comsat(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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COMSAT(8)               NetBSD System Manager's Manual               COMSAT(8)


NAME

     comsat - biff server


SYNOPSIS

     comsat


DESCRIPTION

     comsat is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail and
     notifies users if they have requested this service.  comsat receives mes-
     sages on a datagram port associated with the ``biff'' service specifica-
     tion (see services(5) and inetd(8)).  The one line messages are of the
     form:

           user@mailbox-offset

     If the user specified is logged in to the system and the associated ter-
     minal has the owner execute bit turned on (by a ``biff y''), the offset
     is used as a seek offset into the appropriate mailbox file and the first
     7 lines or 560 characters of the message are printed on the user's termi-
     nal.  Lines which appear to be part of the message header other than the
     ``From'', ``To'', ``Date'', or ``Subject'' lines are not included in the
     displayed message.


FILES

     /var/run/utmp  to find out who's logged on and on what terminals


SEE ALSO

     biff(1),  inetd(8)


BUGS

     The message header filtering is prone to error.  The density of the in-
     formation presented is near the theoretical minimum.

     Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other machines than the
     one to which they are currently logged in.

     The notification should appear in a separate window so it does not mess
     up the screen.

     comsat runs as root so that it can open the users maildrop.


HISTORY

     The comsat command appeared in 4.2BSD.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution        June 4, 1993                                1