mail didn't get sent from a compile buffer

[Dan Jacobson]

I have this shell script
$ cat s
mail ${USER?} <<!
xx
!

All I know is if I do (compile "sh s") mail won't get sent, however it
will with M-! sh b, or if I add "echo zzz" etc lines to the bottom of
the file, also running the script from the command line works
fine... anyway, it feels that there has to be some I/O further on in
the file to stimulate the mail to be sent... by the way, a M-! sh s
followed by a (compile "sh s") will cause the compile to send mail...
what a mystery... maybe particular to Mandrake 7.2.  I know, you will
say "the problem doesn't occur on my system".  ${USER?} is not the
problem, as I just put it in for your testing convenience before
posting.

wait, here's another one.

echo oo|mail ${USER?}
echo ff
date

only after I added "date" did the mail get sent, else mail, mailq show
nothing.  nothing in the syslog too, even though sh -x shows they were
supposed to be executed:

 sh -x b
+ echo oo
+ mail jidanni
+ echo ff
ff

I tried /bin/mail and emacs -q --no-site-file and still could
reproduce the problem using the first line only, most of the time.
I use postfix here.
-- 
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