Message editing

Edit online

While in your mailbox, you can add information to an existing message by typing the (e)dit or (v)isual subcommand at the mailbox prompt.

While in the mail editor, you cannot change information on a line after you have pressed the Enter key and gone on to the next line. You can change the content of your message before sending it by editing the message with another editor.

Before editing a message in another editor, make sure the following conditions are true:

  1. The mail program must be installed on your system.
  2. The alternate editor must be defined in the .mailrc file with: 
    set EDITOR=PathName

    This defines the editor you activate with the ~e subcommand. The value of PathName must be the full path name to the editor program that you want to use. For example, the definition set EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi defines the vi editor for use with the ~e subcommand.

  3. To add information to a message in your mailbox, you must have started the mail command to read mail in the system mailbox, other mailbox, or folder.
  4. To start an alternate editor while creating a message, you must be in the mail editor prompt.