from
Display mail sender information from a mailbox
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
from [options] [user]
DESCRIPTION
from displays a summary of the "From" lines in a mailbox, showing who mail is from. It reads the system mailbox (typically /var/mail/username) and displays sender information for each message.The tool provides a quick overview of pending mail without opening a full mail client. With -s, it also shows subject lines for quick scanning of message content. This is useful for checking mail status in shell scripts, cron jobs, or quick terminal checks.
PARAMETERS
USER
Username to check mail for (reads their system mailbox).-s
Show the Subject line along with the sender.-c
Print only the count of messages.-f FILE
Read from the specified mailbox file instead of the default.
CAVEATS
Only works with mbox format mailboxes. May not work with modern mail delivery systems (Maildir, IMAP). Limited to local mail stored in traditional Unix mbox files.
HISTORY
from is a classic BSD utility for checking local mail, originating from 4.2BSD. It predates modern mail systems and works with traditional Unix mbox format files.
