MSGCHK(1)

NAME
msgchk - check for messages

SYNOPSIS
msgchk [-date] [-nodate] [-notify all/mail/nomail]
[-nonotify all/mail/nomail]
[-host hostname] [-user username]
[users ...] [-version] [-help]

DESCRIPTION
The msgchk program checks all known mail drops for mail waiting for you. For those drops which have mail for you, msgchk will indicate if it believes that you have seen the mail in question before. The `-notify type' switch indicates under what circumstances msgchk should produce a message. The default is `-notify all' which says that msgchk should always report the status of the users maildrop. Other values for `type' include `mail' which says that msgchk should report the status of waiting mail; and, `nomail' which says that msgchk should report the status of empty maildrops. The `-nonotify type' switch has the inverted sense, so `-nonotify all' directs msgchk to never report the status of maildrops. This is useful if the user wishes to check msgchk's exit status. A non-zero exit status indicates that mail was not waiting for at least one of the indicated users. If msgchk produces output, then the `-date' switch directs msgchk to print out the last date mail was read, if this can be determined.

msgchk will normally check all the local mail drops, but if the option “pophost:” is set in the mts configuration file “mts.conf”, or if the `-host hostname' switch is given, msgchk will query this POP service host as to the status of mail waiting. The default is for msgchk to assume that your account name on the POP server is the same as your current username. To specify a different username, use the `-user username' switch. When using POP, you will normally need to type the password for your account on the POP server, in order to retrieve your messages. It is possible to automate this process by creating a “.netrc” file containing your login account information for this POP server. For each POP server, this file should have a line of the following form. Replace the words mypopserver, mylogin, and mypassword with your own account information. machine mypopserver login mylogin password mypassword This “.netrc” file should be owned and readable only by you. For debugging purposes, there is also a switch `-snoop', which will allow you to watch the POP transaction take place between you and the POP server. ^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile ^/usr/pkg/etc/nmh/mts.conf~^nmh mts configuration file ^/var/mail/$USER~^Location of mail drop None inc(1) `user' defaults to the current user `-date' `-notify all' None