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.\" 4. 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.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd May 5, 2002 32.Dt MESG 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm mesg 36.Nd display (do not display) messages from other users 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Cm n | Cm y 40.Sh DESCRIPTION 41The 42.Nm 43utility is invoked by a user to control write access others 44have to a terminal device. 45Write access is allowed by default, and programs such as 46.Xr talk 1 47and 48.Xr write 1 49may display messages on the terminal. 50.Pp 51The first terminal device in the sequence of devices associated with standard 52input, standard output and standard error is affected. 53.Pp 54The following options are available: 55.Bl -tag -width indent 56.It Cm n 57Disallow messages. 58.It Cm y 59Permit messages to be displayed. 60.El 61.Pp 62If no arguments are given, 63.Nm 64displays the present message status to the standard output. 65.Sh EXIT STATUS 66The 67.Nm 68utility exits with one of the following values: 69.Pp 70.Bl -tag -width flag -compact -offset indent 71.It Li "\ 0" 72Messages are allowed. 73.It Li "\ 1" 74Messages are not allowed. 75.It Li ">1" 76An error has occurred. 77.El 78.Sh EXAMPLES 79Disallow messages from other users to the current terminal: 80.Pp 81.Dl "mesg n" 82.Pp 83Allow messages from other users to 84.Pa ttyp1 85(assuming you are also logged in on that terminal): 86.Pp 87.Dl "mesg y </dev/ttyp1" 88.Sh COMPATIBILITY 89Previous versions of the 90.Nm 91utility wrote the message status to the standard error output and 92affected the terminal attached to standard error without first trying the 93standard input or output devices. 94.Sh SEE ALSO 95.Xr biff 1 , 96.Xr talk 1 , 97.Xr wall 1 , 98.Xr write 1 99.Sh STANDARDS 100The 101.Nm 102utility conforms to 103.St -p1003.1-2001 . 104.Sh HISTORY 105A 106.Nm 107command appeared in 108.At v1 . 109