Using email

1. Using email • Messages sent from machine to machine and stored for later reading. • You will use a client to read email: • Type mail or pine in UNIX to read email. • Use programs like Outlook on Windows. • Different mail servers use the same protocols to communicate with each other.

2. Mail Servers • SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) transfers mail between servers. • The mail server runs a program (daemon) that listens for clients connecting so people can read or write mail. • On UNIX this program is called sendmail. • A single protocol helps to ensure that different servers can communicate with each other.

3. Mail Clients • POP -- Post Office Protocol • Downloads all mail at once. • IMAP -- Interactive Mail Access Protocol, adds features to POP • Some Clients • ELM • PINE (PINE Is Not Elm) • Outlook • Eudora • Netscape Mailer

4. Parts of an Email • Body -- This is the actual message. • Header -- information at the top of the message. • From: or Received: who sent the mail. • To: Where the mail goes. • Cc: Other people who will receive this mail. • Bcc: Blind carbon copy -- a list of people who get a copy of the message but don’t get listed. • Subject: What the mail is about. • Date: When the mail was sent.

5. The mail command • You can use the mail command in several ways: • mail -- by itself, it opens your messages and lets you read them • mail person@address -- lets you compose a message to someone at a certain address. • mail -s (subject) person@address -- lets you send a message to someone at an address, with a certain subject. • mail -s (subject) person@address < text_file -- lets you send a message to someone with text_file as the body of the email.

6. Using mail • When you are writing the mail message body, use ^D or <enter> . <enter> to end editing and send the message. • If cc: shows up, this is a list of other addresses you can enter if you wish to send a message to other people. • ^C will kill a mail message you are typing.

7. Mail commands • These commands are used at the & prompt • q -- quit and save • x -- quit without making any changes. • R or r -- reply to a message (r = senders and recipients, R = senders only.) • f <numbers> -- view the message headers. • p or t <numbers> -- show those messages

8. More mail commands • d <numbers> -- delete messages. • u <numbers> -- undelete messages. • s <numbers> <file> -- append the messages to <file> with headers. • w <numbers> <file> -- append messages to <file> -- message only.

9. Message Editing Commands • Use these while writing the actual message • ~r <file> -- Add a file into the message. • ~f <num> -- add another email into the message (forwarding). • ~w <file> -- write the message to a file. • ~q -- quit without saving • ~p -- print the contents of the message.

10. Header Editing • While editing a message you may use… • ~h -- lets you edit the header (to, subject, cc, bcc) • These may also work: • ~s -- edit the subject. • ~t -- edit the to list. • ~c -- edit the cc (carbon copy) list. • ~b -- edit the bcc (blind carbon copy) list.

11. Other Features • alias -- combine addresses • alias me johna@wam.umd.edu jra@math.umd.edu • .forward file – send mailto another address. • Forward to self to get a copy on the sending machine. • Listservs -- automatic mailing lists.

12. PINE • A menu-driven client • Uses pico as an editor • Allows MIME attachments • Main Menu • C - Compose to write a message • I or L - View messages • Q - Quit

13. MIME Attachments • Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension • Add pictures, files to emails • Can be dangerous with executables. • Pine uses MIME instead of plain inclusion. • Filename on attachment line when writing.