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