Starting the mail editor
The mail program provides a line-oriented editor for creating messages.
- The mail program must be installed on your system.
- The mail program must be started.
This editor enables you to type each line of the message, press the Enter key to get a new line, and type more text. You cannot change a line after you have pressed the Enter key. However, before pressing the Enter key, you can change information on that one line by using the Backspace and Delete keys to erase. You can also use mail editor subcommands to enter a full-screen editor and change the message.
When you create mail with the mail editor, the date: and from: fields are automatically completed by the system. You have the option to complete the subject: and cc: fields. These fields are similar to the body of a standard business letter.
The mail editor includes many control subcommands that enable you to perform other operations on a message. Each of these subcommands must be entered on a new line and must begin with the special escape character. By default, the escape character is a tilde (~). You can change it to any other character by including the set escape option in your .mailrc file.
At your system command line prompt or your mailbox prompt, you can use the mail command as shown in the following examples:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
mail User@Address |
Issue this command from the command line prompt. The message is addressed to User@Address. The Address parameter depends upon the location of the recipient. |
mUser@Address |
Issue this subcommand from the mailbox prompt. The message is addressed to User@Address. The Address parameter depends upon the location of the recipient. |
The mail editor is also activated, if you use the R or r subcommands to reply to a message. For more information on how to reply to a message, see Sending mail and Replying to mail.