Bug 683232 - BASH checks mail when MAILCHECK=0, contrary to documentation.
Summary: BASH checks mail when MAILCHECK=0, contrary to documentation.
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: bash
Version: 14
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Roman Rakus
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-03-08 21:28 UTC by Paul DeStefano
Modified: 2014-01-13 00:13 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-03-08 23:02:01 UTC
Type: ---


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Description Paul DeStefano 2011-03-08 21:28:48 UTC
Description of problem:
BASH shell checks mail even when MAILCHECK=0, contrary to documentation bash(1).  Or, just update the documentation.  It cost me an hour just because I tried setting it to zero as suggested by the documentation, and it didn't work.  Both unset and -1 work as documented, but the one value I tried doesn't.  I think 0=always (check before every prompt), but the documentation says 0=never.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

GNU bash, version 4.1.7(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)
from RPM bash-4.1.7-3.fc14.x86_64

How reproducible:
Always.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. run bash, MAILCHECK=0
2. get new mail in $MAIL location (or fake it)
3. hit enter in bash shell
4. bash reports new mail
  
Actual results:
bash reports on $MAIL file status.

Expected results:
bash should ignore mail file entirely in accordance with environment settings.

Additional info:

Comment 1 Roman Rakus 2011-03-08 23:02:01 UTC
Reading a man page:
...or  set  to  a  value that is not a number greater than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.

So if the number is equal to zero, the shell does not disable mail checking.

Comment 2 Paul DeStefano 2011-03-08 23:44:37 UTC
Doh!  Oops sorry.


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