1.\" Copyright (c) 1987, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)mesg.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 07/24/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt MESG 1 10.Os BSD 4.4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm mesg 13.Nd Display (do not display) messages from other users 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm mesg 16.Op Cm n Li \&| Cm y 17.Sh DESCRIPTION 18The 19.Nm mesg 20utility allows a user to decide if other users may write 21messages to his or her screen. Programs such as 22.Xr talk 1 , 23.Xr write 1 24and 25.Xr echo 1 26are social and display a message on the target user's terminal. 27Sometimes this is inconvenient. 28.Pp 29Options: 30.Tw Ds 31.Tp Cm n 32Disallow messages, providing peace, and informing the contacting 33party 34that `Your party is refusing messages'. 35.Tp Cm y 36Allow messages to be displayed. 37.Tp 38.Pp 39If no arguments are given, 40.Nm mesg 41displays the present message status. 42.Pp 43The 44.Nm mesg 45utility exits with one of the following values: 46.Dw Ds 47.Dp Li \&\ 0 48messages are allowed 49.Dp Li \&\ 1 50messages are not allowed 51.Dp Li \&\-\&1 52An error has occurred. 53.Dp 54.Sh FILES 55.Dw /dev/[pt]ty[pq]? 56.Di L 57.Dp Pa /dev/[pt]ty[pq]? 58.Dp 59.Sh SEE ALSO 60.Xr write 1 , 61.Xr talk 1 , 62.Xr echo 1 , 63.Xr biff 1 64.Sh HISTORY 65A 66.Nm mesg 67command appeared in Version 6 AT&T Unix. 68