On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 02:21:41AM +0000, Tim Chase wrote:
> According to the POSIX definitions for mail(1) & mailx(1), the
> (s)ave command should save to "mbox" if the filename is not specified
>
> > Save the specified messages in the file named by the pathname
> > file, or the mbox if the file argument is omitted
>
> (newer spec)
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/mailx.html#tag_20_75_13_33
>
> > s [file]
> > Save the message in the named file (mbox is default).
>
> (older spec)
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/mail.html#tag_001_014_1339
>
>
>
> However, when exercising this functionality, mail(1) on OpenBSD
> (also tested on FreeBSD where the same issue manifests[1]) doesn't
> support this:
>
> demo$ echo test | mail -s "test" demo # send self a message
> demo$ mail
> Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help.
> "/var/mail/demo": 1 message 1 new
> >N 1 [email protected] Thu Dec 15 19:34 19/775 "test"
> & s
> No file specified.
>
> While I'm not positive on the solution, I think it involves tweaking
> the save1() function in src/usr.bin/mail/cmd2.c such that instead
> of failing if it can't snarf(), it should set `file` to "mbox" or
> "&" so that expand() points to the mbox as required by POSIX.
>
> -tkc
>
> [1]
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=268402
>
hi.
currently mail(1) has these entries in FILES:
FILES
/var/mail/* post office (unless overridden
by the MAIL environment
variable)
~/mbox user's old mail
isn;t it the case that openbsd uses mailboxes in /var/mail by default,
instead of ~/mbox, as displayed?
it seems that mail(1) is really out of date regarding default mail spool
entries, but i may well have misunderstood the situation. once it's
clear, i can see if we need a code fix (out of my hands) or doc fix.
jmc
