On Unix-like operating systems, elm is an interactive e-mail reader and processor.

Description

Elm is an screen-oriented mailer program that supersedes mail and mailx.

  • Description
  • Syntax
  • Options
  • Examples
  • Related commands
  • Linux commands help

There are three main ways to use the elm mailer. One way to use the mailer is to specify a list of addresses on the command line when the mailer is invoked. This allows sending of a single message to the specified recipients with all the options usually available in the elm system itself. For example, the command

elm -s testing joe

…would initiate the sending of a message to the alias joe with the subject “testing” and would put you into an editor for you to enter the text of the message. If the subject flag and argument were not present, you would be prompted for a message subject.

The second way, used most commonly when transmitting files, is to specify the subject of the message and the recipients using the command line and redirect a file as standard input. For example, the command

elm -s testing joe < test.c

…would mail a copy of the file test.c to alias joe, with the subject “testing” indicated. The subject flag and argument are optional.

The third way to invoke elm is with neither subject nor addresses specified on the command line and without standard input redirected. You can then read any messages in your incoming mailbox (or specified folder), reply to messages in the mailbox, mail messages, etc.

Syntax

elm [ -achkKMmrtwz ] [ -f alternate-folder ] [ -d debug-level ]

elm [ -s subject ] list-of-aliases-or-addresses

Options

Examples

elm -z

Opens elm if mail is waiting, or returns to the command prompt if no mail is waiting.

pine — A client for using mail and newsgroups.