How to read email received on a Debian server

Question

I have a VPS (virtual private server) running Debian Linux. When I login using PuTTY the console shows - "You have mail"

I have no idea on how to retrieve this email. Which software do I need to install? Which steps to follow?

Solution 1

Just type mail, it is the most basic way to read the mail. It should be installed by default on a Debian system, it comes from the mailutils package. Read the man page or type ? to figure out commands to use.

But there are better ways to read the mail. As noted earlier, mailx is an improved version. Even more user-friendly are mutt, cone and (al)pine. All of these are packaged by Debian and can be installed by apt-get

Solution 2

I find the mail program difficult to use. The mail is stored in a flat file, so I use vi /var/spool/mail/user and manage it there.

Solution 3

/var/mail/user

or

/var/spool/mail/user

Solution 4

You need some sort of mail client to be configured. I use alpine as it has basic text-GUI and I used it somewhere previously and I am customed to it. Very easy to use, configurable, etc. btw. One way to manage is fetchmail:ing to some other location, if system has mail server installed. Plain .forward file with your mail address in it /home/dir is an option too! Don't create a loop, though!

Solution 5

mailx is present by default on most systems. Type mailx to invoke it. Read the manpages to understand how to navigate the mailx interface.

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Comments

[Haim Cohen]

don`t forget to read with CAT cat /var/mail/root cat /var/spool/mail/root

[Burgi]

This suggestion has been made before. Could you expand on what you are doing differently?

[Hastur]

(al)pine is cosy as pico or nano, so if you feel ok with the latters go with the first.