Name
mail — stdin stdout - file -- opt --help --version
Synopsis
mail [options
]recipient
The mail
program
(equivalently, Mail
)[20] is a quick, simple email client. Most people want a
more powerful program for regular use, but for quick messages from
the command line or in scripts, mail
is really handy.
To send a quick message:
$ mail smith@example.com Subject:my subject
I'm typing a message.
To end it, I type a period by itself on a line.
.
Cc:jones@example.com
$
To send a quick message using a single command, use a pipeline:
$ echo "Hello world" | mail -s "subject" smith@example.com
To mail a file using a single command, you can use redirection or a pipeline:
$ mail -s "my subject" smith@example.com < filename $ cat filename | mail -s "my subject" smith@example.com
Notice how easily you can send the output of a pipeline as an email message; this is useful in scripts.
Useful options
|
Set the subject line of an outgoing message. |
|
Verbose mode: print messages about mail delivery. |
|
CC the message to the given addresses, a comma-separated list. |
|
BCC the message to the given addresses, a comma-separated list. |
[20] On older Unix systems, Mail
and mail
were rather different programs,
but on Linux they are the same:
/usr/bin/Mail is a symbolic link to the
mail
command.
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