Mail

Some general commands

Here is a list of some general commands regarding email:

To find out senders and subjects of your mail use the command frm
If you want to see the addresses and dates in your email use from
To run a background program that will inform you when new mail arrives use newmail
To decode messages in MIME format, that have been saved to a file, use
```
   mimencode -u -o output-file file-with-message
```

pine

This is a quite user-friendly mailer. You start the program simply with pine The first screen looks like this:

You can move in this screen with the arrows of by pressing the key corresponding to the option you want. The different options are:

? for help
c to write a new message
i to see the list of mail in your default mail box
l to see the list of mail boxes (folders, that is the default folder and files in the directory mail in your home directory)
a to handle your addresses (aliases)
s to set up your options
q to quit

To read your new mail go to the "Message Index", with the arrows or by pressing the key i. The typical screen with mail messages looks like this:

Here are some of the commands in this screen:

?: help
p: previous message
n: next message
d: delete message (rather mark for deletion)
u: undelete message (unmarked for deletion)
r: reply
f: forward message
<: list of folders
>: view message
-: previous page of messages list
spc: next page of messages list (space bar key)
m: go to main menu (starting menu)
q: quit
c: compose message (write new message)
g: go to a particular folder
tab: next new message (tab key)
w: find
%: print
t: add address of sender to addressbook
s: save message
x: really delete messages marked for deletion
$: sort index of messages (you will be asked how you want to sort them)
j: go to a particular message (you will be asked the number of the message you want to jump to)
l: list mail folder

The default editor of pine is pico; please look in the editors section for more information about it.

elm

elm is a nice mailer, but it is not under serious development any more, being substituted by mutt (see below). The typical screen of elm looks like this:

Here is a list of elm commands:

?: help
n: next message
k: previous message
d: mark current message for deletion
u: undelte current message
r: reply
f: forward message
+: next index page
-: previous index page
q: quit
Q: quit without asking questions (will delete messages marked for deletion)
m: compose a mail
c: change folder
/: search in addresses or subjects for a pattern
//: search entire text (including message) for a pattern
p: print current message
$: resyncronize folder (delete messages marked for deletion)
s: save current message
a: change to alias mode
b: bounce (remail) current message
o: modify/edit options
t: put a tag in current message for further operations (for example, to save several messages in a folder)
v: view attachments in message
x: exit without changes

mutt

mutt is a very powerful mailer, that has taken lots of the elm features. Here is a screen shot of mutt:

The key strokes for mutt commands are as follows:

?: help
k: previous message
j: next message
d: mark message for deletion
u: undelete message (remove delete mark)
r: reply
f: forward message
page up: next page of messages
page down: previous page of messages
q: quit
m: compose message
c: change folder
/: find/search in addresses and subjects
Esc b: find/search in text of messages
p: print message
a: add address of sender to aliases
s: save message
$: syncronize folder (i.e. really delete message marked for deletion)
o: sort index
number of message: go to a particular message

mailx

mailx is a very basic mailer, which can be used, for example, when you are in a remote sesion (say with telnet/ssh) when the connection is slow and you do not need fancy features. Here is a shot of a screen with mailx:

And here are the commands:

?: help
n: next message
d: delete
u: undelete message
r: reply to message sender(s) and all recipients
R: reply only to message sender(s)
p: print message
m: mail (compose) a message
x: quit without changes
q: quit, saving unread messages in mbox

Bounced mail

When either the local mail server or the remote server has a problem delivering a mail you will get an error message, what I called "bounced mail" First of all, there is a message that comes if your mail has not been delivered in a few hours; that is a warning message and you do not need to do anything (as the messages says) since your mail will be in the queue for quite a longer time (five days is the current default in our system). Other "bounced mails" usually have an explanation of what the problem is; if you do not understand it, please do NOT delete the message but show it to Mr. V. Nandagopal or me (Pablo) so we can see what the problem is and take any action, if required.

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