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. 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.\" @(#)msgs.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/28/95 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd April 28, 1995 36.Dt MSGS 1 37.Os BSD 4 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm msgs 40.Nd system messages and junk mail program 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl fhlpq 44.Op Ar number 45.Op Ar \-number 46.Nm msgs 47.Op Fl s 48.Nm msgs 49.Op Fl c 50.Op \-days 51.Sh DESCRIPTION 52.Nm Msgs 53is used to read system messages. 54These messages are 55sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 56pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 57of the system. 58.Pp 59.Nm Msgs 60is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 61.Pa .login 62(or 63.Pa .profile 64if you use 65.Xr sh 1 ) . 66It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 67If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 68message will be displayed. 69If there is more to the message, you will be told how 70long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 71The possible responses are: 72.Bl -tag -width Fl 73.It Fl y 74Type the rest of the message. 75.It Ic RETURN 76Synonym for y. 77.It Fl n 78Skip this message 79and go on to the next message. 80.It Fl 81Redisplay the last message. 82.It Fl q 83Drop out of 84.Nm msgs ; 85the next time 86.Nm 87will pick up where it last left off. 88.It Fl s 89Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 90`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. A `s' or `s\-' may 91be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing 92the default ``Messages''. 93.It Fl m 94A copy of the specified message is placed in a temporary 95mailbox and 96.Xr mail 1 97is invoked on that mailbox. 98Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. 99.El 100.Pp 101.Nm Msgs 102keeps 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. The line 135.Pp 136.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 137.Pp 138should be included in 139.Pa /etc/aliases 140(see 141.Xr newaliases 1 ) 142to enable posting of messages. 143.Pp 144The 145.Fl c 146option is used for performing cleanup on 147.Pa /var/msgs . 148A shell script entry to run 149.Nm 150with the 151.Fl c 152option should be placed in 153.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 154(see 155.Xr periodic 8 ) 156to run every night. This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 157A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 158the default. 159.Pp 160Options when reading messages include: 161.Bl -tag -width Fl 162.It Fl f 163Do not say ``No new messages.''. 164This is useful in a 165.Pa .login 166file since this is often the case here. 167.It Fl q 168Queries whether there are messages, printing 169``There are new messages.'' if there are. 170The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. 171.It Fl h 172Print the first part of messages only. 173.It Fl l 174Option causes only locally originated messages to be reported. 175.It Ar num 176A message number can be given 177on the command line, causing 178.Nm 179to start at the specified message rather than at the next message 180indicated by your 181.Pa \&.msgsrc 182file. 183Thus 184.Pp 185.Dl msgs \-h 1 186.Pp 187prints the first part of all messages. 188.It Ar \-number 189Start 190.Ar number 191messages back from the one indicated in the 192.Pa \&.msgsrc 193file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 194.It Fl p 195Pipe long messages through 196.Xr more 1 . 197.El 198.Pp 199Within 200.Nm 201you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when 202.Nm 203requests input as to what to do. 204.Sh ENVIRONMENT 205.Nm Msgs 206uses the 207.Ev HOME 208and 209.Ev TERM 210environment variables for the default home directory and 211terminal type. 212.Sh FILES 213.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 214.It Pa /var/msgs/* 215database 216.It ~/.msgsrc 217number of next message to be presented 218.El 219.Sh SEE ALSO 220.Xr mail 1 , 221.Xr more 1 , 222.Xr aliases 5 , 223.Xr periodic 8 224.Sh HISTORY 225The 226.Nm 227command appeared in 228.Bx 3.0 . 229