Naval Research Laboratory

Washington, DC 20375-5320

Introduction to UNIX
Course Notes

Instructor: Michael G. Vonk

Center for Computational Science
(202)767-3884
michael.vonk@nrl.navy.mil
 Introduction to UNIX

1. Introduction ..........................................................................................1
2. UNIX History, Versions, and Shells ................................................2
3. Sample Session ....................................................................................3
3.1. Logging In ...................................................................................3
3.2. Changing Shells ..........................................................................3
3.3. Terminal Setup............................................................................4
3.4. Changing Passwords .................................................................4
3.5. Help ..............................................................................................5
3.6. Logging Out ................................................................................5
4. Commands, Files, and Directories ...................................................6
4.1. Command Syntax .......................................................................6
4.2. File Types.....................................................................................6
4.3. File Naming Conventions .........................................................7
4.4. Wildcards.....................................................................................8
4.5. Directory Structure.....................................................................9
4.6. Pathnames .................................................................................10
4.7. The Path Variable .....................................................................11
5. File Manipulation Commands ........................................................12
5.1. Listing Files ...............................................................................12
5.2. Displaying Files ........................................................................13
5.3. Copying Files ............................................................................14
5.4. Moving (Renaming) Files........................................................15
5.5. Removing (Deleting) Files.......................................................16
5.6. Printing Files .............................................................................17
6. Directory Manipulation Commands..............................................18
6.1. Creating Directories .................................................................18
6.2. Changing Directories ...............................................................18
6.3. Displaying Your Current Directory.......................................19
6.4. Removing (Deleting) Directories ...........................................19
7. Miscellaneous Commands...............................................................20
7.1. Listing Users .............................................................................20
7.2. Finding Files..............................................................................20
7.3. Searching Within Files .............................................................21
7.4. Sorting Files...............................................................................21
7.5. Comparing files ........................................................................21

July 31, 1998

 Introduction to UNIX

8. vi Editor ...............................................................................................22
9. File Protection.....................................................................................27
9.1. User and Permission Types ....................................................27
9.2. Displaying File Protection.......................................................27
9.3. Changing File Protection.........................................................28
9.4. Default Protection ....................................................................29
10. Command Processing .......................................................................30
10.1. I/O Files Redirection ...............................................................30
10.2. History .......................................................................................33
10.3. Command Aliasing ..................................................................34
11. Job Processing ....................................................................................35
11.1. Background Jobs.......................................................................35
11.2. Background I/O .......................................................................35
11.3. Job Control ................................................................................36
11.4. Process Status............................................................................36
12. Initialization Files .............................................................................37
13. UNIX Electronic Mail........................................................................38
13.1. Email Addresses .......................................................................38
13.2. Sending Mail .............................................................................39
13.3. Reading Mail .............................................................................41
13.4. Mail Setup Files (.mailrc) ........................................................43
13.5. Mail Forwarding.......................................................................43

July 31, 1998

 Introduction to UNIX

1. Introduction
This introductory level course is designed to provide new UNIX
users with an understanding of basic concepts and fundamen-
tals. The course begins by covering the necessary background
information you must have to effectively use the system. You
will learn about:
• the various versions of UNIX and shells
• basic UNIX processing—from logging in, setting up your
terminal, issuing commands, and getting help, to logging
out
• UNIX directory structure and file naming conventions

The remainder of the course discusses actual commands, includ-

ing how to:
• perform basic file and directory manipulation operations
• create and modify files using the editor
• share and protect files
• control input/output and command processing
• customize your UNIX environment using initialization
files
• use electronic mail

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 Introduction to UNIX

2. UNIX History, Versions, and Shells

History of UNIX
• Developed in 1969 at AT&T Bell Laboratories
• Became widely available in 1975
• Distributed at low cost to universities--graduating stu-
dents brought UNIX into commercial world
• Designed to run on a wide range of systems

Versions of UNIX
• Berkeley UNIX (BSD)
• AT&T UNIX (System V)

Shells (user interfaces)

• Serve as a command language interpreter, providing a cus-
tomizable user interface and programming language. Two
common shells are:

C shell Commonly used by general users

Bourne shell Commonly used for system
administration

The C shell is covered in this course, although the same concepts

generally apply to other shells as well.

