On Unix-like operating systems, biff is a program that notifies you at the command line when new mail arrives, and tell you who it is from.

The program is named after a dog that belonged to one of the developers of BSD 4.0 at the University of California, Berkeley. (Biff was well-known for barking at the person delivering the mail.)

Syntax

biff [ y | n ]

Options

Examples

biff y

Enables mail alerts. This command displays no output, but when you have new mail, it alerts you at the terminal.

  • Syntax
  • Options
  • Examples
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  • Linux commands help

mail — Read, compose, and manage mail.pine — A client for using mail and newsgroups.