readmail(1)                                                     readmail(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      readmail - read mail from a mail folder or incoming mailbox

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      readmail [-ahnp] [-f folder] [number-list|pattern]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      The readmail program displays messages from your incoming mailbox or a
      specified mail folder.

      Within the elm mail system (see elm(1) with no operands and optionally
      the -h or -n option, readmail displays the appropriate headers and the
      body of the current message.

      With the number-list operand and no options, readmail displays the
      corresponding messages and a summary of the headers from your incoming
      mailbox.

      With the pattern operand and no options, readmail displays the first
      message that matches the pattern and a summary of the headers from
      your incoming mailbox.

    Options    [Toc]    [Back]
      readmail supports the following options.

           -a             Print all messages that match pattern.  If no
                          pattern was specified, this option is ignored.

           -f folder      Use file folder for the operations instead of the
                          incoming mailbox.

           -h             Include the entire header of the matched message
                          or messages when displaying their text.  The
                          default is to display the From:, Date:, and
                          Subject: lines only.

           -n             Exclude all headers.

           -p             Put form feeds (Ctrl-L) between message headers.
                          This is useful when printing sets of messages.

    Operands    [Toc]    [Back]
      readmail supports the following operands.

           number-list    A blank-separated list of the ordinal locations of
                          messages in the mail file (i.e., their "message
                          numbers"), up to 25 at a time.  The character $
                          means the last message in the mail file.
                          Similarly, * represents every message in the file
                          (i.e., 1 2 3 ... $)




 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 readmail(1)                                                     readmail(1)




                          The message numbers are sorted into ascending
                          order.  Thus, 1 3 2 produces the same output as 1
                          2 3.

           pattern        A string that is present in one of the messages.
                          This pattern can be typed in directly (no quotes)
                          if the words are separated by a single space in
                          the actual message.  The pattern matching is case
                          sensitive, so Hello and hello are not equivalent.
                          Leading digits (on the first word) are not
                          permitted; however, you can precede them with a
                          space and quote the entire string, if the space
                          occurs in the message, as in
                          " 1st item of business" .

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      If you are using vi to reply to a message from within the elm mail
      system, you can insert the text of the current message with the
      command:

           :r !readmail

      If you define an alias similar to:

           alias rd='readmail $ | page'    (Korn or POSIX shell)
           alias rd 'readmail $ | page'    (C shell)

      you can use it with a program such newmail to peruse mail as it
      arrives, without needing to start a mail system (see newmail(1)).

 AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]
      readmail was developed by HP.

 FILES    [Toc]    [Back]
      /var/mail/loginname                Incoming mailbox
      $HOME/.elm/readmail                Temporary file for elm

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      elm(1), newmail(1), vi(1).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003