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Home > Help Files > Email > .mailrc
.mailrc
The ".mailrc" File
May 27, 1984
If you use mail with any degree of frequency, you will probably
want to create a ".mailrc" file in your home directory. The ".mailrc"
file allows you to have mail do certain things when it starts up. You
can create a ".mailrc" file just as you would create any other file --
by using one of the editors such as "ex" or "vi". However, make sure
you give the command
% cd
to change to your home directory first.
WHAT IT DOES
The ".mailrc" file can be used to store aliases of people (or
groups of people) you frequently send mail to. For more information
on this aspect of the ".mailrc" file, type
% help mail alias
However, there are certain other functions which commands in
the ".mailrc" file can perform.
IGNORING LINES
Generally the first part of any message (the "header") is composed
of lines which are not of general interest to most users. These lines
start out with phrases such as "Received:", "Status:", and "Message-Id:".
If you aren't very fond of seeing these lines time after time, you can
put the following line in your ".mailrc" file:
ignore message-id received status
which, obviously, tells mail to ignore and not display any lines
in the header which begin with "message-id", "received:", or "status".
SAVING YOUR MAIL
As you know, mail has a tendency to create a file called "mbox"
in your home directory which contains messages you have read but
not deleted. If you would rather have these messages stored in
the "system" mailbox (i.e., so they are not stored in your directory
but will be present when you next type "mail"), you can add the
following line to your ".mailrc" file:
set hold
which tells mail to "hold" your messages instead of putting them
in your "mbox" file.
READING YOUR MAIL ON A TERMINAL
If you always log in on a hard-wired high-speed terminal, such
as the Modgraphs found in 1111 Etcheverry, you may find that a long
message goes by the screen too quickly to read. If this is the
case, you might add
set crt=24
to your ".mailrc" file. This tells "mail" to stop every 24 lines (one
screen) and wait for you to hit the space bar before it will present
the next page.
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