COMSAT(8C)                           BSD                            COMSAT(8C)



NAME
     comsat - biff server

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/comsat

DESCRIPTION
     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
     seven 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
     /etc/utmp to find out who's logged on and on what terminals

BUGS
     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 machines other than the
     one to which they are currently logged in.

     The notification should appear in a separate window.

SEE ALSO
     biff(1), inetd(8)