openbsd-src/usr.bin/biff/biff.1

.\"	$OpenBSD: biff.1,v 1.18 2013/08/12 14:19:53 jmc Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: biff.1,v 1.3 1995/03/26 02:34:21 glass Exp $
.\"
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.\"     @(#)biff.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: August 12 2013 $
.Dt BIFF 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm biff
.Nd be notified if mail arrives and who it is from
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm biff
.Op Cm n | y
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives
during the current terminal session.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Cm n
Disables notification.
.It Cm y
Enables notification.
.El
.Pp
When mail notification is enabled, the header and first few lines of
the message will be printed on your screen whenever mail arrives.
A
.Dq Li biff y
command is often included in the file
.Pa \&.login
or
.Pa \&.profile
to be executed at each login.
.Pp
.Nm
operates asynchronously.
For synchronous notification use the
.Ev MAIL
variable of
.Xr sh 1
or the
.Ev mail
variable of
.Xr csh 1 .
.Sh EXIT STATUS
The
.Nm
utility exits with one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It 0
Notification was enabled at the time of invocation.
.It 1
Notification was disabled at the time of invocation.
.It >1
An error occurred.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr csh 1 ,
.Xr mail 1 ,
.Xr sh 1 ,
.Xr comsat 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .
.Qq Biff
was Heidi Stettner's dog.
He died in August 1993, at 15.