howto read root mail /var/mail/root from command line ?

['chris']

hi

howto read root mail /var/mail/root from command line under linux ?

greetings
chris

[Ross Minkov · Accepted solution]

Chris,

One way to do it is -- be root and type mail to read the root mail. See the man page for mail for details. BTW,
root mail is stored in /var/spool/mail/root by default.

Regards,
Ross

[Stuart Browne]

Yup, you can use any console based mail reader.

'mail' (that ross suggested) is one.
'mutt', 'pico' and 'elm' are other options (if you have them installed).

Or if you want to really old-school it, you can just vi $MAIL (all as root).

If you don't want to do things as root, I suggest you re-alias the user 'root' to another user.

[Steven E. Protter]

You can install elm ,which is a pretty nice tool

The mail itself is readable with vi or cat on the /var/mail/root file

elm is my tool of choice.

SEP

[Gopi Sekar]

mail is for simple and basic command line usage. if you want full featured text mail client, you can use either pine or mutt.

[Stuart Browne]

hrm.. yea.. pine.. not pico.. typo..

pico is the editor that comes with pine.. from washington uni..

[Chris Eubank]

I use "mutt". :)

C