Practical Linux

Selecting a Mail Program

After you've retrieved your messages, a user agent, or mail program, is used to list, read, delete, forward, or create new messages to send. Selecting a mail program is primarily a matter of taste; some are easy to use, whereas others might offer more complex functions such as address books or file attachments. In this section, you are introduced to several simple and popular mail programs that work with Linux.

Using mail

The simplest mail program is called mail and is usually found under the /bin directory. This program does not have a full-screen editor and does not require the X Window System. The mail command, similar to the mailx program distributed with other versions of UNIX, supports the basic features needed to ...