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MAILX(P)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  MAILX(P)




NAME

       mailx - process messages


SYNOPSIS

   Send Mode
              mailx [-s subject] address...

   Receive Mode
              mailx -e




              mailx [-HiNn][-F][-u user]



              mailx -f[-HiNn][-F][file]



DESCRIPTION

       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
       Send Mode can be used by applications or users to  send  messages  from
       the text in standard input.

   Receive Mode
       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, delet-
       ing,  and responding to messages. When sending mail, mailx allows edit-
       ing, 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  sec-
       ondary files, messages shall be retained in those files unless specifi-
       cally 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.


OPTIONS

       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 mail-
              box.

       -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  privi-
              leges to read the system mailbox of that user.



OPERANDS

       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 vari-
              able; see Internal Variables in mailx .



STDIN

       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 .


INPUT FILES

       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.


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment  variables  shall  affect  the  execution  of
       mailx:

       DEAD   Determine the pathname of the file in which to save partial mes-
              sages in case of interrupts  or  delivery  errors.  The  default
              shall  be  dead.letter  in the directory named by the HOME vari-
              able. The behavior  of  mailx  in  saving  partial  messages  is
              unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not sup-
              ported 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 ) com-
              mand is used. The default editor is unspecified.    On  XSI-con-
              formant  systems  it  is  ed.   The effects of this variable are
              unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is not sup-
              ported.

       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 Vari-
              ables 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 con-
              tents of the folder directory to standard output when the  fold
              ers  command  is  given (see folders in Commands in mailx ). Any
              string acceptable as a command_string operand to the sh -c  com-
              mand  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 sup-
              ported.

       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  sys-
              tem 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  pagina-
              tion  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 documenta-
              tion.  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 unspeci-
              fied 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 com-
              mand (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  vari-
              able are unspecified if the User Portability Utilities option is
              not supported.



ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       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 com-
               mand-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 can-
                       not be created, the message shall not be saved.




       The mailx utility shall take the standard action for all other signals.


STDOUT

       In command and input modes, all output, including prompts and messages,
       shall be written to standard output.


STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.


OUTPUT FILES

       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 remain-
       der  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.


EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       The entire EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section shall apply only to implementa-
       tions 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  cir-
       cumstances,  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  mes-
       sage  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 com-
       mands 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 com-
       mands 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 envi-
       ronmental 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  termina-
       tion  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 mes-
       sage, 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 (mes
       sage)  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 mes-
       sage  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 mail-
              box.

       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  com-
              mand; 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 sum-
              mary 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.

   Start-Up in mailx
       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 val-
           ues.


        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 con-
       tinue 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.

   Internal Variables in mailx
       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:


              variable

       represent Boolean values. Variables shown as:


              variable=value

       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 spec-
              ifications 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  speci-
              fied  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 implementa-
              tion-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  addi-
              tion  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  process-
              ing 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 vari-
              able 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 enter-
              ing 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  head
              ers 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 char-
              acter sequences '\t' and '\n' shall be recognized in  the  vari-
              able  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 char-
              acter sequences '\t' and '\n' shall be recognized in  the  vari-
              able 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.


   Commands in mailx
       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 preced-
       ing 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  begin-
          ning 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  dis-
          carded and the next line shall continue the command.


       Filenames,  where  expected, shall be subjected to the following trans-
       formations, 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.


   Declare Aliases
       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  speci-
       fied  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.

   Declare Alternatives
       Synopsis:


              alt[ernates] name...


       (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.

   Change Current Directory
       Synopsis:


              cd [directory]ch[dir] [directory]


       Change  directory.  If directory is not specified, the contents of HOME
       shall be used.

   Copy Messages
       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.

   Delete Messages
       Synopsis:


              d[elete] [msglist]


       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  writ-
       ten  as described for the print command (see the print command); other-
       wise, the mailx prompt shall be written.

   Discard Header Fields
       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.

