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Annotation of src/usr.bin/write/write.1, Revision 1.17

1.17    ! jmc         1: .\"    $OpenBSD: write.1,v 1.16 2010/10/28 21:32:54 jmc Exp $
1.7       aaron       2: .\"
1.1       deraadt     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.
1.9       millert    17: .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
1.1       deraadt    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: .\"
1.17    ! jmc        35: .Dd $Mdocdate: October 28 2010 $
1.1       deraadt    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 write
                     43: .Ar user
                     44: .Op Ar ttyname
                     45: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.7       aaron      46: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    47: allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from
                     48: your terminal to theirs.
                     49: .Pp
                     50: When you run the
1.7       aaron      51: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    52: command, 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
                     56: Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's
                     57: terminal.
                     58: If the other user wants to reply, they must run
1.7       aaron      59: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    60: as well.
                     61: .Pp
                     62: When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character.
                     63: The other user will see the message
1.7       aaron      64: .Dq EOF
                     65: indicating that the conversation is over.
1.1       deraadt    66: .Pp
1.7       aaron      67: You can prevent people (other than the superuser) from writing to you
1.1       deraadt    68: with the
                     69: .Xr mesg 1
                     70: command.
1.16      jmc        71: Some commands, such as
1.1       deraadt    72: .Xr pr 1 ,
1.16      jmc        73: disallow writing automatically, so that output isn't overwritten.
1.1       deraadt    74: .Pp
                     75: If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal,
                     76: you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal
                     77: name as the second operand to the
1.7       aaron      78: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    79: command.
                     80: Alternatively, you can let
1.7       aaron      81: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    82: select one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest
                     83: idle time.
                     84: This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from
                     85: home, the message will go to the right place.
                     86: .Pp
                     87: The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string
1.7       aaron      88: .Dq \-o ,
1.1       deraadt    89: either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the
                     90: other person's turn to talk.
                     91: The string
1.7       aaron      92: .Dq oo
1.1       deraadt    93: means that the person believes the conversation to be
                     94: over.
1.17    ! jmc        95: .Sh ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
        !            96: .Bl -tag -width SIGINTXXX
        !            97: .It Dv SIGINT
        !            98: Terminate
        !            99: .Nm
        !           100: and exit with a zero status.
        !           101: .El
1.15      jmc       102: .Sh EXIT STATUS
1.14      jmc       103: The
                    104: .Nm
                    105: utility exits with one of the following values:
                    106: .Pp
1.15      jmc       107: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
1.14      jmc       108: .It 0
                    109: Normal behavior.
1.17    ! jmc       110: .It >0
1.14      jmc       111: The specified user is either not logged in or not accepting messages.
                    112: .El
1.1       deraadt   113: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    114: .Xr mesg 1 ,
                    115: .Xr talk 1 ,
                    116: .Xr who 1
1.10      jmc       117: .Sh STANDARDS
                    118: The
                    119: .Nm
                    120: utility is compliant with the
1.12      jmc       121: .St -p1003.1-2008
1.13      jmc       122: specification.
1.6       aaron     123: .Sh HISTORY
                    124: A
                    125: .Nm
                    126: command appeared in
1.8       mickey    127: .At v2 .
1.3       d         128: .Sh BUGS
                    129: The
1.7       aaron     130: .Dq EOF
1.3       d         131: message seen when the other
1.7       aaron     132: .Nm
1.4       aaron     133: terminates is indistinguishable from that party simply typing
1.7       aaron     134: .Dq EOF
1.3       d         135: to make you believe that any future messages did not come from them.
                    136: Especially messages such as:
1.7       aaron     137: .Pp
1.3       d         138: .Dl "[1]    Done                   rm -rf *"