COMSAT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual COMSAT(8)
NAME
comsat -- biff server
SYNOPSIS
comsat [-l]
DESCRIPTION
comsat is the server process which receives reports of incoming mail and notifies users if they have
requested this service. comsat receives messages on a datagram port associated with the ``biff'' ser-vice service
vice specification (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 terminal 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 terminal. 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.
OPTIONS
The comsat program supports this option:
-l The -l option turns on syslogd(8) log messages.
FILES
/var/run/utmpx to find out who's logged on and on what terminals
SEE ALSO
biff(1), inetd(8), syslogd(8).
BUGS
The message header filtering is prone to error. The density of the information presented is near the
theoretical minimum.
Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other machines than the one to which they are cur-rently currently
rently 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 4.2 Berkeley Distribution
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