Why mailx -e command doesn't work

techie_san778 · 02-02-2014, 02:54 AM

Hello Everybody,

The command mailx -e does not work. I find the command in the man page for mailx. Could anyone suggest me the solution ?
This is the system output when i try to execute the command :
[san@localhost ~]$ mailx -e
mailx: invalid option -- e
Usage: mail [-iInv] [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr] to-addr ...
[-- sendmail-options ...]
mail [-iInNv] -f [name]
mail [-iInNv] [-u user]
[san@localhost ~]$

Thanks in advance..
Regards
San

jdkaye · 02-02-2014, 03:26 AM

I cannot find any -e option in man mailx. What exactly are you looking for? I found -E but no -e among the options.
jdk

techie_san778 · 02-02-2014, 03:38 AM

Hi jdkaye,

Here is an excerpt from the man page..
OPTIONS
The mailx utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2,
Utility Syntax Guidelines.

The following options shall be supported. (Only the -s subject option shall be required on all sys-
tems. The other options are required only on systems supporting the User Portability Utilities
option.)

-e Test for the presence of mail in the system mailbox. The mailx utility shall write nothing and
exit with a successful return code if there is mail to read.

jdkaye · 02-02-2014, 04:28 AM

I think we have totally different versions of mailx or maybe it's down to the distro. I have no idea what distro you're using nor what version of mailx you're using. I'm using bsd-mailx Version: 8.1.2-0.20131005cvs-1.
jdk

jpollard · 02-02-2014, 04:33 AM

Works here.

Your error message isn't valid for the mailx utility. You might check for possible aliases.

What I get for a bad option is:

Code:

$ mailx -z
mailx: illegal option -- z
Usage: mailx -eiIUdEFntBDNHRV~ -T FILE -u USER -h hops -r address -s SUBJECT -a FILE -q FILE -f FILE -A ACCOUNT -b USERS -c USERS -S OPTION users
$

techie_san778 · 02-02-2014, 06:10 AM

@ jdkaye and jpollard,

I am using mailx Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. I believe this is Berkeley Mail. If the -e option is not working then the question is, the man page is referring to which mailx ??.
I also checked whether the command is working in a if [ ] construct inside a script, but again i don't see it work.

jdkaye · 02-02-2014, 08:21 AM

And I get this:

Code:

$ mailx -z
mailx: invalid option -- 'z'
usage: mailx [-dEIinv] [-a header] [-b bcc-addr] [-c cc-addr] [-s subject] to-addr ...
             [-- sendmail-options ...]
       mailx [-dEIiNnv] -f [name]
       mailx [-dEIiNnv] [-u user]

jdk

RandomTroll · 02-03-2014, 10:27 PM

mailx -e works for me. -V returns '12.5 7/5/10'. I have the latest version in the Slackware package.

chrism01 · 02-04-2014, 03:17 AM

Centos 6.5, mailx 12.4 7/29/08 : -e works just fine