Originální popis anglicky:
mailx - process messages
Návod, kniha: POSIX Programmer's Manual
mailx [-s subject] address...
mailx -e
mailx [-HiNn][-F][-u user]
mailx -f [-HiNn][-F][file]
The
mailx utility provides a message sending and receiving facility. It
has two major modes, selected by the options used: Send Mode and Receive Mode.
On systems that do not support the User Portability Utilities option, an
application using
mailx shall have the ability to send messages in an
unspecified manner (Send Mode). Unless the first character of one or more
lines is tilde (
'~' ), all characters in the input message shall
appear in the delivered message, but additional characters may be inserted in
the message before it is retrieved.
On systems supporting the User Portability Utilities option, mail-receiving
capabilities and other interactive features, Receive Mode, described below,
also shall be enabled.
Send Mode can be used by applications or users to send messages from the text in
standard input.
Receive Mode is more oriented towards interactive users. Mail can be read and
sent in this interactive mode.
When reading mail,
mailx provides commands to facilitate saving,
deleting, and responding to messages. When sending mail,
mailx allows
editing, reviewing, and other modification of the message as it is entered.
Incoming mail shall be stored in one or more unspecified locations for each
user, collectively called the system
mailbox for that user. When
mailx is invoked in Receive Mode, the system mailbox shall be the
default place to find new mail. As messages are read, they shall be marked to
be moved to a secondary file for storage, unless specific action is taken.
This secondary file is called the
mbox and is normally located in the
directory referred to by the
HOME environment variable (see
MBOX
in the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section for a description of this file). Messages
shall remain in this file until explicitly removed. When the
-f option
is used to read mail messages from secondary files, messages shall be retained
in those files unless specifically removed. All three of these
locations-system mailbox,
mbox, and secondary file-are referred to in
this section as simply "mailboxes", unless more specific
identification is required.
The
mailx utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported. (Only the
-s subject
option shall be required on all systems. The other options are required only
on systems supporting the User Portability Utilities option.)
- -e
- Test for the presence of mail in the system mailbox. The
mailx utility shall write nothing and exit with a successful return
code if there is mail to read.
- -f
- Read messages from the file named by the file
operand instead of the system mailbox. (See also folder.) If no
file operand is specified, read messages from mbox instead
of the system mailbox.
- -F
- Record the message in a file named after the first
recipient. The name is the login-name portion of the address found first
on the To: line in the mail header. Overrides the record
variable, if set (see Internal Variables in mailx .)
- -H
- Write a header summary only.
- -i
- Ignore interrupts. (See also ignore.)
- -n
- Do not initialize from the system default start-up file.
See the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
- -N
- Do not write an initial header summary.
- -s subject
- Set the Subject header field to subject. All
characters in the subject string shall appear in the delivered
message. The results are unspecified if subject is longer than
{LINE_MAX} - 10 bytes or contains a <newline>.
- -u user
- Read the system mailbox of the login name user. This
shall only be successful if the invoking user has the appropriate
privileges to read the system mailbox of that user.
The following operands shall be supported:
- address
- Addressee of message. When -n is specified and no
user start-up files are accessed (see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section),
the user or application shall ensure this is an address to pass to the
mail delivery system. Any system or user start-up files may enable aliases
(see alias under Commands in mailx ) that may modify the form of
address before it is passed to the mail delivery system.
- file
- A pathname of a file to be read instead of the system
mailbox when -f is specified. The meaning of the file
option-argument shall be affected by the contents of the folder
internal variable; see Internal Variables in mailx .
When
mailx is invoked in Send Mode (the first synopsis line), standard
input shall be the message to be delivered to the specified addresses. When in
Receive Mode, user commands shall be accepted from
stdin. If the User
Portability Utilities option is not supported, standard input lines beginning
with a tilde (
'~' ) character produce unspecified results.
If the User Portability Utilities option is supported, then in both Send and
Receive Modes, standard input lines beginning with the escape character
(usually tilde (
'~' )) shall affect processing as described in Command
Escapes in mailx .
When
mailx is used as described by this volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, the
file option-argument (see the
-f option) and the
mbox shall be text files containing mail
messages, formatted as described in the OUTPUT FILES section. The nature of
the system mailbox is unspecified; it need not be a file.
