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: src/usr.bin/msgs/msgs.1,v 1.9.2.7 2002/07/15 07:19:24 keramida Exp $ 34.\" 35.Dd April 28, 1995 36.Dt MSGS 1 37.Os 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 47.Op Fl s 48.Nm 49.Op Fl c 50.Op \-days 51.Sh DESCRIPTION 52The 53.Nm 54utility is used to read system messages. 55These messages are 56sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 57pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 58of the system. 59.Pp 60The 61.Nm 62utility is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 63.Pa .login 64(or 65.Pa .profile 66if you use 67.Xr sh 1 ) . 68It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 69If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 70message will be displayed. 71If there is more to the message, you will be told how 72long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 73The possible responses are: 74.Bl -tag -width Fl 75.It Fl y 76Type the rest of the message. 77.It Ic RETURN 78Synonym for y. 79.It Fl n 80Skip this message 81and go on to the next message. 82.It Fl 83Redisplay the last message. 84.It Fl q 85Drop out of 86.Nm ; 87the next time 88.Nm 89will pick up where it last left off. 90.It Fl s 91Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 92`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. 93A `s' or `s\-' may 94be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing 95the default ``Messages''. 96.It Fl m 97A copy of the specified message is placed in a temporary 98mailbox and 99.Xr mail 1 100is invoked on that mailbox. 101Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. 102.El 103.Pp 104The 105.Nm 106utility keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file 107.Pa \&.msgsrc 108in your home directory. 109In the directory 110.Pa /var/msgs 111it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers 112of the messages they represent. 113The file 114.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 115shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory 116so that 117.Nm 118can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. 119If the contents of 120.Pa bounds 121is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; 122.Nm 123will make a new 124.Pa bounds 125file the next time it is run with the 126.Fl s 127option. 128If 129.Nm 130is run with any option other than 131.Fl s , 132an error will be displayed if 133.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 134does not exist. 135.Pp 136The 137.Fl s 138option is used for setting up the posting of messages. 139The line 140.Pp 141.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 142.Pp 143should be included in 144.Pa /etc/mail/aliases 145(see 146.Xr newaliases 1 ) 147to enable posting of messages. 148.Pp 149The 150.Fl c 151option is used for performing cleanup on 152.Pa /var/msgs . 153A shell script entry to run 154.Nm 155with the 156.Fl c 157option should be placed in 158.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 159(see 160.Xr periodic 8 ) 161to run every night. 162This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 163A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 164the default. 165You must be the superuser to use this option. 166.Pp 167Options when reading messages include: 168.Bl -tag -width Fl 169.It Fl f 170Do not say ``No new messages.''. 171This is useful in a 172.Pa .login 173file since this is often the case here. 174.It Fl q 175Queries whether there are messages, printing 176``There are new messages.'' if there are. 177The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. 178.It Fl h 179Print the first part of messages only. 180.It Fl l 181Cause only locally originated messages to be reported. 182.It Ar num 183A message number can be given 184on the command line, causing 185.Nm 186to start at the specified message rather than at the next message 187indicated by your 188.Pa \&.msgsrc 189file. 190Thus 191.Pp 192.Dl msgs \-h 1 193.Pp 194prints the first part of all messages. 195.It Ar \-number 196Start 197.Ar number 198messages back from the one indicated in the 199.Pa \&.msgsrc 200file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 201.It Fl p 202Pipe long messages through 203.Xr more 1 . 204.El 205.Pp 206Within 207.Nm 208you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when 209.Nm 210requests input as to what to do. 211.Sh ENVIRONMENT 212The 213.Nm 214utility uses the 215.Ev HOME 216and 217.Ev TERM 218environment variables for the default home directory and 219terminal type. 220.Sh FILES 221.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 222.It Pa /var/msgs/* 223database 224.It Pa ~/.msgsrc 225number of next message to be presented 226.El 227.Sh SEE ALSO 228.Xr mail 1 , 229.Xr more 1 , 230.Xr aliases 5 , 231.Xr periodic 8 232.Sh HISTORY 233The 234.Nm 235command appeared in 236.Bx 3.0 . 237