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: src/usr.bin/mesg/mesg.1,v 1.7.2.1 2001/12/14 15:53:30 ru Exp $ 34.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/mesg/mesg.1,v 1.3 2005/03/05 00:08:46 liamfoy Exp $ 35.\" 36.Dd March 4, 2005 37.Dt MESG 1 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm mesg 41.Nd display (do not display) messages from other users 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Cm n | Cm y 45.Sh DESCRIPTION 46The 47.Nm 48utility is invoked by a user to control write access others 49have to a terminal device. 50Write access is allowed by default, and programs such as 51.Xr talk 1 52and 53.Xr write 1 54may display messages on the terminal. 55.Pp 56The first terminal device in the sequence of devices associated with standard 57input, standard output and standard error is affected. 58.Pp 59Options available: 60.Bl -tag -width flag 61.It Cm n 62Disallows messages. 63.It Cm y 64Permits messages to be displayed. 65.El 66.Pp 67If no arguments are given, 68.Nm 69displays the present message status to the standard output. 70.Sh EXAMPLES 71Disallow messages from other users to the current terminal: 72.Pp 73.Dl "mesg n" 74.Pp 75Allow messages from other users to 76.Pa ttyp1 77(assuming you are also logged in on that terminal): 78.Pp 79.Dl "mesg y </dev/ttyp1" 80.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 81The 82.Nm 83utility exits with one of the following values: 84.Bl -tag -width flag -compact -offset indent 85.Pp 86.It Li "\ 0" 87Messages are allowed. 88.It Li "\ 1" 89Messages are not allowed. 90.It Li ">1" 91An error has occurred. 92.El 93.Sh COMPATIBILITY 94Previous versions of the 95.Nm 96utility wrote the message status to the standard error output and 97affected the terminal attached to standard error without first trying the 98standard input or output devices. 99.Sh SEE ALSO 100.Xr biff 1 , 101.Xr talk 1 , 102.Xr wall 1 , 103.Xr write 1 104.Sh STANDARDS 105The 106.Nm 107utility conforms to 108.St -p1003.1-2001 . 109.Sh HISTORY 110A 111.Nm 112command appeared in 113.At v1 . 114