1
.\" Copyright (c) 1987, 1990, 1993
2
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.
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
32
.\" @(#)mesg.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
34
.\" Fri Mar 10 20:31:02 1995, modified for standard man macros,
39
.TH MESG 1 "April 2011" "util-linux" "User Commands"
41
mesg \- display (do not display) messages from other users
49
utility is invoked by a users to control write access others have to the
50
terminal device associated with the standard error output. If write access
51
is allowed, then programs such as
55
may display messages on the terminal.
57
Traditionally, write access is allowed by default. However, as users
58
become more conscious of various security risks, there is a trend to remove
59
write access by default, at least for the primary login shell. To make
60
sure your ttys are set the way you want them to be set,
62
should be executed in your login scripts.
69
Permits messages to be displayed.
73
Explain what is being done.
76
Output version information and exit.
79
Output help screen and exit.
81
If no arguments are given,
83
displays the present message status to the standard error output.
87
utility exits with one of the following values:
93
Messages are not allowed.
96
An error has occurred.
108
command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
111
The mesg command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
112
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.