Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave From: dave@lsuc.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: q: being notified of new mail Message-ID: <1987Dec3.000951.15189@lsuc.uucp> Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 00:09:50 EST Article-I.D.: lsuc.1987Dec3.000951.15189 Posted: Thu Dec 3 00:09:50 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Dec-87 17:46:39 EST References: <4350001@wdl1.UUCP> <3600001@hpiacla.HP.COM> <4516@pyr.gatech.EDU> Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 39 Summary: use tra(1) if you don't have biff In article <4516@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccoprrd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Richard Dervan) writes: >Well, the 'biff' command also works. In your .login or .profile, >try: >biff y >That should arrive you when mail arrives. The only thing is that it will >even tell you if you're in vi or something like that. The thing about it >is that it will tell you who the mail is from in addition to just saying >"Hey! You got some new mail!" If you can't use biff(1) because your mail isn't a BSD mpx file, but you do have access to BSD utilities source, then tra(1) works just as well -- even better, to my mind, since it spits out the entire mail message, not just the first couple of lines. I have a "tra - $MAIL &; trap "kill $!" 0" in my .profile, so that mail to me ALWAYS gets to my screen right away. You learn to use the ctrl-L key to redraw your rn, more or whatever screen, that's all. If you get lots of mail, as I do, seeing it right away is valuable. tra has two bugs as distributed, as applied to this use: its default run-time is 32767 seconds, which is too short if you leave it running all day; and it doesn't seek back to the end if your mail file gets shorter (when you read and dispose of your mail). Both are easy to fix; I can send the changes if anyone wants them. If you don't have tra(1) but have good C programming skills, you can probably write it in 10 minutes. It just sits and watches a file's size, displaying anything that's been added to the file's tail every time it grows. The '-' argument suppresses printing of what's in the file at the time tra starts up. David Sherman The Law Society of Upper Canada Toronto -- { uunet!mnetor pyramid!utai decvax!utcsri ihnp4!utzoo } !lsuc!dave Pronounce it ell-ess-you-see, please...