The To Command

Syntax:

          To [userid] [options]

Examples:

          t
          to jtkirk lmccoy +registered
          to ckent cc=llane subject="Telephone booths"

Description:

The To command sends a message to the specified user(s). MAIL8 creates the appropriate Outbound message and places notifications in the Unread drawers of all intended recipients. As shown in the examples, options can give characteristics to the Outbound message or add information lines.

If you specify one or more userids, MAIL8 does not prompt for information lines like Cc: and Bcc:. If you want such information lines, you must specify appropriate options on the command line.

If you specify one or more options but no userids, MAIL8 begins letting you enter your message by prompting with

          To:

In response, you should fill in the userids of one or more recipients. MAIL8 will continue to help you create the message step by step.

When MAIL8 is ready for you to enter the text of your message, it displays your input prompt if you have set one with Option InputPrompt=. See "expl mail option input" for more details. MAIL8 then gathers lines for the text of the message until you enter a line that only consists of a dot "." followed by carriage return.

When MAIL8 has created the Outbound message and put notifications in the recipients' Unread drawers, you will see one or more lines with the following form:

          Message sent to jsmith

MAIL8 writes out a message of this form corresponding to each intended recipient.

If you already have a formatted message in a file (for example, because you killed a message and have the result stored in "..msg.."), use the POST command to send the message instead of To.

Possible Options:

+AnswerBack

puts the AnswerBack characteristic on the Outbound message.

BlindCarbonCopies=user

sends a "blind" copy of the message to the specified user. Other recipients are not told that this person received a copy of the message. To send blind copies to several people, specify several BCC= options, as in

        bcc=name1 bcc=name2 ...

CarbonCopies=user

sends a copy of the message to the specified user. Recipients are told that this person received a copy of the message. To send copies to several people, specify several CC= options, as in

        cc=name1 cc=name2 ...

COMMent="string"

attaches a Comments line to the message. This line appears with the other header lines in the message.

+Confidential

puts the Confidential characteristic on the Outbound message.

File=filename

attaches the contents of the given file to your message. For further information, see "expl mail attach".

Keywords="string"

attaches a Keywords header line to the message. A Keywords header line is typically used to list some of the important topics mentioned in the message.

Message="string"

supplies the body of the message directly. In this case, MAIL8 does not prompt you for the body of the message; MAIL8 simply uses the supplied string. The Message= option is useful when your message is very short. Note that MAIL8 still prompts for a Subject unless you specify the Subject= argument or have Option -AskSubject in effect.

+MUTE

sends the message without displaying any information messages. You will not see the usual "Message sent to user" message, nor will you see any advisory messages set up by recipients. MAIL8 still displays error messages. You may wish to use +MUTE to reduce the amount of output sent to your screen or to a command file. If you want to determine whether a +MUTE message was sent successfully, use Summary +Outbound.

+Registered

puts the Registered characteristic on the Outbound message.

-Registered

sends an unregistered message. This option is useful if the +Register_All option is in effect.

SeNder="string"

gives additional information about the sender (e.g. full name instead of just the userid). This overrides any sender name you may have specified with the Option SeNder command (see "expl mail option sender").

Subject="string"

attaches a new Subject information line to the message. The string must be enclosed in single or double quotes if it contains blanks.

<filename

obtains the message from the given file instead of prompting for terminal input.

Copyright © 1997, Thinkage Ltd.