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
mailx:
- DEAD
- Determine the pathname of the file in which to save partial
messages in case of interrupts or delivery errors. The default shall be
dead.letter in the directory named by the HOME variable. The
behavior of mailx in saving partial messages is unspecified if the
User Portability Utilities option is not supported and DEAD is not
defined with the value /dev/null.
- EDITOR
- Determine the name of a utility to invoke when the
edit (see Commands in mailx ) or ~e (see Command Escapes in
mailx ) command is used. The default editor is unspecified. On
XSI-conformant systems it is ed. The effects of this variable are
unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not
supported.
- HOME
- Determine the pathname of the user's home directory.
- LANG
- Provide a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization
Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to
determine the values of locale categories.)
- LC_ALL
- If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
all the other internationalization variables.
- LC_CTYPE
- Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files) and the handling of
case-insensitive address and header-field comparisons.
- LC_TIME
- Determine the format and contents of the date and time
strings written by mailx.
- LC_MESSAGES
- Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and
informative messages written to standard output.
- LISTER
- Determine a string representing the command for writing the
contents of the folder directory to standard output when the
folders command is given (see folders in Commands in mailx
). Any string acceptable as a command_string operand to the
sh -c command shall be valid. If this variable is null or
not set, the output command shall be ls. The effects of this
variable are unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not
supported.
- MAILRC
- Determine the pathname of the start-up file. The default
shall be .mailrc in the directory referred to by the HOME
environment variable. The behavior of mailx is unspecified if the
User Portability Utilities option is not supported and MAILRC is
not defined with the value /dev/null.
- MBOX
- Determine a pathname of the file to save messages from the
system mailbox that have been read. The exit command shall override
this function, as shall saving the message explicitly in another file. The
default shall be mbox in the directory named by the HOME
variable. The effects of this variable are unspecified if the User
Portability Utilities option is not supported.
- NLSPATH
- Determine the location of message catalogs for the
processing of LC_MESSAGES .
- PAGER
- Determine a string representing an output filtering or
pagination command for writing the output to the terminal. Any string
acceptable as a command_string operand to the sh -c
command shall be valid. When standard output is a terminal device, the
message output shall be piped through the command if the mailx
internal variable crt is set to a value less the number of lines in
the message; see Internal Variables in mailx . If the PAGER
variable is null or not set, the paginator shall be either more or
another paginator utility documented in the system documentation. The
effects of this variable are unspecified if the User Portability Utilities
option is not supported.
- SHELL
- Determine the name of a preferred command interpreter. The
default shall be sh. The effects of this variable are unspecified
if the User Portability Utilities option is not supported.
- TERM
- If the internal variable screen is not specified,
determine the name of the terminal type to indicate in an unspecified
manner the number of lines in a screenful of headers. If TERM is
not set or is set to null, an unspecified default terminal type shall be
used and the value of a screenful is unspecified. The effects of this
variable are unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not
supported.
- TZ
- This variable may determine the timezone used to calculate
date and time strings written by mailx. If TZ is unset or
null, an unspecified default timezone shall be used.
- VISUAL
- Determine a pathname of a utility to invoke when the
visual command (see Commands in mailx ) or ~v command-escape
(see Command Escapes in mailx ) is used. If this variable is null or not
set, the full-screen editor shall be vi. The effects of this
variable are unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not
supported.
When
mailx is in Send Mode and standard input is not a terminal, it shall
take the standard action for all signals.
In Receive Mode, or in Send Mode when standard input is a terminal, if a SIGINT
signal is received:
- 1.
- If in command mode, the current command, if there is one,
shall be aborted, and a command-mode prompt shall be written.
- 2.
- If in input mode:
- a.
- If ignore is set, mailx shall write
"@\n" , discard the current input line, and continue
processing, bypassing the message-abort mechanism described in item
2b.
- b.
- If the interrupt was received while sending mail, either
when in Receive Mode or in Send Mode, a message shall be written, and
another subsequent interrupt, with no other intervening characters typed,
shall be required to abort the mail message. If in Receive Mode and
another interrupt is received, a command-mode prompt shall be written. If
in Send Mode and another interrupt is received, mailx shall
terminate with a non-zero status.
In both cases listed in item b, if the message is not empty:
- i.