   Delete Messages and Display
       Synopsis:


              dp [msglist]dt [msglist]


       Delete  the  specified  messages  as  described for the delete command,
       except that the autoprint variable shall have no effect, and  the  cur-
       rent message shall be written only if it was set to a message after the
       last message deleted by the command.  Otherwise, an informational  mes-
       sage  to  the  effect that there are no further messages in the mailbox
       shall be written, followed by the mailx prompt.

   Echo a String
       Synopsis:


              ec[ho] string ...


       Echo the given strings, equivalent to the shell echo utility.

   Edit Messages
       Synopsis:


              e[dit] [msglist]


       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.

   Exit
       Synopsis:


              ex[it]x[it]


       Exit  from  mailx  without  changing  the mailbox. No messages shall be
       saved in the mbox (see also quit).

   Change Folder
       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 vari-
              able.)


       The default file shall be the current mailbox.

   Display List of Folders
       Synopsis:


              folders


       Write the names of the files in the directory set by the  folder  vari-
       able. The command specified by the LISTER environment variable shall be
       used (see the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section).

   Follow Up Specified Messages
       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.

   Display Header Summary for Specified Messages
       Synopsis:


              f[rom] [msglist]


       Write the header summary for the specified messages.

   Display Header Summary
       Synopsis:


              h[eaders] [message]


       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 mes-
       sage  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.

   Help
       Synopsis:


              hel[p]?


       Write a summary of commands.

   Hold Messages
       Synopsis:


              ho[ld] [msglist]pre[serve] [msglist]


       Mark  the  messages in msglist to be retained in the mailbox when mailx
       terminates. This shall override any commands that might previously have
       marked  the  messages  to  be deleted. During the current invocation of
       mailx, only the delete, dp, or dt commands shall  remove  the  preserve
       marking of a message.

   Execute Commands Conditionally
       Synopsis:


              i[f] s|r
              mail-commands
              el[se]
              mail-commands
              en[dif]


       Execute commands conditionally, where if s executes the following mail-
       commands, up to an else or endif, if the program is in Send  Mode,  and
       if r shall cause the mail-commands to be executed only in Receive Mode.

   List Available Commands
       Synopsis:


              l[ist]


       Write a list of all commands available. No explanation shall be  given.

   Mail a Message
       Synopsis:


              m[ail] address...


       Mail a message to the specified addresses or aliases.

   Direct Messages to mbox
       Synopsis:


              mb[ox] [msglist]


       Arrange  for  the  given  messages to end up in the mbox save file when
       mailx terminates normally. See MBOX .  See also the exit and quit  com-
       mands.

   Process Next Specified Message
       Synopsis:


              n[ext] [message]


       If  the current message has not been written (for example, by the print
       command) since mailx started or since any other message was the current
       message,  behave  as  if  the  print command was entered. Otherwise, if
       there is an undeleted message after the current message,  make  it  the
       current  message and behave as if the print command was entered. Other-
       wise, an informational message to the effect that there are no  further
       messages in the mailbox shall be written, followed by the mailx prompt.

   Pipe Message
       Synopsis:


              pi[pe] [[msglist] command]| [[msglist] command]


       Pipe the messages through the given command  by  invoking  the  command
       interpreter specified by SHELL with two arguments: -c and command. (See
       also sh -c.)  The application shall ensure that the command is given as
       a single argument. Quoting, described previously, can be used to accom-
       plish this. If no arguments are given, the  current  message  shall  be
       piped  through  the command specified by the value of the cmd variable.
       If the page variable is set, a <form-feed> shall be inserted after each
       message.

   Display Message with Headers
       Synopsis:


              P[rint] [msglist]T[ype] [msglist]


       Write  the  specified messages, including all header lines, to standard
       output. Override suppression of  lines  by  the  discard,  ignore,  and
       retain  commands. If crt is set, the messages longer than the number of
       lines specified by the crt variable shall be paged through the  command
       specified by the PAGER environment variable.

