MAIL.LOCAL(8)
NAME
mail.local - store mail in a mailbox
SYNOPSIS
mail.local [-7] [-b] [-d] [-D mbdb] [-l] [-f from|-r from] [-h filename ] 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:
-7 Do not advertise 8BITMIME support in LMTP mode.
- -b Return a permanent error instead of a temporary error if a
- mailbox exceeds quota.
- -d Specify this is a delivery (for backward compatibility).
- This option has no effect.
- -D mbdb Specify the name of the mailbox database which is used to
- look up local recipient names. This option defaults to "pw", which means use getpwnam().
- -f from Specify the sender's name.
- -l Turn on LMTP mode.
- -r from Specify the sender's name (for backward compatibility). Same
- as -f.
- -h filename
- Store incoming mail in filename in the user's home directory instead of a system mail spool directory.
- The next options are only available if mail.local has been compiled with -DHASHSPOOL.
- -H hashtypehashdepth
- Select hashed mail directories. Valid hash types are u for user name and m for MD5 (requires compilation with -DHASHSPOOLMD5). Example: -H u2 selects user name hashing with a hash depth of 2. Note: there must be no space between the hash type and the depth.
- -p path
- Specify an alternate mail spool path.
- -n Specify that the domain part of recipient addresses in LMTP mode
- should not be stripped.
- 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 (that is, a line beginning with the five characters ``From '' following a blank line).
- The mail files are exclusively locked with flock(2) while mail is appended, and a user.lock file also is created while the mailbox is locked for compatibility with older MUAs.
- 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 default mailbox directory
/var/mail/user.lock lock file for a user's default mailbox
SEE ALSO
mail(1), xsend(1), flock(2), getservbyname(3), comsat(8), sendmail(8)
WARNING
mail.local escapes only "^From " lines that follow an empty line. If
all lines starting with "From " should be escaped, use the 'E' flag for
the local mailer in the sendmail.cf file.
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.