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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: q: being notified of new mail
Message-ID: <9111@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Oct-87 19:40:34 EST
Article-I.D.: mimsy.9111
Posted: Mon Oct 26 19:40:34 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Oct-87 23:08:34 EST
References: <4350001@wdl1.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 24

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