Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:37:47 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, mexas@bristol.ac.uk Subject: Re: mail(1) save command does not work as in the man page Message-ID: <201207260037.q6Q0bl9b086604@mail.r-bonomi.com> In-Reply-To: <201207251544.q6PFi23j012353@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Wed Jul 25 10:47:21 2012 > Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:44:02 +0100 (BST) > From: Anton Shterenlikht <mexas@bristol.ac.uk> > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: mail(1) save command does not work as in the man page > > According to the man mail(1): > > save (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each > message > in turn to the end of the file. The filename in quotes, > followed by the line count and character count is echoed on > the user's terminal. > > However, it seems the mail is copied, but not deleted on exit: *SOMETIMES* that is true. <grin> > > $ mail -f mbox > Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help. > "mbox": 1 message > > 1 mexas@bristol.ac.uk Wed Jul 25 16:36 46/2045 "kuku" > & s 1 somefile > "somefile" [New file] > & h > >* 1 mexas@bristol.ac.uk Wed Jul 25 16:36 46/2045 "kuku" > & q > > $ mail -f somefile > Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help. > "somefile": 1 message > > 1 mexas@bristol.ac.uk Wed Jul 25 16:36 46/2045 "kuku" > & q > > So the mail was copied to <somefile> file, as expected. However, it's > still in mbox file too: > > $ mail -f mbox > Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help. > "mbox": 1 message > > 1 mexas@bristol.ac.uk Wed Jul 25 16:36 46/2045 "kuku" > & q > $ > > This shouldn't happen. According to the man page the expected behaviour > is that message 1 should be deleted from mbox on quit. > > Any comments? This is the 'standard'/*EXPECTED* behavior of 'mail', and has been, since the early 1980s. (I still use 'mail' as my standard mail client'.) If invoked _without_ specifying a maibox, 1) mail that is written to another mailbox is deleted from the inbox on exit. 2) mail that was read, but _not_ written/deleted is saved to 'mbox'. If invoked *WITH* '-f', messages are not deleted/moved on exit. you must _explicitly_ perform any desired actions. You've found a bug in the _documentation_, not the progam. :)
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?201207260037.q6Q0bl9b086604>