NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     comsat - biff server

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     comsat

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     comsat is the server process which receives reports  of  incoming mail and
     notifies  users if they have requested this service.  comsat
receives messages
 on a datagram port associated with the  ``biff''  service specification
  (see services(5) and inetd(8)).  The one line messages
are of the
     form:

           user@mailbox-offset

     If the user specified is logged in to the system and the associated terminal
 has the owner execute bit turned on (by a ``biff y''),
the offset
     is used as a seek offset into the appropriate  mailbox  file
and the first
     7  lines or 560 characters of the message are printed on the
user's terminal.
  Lines which appear to be part of  the  message  header
other than the
     ``From'', ``To'', ``Date'', or ``Subject'' lines are not included in the
     displayed message.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /var/run/utmp  to find out who's logged on and on what  terminals

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     biff(1), inetd(8)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The comsat command appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The message header filtering is prone to error.  The density
of the information
 presented is near the theoretical minimum.

     Users should be notified of mail which arrives on other  machines than the
     one to which they are currently logged in.

     The  notification  should  appear in a separate window so it
does not mess
     up the screen.

OpenBSD      3.6                           June      4,      1993