- If save is enabled and the file named by DEAD
can be created, the message shall be written to the file named by DEAD
. If the file exists, the message shall be written to replace the
contents of the file.
- ii.
- If save is not enabled, or the file named by
DEAD cannot be created, the message shall not be saved.
The
mailx utility shall take the standard action for all other signals.
In command and input modes, all output, including prompts and messages, shall be
written to standard output.
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
Various
mailx commands and command escapes can create or add to files,
including the
mbox, the dead-letter file, and secondary mailboxes. When
mailx is used as described in this volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, these files shall be text files, formatted
as follows:
line beginning with From<space>
[
one or more header-lines; see Commands in mailx
]
empty line
[zero or more body lines
empty line
]
[
line beginning with From<space>...]
where each message begins with the
From <space> line shown,
preceded by the beginning of the file or an empty line. (The
From
<space> line is considered to be part of the message header, but not
one of the header-lines referred to in Commands in mailx ; thus, it shall not
be affected by the
discard,
ignore, or
retain commands.)
The formats of the remainder of the
From <space> line and
any additional header lines are unspecified, except that none shall be empty.
The format of a message body line is also unspecified, except that no line
following an empty line shall start with
From <space>;
mailx shall modify any such user-entered message body lines (following
an empty line and beginning with
From <space>) by adding one or
more characters to precede the
'F' ; it may add these characters to
From <space> lines that are not preceded by an empty line.
When a message from the system mailbox or entered by the user is not a text
file, it is implementation-defined how such a message is stored in files
written by
mailx.
The entire EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section shall apply only to implementations
supporting the User Portability Utilities option.
The
mailx utility cannot guarantee support for all character encodings in
all circumstances. For example, inter-system mail may be restricted to 7-bit
data by the underlying network, 8-bit data need not be portable to
non-internationalized systems, and so on. Under these circumstances, it is
recommended that only characters defined in the ISO/IEC 646:1991
standard International Reference Version (equivalent to ASCII) 7-bit range of
characters be used.
When
mailx is invoked using one of the Receive Mode synopsis forms, it
shall write a page of header-summary lines (if
-N was not specified and
there are messages, see below), followed by a prompt indicating that
mailx can accept regular commands (see Commands in mailx ); this is
termed
command mode. The page of header-summary lines shall
contain the first new message if there are new messages, or the first unread
message if there are unread messages, or the first message. When
mailx
is invoked using the Send Mode synopsis and standard input is a terminal, if
no subject is specified on the command line and the
asksub variable is
set, a prompt for the subject shall be written. At this point,
mailx
shall be in input mode. This input mode shall also be entered when using one
of the Receive Mode synopsis forms and a reply or new message is composed
using the
reply,
Reply,
followup,
Followup, or
mail commands and standard input is a terminal. When the message is
typed and the end of the message is encountered, the message shall be passed
to the mail delivery software. Commands can be entered by beginning a line
with the escape character (by default, tilde (
'~' )) followed by a
single command letter and optional arguments. See Commands in mailx for a
summary of these commands. It is unspecified what effect these commands will
have if standard input is not a terminal when a message is entered using
either the Send Mode synopsis, or the Read Mode commands
reply,
Reply,
followup,
Followup, or
mail.
- Note:
- For notational convenience, this section uses the default
escape character, tilde, in all references and examples.
At any time, the behavior of
mailx shall be governed by a set of
environmental and internal variables. These are flags and valued parameters
that can be set and cleared via the
mailx set and
unset
commands.
Regular commands are of the form:
[command] [msglist] [argument ...]
If no
command is specified in command mode,
next shall be assumed.
In input mode, commands shall be recognized by the escape character, and lines
not treated as commands shall be taken as input for the message.
In command mode, each message shall be assigned a sequential number, starting
with 1.
All messages have a state that shall affect how they are displayed in the header
summary and how they are retained or deleted upon termination of
mailx.
There is at any time the notion of a
current message, which shall be
marked by a
'>' at the beginning of a line in the header summary.