   Display Message
       Synopsis:


              p[rint] [msglist]t[ype] [msglist]


       Write  the  specified  messages  to standard output. If crt is set, the
       messages longer than the number of lines specified by the crt  variable
       shall  be  paged through the command specified by the PAGER environment
       variable.

   Quit
       Synopsis:


              q[uit]
              end-of-file


       Terminate mailx, storing messages that were read in mbox (if  the  cur-
       rent  mailbox  is  the system mailbox and unless hold is set), deleting
       messages that have been explicitly saved (unless keepsave is set), dis-
       carding  messages that have been deleted, and saving all remaining mes-
       sages in the mailbox.

   Reply to a Message List
       Synopsis:


              R[eply] [msglist]R[espond] [msglist]


       Mail a reply message to the sender of each message in the msglist.  The
       subject  line  shall  be formed by concatenating Re: <space> (unless it
       already begins with that string) and the subject from  the  first  mes-
       sage.  If  record  is set to a filename, the response shall be saved at
       the end of that file.

       See also the flipr variable.

   Reply to a Message
       Synopsis:


              r[eply] [message]r[espond] [message]


       Mail a reply message to all recipients included in the  header  of  the
       message.  The subject line shall be formed by concatenating Re: <space>
       (unless it already begins with that string) and the  subject  from  the
       message. If record is set to a filename, the response shall be saved at
       the end of that file.

       See also the flipr variable.

   Retain Header Fields
       Synopsis:


              ret[ain] [header-field...]


       Retain the specified header fields when writing messages. This  command
       shall  override  all  discard  and  ignore  commands. The comparison of
       header fields shall be in a case-insensitive manner.  If  no  arguments
       are  specified, write a list of the currently retained header fields to
       standard output; the listing need not reflect the same order of  header
       fields that were entered.

   Save Messages
       Synopsis:


              s[ave] [file]s[ave] [msglist] fileS[ave] [msglist]


       Save  the specified messages in the file named by the pathname file, or
       the mbox if the file argument is omitted. The file shall be created  if
       it  does  not  exist;  otherwise, the messages shall be appended to the
       file. The message shall be put in the state saved, and shall behave  as
       specified  in the description of the saved state when the current mail-
       box is exited by the quit or file command.

       In the capitalized form, save the specified messages in  a  file  whose
       name  is  derived from the author of the first message. The name of the
       file shall be taken to be the author's name with all network addressing
       stripped  off.  See  also the Copy, followup, and Followup commands and
       outfolder variable.

   Set Variables
       Synopsis:


              se[t] [name[=[string]] ...] [name=number ...] [noname ...]


       Define one or more variables called name. The variable can be  given  a
       null, string, or numeric value. Quoting and backslash escapes can occur
       anywhere in string, as described previously, as if the  string  portion
       of  the  argument  were  the  entire argument. The forms name and name=
       shall be equivalent to name="" for variables that take  string  values.
       The  set  command  without  arguments shall write a list of all defined
       variables and their values. The no name form  shall  be  equivalent  to
       unset name.

   Invoke a Shell
       Synopsis:


              sh[ell]


       Invoke an interactive command interpreter (see also SHELL ).

   Display Message Size
       Synopsis:


              si[ze] [msglist]


       Write the size in bytes of each of the specified messages.

   Read mailx Commands From a File
       Synopsis:


              so[urce] file


       Read  and execute commands from the file named by the pathname file and
       return to command mode.

   Display Beginning of Messages
       Synopsis:


              to[p] [msglist]


       Write the top few lines of each  of  the  specified  messages.  If  the
       toplines  variable is set, it is taken as the number of lines to write.
       The default shall be 5.

   Touch Messages
       Synopsis:


              tou[ch] [msglist]


       Touch the specified messages. If any message in msglist is not specifi-
       cally  deleted nor saved in a file, it shall be placed in the mbox upon
       normal termination. See exit and quit.

