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 45The 46.Nm 47utility informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives 48during the current terminal session. 49.Pp 50The following options are available: 51.Bl -tag -width indent 52.It Cm n 53Disable notification. 54.It Cm y 55Enable notification. 56.El 57.Pp 58When mail notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of 59the message will be printed on your screen whenever mail arrives. 60A 61.Dq Li biff y 62command is often included in the file 63.Pa \&.login 64or 65.Pa \&.profile 66to be executed at each login. 67.Pp 68The 69.Nm 70utility operates asynchronously. 71For synchronous notification use the 72.Ev MAIL 73variable of 74.Xr sh 1 75or the 76.Ev mail 77variable of 78.Xr csh 1 . 79.Sh SEE ALSO 80.Xr csh 1 , 81.Xr mail 1 , 82.Xr sh 1 , 83.Xr comsat 8 84.Sh HISTORY 85The 86.Nm 87command appeared in 88.Bx 4.0 . 89It was named after the dog of Heidi Stettner. 90He died 91in August 1993, at 15. 92