Linux Mail in Terminal

When logging into the terminal you see the message 'You have mail' you have some options:

• View the list of mail:
  • cat /var/spool/mail/root (change root to the username you wanna check)
    
• Delete the mail:
  • > /var/mail/root (this will delete all messages for root - leave the greater than symbol)

Leave the > symbol when executing the delete command! You are in effect redirecting the output of nothing to the file, which will truncate it

Common usernames that will have mail:

• root
• www-data