   Delete Aliases
       Synopsis:


              una[lias] [alias]...


       Delete the specified alias names. If a specified alias does not  exist,
       the results are unspecified.

   Undelete Messages
       Synopsis:


              u[ndelete] [msglist]


       Change  the  state  of  the specified messages from deleted to read. If
       autoprint is set, the last message of those restored shall be  written.
       If msglist is not specified, the message shall be selected as follows:

        * If  there  are any deleted messages that follow the current message,
          the first of these shall be chosen.


        * Otherwise, the last deleted message that also precedes  the  current
          message shall be chosen.


   Unset Variables
       Synopsis:


              uns[et] name...


       Cause the specified variables to be erased.

   Edit Message with Full-Screen Editor
       Synopsis:


              v[isual] [msglist]


       Edit  the  given  messages  with a screen editor. Each message shall be
       placed in a temporary file, and the utility named by the  VISUAL  vari-
       able  shall be invoked to edit each file in sequence.  The default edi-
       tor shall be vi.

       The visual command does not modify the contents of  those  messages  in
       the mailbox.

   Write Messages to a File
       Synopsis:


              w[rite] [msglist] file


       Write  the  given  messages to the file specified by the pathname file,
       minus the message header. Otherwise, it shall be equivalent to the save
       command.

   Scroll Header Display
       Synopsis:


              z[+|-]


       Scroll  the header display forward (if '+' is specified or if no option
       is specified) or backward (if '-' is specified) one screenful. The num-
       ber of headers written shall be set by the screen variable.

   Invoke Shell Command
       Synopsis:


              !command


       Invoke  the  command interpreter specified by SHELL with two arguments:
       -c and command. (See also sh -c.) If the bang  variable  is  set,  each
       unescaped  occurrence of '!' in command shall be replaced with the com-
       mand executed by the previous ! command or ~! command escape.

   Null Command
       Synopsis:


              # comment


       This null command (comment) shall be ignored by mailx.

   Display Current Message Number
       Synopsis:


              =


       Write the current message number.

   Command Escapes in mailx
       The following commands can be entered only from input mode,  by  begin-
       ning  a line with the escape character (by default, tilde ( '~' )). See
       the escape variable description for changing  this  special  character.
       The format for the commands shall be:


              <escape-character><command-char><separator>[<arguments>]

       where the <separator> can be zero or more <blank>s.

       In  the  following  descriptions, the application shall ensure that the
       argument command (but not mailx-command) is a shell command string. Any
       string  acceptable  to  the  command interpreter specified by the SHELL
       variable when it is invoked as SHELL -c command_string shall be  valid.
       The command can be presented as multiple arguments (that is, quoting is
       not required).

       Command escapes that are listed with msglist or mailx-command arguments
       are invalid in Send Mode and produce unspecified results.

       ~!  command
              Invoke the command interpreter specified by SHELL with two argu-
              ments: -c and command; and then return to  input  mode.  If  the
              bang  variable  is set, each unescaped occurrence of '!' in com
              mand shall be replaced with the command executed by the previous
              ! command or ~! command escape.

       ~.     Simulate end-of-file (terminate message input).

       ~:  mailx-command, ~_  mailx-command

              Perform the command-level request.

       ~?     Write a summary of command escapes.

       ~A     This shall be equivalent to ~i Sign.

       ~a     This shall be equivalent to ~i sign.

       ~b  name...
              Add the names to the blind carbon copy ( Bcc) list.

       ~c  name...
              Add the names to the carbon copy ( Cc) list.

       ~d     Read in the dead-letter file. See DEAD for a description of this
              file.

       ~e     Invoke the editor, as specified by the EDITOR environment  vari-
              able, on the partial message.

       ~f [msglist]
              Forward  the specified messages. The specified messages shall be
              inserted into the current message without alteration. This  com-
              mand  escape  also shall insert message headers into the message
              with field selection affected by the discard, ignore, and retain
              commands.