When
mailx is invoked using one of the Receive Mode synopsis forms, the
current message shall be the first new message, if there is a new message, or
the first unread message if there is an unread message, or the first message
if there are any messages, or unspecified if there are no messages in the
mailbox. Each command that takes an optional list of messages (
msglist) or an optional single message (
message) on which to
operate shall leave the current message set to the highest-numbered message of
the messages specified, unless the command deletes messages, in which case the
current message shall be set to the first undeleted message (that is, a
message not in the deleted state) after the highest-numbered message deleted
by the command, if one exists, or the first undeleted message before the
highest-numbered message deleted by the command, if one exists, or to an
unspecified value if there are no remaining undeleted messages. All messages
shall be in one of the following states:
- new
- The message is present in the system mailbox and has not
been viewed by the user or moved to any other state. Messages in state
new when mailx quits shall be retained in the system
mailbox.
- unread
- The message has been present in the system mailbox for more
than one invocation of mailx and has not been viewed by the user or
moved to any other state. Messages in state unread when
mailx quits shall be retained in the system mailbox.
- read
- The message has been processed by one of the following
commands: ~f, ~m, ~F, ~M, copy,
mbox, next, pipe, print, Print,
top, type, Type, undelete. The delete,
dp, and dt commands may also cause the next message to be
marked as read, depending on the value of the autoprint
variable. Messages that are in the system mailbox and in state read
when mailx quits shall be saved in the mbox, unless the
internal variable hold was set. Messages that are in the
mbox or in a secondary mailbox and in state read when
mailx quits shall be retained in their current location.
- deleted
- The message has been processed by one of the following
commands: delete, dp, dt. Messages in state
deleted when mailx quits shall be deleted. Deleted messages
shall be ignored until mailx quits or changes mailboxes or they are
specified to the undelete command; for example, the message specification
/ string shall only search the subject lines of messages that have
not yet been deleted, unless the command operating on the list of messages
is undelete. No deleted message or deleted message header shall be
displayed by any mailx command other than undelete.
- preserved
- The message has been processed by a preserve
command. When mailx quits, the message shall be retained in its
current location.
- saved
- The message has been processed by one of the following
commands: save or write. If the current mailbox is the
system mailbox, and the internal variable keepsave is set, messages
in the state saved shall be saved to the file designated by the
MBOX variable (see the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section). If the
current mailbox is the system mailbox, messages in the state saved
shall be deleted from the current mailbox, when the quit or
file command is used to exit the current mailbox.
The header-summary line for each message shall indicate the state of the
message.
Many commands take an optional list of messages (
msglist) on which to
operate, which defaults to the current message. A
msglist is a list of
message specifications separated by <blank>s, which can include:
- n
- Message number n.
- +
- The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for
the undelete command.
- -
- The next previous undeleted message, or the next previous
deleted message for the undelete command.
- .
- The current message.
- ^
- The first undeleted message, or the first deleted message
for the undelete command.
- $
- The last message.
- *
- All messages.
- n-m
- An inclusive range of message numbers.
- address
- All messages from address; any address as shown in a
header summary shall be matchable in this form.
- /string
- All messages with string in the subject line (case
ignored).
- :c
- All messages of type c, where c shall be one
of:
- d
Deleted messages.
- n
New messages.
- o
Old messages (any not in state read or
new).
- r
Read messages.
- u
Unread messages.
Other commands take an optional message (
message) on which to operate,
which defaults to the current message. All of the forms allowed for
msglist are also allowed for
message, but if more than one
message is specified, only the first shall be operated on.
Other arguments are usually arbitrary strings whose usage depends on the command
involved.
At start-up time,
mailx shall take the following steps in sequence:
- 1.
- Establish all variables at their stated default
values.
- 2.
- Process command line options, overriding corresponding
default values.
- 3.
- Import any of the DEAD , EDITOR , MBOX
, LISTER , PAGER , SHELL , or
VISUAL variables that are present in the environment, overriding
the corresponding default values.
- 4.
- Read mailx commands from an unspecified system
start-up file, unless the -n option is given, to initialize any
internal mailx variables and aliases.
- 5.
- Process the start-up file of mailx commands named in
the user MAILRC variable.
Most regular
mailx commands are valid inside start-up files, the most
common use being to set up initial display options and alias lists. The
following commands shall be invalid in the start-up file:
!,
edit,
hold,
mail,
preserve,
reply,
Reply,
shell,
visual,
Copy,
followup, and
Followup. Any errors in the start-up file shall either cause
mailx to terminate with a diagnostic message and a non-zero status or
to continue after writing a diagnostic message, ignoring the remainder of the
lines in the start-up file.
