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.\" @(#)msgs.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/28/95 29.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/msgs/msgs.1,v 1.9.2.7 2002/07/15 07:19:24 keramida Exp $ 30.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/msgs/msgs.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:29 dillon Exp $ 31.\" 32.Dd April 28, 1995 33.Dt MSGS 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm msgs 37.Nd system messages and junk mail program 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl fhlpq 41.Op Ar number 42.Op Ar \-number 43.Nm 44.Op Fl s 45.Nm 46.Op Fl c 47.Op \-days 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49The 50.Nm 51utility is used to read system messages. 52These messages are 53sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short 54pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users 55of the system. 56.Pp 57The 58.Nm 59utility is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file 60.Pa .login 61(or 62.Pa .profile 63if you use 64.Xr sh 1 ) . 65It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. 66If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the 67message will be displayed. 68If there is more to the message, you will be told how 69long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. 70The possible responses are: 71.Bl -tag -width Fl 72.It Fl y 73Type the rest of the message. 74.It Ic RETURN 75Synonym for y. 76.It Fl n 77Skip this message 78and go on to the next message. 79.It Fl 80Redisplay the last message. 81.It Fl q 82Drop out of 83.Nm ; 84the next time 85.Nm 86will pick up where it last left off. 87.It Fl s 88Append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; 89`s\-' will save the previously displayed message. 90A `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 101The 102.Nm 103utility keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file 104.Pa \&.msgsrc 105in your home directory. 106In the directory 107.Pa /var/msgs 108it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers 109of the messages they represent. 110The file 111.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 112shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory 113so that 114.Nm 115can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. 116If the contents of 117.Pa bounds 118is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; 119.Nm 120will make a new 121.Pa bounds 122file the next time it is run with the 123.Fl s 124option. 125If 126.Nm 127is run with any option other than 128.Fl s , 129an error will be displayed if 130.Pa /var/msgs/bounds 131does not exist. 132.Pp 133The 134.Fl s 135option is used for setting up the posting of messages. 136The line 137.Pp 138.Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/bin/msgs \-s\&" 139.Pp 140should be included in 141.Pa /etc/mail/aliases 142(see 143.Xr newaliases 1 ) 144to enable posting of messages. 145.Pp 146The 147.Fl c 148option is used for performing cleanup on 149.Pa /var/msgs . 150A shell script entry to run 151.Nm 152with the 153.Fl c 154option should be placed in 155.Pa /etc/periodic/daily 156(see 157.Xr periodic 8 ) 158to run every night. 159This will remove all messages over 21 days old. 160A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override 161the default. 162You must be the superuser to use this option. 163.Pp 164Options when reading messages include: 165.Bl -tag -width Fl 166.It Fl f 167Do not say ``No new messages.''. 168This is useful in a 169.Pa .login 170file since this is often the case here. 171.It Fl q 172Queries whether there are messages, printing 173``There are new messages.'' if there are. 174The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. 175.It Fl h 176Print the first part of messages only. 177.It Fl l 178Cause only locally originated messages to be reported. 179.It Ar num 180A message number can be given 181on the command line, causing 182.Nm 183to start at the specified message rather than at the next message 184indicated by your 185.Pa \&.msgsrc 186file. 187Thus 188.Pp 189.Dl msgs \-h 1 190.Pp 191prints the first part of all messages. 192.It Ar \-number 193Start 194.Ar number 195messages back from the one indicated in the 196.Pa \&.msgsrc 197file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 198.It Fl p 199Pipe long messages through 200.Xr more 1 . 201.El 202.Pp 203Within 204.Nm 205you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when 206.Nm 207requests input as to what to do. 208.Sh ENVIRONMENT 209The 210.Nm 211utility uses the 212.Ev HOME 213and 214.Ev TERM 215environment variables for the default home directory and 216terminal type. 217.Sh FILES 218.Bl -tag -width /var/msgs/* -compact 219.It Pa /var/msgs/* 220database 221.It Pa ~/.msgsrc 222number of next message to be presented 223.El 224.Sh SEE ALSO 225.Xr mail 1 , 226.Xr more 1 , 227.Xr aliases 5 , 228.Xr periodic 8 229.Sh HISTORY 230The 231.Nm 232command appeared in 233.Bx 3.0 . 234