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.Dd August 8, 2018 29.Dt MSGS 1 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm msgs 33.Nd system messages and junk mail program 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Nm 36.Op Fl fhlpq 37.Op Ar number 38.Op Ar \-number 39.Nm 40.Op Fl s 41.Nm 42.Op Fl c 43.Op \-days 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45The 46.Nm 47utility is used to read system messages. 48These messages are 49sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 50pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 51of the system. 52.Pp 53The 54.Nm 55utility is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 56.Pa .login 57(or 58.Pa .profile 59if you use 60.Xr sh 1 ) . 61It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 62If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 63message will be displayed. 64If there is more to the message, you will be told how 65long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 66The possible responses are: 67.Bl -tag -width Fl 68.It Fl y 69Type the rest of the message. 70.It Ic RETURN 71Synonym for y. 72.It Fl n 73Skip this message 74and go on to the next message. 75.It Fl 76Redisplay the last message. 77.It Fl q 78Drop out of 79.Nm ; 80the next time 81.Nm 82will pick up where it last left off. 83.It Fl s 84Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 85`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. 86A `s' or `s\-' may 87be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing 88the default ``Messages''. 89.It Fl m 90A copy of the specified message is placed in a temporary 91mailbox and 92.Xr mail 1 93is invoked on that mailbox. 94Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. 95.El 96.Pp 97The 98.Nm 99utility keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file 100.Pa \&.msgsrc 101in your home directory. 102In the directory 103.Pa /var/msgs 104it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers 105of the messages they represent. 106The file 107.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 108shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory 109so that 110.Nm 111can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. 112If the contents of 113.Pa bounds 114is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; 115.Nm 116will make a new 117.Pa bounds 118file the next time it is run with the 119.Fl s 120option. 121If 122.Nm 123is run with any option other than 124.Fl s , 125an error will be displayed if 126.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 127does not exist. 128.Pp 129The 130.Fl s 131option is used for setting up the posting of messages. 132The line 133.Pp 134.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 135.Pp 136should be included in 137.Pa /etc/mail/aliases 138(see 139.Xr newaliases 1 ) 140to enable posting of messages. 141.Pp 142The 143.Fl c 144option is used for performing cleanup on 145.Pa /var/msgs . 146A shell script entry to run 147.Nm 148with the 149.Fl c 150option should be placed in 151.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 152(see 153.Xr periodic 8 ) 154to run every night. 155This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 156A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 157the default. 158You must be the superuser to use this option. 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 174Cause 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 less 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 205The 206.Nm 207utility uses the 208.Ev HOME 209and 210.Ev TERM 211environment variables for the default home directory and 212terminal type. 213.Sh FILES 214.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 215.It Pa /var/msgs/* 216database 217.It Pa ~/.msgsrc 218number of next message to be presented 219.El 220.Sh SEE ALSO 221.Xr mail 1 , 222.Xr less 1 , 223.Xr aliases 5 , 224.Xr periodic 8 225.Sh HISTORY 226The 227.Nm 228command appeared in 229.Bx 3.0 . 230