Receiving Mail

The mail program is a general purpose mail handler. You can ask what commands it supports:

Mail version 8.1 6/6/93.  Type ? for help.
"/var/spool/mail/root": 1 message 1 new
>N  1 root@localhost.local  Tue Mar 16 20:38  14/473   "foo"
& ?
    Mail   Commands
t <message list>		type messages
n				goto and type next message
e <message list>		edit messages
f <message list>		give head lines of messages
d <message list>		delete messages
s <message list> file		append messages to file
u <message list>		undelete messages
R <message list>		reply to message senders
r <message list>		reply to message senders and all recipients
pre <message list>		make messages go back to /usr/spool/mail
m <user list>			mail to specific users
q				quit, saving unresolved messages in mbox
x				quit, do not remove system mailbox
h				print out active message headers
!				shell escape
cd [directory]			chdir to directory or home if none given

A <message list> consists of integers, ranges of same, or user names separated
by spaces.  If omitted, Mail uses the last message typed.

A <user list> consists of user names or aliases separated by spaces.
Aliases are defined in .mailrc in your home directory.
&

It allows you to manipulate mail that has arrived in your mailbox. Mail tells you the actual file that holds your mailbox:

"/var/spool/mail/root": 1 message 1 new

This can be configured in different places by different sites.

You can read a piece of email once it is delivered thus:

& t 1
Message 1:
From root@localhost.localdomain  Tue Mar 16 20:38:27 2004
X-Original-To: root
Delivered-To: root@localhost.localdomain
To: root@localhost.localdomain
Subject: foo
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 20:38:14 -0500 (EST)
From: root@localhost.localdomain (root)

foo

&