
pipeignore Omit ignored header when outputting to the pipe
command. Although disabled by default,
pipeignore is frequently set in the system
startup file. See Starting Mail in USAGE above.
postmark Your "real name" to be included in the From
line of messages you send. By default this is
derived from the comment field in your
passwd(4) file entry.
prompt=string Set the command mode prompt to string. Default
is "? ", unless the bsdcompat variable is set,
then the default is "&".
quiet Refrain from printing the opening message and
version when entering mailx. Disabled by
default.
record=file Record all outgoing mail in file. Disabled by
default. See also outfolder above.
replyall Reverse the effect of the reply and Reply and
followup and Followup commands. Although set by
default, replayall is frequently unset in the
system startup file. See flipr and Starting
Mail in USAGE above.
returnaddr=string The default sender address is that of the cur‐
rent user. This variable can be used to set the
sender address to any arbitrary value. Set with
caution.
save Enable saving of messages in dead-letter on
interrupt or delivery error. See DEAD for a
description of this file. Enabled by default.
screen=number Sets the number of lines in a screen-full of
headers for the headers command. number must be
a positive number.
The default is set according to baud rate or
window size. With a baud rate less than 1200,
number defaults to 5, if baud rate is exactly
1200, it defaults to 10. If you are in a win‐
dow, number defaults to the default window size
minus 4. Otherwise, the default is 20.
sendmail=shell-command Alternate command for delivering messages.
Note: In addition to the expected list of
recipients, mail also passes the -i and -m,
flags to the command. Since these flags are not
appropriate to other commands, you may have to
use a shell script that strips them from the
arguments list before invoking the desired com‐
mand. Default is /usr/bin/rmail.
sendwait Wait for background mailer to finish before
returning. Disabled by default.
showname Causes the message header display to show the
sender's real name (if known) rather than their
mail address. Disabled by default, but showname
is set in the /etc/mail/mailx.rc system startup
file for mailx.
showto When displaying the header summary and the mes‐
sage is from you, print the recipient's name
instead of the author's name.
sign=string The variable inserted into the text of a mes‐
sage when the ~a (autograph) command is given.
No default (see also ~i in Tilde Escapes).
`
Sign=string The variable inserted into the text of a mes‐
sage when the ~A command is given. No default
(see also ~i in Tilde Escapes).
toplines=number The number of lines of header to print with the
top command. Default is 5.
verbose Invoke sendmail(1M) with the -v flag.
translate The name of a program to translate mail
addresses. The program receives mail addresses
as arguments. The program produces, on the
standard output, lines containing the following
data, in this order:
· the postmark for the sender (see the post‐
mark variable)
· translated mail addresses, one per line,
corresponding to the program's arguments.
Each translated address will replace the
corresponding address in the mail message
being sent.
· a line containing only "y" or "n". if the
line contains "y" the user will be asked
to confirm that the message should be
sent.
The translate program will be invoked for each
mail message to be sent. If the program exits
with a non-zero exit status, or fails to pro‐
duce enough output, the message is not sent.
Large File Behavior
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of mailx when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of mailx: HOME, LANG, LC_CTYPE, LC_TIME,
LC_MESSAGES, NLSPATH, and TERM.
DEAD The name of the file in which to save partial letters
in case of untimely interrupt. Default is
$HOME/dead.letter.
EDITOR The command to run when the edit or ~e command is used.
Default is ed(1).
LISTER The command (and options) to use when listing the con‐
tents of the folder directory. The default is ls(1).
MAIL The name of the initial mailbox file to read (in lieu
of the standard system mailbox). The default is
/var/mail/username .
MAILRC The name of the startup file. Default is
$HOME/.mailrc.
MAILX_HEAD The specified string is included at the beginning of
the body of each message that is sent.
MAILX_TAIL The specified string is included at the end of the body
of each message that is sent.
MBOX The name of the file to save messages which have been
read. The exit command overrides this function, as does
saving the message explicitly in another file. Default
is $HOME/mbox.
PAGER The command to use as a filter for paginating output.
This can also be used to specify the options to be
used. Default is pg(1), or if the bsdcompat variable
is set, the default is more(1). See Internal Vari‐
ables.
SHELL The name of a preferred command interpreter. Default is
sh(1).
VISUAL The name of a preferred screen editor. Default is
vi(1).
EXIT STATUS
When the -e option is specified, the following exit values are
returned:
0 Mail was found.
>0 Mail was not found or an error occurred.
Otherwise, the following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion. Notice that this status implies that
all messages were sent, but it gives no assurances that any of
them were actually delivered.
>0 An error occurred
FILES
$HOME/.mailrc personal startup file
$HOME/mbox secondary storage file
$HOME/.Maillock lock file to prevent multiple
writers of system mailbox
/etc/mail/mailx.rc optional system startup file
for mailx only
/etc/mail/Mail.rc BSD compatibility system-wide
startup file for /usr/ucb/mail
and /usr/ucb/Mail
/tmp/R[emqsx]* temporary files
/usr/share/lib/mailx/mailx.help* help message files
/var/mail/* post office directory
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcsu │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Standard │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSObiff(1B), echo(1), ed(1), ex(1), fmt(1), lp(1), ls(1), mail(1),
mail(1B), mailcompat(1), more(1), pg(1), sh(1), uucp(1C), vacation(1),
vi(1), newaliases(1M), sendmail(1M), aliases(4), passwd(4),
attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)NOTES
Where shell-command is shown as valid, arguments are not always
allowed. Experimentation is recommended.
Internal variables imported from the execution environment cannot be
unset.
The full internet addressing is not fully supported by mailx. The new
standards need some time to settle down.
Replies do not always generate correct return addresses. Try resending
the errant reply with onehop set.
mailx does not lock your record file. So, if you use a record file and
send two or more messages simultaneously, lines from the messages may
be interleaved in the record file.
The format for the alias command is a space-separated list of recipi‐
ents, while the format for an alias in either the .forward or
/etc/aliases is a comma-separated list.
To read mail on a workstation running Solaris 1.x when your mail server
is running Solaris 2.x, first execute the mailcompat(1) program.
SunOS 5.10 19 Sep 2001 mailx(1)
