biff Command

Purpose

Enables or disables mail notification during the current session.

Syntax

biff [  y |  n ]

Description

The biff command informs the system whether you want to be notified when mail arrives. When mail notification is enabled, From and Subject header lines and the first 7 lines or 560 characters of a message are displayed on the screen when mail arrives. Notification, specified by the biff y command, is often included in the $HOME/.login or $HOME/.profile file to be executed each time the user logs in. The biff n command disables notification.

Note: In addition to y and n, you can use yes and no to enable and disable mail notification.

The biff command operates asynchronously. To receive notification when mail arrives, ensure:

  1. The message permission setting is on in your shell (mesg y).
  2. comsat is running (started by the inetd daemon).
  3. Notification is enabled (biff y).

For synchronous notification, use the MAIL variable of either the ksh command, bsh command, or the csh command.

Options

Item Description
y Enables mail notification.
n Disables mail notification.

Examples

  1. To display the current setting, enter: 
    biff
  2. To be notified during the current terminal session whenever mail arrives, enter the following statement in your $HOME/.login or $HOME/.profile file: 
    biff y
    The From and Subject header lines and the first seven lines or 560 characters of the message will be displayed on the screen when mail arrives.

Files

Item Description
$HOME/.login Read by login shell at login.
$HOME/.profile Controls start-up processes and daemons.
/usr/bin/biff Contains biff command.