Dan Robinson wrote:

> Do you mean if I give one of those commands and I receive mail, a
> mailbox will be created? I think I tried that, but I'll try again.
>  
> >     echo "Hey" | Mail $USER
> 
> If a mailbox is automatically created, what's this supposed to do?

That command sends mail to the current user with a message body of
"Hey!".  If you have local mail delivery set up, the mail system will
create your mailbox and put the message into it.

At a lower level of analysis, that command is a pipeline.  Two
subcommands are run.  The first, "echo Hey", writes the word
Hey to its standard output.  The second, "Mail $USER", reads
its standard input and mails it.  $USER is a shell variable
that evaluates to whoever you're logged in as.  E.g., danrob
or whoever.

-- 
Bob Miller                              K<bob>
kbobsoft software consulting
http://kbobsoft.com                     [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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