3.5.2.2 Quitting the Program

Following commands quit the program:

Mail command: quit

Terminates the session. The messages, marked with delete are removed. The messages in state ‘read’ and ‘saved’ are processed depending on the mailbox they are in.

If mail was operating on the user system mailbox, all messages in state ‘read’ are preserved. The location where they are preserved is determined by the hold variable. If it is not set (the default), the messages are moved to the user’s mbox. If hold is set, the messages are held in the system mailbox instead.

The default behavior for ‘saved’ messages is to remove them from the system mailbox. If, however, the keepsave variable is set, they are preserved using the same rules as for ‘read’ messages.

For non-system mailboxes, both ‘read’ and ‘saved’ messages are retained in their current location.

The same rules are followed when the mailbox is switched using the file command.

The program exits to the shell, unless saving the mailbox fails, in which case user can escape with the exit command.

Mail command: exit

Mail command: ex

Mail command: xit

Program exits to the shell without modifying the mailbox it operates upon.

Typing EOF (‘C-D’) alone is equivalent to ‘quit’.