from(1)

from1

Print names of those who have sent mail

Usage

from [-f file] [-s sender] [user]

Overview

from prints out the mail header lines from the invoker's mailbox.

The options are as follows:

-f file

The supplied file is examined instead of the invoker's mailbox. If the -f option is used, the user argument should not be used.

-s sender

Only mail from addresses containing the supplied string are printed.

If user is given, the user's mailbox is examined instead of the invoker's own mailbox. (Privileges are required.)

Environment

from utilizes the LOGNAME, MAIL, and USER environment variables.

If the MAIL environment variable is set, its value is used as the path to the user's mail spool.

Files

/var/mail/*

Releases

61 releases since OpenBSD 2.1; the text changed 10 times.

  1. 2.1–2.3
  2. 2.4–2.5
  3. 2.6
  4. 2.7–2.8
  5. 2.9–3.3
  6. 3.4–4.0
  7. 4.1
  8. 4.2–5.0
  9. 5.1–5.4
  10. 5.5–5.7
  11. 5.8–8.0

History

The from command appeared in 2BSD.

Authors

Bill Joy, 1979.

From man 8.0-current-20261101 in OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.