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 Introduction to UNIX

3. Sample Session
3.1. Logging In

CS/200T> connect amp

Connecting... session 1 -- connected to amp

UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (amp)

login: stu01
Password: xxx (password does not echo on screen)

message of the day (from file /etc/motd)

%
.
.
.
% logout

Prompts: % Default prompt for C shell (/bin/csh)

$ Default prompt for Bourne shell (/bin/sh)
3.2. Changing Shells
$ chsh
Changing login info for stu01 on amp.
Old Shell: /bin/sh
New Shell: csh
$
This changes your default login shell and does not take effect
until the next time you log in. Not all versions of UNIX (includ-
ing the CCS Training workstation) allow users to change their
default shell , contact the system administrator.

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3.3. Terminal Setup

Terminal Type
% set term=vt100

Terminal Options
The stty command sets or reports terminal I/O options:
% stty [-a] [option]
-a show all settings
stty is commonly used to change the keys used to erase
(delete) characters or lines and interrupt processes:
% stty erase '^?' kill '^U' intr '^C'
3.4. Changing Passwords
Passwords should be immediately changed whenever you first
login to a new system and periodically thereafter.
% passwd
Changing password for stu01 on amp.
Old password:
New password:
Retype new password:
%
Note—The CCS Training workstation, "amp," uses NIS for
account administration. Use the following:
% yppasswd

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 Introduction to UNIX

3.5. Help
The man command can be used to reference the online UNIX ref-
erence manual. Information can be viewed on:
• Specific commands
• General topics (using the -k option)

Examples
To view information on the passwd command:
% man passwd

The man command uses the more utility to output text. At

the more prompt, press the space bar to go to the next page,
the return key to go to the next line, or ’q’ to quit.

To view all commands related to passwords:

% man -k password

Section 5.2 explains how to use the more command.

3.6. Logging Out

% logout
% Ctrl-D

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 Introduction to UNIX

4. Commands, Files, and Directories

4.1. Command Syntax
Basic command syntax
% command [options] [arguments]

Examples
% ls -a
% cat test.dat
% cp -i test.dat old.dat

Options usually may be concatenated

% ls -a -l -F
% ls -alF

4.2. File Types

Ordinary Programs, text,data, binary files (executables)

Directory Contain indexes to all files and subdirectories

within the directory

Special Device drivers for terminals, disks, printers, and

tape drives

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 Introduction to UNIX

4.3. File Naming Conventions

• Filenames can be up to 14 characters in length (and longer

on most systems)
• All characters other than / are legal
• Certain characters, known as metacharacters, should not
be used, as they have special meaning to the shell, includ-
ing spaces, tabs, backspaces, and the following:

? @ # $ ^ & * ( ) [ ] \ | ; ' " < > { }

• Avoid using a +, -, or .. as first character in a file name

Notes
• UNIX is case sensitive—upper and lowercase letters are
distinct in file names, command names, passwords, etc.
• There are no file "types" incorporated into the file name as
in other operating systems. However, some utilities
expect filenames to end in a particular extension. For
example, the C compiler (cc) expects source file names
ending in ".c"
• There are no multiple versions of files in UNIX as there are
in some other operating systems. Be careful not to acci-
dentally overwrite existing files when editing, copying,
and renaming.

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 Introduction to UNIX

4.4. Wildcards

* matches any string of characters

(except for filenames beginning with
".")
? matches any single character
[ccc] matches any character in the list
[lower-upper] matches any character in range
{pat1, pat2, . . . ,patn }
matches any of the specified pat-
terns
~ used as shorthand for your login
directory name
~username used as shorthand for username’s
login directory
Examples
% ls test*
% ls test?.dat
% ls ~stu01

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4.5. Directory Structure

bin dev etc lib tmp usr

local bin people

stu01 . . . stu10 vonk

program.c test.dat

Standard Root directory

/
directories Executable programs and utilities
/bin
Program and language libraries
/lib
Device drivers
/dev
System administration programs
/etc
and data files
/tmp Temporary files
/usr User directories
Current work- Your location in the file system at a given
ing directory time
Home directory Your home directory is your login directory.
For example:
/usr/people/stu01 or ~stu01