A blank line in a start-up file shall be ignored.
The following variables are internal
mailx variables. Each internal
variable can be set via the
mailx set command at any time. The
unset and
set no name commands can be used to
erase variables.
In the following list, variables shown as:
represent Boolean values. Variables shown as:
shall be assigned string or numeric values. For string values, the rules in
Commands in mailx concerning filenames and quoting shall also apply.
The defaults specified here may be changed by the implementation-defined system
start-up file unless the user specifies the
-n option.
- allnet
- All network names whose login name components match shall
be treated as identical. This shall cause the msglist message
specifications to behave similarly. The default shall be noallnet.
See also the alternates command and the metoo variable.
- append
- Append messages to the end of the mbox file upon
termination instead of placing them at the beginning. The default shall be
noappend. This variable shall not affect the save command
when saving to mbox.
- ask, asksub
- Prompt for a subject line on outgoing mail if one is not
specified on the command line with the -s option. The ask
and asksub forms are synonyms; the system shall refer to
asksub and noasksub in its messages, but shall accept
ask and noask as user input to mean asksub and
noasksub. It shall not be possible to set both ask and
noasksub, or noask and asksub. The default shall be
asksub, but no prompting shall be done if standard input is not a
terminal.
- askbcc
- Prompt for the blind copy list. The default shall be
noaskbcc.
- askcc
- Prompt for the copy list. The default shall be
noaskcc.
- autoprint
- Enable automatic writing of messages after delete
and undelete commands. The default shall be
noautoprint.
- bang
- Enable the special-case treatment of exclamation marks (
'!' ) in escape command lines; see the escape command and
Command Escapes in mailx . The default shall be nobang, disabling
the expansion of '!' in the command argument to the
~! command and the ~<! command escape.
- cmd=command
-
Set the default command to be invoked by the pipe command. The
default shall be nocmd.
- crt=number
- Pipe messages having more than number lines through
the command specified by the value of the PAGER variable. The
default shall be nocrt. If it is set to null, the value used is
implementation-defined.
- debug
- Enable verbose diagnostics for debugging. Messages are not
delivered. The default shall be nodebug.
- dot
- When dot is set, a period on a line by itself during
message input from a terminal shall also signify end-of-file (in addition
to normal end-of-file). The default shall be nodot. If
ignoreeof is set (see below), a setting of nodot shall be
ignored and the period is the only method to terminate input mode.
- escape=c
- Set the command escape character to be the character
'c' . By default, the command escape character shall be tilde. If
escape is unset, tilde shall be used; if it is set to null, command
escaping shall be disabled.
- flipr
- Reverse the meanings of the R and r commands.
The default shall be noflipr.
- folder=directory
-
The default directory for saving mail files. User-specified filenames
beginning with a plus sign ( '+' ) shall be expanded by preceding
the filename with this directory name to obtain the real pathname. If
directory does not start with a slash ( '/' ), the contents
of HOME shall be prefixed to it. The default shall be
nofolder. If folder is unset or set to null, user-specified
filenames beginning with '+' shall refer to files in the current
directory that begin with the literal '+' character. See also
outfolder below. The folder value need not affect the
processing of the files named in MBOX and DEAD .
- header
- Enable writing of the header summary when entering
mailx in Receive Mode. The default shall be header.
- hold
- Preserve all messages that are read in the system mailbox
instead of putting them in the mbox save file. The default shall be
nohold.
- ignore
- Ignore interrupts while entering messages. The default
shall be noignore.
- ignoreeof
- Ignore normal end-of-file during message input. Input can
be terminated only by entering a period ( '.' ) on a line by itself
or by the ~. command escape. The default shall be
noignoreeof. See also dot above.
- indentprefix=string
-
A string that shall be added as a prefix to each line that is inserted into
the message by the ~m command escape. This variable shall default
to one <tab>.
- keep
- When a system mailbox, secondary mailbox, or mbox is
empty, truncate it to zero length instead of removing it. The default
shall be nokeep.
- keepsave
- Keep the messages that have been saved from the system
mailbox into other files in the file designated by the variable
MBOX , instead of deleting them. The default shall be
nokeepsave.
