1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)biff.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd June 6, 1993 36.Dt BIFF 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm biff 40.Nd "be notified if mail arrives and who it is from" 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Cm n | y 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45.Nm Biff 46informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives 47during the current terminal session. 48.Pp 49The following options are available: 50.Bl -tag -width indent 51.It Cm n 52Disable notification. 53.It Cm y 54Enable notification. 55.El 56.Pp 57When mail notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of 58the message will be printed on your screen whenever mail arrives. 59A 60.Dq Li biff y 61command is often included in the file 62.Pa \&.login 63or 64.Pa \&.profile 65to be executed at each login. 66.Pp 67.Nm Biff 68operates asynchronously. 69For synchronous notification use the 70.Ev MAIL 71variable of 72.Xr sh 1 73or the 74.Ev mail 75variable of 76.Xr csh 1 . 77.Sh SEE ALSO 78.Xr csh 1 , 79.Xr mail 1 , 80.Xr sh 1 , 81.Xr comsat 8 82.Sh HISTORY 83The 84.Nm 85command appeared in 86.Bx 4.0 . 87It was named after the dog of Heidi Stettner. 88He died 89in August 1993, at 15. 90