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 Introduction to UNIX

4.6. Pathnames
There are two ways to specify a file:
• Full path name
• Relative path name

Full path name

• Each directory along the path from the root directory to the
desired file is specified
• Must begin with /, with directories separated by /

Example
/home/vonk/test.dat

Relative path name

• Relative to current directory
• Use the following shorthand notations:

. denotes current directory

.. denotes parent of current directory

Examples
test.dat
./myprog
../stu01/program.c

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 Introduction to UNIX

4.7. The Path Variable

Whenever you enter any UNIX command, you are actually
specifying the name of an executable file located somewhere on
the system. The system goes through the following steps in
order to determine which program to execute:
1. Built in commands (such as cd and history) are exe-
cuted within the shell
2. If an absolute path name (such as /bin/ls) or a relative
path name (such as ./myprog), the system executes the
program from the specified directory
3. Otherwise the path variable is used

The path variable tells the system where to find command exe-
cutables and is set as follows:
% set path=(directory ... directory)

Directories are named in the order you wish them searched. For
example:
% set path=(/bin /usr/local/bin .)

Once the path is set, you can execute any program, including
executables of your own, by simply entering their filename:
% ls
% myprog

Note—Since you are specifying the name of an actual file, com-

mands cannot be abbreviated.

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 Introduction to UNIX

5. File Manipulation Commands

5.1. Listing Files
Format
% ls
% ls filename
% ls directory

-a list all entries, including the "." entries

-l long list showing protection, links, owner, size in bytes,
date and time of last modification
-F places "/" after directories, "*" after executables and
"@" after links
-R recursively lists subdirectories encountered
-t sorts files by time modified instead of by name

% ls -l test.dat
- rw- r-- r-- 1 vonk group 334 Jun 10 15:42 test.dat

filename
last modification
size (in bytes)
group
owner
links
file protection
file type

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 Introduction to UNIX

5.2. Displaying Files

The cat command displays a file:
% cat filename

The more command displays a file one screenful at a time:

% more filename

After each screenful of text, more shows the percentage of the

file shown so far and prompts for one of the following com-
mands:

<return> display next line

<space> display next screenful
b display previous screenful
q exit from more
/ pattern search for next occurrence of pattern

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 Introduction to UNIX

5.3. Copying Files

The cp command can be used to:
• Copy one file to another file
• Copy one or more files to a directory
• Copy an entire directory structure (using the -r option)

Format
% cp file1 file2
% cp file1 [file2 ...] directory
% cp -r directory1 directory2

Notes
• if target filename already exists, it will be overwritten
• use the -i option to prompt for confirmation in case target
file exists and is about to be overwritten (answer "y" or "n")

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 Introduction to UNIX

5.4. Moving (Renaming) Files

The mv command can be used to:
• Move (rename) one file to another file
• Move one or more files to a directory
• Move an entire directory structure

Format
% mv file1 file2
% mv file1 [file2 ...] directory
% mv directory1 directory2

Notes
• if target filename already exists, it will be overwritten
• when moving directories, if target directory exists, the
original directory is moved to a subdirectory of the target
directory
• use the -i option to prompt for confirmation in case target
file exists and is about to be overwritten

Examples
% mv test.dat myprog.dat
% mv program.c sub1.c sub2.c source
% mv class intro-unix

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 Introduction to UNIX

5.5. Removing (Deleting) Files

The rm command can be used to:
• Remove files
• Remove entire directory structures (using the -r option)

Format
% rm filename
% rm -r directory

-r recursive directory removal (should be used with cau-

tion—see rmdir for removing directories)

-i prompts for confirmation ("y" removes file, any other

letter will not remove file, only first character in answer
is signicant)

Notes
• write permission on directory is required
• read or write permission on the files themselves is not nec-
essary (in this case, the file permission is displayed and
you are prompted for confirmation of deletion)
• can not remove "." or ".."

