1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.Dd January 21, 2010 29.Dt COMSAT 8 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm comsat 33.Nd biff server 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Nm 36.Sh DESCRIPTION 37The 38.Nm 39utility is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail 40and notifies users if they have requested this service. 41The 42.Nm 43utility receives messages on a datagram port associated with the 44.Dq biff 45service 46specification (see 47.Xr services 5 48and 49.Xr inetd 8 ) . 50The one line messages are of the form: 51.Pp 52.D1 Ar user Ns @ Ns Ar mailbox Ns - Ns Ar offset Ns Op : Ns Ar mailbox-name 53.Pp 54If the 55.Ar user 56specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has 57the owner execute bit turned on (by a 58.Dq Nm biff Cm y ) , 59the 60.Ar offset 61is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and 62the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed 63on the user's terminal. 64Lines which appear to be part of 65the message header other than the 66.Dq Li From , 67.Dq Li \&To , 68.Dq Li Date , 69or 70.Dq Li Subject 71lines are not included in the displayed message. 72.Pp 73If the 74.Ar user 75specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has 76the group execute bit turned on (by a 77.Dq Nm biff Cm b ) , 78two bell characters 79.Tn ( ASCII 80\\007) are printed on the user's terminal. 81.Pp 82If 83.Ar mailbox-name 84omitted, standard mailbox assumed. 85.Sh FILES 86.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /var/mail/user" -compact 87.It Pa /var/run/utx.active 88to find out who is logged on and on what terminals 89.It Pa /var/mail/user 90standard mailbox 91.El 92.Sh SEE ALSO 93.Xr biff 1 , 94.Xr inetd 8 95.Sh HISTORY 96The 97.Nm 98utility appeared in 99.Bx 4.2 . 100.Sh BUGS 101The message header filtering is prone to error. 102The density of the information presented is near the theoretical minimum. 103.Pp 104Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other 105machines than the one to which they are currently logged in. 106.Pp 107The notification should appear in a separate window so it 108does not mess up the screen. 109