garyo@wdl1.UUCP (gary ogasawara) (10/26/87)
What do I have to do so that when new mail arrives, I am interrupted and a message is displayed on my window? Right now, I don't know if new mail has arrived unless I type "mail". Thanks, gary
chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (10/27/87)
In article <4350001@wdl1.UUCP> garyo@wdl1.UUCP (gary ogasawara) writes: >What do I have to do so that when new mail arrives, I am interrupted >and a message is displayed on my window? On a 4BSD-based system, say `biff y'. This has the unfortunate (to me at least) effect of, when you least expect it, blatting on top of something you were trying to read. In (some?) C shells, you can set a variable called `mail' that tells the shell to announce new mail before printing a prompt: set mail = /usr/spool/mail/$user or set mail = (600 /usr/spool/mail/$user) The second form instructs csh to check only once every 600 seconds (10 minutes). This is also the default. To make it check more often, use a smaller number. In any case, csh checks only immediately before printing a prompt. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP (10/30/87)
In article <4350001@wdl1.UUCP> garyo@wdl1.UUCP (gary ogasawara) writes: >What do I have to do so that when new mail arrives, I am interrupted >and a message is displayed on my window? Short of running "sysmon" on your Blit/DMD/MTG, the best solution is probably to use the MAIL or MAILPATH features of the Bourne shell, if your version supports it. Some systems also provide a "biff" utility, or "fido", or some other such program that runs in the background and can be instructed to blather on your terminal when your mailbox changes, if you really want that (it messes up your display if you're text-editing). Look in your manual to see if your system supports any of these methods; it will give further details.
irf@kuling.UUCP (10/30/87)
In article <9111@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes: >In article <4350001@wdl1.UUCP> garyo@wdl1.UUCP (gary ogasawara) writes: >>What do I have to do so that when new mail arrives, I am interrupted >>and a message is displayed on my window? >In (some?) C shells, you can set a variable called `mail' that tells >the shell to announce new mail before printing a prompt: > set mail = /usr/spool/mail/$user >or > set mail = (600 /usr/spool/mail/$user) In HP-UX I write set mail = (60 /usr/mail/$LOGNAME /etc/motd) and get notified if, within the last 60 seconds, there is new mail for me or if there is a new "message-of-the-day" (motd). ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Bo Thide', Swedish Institute of Space Physics. UUCP: ...enea!kuling!irfu!bt :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
marki@hpiacla.HP.COM (Mark Ikemoto) (11/21/87)
>In HP-UX I write > > set mail = (60 /usr/mail/$LOGNAME /etc/motd) > >and get notified if, within the last 60 seconds, there is new mail >for me or if there is a new "message-of-the-day" (motd). How did you get this to work? I've tried it on my 9000/350 and it doesn't notify me. I had to create a shell script that I run in the background at the start of my session to check for mail periodically. ----------------- If anyone out there is interested in getting a copy of this shell script (it is documented profusely internally and has error-checking), send me a message. Mark
ccoprrd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Richard Dervan) (11/22/87)
Well, the 'biff' command also works. In your .login or .profile,
try:
biff y
That should arrive you when mail arrives. The only thing is that it will
even tell you if you're in vi or something like that. The thing about it
is that it will tell you who the mail is from in addition to just saying
"Hey! You got some new mail!"
--
Richard Dervan - Office of Computing Services
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!ccoprrd
ARPA: ccoprrd@pyr.ocs.gatech.eduirf@kuling.UUCP (Stellan Bergman) (11/27/87)
In article <3600001@hpiacla.HP.COM> marki@hpiacla.HP.COM (Mark Ikemoto) writes: >>In HP-UX I write >> >> set mail = (60 /usr/mail/$LOGNAME /etc/motd) >> >>and get notified if, within the last 60 seconds, there is new mail >>for me or if there is a new "message-of-the-day" (motd). > >How did you get this to work? I've tried it on my 9000/350 and it >doesn't notify me. I had to create a shell script that I run in the Oh yes, I'm positive. Whenever mail arrives I get a friendly little message saying "You have mail" as soon as I leave whatever I'm doing and get back to the (C) shell. This is how my .login file on our HP9000/500 HP-UX 5.21 looks like (also worked OK for HP-UX 5.11): :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: # Fix the tty line stty -ienqak ixon -ixoff # Set up termcap, terminal, and EXINIT set noglob; eval `tset -sm 'chal:?chal' -sm 'vt100:?vt100' -sm 'go250:?go250' -sm 'go250-sm:?go250-sm' -sm 'go250-48:?go250-48' -sm '2382:?2382'` switch ( $TERM ) (Uninteresting terminal setups here ...) endsw source .EXINIT # Terminal independent EXINIT. source .EXINIT_$term # Terminal specific EXINIT. echo "EXINIT set for $term" # To see we got it right... source $home/.envrc # Load environment parameters. source $home/.aliasrc # Load useful aliases. setenv PROMPT '>' # Use this instead of PS1. set userprompt="$SMSO(`whoami`)\!$PROMPT$SGR0"# Make a nice prompt. set CWD="$TSL$REV$cwd$SGR0$FSL" # Put cwd in the status line set prompt="$userprompt$CWD " # Set the prompt and write cwd. set autologout=0 # Logout? Never. mv $HOME/.history $TEMPDIR # Move original .history file. sort $TEMPDIR/.history|uniq >! $HOME/.history # Remove duplicates and move back. /bin/rm -f $TEMPDIR/.history # Remove temporary .history file. set history=100 # Save last 100 cmds in a stack. set savehist=100 # Save last 100 cmds in a file. set mail = (60 /usr/mail/$LOGNAME /etc/motd) # Any mail/motd last minute? clear # Start with a nice, clean screen. calendar # Any appointments? umsk 022 # S my friends cannot write. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Bo Thide', Swedish Institute of Space Physics. UUCP: ..enea!kuling!irfu!bt :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