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 Introduction to UNIX

5.6. Printing Files

The lpr command is used to print files:
% lpr filename

This prints filename to the default system printer. To print on

another printer, use the -Pprinter option. For example:
% lpr -Pduplex filename

The default printer can be set using the PRINTER environment

variable:
% setenv PRINTER printer

The lpstat command displays the status of your print jobs:

% lpstat

To delete a job from the print queue, use the lprm command:
% lprm job-id

Using the -a option on the lpstat command displays the sta-

tus of all printers:
% lpstat -a

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 Introduction to UNIX

6. Directory Manipulation Commands

6.1. Creating Directories
The mkdir command is used to create directories:
% mkdir directory

Example
% mkdir class

mkdir requires write permission in the parent directory.

6.2. Changing Directories

The cd command changes your current working directory:
% cd directory

Example
% cd class

cd used without a directory name changes directory to your

login directory:
% cd

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 Introduction to UNIX

6.3. Displaying Your Current Directory

Your location in the file system at a given time is called your cur-
rent working directory.

The pwd (print working directory) command displays the full

path name of your current directory:
% pwd

6.4. Removing (Deleting) Directories

The rmdir command removes the specified directory:
% rmdir directory

The specified directory must be empty before it can be removed.

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 Introduction to UNIX

7. Miscellaneous Commands
7.1. Listing Users
% who identifies all users currently logged in
% whoami identifies the current session

7.2. Finding Files

The find command can be used to search the file system, start-
ing at a specified directory, for files that match a specified pat-
tern:
% find directory -name filename -print

The -print option must be used for results to be displayed.

For example:
% find . -name myprog.c -print

Operations can be performed on the files found using the

"-exec" option. For example:
% find ~ -name core -exec rm {} \;

The command following "-exec" must be terminated with a

quoted semicolon. See the find man page for other options.

Caution find performs a recursive search of the file sys-

tem—this can consume a large amount of processing
time if done from high up in the directory structure.

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 Introduction to UNIX

7.3. Searching Within Files

The grep command can be used to search for a specified string
in a set of files:
% grep string filename

All lines in the specified files containing string are displayed.

grep is case sensitive—use the -i option to ignore case.
7.4. Sorting Files
The sort command can be used to sort files:
% sort [-o output-file] filename

See the sort man page for more information on sort options.
7.5. Comparing files
The diff command displays differences between pairs of files,
producing a list of lines that must be changed (c), appended (a),
or deleted (d) to make the first file match the second. Lines from
the first file are prefixed by "<", lines from the second by ">":
% diff filename1 filename2
The -b option ignores trailing blanks and treats all other strings
of blanks as equivalent. The -i option removes case sensitivity.

The cmp command compares two files, and if different, displays

the position of the first difference:
% cmp filename1 filename2

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 Introduction to UNIX

8. vi Editor
Full screen editor available on almost all UNIX systems. vi is
different than most editors in that it has two modes:
• Command mode Keystrokes used as commands
• Insert mode Characters inserted into file

% vi filename
i, a — insert mode command

command mode insert mode

<ESC> — escape

:wq — exit (save changes)

:q! — quit (discard changes)
%

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 Introduction to UNIX

Invoking and Terminating

Invoking % vi filename

Make sure terminal setup is correct (%set term=vt100)

% vi -R filename invoke vi in read only mode

Terminating :wq exit vi, saving changes

:q! quit vi, without saving changes

Recovering Lost % vi -r filename
Editing Sessions recover filename after system crash

% vi -r list all recoverable files

Initialization .exrc initialization file

EXINIT initialization environment variable

Cursor Movement
Moving by characters h (or backspace) move left one character
j move down one line
k move up one line
l (or space) move right one character

Arrow keys may also be used

Moving by lines 1G go to first line
nG go to nth line
G go to last line
^ move to beginning of line
$ move to end of line
Moving by words w move forward one word
b move backward word
Moving by screens Ctrl-f move forward one screen
Ctrl-b move backward one screen
Ctrl-d move down one half screen
Ctrl-u move up one half screen

