User Tools

Site Tools


playground:native_mail

This is an old revision of the document!


Native NetBSD mail(1) Setup and Use:

This is the native mail client on NetBSD, the operating system the SDF cluster runs on. For historical reasons there are several aliases: mail(1), Mail(1), mailx(1), however sticking to the first two will avoid name collision with any non-native clients. While mail(1) has some MIME support it lacks folder-level hooks as well as POP3 or IMAP support so it may only appeal to users with modest mail needs. That said, native mail(1) is quite capable of meeting most SDF email needs.

Setup

Native mail(1) uses ~sdfuser/.mailrc for its configurations; below is an annotated sample config file which should work for most SDF users with little modification:

~homeuser/.mailrc
### NetBSD mail(1) config file (~/.mailrc):
 
## Hold mail in system Inbox (/sdf/mail/$USER):
set hold
 
## Set top of mail folder tree & cd into it; can
## be any name but "mail" or "Mail" is typical:
# use '~/mail/':
set folder=mail
# allows simple folder changes, ex. 'fi Sent' instead of 'fi +/Sent':
chdir mail
 
## Set non-std mbox and record names/locations.
## (default loc: ~/ ; '+' prefix => ~/mail/..):
# ~/mbox is default:
set MBOX=+Save
# none is default:
set record=+Sent
 
## Header fields to ignore & retain:
ignore message-id received fcc status resent-date resent-message-id resent-from in-reply-to
retain bcc cc date from subject to user-agent organization
 
## Add additional headers - these are added to outgoing
## messages unless editted/deleted in composition mode:
Header User-Agent: NetBSD Mail version 9.1alpha 2009-02-25
Header Organization: SDF Public Access UNIX System
 
## uncomment to tweak the 'From:' field; default is
## SDF user GECOS field (use userinfo(1) to list):
#Header From: sdfuser@beevomit.org(Me at SDF)
 
# Open even if no mail:
set emptystart
 
## Email aliases:
# use for contacting SDF membership:
alias sdfhelp 'SDF membership <membership@sdf.org>'
 
## set alt. editor(s) and pager; these will override
## user's EDITOR, VISUAL, PAGER shell env. vars:
# default is PAGER:
#set PAGER=more
# default is EDITOR:
#set EDITOR=nano
# default is VISUAL:
#set VISUAL=$HOME/bin/veditor
 
## enable piping output of mailx cmds. In example,
## typing '|wc -m' gives word count for curr. msg:
set enable-pipes
 
# Set things to prompt for before sending:
set append ask autoprint
 
## Set indent prefix (for Replys); use with '~m':
set indentprefix="> "
 
## pipe html/text type messages thru lynx(1), the text
## web browser.  This makes reading html msgs easier:
set mime-decode-header mime-decode-message mime-decode-quote
set mime-body-text-html="+/usr/pkg/bin/lynx -force_html -dump -stdin"

Basic Use

The mail(1) manpage will explain basic usage; once mail(1) is running you can type help and list for basic help info and a listing of commands. Many commands can be abbreviated, i.e. 'm' for mailto, 'd' for delete, 'p' for print. To page through multiple screens of messages use z (down) and z - (up). A useful command is x which will quit without saving changes – handy if you've made several unintended changes, i.e. deleting a bunch of messages.

playground/native_mail.1640825825.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/12/30 00:57 by zilog