7.1.3 Reading Your Sample Letter

To read your sample letter, give the mailx command again. Your screen will probably look something like this:

$ mailx
Mail version 4.0 Thu Jan 16 12:59:09 PST 1992  Type ? for help.
"/var/mail/rose": 2 messages 1 new
 U  2 hal@uncertain   Fri Feb 14 12:01   14/318 financial status
>N  1 rose@texas      Mon Feb 17 08:12   21/453 to someone who
&

The first line identifies the version of mail that you are running; the second line indicates your mailbox, usually located in /var/mail/username, where your incoming mail is deposited. The third line in this example is the header of the letter you sent yourself. The "N" at the beginning of the line means that it's a "new" letter. A "U" (unread) means the letter was new, but was not read before quitting the mailx program previously. (The information in this screen is discussed in greater detail in "7.2 Reading Letters", in this chapter.)

Every letter is assigned a number as it is received: Rose's letter to herself is shown as letter number 1.

To read a letter, type its number at the mailx prompt, the ampersand (&), as follows:

$ mailx
Mail version 4.0 Thu Jan 16 12:59:09 PST 1992  Type ? for help.
"/var/mail/rose": 1 message 1 new
>N  1 rose@texas   Fri Jul 14 12:01 21/453 to someone who
& 1

To: rose@texas
From: rose@texas
Subject: to someone who really cares

Dear Rose,

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

&