       ~F [msglist]
              This  shall  be  the equivalent of the ~f command escape, except
              that all headers shall be included in the message, regardless of
              previous discard, ignore, and retain commands.

       ~h     If  standard  input is a terminal, prompt for a Subject line and
              the To, Cc, and Bcc lists. Other implementation-defined  headers
              may also be presented for editing.  If the field is written with
              an initial value, it can be edited as if it had just been typed.

       ~i  string
              Insert the value of the named variable, followed by a <newline>,
              into the text of the message. If the string is  unset  or  null,
              the message shall not be changed.

       ~m [msglist]
              Insert  the  specified messages into the message, prefixing non-
              empty lines with the string in the indentprefix variable.   This
              command  escape  also shall insert message headers into the mes-
              sage, with field selection affected by the discard, ignore,  and
              retain commands.

       ~M [msglist]
              This  shall  be  the equivalent of the ~m command escape, except
              that all headers shall be included in the message, regardless of
              previous discard, ignore, and retain commands.

       ~p     Write  the  message being entered. If the message is longer than
              crt lines (see Internal Variables in mailx ), the  output  shall
              be paginated as described for the PAGER variable.

       ~q     Quit  (see  the  quit  command) from input mode by simulating an
              interrupt. If the body of the message is not empty, the  partial
              message  shall  be saved in the dead-letter file. See DEAD for a
              description of this file.

       ~r  file, ~<
              file, ~r !command, ~< !command

              Read in the file specified by the pathname file. If the argument
              begins  with an exclamation mark ( '!' ), the rest of the string
              shall be taken as  an  arbitrary  system  command;  the  command
              interpreter  specified  by SHELL shall be invoked with two argu-
              ments: -c and command. The standard output of command  shall  be
              inserted into the message.

       ~s  string
              Set the subject line to string.

       ~t  name...
              Add the given names to the To list.

       ~v     Invoke  the full-screen editor, as specified by the VISUAL envi-
              ronment variable, on the partial message.

       ~w  file
              Write the partial message, without the  header,  onto  the  file
              named  by  the  pathname  file. The file shall be created or the
              message shall be appended to it if the file exists.

       ~x     Exit as with ~q, except the message shall not be  saved  in  the
              dead-letter file.

       ~|  command
              Pipe the body of the message through the given command by invok-
              ing  the  command  interpreter  specified  by  SHELL  with   two
              arguments:  -c  and command. If the command returns a successful
              exit status, the standard output of the  command  shall  replace
              the  message.  Otherwise, the message shall remain unchanged. If
              the command fails, an error message giving the exit status shall
              be written.



EXIT STATUS

       When  the  -e  option  is  specified,  the  following  exit  values are
       returned:

        0     Mail was found.

       >0     Mail was not found or an error occurred.


       Otherwise, the following exit values are returned:

        0     Successful completion; note that this status  implies  that  all
              messages  were sent, but it gives no assurances that any of them
              were actually delivered.

       >0     An error occurred.



CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       When in input mode (Receive Mode) or Send Mode:

        * If an error is encountered processing a command escape (see  Command
          Escapes  in  mailx ), a diagnostic message shall be written to stan-
          dard error, and the message being composed may be modified, but this
          condition shall not prevent the message from being sent.


        * Other errors shall prevent the sending of the message.


       When in command mode:

        * Default.


       The following sections are informative.


APPLICATION USAGE

       Delivery of messages to remote systems requires the existence of commu-
       nication paths to such systems. These need not exist.

       Input lines are limited to {LINE_MAX} bytes, but mailers  between  sys-
       tems  may  impose  more severe line-length restrictions. This volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not place any restrictions on the  length  of
       messages  handled by mailx, and for delivery of local messages the only
       limitations should be the normal problems of available disk  space  for
       the  target  mail  file.   When  sending messages to external machines,
       applications are advised to limit messages to less  than  100000  bytes
       because some mail gateways impose message-length restrictions.

