Linux and UNIX Man Pages

Linux & Unix Commands - Search Man Pages

mesg(1) [php man page]

MESG(1)                                                            User Commands                                                           MESG(1)

NAME
mesg - display (or do not display) messages from other users SYNOPSIS
mesg [option] [n|y] DESCRIPTION
The mesg utility is invoked by a user to control write access others have to the terminal device associated with standard error output. If write access is allowed, then programs such as talk(1) and write(1) may display messages on the terminal. Traditionally, write access is allowed by default. However, as users become more conscious of various security risks, there is a trend to remove write access by default, at least for the primary login shell. To make sure your ttys are set the way you want them to be set, mesg should be executed in your login scripts. ARGUMENTS
n Disallow messages. y Allow messages to be displayed. If no arguments are given, mesg shows the current message status on standard error output. OPTIONS
-v, --verbose Explain what is being done. -V, --version Display version information and exit. -h, --help Display help text and exit. EXIT STATUS
The mesg utility exits with one of the following values: 0 Messages are allowed. 1 Messages are not allowed. >1 An error has occurred. FILES
/dev/[pt]ty[pq]? SEE ALSO
login(1), talk(1), write(1), wall(1), xterm(1) HISTORY
A mesg command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. AVAILABILITY
The mesg command is part of the util-linux package and is available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/. util-linux July 2014 MESG(1)

Check Out this Related Man Page

WRITE(1)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							  WRITE(1)

NAME
write - send a message to another user SYNOPSIS
write user [ttyname] DESCRIPTION
Write allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from your terminal to theirs. When you run the write command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form: Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ... Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's terminal. If the other user wants to reply, they must run write as well. When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. The other user will see the message EOF indicating that the conversation is over. You can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you with the mesg(1) command. Some commands, for example nroff(1) and pr(1), may disallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten. If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the ter- minal name as the second operand to the write command. Alternatively, you can let write select one of the terminals - it will pick the one with the shortest idle time. This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from home, the message will go to the right place. The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string `-o', either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the other person's turn to talk. The string `oo' means that the person believes the conversation to be over. SEE ALSO
mesg(1), talk(1), who(1) HISTORY
A write command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. AVAILABILITY
The write command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/. 12 March 1995 WRITE(1)
Man Page