How to disable the new mail notification in console mode?

retypedef · 05-15-2004, 03:24 AM

Hi, guys

My shell is bash, and whenever I receive a mail in my spool file, I get the
prompt message - you have new mail in /path/to/spool. How can I disable this
function?

Many thx!

retypedef · 05-15-2004, 10:54 PM

It's related to these two environment variables: MAIL & MAILPATH.

shogun1234 · 11-03-2009, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retypedef

It's related to these two environment variables: MAIL & MAILPATH.

So how do you disable it? Or simply redirect it to /dev/null?

gatoatigrado · 03-20-2010, 03:10 AM

I think you can add
export MAIL=
to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
but I'm not sure.

SemiBeard · 03-20-2010, 06:23 PM

try the biff command: 'biff n'

Quote:

Originally Posted by retypedef

Hi, guys

My shell is bash, and whenever I receive a mail in my spool file, I get the
prompt message - you have new mail in /path/to/spool. How can I disable this
function?

Many thx!

saagar · 03-20-2010, 07:21 PM

SemiBeard, useful one, thanks.

gatoatigrado · 03-21-2010, 04:15 AM

SemiBeard, that sounds like a better solution, but it doesn't work with zsh ("biff: command not found"). Do you know if there is a more modern version? Thanks much.