1.\" $NetBSD: write.1,v 1.6 2003/08/07 11:17:48 agc Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 7.\" Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. 8.\" 9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 11.\" are met: 12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 15.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 16.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 17.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 18.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 19.\" without specific prior written permission. 20.\" 21.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 22.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 23.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 24.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 25.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 26.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 27.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 28.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 29.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 30.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 31.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 32.\" 33.\" from: @(#)write.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 34.\" 35.Dd June 6, 1993 36.Dt WRITE 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm write 40.Nd send a message to another user 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Ar user 44.Op Ar ttyname 45.Sh DESCRIPTION 46.Nm 47allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from 48your terminal to theirs. 49.Pp 50When you run the 51.Nm 52command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form: 53.Pp 54.Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ... 55.Pp 56Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's 57terminal. 58If the other user wants to reply, they must run 59.Nm 60as well. 61.Pp 62When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. 63The other user will see the message 64.Ql EOF 65indicating that the 66conversation is over. 67.Pp 68You can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you 69with the 70.Xr mesg 1 71command. 72Some commands, for example 73.Xr nroff 1 74and 75.Xr pr 1 , 76disallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten. 77.Pp 78If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, 79you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal 80name as the second operand to the 81.Nm 82command. 83Alternatively, you can let 84.Nm 85select one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest 86idle time. 87This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from 88home, the message will go to the right place. 89.Pp 90The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string 91.Ql \-o , 92either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the 93other person's turn to talk. 94The string 95.Ql oo 96means that the person believes the conversation to be 97over. 98.Sh SEE ALSO 99.Xr mesg 1 , 100.Xr talk 1 , 101.Xr who 1 102.Sh HISTORY 103A 104.Nm 105command appeared in 106.At v6 . 107