The mail program is a quick, simple email client. Most people want a more powerful program for regular use, but for quick messages from the command line or in scripts, mail is really handy.

To send a quick message:

➜ mail [email protected]
Subject: my subject
I'm typing a message.
To end it, I type a period by itself on a line.

.              Ends the message
EOT
➜

To send a quick message using a single command, use a pipeline:

➜ echo "Hello world" | mail -s "subject" [email protected]

To mail a file using a single command, you can use redirection or a pipeline:

➜ mail -s "my subject" [email protected] < filename
➜ cat filename | mail -s "my subject" [email protected]

Notice how easily you can send the output of a pipeline as an email message; this is useful in scripts.

Useful options