MAIL.LOCAL(8) System Manager's Manual MAIL.LOCAL(8)
NAME
mail.localstore mail in a mailbox
SYNOPSIS
mail.local
[-l] [-f from] user ...
DESCRIPTION
mail.local reads the standard input up to an end-of-file and appends it to each user's mail file. The user must be a valid user name.
 
The options are as follows:
-f from
Specify the sender's name.
-l
Request that username.lock files be used for locking.
 
Individual mail messages in the mailbox are delimited by an empty line followed by a line beginning with the string ``From ''. A line containing the string ``From '', the sender's name and a time stamp is prepended to each delivered mail message. A blank line is appended to each message. A greater-than character (``>'') is prepended to any line in the message which could be mistaken for a ``From '' delimiter line.
 
If the [-l] flag is specified mailbox locking is done with username.lock files. Otherwise, the mailbox is exclusively locked with flock(2) while mail is appended.
 
If the ``biff'' service is returned by getservbyname(3), the biff server is notified of delivered mail.
 
The mail.local utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
ENVIRONMENT
TZ
Used to set the appropriate time zone on the timestamp.
FILES
/tmp/local.XXXXXX
temporary files
/var/mail/user
user's mailbox directory
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
A superset of mail.local (handling mailbox reading as well as mail delivery) appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX as the program mail(1).