newmail

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 mail-
       boxes, indicating the sender name, and the subject of  the
       message.

       Each  entry displayed can be in a number of different for-
       mats 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 send-
       ing it, if available (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 folders 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 foldername=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  direc-
       tory (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 internally 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 ``postmas-
       ter'', prefixing all of those messages with ``POBOX''.

       You can also have more complex monitoring too,  for  exam-
       ple:

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

       will check every 30 seconds for the users mailbox, a mail-
       box 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

       Syd Weinstein  elm@DSI.COM    (dsinc!elm)

COPYRIGHTS

       Copyright 1988-1992 by The USENET Community Trust
       Derived from Elm 2.0,  Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor