Starting and quitting mail
To start
mail(C),
type mail on the UNIX command line and press <Enter>.
The opening
screen shows the headers of the messages waiting in your
system mailbox:
As new messages arrive, they are added to the message list. The greater-than sign (>) is a status flag that shows the current message. To change the order in which headers are displayed, see ``Changing the order of the header list''.
Here is a complete list of message status flags:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Symbol Description --------------------------------------------------------------------- > current message U unread message N new message M message saved to user mailbox using mbox commandIf there are no messages in your system mailbox, mail exits immediately with a message. When your mailbox is empty, you can only run mail to create a new message or to read a different mail folder.∗ message saved to a file using save or write commands P message preserved (using hold command) in your system mailbox instead of being saved automatically to your user mailbox
To get help when you are reading your mail, type ? at the mail prompt. To get help while you are inputing a message, go to a new line and enter ~?.
To quit mail and update your mailbox, type q at the mail prompt.
If you want to leave mail quickly without altering either your system or user mailbox, use the exit (x) command. This leaves mail without changing anything.