       The  format of the system mailbox is intentionally unspecified. Not all
       systems implement system mailboxes as flat files, particularly with the
       advent of multimedia mail messages. Some system mailboxes may be multi-
       ple files, others records in a database. The  internal  format  of  the
       messages  themselves  is specified with the historical format from Ver-
       sion 7, but only after the messages have been saved in some file  other
       than the system mailbox. This was done so that many historical applica-
       tions expecting text-file mailboxes are not broken.

       Some new formats for messages can be expected in the  future,  probably
       including  binary  data,  bit  maps, and various multimedia objects. As
       described here, mailx is not prohibited from  handling  such  messages,
       but  it  must  store  them as text files in secondary mailboxes (unless
       some extension, such as a variable or command line option, is  used  to
       change  the  stored  format). Its method of doing so is implementation-
       defined and might include translating the data into text  file-compati-
       ble  or  readable form or omitting certain portions of the message from
       the stored output.

       The discard and ignore commands are not inverses of the retain command.
       The  retain  command discards all header-fields except those explicitly
       retained. The discard command  keeps  all  header-fields  except  those
       explicitly  discarded.  If  headers  exist on the retained header list,
       discard and ignore commands are ignored.


EXAMPLES

       None.


RATIONALE

       The standard developers felt strongly that a method for applications to
       send messages to specific users was necessary. The obvious example is a
       batch utility, running non-interactively, that  wishes  to  communicate
       errors or results to a user. However, the actual format, delivery mech-
       anism, and method of reading the message are clearly beyond  the  scope
       of this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

       The  intent  of this command is to provide a simple, portable interface
       for sending messages non-interactively. It merely defines a "front-end"
       to  the  historical  mail  system. It is suggested that implementations
       explicitly denote the sender and recipient in the body of the delivered
       message.  Further specification of formats for either the message enve-
       lope or the message itself were deliberately not made, as the  industry
       is in the midst of changing from the current standards to a more inter-
       nationalized standard and it is probably incorrect, at  this  time,  to
       require either one.

       Implementations are encouraged to conform to the various delivery mech-
       anisms described in the CCITT X.400  standards  or  to  the  equivalent
       Internet  standards,  described  in  Internet Request for Comment (RFC)
       documents RFC 819, RFC 822, RFC 920, RFC 921, and RFC 1123.

       Many historical systems modified each body line that started with From
       by  prefixing  the 'F' with '>' . It is unnecessary, but allowed, to do
       that when the string does not follow a blank line because it cannot  be
       confused with the next header.

       The  edit  and  visual commands merely edit the specified messages in a
       temporary file. They do not modify the contents of  those  messages  in
       the  mailbox; such a capability could be added as an extension, such as
       by using different command names.

       The restriction on a subject line being {LINE_MAX}-10 bytes is based on
       the  historical  format  that  consumes  10 bytes for Subject:  and the
       trailing  <newline>.  Many  historical  mailers  that  a  message   may
       encounter on other systems are not able to handle lines that long, how-
       ever.

       Like the utilities logger and lp,  mailx  admittedly  is  difficult  to
       test.  This  was  not  deemed  sufficient justification to exclude this
       utility from this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. It is  also  arguable
       that  it  is,  in fact, testable, but that the tests themselves are not
       portable.

       When mailx is being used by an application that wishes to  receive  the
       results  as  if  none of the User Portability Utilities option features
       were supported, the DEAD environment variable must be set to /dev/null.
       Otherwise,  it  may be subject to the file creations described in mailx
       ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS. Similarly, if the MAILRC environment  variable  is
       not  set  to /dev/null, historical versions of mailx and Mail read ini-
       tialization commands from a file before processing  begins.  Since  the
       initialization  that  a user specifies could alter the contents of mes-
       sages an application is trying to  send,  such  applications  must  set
       MAILRC to /dev/null.

