Reading Your Sample Message

To read your sample message, use the mailx command again. Your screen should 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 message you sent yourself. The “N” at the beginning of the line means that it's a “new” message. A “U” (unread) means the message was new, but was not read before quitting the mailx program previously. The information in this screen is discussed in greater detail in Reading Messages.

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

To read a message, type an ampersand (&) and the message number at the mailx prompt, 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

&