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<title>GNU Mailutils Manual: dot.biffrc</title>

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<a name="dot_002ebiffrc"></a>
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<p>
Previous: <a href="Configuring-comsatd.html#Configuring-comsatd" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Configuring comsatd</a>, Up: <a href="comsatd.html#comsatd" accesskey="u" rel="up">comsatd</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Function-Index.html#Function-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<hr>
<a name="A-per_002duser-Configuration-File"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">3.15.3 A per-user Configuration File</h4>

<p>By default, when a notification arrives, <code>comsatd</code> prints subject,
from headers and the first five lines from the new message to the user&rsquo;s
tty.  The user is allowed to change this behavior by using his own
configuration file.  This file should be located in the user&rsquo;s home
directory and should be named <samp>.biffrc</samp>.  It must be owned by the
user and have its permissions bits set to 0600. (<em>Please note</em>,
that the use of per-user configuration files may be disabled, by
specifying &lsquo;<samp>allow-biffrc no</samp>&rsquo; in the main configuration file, see
see <a href="Configuring-comsatd.html#Configuring-comsatd">Configuring comsatd</a>).
</p>
<p>The <samp>.biffrc</samp> file consists of a series of statements.  Each
statement occupies one line and defines an action to be taken upon
arrival of a new mail.  Very long lines may be split using &lsquo;<samp>\</samp>&rsquo; as
the last character on the line.  As usual, comments may be introduced with
&lsquo;<samp>#</samp>&rsquo; character.
</p>
<p>The actions specified in <samp>.biffrc</samp> file are executed in turn.
The following actions are defined:
</p>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt>beep</dt>
<dd><p>Produce an audible signal.
</p></dd>
<dt>echo [-n] <var>string</var> [<var>string</var>...]</dt>
<dd><p>Output the arguments to the user&rsquo;s terminal device.  If several
arguments are given they will be output separated by single
spaces.  The newline character will be printed at the end of the
output, unless the <samp>-n</samp> option is used.
</p></dd>
<dt>exec <var>prog</var> <var>arglist</var></dt>
<dd><p>Execute program <var>prog</var> with arguments from <var>arglist</var>.  <var>prog</var>
must be specified with absolute pathname.  It may not be a setuid or
setgid program.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>In the description above, <var>string</var> denotes any sequence of
characters.  This sequence must be enclosed in a pair of double-quotes,
if it contains whitespace characters.  The &lsquo;<samp>\</samp>&rsquo; character inside a
string starts a C escape sequence.  Following meta-characters may be
used in strings:
</p>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt>$u</dt>
<dd><p>Expands to username
</p></dd>
<dt>$h</dt>
<dd><p>Expands to hostname
</p></dd>
<dt>$H{name}</dt>
<dd><p>Expands to value of message header &lsquo;<samp>name</samp>&rsquo;.
</p></dd>
<dt>$B(<var>c</var>,<var>l</var>)</dt>
<dd><p>Expands to message body.  <var>c</var> and <var>l</var> give maximum number of
characters and lines in the expansion.  When omitted, they default to 400, 5.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Example-I"></a>
<h4 class="subsubheading">Example I</h4>

<p>Dump to the user&rsquo;s terminal the contents of &lsquo;<samp>From</samp>&rsquo; and
&lsquo;<samp>Subject</samp>&rsquo; headers followed by at most 5 lines of message body.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">echo &quot;Mail to \a$u@$h\a\n---\n\
From: $H{from}\n\
Subject: $H{Subject}\n\
---\n\
$B(,5)\
---\n&quot;
</pre></div>

<p>The above example can also be written as:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">echo Mail to \a$u@$h\a
echo ---
echo From: $H{From}
echo Subject: $H{Subject}
echo ---
echo $B(,5)
echo ---
</pre></div>

<a name="Example-II"></a>
<h4 class="subsubheading">Example II</h4>

<p>Produce a bell, then pop up the xmessage window on display :0.0 with
the text formatted in the same manner as in the previous example.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">beep
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/xmessage \
-display :0.0 -timeout 10 &quot;Mail to $u@$h \n---\n\
From: $H{from}\n\
Subject: $H{Subject}\n\
---\n\
$B(,5)\
---\n&quot;
</pre></div>

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