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 Introduction to UNIX

Inserting Text
Inserting Text The following commands place you in insert mode:
i insert text before cursor
a append text after cursor
I insert text at beginning of line
A append text at end of line
o insert text in new line below present line
O insert text in new line above present line
Use Escape to return to command mode
Replacing Text r char substitute char for current character
R overwrite text (end with Esc)
cw change current word (end with Esc)
Setting Margins :set wrapmargin=x
Sets right margin to x, automatic word wrap

Deleting, Copying, and Pasting Text

Deleting Text x delete character
dd delete line
ndd delete n lines
dw delete word
ndw delete n words
dG delete to end of file
d1G delete to beginning of file
Yanking (Copying) yy yank current line
Text nyy yank n lines
yw yank word
nyw yank n words
Pasting Text p put most recently deleted or yanked
characters or words after cursor; put lines
below current line
P put most recently deleted or yanked
characters or words before cursor; put lines
above current line

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 Introduction to UNIX

Searches and Substitution

Simple Searches /string search forward for string
?string search backward for string
n repeat search
N repeat search in opposite direction
Global Search :g/string/command
execute command on lines containing string

:v/string/command
execute command on lines not containing string
Substitution :x,ys/oldstring/newstring/flags

Substitutes newstring for oldstring in line range

x,y. flags (optional):
c wait for confirmation (y or n)
g replace all occurrences within specified
lines (default is only first occurrence)
Range specifiers:
. current line
$ last line
% entire file
Search Metacharac- [ccc] matches any specified character
ters [^ccc] matches any character except those
specified
[c1-c2] matches any character in range
^ matches beginning of line
$ matches end of line
. matches any one character
* matches zero or more occurrences of
previous character
.* matches any number of characters
Case Sensitivity :set ignorecase disable case sensitivity
:set noic enable case sensitivity

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 Introduction to UNIX

Miscellaneous Commands
Undoing Commands u undo last change
U undo recent changes made to current
line
Repeating Com- . repeat last command that made an
mands editing change
Reading in Files :r filename read filename into file
(insert below current line)
Shell Commands :!command execute shell command
:sh invoke subshell (use the exit com-
mand to return to vi)
:r !command read shell command output into file
(insert below current line)
Joining Lines J join next line to current line
Line Numbers Ctrl-g display current line number and
number of lines in file

:set number display line numbers

:set nonumber remove displayed line numbers
Screen Refresh Ctrl-l refresh screen

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 Introduction to UNIX

9. File Protection
9.1. User and Permission Types
User types
u file owner (u is short for user)
g group members
o all other users

Permission types
r allows users to read or copy a file
w allows users to write to, modify, or copy a file; you
must have write access to a directory to delete its file,
regardless of an individual file’s protection
x allows users to execute a file (for directories, execute
permission allows users to use the directory name in
a pathname)

9.2. Displaying File Protection

The -l option on the ls command displays a file's protection:
% ls -l test.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 vonk group 334 Jun 10 15:42 test.dat

This shows that test.dat is a regular file whose owner can

read and write it and the group and all other users may read it.

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 Introduction to UNIX

9.3. Changing File Protection

The chmod command is used to change file protections:
% chmod [ugo][+-=][rwx] filename

Examples
To add execute access to file program for its owner:
% chmod u+x myscript

To subtract read access from group and all other users:

% chmod go-r confidential.msg

To set read and execute access for all other users:

% chmod o=rx myscript

A numeric method can also be used for specifying permissions:

% chmod nnn filename

where nnn comes from the following table:

user group other

r 400 40 4
w 200 20 2
x 100 10 1

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9.4. Default Protection

The umask command is used to set a default protection for
newly created files:
% umask nnn

The umask value is subtracted from 666 to determine a new

file’s protection—and subtracted from 777 for newly created
directories.

You can set your umask in your .login file.

Example (using umask value of 022)

Default file protection Default directory protection

666 777
- 022 umask - 022 umask

644 permission 755 permission

The umask command can be used without specifying a value to

show the current umask:
% umask

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10. Command Processing

10.1. I/O Files Redirection
Normally, a command read its input (if any) from the keyboard,
and writes output and error messages to the screen.

