msgchk (1) - Linux Manuals

msgchk: check for messages

Command to display msgchk manual in Linux: $ man 1 msgchk

NAME

msgchk - check for messages

SYNOPSIS

msgchk [-date | -nodate] [-notify: all/mail/nomail ] [-nonotify all/mail/nomail ] [-host hostname] [-user username] [-sasl] [-saslmech mechanism] [-snoop] [users ... ] [-version] [-help]

DESCRIPTION

The msgchk program checks all known mail drops for mail waiting for you. For those drops which have mail for you, msgchk will indicate if it believes that you have seen the mail in question before.

The -notify type switch indicates under what circumstances msgchk should produce a message. The default is -notify all which says that msgchk should always report the status of the users maildrop. Other values for `type' include `mail' which says that msgchk should report the status of waiting mail; and, `nomail' which says that msgchk should report the status of empty maildrops. The -nonotify type switch has the inverted sense, so -nonotify all directs msgchk to never report the status of maildrops. This is useful if the user wishes to check msgchk's exit status. A non-zero exit status indicates that mail was not waiting for at least one of the indicated users.

If msgchk produces output, then the -date switch directs msgchk to print out the last date mail was read, if this can be determined.

Using POP

msgchk will normally check all the local mail drops, but if the option ``pophost:'' is set in the mts configuration file ``mts.conf'', or if the -host hostname switch is given, msgchk will query this POP service host as to the status of mail waiting.

To specify a username for authentication with the POP server, use the -user username switch. The credentials profile entry in the mh-profile(5) man page describes the ways to supply a username and password.

For debugging purposes, there is also a switch -snoop, which will allow you to watch the POP transaction take place between you and the POP server.

If nmh has been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl switch will enable the use of SASL authentication. Depending on the SASL mechanism used, this may require an additional password prompt from the user (but the netrc file can be used to store this password, as described in the mh-profile(5) man page). The -saslmech switch can be used to select a particular SASL mechanism.

If SASL authentication is successful, inc will attempt to negotiate a security layer for session encryption. Encrypted traffic is labelled with `(encrypted)' and `(decrypted)' when viewing the POP transaction with the -snoop switch.

FILES

^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile
^/etc/nmh/mts.conf~^nmh mts configuration file
^/var/mail/$USER~^Location of mail drop

PROFILE COMPONENTS

None

DEFAULTS

`user' defaults to the current user
`-date'
`-notify all'

CONTEXT

None