/usr/bin/mail tutorial?

[PingPing]

I've read mail(1) but it doesn't contain any examples and I could really do with some to help me understand the basics of how to use it.

I've googled but all I get are references to running a mail server with OpenSMTPD.

Does anyone know of a tutorial that helps to explain the basic usage of 'mail'?

Some of the mysteries to me are:
1. how do I show the listing of all my messages once I'm at the '&' prompt?
2. what do I type at the '&' prompt to delete a message?
3. how do I send a message to a mailbox on the internet eg. gmail? Can this be done?

[jggimi]

Disclaimer: I don't use mail(1). My preference is for the mutt package.

The mail(1) man page refers to the "Mail Reference Manual". Google searching provided a link to it here: https://docs.freebsd.org/44doc/usd/07.mail/paper.pdf

1. Using the link above, I learned that you can use & f .-$ to list all messages.
2. The man page states that you can "delete (d) or reply (r) to it."
3. This is well outside the scope of a Mail User Agent (MUA) such as mail(1). It requires provisioning a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), commonly called a "mail server." This requires static IP address(es) on the Internet, purchased domain names, provisioning DNS records, a whole lot of knowledge about the protocols SMTP, ESMTP, SPF, and DMARC, managing the reputation(s) of your IP address(es), and most importantly -- avoiding any provisioning errors that allows your server to be attacked and become a spam pump. There is a built-in mail server, smtpd(8), which in its default configuration doesn't accept incoming mail from the network and is used only to manage local mail.

[jggimi]

Replying again just to note that some ISPs that offer client email services also offer a "smarthost" service to permit their users to set up outbound mail servers that relay all mail through the ISP, as if the mail was sent through the ISP's email client applications.

[TronDD]

mail(1) is very old. These is info out there. Look also for tutorials for mailx and heirloom-mail.

I like using mail(1) so as an experiment I wanted to see how much I could do with it for modern mail usage.

As said, mail(1) is just the reader. You need other tools to send messages to other users or to pull messages from externally hosted mailboxes.

With a whole lot of external help, mail(1) could be used but it's biggest limitation is being limited to the mbox format.

If you like the mail(1) interface but want something with modern features, check out the mail/s-nail package.

[PingPing]

Thanks. I've read the "Mail Reference Manual" and I have a better understanding now. My main source of confusion was not knowing the difference between my user's "system" mail box and my (local) "mbox" mail box.

I was hoping to use /usr/bin/mail to send cron job output to my gmail account but, as you've both said, it's not really set up to do that.

[TronDD]

Wrong tool. Use smtpd and an alias or a .forward file to redirect mail destined for the local user to gmail.

If you don't want to deal with your own mail reputation and all that, you can use smptd to connect to your ISP mail server or to gmail to send for you.