       The  description  of  LC_TIME uses "may affect" because many historical
       implementations do not or cannot manipulate the date and  time  strings
       in  the  incoming  mail headers. Some headers found in incoming mail do
       not have enough information to determine the timezone in which the mail
       originated,  and,  therefore,  mailx  cannot  convert the date and time
       strings into the internal form that then is  parsed  by  routines  like
       strftime()  that  can  take LC_TIME settings into account. Changing all
       these times to a user-specified format is allowed, but not required.

       The paginator selected when PAGER is null or unset is partially unspec-
       ified  to  allow  the  System  V historical practice of using pg as the
       default. Bypassing the pagination function, such as by  declaring  that
       cat  is the paginator, would not meet with the intended meaning of this
       description. However, any "portable  user"  would  have  to  set  PAGER
       explicitly  to  get  his or her preferred paginator on all systems. The
       paginator choice was made partially unspecified, unlike the VISUAL edi-
       tor  choice (mandated to be vi) because most historical pagers follow a
       common theme of user input, whereas editors differ dramatically.

       Options to specify addresses as cc (carbon copy) or bcc  (blind  carbon
       copy) were considered to be format details and were omitted.

       A zero exit status implies that all messages were sent, but it gives no
       assurances that any of them were actually delivered. The reliability of
       the  delivery  mechanism is unspecified and is an appropriate marketing
       distinction between systems.

       In order to conform to the Utility Syntax Guidelines,  a  solution  was
       required  to the optional file option-argument to -f. By making file an
       operand, the guidelines are satisfied and users remain  portable.  How-
       ever, it does force implementations to support usage such as:


              mailx -fin mymail.box

       The no name method of unsetting variables is not present in all histor-
       ical systems, but it is in System V and provides a logical set of  com-
       mands  corresponding  to  the format of the display of options from the
       mailx set command without arguments.

       The ask and asksub variables are the names selected by BSD  and  System
       V, respectively, for the same feature. They are synonyms in this volume
       of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

       The mailx echo command was not documented in the BSD  version  and  has
       been  omitted  here  because it is not obviously useful for interactive
       users.

       The default prompt on the System V mailx is a  question  mark,  on  BSD
       Mail  an ampersand. Since this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 chose the
       mailx name, it kept the System V default, assuming that BSD users would
       not  have  difficulty  with  this  minor incompatibility (that they can
       override).

       The meanings of r and R are reversed between System V mailx  and  SunOS
       Mail.  Once  again, since this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 chose the
       mailx name, it kept the System V default, but allows the SunOS user  to
       achieve the desired results using flipr, an internal variable in System
       V mailx, although it has not been documented in the SVID.

       The indentprefix variable, the retain and unalias commands, and the  ~F
       and ~M command escapes were adopted from 4.3 BSD Mail.

       The  version  command  was not included because no sufficiently general
       specification of the version information could be  devised  that  would
       still be useful to a portable user. This command name should be used by
       suppliers who wish to provide version information about the mailx  com-
       mand.

       The  "implementation-specific  (unspecified) system start-up file" his-
       torically has been named /etc/mailx.rc,  but  this  specific  name  and
       location are not required.

       The  intent  of the wording for the next command is that if any command
       has already displayed the current message it should display a following
       message,  but,  otherwise,  it should display the current message. Con-
       sider the command sequence:


              next 3
              delete 3
              next

       where the autoprint option was not set. The  normative  text  specifies
       that  the  second  next  command should display a message following the
       third message, because even though the current  message  has  not  been
       displayed since it was set by the delete command, it has been displayed
       since the current message was anything other  than  message  number  3.
       This does not always match historical practice in some implementations,
       where the command file address followed by next (or  the  default  com-
       mand) would skip the message for which the user had searched.


FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.


SEE ALSO

       Shell Command Language , ed , ls , more , vi


COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                             MAILX(P)


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