124 lines
3.6 KiB
Groff
124 lines
3.6 KiB
Groff
.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
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.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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.\"
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.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\" are met:
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.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
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.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
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.\" without specific prior written permission.
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.\"
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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.\"
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.\" @(#)biff.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
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.\" $FreeBSD$
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.\"
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.Dd April 28, 2013
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.Dt BIFF 1
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.Os
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm biff
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.Nd "be notified if mail arrives and who it is from"
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.Sh SYNOPSIS
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.Nm
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.Op Cm n | y | b
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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The
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.Nm
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utility informs the system whether you want to be notified on your terminal
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when mail arrives.
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.Pp
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Affected is the first terminal associated with the standard input,
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standard output or standard error file descriptor, in that order.
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Thus, it is possible to use the redirection facilities of a shell to
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toggle the notification for other terminals than the one
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.Nm
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runs on.
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.Pp
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The following options are available:
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.Bl -tag -width indent
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.It Cm n
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Disable notification.
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.It Cm y
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Enable header notification.
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.It Cm b
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Enable bell notification.
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.El
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.Pp
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When header notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of
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the message will be printed on your terminal whenever mail arrives.
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A
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.Dq "biff y"
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command is often included in the file
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.Pa .login
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or
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.Pa .profile
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to be executed at each login.
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.Pp
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When bell notification is enabled, only two bell characters
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.Tn ( ASCII
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\\007)
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will be printed on your terminal whenever mail arrives.
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.Pp
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If no arguments are given,
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.Nm
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displays the present notification status of the terminal to the
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standard output.
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.Pp
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The
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.Nm
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utility operates asynchronously.
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For synchronous notification use the
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.Ev MAIL
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variable of
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.Xr sh 1
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or the
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.Va mail
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variable of
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.Xr csh 1 .
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.Sh EXIT STATUS
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The
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.Nm
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utility exits with one of the following values:
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.Bl -tag -width indent
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.It 0
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Notification was enabled at the time of invocation.
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.It 1
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Notification was disabled at the time of invocation.
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.It >1
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An error occurred.
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.El
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.Sh COMPATIBILITY
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Previous versions of the
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.Nm
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utility affected the terminal attached to standard error without first
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trying the standard input or output devices.
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.Sh SEE ALSO
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.Xr csh 1 ,
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.Xr mail 1 ,
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.Xr sh 1 ,
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.Xr comsat 8
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.Sh HISTORY
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The
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.Nm
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command appeared in
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.Bx 4.0 .
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It was named after the dog of Heidi Stettner.
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He died
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in August 1993, at 15.
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