Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Vanishing Mail Notification
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 02:15:09 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <ydjzlqhm6q.fsf@UBEblock.psr.com>
References: <utpkqa$ep7$1@reader1.panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Injection-Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 07:15:00 +0100
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="99675b699b6ade7efd56dd58ef367918";
	logging-data="982023"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+chzy8xOqe50Gt6byl2xtH"
User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:ZTgsOSmKMxg80qlPYcOtl61asbQ=
	sha1:V259pygnB7yicK+Vhg9nV1hRc64=
Mail-Copies-To: never
Bytes: 1616

Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> writes:
> For some reason my newest install doesn't
> precede prompts with "You have new mail in /var/mail/le"
> as appropriate.
> What turns this on or off?

> ("You have new mail" still appears on login).

Your shell usually does that, and the answer would depend on which type
of shell you use.  man {your shell} and search for mail.

For sh-type shells, I think just setting the environment variable MAIL
is enough to have it check the mailbox.

For csh-type shells, there's setenv mail your-mailbox, but also look at
the special aliases "periodic", "tperiod", "precmd", and "postcmd".
Of the special aliases, check precmd and tperiod first.
 -WBE