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.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/msgs/msgs.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:29 dillon Exp $ 35.\" 36.Dd April 28, 1995 37.Dt MSGS 1 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm msgs 41.Nd system messages and junk mail program 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Fl fhlpq 45.Op Ar number 46.Op Ar \-number 47.Nm 48.Op Fl s 49.Nm 50.Op Fl c 51.Op \-days 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Nm 55utility is used to read system messages. 56These messages are 57sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 58pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 59of the system. 60.Pp 61The 62.Nm 63utility is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 64.Pa .login 65(or 66.Pa .profile 67if you use 68.Xr sh 1 ) . 69It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 70If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 71message will be displayed. 72If there is more to the message, you will be told how 73long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 74The possible responses are: 75.Bl -tag -width Fl 76.It Fl y 77Type the rest of the message. 78.It Ic RETURN 79Synonym for y. 80.It Fl n 81Skip this message 82and go on to the next message. 83.It Fl 84Redisplay the last message. 85.It Fl q 86Drop out of 87.Nm ; 88the next time 89.Nm 90will pick up where it last left off. 91.It Fl s 92Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 93`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. 94A `s' or `s\-' may 95be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing 96the default ``Messages''. 97.It Fl m 98A copy of the specified message is placed in a temporary 99mailbox and 100.Xr mail 1 101is invoked on that mailbox. 102Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. 103.El 104.Pp 105The 106.Nm 107utility keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file 108.Pa \&.msgsrc 109in your home directory. 110In the directory 111.Pa /var/msgs 112it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers 113of the messages they represent. 114The file 115.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 116shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory 117so that 118.Nm 119can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. 120If the contents of 121.Pa bounds 122is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; 123.Nm 124will make a new 125.Pa bounds 126file the next time it is run with the 127.Fl s 128option. 129If 130.Nm 131is run with any option other than 132.Fl s , 133an error will be displayed if 134.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 135does not exist. 136.Pp 137The 138.Fl s 139option is used for setting up the posting of messages. 140The line 141.Pp 142.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 143.Pp 144should be included in 145.Pa /etc/mail/aliases 146(see 147.Xr newaliases 1 ) 148to enable posting of messages. 149.Pp 150The 151.Fl c 152option is used for performing cleanup on 153.Pa /var/msgs . 154A shell script entry to run 155.Nm 156with the 157.Fl c 158option should be placed in 159.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 160(see 161.Xr periodic 8 ) 162to run every night. 163This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 164A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 165the default. 166You must be the superuser to use this option. 167.Pp 168Options when reading messages include: 169.Bl -tag -width Fl 170.It Fl f 171Do not say ``No new messages.''. 172This is useful in a 173.Pa .login 174file since this is often the case here. 175.It Fl q 176Queries whether there are messages, printing 177``There are new messages.'' if there are. 178The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. 179.It Fl h 180Print the first part of messages only. 181.It Fl l 182Cause only locally originated messages to be reported. 183.It Ar num 184A message number can be given 185on the command line, causing 186.Nm 187to start at the specified message rather than at the next message 188indicated by your 189.Pa \&.msgsrc 190file. 191Thus 192.Pp 193.Dl msgs \-h 1 194.Pp 195prints the first part of all messages. 196.It Ar \-number 197Start 198.Ar number 199messages back from the one indicated in the 200.Pa \&.msgsrc 201file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 202.It Fl p 203Pipe long messages through 204.Xr more 1 . 205.El 206.Pp 207Within 208.Nm 209you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when 210.Nm 211requests input as to what to do. 212.Sh ENVIRONMENT 213The 214.Nm 215utility uses the 216.Ev HOME 217and 218.Ev TERM 219environment variables for the default home directory and 220terminal type. 221.Sh FILES 222.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 223.It Pa /var/msgs/* 224database 225.It Pa ~/.msgsrc 226number of next message to be presented 227.El 228.Sh SEE ALSO 229.Xr mail 1 , 230.Xr more 1 , 231.Xr aliases 5 , 232.Xr periodic 8 233.Sh HISTORY 234The 235.Nm 236command appeared in 237.Bx 3.0 . 238