- metoo
- Suppress the deletion of the login name of the user from
the recipient list when replying to a message or sending to a group. The
default shall be nometoo.
- onehop
- When responding to a message that was originally 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
efficiency in a network where all machines can send directly to all other
machines (that is, one hop away). The default shall be
noonehop.
- outfolder
- Cause the files used to record outgoing messages to be
located in the directory specified by the folder variable unless
the pathname is absolute. The default shall be nooutfolder. See the
record variable.
- page
- Insert a <form-feed> after each message sent through
the pipe created by the pipe command. The default shall be
nopage.
- prompt=string
-
Set the command-mode prompt to string. If string is null or if
noprompt is set, no prompting shall occur. The default shall be to
prompt with the string "? " .
- quiet
- Refrain from writing the opening message and version when
entering mailx. The default shall be noquiet.
- record=file
- Record all outgoing mail in the file with the pathname
file. The default shall be norecord. See also
outfolder above.
- save
- Enable saving of messages in the dead-letter file on
interrupt or delivery error. See the variable DEAD for the location
of the dead-letter file. The default shall be save.
- screen=number
-
Set the number of lines in a screenful of headers for the headers and
z commands. If screen is not specified, a value based on the
terminal type identified by the TERM environment variable, the
window size, the baud rate, or some combination of these shall be
used.
- sendwait
- Wait for the background mailer to finish before returning.
The default shall be nosendwait.
- showto
- When the sender of the message was the user who is invoking
mailx, write the information from the To: line instead of
the From: line in the header summary. The default shall be
noshowto.
- sign=string
- Set the variable inserted into the text of a message when
the ~a command escape is given. The default shall be nosign.
The character sequences '\t' and '\n' shall be recognized in
the variable as <tab>s and <newline>s, respectively. (See also
~i in Command Escapes in mailx .)
- Sign=string
- Set the variable inserted into the text of a message when
the ~A command escape is given. The default shall be noSign.
The character sequences '\t' and '\n' shall be recognized in
the variable as <tab>s and <newline>s, respectively.
- toplines=number
-
Set the number of lines of the message to write with the top command.
The default shall be 5.
The following
mailx commands shall be provided. In the following list,
header refers to lines from the message header, as shown in the OUTPUT FILES
section. Header-line refers to lines within the header that begin with one or
more non-white-space characters, immediately followed by a colon and white
space and continuing until the next line beginning with a non-white-space
character or an empty line. Header-field refers to the portion of a header
line prior to the first colon in that line.
For each of the commands listed below, the command can be entered as the
abbreviation (those characters in the Synopsis command word preceding the
'[' ), the full command (all characters shown for the command word,
omitting the
'[' and
']' ), or any truncation of the full
command down to the abbreviation. For example, the
exit command (shown
as
ex[it] in the Synopsis) can be entered as
ex,
exi, or
exit.
The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
- *
- An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes (
"" ) or single-quotes ( '' ); any white space,
shell word expansion, or backslash characters within the quotes shall be
treated literally as part of the argument. A double-quote shall be treated
literally within single-quotes and vice versa. These special
properties of the quote marks shall occur only when they are paired at the
beginning and end of the argument.
- *
- A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes shall be
discarded and the following character treated literally as part of the
argument.
- *
- An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line shall be
discarded and the next line shall continue the command.
Filenames, where expected, shall be subjected to the following transformations,
in sequence:
- *
- If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
folder variable is defined (see the folder variable), the
plus sign shall be replaced by the value of the folder variable
followed by a slash. If the folder variable is unset or is set to
null, the filename shall be unchanged.
- *
- Shell word expansions shall be applied to the filename (see
Word Expansions ). If more than a single pathname results
from this expansion and the command is expecting one file, the effects are
unspecified.
- Synopsis:
-
a[lias] [alias [address...]]g[roup] [alias [address...]]
Add the given addresses to the alias specified by
alias. The names shall
be substituted when
alias is used as a recipient address specified by
the user in an outgoing message (that is, other recipients addressed
indirectly through the
reply command shall not be substituted in this
manner). Mail address alias substitution shall apply only when the alias
string is used as a full address; for example, when
hlj is an alias,
hlj@posix.com does not trigger the alias substitution. If no arguments
are given, write a listing of the current aliases to standard output. If only
an
alias argument is given, write a listing of the specified alias to
standard output. These listings need not reflect the same order of addresses
that were entered.
