7.1.2 Sending Yourself a Sample Letter

To see at a glance how mailx works, you can begin by sending yourself a sample letter. At the prompt, give the mailx command again, but this time include your address (your login name plus your machine name). For example, if your login was rose and your machine name was texas, your address would be rose@texas. (The @ symbol is read as "at.") You may be able to use just your login on a local network--consult your system administrator when in doubt.

$ mailx rose@texas

The program will respond with a Subject: line:

$ mailx rose@texas
Subject:

If you like, type in a word or two here about the content of the letter you're sending yourself and press Return. Now type the body of the letter; use short lines and press Return at the end of each line. (Note that you can only make corrections as you go by backspacing and retyping lines before you press Return.)

Your sample letter might look something like this (the spaces between lines are made by pressing Return twice):

$ mailx rose@texas
Subject: to someone who really cares

Dear Rosey,

From the ends of your fingers
To the tip of your nose
You're a cool breeze in August
My sweet Texas Rose.


See you soon,

Rose

To send your sample letter, press Return to complete the last line of the letter and then press Ctrl-D. After your letter has been sent, the system returns a command prompt.