mailx for an ATT 3B1

[Gary S. Trujillo]

In article <4529 at megaron.arizona.edu> lm at megaron.arizona.edu (Larry McVoy) writes:
>In article <1089 at unisec.usi.com> dpw at unisec.USI.COM (Darryl P. Wagoner) writes:
> >It seems to me that mailx is a port from BSD /usr/ucb/[Mm]ail,  if so how 
> >can it be AT&T proprietary?  
> 
> A)  Most BSD code is derived from AT&T code.
> B)  AT&T did a lot of work on their "port"; Mailx has many nifty features
>     not in BSD's Mail.

There is actually a mail system that supposedly has the look and feel of mailx.
It was written by Emmet P. Gray, who brought us that *very* nice goodie for
dealing with MS-DOS floppies he calls "mtools".  I have not used this mail
system a great deal (I mainly use Dave Taylor's "elm").  But when I did use it,
it felt a whole lot like Berkeley mail, which I have used for years and years.
I believe Emmet keeps an eye on comp.sys.att, so perhaps there's something from
him on its way.  Meanwhile here's the Readme file from Emmet's distribution.

| This is a extended mail system designed to replace the standard /bin/mail
| and /bin/rmail.  It is functionly the same as the Berkley [sic] 'Mail' or
| the AT&T 'mailx'.
| 
| The program is set-group-id to 'mail' but is NOT set-user-id to 'root'.
| Therefore, the '/usr/mail' directory must have write permission to the group.
| Likewise, the individual spool files must have 660 permission with 'mail' as
| the group.  If you replace /bin/mail, remeber to link this to rmail.
| 
| This code is 80% from the net, and 20% from me.  The original code was
| posted to net.sources on Nov 27, 1985 by xtest at pyuxii.UUCP
| 
| I have 'Berkleyized' it quite a bit:
| 
| 	1) it now has 'Cc' (carbon copy)
| 	2) the printing of the index is assumed
| 	3) the default file with the -f option is $HOME/mbox.
| 	4) the escape character while writing mail is '~'
| 	5) added the ~r (read) command
| 	6) 'answer' feature looks a lot like 'reply' now.
| 	7) a number preceding a command will force the current letter
| 	   to become that number.
| 
| The the shell script 'boxes.sh' will create the appropriate mail boxes
| for all users in the /etc/passwd file.
| 
| Emmet P. Gray				US Army, HQ III Corps & Fort Hood
| ..!ihnp4!uiucuxc!fthood!egray		Attn: AFZF-DE-ENV
| 					DEH, Environmental & Natural Resources
| 					  Management Office
| 					Fort Hood, TX 76544-5057
--
Gary S. Trujillo			{ihnp4,linus,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!gnosys!gst
Somerville, Massachusetts		     {cirl,ima,stech,wjh12}!gnosys!gst

-- 
Gary S. Trujillo			{ihnp4,linus,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!gnosys!gst
Somerville, Massachusetts		     {cirl,ima,stech,wjh12}!gnosys!gst