Using VMS Mail

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Users on Gemini

To send e-mail to another user on Gemini, you simply use that person's username. To look up someone's username on Gemini, use the finger command:
  1. At the $ prompt, type: finger martha
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Users on TTUMIS

To send e-mail to a user on TTUMIS (the administrative system), you use that person's username preceeded by ttumis:: (e.g. ttumis::beg1234). It is not currently possible from Gemini to use finger to look up TTUMIS usernames, so you will need to call that person to get his or her username. Contents

Users Elsewhere on the Internet

Internet e-mail addresses are of the form someone@somewhere (for example, joe@foo.moo.edu or xyz41@apple.com). You'll need to contact your intended recipient to find the correct e-mail address. Your Internet e-mail address is your_username@tntech.edu (e.g.jqu1234@tntech.edu).

Entering MAIL

  1. At the $ prompt, type: mail
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Getting Help

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: help
  2. To exit help, press [ENTER] until you are back at the MAIL> prompt.
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Sending a Message

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  2. At the To: prompt, type: your neighbor's username
  3. At the Subject: prompt, type: My First Message
  4. Type a short message; when you are finished, press: CTRL-Z
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Reading a Message

You should receive a new mail message from your neighbor. To list and read the new message, do the following:
  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir newmail
  2. Note that NEWMAIL (the current folder) appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
  3. To read the first message, press: [ENTER]
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Replying to a Message

Reply to your neighbor by following the steps below:
  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: reply
  2. The original message will appear quoted. Use EVE's Select and Cut options, if desired, to remove the header information.
  3. Move the cursor to the bottom and type your reply. When you are ready to send the reply, press CTRL-Z.
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Setting Carbon Copies Prompt

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: set cc_prompt
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Forwarding a Message

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir newmail
  2. At the MAIL> prompt, select message 1 and press [ENTER]
  3. At the MAIL> prompt, type: forward/noedit
  4. At the To: prompt, type: beg
  5. At the CC: prompt, type: your username
  6. At the Subject: prompt, type: Test of Forwarding
  7. To see the list of messages already read, select the MAIL folder by typing: dir mail
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Cancelling a Message without Sending

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  2. At the To: prompt, type: your neighbor's username
  3. At the CC: prompt, press: [ENTER]
  4. At the Subject: prompt, press: [ENTER]
  5. Type a short message. When you are finished, to cancel without sending, press PF4 (labelled as a - on the keypad to the right of the main keyboard on PCs).
  6. At the Command: prompt, type: quit
  7. To continue quitting when prompted, press: [ENTER]
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Using Folders

Folders allow you to organize your messages. By default, you already have three folders: NEWMAIL, MAIL, and WASTEBASKET.
  1. Type: dir newmail
  2. Type: dir mail
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Deleting a Message

  1. Delete message #1 by typing the following at the MAIL> prompt: del 1
  2. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir
  3. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir wastebasket
  4. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir mail
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Extracting a Message into a File

  1. Read a message by typing its number at the MAIL> prompt.
  2. At the MAIL> prompt, type: extract example.txt
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Printing a Message

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: exit
  2. At the $ prompt, type: dir example.txt
  3. At the $ prompt, type: rprint example.txt
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Sending a Message to an Internet Address

To send e-mail to a user elsewhere on the Internet, you use that person's e-mail address, enclosed in quotes and preceeded by the letters in% (e.g. in%jdoe@uxa.uiuc.edu). There is no universal lookup service available. Your best bet is to call that person and ask for the e-mail address. If this is not practical, you might check the phonebooks directory in Gopher to see if you can find the address there (Choose Other Internet Services and Information/ and then Phonebooks/).
  1. At the $ prompt, type: mail
  2. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  3. At the To: prompt, type: in%łttul@ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us
  4. At the CC: prompt, press [ENTER]
  5. At the Subject: prompt, type: Hello from Tennessee Tech
  6. Type a short message.
  7. Press CTRL-Z to send the message.
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E-mail Discussion Lists

