1.\" Copyright (c) 1987, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)mesg.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" 30.Dd May 5, 2002 31.Dt MESG 1 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm mesg 35.Nd display (do not display) messages from other users 36.Sh SYNOPSIS 37.Nm 38.Op Cm n | Cm y 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40The 41.Nm 42utility is invoked by a user to control write access others 43have to a terminal device. 44Write access is allowed by default, and programs such as 45.Xr talk 1 46and 47.Xr write 1 48may display messages on the terminal. 49.Pp 50The first terminal device in the sequence of devices associated with standard 51input, standard output and standard error is affected. 52.Pp 53The following options are available: 54.Bl -tag -width indent 55.It Cm n 56Disallow messages. 57.It Cm y 58Permit messages to be displayed. 59.El 60.Pp 61If no arguments are given, 62.Nm 63displays the present message status to the standard output. 64.Sh EXIT STATUS 65The 66.Nm 67utility exits with one of the following values: 68.Pp 69.Bl -tag -width flag -compact -offset indent 70.It Li "\ 0" 71Messages are allowed. 72.It Li "\ 1" 73Messages are not allowed. 74.It Li ">1" 75An error has occurred. 76.El 77.Sh EXAMPLES 78Disallow messages from other users to the current terminal: 79.Pp 80.Dl "mesg n" 81.Pp 82Allow messages from other users to 83.Pa ttyp1 84(assuming you are also logged in on that terminal): 85.Pp 86.Dl "mesg y </dev/ttyp1" 87.Sh COMPATIBILITY 88Previous versions of the 89.Nm 90utility wrote the message status to the standard error output and 91affected the terminal attached to standard error without first trying the 92standard input or output devices. 93.Sh SEE ALSO 94.Xr biff 1 , 95.Xr talk 1 , 96.Xr wall 1 , 97.Xr write 1 98.Sh STANDARDS 99The 100.Nm 101utility conforms to 102.St -p1003.1-2001 . 103.Sh HISTORY 104A 105.Nm 106command appeared in 107.At v1 . 108