Go to the previous, next section.

Sending and Receiving Mail

We'll make one quick diversion from being OS-neuter here, to show you what it will look like to send and receive a mail message on a Unix system. Check with your system administrator for specific instructions related to mail at your site.

A person sending the author mail would probably do something like this:

 % mail brendan@cs.widener.edu
 Subject: print job's stuck
 
 I typed `print babe.gif' and it didn't work! Why??
 

The next time the author checked his mail, he would see it listed in his mailbox as:

 % mail
 "/usr/spool/mail/brendan": 1 messages 1 new 1 unread
  U  1 joeuser@foo.widene Tue May  5 20:36   29/956   print job's stuck
 ?
 

which gives information on the sender of the email, when it was sent, and the subject of the message. He would probably use the `reply' command of Unix mail to send this response:

 ? r
 To: joeuser@foo.widener.edu
 Subject: Re: print job's stuck
 
 You shouldn't print binary files like GIFs to a printer!
 
 Brendan
 

Try sending yourself mail a few times, to get used to your system's mailer. It'll save a lot of wasted aspirin for both you and your system administrator.

Go to the previous, next section.

Copyright © 1998, Software Engineering Laboratory
National Technical University of Athens