How to Use Mail on cyberserver.uml.edu

 

Reading Mail:

To read your mail type:

     mailx [hit return]

If you don't have any mail the program will tell you that you have "No Mail" and will return you to a system prompt. If you have any mail messages, read or unread, it will display each message's sender name, subject, time received, length of message and a corresponding #.

       "/var/spool/mail/geo": 2 messages 2 new  
        >N 1 amy Thu Sep 17 14:36 13/359 "Dept Meeting"   
          N  2 amy Thu Sep 17 16:28 13/416 "Dept Meeting Delayed"
        ?

Following the message list you will see the mail prompt: ?  
 From the mailbox prompt (?), you can enter subcommands to look at, reply 
 to, save, discard, or otherwise manage the contents of the mailbox. To 
 display a summary of some of the subcommands that you can use to handle
mail in your mailbox, enter a ? (question mark) at the mailbox prompt.

To read a message type it's # and press the return key at the mail prompt. See Mailx commands below for further help.

 

Sending Mail:

If you want to send mail to another user on your system type:

%mailx username

If you want to send mail to a user on a system other than your own, the user's complete e-mail address is required. If you know the e-mail address, type:

         mailx e-mail@address

Example: mailx jones@foo.bar.com                                                     

You will be prompted for a subject:

   Subject: (type in the subject.)

Continue by typing in the message. When you are done typing the message, type a single period on a line by itself to send the letter. See Tilde commands below to enhance your editing.

 

Mailx commands:

There are several commands available within the mailx program. Type ? [return] at the mail prompt to get a brief description of these commands. All the mailx commands can only be used from the mailx prompt.

The following are frequently used mailx commands:

! command-name execute command in UNIX shell.
d [msg-list] delete specified messages. (ex. ?d 1 //delete message number one)
e [msg-list] edit messages.
folder [folder-name] select specified folder.
folders display list of folders.
help display a brief description of mailx commands.
ho [msg-list] preserve specified messages.
m [e-mail address] send mail to the e-mail address specified.
pi [msg-list command] pipe messages to shell command.
q quit, preserve unread messages.
r [msg-list] reply to authors of messages.
s [msg-list file-name] save messages to file.
u [msg-list] restore deleted messages.
x quit, preserving all messages.
? displays a brief summary of mailbox subcommands.

IF you need any further information on how to use mailx commands, look in %man mailx