Standard Input Standard Output

(default: keyboard) (default: screen)
command

Standard Error
(default: screen)

Redirection Operators
The C shell alllows users to easily redirect input and output:
% command < file redirects standard input from
file
% command > file redirects standard output to file
(if file already exists, it is over-
written)
% command >& file redirects both standard and error
output to file (if file already
exists, it is overwritten)
% (command > file) >& errfile
redirects standard output to file
and error output to errfile (if
file or errfile already exist,
they are overwritten)

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Output can be appended to existing files using the following:

% command >> file appends standard output to file

% command >>& file appends both standard and error

output to file

To prevent existing files from being accidentally overwritten,

the noclobber variable can be set:
% set noclobber
Setting the noclobber variable only affects output redirection,
it has no affect on files overwritten using cp, mv, etc. An excla-
mation point following the redirection operator overrides the
effect of the noclobber variable:
% command >! file

Examples
% cat file1 file2 > file3
% cat > file
% cat
% ls -al > listing
% program < input.dat > results.dat

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Pipes
Output from one command to be piped into another command
as follows:
% command1 | command2
Output from command1 is piped into input for command2.

This is equivalent to, but more efficient than:

% command1 > temp
% command2 < temp
% rm temp

Examples
% ls -al | more
% who | sort | lpr
% man -k network | more

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10.2. History
The history mechanism keeps track of previous commands:
% set history=n

The history command used by itself displays previous com-

mands and event numbers:
% history

Re-executing previous commands:

!! refers to the previous command
!n refers to nth command
!-n refers to nth most recent command
!string refers to the most recent command beginning
with string
!?string? refers to the most recent command containing
string
The following allows you to substitute one string for another in
the previous command and re-execute it:
% ^old^new^

Saving the history list:

% set savehist=n
The last n history entries will be saved in a ".history" file in
your home directory and made available to your next session.

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10.3. Command Aliasing

Command aliases have the following format:
% alias alias-string command-string

alias-string can then be used on the command line as a

shorthand for command-string. For example:
% alias ls ls -alF
% alias lo logout

alias with no arguments shows all existing aliases—alias

with one argument shows a specific alias.

The unalias command is used to remove aliases:

% unalias lo

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11. Job Processing

Two basic types of jobs:
Interactive Executed either in the foreground (default) or
background
Batch Submitted using cron, at, or batch (see man
pages for details)

11.1. Background Jobs

Interactive jobs may be put into the background by following
the command with an ampersand:
% command &
For example:
% find / -name core -print >& core.lis &

The advantage of background jobs is that you do not have to

wait for the command to finish before entering new commands,
thus freeing the terminal for other processing.
11.2. Background I/O
By default, all output from a background job is written to the
screen. Redirection can be used to prevent output from interfer-
ing with other commands.
Input to a background job comes from the keyboard and can
only be entered while the job is in the foreground.

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11.3. Job Control

The jobs command lists all current jobs:
% jobs
Jobs can be terminated using the kill command:
% kill %job-number
% kill process-id
A job running in the foreground can be stopped by issuing ^Z:
% program > results.dat
.
.
.
^Z
stopped
%
Jobs can be moved between foreground and background:
% fg %job-number brings job to the foreground (use-
ful when background job needs
input from the terminal)
% bg %job-number sends job into the background

11.4. Process Status

The ps command displays information about currently execut-
ing processes:
% ps lists all your running processes
% ps -ef lists all running processes

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12. Initialization Files

.cshrc Automatically executed every time you log in, issue a
shell escape, or execute a shell script. Must begin with
"#" character to indicate C shell script.
#!/bin/csh
set path=(/bin /usr/local/bin .)
set noclobber
set history=40
set savehist=20
#
alias cp cp -i
alias mv mv -i

.login Automatically executed (after .cshrc) upon login.

Must begin with "#" character to indicate C shell script.
#!/bin/csh
set term=vt100
stty erase '^?' kill '^U' intr '^C'
umask 022

Generally, environment variables should be set in .login and

alias and set commands should be in .cshrc so that every
new copy of the C shell will be able to use them.

.logout Automatically executed at logout.

#!/bin/csh
cd
rm -r core

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 Introduction to UNIX

13. UNIX Electronic Mail

Several UNIX mail utilities exist, two of which are:
• Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Mail
• AT&T UNIX mail (more basic)

BSD mail is located in different directories on different systems.

