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Annotation of src/usr.bin/write/write.1, Revision 1.6

1.6     ! aaron       1: .\"    $OpenBSD: write.1,v 1.5 1999/06/05 01:21:51 aaron Exp $
1.1       deraadt     2: .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1993
                      3: .\"    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
                      4: .\"
                      5: .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
                      6: .\" Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
                      7: .\"
                      8: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
                      9: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
                     10: .\" are met:
                     11: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
                     12: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
                     13: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
                     14: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
                     15: .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
                     16: .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
                     17: .\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
                     18: .\"    This product includes software developed by the University of
                     19: .\"    California, Berkeley and its contributors.
                     20: .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
                     21: .\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
                     22: .\"    without specific prior written permission.
                     23: .\"
                     24: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
                     25: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
                     26: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
                     27: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
                     28: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
                     29: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
                     30: .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
                     31: .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
                     32: .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
                     33: .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
                     34: .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
                     35: .\"
                     36: .\"     from: @(#)write.1      8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
                     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
1.4       aaron      49: .Nm write
1.1       deraadt    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
1.6     ! aaron     105: .Sh HISTORY
        !           106: A
        !           107: .Nm
        !           108: command appeared in
        !           109: .At v6 .
1.3       d         110: .Sh BUGS
                    111: The
1.5       aaron     112: .Ql EOF
1.3       d         113: message seen when the other
                    114: .Nm write
1.4       aaron     115: terminates is indistinguishable from that party simply typing
1.3       d         116: .Ql EOF
                    117: to make you believe that any future messages did not come from them.
                    118: Especially messages such as:
                    119: .Dl "[1]    Done                   rm -rf *"