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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>biff</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="BiCapitalization.html" title="BiCapitalization"/><link rel="next" href="big-iron.html" title="big iron"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">biff</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="BiCapitalization.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="big-iron.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="biff"/><dt xmlns="" id="biff"><b>biff</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/bif/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">vt.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [now rare] To notify someone of incoming mail. From the BSD utility
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">biff</span>(1)</span>,
which was in turn named after a friendly dog who used to chase frisbees in
the halls at UCB while 4.2BSD was in development. There was a legend that
it had a habit of barking whenever the mailman came, but the author of
<b class="command">biff</b> says this is not true. No relation to
<a href="B1FF.html"><i class="glossterm">B1FF</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="BiCapitalization.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="big-iron.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">BiCapitalization </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> big iron</td></tr></table></div></body></html>