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Annotation of src/usr.bin/write/write.1, Revision 1.7

1.7     ! aaron       1: .\"    $OpenBSD: write.1,v 1.6 2000/03/06 03:17:41 aaron Exp $
        !             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.
                     17: .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
                     18: .\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
                     19: .\"    This product includes software developed by the University of
                     20: .\"    California, Berkeley and its contributors.
                     21: .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
                     22: .\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
                     23: .\"    without specific prior written permission.
                     24: .\"
                     25: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
                     26: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
                     27: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
                     28: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
                     29: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
                     30: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
                     31: .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
                     32: .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
                     33: .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
                     34: .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
                     35: .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
                     36: .\"
                     37: .\"     from: @(#)write.1      8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
                     38: .\"
                     39: .Dd June 6, 1993
                     40: .Dt WRITE 1
                     41: .Os
                     42: .Sh NAME
                     43: .Nm write
                     44: .Nd send a message to another user
                     45: .Sh SYNOPSIS
                     46: .Nm write
                     47: .Ar user
                     48: .Op Ar ttyname
                     49: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.7     ! aaron      50: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    51: allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from
                     52: your terminal to theirs.
                     53: .Pp
                     54: When you run the
1.7     ! aaron      55: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    56: command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form:
                     57: .Pp
                     58: .Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ...
                     59: .Pp
                     60: Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's
                     61: terminal.
                     62: If the other user wants to reply, they must run
1.7     ! aaron      63: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    64: as well.
                     65: .Pp
                     66: When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character.
                     67: The other user will see the message
1.7     ! aaron      68: .Dq EOF
        !            69: indicating that the conversation is over.
1.1       deraadt    70: .Pp
1.7     ! aaron      71: You can prevent people (other than the superuser) from writing to you
1.1       deraadt    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
1.7     ! aaron      84: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    85: command.
                     86: Alternatively, you can let
1.7     ! aaron      87: .Nm
1.1       deraadt    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
1.7     ! aaron      94: .Dq \-o ,
1.1       deraadt    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
1.7     ! aaron      98: .Dq oo
1.1       deraadt    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
1.7     ! aaron     112: .Dq EOF
1.3       d         113: message seen when the other
1.7     ! aaron     114: .Nm
1.4       aaron     115: terminates is indistinguishable from that party simply typing
1.7     ! aaron     116: .Dq EOF
1.3       d         117: to make you believe that any future messages did not come from them.
                    118: Especially messages such as:
1.7     ! aaron     119: .Pp
1.3       d         120: .Dl "[1]    Done                   rm -rf *"