Unix mail software

Incoming mail is delivered to your mailbox on the system containing your home directory. For most users, this will be mp or ux. You may send mail from other systems, but you should periodically login to your home system to read incoming email.

There are several choices for reading and composing email messages. In most cases there are man pages documenting their use. Check with the system administrator if you need additional help.

• mailx : This is a venerable program, with origins tracing back to the ucb Mail program. It is also available as "/usr/ucb/Mail" with slightly different settings. It has a simple command line interface. However it does not have adequate support for mail with mime attachments, so it is of limited functionality.
• mail : For most users, the command "mail" is a csh alias for mailx (described above). There is also "/bin/mail", another command line program with limited functionality.
• mutt : The "mutt" program is a more fully featured command line mail program. It includes support for mime attachments, and can be configured (via your ".muttrc" file) to handle pgp encryption and signatures.
• pine : Beginning users might find "pine" easy to use, because of its on screen menus. More experienced users will probably prefer "mutt". The "pine" software does support mime attachments, and can probably be configured to use pgp.
• dtmail : This program is for use in the CDE environment. For those using CDE, it provides a graphic interface and MIME attachment support.
• MH (really nmh) : The "nmh" software is a comprehensive set of command line tools, some of them a little buggy. It is semi-incompatible with other mail programs, in that it uses its own mailbox format. It is mainly of benefit to those who handle a lot of mail, and who prefer to do this at the unix command line. It is also used as a base component by exmh. It includes support for mime attachments, although perhaps somewhat unintuitively.
• exmh : This is an X-windows application that sits on top of nmh, and provides a graphic interface. It works well with remote X access. It includes support for MIME attachments, pgp encryption and signatures.

The standard mail delivery agent is "mail.local". However, several other delivery agents are available by choice. Consult the postmaster at this site to change your local delivery agent.

• procmail : This can be used as a filtering tool, or to automatically sort incoming mail into folders.
• deliver : This can also be used for filtering or automatic sorting of incoming mail. It is simpler to use than procmail, although less flexible.
• slocal : This alternative delivery agent comes with nmh, and can be used for automatic sorting of mail into folders.