Übergibson

Another way to configure the bash shell so that it doesn’t alert you to new email is to set the MAILCHECK environment variable to a negative number, like this:

/home/micha/.bashrc:

export MAILCHECK=-1

From the bash(1) manpage:

Specifies how often (in seconds) bash checks for mail. The default is 60 seconds. When it is time to check for mail, the shell does so before displaying the primary prompt. If this variable is unset, or set to a value that is not a number greater than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.