xref: /freebsd/libexec/comsat/comsat.8 (revision 22cf89c938886d14f5796fc49f9f020c23ea8eaf)
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28.\"     @(#)comsat.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
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30.Dd January 21, 2010
31.Dt COMSAT 8
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm comsat
35.Nd biff server
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Nm
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The
40.Nm
41utility is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail
42and notifies users if they have requested this service.
43The
44.Nm
45utility receives messages on a datagram port associated with the
46.Dq biff
47service
48specification (see
49.Xr services 5
50and
51.Xr inetd 8 ) .
52The one line messages are of the form:
53.Pp
54.D1 Ar user Ns @ Ns Ar mailbox Ns - Ns Ar offset Ns Op : Ns Ar mailbox-name
55.Pp
56If the
57.Ar user
58specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has
59the owner execute bit turned on (by a
60.Dq Nm biff Cm y ) ,
61the
62.Ar offset
63is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and
64the first 7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed
65on the user's terminal.
66Lines which appear to be part of
67the message header other than the
68.Dq Li From ,
69.Dq Li \&To ,
70.Dq Li Date ,
71or
72.Dq Li Subject
73lines are not included in the displayed message.
74.Pp
75If the
76.Ar user
77specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal has
78the group execute bit turned on (by a
79.Dq Nm biff Cm b ) ,
80two bell characters
81.Tn ( ASCII
82\\007) are printed on the user's terminal.
83.Pp
84If
85.Ar mailbox-name
86omitted, standard mailbox assumed.
87.Sh FILES
88.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /var/mail/user" -compact
89.It Pa /var/run/utx.active
90to find out who is logged on and on what terminals
91.It Pa /var/mail/user
92standard mailbox
93.El
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr biff 1 ,
96.Xr inetd 8
97.Sh HISTORY
98The
99.Nm
100utility appeared in
101.Bx 4.2 .
102.Sh BUGS
103The message header filtering is prone to error.
104The density of the information presented is near the theoretical minimum.
105.Pp
106Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other
107machines than the one to which they are currently logged in.
108.Pp
109The notification should appear in a separate window so it
110does not mess up the screen.
111