MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
NAME
mail, go.fishing - mail and mailboxes
SYNOPSIS
mail [ arg ... ]
go.fishing
DESCRIPTION
Mail is a shell script that invokes nedmail(1), the mail
reader, when no recipients appear on the command line and
marshal(1), the mail preparer, otherwise. All command line
options are passed through. See the man pages for those two
commands for more details.
Incoming mail for a user username is put in the file
/mail/box/username/mbox unless either the file
/mail/box/username/forward or /mail/box/username/pipeto
exists. The mailbox must have append-only and exclusive-
access mode (see chmod(1)). A user must create his or her
own mailbox using the -c option of nedmail(1). Mailboxes are
created writable (append-only) but not readable by others.
If the file /mail/box/username/forward exists and is read-
able by everyone, incoming mail will be forwarded to the
addresses contained in the first line of the file. The file
may contain multiple addresses. Forwarding loops are caught
and resolved by local delivery.
If the file /mail/box/username/pipeto exists and is readable
and executable by everyone, it will be run for each incoming
message for the user. The message will be piped to it
rather than appended to his/her mail box. The file is run
as user none. Its two arguments are the destination address
(e.g., local!gremlin) and the user's mail box path (e.g.,
/mail/box/gremlin/mbox)
Auto-answer
To use mail as an answering machine while you are away, run
go.fishing, which will create /mail/box/$user/gone.fishing
as a flag for pipeto processing, and truncate
/mail/box/$user/gone.addrs. Any existing pipeto file that
uses /mail/lib/pipeto.lib will invoke the gone.fishing
machinery when it calls spool or spool-tagged-spam.
If /mail/box/$user/gone.msg exists, it will be sent (just
once) to everyone who sends you mail that lists your address
in a `To' or `Cc' header; if not, /mail/lib/gone.msg will be
sent. Upon your return, remove /mail/box/$user/gone.fishing
to stop automatic responses.
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MAIL(1) MAIL(1)
FILES
/sys/log/mail mail log file
/mail/box/* mail directories
/mail/box/*/mbox mailbox files
/mail/box/*/forward forwarding address(es)
/mail/box/*/pipeto mail filter
/mail/box/*/L.reading mutual exclusion lock for mul-
tiple mbox readers
/mail/box/*/L.mbox mutual exclusion lock for
altering mbox
/lib/face/48x48x? directories of icons for
seemail
/mail/lib/pipeto.lib helper functions for pipeto
files
/mail/lib/gone.msg default vacation message
/mail/lib/gone.fishing auto-responder as pipeto
script
/mail/box/$user/gone.fishing flag to active gone processing
/mail/box/$user/gone.addrs list of senders answered by
gone.fishing
SOURCE
/rc/bin/mail
/rc/bin/go.fishing
SEE ALSO
aliasmail(8), faces(1), filter(1), marshal(1), mlmgr(1),
nedmail(1), qer(8), rewrite(6), send(8), smtp(8), upasfs(4)
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/22/24)