Annotation of src/usr.bin/write/write.1, Revision 1.1
1.1 ! deraadt 1: .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1993
! 2: .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
! 3: .\"
! 4: .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
! 5: .\" Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
! 6: .\"
! 7: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
! 8: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
! 9: .\" are met:
! 10: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
! 11: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
! 12: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
! 13: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
! 14: .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
! 15: .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
! 16: .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
! 17: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
! 18: .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
! 19: .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
! 20: .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
! 21: .\" without specific prior written permission.
! 22: .\"
! 23: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
! 24: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
! 25: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
! 26: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
! 27: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
! 28: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
! 29: .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
! 30: .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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! 33: .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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! 35: .\" from: @(#)write.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
! 36: .\" $Id: write.1,v 1.3 1994/09/19 08:18:23 mycroft Exp $
! 37: .\"
! 38: .Dd June 6, 1993
! 39: .Dt WRITE 1
! 40: .Os
! 41: .Sh NAME
! 42: .Nm write
! 43: .Nd send a message to another user
! 44: .Sh SYNOPSIS
! 45: .Nm write
! 46: .Ar user
! 47: .Op Ar ttyname
! 48: .Sh DESCRIPTION
! 49: .Nm Write
! 50: allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from
! 51: your terminal to theirs.
! 52: .Pp
! 53: When you run the
! 54: .Nm write
! 55: command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form:
! 56: .Pp
! 57: .Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ...
! 58: .Pp
! 59: Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's
! 60: terminal.
! 61: If the other user wants to reply, they must run
! 62: .Nm write
! 63: as well.
! 64: .Pp
! 65: When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character.
! 66: The other user will see the message
! 67: .Ql EOF
! 68: indicating that the
! 69: conversation is over.
! 70: .Pp
! 71: You can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you
! 72: with the
! 73: .Xr mesg 1
! 74: command.
! 75: Some commands, for example
! 76: .Xr nroff 1
! 77: and
! 78: .Xr pr 1 ,
! 79: disallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten.
! 80: .Pp
! 81: If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal,
! 82: you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal
! 83: name as the second operand to the
! 84: .Nm write
! 85: command.
! 86: Alternatively, you can let
! 87: .Nm write
! 88: select one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest
! 89: idle time.
! 90: This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from
! 91: home, the message will go to the right place.
! 92: .Pp
! 93: The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string
! 94: .Ql \-o ,
! 95: either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the
! 96: other person's turn to talk.
! 97: The string
! 98: .Ql oo
! 99: means that the person believes the conversation to be
! 100: over.
! 101: .Sh SEE ALSO
! 102: .Xr mesg 1 ,
! 103: .Xr talk 1 ,
! 104: .Xr who 1
! 105: .Sh HISTORY
! 106: A
! 107: .Nm
! 108: command appeared in
! 109: .At v6 .