Re: command-line biff?

[Matthew Weier O'Phinney <matthew@weierophinney.net>]

-- Nori Heikkinen <nori@sccs.swarthmore.edu> wrote
(on Sunday, 23 February 2003, 02:21 PM -0500):
> on Sun, 23 Feb 2003 07:02:37PM +0100, Marcio Rosa da Silva insinuated:
> > Maybe I don't get the point, but aren't the 'MAIL' and 'MAILCHECK'
> > vars in bash or 'mail' in tcsh for this?
> 
> I didn't know about these, but they don't seem to be what i want ...
> 
>        MAIL   If  this  parameter  is  set to a file name and the
>               MAILPATH variable is not set, bash informs the user
>               of the arrival of mail in the specified file.
>        MAILCHECK
>               Specifies  how  often  (in seconds) bash checks for
>               mail.  The default is 60 seconds.  When it is  time
>               to  check  for  mail, the shell does so before dis?
>               playing the primary prompt.  If  this  variable  is
>               unset, the shell disables mail checking.
> 
> i'm looking for something that will tell me how many new messages i
> have in what box at any given time.

I assume you're using bash...? In the bash man page, right below the two
you list above:

   MAILPATH
          A colon-separated list of file names to be checked for mail.
          The message to be printed when mail arrives in a particular
          file may be specified by separating the file name from the
          message with a `?'.  When used in the text of the message, $_
          expands to  the  name  of  the  current  mailfile.
          Example:
          MAILPATH='/var/mail/bfox?"You have mail":~/shell-mail?"$_ has
          mail!"' Bash  supplies a default value for this variable, but
          the location of the user mail files that it uses is system
          dependent (e.g., /var/mail/$USER).

Is that what you want?

-- 
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
matthew@weierophinney.net
http://matthew.weierophinney.net