- Synopsis:
-
(See also the
metoo command.) Declare a list of alternative names for the
user's login. When responding to a message, these names shall be removed from
the list of recipients for the response. The comparison of names shall be in a
case-insensitive manner. With no arguments,
alternates shall write the
current list of alternative names.
- Synopsis:
-
cd [directory]ch[dir] [directory]
Change directory. If
directory is not specified, the contents of
HOME shall be used.
- Synopsis:
-
c[opy] [file]c[opy] [msglist] fileC[opy] [msglist]
Copy messages to the file named by the pathname
file without marking the
messages as saved. Otherwise, it shall be equivalent to the
save
command.
In the capitalized form, 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, it shall be equivalent to the
Save
command.
- Synopsis:
-
Mark messages for deletion from the mailbox. The deletions shall not occur until
mailx quits (see the
quit command) or changes mailboxes (see the
folder command). If
autoprint is set and there are messages
remaining after the
delete command, the current message shall be
written as described for the
print command (see the
print
command); otherwise, the
mailx prompt shall be written.
- Synopsis:
-
di[scard] [header-field...]ig[nore] [header-field...]
Suppress the specified header fields when writing messages. Specified
header-fields shall be added to the list of suppressed header fields.
Examples of header fields to ignore are
status and
cc. The
fields shall be included when the message is saved. The
Print and
Type commands shall override this command. The comparison of header
fields shall be in a case-insensitive manner. If no arguments are specified,
write a list of the currently suppressed header fields to standard output; the
listing need not reflect the same order of header fields that were entered.
If both
retain and
discard commands are given,
discard
commands shall be ignored.
- Synopsis:
-
Delete the specified messages as described for the
delete command, except
that the
autoprint variable shall have no effect, and the current
message shall be written only if it was set to a message after the last
message deleted by the command. Otherwise, an informational message to the
effect that there are no further messages in the mailbox shall be written,
followed by the
mailx prompt.
- Synopsis:
-
Echo the given strings, equivalent to the shell
echo utility.
- Synopsis:
-
Edit the given messages. The messages shall be placed in a temporary file and
the utility named by the
EDITOR variable is invoked to edit each file
in sequence. The default
EDITOR is unspecified.
The
edit command does not modify the contents of those messages in the
mailbox.
- Synopsis:
-
Exit from
mailx without changing the mailbox. No messages shall be saved
in the
mbox (see also
quit).
- Synopsis:
-
fi[le] [file]fold[er] [file]
Quit (see the
quit command) from the current file of messages and read in
the file named by the pathname
file. If no argument is given, the name
and status of the current mailbox shall be written.
Several unquoted special characters shall be recognized when used as
file
names, with the following substitutions:
- %
- The system mailbox for the invoking user.
- %user
- The system mailbox for user.
- #
- The previous file.
- &
- The current mbox.
- +file
- The named file in the folder directory. (See the
folder variable.)
The default file shall be the current mailbox.
- Synopsis:
-
Write the names of the files in the directory set by the
folder variable.
The command specified by the
LISTER environment variable shall be used
(see the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section).
- Synopsis:
-
fo[llowup] [message]F[ollowup] [msglist]
In the lowercase form, respond to a message, recording the response in a file
whose name is derived from the author of the message. See also the
save
and
copy commands and
outfolder.
In the capitalized form, respond to the first message in the
msglist,
sending the message to the author of each message in the
msglist. The
subject line shall be taken from the first message and the response shall be
recorded in a file whose name is derived from the author of the first message.
See also the
Save and
Copy commands and
outfolder.
Both forms shall override the
record variable, if set.
- Synopsis:
-
Write the header summary for the specified messages.
- Synopsis:
-
Write the page of headers that includes the message specified. If the
message argument is not specified, the current message shall not
change. However, if the
message argument is specified, the current
message shall become the message that appears at the top of the page of
headers that includes the message specified. The
screen variable sets
the number of headers per page. See also the
z command.
- Synopsis:
-
Write a summary of commands.
- Synopsis:
-