On the CCS Training workstation, "amp", it is /usr/ucb/Mail,
and is invoked as follows:
% Mail

On other systems, BSD mail may be /usr/bin/mailx.

13.1. Email Addresses
Electronic mail addresses have the following forms:

1. username to user on same system

2. username@host to user on host in same
domain
3. username@host.domain Internet address format

If you have a preferred email address in the NRL Locator data-

base (see your Administrative Officer to update your address),
mail can be addressed to you at:
first.last@nrl.navy.mil

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 Introduction to UNIX

13.2. Sending Mail

The following format is used to send mail:
% Mail address-list [< message-file]

For example, to send a mail message, entered from the key-

board, to user smith on the local system, the following would
be used:
% Mail smith
Subject: Today's meeting
We are having a meeting at 1:00 PM in the conference room.
-Your boss
<CTRL-D>
%

You will be prompted for a subject, after which the message can
be entered, followed by <CTRL-D>.

Input redirection is used to send a message contained in a file, as

follows:
% Mail jones@ccf.nrl.navy.mil < test.dat

You will not be prompted for a subject. The -s option could be

used to include a subject:
% Mail -s "Test" stu01 < test.dat

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 Introduction to UNIX

To send mail to multiple users, simply specify each address sep-

arated by spaces, as shown below:
% Mail smith stu01@ra < test.dat

Distribution lists may be set up to mail messages to groups of

users. They take the form:
alias distribution user1 user2 ... usern

Mail addressed to "distribution" will then be mailed to each

user listed, as shown below:
% Mail distribution < test.dat

Distribution lists such as this should be placed in the mail setup

file ".mailrc".

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 Introduction to UNIX

13.3. Reading Mail

To read your mail, invoke the mail utility by itself (without an
address list), and a list of your messages will be displayed.
% Mail
Mail version SMI 4.0 Thu Oct 11 12:59:09 PDT 1990 Type ? for help.
"/usr/spool/mail/smith": 3 messages 3 new
>N 1 stu01 Fri Sep 11 14:21 11/311
N 2 stu01 Fri Sep 11 14:23 52/1616
N 3 smith Fri Sep 11 14:39 858/28029
& q
Held 3 messages in /usr/spool/mail/smith
%

The message header list shows the following:

• message status—"N" for new, "U" for unread—the current
message is indicated by a ">"
• message number
• sender
• received date
• message size (lines/characters)
• message subject (if there is one)

If you have no new or unread messages, the mail utility will not
be invoked and a message will be displayed.
Previously read messages are stored in the file "~/mbox". To
read them, use the following:
% Mail -f

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 Introduction to UNIX

The following table lists common Mail commands:

<cr> display current message

d [message-list] delete messages
h display active message headers
m [user-list] send mail to specified users
n display next message
p [message-list] display current (or specified) message
q quit, saving unresolved messages in mbox
r [message-list] reply to sender (only) of messages
R [message-list] reply to sender and all recipients of messages
s [message-list] file save messages to file (append to file if file
already exists); if |command is used in place of
file, then the message will be piped into com-
mand
u [message-list] undelete messages
v [message-list] edit messages
w [message-list] file save messages to file, without from line
x quit, do not change system mailbox
! shell escape
? display help information

A [message-list] consists of integers, ranges of same, or user

names separated by spaces. If omitted, Mail uses the current
message.

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 Introduction to UNIX

13.4. Mail Setup Files (.mailrc)

The file "~/.mailrc" serves as a mail initialization file and typ-
ically contains the following:
• distribution lists
• mail variable settings

The following example shows a typical .mailrc file:

alias class stu01 stu02 stu03 ... stu12

set askcc # set Mail to prompt for carbon copy list

Fully qualified addresses should be used in distribution lists for

portability.

The system file /usr/lib/Mail.rc is used as a global setup

file by the BSD mail utility.
13.5. Mail Forwarding
Mail forwarding can be set up by creating a file named
"~/.forward". For example:

smith@ccfsun.nrl.navy.mil

Mail can be forwarded to multiple users by placing their

addresses on a single line separated by commas.

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