NAME

       newmail - biff like tool for the terminal

SYNOPSIS

       newmail [-b] [-h] [-i interval] [-r] [-w] [ mbox [...]]

DESCRIPTION

       The newmail program monitors a given set of mailboxes and looks for new mail.  If new mail
       is received the sender and subject will be written on the terminal it  was  started  from.
       By default newmail puts itself in the background so the console is still usable.

       newmail  is  able  to  monitor  arbitrary  numbers  of  mailbox  files.  If no mailbox was
       specified on the commandline it will monitor the default mailbox, which may be overwritten
       by the MAIL environment variable.

       If more than one mailbox is being monitored, a prefix is printed for each mail line so the
       user can distinguish between the different mailbox files.  By default the  prefix  is  the
       name of the mailbox without its path.

       If  a  mailbox  is  specified  as path=string then string will be used as prefix for mails
       received in the mailbox denoted by path.

       newmail is able to decode header lines when non-ascii characters  are  transported.   They
       will be displayed properly if the locale (LC_CTYPE) is set accordingly.

OPTIONS

       -b     Ring  a  bell  after one or more incoming mails have been detected for at least one
              mailbox.

       -h     Print a help message.

       -i interval
              Set the interval between two mailbox checks to interval seconds.  The default is 60
              seconds which is suffient for the terminal.  For the use inside of a window or dock
              application a lower value may be prudent.

       -r     Emit raw data from the  mail.   This  will  bypass  routines  to  decode  character
              encodings  used  for mail headers as described in RFC 2047.  This may be useful for
              window applications that want to decode the strings on their own.

       -w     Run as window application.  This will prevent newmail from moving itself  into  the
              background  so its output can be used as input for a window application.  This will
              also change the output format slightly and prevent a bell to be rung after new mail
              has been received.

OUTPUT FORMAT

       The output format differs from being read by humans and programs (-w).

           newmail:
              >> Mail from <from> - <subject>
              >> Priority mail from <from> - <subject>

              >> <folder>: Mail from <from> - <subject>
              >> <folder>: Priority mail from <from> - <subject>

           newmail -w:
              <from> - <subject>
              Priority: <from> - <subject>

              <folder>: <from> - <subject>
              <folder>: Priority: <from> - <subject>

       It  should  be  easy  for third party programs which are interested in such information to
       parse the output when newmail is running with the -w option.

ENVIRONMENT

       newmail supports the following environment variables:

       LANG   Locale setting for the output character set.

       LC_CTYPE
              Locale setting only for the output character set.

       MAIL   Full path of the user's spool mailbox.

NOTES

       This program is inspired by the newmail program from the Elm interactive mail program.  It
       is a rewrite from scratch though.

       Many  thanks  go  to Dave Taylor and the Elm Development Group who have provided me with a
       great mail program for several years.  Many  additional  thanks  go  to  the  former  lead
       developer Dave Taylor who started the program back in 1986.

SEE ALSO

       locale(7).

AUTHOR

       Joey Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>