Linux mail is out of date, how to update?

Question

I'm trying to use mail to send mail. I want change the "From" field and the -a flag should let me do this. However, it seems like my version of mail doesn't support -a. WHen I try to use it, I get this:

[me@host ~]$ mail -a
mail: invalid option -- a
Usage: mail [-iInv] [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr] to-addr ...
            [-- sendmail-options ...]
       mail [-iInNv] -f [name]
       mail [-iInNv] [-u user]

That looks like an older set of options than the man page I found online: http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?mail

How can I update mail? I tried doing sudo yum update mail but it said there is nothing to update. I am running on Centos 5.2. Is a newer version not available?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 09 '10 at 09:14

Why do you assume its older?

According to the link you provided, the -a flag requires a parameter - so 'mail -a' would not be valid even with that version of mail.

I expect you'll find that this option is feature peculiar to the mail command shipping with (some versions of) BSD.

You might want to have a look at mutt (which allows you to specify the from address as an env var) and is available on Centos/Redhat. But do bear in mind that only trusted users can manipulate the from address when invoking mail locally rather than via SMTP.

Linux mail is out of date, how to update?

1 Answers1