Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!aunro!aupair.cs.athabascau.ca!lyndon
From: lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: SMail and biff
Keywords: smail, biff, comsat
Message-ID: <1728@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca>
Date: 22 May 91 18:25:02 GMT
References: <1991May18.043542.27251@Veritas.COM> <22812@shlump.lkg.dec.com> <lyndon.674861290@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca> <22833@shlump.lkg.dec.com>
Organization: Athabasca University
Lines: 28

lan_csse@netrix.nac.dec.com (CSSE LAN Test Account) writes:

|lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) writes:
|>lan_csse@netrix.nac.dec.com (CSSE LAN Test Account) writes:
|>>What biff does is wake up periodically and check the mtime for your
|>>mail file (/usr/spool/mail/$USER).  Test this by:
|>>	echo Hi there >> /usr/spool/mail/$USER
|>>and sit back and wait.  After a couple of minutes, biff will tell you 
|>>that you have new mail.
|>Huh? Biff (more properly, comsatd) waits for messages (on udp port 512)
|>from your MTA. Upon receipt of a delivery notification from the MTA, it
|>attempts to notify the user that mail has arrived. If your biff behaves like 
|>you say it does, it's not the biff that the rest of us run (derived from BSD).

|Yes, it quite definitely acts that way.  I just went to a su window on this
|Ultrix 4.1 machine, and typed:
|	(echo 'From: root'; echo Hello.; echo '') >>/usr/spool/mail/jc

|I had xbiff running at the time.

If you meant Xbiff, you should have *said* Xbiff :-)  The two are
completely different animals.

-- 
    Lyndon Nerenberg  VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University
           atha!cs.athabascau.ca!lyndon || lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca
                    Packet: ve6bbm@ve6mc.ab.can.noam
        As a math athiest, I should be excused from this.   --Calvin