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NAME

       msgchk - check for messages

SYNOPSIS

       msgchk [-date | -nodate] [-notify all/mail/nomail ] [-nonotify
            all/mail/nomail ] [-host hostname] [-user username] [-apop |
            -noapop] [-kpop] [-sasl] [-saslmech mechanism] [-snoop] [users
            [-version] [-help]

DESCRIPTION

       The msgchk program checks all known mail drops  for  mail  waiting  for
       you.   For those drops which have mail for you, msgchk will indicate if
       it believes that you have seen the mail in question before.

       The -notify type  switch  indicates  under  what  circumstances  msgchk
       should  produce  a message.  The default is -notify all which says that
       msgchk should always report the status of the  users  maildrop.   Other
       values  for  ‘type’ include ‘mail’ which says that msgchk should report
       the status of waiting mail; and, ‘nomail’ which says that msgchk should
       report  the  status  of empty maildrops.  The -nonotify type switch has
       the inverted sense, so -nonotify all directs msgchk to never report the
       status  of  maildrops.   This  is  useful  if  the user wishes to check
       msgchk’s exit status.  A non-zero exit status indicates that  mail  was
       not waiting for at least one of the indicated users.

       If  msgchk  produces  output,  then  the -date switch directs msgchk to
       print out the last date mail was read, if this can be determined.

   Using POP
       msgchk will normally check all the local mail drops, but if the  option
       “pophost:”  is  set in the mts configuration file “mts.conf”, or if the
       -host hostname switch is given, msgchk will query this POP service host
       as to the status of mail waiting.

       The  default  is for msgchk to assume that your account name on the POP
       server is the same as your current username.  To  specify  a  different
       username, use the ‘-user username’ switch.

       When  using  POP,  you will normally need to type the password for your
       account on the POP server, in order to retrieve your messages.   It  is
       possible   to  automate  this  process  by  creating  a  “.netrc”  file
       containing your login account information for  this  POP  server.   For
       each  POP  server,  this file should have a line of the following form.
       Replace the words mypopserver, mylogin, and mypassword  with  your  own
       account information.

            machine mypopserver login mylogin password mypassword

       This “.netrc” file should be owned and readable only by you.

       For debugging purposes, there is also a switch -snoop, which will allow
       you to watch the POP transaction take place between  you  and  the  POP
       server.

       If nmh has been compiled with APOP support, the -apop switch will cause
       msgchk to use APOP rather than  standard  POP3  authentication.   Under
       APOP,     a     unique     string     (generally    of    the    format
       <pid.timestamp@hostname>) is announced by the POP server.  Rather  than
       ‘USER  user’,  ‘PASS  password’, msgchk sends ‘APOP user digest’, where
       digest is the MD5 hash of the unique  string  followed  by  a  ‘secret’
       shared  by  client  and  server,  essentially  equivalent to the user’s
       password (though an APOP-enabled POP3 server could have  separate  APOP
       and  plain POP3 passwords for a single user).  -noapop disables APOP in
       cases where it’d otherwise be used.

       If nmh has been compiled with KPOP support, the -kpop switch will allow
       msgchk  to  use  Kerberized  POP  rather  than standard POP3 on a given
       invocation.  If POPSERVICE was also #defined to "kpop", msgchk will  be
       hardwired to always use KPOP.

       If  nmh  has  been  compiled  with  SASL support, the -sasl switch will
       enable the use of SASL authentication.  Depending on the SASL mechanism
       used, this may require an additional password prompt from the user (but
       the “.netrc” file can be used to store this password).   The  -saslmech
       switch can be used to select a particular SASL mechanism.

       If  SASL  authentication is successful, inc will attempt to negotiate a
       security layer for session encryption.  Encrypted traffic  is  labelled
       with  ‘(encrypted)’  and ‘(decrypted)’ when viewing the POP transaction
       with the -snoop switch.

FILES

       $HOME/.mh_profile          The user profile
       /etc/nmh/mts.conf          nmh mts configuration file
       /var/mail/$USER            Location of mail drop

PROFILE COMPONENTS

       None

SEE ALSO

       inc(1)

DEFAULTS

user’ defaults to the current user
       ‘-date’
       ‘-notify all

CONTEXT

       None