You can use mail to join e-mail lists where many people discuss common interests. Once you have subscribed to a list, you will begin receiving messages from everyone involved in the discussion. You can also send messages to everyone subscribed to the group. Lists of available e-mail discussion groups, and instructions for subscribing and posting to each list, can be found in many Internet books or in Gopher (Other Internet Services and Information/ -> Virtual Reference Desk/ -> Electronic Forums (listservs)/). For most lists, there are two addresses with which you will be concerned. The first is the address to send subscription and other administrative requets (e.g. listserv@ukcc.uky.edu); the other is the address to send messsages to be posted to everyone signed up for that list (e.g. bgrass-l@ukcc.uky.edu). Be careful to follow the instructions given with a list description to make sure you are sending to the appropriate address.
  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  2. At the To: prompt, type: in%listserv@ukcc.uky.edu
  3. At the CC: prompt, press [ENTER]
  4. At the Subject: prompt, press [ENTER]
  5. Type the following as your message (nothing else): help
  6. Press CTRL-Z to send the message.
  7. When you get a message back from the listserv, type: dir newmail
  8. At the MAIL> prompt, type: the # of that message to read it.
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Deciphering Bounced Messages

Sometimes a message you sent to an Internet address is bounced back to you, with a message from the postmaster. Careful examination of the bounced message will reveal the reason for delivery failure. After the message header, look for a line such as Reason for remote system rejecting: The reason will usually be either user unknown or unknown host/domain. The first, user unknown, means that something is wrong with the username you typed before the @ sign. The second means that something is wrong with the location you typed after the @ sign. Carefully examine what you typed, looking for a typo. If no typos are evident (a common mistake is typing an l for a 1 - such as vml instead of vm1), contact the person from whom you got the address and make sure that you transcribed it properly.
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Creating and Using a Distribution List

A distribution list allows you to send mail to a group of users without needing to type in all of the usernames every time you send them a message.
  1. At the $ prompt, type: edit class.dis
  2. Once you are in the EVE editor, type in a list of usernames provided by the instructor.
  3. Save the file by pressing CTRL-Z.
  4. At the $ prompt, type: mail
  5. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  6. At the To: prompt, type: class
  7. At the CC: prompt, press [ENTER]
  8. At the Subject: prompt, type: Class Distribution
  9. Enter a short message, and press CTRL-Z to send it to everyone on the distribution list.
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Creating New Folders

  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: dir mail
  2. Select a message by typing its number.
  3. At the MAIL> prompt, type: move example
  4. MAIL will respond with:
  5. Type: y
  6. Select another message and type: move example
  7. Select your class folder by typing: dir example
  8. Get a list of all folders by typing: dir/folders
  9. Select the MAIL folder by typing: dir mail
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Compressing Your MAIL File

When you delete mail messages, they are marked as deleted, but the space they occupy may remain allocated. Consequently, the file that stores most of your mail, mail.mai, may become very large. To free up this space, you may need to periodically use the compress command.
  1. At the MAIL> prompt, type: compress
  2. At the MAIL> prompt, type: exit
  3. At the $ prompt, type: dir/siz [.mail]mail.*
  4. At the $ prompt, type: delete [.mail]mail.old;*
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Creating and Using Logical Names for MAIL

You can create nicknames for users to whom you regularly send mail by using logical names. This is accomplished by inserting one or more lines in your login.com file of the following format: $ define/nolog logical_name e-mail_address ! Personal_name
  1. At the $ prompt, type: edit login.com
  2. Once you are in the editor, insert the following line as instructed in your login.com file: 
    $ define/nolog barbara beg  ! Barbara Goodson
  3. Press CTRL-Z to save the changes to your login.com file.
  4. At the $ prompt, type: @login Note: you can also create logical names for Internet addresses. Here's an example: 
    $ define/nolog barbara in%"beg@tntech.edu"  ! Barbara
Goodson
  5. At the $ prompt, type: mail
  6. At the MAIL> prompt, type: send
  7. At the To: prompt, type: barbara
  8. At the CC: prompt, type: your username
  9. At the Subject: prompt, type: Logical Name Example
  10. Enter a message with the EVE editor. Press CTRL-Z to send it.
  11. At the MAIL> prompt, type: exit
  12. At the $ prompt, type: finger beg
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Maintained by:
Academic Computing Support
D.W. Mattson Computer Center
Tennessee Technological University
Revised September, 1996