On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 02:21:41AM +0000, Tim Chase wrote: > According to the POSIX definitions for mail(1) & mailx(1), the > (s)ave command should save to "mbox" if the filename is not specified > > > Save the specified messages in the file named by the pathname > > file, or the mbox if the file argument is omitted > > (newer spec) > https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/mailx.html#tag_20_75_13_33 > > > s [file] > > Save the message in the named file (mbox is default). > > (older spec) > https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/mail.html#tag_001_014_1339 > > > > However, when exercising this functionality, mail(1) on OpenBSD > (also tested on FreeBSD where the same issue manifests[1]) doesn't > support this: > > demo$ echo test | mail -s "test" demo # send self a message > demo$ mail > Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help. > "/var/mail/demo": 1 message 1 new > >N 1 d...@localhost.my.do Thu Dec 15 19:34 19/775 "test" > & s > No file specified. > > While I'm not positive on the solution, I think it involves tweaking > the save1() function in src/usr.bin/mail/cmd2.c such that instead > of failing if it can't snarf(), it should set `file` to "mbox" or > "&" so that expand() points to the mbox as required by POSIX. > > -tkc > > [1] > https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=268402 >
hi. currently mail(1) has these entries in FILES: FILES /var/mail/* post office (unless overridden by the MAIL environment variable) ~/mbox user's old mail isn;t it the case that openbsd uses mailboxes in /var/mail by default, instead of ~/mbox, as displayed? it seems that mail(1) is really out of date regarding default mail spool entries, but i may well have misunderstood the situation. once it's clear, i can see if we need a code fix (out of my hands) or doc fix. jmc