1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 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.\" @(#)msgs.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/28/95 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd August 8, 2018 32.Dt MSGS 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm msgs 36.Nd system messages and junk mail program 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl fhlpq 40.Op Ar number 41.Op Ar \-number 42.Nm 43.Op Fl s 44.Nm 45.Op Fl c 46.Op \-days 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48The 49.Nm 50utility is used to read system messages. 51These messages are 52sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 53pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 54of the system. 55.Pp 56The 57.Nm 58utility is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 59.Pa .login 60(or 61.Pa .profile 62if you use 63.Xr sh 1 ) . 64It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 65If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 66message will be displayed. 67If there is more to the message, you will be told how 68long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 69The possible responses are: 70.Bl -tag -width Fl 71.It Fl y 72Type the rest of the message. 73.It Ic RETURN 74Synonym for y. 75.It Fl n 76Skip this message 77and go on to the next message. 78.It Fl 79Redisplay the last message. 80.It Fl q 81Drop out of 82.Nm ; 83the next time 84.Nm 85will pick up where it last left off. 86.It Fl s 87Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 88`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. 89A `s' or `s\-' may 90be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing 91the default ``Messages''. 92.It Fl m 93A copy of the specified message is placed in a temporary 94mailbox and 95.Xr mail 1 96is invoked on that mailbox. 97Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. 98.El 99.Pp 100The 101.Nm 102utility keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file 103.Pa \&.msgsrc 104in your home directory. 105In the directory 106.Pa /var/msgs 107it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers 108of the messages they represent. 109The file 110.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 111shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory 112so that 113.Nm 114can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. 115If the contents of 116.Pa bounds 117is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; 118.Nm 119will make a new 120.Pa bounds 121file the next time it is run with the 122.Fl s 123option. 124If 125.Nm 126is run with any option other than 127.Fl s , 128an error will be displayed if 129.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 130does not exist. 131.Pp 132The 133.Fl s 134option is used for setting up the posting of messages. 135The line 136.Pp 137.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 138.Pp 139should be included in 140.Pa /etc/mail/aliases 141(see 142.Xr newaliases 1 ) 143to enable posting of messages. 144.Pp 145The 146.Fl c 147option is used for performing cleanup on 148.Pa /var/msgs . 149A shell script entry to run 150.Nm 151with the 152.Fl c 153option should be placed in 154.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 155(see 156.Xr periodic 8 ) 157to run every night. 158This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 159A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 160the default. 161You must be the superuser to use this option. 162.Pp 163Options when reading messages include: 164.Bl -tag -width Fl 165.It Fl f 166Do not say ``No new messages.''. 167This is useful in a 168.Pa .login 169file since this is often the case here. 170.It Fl q 171Queries whether there are messages, printing 172``There are new messages.'' if there are. 173The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. 174.It Fl h 175Print the first part of messages only. 176.It Fl l 177Cause only locally originated messages to be reported. 178.It Ar num 179A message number can be given 180on the command line, causing 181.Nm 182to start at the specified message rather than at the next message 183indicated by your 184.Pa \&.msgsrc 185file. 186Thus 187.Pp 188.Dl msgs \-h 1 189.Pp 190prints the first part of all messages. 191.It Ar \-number 192Start 193.Ar number 194messages back from the one indicated in the 195.Pa \&.msgsrc 196file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 197.It Fl p 198Pipe long messages through 199.Xr less 1 . 200.El 201.Pp 202Within 203.Nm 204you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when 205.Nm 206requests input as to what to do. 207.Sh ENVIRONMENT 208The 209.Nm 210utility uses the 211.Ev HOME 212and 213.Ev TERM 214environment variables for the default home directory and 215terminal type. 216.Sh FILES 217.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 218.It Pa /var/msgs/* 219database 220.It Pa ~/.msgsrc 221number of next message to be presented 222.El 223.Sh SEE ALSO 224.Xr mail 1 , 225.Xr less 1 , 226.Xr aliases 5 , 227.Xr periodic 8 228.Sh HISTORY 229The 230.Nm 231command appeared in 232.Bx 3.0 . 233