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NEWMAIL(1L)							     NEWMAIL(1L)

NAME
     newmail,wnewmail - programs to asynchronously notify of new mail

SYNOPSIS
     newmail [-d] [-i interval] [-w] file-spec {file-spec...}
     wnewmail [-d] [-i interval] [-w] file-spec {file-spec...}

DESCRIPTION
     Newmail  is  a  program  to allow monitoring of mailboxes in an intelligent
     fashion.  It is based loosely on biff(1) and the version  of  newmail  that
     was distributed with Elm 1.7.

     The  basic  operation  is that the program will check the list of specified
     mailboxes each interval seconds and will list any new mail that has arrived
     in any of the mailboxes, indicating the sender name, and the subject of the
     message.

     Each entry displayed can be in a number of different formats  depending  on
     the  mode	of  the  program, the number of folders being monitored, and the
     status of the message.  If you're running it as a window  (e.g.  ``-w''  or
     invoked as wnewmail) then the output will be similar to:

	sender name - subject of message
	Priority: sender name - subject of message

     where  <sender name> is either the name of the person sending it, if avail-
     able (the ARPA 'From:' line) or some other brief indication of origin.   If
     you are the sender, <sender  name>  will  be  replaced  by  "to  <recipient
     name>".   If there is no subject, the message "<no subject>" will appear on
     the screen.

     Folders are indicated by having the folder name appear first on the  output
     line, as in:

	folder: sender name - subject of message

     If  you're  running  newmail without the windows option, then the output is
     more suitable for popping up on an otherwise active  screen,  and	will  be
     formatted:

	>> New mail from sender name - subject of message
	>> Priority mail from sender name - subject of message

     Again, with folder names indicated as a prefix.

     The flags available are:

     -d        This  will turn on the debugging, verbose output mode.  It is not
	       recommended that you use this option unless you're interested  in
	       actually debugging the program.

     -i interval
	       This  will change the frequency that the program checks the fold-
	       ers to the interval specified, in seconds.  The default	interval
	       for  the program is 60 seconds.	Note: if you change the interval
	       to less than 10 seconds, the program will warn you that it  isn't
	       recommended.

     -w        Use  of the ``-w'' flag will simulate having the program run from
	       within a window (e.g. the more succinct	output	format,  and  so
	       on).   Most  likely,  rather than using this option you should be
	       simply invoking wnewmail instead.

     File specs are made up of two components, the folder name	and  the  prefix
     string,  the  latter of which can always be omitted.  The format is folder-
     name=prefixstring, and you can specify folders by full name, by simply  the
     name  of the user whose mailbox should be monitored, or by the standard Elm
     metacharacters to specify your folder  directory  (e.g.  ``+'',  ``='',  or
     ``%'').

     Folders  that  cannot be opened due to permission mismatches will cause the
     program to immediately abort.  On the other hand, files that do  not  exist
     will  continue to be checked every interval seconds, so some care should be
     exercised when invoking the program.

     The program will run until you log out or explicitly kill it, and	can  in-
     ternally  reset  itself  if any of the folders shrink in size and then grow
     again.

     The default folder to monitor is always your incoming mailbox.

EXAMPLES
     Some example invocations:

	  $ newmail

     will check your incoming mailbox every 60 seconds.

	  $ newmail  -i  15  joe  root

     will monitor the incoming mailboxes  for  ``joe''	and  ``root'',	checking
     every 15 seconds for new mail.

	  $ newmail  "mary=Mary"  +postmaster=POBOX

     will monitor the incoming mailbox for user ``mary'', prefixing all messages
     with  the	string	``Mary'',  and the folder in the users maildir directory
     called ``postmaster'', prefixing all of those messages with ``POBOX''.

     You can also have more complex monitoring too, for example:

	  $ newmail  -i  30  $LOGNAME=me  ${LOGNAME}su=myroot	/tmp/mbox

     will check every 30 seconds for the users mailbox, a mailbox  that  is  the
     users login-name with ``su'' appended (e.g. ``joe'' would become ``joesu'')
     and the file /tmp/mbox, prefixing new mail for each with ``me'', ``myroot''
     and ``mbox'' respectively.

AUTHOR
     Elm Development Group

SEE ALSO
     notify in sh(1) or csh(1)

BUG REPORTS TO
     Bill Pemberton  flash@virginia.edu

COPYRIGHTS
     Copyright 1988-1995 by The USENET Community Trust
     Derived from Elm 2.0,  Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor

USENET Community Trust		 Elm Version 2.5		     NEWMAIL(1L)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=newmail&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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