dave@lsuc.UUCP (12/03/87)
In article <4516@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccoprrd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Richard Dervan) writes: >Well, the 'biff' command also works. In your .login or .profile, >try: >biff y >That should arrive you when mail arrives. The only thing is that it will >even tell you if you're in vi or something like that. The thing about it >is that it will tell you who the mail is from in addition to just saying >"Hey! You got some new mail!" If you can't use biff(1) because your mail isn't a BSD mpx file, but you do have access to BSD utilities source, then tra(1) works just as well -- even better, to my mind, since it spits out the entire mail message, not just the first couple of lines. I have a "tra - $MAIL &; trap "kill $!" 0" in my .profile, so that mail to me ALWAYS gets to my screen right away. You learn to use the ctrl-L key to redraw your rn, more or whatever screen, that's all. If you get lots of mail, as I do, seeing it right away is valuable. tra has two bugs as distributed, as applied to this use: its default run-time is 32767 seconds, which is too short if you leave it running all day; and it doesn't seek back to the end if your mail file gets shorter (when you read and dispose of your mail). Both are easy to fix; I can send the changes if anyone wants them. If you don't have tra(1) but have good C programming skills, you can probably write it in 10 minutes. It just sits and watches a file's size, displaying anything that's been added to the file's tail every time it grows. The '-' argument suppresses printing of what's in the file at the time tra starts up. David Sherman The Law Society of Upper Canada Toronto -- { uunet!mnetor pyramid!utai decvax!utcsri ihnp4!utzoo } !lsuc!dave Pronounce it ell-ess-you-see, please...
eap@bucsb.UUCP (Eric Pearce) (12/04/87)
In article <1987Dec3.000951.15189@lsuc.uucp> dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) writes: >In article <4516@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccoprrd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Richard Dervan) writes: >>Well, the 'biff' command also works. In your .login or .profile, >>That should arrive you when mail arrives. The only thing is that it will >>even tell you if you're in vi or something like that. The thing about it >>is that it will tell you who the mail is from in addition to just saying >>"Hey! You got some new mail!" > >If you don't have tra(1) but have good C programming skills, >you can probably write it in 10 minutes. It just sits and >watches a file's size, displaying anything that's been added >to the file's tail every time it grows. I wrote something of this sort as a part of another program. Somebody might find this useful, so here it is. #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #define MAILFILE "/usr/spool/mail/yourname" #define SLEEP 30 main() { struct stat st; char path[50]; int old_size=0,new_size=0; while(1) { old_size = new_size; if (!stat(sprintf(path, "%s", MAILFILE), &st)) new_size = st.st_size; if (old_size < new_size) fprintf(stderr,"You have new mail.\n"); sleep(SLEEP); } } Actually displaying the new mail seems like something best left to your mail program, but that's just an opinion ... -eap -- **** .signature reduced in length due to space considerations ***************** | UUCP : ..!harvard!bu-cs!bucsb!eap | ARPANET: eap@bucsb.bu.edu | | CSNET : eap%bucsb@bu-cs | BITNET : cscc8vc@bostonu |
amos@taux01.UUCP (Amos Shapir) (12/06/87)
While we are at it: you don't even need a special program to do that - I'm using a shell file that keeps the output of 'wc' in a sh variable, and may use it as an argument to 'tail' if the contents of the watched file are wanted. (Implementation is left as an exercise to the reader). -- Amos Shapir (My other cpu is a NS32532) National Semiconductor (Israel) 6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel Tel. +972 52 522261 amos%taux01@nsc.com (used to be amos%nsta@nsc.com) 34 48 E / 32 10 N
levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (12/08/87)
In article <1308@bucsb.UUCP>, eap@bucsb.UUCP (Eric Pearce) writes: #> >If you don't have tra(1) but have good C programming skills, #> >you can probably write it in 10 minutes. It just sits and #> >watches a file's size, displaying anything that's been added #> >to the file's tail every time it grows. Or, "tail -f /usr/mail/mylogin &" [ /usr/spool/mail/mylogin for Bezerkeloids ] One problem with this might be if you are showing someone else something on your terminal and a highly personal piece of mail arrives, that might not be too cool. Also, it would mess up graphics in graphics-oriented programs and might even hang the terminal (I'm talking about like TEK tube graphics). -- |------------Dan Levy------------| Path: ..!{akgua,homxb,ihnp4,ltuxa,mvuxa, | an Engihacker @ | <most AT&T machines>}!ttrdc!ttrda!levy | AT&T Computer Systems Division | Disclaimer? Huh? What disclaimer??? |--------Skokie, Illinois--------|